Multiple streams-of-income

Freelance
Designer’s Guide
to
Multiple Income
Streams
Vandelay Design

Freelance Designer’s Guide to Multiple Income Streams | Vandelay Design
Contents
Introduction
Why Earn a Living from Multiple Sources of Income?
Possible Sources of Income for Freelance Designers
Client Design/Development Work
Consulting
Expanded Service Offerings
Writing
Passive Income
Personal Projects
Reseller or Affiliate Hosting
Creating Assets
Tips for Getting Started
Taking a Diversified Approach
Exclusive Offer on Freelance Starter Kit
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Freelance Designer’s Guide to Multiple Income Streams | Vandelay Design 3
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Introduction
The life of a freelance designer is attractive to a lot of people when compared with the
life of a typical employee. With perks like working from home, a flexible schedule, free-
dom to choose projects and clients, who wouldn’t want to work as a freelancer?
Unfortunately, many of the people who jump into freelancing find out that earning a
good living is harder than they anticipated. Sure, there are some freelancers with es-
tablished reputations that have a steady income from clients who come to them, but
the reality is most freelance designers have fewer clients and a lower income than they
would like.
In these situations the typical response is to look for ways to find more clients. While this
can certainly be effective, a growing number of freelancers are earning a living in ways
that are less traditional than client work. In today’s marketplace there are countless pos-
sibilities for using design skills to make money. With client work a little hard to come by
for many freelancers, building an income from multiple sources is often a more realistic
approach to earning a living as a designer.
The goal of this e-book is to showcase many of the different ways that designers can
make money. If you’re planning to enter the world of freelancing (whether part-time or
full-time), or if you’re already freelancing and having a difficult time earning a living on
client work alone, I recommend that you take a look at the possibilities discussed here
and see what appeals to you. No individual will be able to take advantage of all of the op-
portunities that exist, but most likely there will be at least one or two that are a good fit
for you.
We’ll take a look at some of the pros and cons of the different opportunities, and hope-
fully it will spark some ideas that can help to make your work more profitable and more
enjoyable. The time requirements and commitments will vary from one approach to the
next, and that is one of the most important things to keep in mind when trying to deter-
mine what is a good fit for your own situation.

Chapter Heading
5Freelance Designer’s Guide to Multiple Income Streams | Vandelay Design
Why Earn a Living from
Multiple Sources of
Income?
If you have always looked at being a freelancer as working for clients and earning a
living, you may be wondering why you would want or need to have diversity in your
income sources. The truth is, it’s not necessary for everyone, but there are a lot of ben-
efits. If you’re able to earn a comfortable living from client work and you enjoy what
you are doing, maybe this isn’t for you. Even if you are able to earn a living from just
client work, you may have some frustrations that have led you to think about exploring
other opportunities.
Here are a few reasons that many freelancers prefer diversity in sources of income:
1. Increased Security
If you’re earning a living by combining a few different types of income, if one of them
dries up you’ll still have income from some other sources. However, if all of your in-
come is from client work and you are having a hard time landing new clients (or even
worse, if one of your clients fails to pay you for your work) things can get rough finan-
cially. In today’s economy any added stability or security can make a big difference.
2. Less Monotony In Daily Work
One of the reasons that many designers choose to pursue projects outside of client
work is that it gives them something different to work on. While all client projects are
different and unique, you may find it tiresome or monotonous to do the same types of
work with different clients all the time. Working as a freelancer should be fun instead
of being a drag. Getting some diversity will allow you to take breaks from client work to
focus on other things, which most people find to be a welcome change of pace.

Possible Sources of Income for Freelancers
3. More Choice in Projects
While it’s true that working as a freelancer you’ll have some say in what clients and what
projects you work on, that often doesn’t apply to those who are having a hard time find-
ing enough clients. If you’re not busy enough you’ll probably feel like you need to take
just about any project that comes your way, even if it’s not something that really interests
you. I know, I’ve been there too.
When you start to add some diversity by creating multiple streams of income you’ll have
some choices about what you want to do. There are a lot of possibilities, so it should be
easy to find something that really interests you. Having that choice will make your work
more enjoyable, and maybe even more rewarding.
4. Increased Motivation
When you get to dedicate some of your time to projects of your choice you’re likely to
find more motivation in your work. Many designers find that they actually become moti-
vated to increase the income from these alternates sources so that they can cut back or
eliminate client work altogether.
5. Higher Potential Income
The incomes of freelancer designers vary tremendously. The most accomplished and suc-
cessful designers can charge rates that allow them to earn a really good living, but many
freelancers struggle to earn enough to support their lifestyle. So technically the income
potential for a freelance designer is rather high, but in reality only a small percentage of
freelancers will ever get to that level.
By diversifying and adding some other sources of income you can increase your potential
income. A lot of the opportunities that we’ll look at in this e-book come with significant
earning potential. It’s hard to attach numbers to them because there are people earning
all different amounts, but what makes the potential higher is that in many cases you are
not trading time for money. When you’re doing client work that is essentially what you
are doing, trading your time for money. Some other opportunities will allow you to lever-
age your time, which can have a dramatic impact on potential earnings.

