11 Ways to Make Money as a Digital Artist

Digital art is a great field with a lot of scope in the creative industry.

Many people nowadays are shifting to digital and artists are no exception. A lot of passionate and aspiring artists are starting to adapt to this new form of art – not to mention it’s also a lot of fun!

As fun as it is being a digital artist and creating beautiful pieces of art digitally there are a number of questions people might ask before getting serious in this field.

One such question is, how do digital artists make money?

In today’s busy world it’s pretty difficult to balance creating/learning digital art consistently and have a full-time job. Also worth mentioning is that many talented artists aren’t even aware of how to monetize digital art.

Despite the challenges, there are multiple ways digital artists make money which allows them to achieve their dream career.

In this article, I’m going to go over many ways that show you how to sell digital art online and make money.

How Do Digital Artists Make Money?

Digital artists make money through multiple different ways but all of it mainly comes down to offering commissioned work, selling digital art NFTs, freelancing, designing and selling merchandise, and social media channels.

It should also be noted that many digital artists I know have multiple streams of income.

They might be earning from their YouTube channel, teaching, and selling merchandise such as, custom print T-shirts and stickers.

However, the most common way digital artists monetize their work is by selling commissioned work.

Since this is the most popular and preferred way for earning as a digital artist I’ll discuss this first in detail going over how digital art commissions work and how to make money from it.

How Do Digital Art Commissions Work?

Digital art commission means charging for creating digital art for other people such as, businesses and individuals.

You might already be familiar with this kind of work. Nowadays, there are ton of people on the internet stating things like, “I’ll draw you as a cartoon for $10.”

Here’s an example of one of my favorite videos by Ten Hundred with a similar concept where he draws what people tell him to for $5:

So, how do digital art commissions work? Simple, you create an account for yourself where you can receive money and market yourself as a digital artist which means letting people know you are open for custom offers. People will give you their order, you will create it for them and receive the payment.

Obviously, this isn’t as simple as it sounds, it can take a lot of time before you actually start getting orders for your digital art.

So, let’s dive into more detail.

How to Make Money with Digital Art Commissions

Now, I’m going to assume you are somewhat decent at digital art. If not, it is best to first learn digital art properly through YouTube or online courses (or whatever you prefer).

If you think you are skilled enough you should first start with marketing yourself and try to get recognized in the industry.

Marketing Yourself

You’re a great artist, congrats! But nobody knows that except you so the first step is to market yourself.

First, you should focus on creating a social media profile where you post and share your artwork so people get a taste of what your art is like.

I’ve found that one great way to grab people’s attention is to create digital art of famous celebrities or things that are trending and tagging them on your artwork.

This works because you are targeting people that are already searching for these things so your art might pop up and interest some people.

If you consistently post high-quality pieces of your art on social media, engage in conversations with other artists, and be patient you’ll eventually grow an audience – a small, humble audience you can be proud of.

This audience is going to be your starting point of monetizing your digital art which means it’s time to start taking orders.

Getting Orders

Once you have a good number of eyes on your digital art pieces it’s time to let people know you’re open for custom orders.

In your social media profile, you can mention your contact details so that people who are interested in your art and want to get something personally designed for themselves can easily reach you. This could be adding your phone number/email address or just write “DM for custom orders” in your bio.

Getting Paid Commissions

Time for the good stuff, getting paid.

Getting paid is a bit complicated as most of the dealing is going to be taken place online. One major confusion that beginner digital artists have is charging for their work.

When you are working as a professional digital artist for the first time you might not have a clear idea on what to charge people especially since everyone might have a different order.

Most artists charge by the hour, this is the simplest way to charge for your digital art as you are getting money equal to the amount of effort you are putting in. To charge by the hour you need to:

• Set a rate you would want to be paid hourly. The average digital artist charges a rate of $29 per hour.
• Time your drawings to see how many hours it takes you to complete.
• Multiply the time taken with your hourly rate and make an invoice.

Another option you have is to charge a fixed price, this is the kind of pricing you would see on freelance websites like Fiverr where artists might charge e.g. $10 for simple line art, $20 for full body art, and $30 for full body with color art.

I personally think charging a fixed price is better as once you become a master artist (which I know you will) you might be able to get complex drawings done in a matter of minutes but you’re going to get paid less for it – which doesn’t make much sense.

Finally, keep an eye out for scams.

