With the Covid restrictions becoming less stringent, many people are considering returning to work. The demand for skilled Animators, Modellers, and 3d Artists is higher than ever before and the competition to get hired is fierce. Finding a profitable side-hobby is becoming more difficult, especially as money is no longer flowing freely. Thankfully there are still plenty of ways to make money online, even if you don’t have specialised skills. Here are just a few of them…
Create and Sell your own Merchandise
If you’re an accomplished artist, designer, or photographer, you could make your own t-shirts, hoodies, and other clothing items and sell them online. You could make up some designs to represent your work and products and sell them as templates, or you could use a platform like Merchbar or Printful to sell your own designs. Keep in mind that designing and creating products is a good way to make money online, but you’ll need to prove your expertise in 3D modelling, animation, or Photoshop to get the best paid gigs. Take your pick of the following apps to learn more:
Start an Online Store
If you’re the creative type, you could start up an online shop where you sell your artwork, designs, or photographs. Be sure to use a proper, branded licence so you don’t have any problems down the line. You could sell your work on canvas, paper, or even mug mats if you wanted to get extra creative! There are plenty of pros who can help you with this, whether you’re using Shopify, Weebly, or WooCommerce to build your website. Just remember to add some animations to your store to make it more engaging.
Sign Up for a Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Platform
These are platforms that take care of the admin side of your business so you can focus on growing your business. Some examples are:
- Salesforce Bot Framework
- Oracle Mobile Application Express (OME)
- Zoho CRM
- Hootsuite
- HubSpot
Forbes ranked RPA as the third fastest-growing job category in 2020, and the demand is only set to increase. There are lots of gigs available for those with specialist skills in areas like data entry, market research, and customer service, so there’s plenty of opportunity to cash in while you learn.
Start an Online Learning Community
If you’re the creative type, you could start up an online learning community where you teach others how to create artwork, designs, or photographs. You could create tutorials and courses on subjects like graphic design, marketing, and photography, and invite others to learn from you. In return for your expertise, you could get paid for each lesson or course completed (or for each sign up for the course, in case it’s a free trial). You could use a tool like Trello or Zoom to manage your community, or you could use one of the many platforms built for online learning such as Team Treehouse, Kodaki, or Skillshare.
Whether you’re an expert crafter, designer, or photographer, or whether you’re simply talented at designing websites and social media posts, you’re bound to discover a use for your creativity. With the world shifting to a digital sphere, it’s a great time to be a designer. Whether you’re taking advantage of the technology to streamline your business processes or looking for new ways to engage with customers, there’s plenty of room for you in the new digital design world.