Art and money. It’s an age-old tug-of-war that’s left many creatives struggling to make ends meet.
But contrary to what society has us believe, you can have it all. Aka, you don’t have to fall into the starving artist trope to pursue your creative dreams — just the opposite, in fact!
My journey to really jumpstart performing and songwriting was learning to become a blog writer to make money online so finances were one less thing I had to worry about. And guess what? I did not go to school for (blog) writing or digital marketing, and you don’t need to either.
You have all you need to get started right now.
So without further ado, let’s help you explore some creative income streams so you can learn how to diversify income streams as a creative freelancer. 🙌✨
💸 Creative Income Streams to Turn Your Artistry Into $
We’re diving into two different types of creative income streams — fast and slow. Fast ones are ones that take around a few months to really see that income stream coming on.
Slow are ones that will (typically) take years to get money from, but are important to build if you want to eventually multiply your efforts quickly and give you a long-term, sustainable income in the future so you don’t have to work your fast, Cozy Girl Job forever.
But wait — what is a Cozy Girl Job? A Cozy Girl Job is a remote, minimally-taxing job working with great people in a skill that you’re naturally strong in (for artists, this commonly falls under digital marketing).
🎨 Traditional Art/Service Sales (Slow)
Let’s start with the classic: selling your artwork or artistic services. For many artists, this is the goal! Waking up every day and being able to do the skill they love and make a living from it. This could mean anything from selling paintings in a gallery to offering custom illustrations for clients via Etsy to auditioning for commercials to playing mini performances in your local coffee shop open mics.
And I believe in you — let’s do it. 🥰
The beauty of this stream is that it directly monetizes your core artistic skills — the overarching goal! And while I found that I put some of this to the backburner when looking for consistent income, you don’t have to do this.
The drawback is that it’s (likely) going to take some time to monetize — and that’s totally normal. So instead, I invite you to not think about the money in your dream artistic career, but the opportunity, first. This isn’t something you do forever; just as you start building an audience for your work.
You will likely feel anxious AF if you place pressure on this to be your creative income stream — so for now, welcome it as a slow journey to monetization as you find some fast income streams, and put in the reps now to see a future for your artistry in the years to come.
✍️ Blog and/or YouTube Channel (Slow)
If you’re reading this now, then you know I’m pursuing at least one of these — the blog! I started her in 2022, and about a year later in 2023, I started my YouTube channel.
These were both income streams that I expected exactly $0 from in the first few years. Honestly, that’s probably why they’re so dang hard to get started. $0 means 0 accountability to stay consistent — and I’ve definitely had those consistency drops every now and again 🤫.
However, I started these because I knew that as much as I am grateful for the SEO clients I work for right now, I would love to not do that forever. It’s simply not my dream job! So my blog and YouTube became the pathway to start my brand as an artist, talking to all you beautiful people about everything from creative passive income streams to manifesting and romanticizing your artistic journey as a whole. ♥️
🎓 Online Courses (Slow)
I bet there’s at least one creator who you follow who has some sort of online program — whether that’s a course or community. These are great opportunities for passive income, or income you can make after you’ve put in the work upfront.
The thing is, you’ll need some sort of audience in order to reap the benefits of passive income from online courses. That’s why this is quite the slow creative income stream — but totally worth planning for a few years from building your audience or working on your program!
Online courses and communities are a great way of monetizing creative skills in order to make sustainable income — she just may take a while to get started. 🥰
Note: you could potentially make this happen faster by getting on a course platform like Skillshare, Udemy, or Outschool that already has an audience of learners interested in learning new skills!
🤳 Social Media Management (Fast)
Now, for some faster ways for some creative income streams — freelancing.
This is by far the best and fastest way I’ve been able to earn income using my naturally creative skills, and it can totally be for you, too.
You could start off on a freelancing platform like Upwork, Contra or Fiverr for basic social media management, building your skills and gaining great reviews that you can leverage later to raise your rates and make your own website (if you feel you need to — not 100% necessary!).
This could start out as a perfect side hustles for creatives looking to supplement their income and could eventually turn into your Cozy Girl Job income — a remote way to earn income without taking up too much of your time and energy.
If you don’t feel like you’ve mastered social media yet, 1, you don’t have to. The sheer fact that you’re willing to learn and are open to creating content is more than many business owners, who are overwhelmed by the thought of managing their own socials. And 2, you can use YouTube University to teach you basically anything for free.
🖋️ Blog Writing (Fast)
I started my freelancing journey with the simple, basic knowledge of putting words together for papers in college. So, when I started seeing job opportunities in blogging, I said, “it can’t be too far from that!”