Possible Sources of
Income for Freelancers
Ok, we’ve done a lot of talking so far about diversifying and adding other sources of
income, but we haven’t yet covered any details. It’s important to lay the ground work,
but now we’ll get into the possibilities that exist. This is by no means an exhaustive
or complete list, but it does cover the most common ways that designers are earning
a living. Take a look at the opportunities covered here and start to think about what
makes the most sense for you. Think about creative ways that you could use your spe-
cific skills and expertise.
Client Design/Development Work
We won’t take a lot of time looking at this one, because most freelancers are already
earning income by providing services to clients. This is the traditional way to make it as
a freelancer, and quite frankly many designers are looking to decrease their depend-
ency on clients. There will always be clients out there that need work to be done, but
there will also always be other designers competing for the same clients.
Client work is obviously an excellent possibility for earning income as a designer, but
earning a comfortable living is often more realistic and more enjoyable when some
of these other approaches are added in to the mix rather than relying solely on client
design work.
Consulting
Consulting work provides another possibility for designers, and really there are a lot of
different types of consulting that could be offered. In some cases the consulting could
be in addition to design work, it could be a way to bring in new clients that could lead
to design/development work, it could be offered to clients who have their ownin-house
designers and developers, or it could be offered to clients who need some guidance on
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any number of issues.
Web designers often have a great deal of experience and expertise in areas that can
make them highly valuable as a consultant. It could be general online business strategy,
marketing and SEO, social media, e-commerce, or any number of things. It could even
involve consulting with other designers or developers who are stuck on a project and
looking for fresh ideas and insight. Some designers offer site reviews as a way to make
some money with consulting, and some of these clients even wind up hiring the designer
to make changes or completely re-design the site.
Consulting work can add some diversity to your daily/weekly routine, and consulting
rates are often higher than rates for design or development. If you have a particular
expertise and you’re able to help others improve their bottom line, higher rates can be
justified.
Another plus is that marketing your consulting services doesn’t need to require a lot of
extra work on your end. Your portfolio website probably already includes a description of
the types of services that you offer, so all you would need to do to get started is to add a
description of the consulting services that you can offer. Of course, the amount of work
that you get from this will depend on the level of visibility of your portfolio.
If you want to take it further and promote your consulting services more, one cost effec-
tive way to market yourself is to work on positioning yourself as an expert in the field. If
people view you as an expert they will look to you when they’re in need of your services,
and they’ll trust you as a consultant. In order to do this you will need to display your
knowledge and expertise. This can involve blogging on your own site, writing for other
blogs in the industry, recording and releasing informational or training videos, or publish-
ing an e-book or special report. Any of these approaches can be effective if your informa-
tion is of excellent quality, if it is freely available, and if it is closely related to the types of
consulting services that you are offering.
While consulting work does present a good opportunity for another source of income,
it does also have a down side. The most significant, in my opinion, is that consulting is
essentially just like designing for a client. Although the actual work you’re doing may be
different, it still involves trading time for money. Also, establishing a solid reputation is
certainly possible, but it may take a lot of work if you are starting from scratch. Consult-
ing work is ideal for designers who already have an established reputation and they want
to do something different with some clients.
Expanded Service Offerings
The typical web or graphic designer can offer a number of different services. While many
focus on web design, there may be other opportunities that are being missed. By expand-
ing the services that you offer you may be able to earn a higher amount of money from

each customer, which can reduce the need to find more clients. It will also give you
some different types of things to work on, which can provide a welcome change.
By offering more services you can actually be doing your clients a favor at the same
time. Instead of working with two or three different providers they may be able to get
everything from you. That means easier communication for the client, and time saved
from not needing to interview and hire different providers for each service.
There are a lot of different types of services that you could offer in addition to web
design, but here are a few of the common possibilities.
Print Design
While web design is the focus of many freelancers, most clients will also need
some items designed for print. This could include business cards, flyers, posters,
stationery, envelopes, product packaging, restaurant menus, and so on. While
designing for print is different than designing for the web, it’s not something that
is overly difficult for most web designers to pick up.
Being able to design for print is one of the most effective ways to increase the
amount of money that can be earned from a client. To start earning money from
print design you may not even need to do any extra work promoting these ad-
ditional services. You could simply talk to your existing or past clients about the
new services that you’re offering, and chances are some of them will be in need
of a designer for printed items.
You could also create packages to combine your web and print design services.
For example, you could offer a package that includes a web design, business card
design, brochure design, and stationery/letterhead design.
SEO
Search engine optimization is another service that many web designers and de-
velopers can offer. Clients spend a lot of money on SEO services, and often times
the work goes to shady individuals or companies that do very little to actually
help the client. I don’t think I’ve ever met a client who didn’t believe their site
deserved higher rankings or more search engine traffic, and most realize that
improving in this area can have a huge impact on their business.
Designers can offer on-site tweaks to clients whose site may have been designed/
developed by someone else that didn’t create it to be search engine friendly.
Other services may be off-site, such as link building. SEO services can also in-
clude things like keyword research that can be done fairly easily with the right
tools.
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Social Media
While most clients have been interested in hiring SEO experts for quite some time,
services related to social media have become increasingly popular in recent years.
As far as design is concerned, there are opportunities to provide services like de-
signing custom Twitter backgrounds, as well as Facebook fan pages and YouTube
pages. Facebook timeline images have gotten a lot of attention recently, and a well-
designed timeline image can no doubt have a substantial impact on a company’s
success on Facebook.
Aside from design, services could also be offered for helping clients to set up a
social media marketing plan or to simply maintain their day-to-day use of social
media and social networking. While it’s not for everyone, many designers have con-
siderable experience with social media and can be of help to clients.
Expanded Services Conclusion
These are just a few of the examples of other types of services that could be added
to expand your offering. Since most of your clients will need at least one of these
services, it doesn’t have to be difficult to add an extra stream of income, which
makes it very attractive.
The downside of this is that it’s still an exchange of time for money. Also, not every
designer will be comfortable or qualified offering services like SEO and social media
marketing. If you’re not already experienced with the services that you want to
offer, it’s possible that taking the time and effort to master these skills will be a
distraction that negatively impacts your current client work.
Writing
Significant opportunities exist for designers and developers who are interested in writ-
ing. Many are resistant to these opportunities because they feel like they are not a great
writer, but the truth is you don’t have to be a great writer. If you are teaching others
about design or development through your writing, your knowledge and experience are
far more important than your writing skills. Most people want to read articles and tutori-
als by talented designers and developers rather than reading an eloquently written arti-
cle that doesn’t teach anything practical. In fact, some of the writing opportunities that
exist will involve your work going through an editor before being published, and editors
can help with many writing deficiencies.
Freelance Blogging
The world of design blogging has come along way in the past 5 years or so. There
are countless blogs out there that focus on web design, graphic design, web devel-
opment, app development, freelancing, and online marketing. As the industry has
grown and become more profitable, there are now lots of blogs and websites that

