A lot of you must be thinking it is definitely not easy to get projects online or to earn really well as a graphic designer, sometimes you might feel that there is no way you can make a good income selling your services. No matter on what level you are right now, to make a 5 figure income or a 6 figure income is totally in your grasp.
To make money as a graphic designer all you need is to get the word out about you to the people you know and to the people you don’t know who can be your potential buyers , find a platform or multiple platforms where customers can find you and buy your services, and last which is totally passive is to create designs & templates so that people can download them again and again, or teach people with online training courses and ebooks.
I myself have been successful at first two ways and I am currently also trying to generate a passive income by helping designers through this site, I do not have time to create templates and designs to generate a passive income. But yes I have researched a lot of ins and out of passive income because at one point I wanted to get into it to make myself more relaxed with money coming in without putting in time active hours of working.
Now let’s put some light on these ways in a little detail.
Ways to make money as a graphic designer:
1. Social Connections & Contacts
2.Through different Online Platform
3.Passive income
Now let’s discuss these ways in detail to give you better clarity because I don’t just want you to know this stuff from the surface. I want you to know enough to get started and without wasting any more time to start to earn some good income.
1. Social Connections & Contacts
This is the old school way of doing business, that is how our fathers and forefathers were getting their prospective clients. Let me tell you that this might be an old way but it is very effective. So, in order to get these clients, you need to approach them and let them know about your service. You must be thinking that I might come off as a sleazy salesman selling his services but that is not true, the best way to sell someone is to get them to think that you are helping them rather than selling. In this setting, everyone should feel that they have a mutual benefit, they are getting a good logo design and you are getting money, it a century-old way of doing business.
Actually, this one is the easiest but for most of the people, this is the last resort to knock on the people’s door and tell them what they want to do for them. But trust me this one is the easiest way you can get started and get some speed. The people you are already acquainted with they are much more comfortable with you and it is easier for them to trust you because a certain level of connection is already there.
Also what you can do is you can talk to people about their branding as just someone who thinks about their good, you can do this with your doctors, business owners in your family or you know, people you interact to like the saloon you went to last month etc. And you have to come off as a genuine guy who wants to help them and just start the conversation about what his business goals are and what does he want to communicate with his customers and see whether his branding is right or not according to what it should be.
Also, the people that you do not know yet but they can be your client comes under this, all you need to do is just approach and let them know that you are available for the kind of work that you do, and you would love to have an opportunity to work together.
I know that talking to random people and asking them for work can be a nightmare for a lot of you but I have gotten a couple of projects just by talking to the people randomly. Think about it, if you haven’t talked to those people there is no chance in this world of them knowing you but on the other hand, if they have an idea that you do the kind of work for which they are looking for someone to work on, then you have good chances of getting hired. It is much better than the situation in which no one knows about you and your work.
2. Through Online Platforms
This is the golden age if you want to earn money. You can do it sitting in any corner of the world without having to go anywhere. The Internet has brought the greatest of the opportunities in your lap, And if you are not still cashing onto it then I must say you are not thinking smartly. There are hundreds of websites where you can earn a decent amount of money while sitting at your home. This is an age where if you have any talent you can earn money without working for anyone.
One way is you can create a website to showcase your work. You need to make a good online presence so that people can find you easily and they can trust you.
Upload your portfolio for people to see, and the more visits you have on your website the better chances you have of getting clients. I will tell you in a different blog on how to get extra traffic on your blog later.
This one will get a little more effort than freelance portals but trust me guys that it is going to be worth it because you wouldn’t have to pay any commission amount to any website and you would be totally independent, and you don’t care whether the platform that you are working on stays or not.
If you would go on the internet and type freelance for graphic designers you would find a lot of websites where you can go and start working right away.
I have compiled a list of websites where you can go and start your journey as a freelance graphic designer, On some of these sites and for others I have done good research whether they are genuine and safe or not. I don’t want to tell you about a spammy website in any way.
- Freelancer
- Fiverr
- Upwork
- TopTal
- Elance
- We Work Remotely
- Design Crowd
These are just some of the site portals where you can go to find the work and you can also find a lot of other sites, these sites I haven’t named them in any order.
In order to get successful on these websites what you need to do is, in the beginning, phase it is not that easy and clients do not trust you easily. So, to get some speed what you need to do is just get a few reviews in order to get some social proofing. You just need to show clients that you have experience and skills which will be showcased by your reviews from there it will be very easy for you to grow.
3. Passive Income
A steady income without working long hours on some active project. This is the sweetest way for the long term and if you want a life of total independence, and on your own terms. With this sorted, you are going to have an extra source of income which will help you reach that goal of your life where you can be free to travel or live the way you want.
But there is some catch, for the passive income to be sorted in the initial phase you would have to put in a lot of time and effort to reach on that level when you can encash those long hours of patience mixed with hard work. It is very hard to stay motivated when you cannot see any sufficient result while you are putting in a lot of time and effort, but trust me good things sometimes takes time if you keep on moving forward.
Some sites like, creative market, is one of the sites where you can create stuff for people to download which will get you paid even when you are sleeping, this one is the way which most of the graphic designers are aware of.
Other ways are, maintaining a blog by which you are helping a lot of people in some niche, selling info products and ebooks, create an online training course, sell apparels or Tshirts with your unique design to sell to the clients etc.
