How Much Money Can You Make As An Illustrator

13 Surprising Ways to Make Money Online With Adobe Illustrator in 2020

A look into revenue streams every vector designer should know

Earning extra income monthly can be life changing. That money can be used to accomplish so much. Maybe you are in debt or running behind on bills. Perhaps you would like to go on holiday each year or even just save up for a rainy day in the future.

We now live in the digital age, with vast almost limitless money-making opportunities online. It is possible to actually earn a full time living with income purely from online endeavors, even with minimal knowledge or experience.

Being able to work with Adobe Illustrator is one example of a marketable skill that can be used to earn you money online. If all you have is just a basic level understanding of the program, it is possible to build upon that foundation using readily available resources such as free or paid courses online. With time you can build enough know-how required to accomplish the most demanding and complex tasks you will encounter online.

Illustrator vs Photoshop

These two powerful graphic design programs have a lot of similarities, though their uses differ quite a bit. In a nutshell, Photoshop is raster-based and creates images using pixels, whereas Illustrator is vector based and uses mathematical computations with lines, curves, points, and shapes. Images produced in Illustrator are scalable to any size which makes it ideal for producing logos and large prints. Photoshop works best for photo manipulation, web design mockups, digital paintings, and small scale prints. It is possible to use both graphics software interchangeably. However, in order to produce the best possible work, it is best to use each software as intended.

1) Sell Icons

Custom icons do well on marketplaces like Iconfinder or Flaticon. When it comes to icons, quantity and quality means everything. You earn more by creating a large number of icons that fit within multiple categories.

People who buy icons mostly use them in mobile and web applications. Icons are an important part of many user interfaces and help convey ideas and actions to the user. When buyers like a particular design style, there is a high chance they will want to buy more of the same in a set ranging from as low as ten up to a hundred icons. Since most web and mobile apps consist of multiple pages, It helps to provide a consistent design language to your icons as it will ensure a neat look across the board.

2) Sell Graphic Assets at Stock Art Marketplaces

Graphic assets are materials used by designers to help complete design-related projects. Meeting deadlines can be a challenge for many designers especially if there is a heavy workload. Anything that can be of help to produce work faster will be most beneficial. Creating vector assets to aid other designers speed up the design process is a fantastic way to earn an extra income. Here are some examples of the common types of work designers are willing to buy:

Clip art or doodles for use in web, print, presentations or mobile apps
Floral designs, background patterns, or borders for use in greeting cards
Multipurpose banner templates for websites or social media apps
Premade logo designs

Great places to sell vector assets are:

Creativemarket
Canva
Graphicriver

3) Create Artwork for Print on Demand Eliminating the Hassle of Keeping Inventory

For those who have a lot of creative flair, creating bespoke designs that can be placed on various merchandise is one of the best business opportunities available online at the present moment. Getting started isn't as complicated as it may seem. With the rise of print on demand (POD) e-commerce sites, the need to stock up on inventory is eliminated. POD works by creating the products only once they have been ordered. All an artist has to do is create a design and upload it to a POD partner like Teespring for example. Customers can then purchase merchandise already printed with the artist's designs. There is no need for the designer to keep any inventory or deal with shipping and packaging as that will all be handled by the POD partner.

Pretty much any product you can think of can be used as a medium for prints. T-shirts, mugs, clocks, bedsheets greeting cards, decals, stickers for laptops, smartphone cases, you name it, the product list on most POD sites are endless.

Top POD sites include:

Teespring
Redbubble
Printify
Cafepress
Society6

4) Become a Content Creator

Becoming a successful Youtuber certainly used to be easier a decade ago. Nowadays competition is pretty stiff, with every possible category having hundreds of videos being uploaded daily, but not all is lost. Consider Youtube has 2 billion active users monthly, which is 20% of the world's population. If you create relevant high-quality content, it is still possible to gain traction over time.

One way to stand out on Youtube is to create niche content targeting a specific audience. People not only use Youtube for entertainment, but also for learning. Creating video tutorials using Illustrator and Photoshop can be a great way to attract viewers looking to learn and sharpen their knowledge. Once you build a solid subscriber base you can earn money through monetization of your channel.

5) Teach With an Online Course

The need for educational information has morphed a whole teaching industry online. The internet has made it possible for people to learn from instructors from around the world straight from the comfort of their homes.

Most people feel they don't know enough to teach. However, being the all-knowing expert in your field isn't a requirement; you just need to know more than your students. So, someone with intermediate skills can easily teach beginners. Alternatively, an expert can teach both beginners and intermediate students.

Online learning platforms such as Udemy and Skillshare have made course creation simple, all you need to create courses is a desire to teach, laptop with Illustrator, recording software and an account to one of the numerous online course platforms.

6) Become an Instagram Superstar

Making money on Instagram is not as straightforward compared to other methods listed in this article. Artists can post their work on the popular social network and gain followers which in turn they can monetize by selling their services to their followers. It's also possible to attract clients who might be interested in having you work for them, as the platform also works like a portfolio where you can show your best work. Instagram works well as a medium to get artists noticed, getting noticed means you are getting attention. In today's world having attention means currency.