11
pay freelancers to produce content. This could involve written tutorials, video
tutorials, industry news-related articles, informative articles, opinion pieces, con-
troversial articles, resource roundups, and more.
While there are a lot of designers and developers already taking advantage of
these opportunities, many sites and blogs have a hard time finding enough quali-
fied writers. Opportunities not only exist, but they can also pay pretty well. The
amount earned per article will vary greatly from one publication to the next, but
generally it is common for designers to earn anywhere from $50 - $200 for an
article. By writing for major blogs or by writing in-depth tutorials you can earn
even more.
There are enough online publications in the industry that it is possible to earn
a full-time income strictly as a freelance blogger. Of course, dedicating some of
your time to design or development is almost an absolute necessity in order to
stay on top of changes in the industry so that you’ll be informed about the topics
for your articles. Also, full-time writing can be draining for most people, so it is
far more ideal and practical to use freelance blogging as a supplement to your
income.
Another benefit from freelance blogging is that it provides excellent networking
opportunities. The blog owners and editors that you’ll be working with are typi-
cally very well-connected within the industry, and they’re good people to have in
your network. The exposure that you get from having your articles and (usually)
your author bio on popular websites and blogs can lead to all kinds of opportuni-
ties.
One of the great things about freelance blogging is that it can be just about any-
thing you want it to be. As I mentioned, it is possible to earn a full-time living, but
it’s also possible to only write blog posts occasionally as it fits into your schedule.
Most blogs and sites don’t require freelance writers to stick to a specific sched-
ule, so if you find yourself with some down time between client projects you may
be able to take advantage of that free time by writing. Writing just a few blog
posts per month could make a noticeable difference in income for many free-
lance designers.
In addition to writing, there are also some opportunities to work as an editor
for a blog or website. These opportunities are a lot less common than freelance
blogging, because most sites will have only one editor while having multiple writ-
ers. Many times the blog owners will actually work as the editor.
Because freelance blogging is generally so flexible and can be done at your
convenience, there aren’t a lot of cons to doing it. Some people simply don’t like

to write or to have their work published for others to read, and that is probably the
most significant con. Also, you’re still essentially trading your own time for money.
Although you won’t be paid an hourly rate for your writing, there is only so much
that you can do within your working hours.
Getting started with freelance blogging can seem intimidating, but it doesn’t have to
be difficult. If you don’t have much experience with blogging I would recommend
that you start by writing for some smaller sites rather than first approaching the big
boys like Smashing Magazine and the Tuts+ Network. Start by looking at the blogs
that you already visit on a regular basis. Many will have a “write for us page” that
will give details about their process (not all will pay for articles). Most will also have
a contact form that you can fill out to get more information about writing for them.
Here are some of the design/development blogs that hire freelance bloggers. This
list is by no means complete, it’s just meant to serve as a starting point:
Smashing Magzine, Psdtuts+, Nettuts+, Vectortuts+, Webdesigntuts+, WPtuts+,
Webdesigner Depot, 1stWebDesigner, Noupe, Onextrapixel, InstantShift, UXBooth,
CrazyLeaf Design Blog, PSDeluxe, Tripwire Magazine, FreelanceSwitch.
Your Own Blog
While freelance blogging can be a great way to supplement your income from client
work, it’s not the only option for making money from blogging. The other possibil-
ity is to have a blog of your own that brings in money in some way. If you spend a
lot of time writing for other blogs you’ll probably at some point wonder why you’re
not dedicating your time and effort to growing your own blog instead of someone
else’s.
There are a number of different ways that you can make money by running your
own blog. Some of the most popular options are ad sales, AdSense, affiliate mar-
keting, selling your own products, membership, premium content, and sponsored
reviews.
The income potential with blogging is quite high, but there is a lot of work that goes
into getting your blog to the point that it earns a significant amount of money. If
you’re looking for a way to supplement your existing income by writing blog posts
whenever you happen to have spare time between client projects, freelance blog-
ging is usually a better option than managing your own blog. By writing for other
blogs your schedule can be more flexible. If you’re managing your own blog you
will need to dedicate time consistently to it, or it’s unlikely to grow to the point that
you can really make money with the blog.
If you’re looking into the long-term and trying to find something that can eventually

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account for a higher percentage of your income and replace some or all of your
client work, running your own blog would be a better option than freelance blog-
ging.
The topic of creating a successful blog is a huge subject that involves much more
than we can cover here (at Vandelay Premier we have an e-book available, How
to Use a Blog to Market Your Design Business). One of the most important things
that you’ll want to consider before launching is how your blog will stand out. In
recent years the number of blogs in the design and development industry has
exploded, which means there has to be something unique or different about
your blog in order to stand out.
Depending on how much time you have available and how much of a role you
want blogging to play in your career and income, mixing both freelance blogging
and managing your own blog can be a good idea. Working on your own blog will
give you more creative freedom and it can be an important part in your longer
term plans. Since it will take some time to start making money with your own
blog (most new blogs don’t make anything significant for 6 months or longer),
freelancing for other blogs will allow you to earn some money now. Plus, on
many of the posts that you write for other blogs you will be allowed to include an
author bio with a link to your own blog. This is a great way to start building your
own audience.
Regardless of whether you are writing for other blogs or for your own blog, it can
be a good way to share things that you are learning through your client work.
Have you learned some new trick or technique that you used in a client project?
Why not share it with other designers through a tutorial or blog post? You may
find that your daily work gives you plenty of potential topics for posts.
Magazines
If you are interested in writing, blogging is just one possibility. There are also a
number of magazines in the design industry that publish articles from various
writers and designers 21 Magazines Especially for Designers. Much like freelance
blogging, writing for magazines can provide some supplemental income and it
can also be a great way to gain exposure throughout the industry. Having maga-
zine articles published in reputable magazines can also look good on a resume
or in a portfolio.
The down side to writing for magazines is that it is highly unlikely to ever become
a major source of income. You may be able to make some extra money here and
there, but there aren’t enough articles needed by magazines to create a huge de-
mand to support a lot of writers. As a small part of your income it can work well,
but don’t count on it to me much more than that.

