You are a designer and you produce beautiful artwork that you want to share with the world and make money online. There are plenty of options and you can turn your skills into a lucrative online business.

We already mentioned Freelancing as a route to take advantage of your design skills and make money using freelancing and virtual assistant platforms or your own website. Now I want to emphasize the latter approach and other monetization methods to offer you another point of view and more opportunities.

There are various ways to make money selling designs and in this guide, we’ll be examining these monetization options:

• Freelancer (already analyzed) – guide
• Virtual Assistant (already analyzed) – guide
• Marketplaces
• Communities, forums, job boards, groups
• Careers
• Social Media
• Hosting courses
• Creating a website  – full guide here
• With or without a website (pay per click marketing, seminars, training, consulting, coaching, speaking, live events, business pages)
• Video marketing & Vlogging
• Podcasting
• Guerilla marketing

Create a portfolio

But there are designers specializing in one or more areas. You can start off with only one area and then expand upon it in the near future or you can include as many areas as you wish.

Next Steps

The next steps would be working as a freelancer and virtual assistant. For that matter, I refer you to the Freelancing part of this guide.

Join Marketplaces

Join related marketplaces to showcase your design artwork and to boost your visibility instantly. The majority of marketplaces will charge you fees per sale but these sites receive massive traffic, therefore it’s crucial for you to join them and showcase your work.

Buyers from all over the world visit those networks on a daily basis so you have a chance to get noticed and build a client base.

You can additionally participate in their forums, discuss with other designers, and make valuable connections. You can even partner up with other designers for some of your projects.

There are marketplaces that reward their top-performing vendors with exclusive bonuses and featured content.

Slogan: Find creators and generate custom content.  

About: Insense is a creative platform that helps brands to get custom creative assets, and to run influencer campaigns at scale.

Advertisers can source creators who are a good match for their brand or message, whether it’s a broad category or a more niche interest. Creators on Insense are all verified by the moderation team, ensuring that their accounts and followers are real and that they are safe for brands to work with.

Over 5000 creator-to-brand connections made. Over 35K creators are already on board

How it works for brands: Create your brief, collect responses, chat with creators, get content, amplify content

How it works for creators: you sign up and your account is moderated, get an offer from a brand, create content, get paid immediately

Categories:

• Videos, video editing, and mobile videos
• GIFs, motion graphics
• Photos
• Design

There’s a mobile app you can use, case studies to explore how other brands and creators collaborated successfully, which types of campaigns they created, and so on. Also, you’ll find useful advice via the blog and the FAQ page.

There’s a 14-day trial period.

Slogan: Learn, share, and connect with a community of like-minded creators. A platform for handcrafted design content from independent creatives around the world.

Categories:

• Photos
• Graphics
• Templates
• Themes
• Fonts
• Add-ons
• 3D

In this marketplace, graphic designers all around the globe are opening their private shops presenting their work. You can list your design bundles and projects for a price. Additionally, you have the opportunity to connect directly with other freelancers and entrepreneurs, discuss and interact with them.

You grant around 70% commissions of the sales setting your own prices, although you have to keep in mind the competition’s prices. You can update your shop with new artwork whenever you want and your products go live instantly. There are tracking tools to analyze traffic to your shop and a messaging system to stay connected with buyers. The market will deliver your products instantly.

A nice trick to attract buyers to your shop is to create and offer for Free some mini projects. Not only you extend your reach but you give your potential buyers the chance to test your work for Free. Imagine what will happen if they stay satisfied. They will buy the next time and they will share your brand’s name with their network

You are giving a small part of your work for free in exchange for popularity.

This is the modern era of things and you should play by the rules. Along with your premium offers, do include some free offers. This will make a huge difference and get your brand name recognized faster. 

Therefore you can connect with other designers, companies, and buyers inside the Creative Market website. There is an option to follow people and create a small private network.

Moreover, Creative Market runs a separate blog and there is a forum full of discussions and topics.

Slogan: The leading marketplace for creative assets and creative people. Millions of people choose our marketplace, studio and courses to buy files, hire freelancers, or learn the skills needed to build websites, videos, apps, graphics, and more.

Departments:

• EnvatoMarket: Browse 9+ million digital assets
• EnvatoStudio: Hire designers and developers
• EnvatoTuts: Learn with tutorials and courses
• EnvatoSites: Launch simple websites, no code required
• EnvatoElements: Download 400,000+ creative assets
• Forum
• Blog
• Community Meetups
• Careers

Categories:

• ThemeForest: themes and templates for WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Magento, landing pages and more.
• CodeCanyon: Sliders, plugins, scripts, and code for WordPress, PHP, Javascript, HTML5, Bootstrap, iOS, Android.
• VideoHive: A huge range of stock footage, after effects, logos, intros, Apple motion, templates.
• AudioJungle: Music, sound effects for films, games, trailers, promos, podcasts, backgrounds.
• GraphicRiver: Flyers, resumes, logos, and banners, illustrations, icons, web elements, templates…
• PhotoDune: Royalty-free images of weddings, fashion, business, food, family, fitness, people, tech, travel…
• 3dOcean: Games, animations, models, textures, materials, base meshes, plugins.

As you can see, Envato is a huge place ideal for designers, web developers, music and video producers, animators, photographers.

You display your products, you have a chance to get hired as a freelancer, and you gain popularity, visibility, and recognition in the market.

Make sure you read the terms and licenses before you publish your artwork.

