Making money online has never been this easy because there are so many things we can do. The only problem is that like with any other activity it takes time, effort and creativity before we can succeed.
Nevertheless, the hardships should never stop you, on the contrary, they should empower you to keep trying until you succeed and feel that sweet sense of victory.
Since there are so many things to do as a designer, here’s a list of 10 ideas to get you started.
1. Start a T-Shirt Store
Image credit: Le Xuan Thu
In general, creating an online store nowadays is very easy and all you need is a few YouTube videos to do so.
The hard part is coming up with an idea what to sell and how to attract customers that buy your product. E-commerce is a very broad topic, so if you want to sell t-shirts you can see it here.
2. Become a Freelancer
Depending on your designing skills you can easily become a freelancer. Freelancers are people who are working on different tasks or remote jobs from home.
There are many people who are looking for agraphic designers video or photo editors etc. All you need is to search for some job offers on popular Facebook groups or on freelancing platforms.
3. Start a Blog
If you know how to write well, you could start a blog. In your blog, you could talk about many different things, like working with different design programs, giving tricks and tips, making tutorials etc.
The problem with blogging is that there many blogs out there already, so you’ll need something unique to differentiate.
4. Create a Course
Image credit: rawpixel
If you think your knowledge can be shared with others, try making a course.
You only need to make the course once, to keep getting money over and over again if there are people who keep buying it.
Moreover, you’ll need a marketing plan to promote your courses, but luckily for you, there are many ways to do that.
5. Start a YouTube Channel
There are many design tutorials already, but if you could make something that no one else does, you might become successful.
This will take a lot of time, effort and stubbornness, but will result from you with many other possibilities to make a good amount of money from sponsors, ads and some other personal projects.
6. Drafting/AutoCAD
Doing CAD work will, in most scenarios, require you a degree or some special background. On the other hand, doing some light drafting or simple CAD work for clients is possible for people to even without a degree.
It doesn’t make it easy, but it is possible. AutoCAD is more complex than Adobe Illustrator, but if you can take time to learn it, you can make it happen.
7. Hold an Event
If you have some crazy or interesting ideas you want to do with others, try holding an event.
You could create a workshop for other designers, create weekly lectures who people who want to learn design or events for designers and other people who want to have a good time.
If you’ll have a WordPress website for your events, you could even use a wordpress event registration plugin to host a successful event.
8. Instagram Sponsorships
Image credit: Erik Lucatero
If you can create beautiful designs that people would want to follow, you could become successful on Instagram.
When you have a large number of followers, you can start getting sponsored posts, to share some products or services with your followers.
You could get anywhere from $10 to thousands of dollars per post, it all depends on the number of people who are following you.
9. Comic Book Letterer
Comic book industry usually works in a very linear order, with the letterer being the last to get to work.
When they start, the page is already being penciled, inked or even colored and all they are left with is to add the word balloons and the text from the script that the writer provides.
Moreover, working with comics can be very rewarding especially when you work with a story you like.
10. Sell Your Adobe Actions/Patterns
Having to do a hundred different designs that have to be placed using the same rhythmic movement is frustrating.
Having an automatic pattern that does all the repetitive technical work, not only helps to save time but can also make you money.
If you can create Adobe actions or patterns, there will be people who are willing to pay you to get them so they could save their time.