The type of vector art that works well on Instagram are things like, logos, illustrations, lettering quotes, doodle, and cartoons. The more eye-catching and emotion-evoking a particular artwork is, the more you will attract viewers.

7) Enter and Win Graphic Design Contests

This is probably the most controversial method to make money for artists out there. Some designers feel entering competitions diminishes and cheapens the value of design work. Design competitions also referred to as crowdsourcing works by having a client post a design brief which is then open to multiple designers who participate by submitting their completed work. The client through a process of leaving feedback and reviews narrows it all down to a single favorite design of which the designer will be awarded the prize money. Since there can only be one winner, the majority of designers not picked will in essence work for free.

Getting picked as a winner will take numerous attempts at entering competitions, therefore I would only recommend competitions to those who are really starting out as beginners. Entering completions can be a way to hone one's illustrator skills and possibly earn a bit of spare change along the way.

Popular design crowdsource sites include:

Designhill
99design
Crowdspring

8) Earn Commissions on Custom Vector Artwork

Proficiency in Illustrator opens up a whole world of commission work online. From designing logos, business cards, illustrations, the sky is the limit to what you can do. Freelance marketplaces like Upwork and Fiverr make it easy for artists to connect with businesses and professionals looking for creative solutions to their problems.

The good thing about freelancing is that you can work as much or as little as you wish. This control over the workflow provides freedom and flexibility that a normal desk job can't. In essence, you become your own boss, freely able to forge the type of work relationship you feel most comfortable with.

9) Create How-To Blogs Focusing on Illustrator Tips and Tricks

Perhaps the slowest way to earn money with Illustrator is to create a blog focused on tutorials and tips. It takes a lot of time and patience to build up credibility and a substantial audience. By offering quality content it is possible to gain an audience that you can monetize to earn a substantial income in the long run…

Besides having knowledge in Illustrator, it would be also beneficial to have knowledge in other areas of graphic design so you can fill your blog with richer content. You could even add a design centric podcast to your blog too and reach an even bigger audience. To be a successful blogger, having the love of writing is a must.

10) Share Your Knowledge Through Vector Design Focused E-Book

After blogging, the next step would be creating an e-book and sell it to your already existing audience from your blog. Having an active blog with frequent visitors means you already have a group of people who trust and see you as an expert. This makes it more likely they will buy products from you since they are already familiar with the quality of your work.

11) Show off Your Artistic Flair With Hand-Lettering

Lettering or hand lettering has become popular in the past couple of years and it's a skillset most vector artists can quickly learn and add to their design toolkit. Hand lettering is the process of drawing letters and it's mostly done by hand and then digitized using vector software. It differs from typography or type design, whereby lettering is focused on illustrating letters, while typography is all about creating a complete alphabet which can then be used in multiple forms.

Lettering artists can monetize their work by creating lettering art for packaging, t-shirts, greeting cards, posters, websites, and applications. The uses of lettering are numerous and only limited by your imagination.

12) Open Your Own Online Vector Artwork Store

This is the holy grail of most aspiring entrepreneur designers. If you have a ready-made audience, having your own web store to sell your own art creations is probably the best way to make a living with Illustrator. The earning potential is virtually limitless. Compared to selling on e-commerce platforms, having your own store means you don't have to worry about paying listing fees or paying heavy commissions. Creating an online store has never been easier with point-of-sale systems like Shopify which have allowed anyone to set up a store and sell quickly.

One big disadvantage of having your own online store over other print on demand sites is that you need to find new customers. Having knowledge of marketing, advertising and sales are highly beneficial. If you lack expertise in those areas, you can always hire more knowledgeable people to help you.

13) Build Passive Income With Stock Vector Illustrations on Stock Sites

The term microstock is mostly used in reference to photography, where images are sold under a royalty-free license on a dedicated stock image site. The contributor is then paid a small amount whenever their images are used. Microstock is not only limited to photographs, but can include vectors, voice, and video.

Artists can contribute artwork such as illustrations and cartoons for use in web and mobile applications to microstock agencies and earn passive income regularly. Most stock sites have an approval process that must be followed before work is submitted. It is prudent to look up the requirements to pass early on. That way you can save time and energy by avoiding unnecessary rejections.

Popular microstock sites include:

Vectorstock
Shutterstock
Vectorportal
Vexels
Istock

Conclusion

The internet is never static, it is constantly evolving with new innovations and methods for artists to make money always on the horizon. It helps to keep your eye out for new opportunities. Get involved with the online design community, visit art and design blogs, frequent forums and Facebook groups of like-minded individuals and soak up as much knowledge as you can, that way you are able to keep yourself up to date with what works best. Most importantly be patient and put what you learn into practice, the money will surely follow.

Do you have any methods for vector artists that I might have missed? Please leave a comment and let me know.