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Why this matters

Record Sales and Royalties are not the income source they once were, to say the least.

Live Gigs and Performance – While I am a proponent of having a positive outlook and finding ways to make it work, speaking as someone who primarily earns from sideman music work, there are definite challenges right now.
Supply-and-demand, as well as what many gigs pay relative to current living costs, are challenges for relying solely on gig-work.

If you are already doing well from sales or lots of gigs, great! It’s still good to have other streams, one reason being…
Health: – I recently broke my knee which has impacted my ability to work and forced some cancellations. I literally broke it inside the doctors office getting a checkup trying to be healthy – true irony, illustrating how you can’t control or predict this stuff.

It’s very helpful to have at least one other avenue of earning that is available to you even if you cannot perform.

Cancellations: When I originally started making this material, cancellations had one meaning. At the time I’m finally recording it, half the world is shut down due to Corona virus. Tons of work, touring and teaching is cancelled with ramifications that remain to be seen, but are already hitting us very hard.

It’s very helpful to have at least one other avenue that is available to you even if you cannot perform.

Important note

While some things presented here may be able to be implemented very quickly for some of you, especially those with some previous experience or already with pieces in place…

I look at it like building up a resource and a mind set that can provide different sources of passive income. They can grow and develop over time, and it is something you can work on at your own pace.

This is not get-rich-quick type of material. You may be able to act on some of this quickly, but it will be a process.

Upsides to the digital era
While there are a lot of things especially challenging to us these days…
There are many new opportunities and ways of earning and being creative, artistically and business-wise, in this modern, digital era.

I believe it’s important for us to become aware of more of these, and focus energy on where we can get a positive return on that energy.

I want to put a magnifying glass on some of the ways you can leverage this right now.

New ways of thinking
I feel that one of the most important things is instill the idea that there are solutions and ways of leveraging the current landscape that are available to you, wherever you are at.

They do NOT require you to have 20,000 Instagram followers, or a huge YouTube channel. These more obvious examples can seem like the only ones that exist, and be a huge barrier to entry.

You can have a video or a post that 10-20 people see, but if they are the right people and you are presenting the right thing to them in an honest way, it can build real relationships and earn you far more than something with tens of thousands of views.

Friendly Reminder: Everything on these videos is from personal experience. I have concrete examples I have been involved with, of scenarios like the above.

Yes, many people do not consider albums as something they pay for, thanks to streaming.
They DO expect to pay for an online program teaching skills that let you create that album.

Whether that’s the songwriting, your instrumental technique, how you compose,
or a cool, unique experience you create for them, perhaps with group interaction.

The tools exist to do this, for 1/10th of what your record cost to make.

In the digital age, you do not even have to be the one to create the course or experience.

You can get a commission for referring people to one that already exists. You can literally get a commission for recommending your favorite headphones for mixing.
This is a big deal, and for several of you, will be the most appealing and best route to take for a potential passive income source. It was (is?) for me since I first heard about it.
We will go much more deeply into that in the next video. For now, I’d like you to consider

Your digital real-estate
Your website, YouTube, social media, and anywhere else where people can see content you put up, can be a valuable asset.

Again, 5 of the right people seeing the right content that goes to the right offer can work very well for you.

Whether that offer is for a Skype consultation that could turn into hiring you, a course you made, or a commission-based referral link to someone else.

Quality over quantity generally wins, unless you are going for YouTube ad revenue, which is probably the least relevant model to 99% of us, and is at the complete mercy of YouTube.

With the exception of your website, which does not have to be a huge investment, all of these resources such as a YouTube channel or social media page are free.

They also have no real ceiling on what you can earn from them. This is an amazing phenomenon that is brand new in history.

Some, or all of these digital “assets” of yours will be utilized in each of these three methods. As a professional creative in 2020+, you should have them anyway, for many reasons.

The creatives’ advantage
While anyone can do these methods, there are some specific advantages that apply to many of you, at least many of my musician colleagues that I know.

