Summary

Niharika Sodhi earned $2,782 in passive income over 37 days through online courses, an alumni group, and an eBook guide, while emphasizing the importance of consistent work and the compounding effect of long-term effort.

Abstract

Niharika Sodhi details her recent success in generating passive income through various online ventures. She attributes her earnings to a writing course called Summit 21, an alumni group associated with the course, and a guide on writing eBooks. Sodhi stresses that her financial success did not occur overnight but is the result of years of writing and building an online presence. She underscores the necessity of providing value and solving problems for her audience, as evidenced by the growth and testimonials from her courses. Sodhi also addresses the misconception of rapid success, highlighting her decades-long journey in writing and content creation that led to her current achievements.

Opinions

Sodhi believes that delivering results and building a personal brand are key to attracting paying customers.
She emphasizes the importance of the compounding effect of consistent work over many years, which is often overlooked in perceptions of quick success.
Sodhi points out that her success is not just about the money made in a short period but also about the long-term effort and dedication to her craft.
She suggests that aspiring writers and side hustlers should be prepared for a journey that requires showing up and doing the work, even without immediate results.
Sodhi values the trust and relationship with her audience, which she has cultivated through transparency and delivering on her promises with her products.
She acknowledges that passive income is not guaranteed and that each product, such as her course, must consistently deliver value to maintain its success.

How I Made $2,782 Passive Income in 37 Days

Not your usual ‘how to make money’ article

Passive income, the dream.

Sitting and doing nothing, with money pouring in. Oh, and out of 433, only 75 sales are paid. Others are all freebies (one got 330+ downloads in under 3 days).

What happened?

What did I do?

I know you’re busy, so let’s cut straight to the chase.

Where Did The Money Come From?

Three sources.

1. Creating a Course (Summit 21)

I announced on various websites about starting a course. So what happened next? People started buying a seat as there were only limited spots. The initial price was $99 for 15 days that later moved up to $129. My first three sales were on Day 1 itself.

This course is for writers to become more consistent with a sustainable writing habit and build their personal brand while doing it.

So far, this course has made $2130 online and another $258 off this platform, so it’s $2398 in total.

You can check it out here.

2. Alumni Group for Summit 21 Course

The previous course had notable writers like Tom Kuegler, Carmen Ballesteros, Kristina God, James Garside, Mark Cutts, Josh O'Neill, Vinicius Monteiro, Claire Lowe, Nina Greimel, Marcus Chan, Hudson Rennie, Eliza Lita, and more.

We had 40 people, out of which 14 are alumni. Those who pay for a longer duration pay less, of course. So far, I’ve received $254.96 in 2 months (as some people paid for an entire year).

My monthly recurring revenue is $62.49/ month. One payment is made off this platform as a barter, so I won’t count that here.

You can check out the page here.

3. Online Guide: “Write Your eBook”

This is a guide to help others write their ebook effortlessly and make money. It launched ten days before writing this article and has so far made $95.68.

It took me 90 minutes to write this short google doc and upload it on Gumroad.

You can check it out here.

How Can You Do It?

Now, this is indeed significant money. Upload stuff on Gumroad and carry on with life, right?

Wrong.

Here are some factors to consider.

Why would anybody spend money on you?

Who will buy your product?

What will be your product?

There are millions of products, why should somebody click on yours?

There’s only one answer to this: when people are convinced that you can solve their problem.

People are buying my course because I delivered results in the previous one, free of cost. And the course page has a proof of that.

Also because my audience across two platforms, Medium and LinkedIn, has seen me grow for 18 months from a 9–5 employee to being self-employed.

This factor gets overlooked often

The compounding effect.

The above picture looks like wow, it happened so quickly in a month!

But what ‘a month’ looks like to you has been like:

18 years of writing
7.5 years of writing online
15 months of writing on the platform you’re reading on
Side-hustling with writing along with my full-time job for 10 months
Quitting a safe career for writing full-time
Writing when I’m not inspired
Writing a lot to meet my monthly target

So tell me, did this really happen overnight? Or over a month, as it looks like here?

Why I Wrote This Article

So I’m new to Twitter. And I’ve had DMs from aspiring and really big writers about how ‘fast’ I’m growing. That the ‘speed’ is incredible and will take me places.

Aspiring writers make my day with all kind of compliments that I’m so grateful for. Aspiring side hustlers tell me how in ‘just a year’ I could do what I want to. I can live the freedom lifestyle. I could afford to quit my job.

But the back story is so different.

But it didn’t happen over a year, or months, or a decade.

I’ve been writing since I was 7 or 8.

I contributed poetry to school newsletters throughout school.

I ran a passion blog in undergrad.

I ran an Instagram blog with 11.5k followers and a Quora page with over 59k followers during university.

That’s still ‘practice’ taking place in some form.

So, How Can You Get Here?

Firstly, I don’t think I’m in a very aspirational position. This is just the beginning of my career considering I quit my job only 5 months ago and I’m still discovering myself.

When I quit my job, I wanted to become a full-time freelancer until I started disliking freelancing and limited it to a select few amazing clients.

You can get here by doing the work.

And showing up, year after year, even with no results.

“Writers write. Runners run. Establish your identity by doing your work.” ― Seth Godin

Last year is the first time I earned money from my writing (without counting the $3/article I got paid in undergrad for 5 articles).

First year after over fifteen years of writing and over 7 years of writing online!

I’m sorry, but there’s no shortcut.

The money you see in the screenshots might not even come in next month. And that's what makes me work for it.

The course needs to deliver in every single cohort. Only then shall it become something, or else it’ll be a source of income snatched away and my old friend self-doubt and anxiety will visit.

Yes, it takes time. It’s not easy. And perhaps this article isn’t even what you expected from the headline.

But it’s a true story of how I made $2,782 passive income in 37 days.

Grab your free Side Hustler checklist here. If you enjoy reading on Medium, consider getting a membership with my referral link.

If you liked reading this, you might enjoy:

My 5 Income Streams as a Full-Time Creator

And how you can do it.

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