6 additional income sources for web designers and developers | Email Marketing
When projects slow down and the need for extra cash comes up, web pros have various options to make some additional income on the side using their skillset. I’m not just talking about going out and doing food deliveries. The skills of a web pro are invaluable and can have multiple profitable uses that you might not be aware of.
Related: How to make money building websites as a web pro
Earn additional income by offering these 6 related services
Besides designing and developing websites, you can try other money-making opportunities that can generate a decent additional income, such as:
Social media marketing.
SEO (search engine optimization).
Graphic design.
Buy and sell domain names.
Google Ads campaign manager.
Copywriting.
Offering these related services allows you to stabilize your income until the work volume kicks back up, or just make some extra dough for a vacation. Let’s explore each of them (and the value you can bring) a little more.
1. Social media marketing
One great money-making opportunity that web pros can take advantage of by using their web pro skillset is taking on a social media marketing project.
Social media marketing requires a variety of skills that a web pro holds. For starters, social media managers must have decent copywriting skills that enable them to emulate the voice and tone of the company or brand that they are creating social content for.
Most of the time, social media managers are also responsible for creating the creative pieces that will be posted along with the content, such as images with quotes (which takes advantage of graphic design skills), taking their own photos (which requires knowledge of operating a camera and using a simple photo editor), as well as the knowledge to analyze audience analytics to refine the content for a specific audience.
Depending on the clients that you decide to work with, social media marketing is a great money-making opportunity that allows web pros to utilize their various skill sets without doing anything that’s too different from their already-existing projects.
2. SEO (search engine optimization)
While most web pros are primarily focused on the design and/or development aspect of new websites, SEO is another service that can turn into a great money-making opportunity for web pros.
SEO specialists conduct competitor research, know how Google’s search algorithm works, optimize site speed, and more.
Most SEO specialists are focused around conducting competitor research, having knowledge of Google’s search ranking algorithms, creating valuable content on websites, and making sure that web pages are configured with optimal settings to allow Google’s crawlers to properly rank a website.
Other important factors of SEO optimization cover optimizing site speed by analyzing a website’s code, compressing images and videos, and ensuring that a website’s hosting platform is performing at peak performance.
Web pros touch many of these areas through the course of a standard web development project, so including an SEO optimization service is as easy as it gets. What client doesn’t want a shiny new website that is also driving organic traffic?
Related: Beginner’s SEO guide — Search engine optimization for small business websites
3. Graphic design
Chances are that as a web pro, graphic design software is already installed on your computer. Graphic design software can range from professional-level programs like Adobe Photoshop to open-source tools like GIMP. Even if you’re not a great graphic designer, Canva can help you make beautiful designs easily by using one of their pre-built designer templates.
If you already have web design/development clients, graphic design can be a fairly easy money-making opportunity to layer onto your service agreements.
Graphic design services can be applied to the creation of website banners, logos, branding, covers and profile photos for social media profiles, blog images, and the list goes on!
You can find several graphic design projects by checking for gigs on Upwork or Thumbtack. If you don’t have much luck online, try visiting some of the local businesses in the area and offer to rebuild restaurant menus, create new business cards, or create their next offer flyer. Chances are that someone is in need of a local graphic designer.
Related: How to set professional, fair and profitable freelance graphic design rates
4. Buy and sell domain names
This is another great opportunity to make some extra cash if you have a web pro skillset. “Domainers” are a group of people who focus on buying domain names that might have a lot of value and selling them to others for a profit.
Domains are being regarded as the real estate of the internet, as they hold their value pretty well, and can turn a dramatic profit for those who know what they are doing.
Some domain names can cost less than $10 to buy and renew, while some can sell for thousands and even millions of dollars!
Buying and selling domain names is an easy opportunity for web pros since it can be done at your own pace, you don’t have much of a risk in doing so, and as long as you have a good domain name, someone will eventually buy it. The only downside to buying and selling domain names is that it can take some time (even up to a few years) before an offer or purchase is made on one of your domains.
Related: 5 tried-and-true tips for buying and selling domain names for profit
5. Google Ads campaign manager
Management of paid advertising campaigns can be a very enjoyable and fulfilling way to make some money for web pros.
Google Ads are a great way to help your struggling clients find new customers using the power of Google search. In doing so, your clients will know exactly how many leads or customers your efforts drove to their business, and how much money they are making back on their investment.
It may take some time and research on your part to fully understand Google Ads’ advertising platform, but once you do, you will find that managing a paid campaign through Google Ads is a lot easier than it seems.
As a campaign manager, the landing pages you build will convert search traffic, reducing the price your clients pay to acquire leads.
Your value as a campaign manager comes from the web pro skills you have to build effective landing pages that will convert search traffic, effectively reducing the price your clients pay to acquire each lead.
Your skills as a web pro can also come in handy here as you most likely understand the basic concept of keyword research, ad copy, and converting traffic. Your clients will be happy to keep you around to manage their successful campaigns!
Related: What’s the difference between Amazon advertising and paid ads on Google and Facebook?
6. Copywriting
This one might not be for everyone, but copywriting can be a great way to make some extra money if you enjoy writing.
When creating websites, getting content from a client can sometimes feel like pulling teeth! Even then, you’ll find that some of the content provided by your clients isn’t the best, and requires some of your help in the end. So why not take this arduous step off your client’s hands and offer to do it for them at an additional cost?
As a web pro, you already know exactly how much copy is needed for each page, headline, etc. By offering to take over the copywriting step, you will save time and speed up the process of creating each website — which will result in freeing up your workload to take on more projects while making projects more profitable.
If you decide that copywriting for websites isn’t as exciting, you can also try copywriting for product pages, newsletters, blogs and apps. There are plenty of copywriting projects on Upwork that can help you make some extra money by writing.
It pays to try new things
While some web designers and developers might not realize it, the skill sets that are gained through web pro gigs are plenty. As web pros, we are lucky that we have numerous skills that allow us to work on a variety of projects, each that make a decent chunk of money.
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time — by trying one of these six ideas, you can jump right into another money-making opportunity that will generate some additional cash before you know it. Plus, by trying some of these new opportunities, you will gain more experience that your clients will find worth paying for!
Related: Sell website maintenance services to grow your recurring revenue
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