10 Easy and simple Ways Freelance Illustrators Can Make Money Online

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One of the hardest things about being a freelance Illustrator is finding a job.

Finding a freelance illustration job online is not an easy task either. Search popular freelance platforms for job listings for less than 100 older illustrators.

And waiting for the commission seems to be quite depressing.

Don’t be discouraged. There are many ways to make money online as an illustrator. In this post, I’ll show you how other freelance illustrators can make money online. And prove that you can really make money by drawing and selling your art online.

Read below for how to do it.

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How Much Do Illustrators Make?

How much can you actually earn as an illustrator? According to a slightly outdated poll by

3×3 magazine, there are illustrators in the United States who earn $ 948,000 a year. However, $ 530,000 of that came from other sources such as printed matter sales and contract work.

The average income of the best illustrator in New York is about $ 100,000 a year. However, many people earn less than $ 1,000 a year. In fact, salaries show that the average freelance illustrator in the United States charges about $ 25 an hour.

Of course, there are also freelance illustrators who earn over $ 66,000 just by selling stock illustrations.

Here are some of the strategies they can use to make a fortune.

1 Find Online Gigs

There are many ways to make money online from home. However, the fastest and easiest way to make money as an illustrator or other type of freelancer is to search the look of a freelance marketplace.

Unfortunately, popular sites like UpWork and Freelancer.com rarely do work related to illustration and drawing. Therefore, to find an illustration job, you need to join a niche market or search a job board.

Best Freelance Sites For Illustrators

Here are some of the best freelance websites and job boards you can use to find illustration and design jobs.

2 Do Art Commissions

Commissions are a popular strategy used by many novice illustrators to make money online.

This is especially popular with users of DeviantArt, a community of artists. DeviantArt allows customers to pay artists cash or DeviantArt points.

There are other illustrators who use different types of platforms to connect and order clients. This works as follows: A customer comes to you with a request for an illustration, you agree to the price and get paid when ready.

How to Find an Art Contract

The difference between a freelance appearance and a commission is that you have to promote your work and wait for customers to come to you.

However, there are also some pages dedicated to the arts committee.

3 Sell Your Vector Designs

Selling your work online is the best way to generate profitable income while generating recurring income while you sleep. You can start by joining marketplaces such as the

Creative Market, GraphicRiver, and Envato Elements.

These sites sell all kinds of artwork, including illustrations, character designs, logo designs, mascots, icon packs and many other types of graphics and templates.

However, you should not expect to sell anything on these sites. The key to making a lot of sales is to find a profitable niche.

Visit these platforms to see if you can find illustrations and vectors such as pancakes for sale. And find out how to add even better illustrations to these categories.

4 Sell Posters & Prints

Another great way to sell your work online is to sell printed versions of drawings and illustrations.

However, to sell art as a poster or canvas print, you need to build a reputation and promote your work online to attract viewers.

Many artists use DeviantArt to sell posters while promoting their work on the same platform.

You can also use other sites like Society6 and Printful that do all the tedious work of printing posters and shipping to buyers. Simply upload your illustrations to your website and you’ll receive royalties for each sale.

5 Sell T-Shirts

Sell t-shirts

Do you sell T-shirts? Need to collaborate with factories and manufacturers? not much!

You can actually design your own T-shirt using your own illustrations and sell it online without touching the T-shirt.

This works the same as selling posters. Sites such as Printful, RedBubble, and Design By Humans can upload art and use it to design products such as T-shirts, mugs, and phone cases. The website then promotes your work and gives you a percentage of each sale.

6 Use DeviantArt, Twitter, & Instagram

Staying active on social media is an important part of promoting your work as an illustrator. It’s also a good way to find a freelance job.

You can find a gig by simply searching on Twitter quickly.

Instagram is another platform that you really need to use on a regular basis. Upload your best work and use it to promote your service

My sister is also an illustrator. She gets most of her customers from her Instagram page. Whenever someone sends her a request, she forwards it to their DeviantArt commission page.

Most of their clients are people who are looking for character designs and are making their cartoon versions. She’s not full-time and freelance, but while working part-time, she earns over $ 100 a month by doing these gigs.

7 Participate In Competitions

Participating in a design contest is a great way to improve your skills, show off your skills, and at the same time have a chance to earn some cash. I generally do not recommend freelancers to participate in the competition, as the

competition is more beneficial to the customer than the freelancer. However, if you are a beginner, these contests will help you build a reputation.

In addition, if you can win the contest, you will always be able to brag.

Try searching for contests on these websites.

8 Learn Hand Lettering

Hand lettering is a very popular trend these days, mainly for website design, branding, T-shirt design, greeting card design and so on. Learning

hand lettering will certainly make you an indispensable designer, and you can use that skill in many other jobs as well.

For example, you can use your hand lettering skills to design beautiful wedding invitations and greeting cards for sale online. Make friends with

or a few web designers. Inform them of your skills and ask customers looking for hand lettering to work their way. You can spoil your business by offering to pay a small percentage of your payment for referrals.

9 Create & Sell A Font

You can also use your handwritten lettering skills by designing your own handmade fonts. Creating

fonts requires a little technical knowledge, but it is very rewarding. You can earn recurring income simply by selling your fonts in marketplaces such as MyFonts, Creative Market, and Envato Elements.

These platforms sell and promote fonts. Just create a font and upload it.

10 Create An Online Course

It may seem like a daunting task, but in reality you can make more money by selling your courses online than any other strategy.

All you have to do is record a screencast showing how to draw a character or poster, and people will pay to see it.

There are thousands of dollars of professional illustrators selling courses online on platforms such as Udemy and Skillshare. Udemy Illustrator Course

This particular course has been sold over 22,000 times. If each sells for $ 10, it’s $ 220,000. Even if Udemy pays 50% of its sales, you can still earn $ 110,000.

It’s not bad to take some videos, right? There is also a new platform called

Tutpad. It is dedicated to the artist. You can become a teacher on any of these websites and easily sell your courses to earn additional cash.

Bonus: Cold Emailing

Another way to find a job online is to simply send an email.

If you find a good store or a very good company where you can use your skills, you can contact them and ask about the type of job you are looking for. For example, you can conduct a survey to find customers who may launch a new social media campaign, or design your own social media post illustrations and graphics. You can email this idea.

Look For Other Good Opportunities

Look for other good options. For example, search an online forum to find a job. Many companies, such as video game developers, often post the work of game-level designers and character designers.

What other strategies do you use to find jobs online? Please let me know by leaving a comment.