Top 11 Best Websites For Graphic Designers to Make Money - Online Income Generation, Income Growth Strategies, Freelancing Income  
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If you pay close attention, you will notice that graphic design is almost everywhere you look, making it a skill and career that is very much in demand. If you’re wondering how to make money as a graphic designer, use this guide, whether you’re just starting on your journey or you’ve already begun.

We have also provided the top 11 best websites for graphic designers to make money. It’s really easy to earn money online designing, but you need to have the right information.

Nowadays, you don’t even need to have a degree in graphic design from a university to get started because there are so many online platforms that can help you learn techniques, such as YouTube or Skillshare. More of these platforms are discussed in this article.

  • What is Graphic Design?
  • How to make money as a graphic design student
  • Earn money as graphic designer
  • 7 Ways To Make Money As A Graphic Designer
  • What Tools do You Need as a Graphic Designer?
  • How Much Can You Make as a Graphic Designer?
  • How Can You Be Successful as a Graphic Designer?
  • Top 11 Best Websites For Graphic Designers to Make Money

What is Graphic Design?

Graphic design refers to a process: it is the art and practice of planning and projecting ideas and experiences with visual and textual content. The purpose of graphic design is to use symbols, images, and text to communicate and problem solve.

It now includes everything from websites and digital products to informational brochures. And there is a reason for the burgeoning presence of graphic design.

Read Also: Using Skills In 3D Animation To Make Money As A Digital Graphics Artist

Graphic design can help sell, direct, instruct, explain, entertain, and tell stories, differentiating your product or service in an overcrowded market. Great graphic design can help a product become a market leader and help movements gain traction.

This career path is important and on-demand, but what does this mean for you? Let’s take a look at the graphic design skillset and key deliverables closely.

Graphic design involves integrating copy, concept, and image to serve a variety of organizational goals, including:

  • Brand management
  • Marketing (posters, flyers, t-shirts, handouts, presentations, advertisements)
  • Publications (book and magazine covers, record album cover art)
  • Environmental, or design that connects a person to a place (wayfinding, dynamic displays, creative placemaking)

How to make money as a graphic design student

You’re about to discover the secrets of making money while studying graphic design. Graphic designers create visual images for everything from advertisements to websites. They also use computer software to manipulate photos and other graphics into new designs.

  • Find out what kind of job you’d like to have after graduation

If you love creating beautiful things, then graphic design might be the perfect career choice for you. There are lots of different jobs available in the field, so you’ll need to decide whether you want to work as an artist, illustrator, designer, photographer, web developer, or something else entirely.

  • Learn how to find work as a graphic designer

It’s not easy finding work as a graphic designer, but there are ways to make sure you stand out from other applicants. First, you should start by learning more about what kind of work is available. This will help you understand what skills employers value and what kind of projects you should focus on. Next, you should network with people who work in the industry. Finally, you should keep up with trends in the market and stay current with new technology.

  • Understand why it’s important to build up your portfolio

If you want to find work as a graphic designer then you need to build up your portfolio first. There are lots of different ways to do this, but one of the easiest is to use online platforms such as Behance and Dribbble. These sites allow you to showcase your work and share it with others. They also provide feedback so you can improve your designs.

  • Discover how to get paid to create graphics online

Once you’ve got some good examples of your work, you’ll need to start building your portfolio. This means creating more projects and sharing them online. It’s important to make sure you keep your work original and unique, otherwise people will think you’re just copying other designers’ work.

  • Learn how to make money from home

If you’re looking to earn extra cash as a student, then there are plenty of ways to do so. One of the easiest ways to make money is by selling your own designs. There are lots of websites where you can upload your artwork and sell it to customers. Another option is to take part in freelance jobs. Freelance sites like Upwork and Fiverr offer opportunities to find clients who are willing to pay for your services.

Earn money as graphic designer

How To Make $100,000+ Per Year As A Freelance Graphic Designer. You can earn up to $100,000 per year as a freelance graphic designer. Find out how!

Graphic design is an art form that involves creating visual images for print media, websites, packaging, advertisements, and other forms of communication. It requires creativity, technical skills, and knowledge of color theory, typography, and layout.

  • Create a Portfolio Website

If you want to become a successful freelance graphic designer, you need to build a portfolio website. This will allow potential clients to see what kind of work you do and whether you are capable of doing the job.

  • Build an Online Presence

Once you have built a portfolio site, you should start building relationships with other designers by joining online forums and groups. These sites provide a platform where you can share ideas and collaborate with others.

