Graphic design is a skill whose demand is on the rise as technology continues to pervade every facet of our lives and people demand displays and textures that look good.

There are 4 ways to make money as a graphic designer:

1. Earn royalties from work sold on stock sites
2. Get employed full time at a job
3. Work as a freelancer with lots of clients
4. Work part-time with several agencies.

Creating Work to Be Sold on Stock Sites

As a graphic designer, you can create stunning creations that can be sold on sites such as Shutterstock.com and 123rf.com.

These sites pay royalties to creators every time their image is sold. To make money on these sites, you need to learn how to position and tag your creations to ensure that they show up when users do searches.

Tagging involves inserting various keywords related to your image that a user would likely use when looking for an image like yours. It is important that you get this right or your image will not appear for the audience you had in mind.

Get Hired at a Job

To be hired at a job, you will need some certifiable post high school education as a graphic designer. A degree is an advantage but is not required.

A job will guarantee you a reliable fixed income. Going this route has its own benefits but it also means that you will be giving up the ability to change your rates whenever you want as your skills improve.

Getting Hired by Agencies

If you want the security that a job provides but not with the restrictions it puts on you, you can choose to work with agencies on a contract basis.

Agencies such as SEO, web design, or content marketing agencies deal with a lot of clients. This means that you will always have a consistent stream of graphic design work as long as you are dependable.

Going it Alone

You can cut out the middleman and choose to work as a freelancer. As a freelancer, you will be taking on more responsibilities but the pay will be all yours as there is no middle man to take a cut.

Freelancers can get jobs by emailing prospective clients or bidding on jobs on sites such as UpWork. One of the areas that graphic designers cut themselves short in is pricing. They price themselves too low thinking that clients want the cheapest designs they can get.

Clients will willingly pay a premium for high quality work. If you are confident that you can create high quality work, you should price yourself based on the value you are creating for the client. If the corporation is going to derive $20,000 worth of value from your work, you shouldn’t be frightened about asking for $1,000.

Concluding Remarks

To make money as a graphic designer, you need to master both the technical skills you need to do your job and the soft skills you need to promote yourself. You don’t want to be a starving artist. There’s lots of work out there. If you can learn how to market yourself effectively, you will never be short of clients.