How to Make Money as an Artist/Designer: Part 3 (Searching and Posting on the Internet)

Networking is great but it can’t be your only way and unless you are good at stalking (I mean talking) to people, cold calls can be a pain. Selling your work and/or services on the internet is easy and can make you a lot of money, well, hopefully a lot of money. You just need to know where and how to do it. There is always someone, somewhere that needs something designed or some stock imagery, some people do and they just don’t know it. Using the internet is great, because you can reach people from all over the world. And there are millions of places to go online to find these people. (I can only speak for the few places that have work for me.)

Before I do, you need to come up with some quick (and good) “GoTo Text", text that is about you, your experience, your training, pricing, design procedure (basically a resume and cover letter/business proposal that you can easily cut and paste from a word or notepad doc is fine) web friendly images of your work, is a must. Setting this up can be a job all-in-itself, but once you have them, store them somewhere on your hard drive that you can easily access to cut and paste, upload to websites and/or email. I also, recommend having an online portfolio and/or a website that list your services, products, and rates. If you don’t have one then get one, and if you don’t know how to get one, then learn. Unless you are a fashion designer, sculptor, painter or anyone else who works mostly with materials and not computers, basic html and how to use a website editors is a must. It’s a great skill to have (and get paid for) and in this day in age if you’re an artist/designers that doesn’t know web design or have a websie, it’s a big let down to employers and potential customers.

Once you have your “GoTo Text", samples, and links to your websites ready. You need only, start applying and responding to any and all jobs you find online, but keep it within reason, if you can’t do the job then don’t apply for it and don’t take on more than you can handle. A great place to look for work is Craigslist.org they have tons of listings under “Jobs”: art/media/design, marketing/advertising/PR, web/HTML/info design, writing/editing, tv/film/video/radio. There is also a “Gigs’ section and a section to post your services. Be sure to check out your local newspapers’ websites, too. Keep in mind that if you live in a small town you might have to look in the section for the largest city next to yours. Keywords to search for are: design, logo, graphic designer, graphic artist, Photoshop, Flash, web design, etc. (just use keywords that best or frequently describe design jobs you want to do). There are a ton of artist directory sites and online agency that let you post samples and resumes for free, it take time to do it but if you get one job from it, wouldn’t it be wroth it?

List of free sites to find work or post your services and products:
Craigslist.org
Local Online Newspapers
CreativeGroup.com
Sakson.com
MySpace.com
Backpage.com
Google.com
Yahoo.com
kijiji.com
Local.com

Now, let’s talk pay sites. I’ll be the first to tell you, that half the time (most of the time) I don’t have the funds to pay someone for the “hope” of getting a design job. But, for some of these sites (especially the popular sites) if you don’t pay, you won’t stand a chance of getting a project. I have personal, used only 1 pay site to find design work, Guru.com (formerly emoonlighters.com). I started off with a basic account and get nothing, because people with basic accounts who submit a proposal for a project are always submitted to the clients 48-72 hrs after you click the submit button. As you might guess, most people choose someone to work within the first 24 hrs. So, once I got a few dollars saved I decided to upgrade my account and if it didn’t work out I wouldn’t do it again. Well, with in a month, I was able to make my $75 back and then some. So, of course I totally recommend using Guru.com. It was easy to setup an account, just cut and paste your “GoTo Text", upload some samples, and come up with a great cover letter (proposal/bid) that explains who I was and what I could do for them. I recommend something generic that you can easily switch out words and phrases so that you can tailor it to each project you apply for without having to always rewrite one.

There are of a ton of sites and online classifies to post or look for work on, you just have to take the time and energy to market yourself to or for them (however you want to look at it).

P.S. Statistically speaking, for every 15 jobs you apply for most people will only get 1-2 responds, so don’t be easily discouraged.

List of pay sites to find work or post your services and products:
Guru.com (I used and had great success with it)
Yahoo.com - Shopping (Used to post Products)
Google.com - Shopping (Used to post Products)
ihirecommercialart.com (never used)
iFreelance.com (never used)
Sologig.com (never used)
eLance.com (never used)
Cafepress.com (never used)