  • Network with Other Designers

If you want to make money as a freelancer, you need to network with other designers. Join design communities on social media platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn. Start conversations with people who work in similar industries. Ask them questions about their jobs and what they do. Offer to help them when possible.

  • Start Building Clients

Once you start building clients, you will find yourself getting more opportunities than ever before. It’s not uncommon for new freelancers to receive 20 to 30 requests for projects every day. This means you need to prioritize your workload carefully so you can focus on each project without being overwhelmed by too much work at once.

  • Grow Your Business

If you’re looking to make money online, there’s no better place to start than with freelance design jobs. There are plenty of companies who hire graphic designers to help them promote their products and services. And while some of these companies pay less than others, the average hourly rate for freelance graphic designers is between $25-$50 an hour.

7 Ways To Make Money As A Graphic Designer

There are different ways to make money online as a graphic designer, no matter what niche you’re interested in. If you’re wondering how to become a graphic designer, pay attention to this list and start selling or making some of these items.

1. Sell Your Knowledge Through Workshops or Webinars

Online learning is at an all-time high, and I’m sure many of you reading this would even attend an online workshop on ‘How to Make Money as a Graphic Designer.’

If you’ve studied graphic design or feel that you know enough about it, then sell access to online courses, workshops, training, or webinars where you introduce others to the topic who may not know a whole lot about it.

Even if you just discuss basics, you’d be helping out many people and making some money along the way. Teachable is a great platform for creating online courses.

2. Create and Sell Templates

Many professionals agree that this is one of the most profitable ways to get passive income for graphic designers. With this approach, all you have to do is make templates of any kind, which could be for ebooks, posters, invitations, or Pinterest graphics. Then, sell the templates online.

Many small business owners and bloggers who are always in a time crunch or who don’t have the skillset to create their own designs from scratch love purchasing these products because of how simple it is to customize them.

Once you have your own template shop set up and you put in the work, you could earn income without doing much else besides marketing your products.

3. Be A Design Consultant

If you want to make money as a graphic designer with high-ticket items, then becoming a design consultant might be the job for you.

With this, you essentially sell an hour or two of your time to someone who wants your opinions and ideas on graphic design for their own business. You set your hourly rate and coach and advise potential designers — giving them advice and pointing them in the right direction. 

4. Sell Stickers

Due to the recent popularity of TikTok, small sticker shops are on the rise. To make stickers, all you need access to is Photoshop or Canva to make text-based stickers, or an iPad for illustrative stickers. 

The great thing about creating stickers is that you can use dropshipping, which essentially means that you don’t have to be in charge of packing and sending them out if you don’t want to be.

You can hire a third-party vendor to manage all your sales, and you’ll still get more money in your pocket at the end of the day.

The best places to sell stickers include Etsy, RedBubble, and Society6. You can also consider hosting your own website with your designs on Shopify.

5. Create and Sell Printables

Passive income for graphic designers is easy to come by if you create and sell printables online through a platform like Etsy. You could make printables for teachers, students, travellers, literally anything that you can think of!

The great thing about printables is that they are a digital product, so all you have to do is automate your process to immediately send a PDF version of the printable once it’s purchased. You don’t even have to worry about shipping.

6. Design Social Media Graphics and Highlight Covers

Social media graphics are another popular way to make money as a graphic designer. Everyone needs help with social media, and you could sell packs of social media templates or pre-made Instagram highlight covers for a small price which can add up over time.

7. Work With Clients As A Freelancer

Working with clients is a great route to take if you like a variety of tasks to work on.

By working with clients, you could be designing logos one day and then helping with the layout design of a printed magazine the next. More information on finding these jobs will be discussed as we proceed.

What Tools do You Need as a Graphic Designer?

Your success as a graphic designer will depend on the effective use of the necessary tools in your field. A lot of these tools can easily be purchased online, but keep in mind that graphic design is an expensive business to start in.

The first and obvious tool you need is a computer, which can be either a laptop or a desktop of any brand. The majority of professional graphic designers will tell you that it’s best to use Apple products and have a desktop instead of a laptop.

You’ll also need to purchase a membership to the Adobe Creative Cloud. Prices for this range per month depending on which package level you choose; we recommend purchasing access to all of the Adobe apps because you never know which one you’ll need for a client. 

If you’d rather purchase a monthly subscription, then consider buying a package that includes access to Photoshop (which is perfect for creating web images) and InDesign (geared more towards print design).

Students can purchase access for just $19.99 a month, while you can spend closer to $50 per month to have access to everything.

