How to make a lot of money as a designer

User experience designer Microsoft, previously doing brand identity itssomagnetic, I built compassofdesign a design community where I teach and mentor others. Thanks so much! Invest in tools Sometimes you have to spend money to earn money, and that’s certainly the case in design, where you need to invest in tools to get the most out of the skills you already have. Her work is a mix of fantasy, sign-language, and vividly colored imagery. Hi designers, our client based in Montreal, Canada, is looking to partner with business-wise designers.

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One of the things I love about being a designer is the flexibility of potential income sources. Actually, I would recommend choosing only two or three and focus just on. Ok, this one is pretty obvious, but there are a couple of important things here I wanted to mention. However, working on your own is not for everyone and we all know the perks of being hired. A lot of companies can afford six-figure salaries for good designers. Designers are not just there to put a nice looking coat on the finished product anymore.

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Time to earn yourself some money! Be careful though. There are a lot of get-rich-quick schemes that make big promises for little effort. These are probably scams. Earning a lot of money takes a lot of hard work. This article was co-authored by our trained team of editors and researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

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One of the things I love about being a designer is the flexibility of potential income sources. Actually, I would recommend choosing only two or three and focus just on. Ok, this one is pretty obvious, but there are a couple of important things here I wanted to mention.

However, working on your own is not for everyone and we all know the perks of being hired. A lot of companies can afford six-figure salaries for good designers. Designers are not just there to put a nice looking coat on the finished product anymore. Design plays one of the main roles in every digital product development. If you find a really good company to work for check out hired. What else would you need to become a successful designer in the industry?

The downside is that you work for someone else and have to report to someone above you. A lot of designers value independence and complete freedom, which I totally understand. Custom projects for clients is probably the most common way how designers make money. It is very rewarding for sure and you can make good money quickly. It can help you to get a lot of experience as a designer and have an opportunity to work with different clients and teams on various projects.

Perhaps you can even hire a VA or a junior designer who can help you with all the small tasks. You can also make some extra money by referring work to other freelance designers or developers check out crew. Otherwise, it might be pretty hard to scale it up while remaining a solo designer. Making money from selling your ebooks or courses is not that easy. It takes a lot of time and effort to build your audience.

You have to establish your name in the community as an expert to gain credibility. Once you put all the pieces together and collect enough emails I launched my ebook with 4, subscribersyou can start thinking about making a product for sale. Even then, you have to remember that teaching such a fast changing craft like web design is really hard.

However, you have to think about teaching as a long term investment. Every new article, every new tutorial, every new ebook you write will accumulate a certain number of followers and email subscribers over time.

The amount of time you have to spend on making new products may be the same, but the profit will be much higher every time. Teaching valuable skills might be your best way to bring people to you and build your own community. I know a lot of people say you can release a course on Udemy. However, this may not be as easy as it sounds. You will still have to promote your own course, because guess what, there are hundreds and thousands of people just like you.

There is always a high demand for website templates. Besides the website templates there are tons of other digital products you can make and sell like icons, illustrations, patterns, product mockups, textures, logos, stationery templates, wireframe kits. Whatever you use in your own work, there are probably thousands of designers that may need it.

Remember that customer support comes with selling any products. People may have questions on how to use it or something may not work as intended if they use older software. Again, I would recommend to start building your own audience and selling your design materials through your own website. I personally buy a lot of design materials and stock photos from. If you run your own website or a podcast about design, then selling advertising or joining affiliate programs can be another way to make some extra cash.

Market only products that you really use and truly recommend. A single affiliate link here and there on your personal site can get you a couple of free dinners a month. Of course, consulting is also client work, but I wanted to give it a special place on my list. They may already have a visually well-designed website, but they need to just make it better, get an opinion from someone from the outside, optimize for conversion or improve the user experience. You can even productize your service to make the entire selling process easier for both you and your clients.

As much as I love pushing pixels and the creative phase of working on projects, I think consulting is a great alternative to regular client work. I love the fact that I can provide a lot of value for the client with less effort and in a shorter time. On the downside, you still have to take care of your own billing and administration. Remember that your authority will be the most important sales factor, so you have to work on your personal brand. If you love working on custom design projects for clients, go for it.

If you hate working with clients, you may want to try teaching design and selling your own digital or physical products. Join over 20, people who love good design — get my free resources, best articles, and tips.

Great article! One thing I would add would be merchandise aka e-commerce. On demand printing is easy to set up… and any designer can make money either with their own brand or designing merchandise for other brands. When you sold themes on themeforrest, how much support did you offer? Been thinking about selling themes there but I do not think I could have worked with all the support issues that people would have created when they tried to change the theme files.

Were the themes done with a menu so users could indulge in all the worlds options in one place? Or were they more bareboned? I just have to start uploading stuff, making preview images and writing the dreaded readme. Do you have any tips for how to best write a readme.

With those questions out of the way. Great article, shows that even I have a multitude of ways to earn money even without clients. I just have to get and work towards it. Thanks Rafal! Yeah perhaps you tried to cover all the resources for the earning and making money for graphics designers, but in freelancing, you are lacking freelancer, up work, Fiverr, peopleperhour. Similarly for being hired remotely crossover is also a great platform for finding a great job at your home.

Overall, great post. Your email address will not be published. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Getting a job as a designer Ok, this one is pretty obvious, but there are a couple of important things here I wanted to mention. Client work freelancing Custom projects for clients is probably the most common way how designers make money. Selling design products I used to sell my own WordPress themes both through the Theme Forest market and later my own theme shop before I joined StudioPress. Advertising and affiliate If you run your own website or a podcast about design, then selling advertising how to make a lot of money as a designer joining affiliate programs can be another way to make some extra cash.

Consulting Of course, consulting is also client work, but I wanted to give it a special place on my list. What are your thoughts and experiences when it comes to making how to make a lot of money as a designer in the design space? I’m Rafal Tomal, I help designers and businesses create simple and beautiful websites that work.

More about me E-Mail Address. Comments Great article! Some questions. Really nice article and useful information you shared. Thank you for sharing. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published.

How Much Money Can Designers Make?

Each method of income is different, and this is not intended as a guide of how to set these sources up. They include: upselling your design projectsgenerating passive incomespecializing in a particular discipline or skilland many many. Say, I noticed that this blog is using my initials for its. My newsletter for Compass of Design is education based. Tweet I also make great income customizing WordPress sites!