Last year, I spent three months building a "passive income" UI kit. I was convinced it would be my ticket to sleeping while money rolled in. I finished it in May, uploaded it to Gumroad feeling optimistic, and by August I'd made exactly $340. Meanwhile, I'd spent 20+ hours on customer support, bug fixes, and platform updates. That's roughly $17 per hour, less than my freelance rate back in 2015.
The article I read recently listed 10 "practical ways" for designers to build passive income streams, and I found myself nodding at the structure while simultaneously thinking: this is partially a lie. Not intentionally. The framing of "passive" income is just fundamentally misleading, especially for developers and designers early in their product journey. Let me explain what I actually learned from building this stuff.
The Passive Income Myth (And What It Actually Means)
Here's what nobody tells you: passive income isn't passive. The original article actually admits this in the opening-"most products still require marketing, updates, customer support, and maintenance"-but then spends the rest of the post listing 10 ways to build "scalable" products like they're a guaranteed path to recurring revenue.
They're not.
What the article calls "passive" is really "leveraged time." You build something once and sell it multiple times. But that multiplication only happens if people know it exists, the product actually solves their problem, and you're willing to maintain it. I learned this the hard way when my first template had a CSS bug that broke on Safari. One customer reported it, I fixed it, then I realized I needed to test across browsers. That's not passive, that's ongoing work, just with fewer clients simultaneously.
Which Products Actually Have Legs?
Let me be specific about what actually seems to work from my observation of the developer and designer community:
UI Kits and Figma Resources have the shortest feedback loop. You can validate demand quickly. You build something, post it on Twitter or Product Hunt, and within 48 hours you know if it solves a real problem. The maintenance is lighter than courses because you're not managing customer expectations around learning outcomes.
Templates are trickier. Website templates especially require more ongoing updates as frameworks and best practices shift. Every time Next.js releases a major version, suddenly your Next template tutorial is outdated. I've seen creators essentially abandon template projects because the maintenance burden grew faster than the revenue.
Courses actually require the most upfront work and ongoing marketing, but they have one advantage: they build authority. A focused course on "Building Accessible Design Systems in Figma" positions you as an expert in a specific niche. That authority then feeds into consulting, speaking gigs, and other high-value work. The course itself might only generate $2,000, but the network effect could be worth $50,000 in future opportunities.
My Actual Strategy After the Failed Experiment
Here's what I'd do differently if I were starting over (and to be honest, what I'm actually doing now):
Start with one small product that solves a problem you have. Not a problem you think exists. One you actually experience and got frustrated with. My failed UI kit was built because I thought designers would want it. My successful digital template (a client onboarding checklist for freelancers) was built because I was losing sanity managing my own client kickoffs.
The template generates maybe $400-600 per month now, but more importantly, it requires 2 hours of updates per quarter. That's sustainable.
Build in public as you go. Don't wait for perfection. I shared my onboarding template when it was 60% done and got feedback that shaped the final 40%. This reduces wasted effort and creates early users who become your champions.
Bundle related products strategically. This is where the article gets it right. If you have a course on design systems, pair it with a Figma template. The template feeds demand for the course. They reinforce each other. Create isolation and each product dies alone.
What I'd Actually Test First
If I were advising someone in Islamabad looking to build product income alongside freelancing, I'd suggest: pick one problem from your freelance practice, solve it elegantly, and package it. Don't aim for 10 streams immediately. One stream that generates $300-500/month while requiring 3 hours of maintenance? That's actually useful. It forces you to think about systems and scalability without betting your time on moonshots.
The real value isn't in the passive income, it's in learning how to build products, market them, and handle customers. Those skills transfer everywhere.
Your Turn
What's one repetitive problem from your actual work that could become a small product? Not a hypothetical market need, something that frustrated you last week. That's where I'd start.
Source: This post was inspired by "How to Make Passive Income as a UI/UX Designer: 10 Practical Ways" by Dev.to. Read the original article