Remember not to trust anyone blindly. If someone says they’ll pay you after you have completed their drawing, refuse.

You should always get advance payment – even if it isn’t full payment, you should first take something to compensate for your time.

Once you have communicated with the client, finalized the work and are ready to get paid you need to have a payment method set up.

If you are living in the U.S. the best and easiest option for you would be to open a PayPal account as it only requires an email and is super easy to open.

If you live outside the U.S. explore your options to see what works.

Usually, this could mean having the money deposited directly to your local bank account or using some other service for foreign payments such as Payoneer.

If you aren’t old enough for any of this you can use a parent/guardian’s bank account just make sure you have their permission.

Do Digital Artists Make a Lot of Money?

Some aspiring digital artists might be worried that they won’t be able to make digital art a full-time career due to financial constraints.

Don’t worry, digital artists are able to make a lot of money especially since everything seems to be making a shift to digital.

You also have multiple ways to monetize your art such as, opening a YouTube channel where you upload speed drawings, offer a course on digital art, or work as a freelance digital artist creating artwork for businesses and individuals.

11 Ways to Make Money as a Digital Artist

Below, I’ve compiled a list of 11 ways you can make money as a digital artist. Remember, the key to making money with any of these is that you have to remain patient, optimistic, and determined no matter which path you choose.

• Instagram
• Etsy
• Amazon
• YouTube
• Digital art NFTs
• Freelancing
• Print-on-demand
• Making Fonts
• Live stream your work on Twitch
• Create and sell digital art courses
• Create graphic designs for businesses

1. Making Money as a Digital Artist on Instagram

First up we have Instagram.

Instagram is a great platform for digital artists to publish and share their art because Instagram is a visual platform meaning your art would be the focal point of your posts.

Setting up your Instagram page

To get started, you need to create a business account and fill it up with some personal details like your name, description, email, etc.

The reason you are creating a business account is that it allows you to include your email and some other contact options which would be important for people to reach you.

If you want, you can still create a personal page and just add the line “DM me for custom orders”.

Once you have your page and bio set up you should create and upload at least 10 digital art pieces on your Instagram page.

This would fill it up, meaning if someone were to click on your profile they would instantly get a glimpse of your artwork rather than a half-filled or empty page.

Getting recognized

Now that you have an attractive Instagram page you can go ahead and start engaging in conversations with fellow artists by giving them a follow and commenting on some of their artwork. You can also send them DMs asking for tips to help you improve on your art.

Now that you have somewhat of an existence on Instagram the next step is doing what you love – creating awesome art.

Create some art on trending topics or people that inspire you – like a digital painting on your favorite TV star and tag them.

Don’t get overexcited and always expect them to comment or share it – you’ll have a lot of losses before you have a win.

Getting orders

There are two ways you could start getting orders for your digital art you can either reach out to potential clients or let them come to you.

If you plan on pursuing clients you can do so by first identifying which people might be in need of your services.

For example, if you see a person on Instagram who is trying to grow his business by promoting his product and he has a terrible looking design for his posts you can DM him and introduce yourself as a digital artist and propose a solution to how you can fix his designs and what impact it might have on his business.

The main problem with this approach is that you never really know whether the person needs your services or not. You just approach them and pray they do, which is why I like to lean over to the next approach – making the clients come to you.

Making clients come to you

Once you start getting recognized, people might start approaching you for getting their own artwork done, if you’re lucky you might even land a long-term client that is in constant need for unique artwork.

When these people approach you, you need to communicate with them, asking them a bunch of questions so that they are satisfied with their end piece.

You need to discuss all the terms and conditions with them before you agree on the project.

This could include the number of revisions they are allowed, whether the art would be in color or not, how much time you are willing to put in to the artwork etc.

Getting paid on Instagram

Finally getting paid is the easy part. Once both parties are satisfied you have to send your payment info to the client.

This could be your PayPal account, your Payoneer account, your bank account etc. Whatever mode of payment you prefer.

2. How to Make Money Selling Digital Art on Etsy

Etsy is an established marketplace where many artists come to open up their online ecommerce store to market and sell their products.

On Etsy, you have two options when it comes to selling products – physical and digital.

Since you are a digital artist you have to focus on the digital products.

Etsy allows people to offer digital products to customers where the customer finds your store, transfers the money and gets access to the downloadable file.

