Being a Full-Time designer can be tough at times, you get times where clients just don’t have the money to pay you right away or you go through a patch where you don’t have enough client work to keep your bills payed. There is a solution, a few infact. Designers are creative people who love [...]
Being a Full-Time designer can be tough at times, you get times where clients just don’t have the money to pay you right away or you go through a patch where you don’t have enough client work to keep your bills payed. There is a solution, a few infact. Designers are creative people who love to create things, so why not create things and put them to good use? I have listed 10 Ways a Designer can make some Extra Money each month, putting in effort towards these different things can get you pretty far and well known in the design industry and it will definitely earn you some extra money.
Sell Stock Photography Online
If your a designer I am sure you have a camera, so why not put it to good use then. Go out and take some photos of things or places, their are loads of things you can take pictures of, just use your imagination. When taking the photos think of shots that you would purchase to use for a design or a print, the idea is to photograph something useful that everyone would be able to use. You can Sell Stock Photography Online via some of the services I have listed below:
iStockPhoto.com
Shutterstock.com
Dreamstime.com
These are just 3 Sites I mentioned where you can sell Stock Photos Online.
Start your own blog
Now you might be wondering how does making money involve having your own blog? The truth is you see thousands of blogs on the net, you even check out some of them daily for news and inspiration or new resources. Do you think these guys blog for free? No, some of the top blogs make tons of cash each year by just blogging. The way guys make money out of blogging is via Advertising, Google Ad sense, Affiliate Linking, Text ads and more. You might be thinking you can’t generate a lot of money through just advertising, think again Techcrunch.com generates about $200,000 Monthly through Advertising Banners. Check out What Top Blogs Earn for a general idea of what the popular bloggers make in the the industry. Looking at those stats just shows you that there is so much open potential in the blogging-sphere, yes of course it will take a lot of dedication and determination to achieve half of what the top blogs have achieved but, everyone has to start somewhere. Why not start right now? I have listed a few guides below that will guide you in the right direction to start your own blog.
IncomeDiary – Guide to Creating your First Profitable Blog
Encourage Blogging – Starting your First Blog
ProBlogger – Starting your First Blog? 29 Tips, Tutorials and Resources for new Bloggers
There is a lot of Blogs around the net that offer advice to start up bloggers, I just found these more useful than the others.
Design Themes or Templates and Sell Them
Web Designers will thrive in this section, why not design a custom theme or template and sell it via a online store? There are a lot of guys designing simple templates and selling them online and making a few extra bucks each month that pay off small things and then their are some guys that make a living out of selling Themes and Templates. Its a pretty big market out their with a lot of talented people but, Put in some effort into the themes you design and I can give you my word, you will be well rewarded. The popular Theme Market Places I have Listed below where you can Buy and Sell Themes and Templates.
Wpthemarket.com
ThemeForest.net
Templamatic.com
There are still a lot of sites out their where you will be able to sell templates and themes.
Create Icons, Psd Templates, Vectors and Sell Them
The typical graphic designer uses icons on a regular basis, now for those designers that don’t have the time to design their own icons, they purchase their icons from Graphic Market Sites, this includes Layered Psd Templates, Vectors, Illustrations you name it. Thing is their are so many designers world wide that buy premium resources from graphic market sites that if your items were to sell often you would generate a fairly large revenue. Could it hurt to take some extra time and create a few decent items and put them up for sale on a market site? I don’t think so, just put in some effort and your set to sell some items, you can just leave the items on sale and see what happens with them from there.
GraphicRiver.net
GraphicLeftovers.com
Cutcaster.com
Their are other places to sell your resources too.
Write Tutorials for Tutorial Sites
How about that, you get paid to write a tutorial for a tutorial site. You just have to remember that they don’t accept every tutorial that comes their way, it has to be unique and high quality to get published by the authors of the site. Their are numerous sites out their that you could write for and get paid by but, I will only be listing the top three paid Tutorial Sites. The Tutsplus network has a few category sites that you can write tutorials for and all of them pay the same, I will only be listing Psdtuts in this section though. You can access the rest of the Tutsplus Network sites via these Tutsplus links. Check out the Tutorial sites below and get writing.
Tutorial9 – $150 – $300 per Tutorial Published
PsdTuts – $150 per Tutorial Published
Gomedia – up to $300 per Tutorial Published
Like I said Tutsplus has other categories too and there are a lot of other blogs that pay for tutorials too.
Write Articles for Other Blogs
This is one way to stay updated and make some cash and get known around the blogging industry. You should see if you are able to get a few articles published with top blogs, you name will spread like wildfire if your article is really worth the read and contains some killer advice and content. There are tons of blogs that allow guest posting and pay for you to write for them, can it get much easier than that? Choose your niche that you would want to write for. Do some research on the top blogs in that niche and write a few articles, by few I mean 3 or 4. Take your time with the articles and do some quality research, make the article worth a read. Supplying a blog with a decent well planned article has a almost 100% chance of getting posted, and if the article gets posted you get some money. I would recommend guest blogging as it doesn’t only get your name out their, it also generates a lot of traffic for your blog or website that you have. I listed 3 Blogs below that pay for quality articles. There are much more blogs out their that pay for quality content, so don’t just get stuck with these 3.
