How to Make More Money as a Web Designer (Passive Income Ideas!)
Whether you’re a newer web designer or have a bit more experience under your belt, there is always an opportunity for growth.
You want to keep scaling your business so that it keeps making you money well into the future, and one of the very best ways to do this is to develop your current offers and set up additional passive income streams.
👉 See how opening a template shop might be the perfect option for your web design business!
Now, what do we mean by passive income?
Passive income is essentially ✨ the holy grail ✨ for any online business. Rather than exchanging your precious time for money, passive income enables you to literally earn money while you sleep.
It does usually require a bit of work upfront, but in the long run, you (hopefully) won't have to do much at all for it to keep bringing in the dollar bills! This means more flexibility, more space for creativity, and financial stability (the ultimate trio). This week, we're running you through a few more ways website designers, like you and I, can make more money in their businesses 👇
Charge more per custom Web Design Project
The first is probably the most straightforward way to scale your web design business: charge more per project. But that's easier said than done. Sure, you can raise your web design prices to an extent, but there's a point at which your prices will be too high for your existing audience, and you'll need to work on pivoting to a higher-end, higher-paying client base.
And how do you do that?
It will take some time like anything else, but first things first, we recommend getting clear on how your business can make that jump.
Identify your dream client
First, make a list of your dream clients. What are the high-end clients you'd love to work with? Are there any industries that you want to focus on?
You can get as specific as you want because this exercise will help you define your target audience and find the line between your current clients and those with bigger budgets.
Once you have a good idea of your ideal audience, take some time to strategise around how you can adapt your current work to tailor to those clients.
Review your website and portfolio projects to see if anything needs updating to better fit your goal client. Be sure to showcase examples of what you think they'll want to see. Whether that's a certain design style or maybe it's a website with more advanced coding features.
Upscale your systems
Another important thing to take a look at are your internal systems. Do you have the documentation and processes in place to make the project flow seamlessly? Most higher-end clients will expect a more sophisticated process in return so you'll want to ensure you have the tools to support that. Consider implementing the following to streamline your workflow and improve your productivity (if you haven't already!):
Project management system: this is crucial to keep your tasks and deadlines organised, and to track your progress. We love using ClickUp for this, but Asana, Trello and Notion are also popular ones.
Keep your files organised: keeping tabs on the files for each one of your projects is key to efficient web design. Create a clear folder structure, name all your files, and use tools like Dropbox or Google Drive to keep your files off your hard drive while also being easy to share.
Client onboarding and documents: clients are always willing to pay more for an experience, and that's what you want working with you to be like! You want them to feel like they are being pampered the whole way through. Onboarding documents like a welcome pack, a professional project proposal, and client portal are ideal to give your clients a great first impression from the get-go. Check out Creative Market for all kinds of helpful templates.
Add more services
Maybe your dream clients want a more rounded experience and add-ons are a great way to offer that while also being able to charge more.
You could add branding, copyright or SEO services, offer audits and consultations, or even offer a VIP day that you can charge a premium for.
To help you decide whether this might be a good option for you, let's review some of the pros and cons:
PROS:
There is a potential for high income per project
You will free up time since you'll be working with fewer clients for more money
Bigger budgets allow for more, so you might be able to incorporate some more advanced features that challenge you (in the best way!)
You might have the opportunity to work for some of your favourite brands
CONS:
It's all up to you to pitch your services and land the bigger ticket businesses
You may find yourself having an inconsistent income stream
If you already have an audience that is set at a lower price point, you'll need to do the work to attract and appeal to a new audience, which can be a lot of work
At the end of they day, you're still trading your time for money
If you're interested in starting your own template shop, make sure to check out our super actionable FREE training teaching you our top tips to set your template shop up for success from the very beginning, including:
Why should become a Squarespace circle member;
How to create live demos of your templates (without having to pay for a plan!); and
A full breakdown of exactly how to send templates to your customers with ease!
TURN YOUR WEB DESIGN BUSINESS INTO AN AGENCY
Joining an agency full-time provides a clear path as a web designer. You'll adhere to a somewhat corporate structure, you'll have a manager, and you'll receive an established salary.
But for most of us that have an entrepreneurial or creative spirit, you may want to do things your way, so another option to make more money as a web designer is to structure your business with an agency model.
Starting your own agency is essentially taking your freelancing up a notch. When you have enough workload and income to justify the growth, you can hire other designers and developers to work for you so you can scale your business.
Having more people on your team means you'll be able to take on larger projects and work with multiple clients at a time which means more money overall, and bigger opportunities for growth. It also means you'll be able to delegate the workload and only work on the projects you really want to, so that's a bit of a perk 😉
Let's take a look at the pros and cons of using an agency model so you can see if it might be right for you:
PROS:
You can dream big and the sky's the limit for growth and income
You have the freedom to pick and choose projects that resonate with you, and delegate others to your team
You make the business decisions, but aren't doing all of the work
Connect and collaborate with talented creatives (designers, developers, copywriters, strategists, etc.)