Finally, the career department offers flexible job positions.

• Envato Market full review
• Envato Elements full review

Slogan: Discount design bundles with extended license.

Categories:

• Creative and Unique Hand Drawn Fonts
• Presentation Kits
• Logos
• Typography
• Photograph packages: Vintage, Retro etc.
• Backgrounds & Shapes: Abstract, geometric
• Decorative Graphics
• Posters, Flyers
• Mock-Ups
• Textures
• Branding & Print Templates
• Effects
• Graphic elements: Icons, vectors, illustrations

You can become a vendor and sell your media.

• DealJumbo full review

An online art community operating since December 1998 and the name Renderosity was created and voted by the community of digital artists in October 1999. The graphics arts industry grew worldwide and a need for a medium of communication that could link this diverse and international group was born. Renderosity came to life to fill that need.

Their mission is to create a thriving, productive community that encourages an atmosphere of respect, collaboration, and growth for 3D & 2D digital artists, animators, photographers and writers of all backgrounds and levels.

Categories:

• Grabbed by the Ghoulies sale
• Music – Soundtracks – FX
• Poser software – Smith Micro
• Prime flash sale
• 3D models
• 2D
• 3D figure essentials
• Services – Rosity stuff
• Merchant resources
• Lights or cameras
• Game content – Games and apps
• Software
• Tutorials
• Gaming extended licenses

Join and reap the many benefits of being involved in a global marketplace which reaches half a million registered members, 250 new members daily and 330 million hits per month.

You can become a vendor and sell your media. As a vendor, you can set an exclusive status on some or all of your products. That means that these products will be sold only at Renderosity.

Moreover, you can add coupons and you can track the progress via a code that can be used on Google Analytics.

The Renderosity Marketplace welcomes products of all types, including but not limited to models, textures, props, morph targets animations, pose sets for existing models, software, and much more.

They charge no fees upfront and you pay nothing for membership or the ability to submit your products, have them tested and then released into the Marketplace. All it takes is a FREE membership signup and uploading your first creation!

They do payments both monthly and bi-monthly through a number of payment options. Those can be selected in your Vendor Details after sign-up.

You can have partnered products for sale on Renderosity. You can have up to 5 vendors on a single product and you add all of those participating vendors on your product when submitting it to the marketplace.

• Renderosity full review

Slogan: The best deals for digital design assets.

Since 2011 Inky is bringing the Black Friday Deals every day for creatives all around the world. InkyDeals was created from the desire to offer fellow designers (beginners and veterans alike) high-quality resources at unbeatable prices.

Inky is a lovable little blob who’s passionate about design and creativity. His daily routine involves searching for great deals with all the resources a creative professional may need.

Categories:

• Patterns, backgrounds, icons, vectors, illustrations
• Ribbons, Typography, Lightroom presets, Floral packs
• Css3 utilities, Html5 templates, Photoshop actions, Add-ons, Textures, Badges, Brushes, Buttons, Fonts, HTML, CSS courses, Mock-Ups
• Stock photos, PSD templates, UI Sets, Origamis, Tags, T-Shirt Designs, Vector Mascots
• Bundles, web design
• WordPress, Photoshop, eLearning

You can join hundreds of vendors already selling their digital products. Advantages for vendors:

• No upfront marketing costs
• Exposure to a large audience
• Extra marketing channel
• Test products really fast, get traction to products you launch
• They handle payments, refunds, affiliates, promotions on partner websites

What you get:

• Extra income without spending anything on marketing
• Customers
• Free website traffic
• Editorial features on their partners’ websites

Stats:

• Over 250,000 email subscribers
• 13,000 FB likes
• 5,000 Twitter followers
• More than 300 vendors 
• Thousands of campaigns

How it Works:

After you submit your product, one of their colleagues will contact you to discuss if your deal fits their audience. Once everything is in place (agreements, terms & conditions) you start working on the promotion of your product.

They do the featured image, the copy for the deal description, they set up the systems so customers can access the product as fast as possible.

Once the promotion has started they start promoting your deals to maximize revenue and impact.

Once the promotion is over, after 2-4 weeks you get your payment via Paypal or bank transfer.

• InkyDeals full review

• Pond5 full review

Behance: Architecture, art direction, branding, fashion, graphic design, illustrations, industrial design, interaction design, motion graphics, photography, UI/UX, web design, cartooning, cinematography, crafts, drawing, films, graffiti, jewelry design, makeup arts, music, painting, retouching, sculpting, sound design, textile design, toy design, visual effects, web development

You can display your work and you can search for a job.

ArtPal: Paintings, prints, drawing, illustration, digital art, sculptures, carvings, ceramics, pottery, glass, jewelry, textile, apparel, crafts.

FineArtAmerica: Wall art, apparel, paintings, photos, drawings, digital art, home decor, phone cases, tech, lifestyle, stationery, beach products (towels, bags, pouches)

Yessy: Paintings, prints, photography, drawings, illustrations, computer & digital art, sculptures, carvings, ceramics, pottery, glass, jewelry, furniture, textile, apparel, antiques, collectibles, crafts

EmptyEasel: Paintings (oil, acrylic, watercolor), graphite, pencil art, pen & ink artwork, mixed-media art, fine art photography, sculpture, 3D art

Art: Framed art prints, framed mount, framed canvas, decor, fine art, photography, vintage art

CafePress: Gift shop – t-shirts, clothing, bags, buttons, stickers, magnets, cases, covers, baby blankets, home accessories, shower curtains, hats, jewelry, scarves, neckties, watches, posters, wallpapers

Society6: Art prints, canvas, metals, wall tapestries, wall clocks, stickers, bags, pillows, blankets, towels, mugs, phone cases, laptop skins, leggings, t-shirts, sleeves, tops, hoodies

Join communities, groups, and forums related to design beyond the ones mentioned above (freelancing & virtual assistant websites, and marketplaces that have inner forums) and participate. There are communities where designers give away samples of their work for free in exchange for popularity. Many artists have acquired clients by using this giveaway method as potential clients received some samples for free, recognized their talent, and eventually hired them.