Setting up your Etsy store

Etsy is an online market place meaning you have to register yourself as a seller and set up your own online store to start selling. The process is pretty simple:

1. Go to Etsy.com/sell.
2. Click on Start selling.
3. Register an account by entering your account details.
4. Confirm your account by verifying the email from Etsy.
5. Once done go to Your Shop.
6. Finally, name your store and fill in the information on all the pages.

Once you have your store set up you can start listing your digital products for sale however, it’s important to keep in mind what the most popular selling products are on Etsy.

I won’t cover all of them in complete detail but when it comes to digital art, the best and most in-demand products are digital art prints.

What are digital art prints?

Digital art prints are a printed image of a piece of digital artwork. This artwork is first downloaded in a .png or .jpg file format and then with the help of a printer is printed out on to a piece of paper.

These art prints are then usually framed and hanged on a wall. The usual sizes for digital art print frames are 5×7, 8×10, and 11×14.

Selling digital prints on Etsy

By now you should have your store online on Etsy, so, it’s time to start selling your digital art.

Firstly you’ll have to create some digital art prints for listing. Don’t worry about providing things like, frames, paper, or printing materials because Etsy has an option for providing digital, downloadable files securely.

To get started, I’d recommend you have about 10 listings to fill up your store and give people enough items and variety to make a choice.

When you create and upload your art on Etsy you’ll have to fill out some details like product name, tags, description, and provide the files of your artwork.

Once you fill up all the details, take some time to create a good product image, this is the most important part as this is what your customers would see first glance and it can be an instant turn off to see a poor quality product image even if the artwork itself is great.

One way to greatly improve the imagery of your artwork is to create mockups.

Mockups are a display of your artwork in real-life scenarios like how your image would appear on a wall, or on top of a cupboard etc.

You don’t have to print the artwork and hang it in your home to get your point across but there are loads of free mockups online in which you could manually place your image.

My favorite site to download mockups are FreePik as they have tons of options – free and premium.

You could also go to Envato Elements, they have loads of resources for designers and artists and all you need is a subscription to their service.

Promoting your Etsy products

You might have completely set up your store and it’s looking great however, since Etsy is a competitive platform you might need to promote your products in order to get in front of potential customers’ eyes.

Promoting your Etsy art can be a tedious task but it’s not that complicated.

There are multiple ways you could promote your Etsy store – through social media, blogging, your own website, etc. You can even run ads for your store as well.

Getting Paid on Etsy

Once you get your first order it’s time to get paid. When a customer makes a purchase through your store you will get paid through Etsy Payments.

Etsy Payments is Etsy’s own payment gateway that allows buyers to pay through multiple payment modes they prefer with their own currency however, this is not yet worldwide.

With Etsy Payments customers are able to pay through:

• PayPal
• Etsy Credit
• Etsy Gift Card
• Bank Transfer
• Apple Pay
• Google Pay
• Debit/credit card

If you are living somewhere Etsy payments isn’t available, you would still be able to accept payments through PayPal.

Etsy would also charge a payment processing fee depending on your location. If you want to see the list of payment processing fees for your country you can check them out here.

3. Sell Digital Art on Amazon Merch

Amazon is one of the world’s leading supplier of goods and services and although it may be popular for physical shipments, it’s totally possible to sell digital products on Amazon as well.

I believe you can sell digital art prints on Amazon and make a good amount of money – a process similar to Etsy – but a more practical way to approach Amazon would be to sell digital art on Amazon Merch.

So, what does that look like?

1) Sign up for Amazon Merch on Demand

Amazon’s Merch on Demand service allows digital artists, like yourself, to create and submit art designs on their website. These designs are then printed on t-shirts, mugs, tote bags and many other pieces of merchandise.

To sign up, all you have to do is create an account by going to their website and clicking Sign Up. Then just follow the rest of the prompts until you’re in.

You might have to wait for an email confirmation to let you whether they’ve accepted you or not.

2) Create and list your designs

Once you’ve been accepted into the program, you’ll be able to upload your designs. When you first start you can only upload 10 designs and as your sales grow you can upload more.

When it comes to designing the product, you’ll have to keep in mind Amazon’s content policies, which you can check out here.

Also, be sure to follow Amazon best practices when creating your artwork as well. Fortunately, Amazon lists these out in their post. You’ll have to be wary of these to ensure your printed design looks exactly like your original artwork.