Books and E-Books
Writing books is always a possibility as well. You can work with a publisher or pub-
lish the book yourself, which are two very different approaches. If you’re working
with an established publisher you should be guaranteed to make at least a certain
amount for writing the book. By publishing and selling the book on your own, what
you make is all up to you. It’s possible that you could spend months writing a book
that you’re unable to sell, or it’s possible that you could make more on your own
than you could by going through a publisher.
By doing it yourself you cut out a lot of the overhead, but you’ll need some way to
make sales. If you have a strong reputation in the industry, or if you have a high
traffic website, you may be able to do pretty well by publishing your own book
(example, the books produced by Smashing Magazine). If you don’t have any idea
how you would sell the book on your own, trying to go through a publisher would
probably be a safer bet.
In addition to selling printed books, selling e-books is also a great possibility. For
90% of freelance designers this is a much more feasible approach. The cost to
produce and sell your own e-book is extremely minimal. Creating PDF versions of
a book can be done even with free software like Open Office. There are a lot of dif-
ferent options when it comes to selling your ebook. You could use a free WordPress
plugin and process payments with PayPal to keep costs at a minimum. Or you could
go with a something like E-Junkie to handle payment processing (could still use
PayPal) and product delivery. See our blog post 13 Options for Selling Digital Down-
loads on Your Website for more information.
There are a few significant benefits from writing a book or e-book. Obviously, some
money can be made to supplement your client work. In some cases the income
made from these projects can be very significant, especially if you self-publish
(print or digital) and if you’re successful with sales.
E-books especially are great because almost every dollar that you make will be
profit. Of course, writing a quality e-book will take many hours, but once that work
is done you may be able to make money for several years through sales. In the de-
sign and development industry where things change very rapidly, it’s important to
think about your topic and make sure that it will still be relevant in the near future.
Otherwise, it’s possible that by the time you complete the e-book it’s already out-
dated.
Another benefit is the potential for using affiliates to sell the book or e-book. It’s
possible to successfully market the product on your own without a publisher even
if you don’t have an existing audience. If you’ve got a quality product and you’re

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willing to share revenue with affiliates who help you to make sales, the sky is the
limit. Your affiliates will be more motivated to promote your product if they are
getting a higher commission per sale, and with digital files (e-books) you’ll have
the option to offer commissions as high as 50-75% per sale.
It’s possible to offer high commissions and still make money yourself because
there is virtually no cost to sell another copy of your e-book. With physical prod-
ucts like prined books you’ll usually be capped at offering around 10-15% com-
mission to affiliates because of the costs associated with printing.
Finding affiliates isn’t always easy because most people with popular websites
and mailing lists are approached every day about promoting a product. But if
your book’s content is of high-quality, if the packaging looks good, and if affiliates
can earn a decent amount per sale, you should be able to find plenty of people
to help with affiliate promotions. The technical aspects of setting up an affiliate
program don’t have to be complicated either. Some systems, such as E-Junkie
and Clickbank, have affiliate tracking capability built in.
Aside from the money, possibly the biggest benefit of writing a book or e-book is
what it can do for your reputation in the industry. People who write books tend
to be viewed as experts on the subject. With self-publishing being as easy as it is
today, this isn’t as true as it used to be since anyone can write a book now. But
having a quality book or e-book is definitely a great way to work towards posi-
tioning yourself as an expert. This can help in many ways, including an increase
in client work and even in your rates.
The final benefit I’ll mention is that, especially with e-books, it can be done at
your own pace between other projects. Of course, if you’re working with a pub-
lisher you’ll probably have deadlines, but if you are publishing it yourself, it can
be done on your own schedule. If you get busy with client work for a while you
can put it on hold. If you have some down time between client projects you can
put that time to good use by focusing on the book.
Passive Income
As we’ve looked at some different ways of making money as a designer so far, I’ve
mentioned a few times that you are essentially trading your time for money. That’s not
necessarily a bad thing, in fact, it’s what most people do to earn a living. But passive
income, on the other hand, has the potential to pay you repeatedly for one-time effort.
Many designers are interested in setting up passive income streams because it can re-
duce the pressure to keep a schedule packed full of client projects, and it can provide
somewhat of a security net in case your income from client work drops.
In the previous section we looked at the possibility of writing and selling books and

e-books, and really that could also be included in this section about passive income. The
reason I chose to keep it separate is that most design and development books have a
short shelf life because technology changes so quickly, but that is not the case with every
book. For example, if you were to produce an e-book about design theory it could be just
as relevant 10 or 20 years from now (probably with minor updates needed) as it is today.
Aside from books and e-books, there are several possibilities for designers who want to
earn passive income. The fact that there are so many realistic possibilities and the fact
that a number of designers have been successful with passive income has helped to
make it more visible and more desired by other designers. Some people consider blog-
ging to be a passive income source, but as someone who has actively blogged for five
years, I don’t consider it passive. Having your own blog does share some of the benefits
of passive income, but there is constantly work to be done if you want to maintain a
profitable blog. You could always outsource some or all of the work, but the work will be
there for someone.
Here we’ll take a look at some of the most popular and most practical ways for design-
ers to earn passive income. Before looking at these methods it’s important to note that
passive income does in fact involve work, it’s just that the majority of the work will be on
the front end and then you can continue to make money each month with only a minimal
amount of effort.
Stock Graphics and Resources
Stock photography is a huge industry in and of itself. Despite the fact that many
photographers feel the prices are too low, thousands of photographers around the
world have done pretty well with stock photos. Sites like iStock Photo aren’t going
away any time soon. In addition to photography, most stock sites also sell illustra-
tions, icons, and other types of stock graphics. And photo-focused sites aren’t the
only place to sell stock graphics. Marketplaces like GraphicRiver and Creative Mar-
ket focus on stock graphic files rather than photos.
In order to be successful selling your resources at major marketplaces you will
need to be able to create high-quality items, which means you’ll need to dedicate
more time to it than simply throwing something together when you have a few
minutes to spare. The good thing about the leading marketplaces is that they have
large audiences and the potential to make a lot of sales (and of course they’ll take a
cut of the revenue). The down side is that with so many sellers your items can easily
get lost in the noise.
Some designers want to create their own stock resources but don’t want to sell
at marketplaces that take a significant portion of the revenue. Selling your stock
resources on your own is certainly an option as well. All you need is a website and
an e-commerce system to process sales and deliver the files to customers. (You can

