• Offer posts that are relevant to the brand and helpful for their audience--especially if it is in your blog's niche. For example, if the massive blogger is all about giving tips on photography don't try to pitch, and promote your post about cooking grits to them. Pitch a related topic such as tips and tricks about camera lens or something. 
• Don't be a desperate spammer. Don't go on twitter and "@" the brand 100 times telling them to check out your post (huge red flag)
• Choose enticing or controversial titles for your blog posts, Facebook posts, tweets, etc. If you blog about very controversial topics you need to find a bigger creator who also blogs similarly, and pitch yourself to them. Targeting the audience of someone who is within the same niche works better. 
• Always use an image when linking to your post on social media before showing them to bigger brands  as well as your own audience (social media posts with images get twice as much engagement) 

• Poor website design. If the text is hard to see or read, and the site is clunky then there's problem.
• A super slow website. If it takes too long to load people will leave in search of the next best thing. 
• Too many pop-up advertisements (especially the ones that open new scam webpages). Everyone hates them and will think you're a spam site. 
• Extremely poor grammar---this goes without saying.  An app like grammarly can help. 
• Extremely complex grammar (readers need to understand what you're saying without having to look at a dictionary every 2 seconds--unless that's the audience you are going after. Since most people are average readers I don't recommend this writing style)

A quick presentation/refresher to help you guys get some ideas if you are interested on earning some extra cash with your music.

If you have an eye for design, and have killer skills in photoshop, indesign, or illustrator and are also looking for some legitimate ways to make some extra money designing what you love to do online keep reading.


I recommend the list below if you're intermediate to advanced in designing. Most sites featured on this list are teen and college student friendly!

Fiverr: Everyone Welcomed!

From intermediate to advanced fiverr has thousands of graphic designers earning extra income through its market place. Some earning as much as $100,000 as top rated sellers.

With fiverr you will not have to market yourself much as a designer. All you need is a good gig description, and stunning samples 2-3 of your original work (these will make the most impact on your first sale). I would reccomend designing social media banners (for facebook, twitter, google+, etc) or 3d mock ups as those usually get a lot of sales in the Graphic design section.

Fiverr doesn't limit you to just $5. You could charge more with extras such as providing licensed images, source files, etc...

Fiverr is also a great way to build a portfolio if you don't have any. It helped me build up my graphic design portfolio, and my sales usually start at $55 and went as high as $750 per order. It is extremely rare for me to see $5 orders on my dashboard (maybe once every blue moon?). I personally have made thousands of dollars through fiverr.

To be honest at first I had no idea what I was doing. I was a great designer and took design classes, but I never had any experience working with an actual client. Fiverr helped me gain that experience while I was in high school, and is currently paying for my college tuition and books (through trial and error I learned to perfect my business sales).

I definitely recommend to high school visual art students starting out and college students needing a portfolio! You can see my full review and fiverr payment proof here.

Portfoliobox:

I sold some of my graphic design pieces using a website called portfoliobox!

Portfoliobox showcases portfolios in visually pleasing ways which is why I used it to begin with!


With portfolio box I had 3 pages. One page featured my portfolio while the other showed the pre-made designs I had for sale along with the prices (my fixed price was $75--keep in mind these designs were pre-made not custom). My third page was a "contact me" section where customers could contact me through a business email exclusively for design purposes. With Portfolio box I pretty much had to promote myself 100%. As a designer I was on my own with marketing myself here, but what made it easier was my design blog which I used to market myself  (no not this blog darling).

The payment system is through PayPal so to get paid you will need a paypal account.

See portfolio box in action below:





Portfoliobox offers two plans -- a free version and a pro plan for $6.90 (cheaper than Netflix bro!)

The free version limits the amounts of products/designs you can sell. You can only sell up to 10 designs at a time, are limited to 50 portfolio images, and can only have up to 10 pages. You also cannot link your personal domain name (www. yournamehere .com) with the free plan. Instead you get a free domain name under www. yournamehere.portfoliobox  .io

The pro plan allows you to have up to 1,000 images, web hosting, unlimited products/design sales, unlimited pages, unlimited blog posts, parallax pages, flickr pages, Instagram pages, and beyond! The pro plan is basically for pro designers, photographers, artists and the like.

You do not necessarily have to use portfolio box. You can use platforms like blogspot (completely free) and wordpress (kind of free) or an e-commerce platform like Shopify (absolutelty not free). I just find portfolio box very easy to use as it has all my stuff in one for free!