The last graphic design tool that we recommend to have is a ruler handy, especially for print design. This way, you can get a feel for just how big the printed item that you’re designing is — in case you don’t have access to a printer for practice prints.

How Much Can You Make as a Graphic Designer?

The average graphic designer will make approximately $45,000 per year, but that’s if they work full-time hours. This equates to about $22 per hour, but this can quite obviously change depending on a designer’s skill level, specializations, education, and more.

If you want to make money as a graphic designer, we recommend that you create fixed-price packages for your services rather than working by the hour.

This way, you can account for all overhead expenses that may occur during the process, and often clients prefer that you do fixed price so that they know how much it’s going to cost them in total.

Remember, as a graphic designer, it’s pertinent to let your client know the number of revisions that you will make per deliverable or else you could quickly be taken advantage of.

How Can You Be Successful as a Graphic Designer?

To be a successful graphic designer, there are a few guidelines that you should hold yourself to.

1. Be Realistic

The first essential thing is being realistic about what you can accomplish, and holding yourself accountable to any deadlines and agreements. Don’t give yourself deadlines that you don’t think you can easily make, and always be in communication with your client in case something comes up.

2. Create Contracts 

If you find that you’re working outside of a platform like Upwork and you’ve managed to snag a client of your own, always make sure that you create a contract for legal reasons.

Some of the best websites for storing and creating these include And.Co and Honeybook. PayPal Business is also a viable option.

With any creative service-based business, you must stay on top of what’s currently popular. You don’t want to create something for your client that isn’t going to appeal to today’s audience unless it’s genuinely what your client wants.

4. Set Your Own Guidelines

As a freelancer, you get to set your own guidelines, which is something to keep in mind.

You decide how much work to have at a given time, you help to set deadlines with your client, and you create your own work hours. If you find that some part of the puzzle isn’t quite working out, then change it!

Top 11 Best Websites For Graphic Designers to Make Money

1. Fiverr

Fiverr is one of the best graphic design website marketplaces for freelancer services. There are listed over three million freelancer services. You can get their service or gigs offer starting with $5. Also, these days, Gigs sellers can make a lot more than just $5. This is a very user-friendly site you can use.

Fiverr came into existence in 2010 as a creation of Micha Kaufman. After that, Fiverr became the market leader of the gig economy. It has provided the registration for over 830,000 freelancers to deal with over 5.5 million buyers and earn a sound income of over 50 million. Fiverr is ranked among the best 100 freelancer sites in the UK and reached among the top 200 most popular websites in the world.

The platfrom provides a lot of services, Logo designing, video creation and editing, website development, and blog writing features are the leading projects among the services that Fiverr provides to its freelancers.

2. Upwork inc.

Upwork is one of the most well-known freelance marketplaces. With millions of users and jobs posted each year, the platform serves as a marketplace for different skills. Additionally, Upwork has inherited the experience and project management systems from the two previous players in the market that merged to form Upwork.

With its history, Upwork is a platform that designers of various levels use to find work. Use Upwork if you’re looking for branding, logos, illustrations, Photoshop capabilities, website design, or even business cards.

Here are some of the factors that makes Upwork stand out,

  • Upwork has a high customer rehire rate, pointing to customer satisfaction across their diverse clients.
  • With designers at most experience levels, you should find a graphic designer to fit your budget.
  • The project management tools allow you to mitigate risk by paying once certain project milestones are completed.
3. 99designs

99Designs encourages artists and designers to design logos, websites, stationery, business cards, postcards, posters, clothing and brochures often on spec

Because you’re competing with at least 30 different designers for the lowest-value contest, you have poor odds of getting work. Your odds of doing a lot of work for no pay? Excellent.

If you do “win” a job, you’re paid in “credits” that must be turned into cash through either PayPal or Payoneer. PayPal will charge roughly 3% for this service; Payoneer’s fees vary by vendor and are not specifically disclosed by 99Designs, which recommends that you use Payoneer anyway. 

4. Creative Market

Creative Market is an online marketplace for digital products only. Meaning, creators who specialize in creating digital products can open shop on this platform, and sell their products.

The closest platform to Creative Market that you can think of is Etsy, however, with Etsy, you can sell physical products as well as digital ones. With Creative Market, you’re limited to digital, downloadable products only.

When we say digital, downloadable, we do not mean eBooks or other info products. It’s a marketplace specifically for art and design-related digital goodies such as templates, mockups, photographs, illustrations, etc.

Some of the prerequisites of being able to open a shop on Creative Market is your expertise and the quality of your digital products. For that reason, it helps if you already have a shop elsewhere (on your website or another marketplace) as well as a digital portfolio to showcase your work.

