In the past few years, the popularity of graphics designing has created a strong pace among the freelance market and it continues to grow. Many aspiring graphic designers have begun taking professional courses and once these courses conclude, they land lucrative jobs and begin their careers in the world of media.
However, it all has its advantages and disadvantages. When it comes to graphics designing, the designer needs to be on his toes to learn everything new that is happening around the world and needs to keep pushing him in order to grow. If he does that, he’ll be limitless in what he creates.
Most of the graphics designers who land 9-5 jobs at great marketing agencies are actually limiting themselves to a certain time frame. You will be just stuck in a rut which is why we suggest that you look for new ways to increase your income and learn something new every single day.
The industry of graphic design is huge and is full of endless opportunities. Once you know exactly where you need to tap, you will see a massive influx of income and new opportunities will find their way to you. But did you have the idea that there are massive ways to increase your overall income as a graphic designer that too online?
Well, if you didn’t then don’t wait anymore and read along with everything that we have in store for you.
1. Start a Blog and Monetize it
Blogging is the bandwagon that everyone seems to be jumping on and we don’t see any reason why you shouldn’t?
We know when something becomes too common among the masses; it is bound to get a negative light but not blogging. If you have a knowhow of how to write and you feel you can maintain a blog, start it without thinking too much about it.
Blogging is the most solid and lucrative way to earn money on a sideline. Start your website and start posting. You can also create an Instagram profile and start posting there. You never know when you might land a paid sponsorship and your career as a blogger will get the kick-start it needs.
2. Freelance your way in
As a graphic designer, you have the capability of being creative in an endless manner. Ideas and innovation, all of it come to you naturally so why stop at a 9-5 job?
Freelancing can help you create passive income effectively and all you have to do is pitch yourself to the right bidder. You can create logo designs, stock templates, reusable art, and publish them on crowdsourcing websites.
Soon you will see how many people are interested in hiring you and your freelance gigs could start to a more consistent door to passive income. In fact there are many freelance graphic designers who are not only making a good living out of it, but are refusing jobs at agencies to pursue freelancing only.
3. Teach aspiring designers
Another solid way to earn passive money online is by teaching those who have nobody to learn from.
Graphic design is becoming a huge thing with every day that goes by. The advent of social media and digital marketing has just upped the game for brands and they are always looking for innovative graphic designers to create effective brand campaigns for them which eventually means, running short of graphics designers themselves.
Seeing this, a lot of people have taken it upon themselves to learn graphic designing on their own and they need mentors or teachers to help them through. You could be one of them!
You can teach online on Skype or even create YouTube sessions. This could help you in charging fees for your classes and soon, you will be launching the careers of so many people.
4. Design your own workshop
Teaching and providing consultancy is good but another thing that you can do is launch your own webinars and workshops.
Provide one to one consultancy and talk to the aspiring graphic designers. You can also organize this workshop physically but you will need a studio for that so the best way is to conduct it online. You can make interested people sign up for your workshop and go live. People can join you from around the globe and you never know how successful it could turn out to be.
5. Design merchandise
The craze people have for custom-made t-shirts is unbelievable. Our new generation is always looking for innovative tees and that should give you an idea of starting your own merchandise line. You can create innovative t-shirts and sell them online on Facebook or Instagram.
All you have to do is a partner with a printer and divide the profit in half. This is also an innovative way to generate passive income and it will allow you to create your own small enterprise.
6. Provide consultancy
As mentioned before, brands are always looking for innovative and experienced graphic designers to enhance the impact their brand campaigns have on the target audience.
What you can do is provide these brands with consultancy regarding the kind of campaigns they want and give them the direction they need to go in.
This is an amazing way to earn online as a side-note and it doesn’t even require you to design. All you will be doing is giving your expert opinion to the design team and get paid for sharing your expertise. As soon as the brand will realize that your ideas helped them achieve their goals, you will have a line of brands running behind you to get your ideas.
7. Design themes for websites
Bloggers are always looking for graphic designers to design their website themes. Hiring a web designer is pretty expensive so when it comes to creating a website on WordPress, they would rather hire the services of graphic designers and then create the interface themselves. WordPress is easy to use so that isn’t an issue but what you can design these themes in your leisure time and then sell them online.
WordPress themes have a huge market and website owners are always looking for them. You don’t need to design for a specific person. All you have to do is keep a few designs in the backlog and then sell them when it seems appropriate.
8. Create an eBook
Graphic designers are visually driven but if they master the art of writing, they will become unassailable.
Nobody can express your design and ideas better than you and that is exactly what you need to do. Writing an e-book will be the ultimate source of passive income. You do not need to write proper scriptures instead, what you must do is write articles that incite emotions. Convey your thoughts, your emotions, and your visuals into that e-book and make people understand.
You can always add it to Amazon and see what the result comes for you.
9. Make use of LinkedIn
Whether you’re a graphic designer or a writer, if you know how to use LinkedIn smartly then you have mastered the biggest route to passive income effectively.
LinkedIn is a platform where professionals search for professionals. In order to extract maximum benefit out of LinkedIn, power up your profile, and start contributing to designer-oriented groups on the platform, trust us, there are many.
Involving yourself in groups like ‘Designers Talk: Freelance Graphic Design Group’ is an amazing way to crowdsource yourself among the pros of the industry. This will also allow you to attract potential employers who will directly help you in generating income online.
10. Design an online course
Since we have hit the world of CoronaVirus, the world of digital education is blooming right now and people are looking for courses they can do by staying at home.
What you can do here is create a full-on online graphic designing course and sell it on Udemy or other online educational forums. This is a huge opportunity that you can avail for yourself and this may also turn out to be you designing courses for reputed universities. Don’t keep your skills just to yourself, try and spread it out as far as you can.
Final thoughts
As you can see, the world of digital media is vast and it provides you with endless opportunities. All you must do is take these opportunities seriously and pave your own way. You need to be determined enough and if you’re, soon you will be creating an endless cycle of opportunities not just for yourself but for other people out there as well.
So, these are the top 10 ways through which you can earn online as a graphic designer. We hope this article has been thoroughly helpful to you and now you will be able to generate more income on the sidelines.
If you have any suggestions or queries in this regard, do let us know through your feedback below. We highly appreciate it.