There comes a point for many therapists in private practice when you start wondering what else you could do. You’ve built your caseload. You’ve spent years exchanging your time for money. And then you start thinking about diversifying your income.
Could you create a workbook? A template? A course? A membership? Could you create something once and keep selling it? And then you stumble across that magical phrase: PASSIVE INCOME
With this in mind, I’m going to start with something that might save you quite a lot of time and money. I’ve been creating and selling digital products for years now, and the biggest lesson I’ve learned is:
Digital products are not passive income.
At least, mine certainly haven’t been! This doesn’t mean I wouldn’t recommend creating them.
Digital products have helped me build my therapy caseload, develop an audience, diversify my business, and eventually create income streams beyond one-to-one clinical work. But I made plenty of mistakes along the way!
If you’re thinking about creating your first digital product, here’s what I wish I knew at the very beginning…
Ready For More Support?
I’ve designed Therapists Corner to give you the deeper support I craved in the early days of building my business. If you’re serious about achieving a consistent income AND the work/life balance you crave, paid membership gives you access to tools, templates, Q&As, and peer support that will make the journey much easier.
What Do We Mean by Digital Product?
A digital product is something a consumer can purchase and access online rather than receiving a physical product.
For therapists, this could be:
a workbook or journal
psychoeducation resources
downloadable worksheets
therapy or supervision templates
policies or private practice documents
recorded training
an online course
a webinar/online workshop
a resource bundle
a paid newsletter or membership
templates or guides for other therapists
The wonderful thing about digital products is that you can create something once and sell it many times. This is what makes them sound passive, but there’s quite a lot that has to happen before somebody clicks ‘buy now’.
Below the paywall, the story behind my first digital product, what I’ve learned about selling the things I create, and the questions you need to ask yourself before building this income stream…