Furthermore, there are communities where you can discuss with like-minded artists, spot fans and enthusiasts related to your niche, and make connections. You can get ideas for your projects, get inspired, or even get hired. You can learn about marketing, sales, and how to monetize your online presence. You can read the news, learn about the law & taxes, get your projects critiqued, participate in contests and competitions, and get advertised.

Connect with thousands of companies around the globe, make allies, and get better at what you do.

Find jobs and post jobs on Job Boards: full-time, part-time, remote jobs, local job listings.

Design communities:

• WebDesignerDepot – Authors, jobs, deals, news.
• Digital Point – Forum for designers, developers, and marketers
• DesignerHangout – a dedicated, invite-only network of UX designers and researchers who discuss trends, give advice, share stories, uncover insights, surface opportunities, and connect in-person.
• #Launch – a community of like-minded entrepreneurs, designers, developers, & makers.
• CoffeeCup – software and web design forums
• TeamSketch – a community for Sketch designers
• WebDeveloper – a community for Web Developers
• TheWebDesignForum – web design, development, software, hardware, business, marketing, networking
• TalkGraphics – web design, general graphics, resources, Xara
• GraphicDesignForum –  general, inspiration, news, resources, typography, web design, illustrations, students, software, classified ads
• StackOverflow – over 50 million developers come to Stack Overflow to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers
• HowDesign – news, inspiration, careers, business, tech & web, online learning, events, competitions, jobs, magazine
• Graphic Design Forums – classifieds, graphic design, illustration, logos, brand identity, printing, print design, font, critiques, websites, SEO, social media, marketing, Adobe, software & hardware, photography, jobs & employment
• LaraChat – Chat and share with over 23,608 worldwide members. Live discussions. They’re building the biggest PHP virtual user group in the world
• WebDesignForums – website ratings & reviews, general, tutorials, Adobe, programming & development, web marketing, hosting and server setup, announcements, contests, premium, marketplace
• HTML Forums – lounge, web 2.0, technology, website review, development, multimedia, tutorials, server administration, freebies, advertising, links, sales, website content for sale, security, promotion & commerce, legal issues, announcements, feedback, spam box.
• SitePointForums – programming, design, UX, marketing, server configuration, community, business, CMS & WordPress
• WebDevForums – web design, tutorials, website design reviews, SEO, marketing, freelancing, web hosting, domains, monetizing websites, news, announcements, suggestions
• Dribbble – get inspired and hired, post jobs
• UX Mastery – careers, mentoring, feedback, problem-solving, design thinking, process & techniques
• UX Design Community – a platform for designers and researchers to share inspirations, resources, and knowledge to help each other grow
• UX Stack Exchange – a question and answer site for user experience researchers and experts. 
• Web Designer Forum – news, competitions, website design & layout, resources, development, SEO, marketing, business, software & hardware
• Designer News – you can read stories, find jobs for designers and developers, listen to the podcast, explore the galleries, get advertised
• DesignersTalk – general, web design, CMS, development, graphic design, illustration, flash, motion graphics, print, photography, logo and brand identity, promotion, marketing, business, hardware, mobile

Drawing communities:

• DeviantArt – Forum for artists and art enthusiasts

Mixed Arts communities:

• ArtistForum – Artist community for discussing drawing, painting, sculpting, photography, graphic design, sharing your work, and more.

Cartoon communities:

• CartoonsForum – people and characters, the art and business, magazine cartoons, newspaper strips, comic books, caricature, editorial, film and TV animation, graphic stories, mini-comics, cartoon jams, humorous illustration, and online cartooning
• AnimeForums – a friendly community welcoming anime fans from around the world! You’re welcome to take a look around, but to join the fun and discussions you will need to register for a free account. Registration allows you to setup your own profile, join the discussions, participate in clubs, making your own blog, as well as submitting anime reviews

Mixed communities/Job Boards/Groups:

• TalkFreelance – news, feedback, marketplace (sell & get hired), design & development, business, website management
• FreelanceUK – general, accounting, legal, business & contracts, graphic design, web design, journalism, copywriting, photography, PR & marketing.
• Freelancers Union – free membership, exclusive deals, monthly events, download tax & insurance guides, blog.
• Smashing Magazine – helping designers and developers find jobs and connect with companies.
• Mashable Job Board – Post your job on Mashable and they’ll actively promote your opening to their 45 million monthly unique visitors and 25 million social followers. Administrative, clerical, advertising, customer service, design, finance, operations, IT/engineering, journalism, marketing, pr, sales, social media, web development
• Coroflot – creates better professional experiences for designers of all backgrounds all over the world. You can post a job and browse their listings. Graphic design, industrial design, 3D modeling, product design, user experience, design management, creative direction, advertising, animation, architecture, art direction, branding, business development & sales, concept art, copywriting, education, engineering, and more…
• Working Nomads – Remote jobs. Development, management, marketing, system administration, design, sales, customer success, writing, consulting, finance, human resources, administration, education, healthcare, legal.
• Authentic Jobs – A leading job board for designers, hackers, and creative pros. Full-time and part-time listings. Design & UX, front-end engineering, back-end engineering, apps, product management, content & copywriting, marketing & sales, customer & community, management, various.
• WP Hired – Search for a WordPress job. Design, migration, performance, plugin development, programming, SEO, theme customization, writing jobs.
• Krop – 3D artist, art director, designer, fashion, illustrator, marketing, SEO, presentation, product/packaging, UX/UI, web developer, administrative, copywriter, freelance, industrial design, mobile developer, print, production artist, upper management, animation/motion, creative director, environmental, graphic designer, interactive, photography, producer, project manager, web designer
• Folyo – get project alerts that will help you land your next client. 3500+ design firms. 
• OnSite – quality, curated freelancers, no middle-men, no percentage. You can apply to showcase your portfolio. Categories: design, development, illustration, motion, management. A very well organized directory showing potential freelancers with detailed statistics.
• Gun.io – elite professional freelancers augmented by AI. 25,000+ members. Software engineer, UX designer, product manager, scrum master, UI, full-stack developer, front-end developer, back-end developer, QA, DevOps, SecOps.
• Crew.co – Build your next app, eCommerce, or website with their network of freelance designers, software developers, and small studios. Mobile app developer, web development, back-end frameworks, front-end frameworks, back-end languages, front-end languages, agencies & studios, graphic design, web design, WordPress design, UX design, UI design, product design, logo & branding.
• Envato Studio – A community of designers, developers, and creatives. Audio, design, graphics, WordPress, logo & branding, online marketing, video & animation, mobile & apps, websites & programming.
• Juiiicy – a private community for top-notch designers to refer freelances jobs to others or apply to jobs posted by others. A platform that let the best designers in the world spread the word about inquiries they receive so other talented designers can take them on. The best way to support and motivate designers to post a job on Juiiicy is to give them a commission. 7% of the final invoice feels to be the right number.
• Local Solo – Top freelancers in your city. Copywriters, content, design, creatives, developers, engineers, game design & development, marketing, social media, SEO, photography, commercial, project manager, producer, sound, music, strategist, consultant, UX, IA, video, motion, 3D, website creation, design & code.
• CloudPeeps – over 20,000 customers, over 150 countries. Web design, growth hacking, public relations, social, content, community, SEO, paid ads, admin, email, copywriting, design, strategy

You can track local design jobs or other design-related and remote positions using these extra platforms:

Monster – Creative design jobs by state

GlassDoor – find the job that fits your life. Refine your search by job, company, salary, interviews.

TheGuardianJobs – Refine your search by industry, job function, job level, location, salary, hours, contract, listing type, education level, recruiter type, job title.

AIGA Design Jobs – the professional association for design. 207 current creative employment opportunities.

DesignObserver – presented by AIGA. Empowering designers to grow as leaders, strategic thinkers, and inspirational motivators. 461 current creative opportunities.

DesignJobsBoard – Most of the jobs are in London, UK.

Alliance of Artists Communities – Storytelling design, art design, graphic design, fashion design, and more. 370 current listings.

ArtJobs – latest jobs, contract, freelance, full-time, internship, part-time, temporary.

Creative Pool – 310 current positions.

DeZeenJobs – jobs by type, company, location. Creative jobs, design, freelance, and more.

TalentZoo – advertising, marketing, design & creative, geek & web. 

The Dots – freelance, internships, account manager, art director, copywriter, marketing, design, graphic design, photography, project manager, strategy

The Drum – 429 current jobs in design, advertising, marketing, digital, social media, and PR.

If You Could Jobs – find and advertise creative jobs. Most of the positions are in London.

Creative Review – find creative jobs and apply today. Graphics, print, digital, web, and more.

Airtasker – Design jobs near you, over 500 opportunities. Top locations: Far West NSW, Sunshine Coast, Darwin, Townsvill

You can not go without being social. The more you appear online the more people trust you. Social channels offer you an opportunity to spread your message, create fans and connections.

Every network has its own rules and terms but one thing is in common. People hate being spammed and bombarded with irrelevant ads.

You can create personal or business profiles and pages, and create or join related groups.

On your personal profiles, you want to make connections with people related to your work but also with people that share common interests. The more you share other people’s content, the more your content will be shared by others in return. Try to be polite, and don’t use a personal account only to talk about your work. People will ignore you.

On business profiles and pages you can display your work and use them as a magnet for potential clients. Share the latest artwork with your audience, giveaway bonuses, create polls, quizzes, questionnaires.

Join groups. Some of these groups are open to everyone, some are private and require invitations. You can spot several places to discuss with like-minded people and expand your online presence and knowledge. Everybody contributes to these groups by sharing tips, presenting small portfolios and by asking questions.

You have to carefully read the group’s rules and terms of service and act in a decent and appropriate manner. You have to be professional and follow these teams to expand your horizons. 

The main objective for you is to create connections and reach a wider audience. Let the communities know about your interests and share valuable insights.

When you gain some momentum with your business pages move to next level and create a group on your own.