Some of these advantages are more recent. This is more relevant to you in 2020 than it was 7 years ago, on many different levels.

Many of these are far more accessible, and far more needed than they were even then.

Chances are good that some people know you, know that you are a professional and are serious about your craft.

Your recommendations carry weight. Your advice and lessons carry weight. This plays into the “you don’t need 10,000 followers” in a big way.

There may very well be people out there that want to learn from you, and you simply need to give them an accessible way to do it.

Remember that website you’ve had for 15 years with your name on it and that you’re a musician?
That’s a very relevant factor that says to Google “this is not a site someone is throwing up and trying to trick us into something to get referral commissions. This is an actual jazz composer”

There is a spam culture of throwing up websites. This is actually why it’s hard to find an honest review about anything online, because they are just someone promoting whatever has the highest commission.

Musicians and artists can increase each others’ value and direct ability to earn using these methods – purely by being active on each others’ YouTube channels and blog.

Subscribe. Like the Videos of your friends. Leave a comment on their videos and blog. That blog is the only one of these assets we are talking about that you actually own.

Important: Most are not aware of this. Most of the commenting and liking is on Facebook / Instagram, which in terms of this digital asset concept, mostly benefits Mark Zuckerberg.

(yes there are benefits to having Instagram followers, which is a different discussion and not my expertise to say the least.)

Speaking Of…
Please subscribe to the channel 🙂
If you are not watching this on YouTube, it’s:
Youtube.com/c/EvanGregor — or search for “Evan Gregor”

These three approaches
Can be rather different from each other, depending on the route you take.
They also can overlap and work together. It depends on which aspects of each resonate with you.
It may speak to you to create a single online course or some kind of classroom. Another may want to go all-in on making videos and articles for referral commissions, or focus mainly on creating a structure for building a business based on 1-1 / group online lessons.

For that reason, and for length, I’m going to do each as separate video(s).

Affiliate examples

There are so many, but this is a common one
When you see review style blogs, articles like the “10 best cameras for live-streaming” – you’ll see they have links to purchase them from somewhere like B&H, Amazon.

The similarly styled YouTube videos, someone giving you examples of 3 or 4 microphones, or just about anything, you’ll see a mention to a link in the description to “where you can buy it”

These are affiliate links. The person who owns the site or video gets a commission if you buy it. As they should, if they are helping you decide.

Sometimes there are educational courses, pieces of equipment or other services that are really specifically relevant to what you know.

There is probably some service in your life that has an affiliate program, that you could be getting a commission when you recommend it (anyone use MailChimp?)

I actually received commissions for several years from a review of an online-music course that had a private affiliate program. Sometimes a single piece of content you make will literally earn you money for years (I still get occasional $ from the one mentioned)

My friend, sometimes bandleader and amazing violinist / music business coach Christian Howes sells a variety of online classes and courses.

He has had an affiliate program for some of his products for years. I have a link, and when a string player, someone interested in jazz violin or something relevant to what he has to offer, I send them my link and get a commission, sometimes every month if they sign up for something recurring.

On Websites
If you don’t already have one –
OR if yours is difficult to update, add content to

There are a lot of good solutions these days that make it easy. I use WordPress but even that is rather technical compared to what exists now.
The cheapest solution is not the best, especially if your website is going to be making you money. The easiest to deal with while still looking clean is the best.
I will leave recommended options in the description, because these can change over time.
Youtube examples

Videos that show examples of different products, like several different microphones or cameras.
Reviews of specific products or courses.
A performance, but mentions somewhere the equipment being used or any details.
At least the first two, there will almost always be links to buy in the description. They are getting a commission on this, and it’s most likely making them far more than the ads.
This is also why there are some that are genuine and some that are obviously not.

At least as far as knowledge is concerned, you have the ability to do at least one of these right now.