3) Get paid from Amazon

Unfortunately, I don’t have much good news when it comes to Amazon’s commissions. Since your designs are going to be printed on merch provided by Amazon, you ought to know there’s only so much to be paid by supplying your art for t-shirts and sweatpants.

Commission rates can vary but you get about 12% in royalties across most products sold. Thankfully though, this means the more products you sell, and the higher their prices, the more commission you generally make.

Since they have a lot more items, each having different commission rates, I’d suggest you check out the full list of their royalties here.

So, when it comes to selling digital art on Amazon Merch, I won’t rely on it as a primary income source, rather its more like passive income – which would generate you money on the side. However, you would have to promote your merch from time-to-time to get it in front of people.

Finally, you need to link your bank account with Amazon to get paid your due. You have the options of wire transfer, cheque, and direct deposit.

4. Making Money as a Digital Artist on YouTube

With visual content in demand more than ever, many people have started to look into YouTube as a way to monetize their hobbies.

Professional digital artists have started to utilize the potential of YouTube by expressing their creativity in different ways and growing an audience.

As a digital artist, the first question that you may have is “what kind of content do I make?” Because YouTube is a video platform meaning you can’t just post your artwork and expect people to come.

There are many video ideas to try but my first advice would be to stick to something niche.

Choosing and focusing on a specific niche will help you stand out from the large sea of digital artists trying to make it big on YouTube.

For example, other than covering all types of digital art, you can stick to anime, cartoons, or animation etc.

One good way of brainstorming this is to write down whatever niche comes in your mind and basically keep breaking it down to make it more specific until finally you have a good one to focus on.

As for the content, try to come up with something unique and creative.

You could record your digital art process, a timelapse of some of your own artwork, start a story-time YouTube channel narrating over your digital art paintings, or focus solely on animation like, theodd1sout or Jaiden Animations.

Getting Paid on YouTube

Getting paid on YouTube is extremely easy once your channel starts to grow. YouTube’s minimum requirement for monetizing your channel is:

• 1000 subscribers
• 4000 hours of total watch time

Sure, at first glance this might seem very difficult but you should remember all good things take time.

You have to remain optimistic and patient as the thing that separates good digital artists on YouTube from the bad ones is their level of consistency and determination.

The first couple of months are going to be the toughest as you would have to constantly be uploading videos without any return.

As soon as your videos start getting traction you’ll gradually see an increase in your watch time, subscribers, and views.

Once you are eligible for monetization you would have to create an Adsense account.

Adsense is Google’s ad service which brings together advertisers and publishers for marketing purposes where the advertiser pays Google to run their ads, Google takes a cut of the payment and pays you the rest for displaying those ads on your videos.

The revenue that you make will be calculated using RPM (Revenue per thousand impressions).

An impression is how many times a person sees an ad so the more views you get on your videos, the more you earn.

All the money that you make through display ads would be collected in your adsense wallet which you can then deposit in your bank or PayPal account.

5. How to Make Money from Digital Art NFTs

Digital art NFTs have been booming in recent times and are the reason many digital artists are becoming millionaires by selling their artwork.

What are digital art NFTs?

NFTs or non-fungible tokens are “digital assets that [represent] real-world objects like art, music, in-game items and videos”.

Many digital artists have started creating digital art NFTs as it allows them to secure their digital artwork and make money from it.

These digital artworks aren’t just a PNG or JPG image you transfer to the client and get paid for.

These artworks are created using blockchain technology which is basically a system made up of blocks in the back-end where each block is assigned a unique hash (key).

The person with the original artwork with the hash assigned to it is the rightful owner of that image. This means you can’t just download the image and claim it as your own.

How to make and sell digital art NFTs

To create a digital art NFT you need to get it onto the blockchain and to do that you need to get it minted.

Minting basically means to secure your digital artwork so that it can’t get damaged and becomes part of a public ledger where it will become part of the Etherum Blockchain.

To mint your art work you first need a crypto wallet.

A crypto wallet is a place where you keep all your crypto currency.

Since I personally don’t know much about crypto currency and a crypto wallet you can check out this guide by coinbase that goes over how to create your own crypto wallet.

Once you have your crypto wallet ready, you need to connect it to a site that deals with NFTs such as, OpenSea or Rarible.

