Graphic designers have the ability to make a career by doing what they love: creating vivid artwork for their clients. The question is: how exactly can you get paid for it?

Thanks to social media networking, opportunities for graphic designers are constantly expanding to accumulate clients and profit from a wealth of work. Here are some ways you might not have thought of to jumpstart your career as a graphic designer and get paid for it!

Uploading to the Internet

If you are a designer that works by hand or incorporates fine arts into your graphic design, you’ll want to post your work on the internet. This allows for potential buyers to see everything you have to offer through a personal site, portfolio, or feature. This is also the most contemporary and efficient way to submit work to publishers, rather than mailing in work.

To upload, you’ll need to scan your work. A poor scanner can make your work look tainted, but a smooth scanner will give the impression that your artwork never left your computer. If you don’t have access to a scanner, check out this list of the top ten best artwork scanners on this page.

Beginning a Blog

While this may seem obvious, many graphic designers skip this step and instead put their time into getting into an agency and working up. Most people don’t realize that they can begin their personal graphic design career by presenting their work online and building a loyal base of personal fans and buyers. Those with blogs are taking the responsibility out of the hands of their future employers and are taking an active, hands-on approach towards monetization.

Through your blog, you’ll be able to sell your own creations and monetize. While this beginning step might not lead to financial independence, it will get your work purchased online and allow you to make connections with those that are inspired by your art. Further your relationships with buyers by offering personal deals so that they continue to buy your work.

A blog also has the potential to stick out to high-profile graphic design sites or art blogs, and can lead to a paid deal with a larger company.

Charging Referral Commissions

Developing relationships with other artists also pays off when it comes to finances. If a colleague is overwhelmed with work, they might pass the work onto you and charge a referral commission for taking on the work. You can charge the same for others and make a small return without doing anything.

Initiating Affiliate Marketing

This model, in which a company gives commissions to an affiliate based on the business they bring to their site, works perfectly for a graphic designer’s blog. By advertising for another company’s products, you can receive a bonus income of near $1,000 a month.

Affiliate marketing doesn’t require nearly as much effort or time as graphic design and is a healthy financial relationship between you and a generous company.

Creating a Typeface or Website Theme

A more unusual option is to create a font and sell your unique design on a font library website. It’s even possible to sell your design to a software package like Adobe Typekit.
If your font is popular, you could earn an additional income that helps fund your own practice.

Also consider designing a website theme. If you have the capabilities and programming background, you can combine both tools to design a web interface for others to download. Sites such as WordPress will feature your theme in their catalogue, and you can determine how much you will charge based on your theme’s complexity and offerings.

Starting Somewhere

One of the biggest mistakes any graphic designer could make is letting their work sit on their computers without anyone getting the chance to see their amazing artwork.

If you strive to monetize your practice, start now by getting yourself out there and showing people all of the amazing skills you incorporate into your personal work. Who knows: perhaps thousands just might want to purchase!