You may already have videos that could benefit from this.
Friendly reminder
Musicians and artists can increase each others’ value and direct ability to earn using this method – purely by being active on each others’ YouTube channels and blog.

Subscribe. Like the Videos of your friends. Leave a comment on their videos and blog. That blog is the only one of these assets we are talking about that you actually own.

Important: Most are not aware of this. Most of the commenting and liking is on Facebook / Instagram, which in terms of this digital asset concept, mostly benefits Mark Zuckerberg.

(yes there are benefits to having Instagram followers, which is a different discussion and not my expertise to say the least.)

Why this can work

If you approach this in what I consider to be the correct way,
You are actually providing a service to people.
It can be very difficult to know what camera, what bass strings (my first venture into this), what to buy to practice without bothering the neighbors, etc. for someone’s specific situation and use-case.

If you can break things down for someone, show them what the terms mean and what they probably need if they are looking to do x, y, or z, you are helping them make the right purchase. Maybe you give them tips on how to use it as well.
You save them an enormous amount of time.

When you help someone make the right decision, you have essentially ‘sold’ the product that a company made. Or even if you are just good at getting it in front of people because you are good at Instagram, you are giving them advertising.

If you direct them to Amazon for example, you just basically gave them that sale.
We do this a lot in our personal lives without thinking about it.

As a creative who likely uses the products and has expertise, your recommendations can have extra weight.

You are making someone else money. It’s all good to get a commission.
As a creative who likely uses the products and has expertise, your recommendations carry extra weight.

You using it is worth more than the biased product creator or website saying “this thing I made is really great!”

You are making someone else money. It’s all good to get a commission.

Your Advantage

As I alluded to in the intro video,

There was a time when you could throw up websites all targeted around a specific product, put up content fast and rank in Google searches. This WAS the path to take, and it worked for me a few times back in the day.

This does not work anymore, as you can imagine, Google figured out how to filter these “spam” sites (even if they have good content, this became too rampant)

Your website, even if you haven’t touched it in years, has more age, credibility and potentially much more ‘authority.’

If you start writing articles, blogs, thoughts, on your website, it grows in that ‘authority’ and gives you more of a place where you can organically refer people to something relevant.

The whole challenge with affiliate income is building up some kind of website, social, audience, trying to get that site established a bit in Google. That is what people starting from scratch learning about this are all doing.
To them, your long existing website may be digital gold. People pay premiums just for older domain names.

I can confidently say to my musician colleagues in NYC, you have more skills and credibility in your field, and many related areas, than you realize.

Your resume and the fact that you work professionally in a certain area, which is outlined on your website, instantly gives some deserved credibility.
You also may be surprised at how much detail you can go into on a variety of subjects that you take for granted, that people would find really valuable.

Musician example- besides all the details of your instrument, method books, courses, you might know microphones, sound equipment. Audiophiles? Think about the amount of $ people drop there.

You might not have a giant online following (if you do, even better!)

However, you likely do have some people out there who know who you are, that you could help them with some useful information, and they would trust your recommendations.

Also bear in mind, for a lot of these strategies, 100 ‘followers’ who would actually buy your services or recommendations is far superior to 5,000 who just browse for entertainment. Don’t let the numbers fool you, there are people in the shadows doing better.

Fun Fact about Amazon
They pay a small percentage commission – but, if you click on a referral link from someone and buy ANYTHING there, even after a couple days, you get commission on it.

So if you were to click the Amazon link in my description saying what microphone I am using, and end up buying a bunch of stuff for your house, I am credited.
Where to Start?
1. What

Think about:

What do you already use, what do you legitimately like
and recommend to people?

What do you have expertise and/or passion about, that you could share?

— Then, within that, what could you recommend?

2. Where

Where could you recommend or refer it to people easily?

Do you have a social media account where it would make sense?
Do you like the idea of a youtube channel (it is work, any way you cut it)

Do you have a website? You should anyway.

You can use everything we will talk about with a website.