When using portfolio box to let others find you, and to rank in google's search engine I'd recommend using Google webmaster tools.

Graphic River: Eh?

Being part of the Envato Market Place, Graphic River allows you to sell your pre-made design at a set price. You can sell your website template designs, your vectors, presentation templates, illustration, product mocknups, and so much more. The endless design possibilities are abundant at Graphic River.

If you are more into website designs, and creating website templates I would recommend using themeforest (still under Envato Market Place) as you will earn a whole lot more from website designing!

Udemy: Teach a design course

Udemy has over 6 million users in its database, and does promote your design teaching course through coupon codes, and its affiliate programs.

So what are the rules? Here we go:

Your videos must be 30 minutes in length
It must include audio, and everything must be clear (no static, high winds, etc)
Your videos must be in HD at a minimum of 720p
Your file size must be no greater than 1 GB

If you are camera shy don't worry you do not have to show your face. You can simply screencast and record a voice over to narrate your videos. Showing your face, and talking though increases the chance of your buyers trusting you.


See an example of a Udemy video intro below!

What you'll need:

A nice and simple video editor - I use Sony vegas and final cut pro, but I would reccomended using imovie or windows movie maker for simple free editing.

A screen recorder - I use Camtasia studios and would very much recommend it (though it is pretty pricey), but if you are looking for the best free screen caster I'd recommend screen to video by Koyotesoft.com

An eye catching "pull all the clients in" teaser video. This is the intro into your course, and is basically your best marketing tool. You will need to create a short video that explains what your design course is all about. I recommend letting your personality show through (don't be scared to be funny, bubbly, etc...this is the introduction into you---make an impact) as marketing yourself well will convert into higher sales.

Starting a design course is completely free, and Udemy recommends pricing it at around $29, but  some people do so well that they offer some of their courses at $200 per student. Once a student purchases your course they have access to it forever! (So set the right price).

What about the money?

You get to keep 100% of revenues...unless Udemy markets your courses that is. In that case they get to keep a whopping 50% per sale!. You get half and they keep half. So if you sold your entire course for $100, you'll get $50 bucks to take home.

If you do not like that idea, and want to take the route of marketing your how to videos alone why not start a youtube channel? Now if you go down this road you are completely on your own (marketing, payment system, and how you'll get money--ads or sponsors? Maybe market your own products for sales?), but you will be in control of your earnings and if you're really good (or really lucky) you can make a good amount of income on a monthly basis.

Myfonts: Selling Your fonts

If you choose to design typography for Myfonts you have to absolutely know what you are doing. This is for advanced designers who pretty much specialize in creating their own original fonts. If you know nothing of typography, font libraries, serif, san serif, script, and retail fonts please do not try looking for an easy buck on Myfonts as it will be extremely difficult for you. You will absolutely earn nothing if you go in blindly.

You cannot excel at something you do not know or have no experience in creating.

On the other hand you can learn, and take free typography courses. Practice makes perfect! When you have immersed yourself in the world of typography and are practically an expert on font creation take it a step further and create licenses for your fonts. Design them efficiently, and sell your font licenses based on levels such as trademark licenses, commercial licenses, editorial licenses, and so on.

My fonts has some pretty strict rules which you can see here (yes, they are that serious baby!)

They also have guides with several steps to make it easier for you available here (oh, there is a silver a linning!)

As for the money they do take a pretty good chunk of cash from you sales so please be prepared to share some cash with them as they are marketing you!

Creative Market:

If you would still like to sell your originally designed fonts, but not so much your soul with really strict rules try Creative Market. You need an invitation to get in, but it will be worth it! Creative Market takes 30% from each of your sales so you will end up with a 70% profit. Though on the bright side you will never have to go through a review process or quality check so you can just sell every one of your designs instantly and without worry. How so? Your invitation acceptance is your quality check!

Upon invite you will have to provide a link to your online portfolio which showcases your best of the best works (this is your main quality check), and explain why you'd like to open a shop at creative market.

With Creative Market designers also have the benefit of being non-exclusive so you can sell all the designs you offer at Creative Market elsewhere (yes, the supreme bonus of guilt free cheating--with design that is!). You also have the freedom to sell your designs at whatever price you would like.

Creative Market is home to over 1 million users so you can get a decent amount of exposure from Creative Market marketing you in two ways. You either get featured or are included in their bundle sale! Sound easy? It's not.