17
refer to the same post that we mentioned when discussing e-books, 13 Options
for Selling Digital Products on Your Website).
By selling on your own you’ll also have more control over the types of resources
that you sell. Popular options include icons, textures, PSDs, Photoshop brushes,
Photoshop actions, Photoshop layer styles, vectors, patterns, and print tem-
plates.
Also, just like with selling e-books, it’s possible to set up an affiliate program so
others can help you to promote your resources. Another incredible opportunity
that has come about in the past few years is the option to sell using deal sites.
With the huge success of major deal sites like Groupon, the design industry has
seen many industry-specific deal sites emerge recently. You can partner with
these sites to sell your resources at a reduced rate, and you’ll split the revenue
(the revenue share percentages will vary from one deal site to the next).
With the reduced price and the split revenue you’ll be making a lot less per sale
than you will make on a sale through your own website, but the volume of sales
can make up for it. Leading deal sites have thousands (some over 100,000) of
subscribers who have signed up to be emailed with their offers. This means that
you’ll be able to take advantage of a large, targeted audience.
There are new deal sites popping up in the design/tech industry very frequently,
but some worthy of mentioning are MightyDeals, AppSumo, DealFuel, DealPixel,
InkyDeals, Webmaster Deals, Dealotto, and GetDealy .
If you’re trying to decide between selling resources at a marketplace and selling
them on your own, the amount of time you have available should be a factor that
you consider. Marketplaces are nice because they take care of the marketing for
you. You can focus on creating the resources, upload them to the marketplace,
and sales will likely come in as a result of their existing audience and their mar-
keting. Of course, there are plenty of stock resources at major marketplaces that
don’t make many sales, so sales are not guaranteed.
Because of the time requirement issue, selling at marketplaces is usually more
passive than selling at your own website. While selling at your own site can
certainly provide passive income after the resources have been created, you still
have requirements like marketing, customer service, and record keeping.
Fonts
If stock graphics isn’t a route that you want to go, maybe designing and creating
fonts will be of more interest. All designers need to have access to quality fonts,
and there is a large market for premium-quality fonts. As compared to stock

graphics, fonts will typically sell for a higher price. Making sales isn’t necessarily
easy, in part because so many free fonts are available, but it is certainly possible.
If you’re looking for a marketplace to sell your font for you, options include My-
Fonts, GraphicRiver, and Veer, among others. Of course, just as is the case with
selling other products, selling fonts from your own website is also a possibility, as is
selling through deal sites.
Templates/Themes
The website template and theme market is huge, and shows no sign of slowing
down. Custom web design is preferred by most website/business owners for ob-
vious reasons, but many simply can’t afford a few thousand dollars for a custom
design. In these situation, templates and themes can be a great low-cost option.
The market for HTML templates has been around for years, but the market for
CMS-specific templates and themes has grown exponentially in the past few years.
The market for WordPress themes in particular is very large and still growing.
WordPress powers millions of websites, and many of them are small-budget opera-
tions that want a quality design without the price tag of a custom design. Premium
themes can be purchased for less than $100, and the top themes are making a ton
of money for their designers/developers.
Selling templates can be a great option for web designers for a few reasons. First,
like the other options we’ve looked at here in the passive income section, templates
can be designed and coded whenever you have the spare time. So during those
times when your client work isn’t completely filling up your days, you can make
good use of your time by working on templates to sell.
Another benefit is that you can choose what types of websites you want to create
and you are not limited by the types of clients that you can land. If you’ve always
wanted to design a site for a rock band you can use your time to create a band
website template, no client needed.
Working on templates will also give you the option to learn new skills and stay
on top of trends and changes in the industry. You can stay ahead of the game by
working on templates, and then apply the things that you learn on your next client
project.
In some cases you may even be able to use the templates that you create as op-
tions for lower-budget clients. If you have a client that wants a custom design with-
out the price tag of a custom design, you may be able to use one of your templates
as a starting point and customize it to meet the client’s needs, keeping the price
lower than a full custom design. In fact, this can open up your audience for client
services and allow you to reach more people.

The income potential with templates and themes is probably as high as any of
the options we’ll discuss in this e-book. Of course, that doesn’t mean that every
template designer will make good money, but those who are able to create top
selling templates do extremely well. ThemeForest is currently one of the most
popular marketplaces for buying or selling templates, and their top sellers have
made hundreds of thousands of dollars. It’s probably no surprise then that as a
result of the high earnings for top sellers, many more designers have started sell-
ing templates, making the competition pretty strong.
If you decide to pursue template or theme sales there are a few things that you
will need to decide:
Sell at a marketplace or at your own site?
Popular marketplaces like ThemeForest and MojoThemes provide an estab-
lished audience for your templates, but of course they will also take a share
of the revenue from your sales. With marketplaces you’ll also have to get
your templates approved in order to be sold there, and you give up control
over a lot of things like pricing. Despite the negatives, selling at a market-
place can still be a good decision because of the volume of sales that can
be made.
Even with the high potential for sales, many designers choose to sell tem-
plates on their own. There are countless template shops and WordPress
theme shops out there. Some do extremely well, and others make only a
few sales. If you want to do it on your own instead of going through a mar-
ketplace, expect to have to put in more time to establish the business. If
you have an existing website or blog with decent traffic you’ll be in a better
position for early success, but the competition is still pretty tough.
Your long-term business plans should have an influence on whether you
choose to sell on your own or go through a marketplace. If you want to
make template sales a major part of your income at some point in the fu-
ture, selling on your own may be the best move since it will give you more
freedom. If template sales is just a way to make some extra money to sup-
plement your client work, selling through a marketplace may be the better
option since it will eliminate the time needed to setup and promote your
own shop.
As far as passive income goes, selling at marketplaces will still require
some work for providing customer services, but it will be more passive as
compared to selling at your own shop.