Workawesome.com
Freelanceswitch.com
b5Media.com
A good article to check out for paying blogs is – 26 Sites that pay you to blog
Provide Training and Write How-To’s
There are a lot of people out there that are interested in what we do as designers and would pay large amounts of cash to learn and develop skills like we have. Why not offer Training programs to people that want to learn how to use photoshop or illustrator, what could be more beneficial than teaching others skills that you know? They will gain more respect towards you once they see what you actually have to know to even start in this field. We aren’t talking about respect at this moment its just a mentioned fact. You could train people or you could Write How-To’s for different websites that pay you to explain how to do certain things in certain situations. The sites you could write for are listed below.
Tutor.com
eHow.com
Videojug.com
There are a lot of How-To Networks you just have to search for them and post away.
Write a E-Book and Sell it Online
You must probably think what am I on about now, well if you have some spare time everyday take that time and write yourself a e-book that explains how to setup a complete blog from start to finishing, including the smaller details. You could do that or you could write a book about SEO, how to double your monthly traffic by using a few simple tips from the e-book. You can write about anything really, just do your research and make sure you write something worth reading in the end. Bringing out your own e-book won’t only generate income for you it will build up a great following of subscribers and twitter followers etc. I have listed 3 posts below that will help you out with the e-book matter.
Probusinessmatter.com – Write an E-Book in 14 Days
Copyblogger.com – How to Write an Ebook that Sells in 2009
Remarkablogger.com – How to write an E-book that doesn’t Suck
The Internet is full of guides explaining how to write E-books, if you aren’t satisfied google is your friend.
Explore Job boards
Exploring job boards could be of great help to you, their are so many in the design industry with so many jobs, that you won’t be bored sifting through. You have Blogging Job Boards, Design Job Boards, Social Media Job Boards and more. The thing about job boards are that you can decide for what job you want to pitch or apply for which makes it really useful when deciding what you want to do at the time. The services on the different boards are also clearly marked out and displayed with awesome layouts. Getting new jobs on job boards doesn’t only mean extra cash, you are building a relationship with another client that could refer you to others in the future, “If you did a good job of course.”
Problogger – Blogging Job Board
Freelanceswitch – Design Job Board
Coroflot – Design Job Board
There are a lot of job boards online just look for them.
Resell Hosting Services
There are a ton of services available that will allow you to resell hosting. You can easily have this as an addon to your customers and make a profit each month or a one time upfront kickback. You want to be careful with this though, taking on hosting will add extra work for you if you are offering it as your hosting. If the site goes down or there is some other hosting-related trouble you had better be prepared to provide that customer service or you could ruin your relationship with your client for something that is beyond your control. I have listed 3 Hosting Solutions below that are really reliable resellers.
Site5.com – Reseller Hosting
Greenresellerwebhosting.com – Reseller Hosting
Hostgator.com – Reseller Hosting
There are hundreds of hosting services out there, these are just my top 3.
That concludes my 10 Ways A Designer Can Make Some Extra Money, hope you enjoyed it see you in the comments.
68 Responses
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how i can promove my gifs
Are you asking how can you promote you gifs? As in Photos?
Great post! This is a great resource of information for graphic designers who wants to earn more and make the most of their talents and love for art.
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Love it! Great post.
You can easily make enough money to not have to work a 9-5. Lots of people are making over 100k a year on sites like istockphoto, activeden, etc… You just have to be dedicated. The great thing about sites like istockphoto is the money keeps coming in even if your not doing anything. I haven’t submitted a photo there in over a year, yet I still am making a good amount of money.
If your going to go the blog route, make sure you don’t quit. It takes a while to gain a good amount of traffic. Promotion is key.
[...] 10 Ways A Designer Can Make some Extra Money | Creativeoverflowcreativeoverflow.net [...]
Probably a few others worth mentioning is:
01 design fonts and sell them
02 design tee’s and sell them
03 design + print posters and sell them
04 design + self-publish a book, mag, zine and sell them
I’d better to choose the photography one to make extra income as I love photography, thanks for the idea. I haven’t thought of this before.
Am not an designer by profession but it’s an worthy post dude
Nice useful ways and resources.
Yea I totally agree bro, Passive income is the way to go in the long term. Submitting items to market sites that will give you revenue even though you aren’t doing anything else. The thing that a lot of people don’t get, is how easy it actually is to design something decent and sell it. Not only do you create exposure and promotion for yourself and website/s you give other people what they need for a decent amount. Thanks for the comment. Appreciate it a lot.
Yea, there is quite a few other options that once could mention too. Will probably do another post sometime soon.
Nice article therefore worth a stumble.
Stumbled..
