How to Make Money Online as a Graphic Designer

From all the professions that can work as freelancers, graphic designers fall in the category of those who have it pretty simple. Perhaps one of the most noticeable downsides is the competition and oversaturation in certain niches. However, when you consider how much work there is, finding gigs as a professional graphic designer should not be a problem.

One does not have to go freelance either. Getting a regular 9 to 5 job is just as viable, particularly if you want some guarantees about constant projects and getting enough work.

On the other hand, if you decide to go freelance, there is also a plethora of potential ventures to consider. Perhaps you became fed up with the same environment, coworkers and are eager to take up a new challenge. Here are a couple of suggestions for you to consider.

Start a Print-on-Demand Store

You can start a clothing business with Printify with an emphasis on creating interesting or even wacky designs. Sure, the quality of custom clothes plays a prominent role as well, but you will not sell your products if they look bland.

As a graphic designer, you will have a significant advantage. Professional designs on t-shirts or hoodies are bound to get noticed, and you can expect to make a lot of money.

Of course, developing an ecommerce store from scratch may seem like too difficult of a venture to take on. Your graphic design skills do not necessarily translate well into developing an ecommerce store itself. But then again, there are plenty of tutorials that can take you through the process of setting up a basic ecommerce website.

Only 16.1% of global retail sales came from ecommerce in 2020. Nevertheless, it does not seem to change the mind of those who believe that ecommerce is the way to go if you want to make money on the internet, particularly when there is virtually no ceiling as far as profits go.

Your POD store may take a while to lift off, but once it does, you can look to scale the business by adding new products and investing more in advertising. 

Build Your Freelancer Portfolio

Going freelancer means that you will need to take some time and build your portfolio first. In case you have had multiple projects in the past, you should not have too many problems convincing new clients to hire you. But that is not the case for every graphic designer.

If you decide to stick to freelancing, expect to work more on networking rather than the designing itself, particularly in the early days. 

Finding clients in a competitive market is not that simple. Start by joining freelancer platforms like Fiverr and Upwork. There are multiple gigs that get posted on these platforms every day. You will notice multiple designers bidding on them. 

Your goal will be to focus on positive feedback so you can build some authority on these platforms. Even if a job pays a meager amount of money, take it with the intent to get a five-star review.

Also, make sure that you have a presence on relevant social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram profiles will make it easier to find you.

Creating a website is also something worth considering, but given how many potential clients are looking for freelancers on social media, you can survive without a website.

The more you spend building your presence online and improving the portfolio, the more likely people will hire you as a freelance graphic designer. Be it small projects like designing a logo or some social media content or significant work like designing new brand elements from scratch, the opportunities to find work will be there.

Launch an Agency

After gaining enough experience and reaching a certain point of not wanting to work as much yourself, some people decide to launch their own agency. 

The work is different because you will likely be in charge of managing a team of graphic designers and looking for clients. As someone who has spent years in the industry, you will have credentials and a network that should help you at the start.

Landing your first clients as an agency is not that different than landing them as a freelancer. If anything, you will likely find more problems getting a team that you can rely on. After all, there are no guarantees that someone will fail to meet your expectations or decide to quit when the agency is busy and cannot afford to stop working.

As you can see, the idea of launching your own agency comes with certain risks. However, other people who had the same idea faced similar issues and managed to overcome those issues. If others are capable of managing a graphic design agency, so should you, especially if there is a significant amount of experience and connections behind to support you.