Being a blog writer requires two skills:
- Understanding how to write in a way that connects with a specific audience and has a specific point-of-view
- An understanding of search engine optimization (SEO)
Again, if you don’t know the basics of SEO, head on over to YouTube. I learned everything I knew to be a full-time SEO content writer for free from YouTube. Eventually, I did invest in some paid courses to really take my blogging game seriously for my own brand (how am I doing? 😉), but you do not need to invest a lot of money at the beginning to find some great freelance opportunities for artists.
Just like with social media management, you can start on sites like Upwork, Fiverr, Contra, or a blogging-specific site like ProBlogger, and branch out from there depending on how you’re feeling.
🌀 Remote Full-Time Position (Fast)
For even more stability and consistency, look for a remote full-time position in a digital marketing field! I hear a lot of negative talk online about being “trapped” in a full-time job, but personally, working full-time was a godsend for me when I wasn’t quite ready to invest the time and energy in being a full-time freelancer!
The great part of working a full-time job is you know exactly how much you’re getting paid and when. No more guessing or wondering, “crap, I have to find one more client before the end of the month!”
The important part in this is to think back to what skills you have right now. What did you work as in high school, college, after college? What experience do you have that you could bring to a full-time job?
My full-time job was at a tech start-up, but you could find a full-time position at an agency or something totally different. The world is your oyster, and you probably have more skills than you’re giving yourself credit for.
👯♂️ Remote 1:1 Coaching/Lessons (Fast)
If you love using your skills to help others, then remote coaching or teaching could be a great way to start bringing in income — especially if you’ve done it before.
Not everything can be taught remotely (my acting school tried that in 2020, and it was, mmm, hard) but many things can. Think about if there’s anything you could teach or coach online and how you could start bringing visibility to it, whether it’s marketing it in Facebook Groups, starting to post about it on your socials, or placing physical posters around your community (where you’re allowed to, of course!).
✨ Tips for Starting to Freelance as a Creative
Thinking about dipping your toes into the freelance world? Great! It might feel daunting, but here are some tips to help you get this creative income stream going.
📝 Focus on Reviews/Experience First, Money Second
You might feel like it makes the most sense to focus on money from the start, but when you’re first starting out, I suggest starting on building some solid 5-star reviews and gaining experience before finding the perfect pricing for your offerings.
(You can change pricing whenever you want, but it’s important to have good reviews and confirm that this work is something you’d be happy doing for a while before nailing down fair pricing for your time.)
This is particularly important if you’re still exploring what type of work you really want to do — you don’t want to commit to big clients and long-term contracts before making sure your work can make others happy!
Plus, on platforms like Upwork, Fiverr and Contra, the more good reviews you have, the more your profile will be prioritized when sending proposals — AKA, the easier it will be to get future clients!
🛍️ Try Marketplaces for More Exposure (Upwork, Fiverr, Contra)
I’ve mentioned these marketplaces more than once, and for good reason! A lot of freelancers will tell you not to use these platforms because they take a cut of your earnings, but in my opinion, it’s worth it.
To me, it makes sense to pay a platform for giving you more exposure and opportunities. It’s like a finder’s fee! And you don’t have to pay them this cut unless you actually make money — so it’s a win-win!
Note: You might have some additional fees for these platforms. For example, in Upwork in order to send proposals, you need Connects. You’re given a certain number of free connects per month, but I needed to purchase more when I wanted to apply to more jobs. With Contra, there’s a free and a paid version of having an account, and in turn, they don’t take a cut of your earnings.
I encourage you to explore and understand how all these marketplaces work before getting started so you don’t get any surprises!
🔖 Make a Portfolio with a Faux Client
Did you know that you need exactly 0 clients to have a portfolio?! If you’re lacking real client work to showcase, you can absolutely create projects for a fictional client!
For example, if you’re starting your journey as a social media manager but have never managed anyone’s profile before, dream up 9 sample social media posts for a made-up (or existing!) brand and design them into Canva as an easy way to showcase your work.
If you’re looking to be a blog writer, take what you’ve learned from YouTube University and write some sample blog articles for a made-up client into Google Docs, download it as a PDF, and then attach it into your profile. Easy peasy!
🎥 Subscribe to My YouTube Channel for More Tips for Artists
Transforming your art into sustainable income requires some experimentation, but it’s absolutely worth it to have the freedom for financial abundance so you can pursue your creative path.
So use these creative income streams as inspiration to challenge that starving artist motif and have a beautiful creative life you love while designing your path to artistic fulfillment and passion. Want more tips for creatives? Subscribe to my YouTube channel, friend. Let’s be abundant together. ♡
