10 Steps To Earning $2,000 Monthly With Designing
How I Actually Did It, and How My Freelance Business Grew to $4,000 Monthly As A Side Hustle
My first designing skills were cultivated on Figma. Thank you, Figma!
It’s a free tool you can use to practice your designs on. I would think of ideas for mockups, tried to research what people were really into at the moment — was it health and fitness? If it was, my mockup would be of a couple of guys working out, or a group of people bicycling away on their indoor cycling bikes.
At that point, I had just started out and had no clients. No one knew of my existence. I was designing as practice, hoping to ensure that my designs were on par with all the amazing ones out there. I subscribed to newsletters about design, and to websites that sent me design inspirations regularly.
I would scroll social media, stop when I saw nice designs and I put a like on it. Eventually the algorithm picked up on this and my newsfeed would be full of all sorts of designs, ads for designing tools, designing courses, and businesses offering designing services. The last one I always looked at with interest, for these were my so-called competitors, even if they didn’t know who I was yet.
- Sign up for free designing tools, like Canva, Photoshop and Figma.
Based on my personal experience, I would say Figma was the best, because it was very, very customizable, and allowed me to start from scratch. This is truly important because it tests the limits of your creativity. Figma allows you to start with a blank template, and then slowly, as if painting on canvas, your designs come to life, section by section. There is no pre-designed template option like the ones you get on Canva. I can’t say much about Photoshop, because I’ve hardly used it. If you already have experience with Photoshop, that’s great. You will definitely be able to do more when you incorporate these platforms together, meaning you can design on Canva, and edit it in Figma into a section.
In Figma, you learn how to create a wireframe, and eventually design each section as you go. You learn how to add lines, shapes, shadows, edit transparency, make posters, Instagrammy post designs and lots more.
Let me know if you’ll like a tutorial on Figma — I’ve been thinking about creating a course on it. - Do not neglect Power Point.
I’d hardly used Power Point my whole life except to make presentation slides while in university. It never occurred to me that I would be using Power Point so much a decade later.
Power Point is simply amazing when it comes to design. It can give you transparent backgrounds much faster than remove.bg, and you can customize every image to have its own borders, shadows, reflections and layers. Every picture that you download and add into Power Point automatically becomes a .jpg file and makes it super easy to be uploaded onto any platform. If the file is too big, resizing can be done immediately. Let me know if you want a tutorial on Power Point — you’ll be amazed at how much Power Point can do! After several months on Figma and eventually transitioning to Clickfunnels, I now use Power Point and Clickfunnels 99% of the time (1% of the time I fall back on Figma for more complex designs). - Do a mockup at least once a week, if not twice a week.
Practice, practice, practice. If possible, add in your own copy to make it more realistic. Prospects like to see some sort of copy, and it makes the mockup more real and attractive. Don’t put an image of a girl working out with Lorem ipsum etc underneath it.
The more mockups you do (at least in the beginning, trust me, towards the end you’ll have no time for mockups) the more you’ll get to find out what kind of style you have. Every designer has a unique style they keep using, over and over, and you’ll find that’s true, no matter how subtle it may be. Once you’re comfortable with the styles you have, and how you adapt those styles to different themes, you’ll go on to learn the kind of fonts you can use with different niches.
As time goes on, you’ll not only get to know at least 10 different types of fonts (Figma offers hundreds I think, I never counted and it was torture for me when I wanted to use a certain font and never remembered its name) that work for you. You’ll know which color scheme goes better with which niche. - Read up on designing and how it helps conversion rates
Why is this important? Because it helps you create great posts. You’re not making mockups for yourself, you know. You’re getting them out there and showing the world (more accurately, your prospects) your creativity and potential.
Go online and start reading articles on design and conversion rates. Read up on the different aspects of designs, check out articles about bad designs and good designs. See what works and what doesn’t. Focus on the elements they are talking about — font size, background color, call to action wordings, pictorials, all that jazz.
Go through at least 3 to 4 articles, take notes, and with those notes, start crafting your first post. Make yourself sound knowledgeable and as if you are an authority on the subject. Don’t worry, you soon will be. Just keep reading and don’t stop at those 3 to 4 articles. Subscribe to newsletters and have tidbits of information delivered into your inbox regularly. This is how we improve, through hard work, consistency and focus.
Make sure that your post also talks about how you designed this mockup, and how it can be transferred into Clickfunnels (or whatever platform you’re on — if you’re planning to join Groovefunnels, then do a research on how a Figma design can be transferred into Groovefunnels). - Post, post, post
Get a series of mockups of different niches ready. Once you’re armed and ready with your post content (several days’ worth of content, not just one time’s worth), join a group where your prospective clients will be at. In my case, I joined Clickfunnels Official. At the point of writing, this group has over 250,000 members. It is perpetually active, with over 10 new posts daily. (I am not an affiliate or in any way associated with this group). There are a lot of designers, funnel builders, coaches and also a lot of people looking for help with their funnel building and designing. In short, a lot of your future clients are in there.
