Create Your Graphic Design Website

May 16, 2010 By Ken Magas Leave a Comment

A website is mandatory for every self employed graphic designer. Even if you’ve never created a website before, you can create a professional looking website using the WordPress  platform. Many people think that the WordPress platform is strictly for blogging. The fact is that a WordPress site can be created to look like a non-blog website. Once a WordPress website is created, updating is very simple. Just log into your administrative panel and add or change content.

There are thousands of WordPress Themes to choose from to get you started. Many of them are free! I’ve learned from experience that most of the free themes are not properly structured for optimal SEO and some have functionality limitations. However, if you’re interested in free themes, you can start here. Premium, or paid WordPress themes have built-in features and offer better SEO structure. Most are very affordable, under $75.00 which is a small investment in a tool that will generate endless promotion for your business. To explore the best premium WordPress themes click here.

WordPress plug-ins are widely available to extend the functionality of your WordPress site. Portfolio or photo plugins allow a gallery type display of your portfolio. There are also contact form plugins, anti-spam plugins, mapping plugins and many more that will add valuable tools to your website.

Filed Under: Graphic Design Business

Create Graphics For Merchandise For Money

May 15, 2010 By Ken Magas Leave a Comment

Take advantage of the online surge of create your own apparel. Design and market t-shirts, shoes, caps, and other items and sell them on supplied e-commerce sites. This is a booming industry with sites like this one leading the way.

Filed Under: Make Money, Money Making Opportunities Tagged With: make money, zazzle

Make Money With Online Freelance Websites

May 14, 2010 By Ken Magas Leave a Comment

With the popularity of the internet, there are more opportunities than ever for designers to make money using their talents. Designers that once were looking for full-time employment, are now enjoying the flexible schedule of working on freelance jobs. Not many design firms are hiring full time designers now anyway. There are many online freelance site who are looking for talented designers to create designs for clients.

Designers can bid on projects and work directly with clients. Make sure you do your best work and keep the clients happy. When they have a good experience, they will request you again. This is a great way to build your freelance graphic design client base. Check out oDesk, they are easy to work with and guarantee a quick payout. Also 99 Designs is a great resource for work.

As designers we are in a great position to reap some financial benefits from our talents. Take some action and start earning today.

Filed Under: Make Money

Starting A Graphic Design Business

March 16, 2010 By Ken Magas Leave a Comment

Graphic designers are in a great position to earn additional income by working as freelancers. I started freelancing on some projects that would naturally come to me since friends and associates knew I was a graphic designer. Since I worked full time at an advertising agency, I would work on these jobs in my free time, usually at home. Eventually these freelance jobs increased and I found it harder to complete my assignments in my spare time. As a result, I left my full time job and freelanced full time. My former employer, with whom I had worked for 6 years, was supportive of my move. So much so that they were my largest client for my first couple of years!

When I started my graphic design business in May of 2000, I was thrown into a new world of business administration. Business taxes, records, articles of incorporation, client billing were just a few of the new responsibilities I was inheriting. When I started my business, there were not nearly as many online resources to guide my way. Today there are many online solutions to these initial and ongoing tasks of running a graphic design business.

Here are some valuable online resources for making the transition to setting up your own graphic design business:

Taxes

Banking

Billing

Legal

Business structure

Insurance

Health Care

Set up your graphic design business the right way and you’ll be rewarded with a

Filed Under: Graphic Design Business, Make Money