These sites would allow you to convert your digital art into NFTs by dragging your JPG, PNG, or MP4 file and allow it to be minted.

Once you upload your artwork it might take a few days for your artwork to be verified.

Once you’re digital art NFT is verified it will be placed securely in your crypto wallet and can be sold on sites such as, OpenSea and Rarible.

6. How to Make Money as a Freelance Digital Artist

Freelancing is on the rise – in 2019 59 million Americans had reported to be freelancers, that’s 36% of the total workforce!

Freelance digital artists are also making it big in the industry as you’ll see the online marketplaces populated with loads of talented freelance artists willing to create stunning artworks for as low as $5.

Unlike other things on this list that are easy to start such as a social media page and your online store I’d say tapping into freelancing as a beginner digital artist can be a bit difficult at first.

Firstly, like all other things this is a long-term journey. You can’t expect to make enough money to run your entire household in a matter of months (unless you’re really lucky).

You have various options to get started as a freelance digital artist but I would stick to just traditional freelance marketplaces.

Another popular option is freelancing on social media which I already discussed in the start with Instagram.

Freelance marketplaces

A freelance marketplace is a platform where people willing to work offer their services online by registering themselves as “open for work”. Potential clients then come to these platforms and contact the freelancer they are interested in working with and buy their service. 

Once they buy the service the freelancer communicates with the client to understand their demands and finally deliver the product.

The client then leaves a review on the service and whether or not he would recommend it if he wants to.

Registering yourself on these platforms is easy and different platforms might have different requirements.

The two most popular freelance marketplaces are Fiverr and Upwork.

Fiverr

Fiverr is for almost everyone so if you are a teenager who is looking to make some money, Fiverr has almost zero barriers to entry – anybody with some kind of skill is able to list themselves as a freelancer on the platform.

As expected, this also leads to a higher level of competition. Fiverr is a great platform if you are just beginning on starting freelancing as a digital artist as you might gain some experience and money.

Upwork

Upwork is a much more professional freelance marketplace as it doesn’t allow everyone with a graphics tablet to register themselves as a digital artist.

Firstly, you need to be over 18 and have a valid ID card to register yourself.

Secondly you would have to create a resume highlighting your skills, experience (if any), description, profile, etc. And most importantly you need to have a decent portfolio.

The main disadvantage of becoming a freelance digital artist is the extremely high competition.

Due to this increased competition many digital artists are finding it difficult to stay competitive which leads most of them to undervalue their work by setting low prices.

This usually leads to many digital artists struggling to make a living off their work and turning their passion into a full-time career.

It is also why you might see so many people offering high-quality digital portraits for as low as $5.

How to get started as a freelance digital artist

After you have chosen a freelancing platform and created an account, you need to get clients.

If you are operating on Fiverr you’ll need to create a gig in which you write in full detail what you do and how much you charge.

On Fiverr, you have the choice to offer different packages to clients. This gives clients more choice and a way to choose the package most suitable to them.

An example from a digital artist might be three packages with the following options:

• Get a custom digital line art – $10
• Get a full-body artwork – $20
• Get a full-body colored artwork – $30

This is just an example and your offers might depend on your niche, expertise, and experience.

If you plan to freelance on Upwork (which is something I would recommend) the main way of getting clients is by sending proposals.

Upwork gives you points which are used to send proposals to potential clients. Sending proposals to multiple clients will increase your chances of scoring a client and end up getting the job.

Like Fiverr, the competition is high on Upwork. Since you’ll be competing with many other digital artists you should focus on polishing your communication skills and send cover letters that are relevant to the client’s request.

Getting paid on Freelance Platforms

Getting paid on these freelancing platforms is easy and stress-free as all the payments are going to be securely managed by the platform itself.

This means you don’t have to worry about tax forms, payment fees, and getting scammed – as long as you keep all deals on the platform.

You also don’t have to worry too much about the payment methods as no matter where you are in the world there is a possibility they would have a payment method that works for you.

Most of the popular freelance marketplaces have multiple options of payment including:

• PayPal
• Bank deposit
• Debit/credit card
• Payoneer

When somebody orders your service, the platform will take a percentage of the payment and you will receive payment in your account which you can then withdraw.

7. Make Money with Print-on-demand

Print-on-demand is a popular way of making a passive income online.

