I Asked ChatGPT How To Turn My Side Gig Into Passive Income: Here’s What It Said
Written by
Jordan Rosenfeld
Edited by
Molly Sullivan
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Most people take on or create a side gig to earn extra income and/or to transform something they love into a full career. The best outcome would be to turn your side gig into passive income, so that you can spend more time doing the things you love and less time “working.”
In addition to being a professional writer, for example, I also teach writing on the side (and am the author of seven books on the craft of writing). While I thought about asking ChatGPT how to help me turn my side gig into passive income, I knew that not all of our readers have the same side gig.
Instead, I asked ChatGPT for generic advice to anyone hoping to transform side gig income into passive income.
‘Productize’ Your Service
If your side gig relies on your time, anything from freelance to coaching or teaching, like I do, ChatGPT suggested you look for ways to turn your knowledge or output into a repeatable product. Some ways to do that include:
- Record your process and sell it as a course, guide or template.
- Package frequently requested services (like designs, plans or checklists) into digital downloads.
- Standardize and automate “kits” or bundles people can buy over individual custom work.
Automate Sales and Marketing
Next, you can have the best product or service around, but if you aren’t marketing it, you can’t start earning. While ChatGPT stressed that “earning passive income doesn’t mean zero work” you still want systems that run without you such as:
- An email list and set up an automated sequence that educates people, then sells them something. You might want to try and capture emails through a website or blog.
- Use a website with a shopping platform to make purchases instant.
- Schedule content ahead of time to keep traffic coming without daily hustle.
Create Recurring Revenue Streams
If you get this far, it’s time to level up. ChatGPT argued that the best way to make a side gig more passive is to move “from one-time payments to subscriptions” such as:
- Membership communities (paid access to content, resources or community)
- Subscription boxes or services tied to your niche
- Patreon-style tiers where supporters get steady value for monthly contributions
Repurpose What You Already Have
Don’t try recreating the wheel at any point in this process. Look for ways to reuse your existing work instead of constantly creating something from scratch. Some ideas the AI recommended are:
- Turn live workshops into evergreen courses.
- Chop up videos into short clips for social media and ads.
- Convert long content into books, e-guides or audio lessons.
Outsource the Repetitive Tasks
In order to scale up, you need to free up more of your own time. Look for what you can outsource, or use AI tools to do for you:
- Hire virtual assistants for customer service, posting or bookkeeping.
- Use platforms that handle delivery (course hosting sites, print-on-demand shops).
- Automate invoicing, scheduling and communication.
Explore Licensing and Partnerships
For much bigger money, instead of selling directly to individuals, license your work to organizations that can distribute it at scale:
- Companies, schools or other businesses might pay to use your content, software or process.
- Affiliate partnerships let other people promote and sell your product for a cut.
The Core Formula
In a nutshell, ChatGPT suggested that the “core formula” comes down to these four steps:
- Turn time-based work into assets (digital products, courses, templates and kits).
- Automate distribution (email funnels, websites and marketplaces).
- Add recurring models (subscriptions and memberships).
- Scale with help (outsourcing and partnerships).
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