I Earned My First Passive Income as a Freelance Product Designer

Hey guys! 👋

Okay, this is the post I didn’t expect to write.

When I thought about diversifying my income as a designer/solopreneur, I pictured the usual suspects: Figma templates, icon sets, illustrations, maybe even career advice kits or checklists. But getting paid for writing? Nope, never crossed my mind.

I’m a visual person. Writing isn’t something I naturally enjoy, and English isn’t even my first language. I’m from Belarus, lived in Poland for five years, and have never been to the US — even though 90% of my clients and design network are based there.

It takes me a huge amount of effort, endless rounds with ChatGPT, and a human sacrifice (aka my partner, who proofreads everything) just to finish a single post. Even Instagram captions feel like a stretch.

But visual work? I could make illustrations and thumbnails for hours without blinking.

And yet… here we are.

Last month, I earned $350 USD on Medium from a single article I originally wrote for my newsletter.

Was it a lot? No.

Was it satisfying? Absolutely.

Because passive income is the kind of income that keeps giving — you do something once, and it keeps working for you. That $350 didn’t come from a design gig, or a client, or hours of deliverables. It came from hitting publish on something I already had.

Here’s how it happened (and how you might do it too):

Living and working across different cultures as a digital nomad made me notice all sorts of design differences. One question kept nagging at me: Why do Western and Asian interfaces feel so different? I couldn’t find a solid answer online — just scattered bits, nothing deep.

So I wrote the piece I was looking for.

Not another “Top 10 portfolio mistakes” or “How to write your case studies” post. (If I see one more of those, I swear my eyes will start bleeding.)

That’s the thing — people are tired of content that’s been written a thousand times. We crave new, personal, un-googleable perspectives. That’s what gets noticed. That’s what gets shared.

And in my case? It worked. People started tagging me in their LinkedIn posts and sharing the article. That hadn’t really happened before. It turns out: originality actually works.

We’re living in the age of AI-generated content. Which means a lot of posts sound… the same. Polished, sure — but kind of soulless?

If you just copy-paste from ChatGPT, there’s no you in it. No personality. No voice. No weird little thoughts that make someone go, “Yep, same.”

Don’t get me wrong — I use AI a ton (this post included). But I use it to support my voice, not replace it. I want people to recognize me in my writing.

That’s what cuts through the noise these days: realness.

I overthink everything I post. 

Is it good enough? Is the idea clear? Is the structure okay? Maybe I should just save it as a draft and come back later… like in my next life, when I’m reborn as a confident writer from an English-speaking country?

But here’s what that $350 taught me: done is better than perfect. A published post will always outperform the 100+ half-drafts hiding in your Notion.

This post? Same deal. Not perfect. But it’s out there — and maybe it’ll encourage you to publish something, too. 

Why did my article get traction? It was boosted. Medium selects high-quality stories to feature and promote. They also push those stories out to their wider network of readers.

This wasn’t my first boost — back in January 2024, another one of my articles (“Is humanizing Crypto even possible?”) also got picked up. Same formula: authentic voice, original take, no fluff.

So yeah, luck is part of it. But you can increase your odds by writing about interesting things in an honest way. You don’t have to be Tolkien — you just have to be you.

And even with the boost, only 56% of traffic came from Medium itself. The rest? People sharing it. So yes, Medium helps — but good content finds its people anyway.

I published my article under UX Collective — one of the biggest design publications on Medium.

Why does that matter?

Since publishing under UX Collective, I gained 80 new followers and got 26 thoughtful, deep, perspective-shifting comments. That’s not just vanity metrics — that’s connection. That’s people engaging, reflecting, asking questions.

Without that publication, I might never have seen those comments — or met those readers.

So, if you’re on Medium, pitch to publications that align with your topic and your audience. It’s worth it.

I’m not sure where this writing thing will take me. But now that I’ve seen it work — even just once — I want to do more of it. I want to share more stories, more ideas, more thoughts sitting in the back of my mind.

Even if they’re messy.

Even if they’re imperfect.

Even if I still make typos (thank you, Grammarly, for saving me).

If one of those thoughts connects with someone out there, then it’s already worth it.

If you’ve read this far — hi! 👋 I’d love to hear your story too.