Ways to Make Money Online Using Your Creativity

Traditionally creative industries were not seen as high earning potential career paths, with the ‘starving artist’ stereotype pervasive throughout society. However in recent times many creative industries have been identified as high earners, particularly for those with digital skills. There are an increasing number of opportunities being made available to earn a living by using your creativity to sell goods or freelance services online.

Making money using your creativity is more accessible than ever before. For professional workers, freelancing is a booming industry allowing freedom to work flexible hours from anywhere in the world. Freelance marketplaces such as Envato Studio, Elance-oDesk and Freelancer.com connect freelancers to clients globally. More people are taking advantage of the opportunities available. A survey conducted last year by Elance-oDesk found that 30% of Australians take part in some kind of freelance work.

As well as offering freelance services, selling digital goods such as stock photography, audio tracks and website themes online is another thriving economy. There is a growing market for both buying and selling these items for enterprising workers looking to supplement their income or escape the 9-5 workday. Envato Market is one destination where community members can buy and sell quality digital assets.

While there is an obvious insecurity associated with not having a regular monthly paycheck, it’s easy to see the appeal of freelancing or selling digital assets online. For creatives with the right skills, there are countless opportunities to earn money, particularly in the digital world.

At present 23% of the world’s websites and blogs are created using WordPress, a customisable platform that allows users to modify content with relative ease. The growth of WordPress has led to a number of enterprising designers and developers to come up with templates users can purchase to create their websites or blogs from. In the world of WordPress theme creation, creative web design team ThemeFusion have reached legendary status. Pakistan-based developer Muhammad Haris reached out to US-based designer Luke Beck after seeing some of his PhotoShop files for sale on Envato Market and the two have collaborated online ever since. Without having to relocate, or to find local partners, the team have been hugely successful selling their one theme, Avada. Since its first release on Envato’s ThemeForest marketplace in 2012, the theme has been sold over 110,000 times, making it one of the top selling WordPress themes of all time. What makes this achievement all the more impressive is that Haris and Beck have never met in person, showing the potential for collaboration and effective team working online. The two have overcome challenges such as their different timezones by adjusting the hours they work so they are online at the same time.

The pair’s success was highlighted last year when Haris featured in the YouTube series Envato Stories. In the video Haris shared his passion for his work, and a little about the benefits of his dedicated effort. This includes the ability to build a large home for his extended family in his home of Lahore, Pakistan.

For graphic artists there are also increasing opportunities to offer services online to a global client base. Freelance duo Unipen, based in Skopje, Macedonia, initially tested out Envato Studio while on a summer holiday. They received their first job request in 24 hours and initially thought it was just ‘beginners luck’, until more jobs started pouring in. “We got ten new projects in the next couple of days,” they said. Soon demand was so great they had to pause their service so they could complete the jobs they were accepting.

There are ways to make money for those who enjoy creating with video files too. The Mister Horse team saw opportunities in the lucrative category of selling After Effects (video editing software from Adobe) plug-ins online. “I had the idea that it would be better for customers to be able to create their own story,” says Mister Horse co-founder Adam. The team met with success almost immediately after releasing their first attempt at a plug-in in this style on VideoHive in 2013. Their latest offering proved even more popular, purchased over 1,500 times in four months. The Mister Horse team’s tip for people wanting to make money online is to make things that are useful and simple to use. The team have demonstrated how a solid idea and a quality product can achieve impressive online sales.

With mobile game apps booming, rewards can be reaped even in a highly competitive market. Baptiste Greve was working as a project manager at a web agency in Paris when he created iOS game Rolly Candy, using assets he purchased from online marketplace GraphicRiver. He taught himself the technical skills required to develop the game but lacked the design skills to create quality assets. Being new to iOS development, Greve was cautious about paying for custom-designed assets and instead opted to purchase some high-quality, ready-made graphics that perfectly matched what he was looking for. The first night of Rolly Candy’s release saw 500 downloads and in the first two weeks the game was played in 37 different countries by a total of 6,800 people.

Even musicians are finding ways to earn money online using their creativity. One musician, known as pinkzebra, has made over 46,000 sales of tracks on music marketplace AudioJungle. The tracks range in price from $5-$48 and can be used on a number of projects from corporate videos through to cinema trailers. Rather than trying to break into traditional routes for making money from music through record contracts or live performances, musicians are finding that selling tracks online is lucrative way to make money.

For those who lack the technical skills required to get creative online, there are plenty of places to learn that are more flexible and less expensive than traditional educational institutions. These include sites such as Tuts+ and Lynda.com. The former offers courses and free tutorials on topics ranging from web design to photography to business skills. A recent survey by the Tuts+ team found that the majority of their users are already employed and are looking to build on existing skills in their field of expertise. Though there are plenty of people who have used the site to learn new skills and change careers. “I began as a truck driver with a wife and three kids working for a small lumber company, I began getting up at 4.30am every morning and studying online about web design,” says one user. “Four years later, I make five times what I did before and work at a university.”

Regardless of your skill set or ability, if you want to get creative online and have the ambition to learn or improve your skills, marketplaces and buyers are out there waiting to purchase your next great idea. It’s a booming industry. You have very little to lose.

By Selina Ife

Author Profile

Selina Ife works in Communications at Envato‘s head office in Melbourne, Australia. She loves being part of a team that enables a global creative community to reach their career aspirations, while meeting passionate people from all parts of the globe.