Having a ‘blog’ or articles on your site can serve as a place to refer people,
it can also show up in google searches, especially as you build it up. That’s a big part of what ‘professional’ affiliates do.

As mentioned There are many platforms out there making it easier and easier to make a nice website for artists and creatives.

Evangregor.com is wordpress with a theme I bought

You can see them in the description of this video which could change with time. Where I can, they will be Affiliate links 😊

(Note: disclose to people that your link is referral)

3. Who

Think about whom you are trying to reach or would be a good fit.
This can be on a video-by-video, post-by-post basis.
You may not want to be doing this on your social account that is friends and family.
You may want a separate platform entirely for a project. Just bear in mind, if you have a website that’s been around for a while, it’s a big advantage.

Getting Started
When you have some ideas about what might work for you to refer,

Search to see if they have a ‘referral’ or ‘affiliate’ or similar program. Search google, their website.

See if it is sold on a site like B&H, amazon etc. that may have their own program.

You’ll need to be approved by an affiliate program to do this.

You’ll likely need a website to do so, or at least, some type of platform where they can see what you do and the quality of what you create.

Keep In Mind

This works with good, useful content that helps people make a decision or may be relevant to them.
Think of it the way you would genuinely recommend something to a friend.

This mindset can build upon itself in useful ways. If you just spam people with your affiliate links it is very transparent and may do more harm than good.

This may mean your project for now is to get that website, blog, youtube channel or other idea ready for prime-time, and could serve as a motivation to do so.
Others of you may already have a whole online universe in place, and can begin plugging this idea into it right away where appropriate.

Defining a course

I think of an online course as materials you might find anywhere online: videos, PDFs, audio,
Any combination of these, structured in an order that teaches something specific.
It walks the person through a process, gives a how-to, provides an experience.

The structure and organization are what makes it a course.
A course, for our purposes here, is a PRODUCT – like the digital equivalent of a book and DVD, it is self-contained and complete. The customer knows exactly what they are getting and it is theirs to go through after paying.
Defining a course

A course does not have to be any particular size or scope to constitute being a legitimate course.
A 25 module “from beginner to expert” package is a course, and something very specific, “how I play this one difficult song on guitar” or “modern chord voicings for blues progressions” is a course.
They just would have different approaches and prices. If there’s an audience or common request for how to play that one song or one aspect of what you do, don’t miss out because you don’t want to create the complete guitar mastery course.
Defining a course

A course for our purposes here is a single product that someone buys for a price and it is delivered to them, without you needing to engage except for possible customer support – or if you decide to leverage it.
It is NOT:
Selling individual files such as scores, recordings of shows, artwork
Patreon, memberships
1 on 1 time with students.

These have their own strategies. The first, selling individual files is self-explanatory to the customer and is what it is. Patreon, follow up calls and such are not passive. They can be added to particular offers or combined with courses.

An online course becomes passive income when a user can go online, pay for your course, then immediately have access to the content, receive any email(s) and more.

You don’t have to do anything manually unless there is a customer support issue (even then, maybe not).

There are several platforms available now that have made this easy to do, and the rates they charge have gotten so reasonable that literally 1-2 sales a month can often put you into profit.

Even as non-passive…
There are ways you can do this that require some manual effort (such as emailing people files, protected video links and such) for each customer, that can be done for almost no cost.

There are other times this can be useful too, for example, having some pre recorded content that you only sell or offer as part of something to private students.

I would keep an open mind to this approach even if you think it initially sounds like too much to deal with, or you don’t want to deal with any platforms.

I will show you several examples now of this model in different forms, using multiple different platforms, from colleagues and friends of mine in the music world.

All of these are working well, providing passive income and demonstrate a variety of different approaches and ideas that can make this ‘real,’ and possibly provide some inspiration as well.

Course as passive income
The real point of a course in this model though, in my view

Is to have something you create that people can buy in your sleep, for years to come, and is completely self-contained, you don’t have to update them with new content, they are stand-alone like selling a book.