You can even create special chat rooms where you invite social followers to participate in private discussions. Answer questions politely and entertain people. It’s OK to partner with competitors and other entrepreneurs on that matter.

Here are a few ideas to leverage on social media:

Independent campaigns/ads

Promote your products and services usually in the form of banners with catchy headlines. Send people to landing pages on your website to signup with their email addresses (more on that later).

Micro-Blogging platforms like

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Google+
• Tumblr
• Reddit
• Stumble Upon
• Medium
• Flipboard
• LinkedIn
• Ghost

can be used to raise brand awareness. People ask questions on these platforms so if you can enter a conversation showcasing your expertise you’ll gain valuable followers. Do not only post business stuff that has to do with selling. On social media people enjoy various types of content.

Other popular social platforms:

• Pinterest
• Instagram
• QZone
• Sina Weibo
• Baidu Tieba
• Snapchat
• Line
• Telegram
• VK

Create boards on Pinterest and Flipboard.

Create business boards and boards on various topics beyond the design world. You can add boards about your personal preferences, interests, anything that could make people interested in you as a person. Remember, on social you’re not trying to sell directly, rather than interacting and educating.

Answer questions on Quora

Quora is very popular and it’s a great place to showcase your expertise and redirect people to your website, landing pages, or offers. Share useful content, advice, link to your guides. Participate and comment on various threads to gain insights into the community.

Surveys, quizzes, polls

Our goal here is to create a buzz about our brand, and people enjoy this kind of interactive media. Redirect people to your landing pages and start collecting email addresses. Ask questions that will help you understand what people are looking for in your respective niche.

Business pages

Google+, Twitter, and Facebook can be used to create pages strictly for business. Here, we want to create a loyal fan base. We do that by educating people about our products and services. 

We use lead magnets in the form of discounts, promos, and special offers that only members of our pages can enjoy. We want them to feel special for being our loyal members on social.

On business pages, do not share other brands’ content, like you do with your personal profiles

Public or Private Groups and Chatrooms

Our goal is to gather business people in our niche, to share ideas and opinions on hot topics. In the case of public groups, people will see the interaction in the group and they’ll be interested in joining, to learn more about the design industry. With these boards, we try to network with other alike entrepreneurs. These public groups act as a magnet for potential customers. Suddenly, you’re not alone, you’re not one company trying to sell to people, you are a group of companies that interact with each other

Broadcast live/video streaming

• Periscope
• Facebook live
• You-Tube
• Skype

Messengers

• Facebook
• WeChat
• QQ
• Viber
• BlackBerry
• KakaoTalk

Content Formats

You can publish any type of content you want on social media, just like you do on your site:

Posts, articles, news, lists, reviews, comparisons, guides, research, case studies, landing pages, polls, quizzes, contests, testimonials, galleries, infographics, charts, maps, audio, podcasts, interviews, videos, webinars, presentations

Monetization Techniques

• Independent campaigns/ads: Promote your products and services (memberships, courses, books…) and promotional offers of affiliated merchants (Pay per sale, CPM, CPA, Pay per lead)
• Discounts, promos, prizes, special offers, exclusive downloads
• eCommerce stores, shops hosted on social platforms like Facebook Store
• Sponsored content (interviews, testimonials, videos, articles)
• Digital content for clients strictly on social media (clips, promo videos, trailers, audio, graphics, ad campaigns)
• Create and manage social media accounts, business pages, profiles for clients (advanced)
• Paid advertising (advanced)

There are online marketplaces filled with classes for students. You can use these platforms to sell courses. Make sure you read the terms and conditions of every community carefully as probably you won’t be allowed to sell other products to your students.

Skillshare – tomorrow is for the taking. Thousands of classes to help you do your best work. Creative, business, technology, lifestyle.

Udemy – Get courses starting at €9.99. 65,000 online courses. Development, business, IT & software, office productivity, personal development, design, marketing, lifestyle, photography, health & fitness, teacher training, music, academics, language

• Udemy review

Teachable – create and sell beautiful online courses. 7M+ students, 34K+ active courses, 22K+ instructors, $100M+ earned by instructors. 

LearnWorlds – Get a fully professional, social, engaging and interactive online school. Don’t just sell online courses, sell learning experiences.

CourseCraft – everything you need to build superbly designed self-paced online courses. Share your passion, make money, and help people level up their lives today.

Thinkific – the online course platform you can trust with your business. Create, market, and sell courses online from your own website. 25K+ course creators.

Academy of Mine – Start your Own Online Academy. All-in-one Platform to Create, Sell and Market Courses. 

WizIQ – Easy-to-use, affordable Virtual Classroom, and LMS Software. Get all the tools to teach or train your students, customers or partners.

Ruzuku – Teach amazing courses people will love. Everything you need to connect with your audience, create inspiring content, and change the world.

Educadium – deliver self-paced training, manage eLearning courses, free online support. 

You should take advantage of your own website to gain a competitive advantage over your competition. This is true no matter if you’re an artist, a writer, or a freelancer.

A website is your online property, and can be used as a store, as a gallery to showcase your work as we mentioned in the introduction of this part, as a magnet to attract traffic, and can be monetized in various ways that we’ll analyze them in the Last part of this guide.

