My name is Jill and, as you can tell, I’m not much of a writer. But I am a really good graphic artist. At least that’s what people tell me, including my teachers at the art school I attend in Texas.

I always wanted to be an artist since I was a kid. I loved drawing with crayons and my mother still has some of my early “works of art” from when I was in elementary school. (Seems I loved drawing flowers since most of my crayon drawings have flowers in them?).

Any way, all through high school I took a lot of art classes – water colors, oils, I even took a couple of classes in sculpting before I decided I was better drawing than working with clay, but that’s another story.

My older brother went to college two years before me and he left behind an old computer that had a copy of Photoshop on it. I must have spent months working with Photoshop and my work kept getting better. In fact, that’s when I decided I wanted to be a graphic artist, even though I knew that there are a lot of starving artists out there. I still wanted a job as a graphic artist, even if I did have to live in some shack somewhere.

I like the creative part of graphic arts. Starting with nothing and making something beautiful, or a logo that captures the company’s mission at one glance, or even laying out brochures for dog food. To me, it’s all about creating graphics that catch your eye.

So, after I graduated from high school I went to art school to learn all I could about design, graphic arts and hopefully how you make a living creating graphics. I knew this is what I wanted to do. So, when I first started going to school what did I do? I got a job at a fast food place that will remain nameless. But I needed money to live.

I had a roommate and we shared an apartment about a half mile from my art school so that part was good. But making burgers 27 hours a week for minimum wage totally wore me out. I hated it. I hated the stupid uniform I had to wear. I hated the smell of all that grease, but I had bills to pay and there weren’t a lot of people lining up to buy my latest logo or advertisement.

“So one night I’m on the web…”

So one night, I was web surfing. Actually, I was job hunting. I needed to get out of that hamburger flipping job so I was on Craig’s List and Monster looking for any job. So, that’s when I typed in graphic artist jobs into Google.

I wasn’t expecting to find anything but right there, on my computer screen, was a web site called getpaidtodraw.com. Now, I’m not stupid. I’ve seen these get-rich-quick sites all over the place so I didn’t think too much about it. I just started reading.

And the more I read the more I got pulled in. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe everything I read but this actually sounded interesting. Hey, maybe I could earn some money just by putting my graphic art work on line. I knew I was good, but I didn’t know how to get my work out there so other people could see it. People who would hire me or pay me to create graphics for them.

The more I read about getpaidtodraw, the more I recognized I could do this. I could make money, while I was still going to school.

getpaidtodraw.com
You bet I was skeptical. This thing sounded way too good to be true but I figured, okay, if I flip one more burger I’m going to flip. So I signed up. It only costs $35 and I got a bunch of stuff that showed me how to use the world wide web to make money as a graphic artist.

First, there’s a bunch of videos that show you how to use the world wide web to make money as a graphic artist. So I watched them. It didn’t take long and to be honest these videos and books were a lot more helpful than what I was learning in classes. These were written by real people who were making real money getting graphic artist jobs and making money using the internet. Hey, if they could do it, so could I.

So, I put together my best work. The kit I got from Get Paid to Draw showed me everything I needed to know about selling my work on line. Like one thing I got was a database of companies and web sites that want you to submit your work. I didn’t have to go looking for clients. I got a whole list of them.

I also got some great advice on how to look like a pro and not a noob begging for work. I mean, this wasn’t a how-to-draw program. It’s a how-to-get-paid-to-draw thing – how to market my skills and my work. You see, there are lots of graphic artists out there and they’re good. But they don’t know how to use the web, which gobbles up art like my roommate gobbles taco chips.

The first thing I did was build a few templates for bloggers. Real simple stuff I did using software I already had on my desktop. I don’t know, I did five or six different templates that I thought looked pretty good and I uploaded them to three different websites that sold blog templates.

Some of the templates were selling for like $300 so I figured if I listed mine for $25 I might get some sales.

Within one week I sold two templates for $25 each. I made $50. Even more, I knew people liked my work and they’d pay me for it. I couldn’t believe it. So, I did a few more. I followed the directions that come with getpaidtodraw on how to market my creations. I started doing art and photos, too.

In two months I was selling templates for websites and blogs, I had some photos up on photo sites and some of my drawings up on clip art sites. I could turn out a piece or two every day in between classes.

After just five weeks I was making more money than I was flipping burgers so I quit that dead-end job and spent more time creating logo samples, more templates, I took more digital pictures of everyday things and I was actually making some decent money.

I was so stoked. I built my own website where I could sell my templates and other graphics. I put up samples and started posting my work to more and more sites. Now, you think I’m making this up but in just two months I’m making about $100 a day. That’s seven days a week.

And the best part is, I’m making money off work I did two months ago. It just keeps earning more and more. One of my blog templates has been downloaded 18 times. I still keep my prices lower than some of the other artists but I raised my price on that really popular template to $50 and I still sell three or four a week. It’s called passive income because you don’t have to work to earn it. You already did the work.

Today, I spend a few hours working at the computer making everything from web graphics to my first local client who wanted me to do a brochure after she saw my samples on line. She runs a day spa and I did a bi-fold brochure that she gives out and now she wants me to do another one.

One job leads to another once you get started. I’m still going to school and taking classes but now I get to work from home, I earn money for work I did weeks and months ago and I don’t have to have some boss ragging me while I’m making minimum wage.