How much time can you dedicate to support?
Before selling templates or themes you’ll need to consider what will be re-
quired in order to provide quality service to your customers. If you’re running
your own shop you will want to prioritize service, because your reputation will
ultimately determine your success. Even selling at marketplaces will require
some time for support, but typically they do not require sellers to provide
dedicated support to buyers.
Also consider the types of templates that you will be selling. Static HTML/CSS
templates will generally have lower support requirements than WordPress
themes or templates for other content management systems. There are sim-
ply more variables and more things that can go wrong when you are selling a
WordPress theme as compared to static HTML/CSS templates.
What types of templates will you design?
You’ll need to decide if you want to create HTML/CSS templates, or focus on
templates/themes for a specific CMS. WordPress themes are a popular op-
tion, but the market also exists for other things like Shopify templates, Ma-
gento templates, Joomla templates, and others. Keep in mind that if you are
creating templates for a particular CMS you will also be directly impacted by
the success, or lack thereof, of the CMS. If you’re creating templates for a CMS
that loses popularity, your sales will drop. So be sure that you consider the
future of any CMS before specializing.
Aside from CMS, what types of website templates will you create? It could
be corporate templates, portfolio templates, photography templates, non-
profit organization templates, church templates, e-commerce templates, blog
templates, band templates, real estate templates, templates for some other
industry, or any combination. Targeting specific industries or types of sites
can make it easier to get search engine traffic and to market the templates,
including finding affiliates to promote your templates.
What sales model will you use?
If you choose to sell the templates on your own instead of going with a mar-
ketplace you will also need to decide on a sales model. There are a few differ-
ent options including selling templates individually, offering a membership
with recurring payments, or some combination of the two.
Selling themes individually is pretty straightforward. You would set a price for
each template and sell through your choice of e-commerce platforms. With
a membership model, customers would pay a fee per month or per year to
get access to your templates. With most membership template/theme shops
members can use as many templates as they want. A good example is Elegant

Themes. They provide WordPress themes to their members for a fee of $39
per year. Members can then use their themes on an unlimited number of
websites, as long as they own the website (example, can’t be used on client
websites without another membership). With the membership model you
will need some platform or script to manage member sign ups and logins
at your site, and to process recurring payments.
Some theme sellers offer a choice of individual sale or membership. An
example is WooThemes. You can buy one of their themes or sign up for the
themes club. Another sales method used by some sellers, including Woo-
Themes and ThemeTrust, is 2-for-1 or 3-for-1 pricing where you can get
multiple themes for the price of one.
Again, when choosing a sales model you should also consider your long-
term plans. If you’re going the membership route you will need to keep
new themes coming in order to retain paying members, which means you’ll
always have to dedicate time to designing and developing new themes. If
this doesn’t fit into your long-term plans, individual sales will be a better fit.
Info Products
There are countless options for informational products that you could create and
sell. We already covered books and e-books, but there are other options. You
could sell video tutorials that teach any number of topics like Photoshop, Illustra-
tor, coding, web design basics, design theory, responsive web design, WordPress
theme creation, etc. If videos aren’t your thing you could also sell written tutori-
als on the same topics. Aside from just individual tutorials, courses and detailed
guides are also popular and can demand a higher price tag. You could also create
webinars and sell access to them individually or on a membership basis.
There are always people who are looking to learn more about various topics
related to design and development, and as a result, info products can be very
profitable. Depending on the topic, info products also have the potential to be
profitable for several months or even years into the future.
Niche Websites or Blogs
Although we have already covered the topic of blogging, niche websites are a lit-
tle bit different, even if they are technically set up as a blog. The blogging that we
discussed earlier could be described as “authority blogging”. It involves posting
frequently (usually at least once per week) and with the goal of having a blog that
becomes recognized as an authority on the subject due to the high level of qual-
ity in the content.
Niche sites on the other hand are usually set up to target a specific keyword or

phrase and to attract traffic through search engines. Content will be created to
attract search traffic and then once the site is established it will remain largely the
same, with infrequent content updates or additions. Most niche sites are mon-
etized either through Google AdSense or affiliate programs. The idea is to get a very
targeted audience and to offer them something specific, whether it be an ad to click
on or an affiliate product to buy.
The earning potential with a niche website is much lower than the potential from
selling templates and some of the other options. But the enticing thing about niche
sites is that they can provide recurring income with very little effort after they are
set up and making money, and the process can be duplicated with multiple niche
sites if you want a higher income. Creating niche sites can also help you to learn
valuable lessons about SEO, content creation, and monetizing websites. These les-
sons can then be applied to your other projects and client work.
The down side of niche websites is that if you’re not able to reach high Google rank-
ings for your targeted keywords or phrases you are unlikely to get much traffic or
to make money. The point of niche sites is to find attainable keywords and phrases
where you are able to get to the top of the rankings, but even with the right re-
search it doesn’t always work out.
Another down side, in my opinion, setting up niche websites is a little more boring
than most of the other options on this list. I’m sure there are people that would
disagree with that statement, but I think most designers would rather design and
create something unique rather than set up small sites to attract search rankings.
T-shirts and Apparel
The last example that we’ll discuss in this passive income section is designing t-
shirts and apparel. If your design abilities and interests expand beyond web design,
apparel design may be a lot of fun. In today’s marketplace you don’t have to be a
major player to make money in this industry. You can submit your designs to be
sold at sites like DesignByHumans and Threadless, or sell at marketplaces like Cafe-
Press, Zazzle, or SpreadShirt. Or, of course, you could set up your own shop.
Designing t-shirts and apparel can provide a creative release with a nice break from
your typical web and graphic design projects. If you’re not experienced with the
process, there are a number of tutorials online that teach how to design t-shirts.
The down side to t-shirt design is that with some of the marketplaces you will need
to get your design approved or you may have to beat out a lot of other designs in
order to get it listed for sale.

Passive Income Conclusion
We’ve looked at a lot of different possibilities in this passive income category,
and most likely there are at least one or two possibilities that would interest
you. I feel that it’s a good idea for any designer to work on establishing passive
income on the side of client work or even a full-time job. There are so many pos-
sibilities and the income potential is very real, so it is hard to ignore.
The truth is that none of these options will allow you to make money on a recur-
ring basis without any work at all going forward, but the possibility exists to earn
significant income with a limited amount of effort in the future. Why? Because
you’re not trading your time for money like you are with client work. Instead,
you’re creating something one time that can be sold over and over again.
Something to consider when comparing one option for passive income to an-
other is the level of support that will be needed. All products will need to be sup-
ported to some extent, but they are not all equal. The customer service requests
associated with selling an e-book, for example, are likely to be much less sig-
nificant as compared to the support requests when selling website templates. If
you’re looking for minimal time commitment, choose something that won’t be as
demanding in terms of support.
We looked at some of the down sides of the different options, but one challenge
that you will face with many of these options is competing against free resources
and content. There are a lot of high-quality freebies online, and that doesn’t
even count the pirated resources that people are downloading illegally for free
instead of paying for a similar product. Sales can definitely be made, but realize
that you’ll have to give customers a reason to buy from you instead of just going
with a free option. For example, graphic design resources like vectors and icons
are available for free from a lot of websites. So are website templates, fonts, and
educational content. Your products will need to be higher quality or have some
other benefit in order to sell. Allowing for favorable terms like unlimited com-
mercial usage can also help.
Personal Projects
When it comes to diversifying your income sources and depending less on client
projects, I think it’s important that you find something that you enjoy and something
that excites you. Obviously, working on it will be more enjoyable if it’s something that
you enjoy, and that can help to make your success more likely. We’ve talked about the
benefits of breaking away from trading your time for money, but the down side to that
is that if your project isn’t successful you may not make any money. The risk of this
is lower if you are passionate about what you are working on because you can push
through challenging times and you’re less likely to give up if you’re not successful right
away.