Basic Methods 

• Showcasing your work (portfolio, galleries, artwork)
• Selling your artwork directly to customers
• Selling memberships (you have to produce new media)
• Selling advertising space
• Email marketing (informing your members about new releases, discounts, promos)
• Podcadsting (you can arrange sponsorships if you have traffic)
• Accepting donations
• “Hire me” calls to action (if you want to get hired by companies to produce media for them)
• Paid advertising: buying ads on various platforms (search engines, social media, forums, communities…) to drive traffic to your website in order to create awareness about your products and services

Additional Monetization Methods

• Online courses related to your media production (with or without a website)
• Workshops, webinars, seminars (with or without a website)
• Write your own books related to your media production (with or without a website)

You can create books related to design, publish and market them on your own website and other platforms, like Amazon, or even on social media. You can utilize email marketing to keep your readers alert and offer new products and services related to these books.

• Nick Stephenson – Your First 10,000 Readers – Overview
• Nick Stephenson – Your First 10,000 Readers – Review

A complete premium training to help authors, writers, and entrepreneurs build their audience, grow their reach and exposure, build engagement with their customers and sell more books and other products. 

What You’ll Learn:

• Publishing and marketing books on Amazon, BookBub, other retailers, on your own
• Email marketing
• Launch team building
• Launch planning
• Facebook advertising

YouTube, Facebook live, Vimeo and so many other video hosting services offer an opportunity to attract people with your valuable content. Just like with email marketing you want to educate your prospects on the quality of your products and how your products are going to change their lives for the better.

You can earn trust immediately if you show up as a real person in front of the camera. People want to do business with real people, and not with commercial or impersonal brands.

Have in mind that You-Tube videos get rankings in the search engines with ease, as You-Tube is part of Google. Videos get viewed, you receive traffic, and can be used as a magnet for leads/email subscribers, thus building a fan base.

Monetizing Videos

With You-Tube and the other vlogging platforms we mentioned earlier, you can make money by letting Google or other Video platforms display ads on your videos. You can use videos for vlogging, for sponsored reviews/articles/lists. You can use them to close branded merchandising deals.

You can use videos as a lead magnet (subscribers, registrations), to promote your website, promote other companies’ products, or to create videos for clients.

You can create a series of design tutorials to attract traffic so that the video platforms place ads on your videos

Types of marketing videos:

• Demo videos of products, releases, and launches
• Workshops
• Webinars
• Seminars
• Presentations
• Educational, How-Tos
• Live streaming, live shows
• Interviews
• Explainer videos
• Case studies
• Product reviews
• Customer testimonials
• Personalized messages
• Thank you videos
• Behind the scenes
• Vlogs

• The Beginner’s Guide to Making Money with a Website
• The Beginner’s Guide to Making Money with Vlogging
• Free DBR Training
• Video Marketing Software

Podcasting is a superb medium and underutilized and can boost your visibility online faster than the other channels mentioned above. Minimum costs, instant credibility, bond with listeners, relationships with ‘Icons’ and influencers, lead and sales.

You can run your own podcasting show and appear on other people’s shows as well.

To maximize this opportunity, use these 5 core engagement strategies:

• Informing
• Teaching
• Entertaining
• Intriguing
• Challenging

To make people enroll in your offers, programs, and services use these enrollment strategies:

• Website/pixels
• Social media
• Lead magnets
• Exploration sessions

To be able to make money you can utilize these methods:

• Merchandise
• Online courses
• Membership programs
• Live events
• Coaching
• You artistic skills and products

• Steve Olsher – Profiting from Podcasts

Guerilla or Outbound marketing is marketing that aims to interrupt people, usually masses of people. Companies use those so-called ‘cold’ techniques in order to bring people in front of their work no matter if those people are interested or not.

Use these methods to spread the word about your design skills and products.

In that category, you’ll find techniques like cold calling, emails to random people or companies (spam), phone call promotions, and interruptive media. Other companies use trade shows, seminar series, billboard ads, direct mail, TV and radio ads, listings in newspapers, magazines, brochures that are delivered to your door.

This type of marketing includes unconventional, unusual ways to market products in the market. Again, companies and entrepreneurs use interruptive strategies to push their message in front of random people. In most of the cases, they try to keep the budget low

The concept here involves the marketer’s imagination, energy, and ambitions. These tactics are usually applied in public, crowded places to get the attention of the masses. Guerrilla marketers hope to create a buzz around a company so that the message will spread with the word of mouth from people exposed to the campaign to their friends.

The media in this section could be anything from flyers you leave in a bus station, under doors, inside of mailboxes, and any idea you can come up with. You can even share your business cards with strangers, buy someone a coffee, print messages in public toilets.

Or even create graffiti on the walls, ads on taxis, buses, public transportation, posters on the streets, at stations, airports, and all this crazy stuff.

If you want to get found, you have to make it happen!

As you can see, there are plenty of options if you want to make money online as a designer. If you can commit to working, deliver high-quality products to your clients, and build a good reputation, then the sky is the limit. 

I would start off as a freelancer and join job boards to quickly make some cash. From there I would enhance my online presence on forums, communities, marketplaces, and social media.

Then you would need basic marketing knowledge to create a website and take your design business to the next level with various methods and by selling courses online. 

Of course, video marketing, podcasting, Joint Ventures, co-operation, reaching out to influencers or guerilla cold tactics are always welcomed.

*But don’t get overwhelmed by the plethora of options. And most importantly, don’t be afraid to start small. Take one step at a time.