Post one of your mockups together with your carefully crafted content. It’ll be a while before the admin approves it, so in the mean time.. - Comment, comment, comment
Facebook’s algorithm is such that the more you comment on other people’s posts, the more your own post gets visibility when it’s finally approved. In a bid to not get crickets, spend an hour or so daily perusing the posts inside the group and commenting. Please do not say things like ‘Awesome!’ or other one worded comments. Try to give real value. Make it a point to understand long posts and what people are trying to say. Self promotion is not allowed but that is generally the same rule in most Facebook groups. Hence, your design and a carefully worded content on how you came up with this design, what inspired you, and what elements of it can increase conversion rates. Remember, your audience does not just want pretty designs. They want a design that gives them sales and showcases their branding in the best way possible. - Like, like, like
Are you feeling overwhelmed? Don’t be. It’s easier than it sounds, scout’s honor. It sounds like I’m just giving you a big to-do list, but actually once you’ve had several days’ worth of content and mockups ready, all you need to do is go into Facebook (which I’m sure you do daily, anyway) and spend 30–45 minutes in that particular group. Comment, give value, and give likes. Give a like to comments that you really resonate with. Reply to these comments and say that you agree with them or thank them for sharing. While you’re at it, check out other posts on designs by other designers. Hack their designs and read what they posted about it.
The purpose of likes? It’s like finding allies on the big bad Internet. A few more back and forth of likes and comments with the same person can lead to a new Facebook friend added, and the more friends you add (sincerely), will give your future posts more boosts when they comment on these posts, because friends will get notified when you post in a group they’re in.
Yep, this is an ongoing thing. To find people, you need to know people. - Reply, reply, reply
When someone comments on your posts, remember to reply to them. This is one way you keep your posts bumped up. Don’t just say thank you — keep the conversation flowing. Say hey, how’s your week? Or, wow, that’s an interesting point of view — mind sharing more?
Don’t expect praises for every mockup you put out there. There will be some negative comments, but that’s perfectly fine. I had my fair share of negative comments that said my designs were less than stellar, but my clients appeared anyway.
Your potential clients are the ones that are observing from afar, reading the comments, replies, and the posts silently. If they feel they can relate to your designs and your style, as well as how well you handle comments, they will reach out to you via DM. None of my clients have ever really commented on my posts. They just reached out a day or two after, and would make referrals to which posts they liked, or which mockup of mine they wanted me to transfer their branding onto. - Take on more platforms
Don’t stop at Figma. I’m not saying go for Photoshop or Canva or Power Point — all these can be learnt along the way. When your client wants you to do a redesign or a designing project for him, he’s going to want it done on a sales funnel platform. This can include anything from Clickfunnels to Groovefunnels to Wordpress to Kajabi. There are so many out there. When I was designing on Figma, I would tell the client honestly that I was designing on Figma and after he approved of the design, I would move it to the platform he wanted.
I would then outsource my draft to a designer who knew the platform well and could transfer my design onto it. It worked for the first few clients, but being the type of person who wanted to be on top of things, I wanted to do this myself. Also, outsourcing sometimes does not give you the results you want, and you end up feeling panicky because you have to rush the designer you outsourced it to, to meet the client’s deadline. You cannot tweak it if the client wants to you do it on the spot. You have to keep waiting for the third party you hired to do it for you.
After a while I decided enough was enough and I took on Clickfunnels, and I haven’t looked back since. I can now go live on Zoom and share my screen with my client, and immediately edit whatever he or she wants on the funnel until they’re happy. This not only enhances the customers’ trust in you, but also increases your chances of getting referrals and repeat jobs. I had to pay for the basic Clickfunnels package, but to me it was a necessary investment if I wanted to master the platform. - Be consistent.
You knew this was coming. This is work, but if you’re passionate about it, it won’t seem like work. The money that you get in return will make it worth it as well. I stopped making mockups after a while (which was great, because I was tired of trying to come up with ideas and I preferred to get paid for designing) because I had a steady stream of clients coming to me for designs.
Your work for your clients can always be modified into mockups. Most clients are happy for you to do so, on top of giving you good testimonials. When you have regular clients, you’ll have regular mockups (which is what you designed or built for them) and so you will not have to come up with mockups anymore. As for content, they can always be recycled, or rephrased and then recycled.
Always remember to stay active in the group, log in at least twice a week and continue to provide value to the group. As most Facebook groups rules will say — give more than you take. I strongly agree. It not only benefits other people, but you get to gain the most, even if you don’t see the results immediately.
What are funnels, anyway? And what does designing funnels mean?Keap.com says that “A sales funnel is the marketing term for the journey potential customers go through on the way to purchase.”
A basic funnel starts with an opt-in page, and ends with a thank you page. The difference between a funnel and a website (though you can redesign both) is that a funnel has only ONE call to action (CTA) button that lets the user know exactly what step they need to take next. A website, on the other hand, has a lot of navigational avenues that can bring you to other pages when you click on them. A website aims to provide information. A funnel aims to turn a visitor into a subscriber and then, into a potential buyer, by providing the most information possible relevant to one niche or topic and encouraging the prospect to click the button to go on to the next step of the funnel. You can read more about a sales funnel here (this article explains it simply and clearly), or you can google it up as well.
I don’t need to tell you the rest, but I should anyway. Since we’re here, let us remember that as a designer, you are a service provider. An online job is still a job. Even if you do not need to meet your customers face to face, strong work ethics, a sense of responsibility towards your clients and the need to provide them with the best results still prevail. There will be nice customers and there will be not-so-nice customers, but you should always handle each and everyone of them with utmost professionalism. Be friendly, be humble, be helpful, but never be a doormat. I said the same thing in my write up on being a social media manager (read here).
I aim to help working mothers leave their 9–5, be able to spend more time with their families, and bring their skills online to start an online business. For mothers who are in the 9–5, looking to go online, and start a business of your own — even if you’re aren’t ready to leave the workforce yet, but you want to start a side hustle — you can always download my free checklist that allows you to get a head start on how you can do this without going through the trials that I did. I’ll be sharing more about my journey as I transitioned from a full time professional to a near-jobless mother, to an online entrepreneur.
Get your free cheat sheet now, and remember to follow my blog for more sharing sessions!
