Dos and Dont’s for Working Online as a Graphic Artist

When people think of making money online, their minds tend to go towards selling things or sometimes blogging or freelance writing for a living.  But if you are an artist, coder, or designer, there are plenty of opportunities online!  Freelance artists or graphic designers or web designers can command a decent living from their artistic skills and have the chance to create beautiful websites for their clients.  If you think you have the artistic skill to design the appearance of websites, emails, cards, and other graphic designs, there are some things to consider and some things to avoid.

Consider: Your Artistic Skill

Obviously, you will have to show some skill in graphic design.  Having a certificate or degree in graphic design will look really good on your resume, as will having an extensive portfolio.  Make sure you have a good style for graphic design too and that you can adapt it to whatever your clients need from you.  If you’re not certain about your skill, try joining a free art site and asking for critiques, feedback, and getting the chance to look at other art styles in order to hone your own work.

Avoid: Businesses That Take your Art in Return for ‘Exposure’

There are a lot of websites/so-called ‘entrepreneurs’ out there which promise to take your art in return for exposure, the idea being that you have the chance to maybe make connections with people who will pay you for your work.  Other sites may claim that you’ll get paid, but you only will in truth if you are picked up by someone else.  Still others will promise that if you just ‘knock out a few ideas’, it will make it Big Time and you will get paid… you know, later.  Your artwork is something you put time and effort into and if you’re only interested in exposure, then join a free art site and at least get some community, new friends, and other goodies along with the chance at commissions!  And always make sure that you hash out a payment plan for clients; don’t take a lick and a promise for your work.

Consider: What You Want to Specialize In

Some clients will want graphics for their websites while others may want animation and flash websites.  While it’s best if you can at least dabble in as much as possible, specializing in a few things can help you narrow down your job search and gives you a good resume and portfolio to give to potential clients.  Take a look at bidding sites and job offers and see what people are looking for and then see how you can forge your skills to fit what is out there.

Avoid:  Copyright Problems and Not Copyrighting your Work

There are plenty of ways to make sure your work stays your own; there are also many ways for people to steal it anyway-it’s largely as easy as hitting the right key on the mouse pad and doing ‘save as’.  However, you can protect your work by making sure it has a watermark, a small signature somewhere inconspicuous and is protected from being downloaded outright.  If you’re selling your work to clients, that’s up to them to do, but you don’t want to have your portfolio stolen.

By that same token, don’t think that becoming an art thief will let you get ahead.  Artists today are just as close knit as ever and it doesn’t take much work to bust an art thief anymore, so don’t even try it or you’ll lose commissions and your reputation.

Finally, Consider Your Relations

People who make money online professionally and properly talk to each other.  There are meet-ups for internet entrepreneurs who swap information about people they work with, who they would recommend for a job, who they would avoid and so on.  Be in the ‘recommended’ list!  Don’t burn your bridges entirely; even if the client you’re working with is not working out.  Instead, keep your options open, stay professional at all times, and remember that people are talking about who they work with-including you.  It doesn’t pay to be a jerk, unprofessional or irritating because you’ll lose out on all kinds of opportunities.  This goes for any online worker, but for graphic designers looking to make money online, it’s even more important because there aren’t as many bidding sites and public places to find work; you instead have to do a lot of legwork on your own.

Successful money makers online know that in order to succeed, you have to work hard, work on your own stuff, and avoid the scams.  Working as a graphic designer or webdesigner for clients online is no different.  Stay true to your own work, figure out your own style and remember that your time, effort and creativity is not something that can just be plucked out of the air; it deserves proper compensation and respect.

Make Money Online Consulting

Maybe you don’t want to sell products and you aren’t too terribly interested in freelance writing or particularly blogging.  What else can you do to make money online?  This question may seem as though it has no answer, but as long as you have some expertise in something, there is a niche for you: making money as a consultant online.

An online consultant is someone who helps people with their problems, concerns, questions or dealing with something in life, just like a ‘real life’ consultant.  As an online consultant, you can help people with a range of things.  Some of the most popular things to consult in include money, relationships, nutrition/diets and tech, though in all honesty, if you push yourself as a consultant, you can help out people in a whole range of subjects; after all, everyone goes to the ‘net now for information!

You will have to start in the traditional manner though: writing articles, doing blogs, and/or social media marketing or else no one will know what you are selling.  However if you really don’t want to do this, you can always hire others to do this work for you or make these articles and social networking part of your research into your larger projects and services so that some of the work will already be done when you go into consulting full time.

The trick to making money as a consultant lies in doing things like writing E-books on your knowledge and skills, doing videos showing people how to do what you do or putting out e-courses.  All of those gurus you see online professing to be able to do everything from help you to lose weight to saving money are all at least claiming to be consultants-whether or not they actually help is another matter of course!  Go with your strengths; offer information on things you actually know a lot about and then put it in a format you feel comfortable working with.  For example, if you don’t like writing, go for a video or something auditory like a podcast.  You can then sell your info-product on your website, through E-bay or any other site like that.

If you don’t want to just put out info-products, you can also sell your time as a consultant.  You can do things like put out webinars where you can communicate directly with your public and give classes or seminars for money.  You probably won’t have much success doing these right away unless you’re already well known for something, but it is something to consider once you start getting well known with your products and want to move on to something else.  Other things you can do include teaching courses on your specialities or mentoring people.

Being able to make money as a consultant online is a great way to share your knowledge with others and make money at the same time without selling products or doing affiliate marketing.  If you have an expertise in something that other people will want to learn more about and the ability to convey it in a way that will actually be helpful for others and profitable for you, then you should become an online consultant.