That’s it, another article has finished, here on Web Market Support. I look forward to seeing your next artistic success story online and I’m waiting for your comments and thoughts. Till next time

Management, tracking, organizing:

Asana – track your work, get results. Track projects from start to finish. Stay in sync, hit deadlines, reach your goals. Bring emails, files, tickets, and more into Asana with over 100 integrations to choose from, so you can see everything in one place

Evernote – Capture, organize and share notes from anywhere. Your best ideas are always with you and always in sync. Enhance your notes with links, checklists, tables, attachments, and audio recordings. Even handwritten notes are searchable.

Trello – Trello’s boards, lists, and cards enable you to organize and prioritize your projects in a fun, flexible and rewarding way. Dive into the details by adding comments, attachments, and more directly to Trello cards. Collaborate on projects from beginning to end. Integrate the apps your team already uses directly into your workflow. Power-Ups turn Trello boards into living applications to meet your team’s unique business needs. Trello stays in sync across all of your devices. Collaborate with your team anywhere, from sitting on the bus to sitting on the beach.

And.co – Send proposals, invoice, get paid and manage your time and tasks. Proposals & contracts, invoicing and payments, tasks, expense tracking, time tracking, reports. Over 250,000 businesses already use the app. It’s a project of Fiverr. 

Any.do – Get life under control with the ultimate app for getting things done. Keep your tasks, lists, and reminders in one place, always in-sync across all your devices. Plan your day, week, month, and life. Beautifully designed to help you rock your day, every day. Any.do Assistant takes care of your tasks, so you can spend time on the things that matter.

• Any.do full review

Timely – fully automatic time tracking. Manage your profitability, productivity, and efficiency from one place. It works on any device. 

Citrix Podio – Customizable work management. Components: web & mobile, automated workflows, meeting scheduling, data visualization, social collaboration, task management, granular access, calendar, unlimited storage, personal dashboards, connected CRM, project management, integrated chat, full customization.

LiquidPlanner – Eliminates outsourced plans, deadlines, and surprises so your team can get more done. They offer a free eBook: Introduction to dynamic project management.

Toggl – Hassle-free time tracking so your business runs like clockwork. Break down your hours by projects, clients, and tasks to see what’s making you money, and what’s holding you back. Export any report into any format you need, or use our public API to move the data. Start tracking in your browser, stop the timer on your phone – all your time entries are synced between the phone apps, desktop apps, the Toggl Chrome extension and the website.

Timr – Cloud-Based Time Tracking for Efficient Teams and Companies. Track: work hours, project time, mileage. Available via browser and mobile app. Centralized admin dashboard. Customizable reports.

Nusii – Professional proposal templates, open notifications, your own custom domain, proposal tracking, personal branding, automation, online signatures and more. They’ll let you know when your client opens the email that contains their proposal link, and again when they open their proposal.

SlideShare – Share what you know and love through presentations, infographics, documents and more. 

GetPocket – When you find something you want to view later, put it in Pocket. Put articles, videos or pretty much anything into Pocket. Save directly from your browser or from apps like Twitter, Flipboard, Pulse, and Zite. If it’s in Pocket, it’s on your phone, tablet or computer. You don’t even need an Internet connection.

• GetPocket full review

Sales, payments, finances:

Proposify – streamlines your sales process and helps you close deals faster. Put proposals in front of your sales leads quickly before they go cold. Quickly access and collaborate on proposal content while you manage their activity with roles and permissions, commenting, and tracking through version history. Proposify notifies you every time your client interacts with your proposal, from opening the email to closing the deal. Stay on top of sales and your success.

Mint – Effortlessly manage your finances in one place. Easily create budgets, and see their suggestions based on your spending. Track and pay bills like never before. Get alerts and schedule payments on the spot. Receive alerts for unusual account charges, and get custom tips for reducing fees and saving money.

SquareUp – Accept credit cards anywhere. Sign up and get a free reader. With Square’s credit card processing, you can accept all major cards and get deposits as fast as the next business day. Connect a Square Reader to your device or slip an iPad into Square Stand to take payments at our standard rate. Or sell with Square Register, our first fully integrated point of sale, for 2.5% + 10¢ per tap, dip, or swipe.

PayPal – Secure transactions, PayPal Buyer Protection can cover your eligible purchases if they don’t show up or match their description. You can shop at millions of websites around the world, and pay friends back almost anywhere.

Xero – Online accounting software for small business. Use our mobile app to reconcile, send invoices, or create expense claims – from anywhere. Send online invoices to your customers – and get updated when they’re opened. Xero imports and categorizes your latest bank transactions. 

Expensify – From receipt scanning to reimbursement, Expensify automates every step of the expense reporting process. Expenses, travel, mobile, adult & compliance, and more…

Social Media (scheduling, planning, discovering ‘Hot’ trends):

Hootsuite – Get the most out of your social content. Scheduling, content curation, analytics, monitoring, team management, security. The Hootsuite academy offers training and certification. 265,000+ students, 35,000+ certified graduates, 880+ schools enrolled.

• Hootsuite full review

PostPlanner – Postplanner is not a simple post scheduler. The app delivers content that is already successful to guarantee social engagement boost. Get more engagement, clicks, and sales from Facebook and Twitter. 

• PostPlanner full review

Design:

PicMonkey – Photo editing, effects, filters, vectors, graphics, design maker, collages, magnifier, labels, overlays, textures, themes, frames, templates. An awesome photo editing app that transforms your computer into Photoshop.

BeFunky – BeFunky is a special photo editing online app with which you can apply unique effects to your images and create projects from scratch.High-quality results. Produce stunning photographs and captivating designs with fun, easy-to-use editing tools.

