I have a small business where I have partnered with several YouTubers (150k - 300k subs) to create custom merchandise. [1] We do a revenue split, and I handle

I have a small business where I have partnered with several YouTubers (150k - 300k subs) to create custom merchandise. [1] We do a revenue split, and I handle the shipping and manufacturing, my goal being for this to essentially be a source of passive income for the content creators. My observation is that merchandising is an important revenue stream: either physical products, or digital ("for $5 you can have the sheet music that was used to make this video.") Digital merch seems to have a better long-tail and obviously the best margins. Physical merch is cyclical: strong sales at the start, and then they drop off after a few months. Patreon seems to be an important revenue generator too - exclusive content, or see content ahead of time - which is fed by the videos that the content creators post in order to amass their audience. Finally, individual video sponsorships seem to be important, and with a popular channel, can earn in the ballpark of $2k/video (don't know the variance here, just using secondhand knowledge.) The point being, I think that you have to continually be creating content, and it may not necessarily be passive income. And a non-trivial amount of revenue is generated via other means, or partnerships/sponsorships, which is viable after building an audience. [1] My specific niche is making notebooks for musicians, and you can see the folks I've collaborated with here! https://www.themusiciansnotebook.com/collaborations https://www.themusiciansnotebook.com/collaborations