The good news is there are unlimited options. As a web designer/developer you have a
tremendous advantage because you can create your own website and start just about
any type of business that you want. You won’t have to hire a designer or developer, you’ll
just need to be able to dedicate some of your own time. In this section we’ll discuss “per-
sonal projects”, which is kind of a catch-all category for things that don’t fit into the other
categories.
There are a lot of different types of websites that serve the design community, and you
could start a personal project with any number of different types of sites. Here are a few
possibilities:
Community Websites
Social networking isn’t limited to major sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
There are also a lot of successful community sites that target the design and de-
velopment community. Some of them are run by companies, but others are really
just personal projects of a designer. For example, Louis Gubitosi created The Web
Blend, a community site where designers can find great content or submit their
own links to gain exposure. The site has over 9,000 members. A news website isn’t
the only option. You could start any type of site that would provide networking op-
portunities for the design community.
Deal Sites
I mentioned deal sites earlier when covering the sales of stock resources. Most of
the deal sites in the design/tech industry have been launched in the past 1-2 years
and new sites are still popping up. Starting your own deal site could be a great way
to make some money while serving the design community. You’d help customers
get great deals and help others to sell their products, so it is a win/win/win situa-
tion.
With popular deal sites already established in the industry you’ll probably need
something unique in order to make your site stand out. You could specialize in a
particular area, or you could come up with a unique idea or a twist on the typical
deal site. A good example is Dealotto. They offer amazing deals, but the price the
customer pays is actually determined at random by a lotto. The highest amount
they could pay is still a great deal, but it could get even better, or free, with some
luck in the lotto. It’s a unique idea that makes it different from any other deal site.
Membership Sites
There are also a lot of possibilities for starting a membership website to serve the
design community. The membership/club option was already mentioned for tem-
plates and themes, but other possibilities include stock resources, tutorials, instruc-
tional videos, leads for client projects, and more. Basically, anything that is needed

by designers or will make their lives easier could be a possibility for a member-
ship site.
Job Board
With so many designers looking for work (both freelance and employment op-
portunities) and with companies trying to find the right designer, a number of
industry-specific job boards exist (see a list at 23 Design and Development Job
Boards). Setting up a job board can be pretty quick and easy with several solu-
tions that exist, including job board themes for WordPress. You could start your
own job board in no time.
Web Apps
Web apps often use the membership model, and there are a number of possibili-
ties for making money with this approach. One example is Bidsketch, a project of
Ruben Gamez. Bidsketch allows designers to create and track proposals for client
projects. It’s a great service because it helps designers to work more efficiently,
and it brings in a recurring income since there is an annual fee. There are count-
less other examples that could be used, and the possibilities are endless.
A successful web app could easily bring in a significant amount of money that
would be able to add some great diversity to your income sources. The down
side is that, especially with a membership model, the amount of work required
is likely to be fairly significant. You won’t be able to manage a popular web app
and provide good customer service without putting in the time, which means less
time for other projects. Also, the time and cost to get the web app up and run-
ning and ready for customers may be significant.
iPhone, iPad, and Android Apps
Similar to the opportunity with web apps, you could also create apps for smart-
phones and/or tablets. Unlike with web apps, most iPhone, iPad, and Android
apps are sold for a one-time fee, and usually just a few dollars. The amount of
amount of time, effort, and cost to get the app up and running and to provide
support may not be as much as would be required with a web app. Of course,
the specifics would depend on the app and how many people are using it.
Personal Projects Conclusion
These are just a few examples of other types of websites or apps that you could
create. Use your creativity and you’ll probably be able to come up with at least
a few ideas about projects that you could work on. The income potential can
be quite high, but like setting up your own blog it will likely take at least several
months until you are making money. Personal projects can be a good fit if you’re
looking for something that can potentially be a significant source of income in
the future. On the other hand, if you’re looking for something with a quick re-

turn, there are better options.
Reseller or Affiliate Hosting
Many designers are successful at adding another source of income through reseller or
affiliate hosting. Simply selling hosting to your web design clients can bring in a small,
but steady, amount of money each month. The easy way to get started is with an affiliate
program. Almost every hosting company has an affiliate program and the payouts can be
pretty high considering the low cost of most shared hosting plans. Many hosts pay $50
- $100 per referral, and if you refer a considerable number of customers it can go even
higher.
If you have a host that you typically use yourself or refer to your clients, check to see if
they have an affiliate program and you could easily make an extra few hundred dollars
per month. The good thing about hosting affiliate programs is that you have no responsi-
bility other than getting people to click on your affiliate link. If they sign up with the host
you won’t be responsible for support, you just get a referral bonus.
On the other hand, reseller hosting typically involves signing up for a reseller account
(which will involve a monthly payment) and then you sell the hosting to your clients and
customers. You’ll have more control over things like pricing, and you’ll also have a higher
potential value per customer because you can make money from them each month as
long as they host with you. The major down side is that in most reseller situations you
will also be responsible for providing support to your customers. A lot of designers don’t
have the desire to get support emails or calls regarding hosting, and if you’re only charg-
ing customers a small amount per month it may not be worth the potential hassle. For
this reason affiliate hosting is a better choice for most designers.