Print-on-demand products are products that are printed and produced only when an order is placed. You can use your digital art skills to create custom designs for T-shirts, mugs, caps, and stickers and make money by selling them.

How does print-on-demand work?

These POD websites give you a mockup to design.

You then submit that design on the website and either wait for someone to buy it or promote it on social media.

Once someone makes a purchase, the order will be sent to the printing company, they will print your submitted design on to the product and deliver to the customer.

There are many popular print-on-demand websites that allow you to create custom designs for products.

The POD website usually takes care of marketing, producing and delivering your product – the main work you have to put in is to submit a design that you think is good enough that customers would want to buy.

Here is a list of the most popular POD websites:

• Printful
• Printify
• Teespring
• Redbubble
• SPOD

All you have to do is create an account and submit your design.

Getting paid for POD

Getting paid on these POD websites is a smooth process. After taking a cut from the payment, the POD company will pay you your share which you can directly deposit into your PayPal or bank account.

8. Make Money by Creating Digital Fonts

Creating fonts is a time-consuming art that can take years to master.

I wouldn’t say it’s exactly digital art and might be more related to graphic design but nevertheless the main skill you need to create digital fonts is to have a good grasp on typography.

If you don’t know much about typography, check out my article on Typography 101 which goes through everything you need to know.

However if you do have some knowledge on digital typography you can make some money from it.

How and where to sell fonts

There are a few ways to sell your fonts but the most common starting point for beginners is to work with a font reseller.

Font resellers work with font foundries, where fonts are made and published for commercial purposes. These font foundries provide fonts to font resellers to be sold to a wider audience.

The most popular font reseller is MyFonts and you can start selling your fonts there by becoming a foundry partner. You would need to have the following details when sending in your application:

• Foundry name
• Foundry description
• Designer bio

You then send in your application for review and after you get accepted you’ll need to provide the following:

• Font family name
• Font files
• At least five example images
• Description of your font family
• Tags related to your font family
• Price of your font family

If you want to know more about the application process you can check it out here.

Getting paid for selling Fonts

Getting paid through a font reseller is fairly simple.

You link your payment method to the website and after the font foundry and reseller have taken their cut you get your commission.

Even though there are many font resellers out there, if you plan on using MyFonts they have several payment methods you can integrate.

Here’s a list of them including the minimum payment threshold for withdrawing funds:

• Direct deposit (US only) – minimum payment $40
• PayPal – Min. $100 Max. $1,000
• Wire transfer – Min. $500
• Paper check – Min. $100

One thing to keep in my mind when working with these font resellers is that the competition is high and your font may get lost in the sea of millions of other fonts.

This means you might not be able to make a full-time income off of just selling digital fonts – This is more of a side hustle.

9. How to Make Money as a Digital Artist on Twitch

Twitch is a very well-known streaming platform and is primarily dominated by gamers but did you know there are a few digital artists who are making good money from their art streams as well?

Yes, it’s difficult to stand out as a digital artist on a streaming platform that is mostly full of gamers but it is possible. There are 3 main ways you can earn on Twitch as a digital artist:

• Display Ads
• Donations
• Subscriptions

However, the main issue with Twitch is that the above 3 options don’t make the streamer enough revenue.

This is especially frustrating knowing that creating live digital art is so much more difficult than gaming yet you are paid lower for the amount of effort you put in.

But, this is where the beauty of being a digital artist comes in.

As a digital artist you can diversify your income by creating multiple revenue streams and link them together.

For example, one way I discussed was to use print on demand websites to create T-shirt designs and sell them.

The great thing about Twitch is that once you build a loyal fan base you can market your merchandise over there.

You could ask followers to tell you what kind of t-shirt design they want and create it live then making it available to buy.

This is just my own take on it you can express your creativty in many other ways.

Getting paid on Twitch

There is a minimum threshold of $100 to get paid on Twitch, once you reach that threshold you link one of the payment methods on your Twitch account:

• ACH (US only) – Directly deposits money into your bank account within 1 – 3 days
• PayPal
• Local Bank payout or eCheck – This is a convenient way to receive payments for non-US residents. You might be charged an extra fee to convert the money into your local currency.
• Check
• Wire transfer – You might be charged an extra fee from your bank for wire payments and an additional fee to convert it into your local currency.

Twitch usually sends payout after 30 days of reaching the threshold.

