4 Ways Squarespace Web Designers Can Generate Passive Income Online
Does the idea of earning money while you sleep sound like a dream? For many designers and creatives, it absolutely is. But not in the fantasy kind of way we all like to think. To achieve passive income, there’s work up front and sometimes a lot of it. However, once it’s built, it can generate revenue while you focus on client projects, travel, nap, or obsessively tweak your own website (just me?).
If anything, it’s about doing less of the burnout stuff, and more of the clever, sustainable stuff that gives you back your time and energy.
As someone who lives in this world of creative hustle, I know how draining it can feel to survive on back-to-back client projects. The constant requests, the scope creep, the occasional ‘Can you just make it pop?’ all adds up.
For this reason, I’ve outlined five passive income paths tailored to creative entrepreneurs, particularly web designers who are looking for more stability, freedom, and (let’s be honest) sanity.
So, if you’re a web designer, illustrator, branding expert, or all-of-the-above creative, these strategies will help you monetise your skills in a way that isn’t tied to an hourly rate. Spoiler: selling Squarespace templates is my favourite. And yes, there’s a course I’ll recommend… One I didn’t take, but really wish I had.
🤝 Before we dive in: You’ll spot a couple of affiliate links in this post. If you click through and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission (think: enough for my next almond flat white). It won’t cost you anything extra and I only ever recommend things I genuinely believe are helpful for creatives like us. ☕
1. Launch a Squarespace Template Shop
If you’re a designer, building templates can be one of the most lucrative ways to earn while you sleep. You’re essentially productising your skills. Instead of building a website once and handing it off to one client, you create a polished, reusable Squarespace design and sell it to dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of customers.
So, why Squarespace? Because it’s a beautifully intuitive platform that appeals to small business owners, creatives, and solopreneurs who want a site that looks great without hiring a designer. It’s a growing market, and surprisingly underrepresented in the template world. That’s your gap.
You design once. You sell many. You support minimally. It’s the creative economy’s version of passive income gold.
You can host and sell your templates directly from your own site (like I do), or branch into platforms like Creative Market and Etsy for discoverability. The best part? These templates double as lead generators. Clients might start with a template and come back later for a full custom build.
And if the idea of setting up a whole template shop from scratch feels overwhelming, this is where Kate Scott’s Scale with Templates comes in. It’s a well-regarded course that walks you through building a profitable Squarespace template business. I didn’t take it myself (I went through a different route), but if I had known about Kate’s course back then, it would’ve saved me countless hours. So yes, this is an affiliate link — but no, I wouldn’t recommend it if I didn’t think it had actual value.
Image credit: Kate Scott. Used for promotional purposes ONLY. All rights reserved to the original creator.
2. Sell Digital Products
Maybe you want to branch away from web design and you would like multiple streams of income. Either way, selling digital products is another excellent passive income idea for creatives. This can encompass a wide range of items, so think about what fits your skills: graphic design templates, downloadable art prints, fonts or icon sets, social media templates, e-book or resume layouts, planner pages, Procreate brushes – you name it. If it’s a digital file that you can create once and sell repeatedly, it counts!
For many, digital templates for business and marketing are a sweet spot. For example, you could design Canva templates for Instagram posts and sell them as bundles to small businesses and influencers. Non-designers have an insatiable appetite for ready-made graphics they can quickly customize.
Another beauty of digital goods is, you can sell them on various online marketplaces that already attract your target customers. Websites like Etsy and Creative Market are prime spots for online income for creatives – they connect you with buyers searching for creative assets. You can also sell directly via your own site using Squarespace’s digital products integration or tools like Gumroad. The trick is to carve out a niche. Instead of generic “Instagram templates,” create something hyper-specific like “Instagram templates for wellness coaches” or “Pricing guides for wedding photographers.”
This kind of specificity helps you rank better on search platforms and connect with buyers who feel like you’ve read their minds.
3. Create an Online Course or Workshop
You’ve spent years honing your creative skills – why not share your expertise with others and get paid for it? Creating an online course (or a paid workshop or webinar series) is a fantastic way for web designers to generate passive income and build their brand authority. Many people out there are eager to learn what you know, whether it’s web design, graphic design, hand lettering, UX/UI, or even the business side of creativity. If you can package your knowledge into a structured learning experience, you have a product that can sell repeatedly without you having to physically teach every time.