• BeFunky full review

Snappa – Create online graphics in a snap. Whip up graphics for social media, ads, blogs, and more without Photoshop or graphic designers. Over 3 million images have been created using Snappa. You can create banners, eBook covers, social media covers & headers, infographics, YouTube channel art & thumbnails, and more.

• Snappa full review

Riddle – create quizzes & polls, personality tests, lists, and more. Ideal for websites, facebook fan pages or other social networks. Engagement is guaranteed.

• Riddle full review

PowToon – a beautiful online application to create slide presentations or animated videos. It is easy to use with many features, effects, and other tools.

• PowToon full review

Canva – Create designs online for free, banners, headers, images for social media, blogs, websites.

• Canva full review

Fotojet – a free online app where you can edit your photos, create photo collages and other designs.Plenty of options and effects.

• Fotojet full review

BannerSnack – a professional and reliable banner maker. Extended settings dashboard, tracking ads feature and affordable prices. Start from a custom size or grab a standard-size layout from the gallery. Add a background, animate your text and shapes, experiment with different colors and push the banner creator to the limits.

• BannerSnack full review

Icon Finder – the leading search engine and marketplace for vector icons in SVG, PNG, CSH and AI format.

A list of free web design icons

Design resources to find free images and other tools

The ultimate list of free stock photo sites

StarWatermark – Image and PDF watermark tools on Mac and Windows

CSS Reference – a free visual guide to CSS

PageCrush – helping creatives become globally visible by showcasing the best websites, videos, and apps from Designers, Developers, and Multimedia

Tableau Public – free software that can allow anyone to connect to a spreadsheet or file and create interactive data visualizations for the web

Gliffy – diagramming software. Communicate and collaborate visually.

D3js – a JavaScript library for manipulating documents based on data. D3 helps you bring data to life using HTML, SVG, and CSS. D3’s emphasis on web standards gives you the full capabilities of modern browsers without tying yourself to a proprietary framework, combining powerful visualization components and a data-driven approach to DOM manipulation.

Favicon & App Icon Generator 

Favicon generator

Adobe Creative Suite – It consists of:

• Creative Cloud: Quick desktop access to Creative Cloud apps and services
• Photoshop: Image editing and compositing.
• Lightroom: Edit, organize, store, and share photos from anywhere
• Illustrator: Vector graphics and illustration.
• InDesign: Page design and layout for print and digital publishing.
• AdobeXD: Design, prototype, and share user experiences.
• Adobe Premiere Pro: Video production and editing.
• After Effects: Cinematic visual effects and motion graphics.
• Dimension: Create photorealistic 3D images for branding, product shots, and package design
• Acrobat Pro: Create, edit, and sign PDF documents and forms.
• Dreamweaver: Design and develop modern, responsive websites.
• Animate: Interactive animations for multiple platforms (formerly Flash Professional).
• Adobe Audition: Audio recording, mixing, and restoration.
• and Lightroom Classic, Character Animator, Spark, Bridge, Media Encoder, InCopy, Prelude, Story Plus, Fuse.

Keyword, Market, and Competition Research:

BuzzSumo – Analyze what content performs best for any topic or competitor. Find the key influencers to promote your content.

Jaaxy – Keyword & competition research, niche market research. With over 500 Million “brand new” search terms being searched every day, it is important that you have a keyword tool that can offer accurate traffic, competition, and domain insights into billions of keywords. Jaaxy is that tool. There are literally millions of niches online, many of which have little to no competition. Having access to the Brainstorm, Affiliate Search, and Alphabet Soup platforms within Jaaxy are going to give you true insights into brand new niches…without you having to do the dirty work.

• Jaaxy full review

200+

Business & Marketing Tools Collection

Work management, tracking, organizing, payments, accounting, Google, keyword, market, and competition research, SEO, analytics, and related, marketing & advertising, web development, website monitoring, domains & website hosting, coding, and related, design & multimedia, marketplaces, entrepreneurial communities, hiring & outsourcing.

Other free tools that can help you generate ideas, popular and trending hashtags, create catchy headlines and titles to promote yourself, find keywords, find free stock photos you can use on your blog/website/social media, track what people are discussing on social media, internet trends, create alerts and get notified for specific terms, search stories being told.

• Free Tools Mini Collection
• More apps and tools reviewed on WMS
• Free stock photos – The Ultimate List

• Creative Live – 1,500+ life-changing classes. 650+ industry-leading experts. 10+ million students. Creative classes, inspiration, and tips in: photo & video, art & design, music & audio, craft & maker, money & life.
• Creative Live full review
• The unparalleled guide to making money online as a designer
• Take the Free Digital Business Roadmap training in order to create a website that can stand out from the competition and learn the ropes of online marketing, how to decide your perfect niche, identify opportunities, keyword research, and more. This way you can attract masses of potential clients by applying basic marketing tricks

• The Best Marketing/Business Related Training Programs
• A-Z List Free Online Marketing Trainings
• A-Z List Marketing/Business Forums
• A-Z List Advertising Networks
• Ultimate Guide – How to Make Money with Affiliate Marketing
• The Beginner’s Guide to Making Money Online
• TOP Recommended Web Building & Marketing Solution (builder, hosting, domains, keyword & niche market research, marketing training, security, 24/7 tech support, community, forum, live chat, marketing tools, website management & monitoring)