Creating Assets
As we have now looked at a lot of different ways for designers to make money and to
diversify income sources, it’s important to point out that not all income is equal. With
a lot of the methods we’ve mentioned here, you will be creating an asset that could be
sold at some point in the future, which would produce even more money.
For example, if you’re building your own blog you may want to sell the blog after a few
years, and if you have built a blog that brings in revenue you will likely be able to find
a buyer. On the other hand, if you are writing blog posts on a freelance basis for other
blogs you are not building an asset. In that situation you’re actually helping the owner
of the other blog to build their own asset. Once you get paid for your work as a free-
lance writer, your income potential is done.
When creating an asset you’ll likely have to put in time and effort before you see much
income from your efforts, but the long-term potential is higher. Essentially, if you own
the website it can be an asset. Whether it is a blog, a template shop, a job board, or a
web app, you can always have the option to sell at some point in the future. If you’re
selling items at marketplaces or sites that you do not own, you obviously won’t be able
to sell the site.
Determining which approach is the right fit for you will require you to look at your own
personal situation. In general, if your primary need is to make some extra money each
month starting immediately, building an asset may not be right for you. You’ll probably
be more successful at earning that immediate income by writing (paid) posts for other
blogs, selling resources at a popular marketplace, or adding some additional services
to your offerings. But if your primary interest is creating another source of income that
will grow over time and hopefully replace some or all of your client work eventually,
27

Creating Assets
focus on something that will allow you to build an asset.

29
With so many possibilities it may be difficult to decide what is the best fit for you and
to actually get started. Here are a few tips:
Consider your short-term needs
Are you looking at ways to bring in more income on a monthly basis right now? If so,
consider some of the methods that would allow you to be up and running very quickly.
Examples include offering consulting, offering new services to your clients, freelance
blogging, affiliate hosting, or selling stock graphics. If there are other opportunities
that you want to pursue that will take more time to start making money, you can
always mix them in using your spare time. If making more money immediately is not a
major priority it will free you up to choose just about anything that you want.
Consider your long-term goals
Do you want to continue providing services to clients as your primary means of in-
come into the foreseeable future? If so, there’s no need to choose something with the
potential to completely replace your client income.
On the other hand, if you’d like to eventually break away from client work altogether,
start working today towards something that has that potential. Focus on efforts with
higher potential like selling templates, info products or e-books, or a personal project
website.
Follow your passion
A lot can be gained from having work that you enjoy. Don’t pursue any of the options if
it is something that you really don’t want to do. Find something that excites, intrigues,
and motivates you.

Think about your existing situation
Do you already have a number of past and present clients? If so, adding new services
may be an easy way to boost your income quickly. You can simply reach out to those
clients and let them know about the new services that you offer (and maybe give them a
discount as an incentive).
Do you have a portfolio site or blog with decent traffic? If so, selling products from your
site might be easier than if you were starting from scratch.
Have you already been able to establish your reputation in the industry? If so, info prod-
ucts, books, and e-books would likely sell because of your reputation.
Do you have a strong network? If so, you might be able to find some affiliates to help you
sell your own products.
Do you have strong social networking profiles? If so, offering social media-related ser-
vices or social media consulting would be a natural fit.
Find your strengths
Focusing on what you do well can help to increase your success with these ventures. Of
course, learning new things is important too, but using your strengths is a good way to
increase your income. If you’re a good writer, focus on the writing possibilities. If you
can create amazing graphics, why not create stock resources that could be sold? If you’re
good at marketing you could put that to use by promoting your own new services or by
starting a personal project that will need to be promoted.

Taking a Diversified
Approach
31
The amount of money that a freelance designer needs to make will depend on a few
factors, including: where you live, your lifestyle, bills and debts that must be paid, and
your family situation. As we’ve been looking at the various possibilities throughout this
e-book you may have been thinking that some or all of the possibilities would never
allow you to earn enough money to live on. That’s ok. The key is to find a few different
sources that can come together to allow you to make more money.
Let’s say for example that you need $5,000 of income per month. Maybe your design
work for clients is going pretty well, but it’s only bringing in an average of $3,000 per
month and you’re spending a lot of time unsuccessfully trying to track down new cli-
ents.
Instead of using that time chasing new clients, devote it to creating other streams of
income. You may be able to write one freelance blog post per week that will produce a
total of another $500 per month ($125 per post in this scenario).
Maybe you also have some graphics sitting on your hard drive that you can touch up
and sell at stock marketplaces. It may even be something that was designed for a cli-
ent that was later revised and never used by the client, such as an unused logo design.
Let’s say you make another $500 per month from selling those stock resources.
Your web hosting company probably has an affiliate program, so let’s say that you sign
up for the program and you promote it on Facebook and Twitter. You can search for
coupon codes for discounts and post those codes with your affiliate link (be sure to
read the terms of the affiliate program). Say you get 2 new sign ups per month, that
could be another $200.

Taking a Diversified Approach
And finally, let’s say that you have used your down time to design and code a website
template that you sell at ThemeForest, and that template makes you $800 per month.
That’s a fairly successful template, but it’s not even close to what the top selling tem-
plates/themes make.
You’ve now reached your total of $5,000 per month with only $3,000 of it coming from
client work. Here is the breakdown from this example:
Client work - $3,000
Template sales - $800
Freelance blogging - $500
Stock graphics - $500
Hosting affiliate income - $200
Total = $5,000
This type of approach is actually more realistic for most freelancers than earning 100% of
the income from client work, and a growing number of designers are making this hap-
pen. Don’t feel like any one source has to be able to produce huge sums of money in
order for it to make a difference in your business and in your life.
One of the keys to diversified income is actually making it happen. So take action today
and get started by putting this information into practice and I think you will find that it is
well worth the effort.

Exclusive Offer
As a way of saying “thank you” for reading this e-book we would like to offer you a
special discount on our most popular product, the Freelance Starter Kit. We’ve devel-
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business success of freelance designers, and we know it can help you to create some
diversity of income sources as well.
The Freelance Starter Kit includes:
• Resources for marketing your design services
• Contract templates
• Sample legal terms and conditions for template sellers
• Identity set templates
• Icons that can be used in commercial templates and themes
• E-books
• Interview with Chris Spooner: Earning a Living as a Design Blogger
• Interview with Ryan Putnam: Selling Stock Graphics
• Interview with Brian Casel: Launching a WordPress Theme Shop
• Interview with Noura Yehia: Pursuing Personal Projects
• and more
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