Today’s job market for designers looks a lot different than it did just a few years ago. Increasingly, designers are seeking additional gigs and working on side hustles in order to make ends meet. If you are a designer, and can relate, then you probably fully understand that making a satisfying living with your design skills might mean diversifying. That’s why many designers are exploring alternative pathways to earn better income. That said, here are some optional ways to improve your earnings by branching out and diversifying your design skills online.

Become a Design Teacher

In spite of the fact that the job market for designers is experiencing a bit of a growth slump, there are still a wealth of individuals who are seeking design as a career. Very often, people recognize an inherent ability to artistically render a vision and are inspired to develop their natural knack for design.

In many cases, these people don’t have the time or resources to go to college for design. That’s where you can help people with their budding design skills. You can put your experience and talents to good use by offering master classes online. Teaching design to amateurs is a win-win situation. It elevates your students as well as brings in much-needed income for you.

Make the process easier on yourself by getting a progress monitoring tool, which will help you keep track of all your students and how they are advancing in your classes. Monitoring the progress of your students will also help you build your reputation. Why? Because the more your students succeed, the better your reputation as a teacher will be.

As an online design instructor, students are relying on you to guide them through the intricate world of design. You can easily do this with an online presence, monitoring tools, and a passion to teach others about the colorful, exciting realm of design.

Market Your Skills to Small Businesses and Startups

More often than not, small businesses or startups are desperate to design a logo or share attractive promotions about their products or services – but they simply don’t have the experience to produce striking marketing materials. This is where you can become an asset to many inexperienced businesses.

Set up an online presence showcasing your design skills. Then begin marketing your website and services targeting new companies, startups and small businesses. Doing this could potentially earn you income as you can produce designs for print, design websites, or provide any number of design services that are in high demand.

The point here is that you are filling a need for startups that are in need of strong designers, but simply don’t have the knowledge or resources to hire a big design marketing firm to get the job done. By picking up odd jobs, you can build trust as well as gain income. In time, you may find this strategy can be very lucrative.

Sell Online

You can certainly sell your artwork online through your own website. However, that requires a lot of knowledge about building ecommerce shopping carts, keeping track of orders and many other complicated details. Instead, it might be easier to earn extra income by selling designs on big marketplaces such as Amazon or Etsy.

These marketplaces make it easy to conduct business online and make ecommerce a breeze. You can start by uploading pictures of your design work and making them available for sale in print form.

Or, you could use a third party printing company which will print your designs on t-shirts, mugs, towels, canvas – just about anything you can imagine. As you build sales and gather high reviews, you may find that selling your designs online can be satisfying as well as profitable.

Another avenue for selling online is partnering with stock sites. These sites sell photography artwork, images, design templates, and illustrations to willing customers looking for quality stock. In many cases, stock sites are the go-to solutions for businesses needing stock images for brochures, websites, and other marketing materials.

When you partner with stock sites such as Adobe Photo Stock, Dreamstime, or iStock, you get a percentage of the profit from every sale you make. Ideally, the more designs you upload on these stock sites, the more earning you are apt to make.

In conclusion, there are a myriad of ways you can make extra income by diversifying your design skills online. From selling your art, teaching design, to doing freelance work, your options are virtually limitless. As long as you have a passion for good design, and maintain an admirable work ethic, your chances for increasing your income and building a solid reputation online are very high.