10. Create and Sell Digital Art Courses Online

Digital art courses online can require a lot of effort to create, setup, and sell but if done right can earn you a lot of passive income in the long-run.

Nowadays, thanks to the popularity of online education in the creative industry there is a high demand for online digital art courses and platforms like Udemy make it easier for digital artists to create and sell their courses.

Creating a digital art course

Creating a digital art course is an exhaustive process as you have to film and edit each tutorial video yourself.

To get started, I would suggest you focus on a specific niche – this will help you stand out from the other creators on these platforms.

A niche is basically a smaller market of a larger market so, other than creating a course on digital art you can focus only on teaching scenery or manga.

After choosing a niche you should start focusing on making tutorial videos, it is helpful to break down each tutorial in a series of short videos.

For example, other than going through the fundamentals of digital art in a 20 minute video break it into four 5 minute videos.

This will keep the user’s interest and allow them to consume more information rather than getting exhausted or bored halfway through.

Selling your course with Udemy

Once you have a bulk of videos ready you now just have to market it using an online course platform that will allow you to get paid.

There are many platforms out there that let you do this but I suggest Udemy.

Udemy is pretty well-known and many people trust it making it a great place to market and sell your course.

I would recommend all beginners to start with Udemy, but in the long run once your course proves successful you can create your own website and sell it on there.

This is because when you market your course with Udemy you don’t have full control over it.

Meaning you can’t give your followers a special discount, you can’t offer bonuses, and are bound to the terms and conditions of Udemy.

Hosting your course on your own website will give you full control making the course more successful and help in building a bigger, loyal audience – not to mention increasing traffic on your website.

Getting paid on Udemy

The great thing about creating a course on Udemy is that it is totally free.

Once your course goes live and you make some sales, Udemy gives instructors a 37% share of the revenue. This means if someone buys your course for $100 you get $37.

This might not sound like a good deal but there’s another great option.

As an instructor, you have access to a referral link which you could send potential students to. If a student buys your course through your own coupon or referral link you will get 97% of the total revenue!

So, your main goal should be to drive traffic to your course by going to potential buyers directly and sharing with them your course link.

This would require you to have a good amount of followers first so if you don’t have that you can always build on it later but for now the most viable option would be to setup your course on Udemy and let them handle the rest.

Once you do make some sales, the main options to get paid are by direct deposit (US only) or through an international payment service called Payoneer (basically like PayPal for non-US citizens).

11. How to Make Money from Graphic Designing

The final way to make money as a digital artist on this list is through graphic designing.

Graphic designing is a way of communicating a brand’s message through knowledge of colors, images, typography, hierarchy, and layout techniques.

However, I should first note that graphic designing is a field separate from digital art.

Digital art is all about creating artwork as a way of expressing your creativity whereas graphic designing focuses more on communicating a message that appeals to a specific audience.

Keeping this in mind, I still think that it is possible for digital artists to create attractive posters and flyers.

Sure, you might try to tap into logo and brand identity design but that starts to shift the focus away from digital art. As a digital artist, you can use your skills to create attractive, expressive flyers and posters.

To get started making money from this field there are two main options.

You can register yourself as a freelancer or offer commissioned work to local businesses that seem in need of a design to promote their business.

Getting paid as a Graphic designer

How and when you get paid depends entirely on the way you approach this new field of design and how you market yourself.

Diversifying your Income

Till now you must have a good idea of how to make money as a digital artist but here’s an important tip to keep in mind – diversify your income.

I learned the hard way that you shouldn’t rely entirely on just one income stream.

When I started my career as a graphic designer I was psyched when I got my first order after pitching many clients but as soon as I got done with it I was back to square one

Pitching clients everyday hoping to get a text back.

As a digital artist you have the opportunity to create multiple streams of income and link them together to scale up your business.

For example, you can make YouTube videos showcasing your art process and tutorials then take those videos and some extra content and turn it into a course.

While you are making money with your YouTube videos and your course, you can freelance on the side. This will help build your business to great heights.

A Final Word

One important thing before you get serious about making money from digital art is that you need to first set your priorities straight – is making a lot of money your main priority?

Because taking on multiple paths in digital art and juggling between them can be confusing and stressful, not to mention the sacrifices you’ll have to make.

You need to take care of your health and focus on your family as well so it is crucial you don’t overwhelm yourself with more work than you can handle.

Wish you the best on your journey as a digital artist!