cost-effective art surfaces

Many creative people are looking for ways to earn money at home during the pandemic. Covid-19 has affected everyone’s finances and especially hit artists due to cancelled events and closed galleries, clubs and art stores.  However, it is possible to practice your art at home and still earn some money on the internet. Here are a few work-from-home ideas that can put some extra bucks in every artist’s or creative’s pocket.

Supply stock websites with snaps

If photography is your passion, you’re probably disappointed with all the canceled events and postponed shoots. However, you probably also have a library full of old yet stunning photographs that are waiting to be edited and put to good use. After you give them some love, stock websites will gladly buy your snaps and give you a commission (about 25%, sometimes more, sometimes less). GettyImages, Shutterstock and Dreamstime all accept photos that range from portraits and holiday snaps to nature and product photography. This job might not get you rich, but it’s a good way to earn some money on the side and de-clutter your library.

Start a blog

If words are your choice of artistic tool and you know you have something useful or interesting to say, why not start a blog? Blogging is beneficial in many ways: a great way to practice your creativity, an outlet for your personal experiences and a way to earn some money. And don’t think you have to be an expert on a topic to write about it—you just need a fun writing style, a few persona experiences and a will to engage with readers. The way to earn money through blogging is to use affiliate marketing, add banners to your website or write sponsored content.

Sell on Etsy

Etsy is a platform made for all creative people. It’s possible to sell anything from DIY projects and crafts to digital art ready for download and use. If you’re into visual art, you can sell your canvases, prints and illustrations on Etsy and similar platforms. Now that you have time during the pandemic, you just need to stock up on cost-effective art surfaces and start painting. There are websites that sell everything from canvases to art boards, coasters and aluminum panels perfect for your works of art and ready to be sold. Make sure to advertise your art on Instagram to gain exposure, and if you go viral, your little online shop will be sold out faster than you can imagine.

Make and sell fonts

Lettering is an art form that’s having a revival, so why not earn some money from it? You can sell your hand-lettered art as home décor, create company branding and make event invitations, but if you’re more into digital work (and stuck at home behind your computer), you can create your own font to sell. Retailers like MyFonts will gladly accept your work and give you a platform to sell your fonts.

Share your knowledge

In the past two years, online content is having a true explosion. There are so many free online learning sources aimed at kids, teens, adults and seniors that we all would need 100 lives to go through it all. However, not all learning content needs to be free. If you have a skill that’s desirable and attractive to people, you can create content that will allow online education and give you money from your lessons. People have a lot of unused indoors time today, but you can sell them your courses so they can put their free time to good use. To film your lessons, you need a decent smartphone camera, a tripod and some editing skills. Since there are thousands of courses covering everything from drawing to digital art and photography already online, you need to figure out what unique insight you have to offer. And to prepare, you might need to take some online lessons yourself, mainly in public speaking or editing.

Set up a Patreon

If you lost your regular gig due to the pandemic, don’t despair. You can set up a Patreon account! Patreon is a fundraising platform for artists where supporters can provide them with regular and reliable income in exchange for exclusive content, deeper involvement in your art and insight into your creative process and private life. Subscribers pay a monthly fee for a subscription, and the platform gets only between 5% and 12% of your revenue (amazing when compared to other platforms like YouTube or Spotify). Patreon and other similar websites (Podia, KickStarter, Memberful, etc.) create a sense of community that benefits both artists and art-lovers.

Never have there been more opportunities for creatives than right now. With so many amazing ideas available, the only thing you need to do is figure out what you’re good at and passionate about. After that, you can start taking the steps that will help you transform your creative skills into a thriving online business.

By Anurag Rathod

Anurag Rathod is an Editor of Appclonescript.com, who is passionate for app-based startup solutions and on-demand business ideas. He believes in spreading tech trends. He is an avid reader and loves thinking out of the box to promote new technologies.