You have to be a trendsetter. The best selling designs at creative market are fonts (yes, Myfonts was a set up to get you here). You can sell other designs such as logos, 3d, photography, templates, etc but that will not make you much as Creative Market will not give you awesome exposure for this--your voice will get lost in the depth of high quality design madness (you will not survive--there is always someone better than you...but that's okay, I'm here to save you).

So how do you get noticed? Keep up with the trending design madness! The hottest best selling stuff are the pretty decorative hand drawn font designs. This will help you get bundled, and featured towards your first couple hundred sales.

Another way you can earn well in Creative Market is by selling photoshop actions and marketing it through youtube or vimeo  (show how it's used in a video--seeing is believing). Okay, so maybe you are not about font design or photoshop actions. Maybe you're more into designing logos? Vintage and retro logos are also doing very well on Creative Market and are part of the "best selling design craze" so I'd say "go for it!"

To promote yourself even more I would reccomend building a brand for yourself via social media (google+, facebook, twitter, tumblr). You can promote each design you create, and tag them appropriately to increase your exposure.



This list will keep being updated throughout our making money online journey. Make sure to subscribe and not miss a beat!

Short answer: Maybe. It actually all depends on you.

Why do you blog?

Are you blogging for you or are you blogging for the money? Maybe both for you and the money?


If you're blogging for you and about something you love or something you want to share with others then no I don't believe that you wasted your time. You're sharing something you're passionate about and enjoying doing so. What you're sharing could possibly help someone and change their life--even if it's just one person. You made a difference, and answered someone's questions or provided advice to someone's issues. You did something and are continuously doing something!




If you gain some viewership and want to monetize the site, no problem. Sometimes people choose to do what they love full time--in this case for you it might be blogging.

If you are simply blogging for money only: how quick do you need this cash?

If you want $500 by this week friday, you might be wasting your time. Earning money with a blog can be stressful if you're blogging about something you have no interest in, and know nothing about. This can be an extreme time waster as most people who just jump into making a blog just for the money don't know that most popular monetized blogs have months of hard work under their belt and did not make money overnight.


The chance of going viral is slim.


If you just got into blogging and are expecting quick money then yes you are wasting your time. Stop now and run for the hills before reality crashes down on you!


If on the other hand you are blogging for money and are knowledgeable on the topic you blog about I would suggest to keep on going as it may take a few months before seeing a steady viewership. Make sure your site isn't clouded with pop up ads that are loaded with scam sites and viruses because that first sign will make your viewers run away screaming "never again!"

What do you blog about?

1. Yourself?
2. Your interest?
3. Bull? You copy and paste?



If you're number 3 please know that you will be hit with dmca take downs and may have all your site's content pulled down. It's always best to have original content. The "Copy and paste other blogs method" is a complete waste of time as all of the content you copied on the Internet will be detected by Google and therefore google will punish your blog.



If you are blogging about yourself just for you (not monetizing) or to put yourself out there then knock yourself out! Keep going you're on fire.




If you are trying to monetize your daily life, and are an adventurous person I would reccomended starting a vlog or youtube channel along with your blog. This way you can attract a bigger audience since most people would love to tag along with you on your adventures. People love visuals. Personal blogs are more difficult to monetize so I would reccomend going a different route (like tutorials) if you expect to make some type of money from your blog.




My tip, if you are blogging (and plan to monetize it along the way) and feel anxious about wasting your time is to blog about something you love or something you wish someone told you awhile ago. Anything that may have been helpful to you that you believe could help others. That way what you blog about has a purpose and won't seem as much of a time waster.

How do you promote yourself?

This is the number one factor in being found (other than having good original blog posts).


If you are scared of social media maybe having a business card or poster could help you out.


Working offline might be your thing.


If you are not scared of social media please make use of Google +, pinterest, facebook, twitter, tumblr, and stumbleupon.



Researching the different ways to promote yourself and finding what works for you is a great way to market your blog and let others find you.


My biggest tip is to be where your audience is. If your blog is about writing go where the writers are. If you write young adult fiction on your blog bring some samples over to places like wattpad or figment--you know the place where your audience is (in this case young adults and those sites are swarmed with them). By bringing your content over to your audience that then helps your audience come over to your blog. Yes one giant step for mankind--wait no, your blog.



Remember your blog is basically a marketing tool itself. It hosts what you write so don't be shy, and make sure to add social media buttons under your blog posts so that your readers can share it with others too! By gaining a wider audience your confidence will most likely increase and the thought of blogging being a serious time waster will swiftly go away.