Thanks bro
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Your CommentsGood idea, but I don’t know where people find the time to do all of this stuff. Also, design templates don’t seem worth it to me. If it takes me 15 hours to design and code a template hour, that’s a $750 job at my rates, if I sell that template for $10 (almost the highest rate on themeforest) exclusively, I’ll only get 40%, or $4, I would have to sell that template 188 times to at least break even and that’s unrealistic. I guess if I was bored and had nothing better to do it might be ok…
[...] 10 Ways A Designer Can Make some Extra Money – Creativeoverflow Being a Full-Time designer can be tough at times, you get times where clients just don’t have the money to pay you right away or you go through a patch where you don’t have enough client work to keep your bills payed. There is a solution, a few infact. Designers are creative people who love to create things, so why not create things and put them to good use? (tags: design tips business freelance) [...]
Your Comments Great article. Will ReTweet via http://twitter.com/maps4pets
Some good tips but still hoping not to have to do any and the web design work keeps me busy!
[...] 10 Ways A Designer Can Make some Extra Money | Creativeoverflow [...]
Remember you are working in Quantity not Price, so say its $10 for a single license, the Multiple license will be $200 or something, but Sell a Few hundred and your covered. Thats the overall point of things. Time is of the essence you are right but, putting that aside you can see these are personal work pieces that you just put up for sale.
Hey Bro! Thanks so much for the awesome post! some great ideas here – and I’m hoping it’s given me a bit of a kick in the butt to get onto it! keep putting this off to watch CSI or something
Haha Glad you liked the post bro, Procrastination ain’t going to get you very far my friend
Kick it up a gear.
[...] 10 Ways A Designer Can Make some Extra Money | Creativeoverflow (tags: business webdesign) [...]
A lot of thanks for useful info
ohh…! its really and very informative, like us (new bloggers). thanks for sharing
[...] 10 Ways A Designer Can Make some Extra Money [...]
I couldn’t help laughing when i read the ‘making $100.000 per year with stockphoto websites’. As someone who actually does know how these stocksites operate I can guarantee you that you won’t make that amount of cash with ’some photos’. Not even close. If you have an exclusive contract with one, for a large size photograph you may earn $5-6 per download. The catch is that you will need lots of downloads to achieve the amount of money that you would with a photoshoot. And the ugly truth is that only 2% of all pics ever attract that kind of interest. So yes, photostock sites can earn you a nice lil’ extra, but it is for 99 out of 100 photographers certainly not a steady income.
Great article Jacques. I enjoy looking through the material of a fellow SA designer!
What a great reference thanks
[...] 10 Ways A Designer Can Make some Extra Money | Creativeoverflow [...]
Thanks bro, glad you like the article.
There are a lot of posts out their that truly just talk a load of nonsense.
Those posts are written by guys that don’t have experience in the field and just want to put out ideas/tips for people to crunch on. The thing is it leads so many people down the wrong path. Its the same with all the posts about Make $1000000 in your first year, all that you have to do is subscribe to this newsletter for $1 and we will send you the content on how to produce these results. Yes the guy selling the content is making stacks of money but, the buyer isn’t?
People shouldn’t base their full income off of market sites, its a great bit of extra income though, especially when you get noticed in the field.
Nice article….. i wonder if they really mean when they say we can easily make money… it aint a easy job after all…..
[...] If you’re struggling to staty in the black every month as a designer then maybe this article can help you out! 10 Ways A Designer Can Make some Extra Money | Creativeoverflow. [...]
[...] 10 Ways a designer can make some extra money [...]
This is a great post! Really has some good tips…definitely twittering this one.
Thanks for speak about Templamatic … Good Post with nice tips.
i love it! would love to try selling stock photos online…
What, nobody mentioned Etsy? I’m a freelance graphic designer/illustrator and I sell my handmade illustrated products on the side on my Etsy shop. It’s a good way to have fun and make money at the same time
http://NotebooksEtc.etsy.com
No problem bro, glad you liked it
a lot thanks for you guys take us very useful ways to know that
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Great article… Another great way that designers can make more money (that many designers never think of) is through a company like http://www.Promo4designers.com
They sell promotional products (basically anything with a logo on it) exclusively to designers at wholesale prices so that designers can mark them up to their clients. Think about it… you design the logo and the branding for your client and then you leave. Well, they need to actually use that logo. Companies put logos on pens, giveaways, USB drives, folders, trade show gifts, etc.
You can offer your clients an additional service, keep them coming back to you for reorders and of course make more money!
[...] 10 Ways A Designer Can Make Some Extra Money [...]
Thanks for the tips. While studying design, aesthetics, usability etc..I am hoping to begin Freelancing this upcoming year. I will definately add this to my bookmarkings. The world of Web Design – so many resources…so many friends
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Great news for me. Bookmarked. Thanks!
wow.. cool!! nows the day designers is getting harder n harder to earn more money. hahaha.. but, some ways that u recommend, i thk is hard for me to do for earning. haha..
nice to meet u too.
[...] by Jacques van Heerden on creativeoverflow Various easy, some maybe slow (in the short run), ways of making extra [...]
what a great list. it does pay to be a designer. so many ways to make money. thank you for the post.
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Fantastic guide. I think freelance designers are notorious for getting their head down and working until they go crazy.
It’s a great idea to look into ways of creating extra income to take the pressure off from having to exchange ALL your time for money.
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very creative…at least I am trying one of those ways. I wish I could write an ebook and sell it online.
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