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’re 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 get printed at a Printing Company, 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.
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Hi. I read a few of your other posts and wanted to know if you would be interested in exchanging blogroll links?
Wow, this list is rammed with top notch stuff. I can’t believe there are so many different ways to get your noggin’ in the door.
I need to get myself a camera, if people buy stock photos then I’m quids in. Cheers, mate!
MrShotBag´s last blog ..Vans or Vans?
Great site, check out mine!
Was trying this goto a random blog feature on randomizer and ended up here, a terrific way to read something new like this. Thanks for taking your time and effort to post this blogpost.
Good job, i need some time to think about this. Are there any forums that you recommend I join ?
Hi, I recently started a bloghosting platform (based on wordpress MU) and when I stumbled your blog I paid attention to your theme (looking good) so I was wondering can you tell me is it custom made theme or one of those free ones? thanks in advance! regards, blogiskewl
Hey bro, Its as custom as it can get. I’m a digital artist by profession so everything was done by me.
hiya, thanks for the post. Though it’s kinda refreshing to know that everything isn’t always so complicated as some people make it out to seem. Oh well, just my 2 cents.
There are a ton of ways for people to make some extra cash, and in most cases they are super easy.. but they are also the most overlooked. As you stated above, providing training and tutorials is one of the better ways to make some extra cash..
These are really awesome tips to make money online. I really appreciate all the idea and advice you have given by your article. I have heard that guys are making handful bucks through online, however i can’t make myself convinced. But i think your article have given me some ways to earn money. Thanks for this.
I have visited your port before. The more I read, the more I keep coming back! ;~)
I really the the write an ebook idea. I am trying to implement this right now – we will see how it goes.
Hi, can I use part of the info found in this post if I put a link back to your blog?
A talent that good makes you earn a lot of money. We’ll I say that I’m not a designer and really I’m just really bad in terms of design. So I admire this people that possess this kind of talents. Anyway this is a very helpful article for designers seeking part time jobs and to make use of their talents.
Hi, how are you doing today? Thanks for this great information. I am looking for some help from your articles as I learn how to earn extra money at home.
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There are loads of ways of making a little extra cash online, but 9 times out of ten you need a hook to make some real money. With the suggestions above i guess it really depends on how good a designer you are. If you are good at designing interesting blog templates or button designs then you should have no problem selling them on, but if they are only average you will find it very hard due to the shear volume of other people doing the exact same thing (and sometimes for free).
If you go for the blogging route there are other ways in which you can make some extra cash including google adsense, but thats a whole other post right there :)
Great post, keep up the good work.
The business brokerages network will provide you with access to a big pool of people who have the information about businesses for sale and buyers or investors searching for any organization venture. By making great use from the information you’ve, you might be cutting a offer and make a handsome profit out from the transactions.
Of all the money making methods online, I prefer surveys. You don’t have to deal with building and promoting a website which tends to be more of a hassle. Depending on how much work you put into it you can reach a couple hundred pretty fast.
Nice to find this info all in one place.
JKS´s last blog ..Informative on Dedicated Servers – Web Hosting
brilliant. i will try this one. Love it. thank you very much for sharing your knowledge
Aisha´s last blog ..Exclusive Freebie Download Free PSD Design Template
Very helpful article for designers seeking part time jobs. Good info.
ScottZeeman´s last blog ..Clickbank Make Money has found the Ultimate Program- The 1 Way to Make Money with Clickbank!
Designers can also use forum to offer their service, a lot of people are actually using forums to find web designers
Green Design´s last blog ..Love Coffee Then Love The Eco Kettle
thanks for the help
Great list! I have been trying to get accepted into iStockphoto for some time but it’s really hard :(
piano tutorial´s last blog ..Titanic Sheet Music Piano Tutorial
Thank you for the advice. Recently I tried some of these ways, and people with little talent and skills will have no problem with earning a few dollars more.
great info, thanks for posting… you missed affiliate partners wich can be useful too :)
Great post :) you could also include affiliate marketing.
to make tutorials – it’s an interesting idea!
great article.thx for all this helpful information.
efe´s last blog ..WordPress Accord 10 teması
It truly is nice right here. nice study. I have been looked this kind of data for quite a while. thanks
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