CONS:
Owning your own business and having employees comes with additional financial and legal risks
You will have to wear a lot of different hats and may find yourself spending more time running the business and managing staff versus designing
Finding the right designers/developers for your team and clients can be challenging
You'll be responsible for your team, not just yourself
There will likely be some growing pains and a period when you hire your first few web designers where you're not making as much money
CONSIDER COACHING OR CREATE A COURSE
Do you love to share your knowledge with others? You might consider creating your own course to teach website design (or some aspect of it like branding, coding, or other processes).
Knowledge is invaluable and designers of all levels are always looking to learn more, whether it's how to run a freelance web design business or how to add a certain custom feature to their website.
There are a few options when it comes to teaching web design - whether it's working more personally on a 1:1 basis or casting a wider net by putting out a course to purchase:
Mentorship or coaching
There are so many designers out there at the beginning of their career that might see (and envy) the position you're in as a web designer. One way to teach web design is through a mentorship program. You can work 1:1 with budding designers who want to learn how to run their business, get clients, ask questions, and learn all your processes, etc.
This is an easy way for you to share all that you've learnt while making a little extra! Just a few weekly hourly sessions are sure to bring in quite a boost alongside your regular website design projects without draining your creativity.
Courses
You can also translate all of your hard-earned knowledge into a course.
An online course that is automatically delivered to students when they purchase is a prime example of easy passive income that you can earn as a web designer.
It may require quite a bit of work upfront but once it's all set up, you'll be able to earn an income without actively having to teach or engage with students on a regular basis! That's a big win if you'd rather spend your afternoon at the beach than on a zoom call sesh 🏝️
Remember that you will need to keep marketing efforts high to keep bringing in students but even a freebie sequence which is easy to create can bring in all the right leads!
In a digital-first world, there are so many options to push out your content, so let's take a look at a couple of the most common ways to host a course online:
SELL YOUR COURSE ON YOUR WEBSITE
You can use a platform like Teachable or Kajabi to create and host your course to sell on your own website.
This is a great option for designers who are a bit more established and have the web traffic and/or an established audience that they can more easily share with.
If you're not there yet, don't worry! This can still be a great option for newer designers, but you will have to put a bit more work into marketing your course to find your audience.
👉 Want to know more about hosting a course on Squarespace? Check out this post.
SELL YOUR COURSE IN AN ONLINE MARKETPLACE
You can host your course at a marketplace like Skillshare or Udemy which will allow your course to be seen and purchased by a larger audience. One thing to keep in mind is that these platforms do usually take a commission, so if you want the big(ger) bucks, hosting your course on your own website platform is a good way to go.
Here are a few pros and cons of teaching web design:
PROS:
There is the potential for uncapped income
You can create a more flexible schedule for yourself because you can do this part-time or full-time
Freedom to create courses on the topic(s) of your choice
Sharing your knowledge will work to establish you as an expert in the industry
CONS:
If you haven't built your audience around teaching web design yet, you'll need to spend time building your voice and establishing your expertise in the web design space
You'll spend less time actually designing websites
You will need to provide customer service to help answer student questions
If you're developing courses, you'll have to spend a lot of time developing content and marketing your product to attract customers if you want to sell on your website. If you choose to sell via a marketplace, you loose some of the control
SELL WEBSITE TEMPLATES!
Another way to make easy passive income as a web designer (and our personal fav!) is to open a website template shop.
Website templates are perfect for newer business owners that don't have the budget to hire a website designer but still want a beautiful website. With a template, they can have a DIY solution where they can plug their information into a fully designed website frame.
You can use all your creativity and design skills to build a website template for others to use!
You may want to focus on a specific website platform (we build exclusively on Squarespace 🙂 ) or if you're fluent across other platforms, you can build templates for those as well - think Shopify, Showit, Wordpress, etc.
We may be a bit biased here, but opening a website template shop can be a great way to add a passive income stream to your business with the opportunity to scale up in the future if you find it works well for you.
Like the other options, it takes hard work but let's dig into the pros and cons of opening a website template shop, shall we?
PS - are you interested in developing and selling Squarespace Templates for your business? Check out this free training on how to run a successful template shop!
PROS:
There is no limit on scaling your income
You get to serve more customers and can build a larger client base quicker
You still get to design without having the client restrictions and feedback
You make all the content and design decisions
There is less time spent working one-on-one with clients so you aren't trading your time for money
You can create a template once and sell it over and over and over again
Templates are easy to sell because they are low priced compared to custom web design
You can use the audience you already have and sell to them
CONS:
Once you've designed your products, you'll have to spend time developing content and marketing your product to attract customers
You will have to wear a customer service hat to answer questions or help customers with their website template
There is plenty of competition, especially when selling through a marketplace
We are huge advocates in adding templates to your business to increase your passive income. Whether you want to continue working with your 1:1 clients or not, templates are such a great asset and can be a huge income producer for anyone who knows how to design websites.
The great thing about website design is that for the most part every business or person needs a website. There is plenty of business to go around, but how you find and work with clients is up to you!
Hopefully, after reading through the options, you found one or two ways to make more money that you might want to explore a bit more and try.
Remember, take it at your own pace and grow when you are ready. These things take time and it doesn't have to be perfect (and won't be perfect) from the start.
To help web designers invest in their growth, we’ve created a FREE training on how to sell Squarespace templates, along with web design insights we’ve gathered over the years. It’s a great resource to have as you explore more ways to make money as a web designer! Good luck!
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