5. Dribble

Dribbble.com owns a top rank among the best freelancer graphic design sites in the world. In 2009, they came into exercising in the business field while giving a remarkable competition. The platform is a self-promoting and networking base for all sorts of digital designers, graphic designers, illustrations, and branding. Over ten million people are using this platform to obtain designer references, and it is giving the shade of over 40,000 freelancers around the world.

Once you create an account, they called you as a prospect. After that, browse the artists, follow them, comment on their masterpieces. So this develops the interaction with people and gets noticed. To promote you as a shooter, you have to be drafted by one of its members.

Periodically Dribbble.com sends invitations for its members so they can draft prospects. Even though you are just signed it, you are not allowed to post your work. So this is one of their quality control processes to maintain the standards.

Phenomenally, this platform gives inspiration. Thus one platform facilities for browsing your desired images through several artists as well as to follow them.

6. Skillshare

Skillshare teachers earn revenue based on a royalty system. Each month, 30% of Skillshare’s total Premium Membership revenue goes to a royalty pool for teachers. 

Teachers are paid from the royalty pool based on their share of the minutes watched by Premium students (both paying members and those in free trials) across the platform each month.

For example, if a teacher’s classes receive 5% of the minutes watched by Premium members, that teacher receives 5% of the royalty pool. Because we are a subscription service, the size of the royalty pool and the number of minutes watched on Skillshare fluctuates from month to month. 

On average, first-time teachers earn $200 in their first month on Skillshare, with top teachers earning upwards of $3,000! 

You must get a minimum total of 30 Premium minutes-watched across all of your classes within a month in order to receive a payment for that month.

7. Behance

Behance.net put its elementary step in 2005 under the ownership of adobe systems. It is a platform where freelancers can unlock the potential of their creative works. According to Alexa ranking, this platform holds the world rank of 333rd place.

Currently, there are over one million users have been registered with them.  Every designer can show their design creativity this freelance graphic design portfolio website.

Their process is way different than the other freelancing sites. A project is defined as images, videos, other digital contents based on a theme.

So the platform offers a unique URL for each project which has its view and appreciation counter. Through this, the freelancer can trace the count of views and appreciation they have got or kudos on a job well done. 

Registered members can follow your account and vice versa. When you follow a profile, you can see their latest updates on your news feed, and this is a de facto home screen. 

So you have to follow more profiles to start more projects to appear on your feed. Featured projects have been notified via a small badge under them and promote them using Curated Galleries.

8. Toptal

Toptal.com is one of the best networks that links high qualified developers with top companies. Their only accepts the top 3% of applicants who are tested and interviewed.

Toptal is an exclusive network of top freelances such as software developers, finance experts, designers, content writers and project managers in the world.

9. PeoplePerHour

PeoplePerHour started in 2007 to connect clients to freelancers and empower people to live their work online. At PeoplePerHour freelancers participate from all over the world. The marketplace is a disparate one and businesses can find the right person from the site.

Their services are listings emphasize graphic design and web development roles. Other options include video editing, graphic design, online advertising, social media marketing, and copy-writing.

10. Freelancer.com

Founded in 2009 and it has a large following. They connect over 30,373,500 employers and freelancers globally from over 248 countries.

Read Also: Make Money As A Computer Technician

It’s a place where services are outsourced to freelancers in a number of fields including graphic design, web design, writing, marketing, and data entry among other things. It’s a good choice for those who prefer to work online and get their feet wet in freelance marketplaces.

11. DesignCrowd

Designcrowd.com fired its first gunshot in 2008, based in Australia. Designcrowd.com major platform for all the types of graphic designs, including online logo design service and website design contests.

Currently, it facilitates for 737,329 registered users to conduct successful 342,193 projects. Designcrowd.com is the world’s first-ranked custom design marketplace for all potential personnel. This platform is opened for design outsourcing as well. There is a massive opportunity for you to do freelance graphic design jobs from home.

From the business men’s perspective, this platform is a financial saver since they can set their budget range starting from $99. So the platform makes sure they are receiving high-quality proposals within their budgeted financial parameters. Also, they can set the deadline according to the project, like 3, 5, or 10 days.

Conclusion

It’s a lot easier than you might think to earn money online designing. There are so many great educational tools out there to get you started in the process, and the number of job boards makes it easy to connect with clients.

If you’re a creative individual, maybe graphic design is something you can get into. As we have mentioned in this article, have a look at platforms like Fiverr, 99designs, and Upwork and start making money online today. 

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