You might worry, “I’m not an expert, who would listen to me?”
But you don’t need to be the world’s top guru to teach others. You just need to be a few steps ahead of your target student. There are plenty of beginners who would love a course from a working designer with real-world experience, even if you’re not famous. In fact, sometimes real-world practitioners make the best teachers because they remember what it’s like to start from scratch. You can also teach non-designers. For example, if you’re a web designer, there’s huge demand from small business owners who want to learn how to DIY their website or improve their Squarespace SEO.
Examples?
A beginner Squarespace SEO workshop
A self-paced “Brand Design Basics” course
A Procreate illustration class for hobbyists
And no, you don’t have to go all-in from the start. Try hosting one workshop live, record it, and resell the replay. Platforms like Teachable, Podia, and Kajabi make this easy to manage and deliver. This kind of passive income also builds trust, authority, and credibility — all of which loop back into your main design business, leading to more client work if that’s still part of your plan.
4. Affiliate Marketing and Content Monetisation
Another route to passive income (one that often flies under the radar for designers) is affiliate marketing – essentially, earning commissions by recommending products or services you genuinely love and use. This usually goes hand-in-hand with content creation: for example, running a blog, YouTube channel, or Instagram account where you share valuable content and occasionally plug resources with affiliate links. Do you already find yourself recommending tools, books, or resources to your audience?
Then, turn those recommendations into affiliate income. You can sign up for affiliate programs from your favourite tools or products. Then you simply integrate those links into your content in a way that feels natural and useful.
Examples include:
Design software (Adobe, Canva, Figma plugins)
Hosting platforms (like SiteGround or Webflow)
Creative business tools (Notion, Dubsado)
Courses (like the one I mentioned above!)
You can add a “Tools I Love” page to your website or write a blog post called “Top Resources I Wish I Had When I Started Freelancing” and pepper it with affiliate links. Just be transparent and always disclose, because it’s not just ethical, it’s legally required in many places.
Probably also to note is that you should only promote things that align with your brand and that your audience would truly find useful. Authenticity is key and your credibility is on the line so when done right, affiliate marketing becomes a way to serve your audience (by pointing them to good solutions) and earn a bit of income for the referral.
The return isn’t immediate, but over time, these links can earn for months or even years. One great blog post with the right SEO can generate clicks and commissions long after it’s published.
Conclusion: Work Smarter, Not Harder
Need a Template for your Business? Get 👉 Kate Scott’s Shop In a Box to Get started Today!
Out of all the passive income options available to creatives, this one has my heart—and my business brain. Selling website templates is hands down one of the smartest, most scalable ways to turn your design skills into recurring revenue. It’s like turning your best client work into a product you can sell to dozens (or hundreds) of others without the burnout that comes from doing one-on-one custom projects week after week.
If you’re already building websites on Squarespace, then you know how intuitive the platform is, especially for small business owners, content creators, and solopreneurs who want a beautiful online presence without the tech stress. By creating Squarespace templates, you’re not just selling a layout—you’re offering time, style, and simplicity in one click. And let’s face it, that’s exactly what most people are looking for.
The best part? Once your template is polished, packaged, and listed, your job shifts from creation mode to marketing mode. It becomes a digital asset that sells in the background while you go about your day (or take a much-needed break). You can create a shop on your own site or tap into marketplaces like Creative Market or Etsy. I went the direct route, selling templates from my own platform, which gives me more control over pricing, brand experience, and customer journey. But either way, the opportunity to generate income passively—without designing from scratch each time—is real, and it’s growing.
And if you're wondering whether it's too late or too saturated, let me be clear: there’s plenty of room at the table. The demand for high-quality Squarespace templates is not only strong—it’s still massively under-served in certain industries. From photographers and wellness coaches to real estate agents and consultants, there’s a world of niche audiences out there looking for designs that don’t feel generic.
But, whether you’re dabbling into templates or diving into affiliate links, now’s the time to make your work work for you. And if Squarespace template design sounds like your sweet spot, definitely take a peek at Kate Scott’s Scale with Templates to see how far you could take it. Affiliate link, yes — but an honest one
If you’re ready to turn your design skills into passive income, check out Scale with Templates — it’s the course I’d take if I were starting today.