I have helped people with courses from years ago that still bring in $100+ sales when they happen. If the content is good, people don’t care if it doesn’t look ultra modern, and a lot of content especially in the arts is timeless.
These examples
All of these examples you will see, except my own site, are 3rd party platforms.

This means they are companies that handle the hosting, the layout and structure (you just need to upload your videos, PDFs etc. and the layout creates itself), collection of payment, delivery, affiliates, and more. They exist for the very purpose of making it easy to create and sell courses.
The fact that there is competition for this these days is great news for you.
I’ll get into some of these different platforms in a super brief way later. They all have different pros, features and price points.
What’s Needed to Make Content?

Something to record video (your phone may work)
A decent microphone
PDFs can be made for free.
Basic video editing software (may also be free)

Remember, it’s the content itself and the structure that make this valuable.
Most of us already own (especially musicians) equipment to make something that looks and sounds fine.
This video for example is powerpoint, a free video software, a $75 webcam, Mic and Audio Interface.

Costs involved

Many of you have phones and a good microphone for recording your voice, instrument, or whatever your intentions are. You’re not looking at thousands of dollars of investment by any means to present your material in a way that’s easy to see and hear. You may have everything you need.

These days, cameras, phones, microphones that sound good are not a real barrier to entry. There are also enough people who are skilled with video and audio whom you can hire at a reasonable price.
Costs involved

Before we get into the platforms you can use, and the pricing involved, it’s good to know what the unavoidable costs are. Meaning, even if you do not use a platform.

PayPal will take 2.9% + $0.30 as it is now
Credit Card (Stripe) will take 2.9% + $0.30 as it is now

Venmo, “friends and family” PayPal? You would have to manually send that person course content, give access, etc. You can’t automate any of that into a shopping cart.
If you want affiliates, you would have to buy something to set that up.
If you want to have drip emailing, you’ll need a service there like MailChimp.

Costs involved

The complete platforms these days, as in the examples (except mine), handle all of the delivery, acceptance of payment, make it easy to upload your content and have it be structured as a course, and more.

They will have their own fee, often per sale, and/or monthly cost.
You would not pay PayPal or Stripe fees in addition to what they list. That would be baked into their own costs, as far as any I am aware of so far.

Platforms

The majority, in my experience of interacting with people, want to be able to upload their material, set a price and think nothing of the tech or manage anything else.
I’ve even set people up in the past with a setup like mine, and they have moved to platforms because it’s just so much easier and less to think about, compared to the difference in $ saved, which is not necessarily large or much at all (especially if you put a price on your time, and are not already fast).

Time and energy vs $ cost
Some things to be aware of:
Delivering the files, email login access to people – which they would expect and should get very quickly after payment.
Ability to do refunds, handle issues like double purchases, etc.
Customer Support.
Speed and ease of ability to upload your files, content, make it look nice and organized.
A professional feel to the whole experience.
Many of these things can take more time and energy than you might think, and it’s important to factor those in to the cost of what some of these platforms charge, compared to what it would cost you to do by yourself or with software.

Time and energy, Tech. know-how
Personally I use a software platform that integrates into WordPress and turns my site into a membership platform.
It makes a lot of things easier for me, but it is still WAY more involved than using a platform.
I honestly enjoy computers and technology, and I can deal with updates, tech issues and such quickly and efficiently enough that it’s worth it for me to go this route. I even enjoy the ability to be able to tweak and customize some things.
This is NOT for most people. If you fit into this category, you already know and probably have already been experimenting with this stuff for a while.
Platform as solution

In the description of this video and in the comment will be links to platforms shown here as well as anything that may change, which can happen over time.

Think About

What you can offer –
common questions you are asked about?
something specific to your audience?
Something lacking in the education?
Remember a course does not have to be massive. Charge accordingly.
25 people on the planet buying your $50 course…