Fed up with the university life, I thought I would try to be a freelancer. I am familiar with coding.
How can I earn money online as a web designer? Is there any reliable way to earn money? I saw freelancing sites like Fiverr and oDesk are filled with people offering services for lower costs. Is it okay to offer services for such a low value?
You are asking graphic designers about this, and the general consensus is likely to be be:
How can i earn money through online as a web designer?
You can, in theory, but online only is extremely tricky. Only by working hard, creating and finding a client base, building a portfolio will you have a chance. And it is in fact extremely hard to do design and develop remotely. To get good, solid clients it is important to meet them, at least in the beginning. You need to understand your potential clients needs and tiny quirks. Though you could do this via video link, even that can be difficult to pull off. In addition, there will be time difference, cultural differences etc. I would strongly suggest you start with nearby people: local businesses etc. Spend a good deal of time doing a few good pieces, and then you might step into the purely online job market. But you need to have something that makes you different from every other person out there offering design work. I believe the only way of doing that, and being able to earn decently, is to show work that goes over and beyond the call of duty.
Can you earn reliable, good money through 99designs?
I would say not really. Most people here at GraphicDesign despise 99designs and the like, and though it seems some people pull it off, this, I suspect, is mainly because they have a bunch of templates they work from. Consider it assembly-line graphics.
Is it okay to offer services for such a low value?
For who?
For the people hiring? It's more than OK. It's ideal. They're getting work for next to nothing.
For you? Can you live off of such a low wage? Likely not.
Note that sites like 99designs are even worse in that you aren't even guaranteed any money for the work you do.
General rule of thumb: the people using these sites to hire people are not people looking for quality by any definition. They are shopping purely by price and that's not a fun way to earn a living.
EDIT:
if you need to try to find work purely online, I'd suggest to go the portfolio route. Examples would be using sites such as Dribbble or Behance. These sites are where you post your best work and then people decide to hire you based on your skills, rather than your price. This is a way to get a much better quality of client, and therefore, typically a much better way to earn a living.
Can you make money doing this? Yes, but it will not be easy work. It will be tough to make a living wage from it. Don't expect to end up ahead of where you'd be with a college education (even counting your student loan debt load). You will be competing with people from low wage countries (unless you're already in one yourself), and everyone and his dog think they can do good website design (most people can't), even self-taught.
Since the main point here is that you feel your college is more interested in taking your tuition (from your parents) than in providing a good education, it's probably time to make a change.
Even though for some reason an answer was accepted within 17 hours, when most people would have waited for a few days to a week to hear from as many different people as possible, I will tell you what I know.
I work with freelancers who do graphics who depend on their freelance income and unless they got secret trust funds, its their only income. As with all other businesses, a good half fail within the first year. A lot more fail to last more than a few years. In my opinion, the skill level of the designer is not the benchmark to go by were you to bet who will still freelance full time in 12 months or who will not.
Freelancing is a business, and must be treated as such. You must have a capitalistic outlook that each one of your hours IS actually worth money, be able to easily say no when clients ask for freebies that make no business sense to give, be able to clearly separate business from personal spheres, be able to quickly evaluate how long a given task will take and what the maximum price that can can be set that gives the client value yet makes it worth your while. Freelancers must be able to manage time, and spend lots of that time marketing themselves and getting 'out there', and most of all they have to be very very organized.
You ever seen a big street intersection with three gas stations on three corners and a fourth gas station being built on the fourth corner? As a kid, I always wondered what kind of an idiot would invest in a fourth gas station when they could have built it a bit up the block. Turns out, as I learned in grad school, that being the 4th gas station on the same intersection is more profitable than building one down the block, though it seems to go against the grains of common sense.
So my advice, when there is no work to occupy your time, is to spend that time marketing yourself which includes participating in every single crowd sourcing 'competition' that you can find, and there are more than a couple of those daily. Today, graphics people who are competent using CSS/HTML/jQuery look sexier than their competitors (Photoshop/illustrator can no longer be your only tools if you are looking to improve your chances with freelancing).
This guy http://www.flyelanddesigns.com/ makes his living freelancing as a graphics designer, who is successful and made freelancing viable enough to live comfortably and support a family. So is freelancing viable? Of course, but far from guaranteed income.
The most tricky part about such websites (I think all outsourcing platforms) is that without solid statistics and feedback, it will be hard to get working. I've seen it many times. So, start from a low rate and gain it accordingly. Hours, stars, feedback and skills, for sure, is the best strategy.
No offence intended to you, user24131, but if I were a potential client browsing through GDSE, I'd immediately dismiss you as a viable candidate. You've been criticized on your poor use of language, have acknowledged the criticism, and yet you continue to come off sounding like a 17 year old "punk".
Having said that, my suggestion to you is this: continue on with your studies, they can only further your career and will never be a hindrance. You'll likely find school considerably easier than what you're trying to accomplish unless you're a VERY talented individual, an excellent marketer, and a real "go getter". The fields of web and graphic design are saturated in the online world and it takes someone spectacular to make a go of it and succeed. Sure, you can do piece work here and there for a couple of bucks but don't expect to make a living out of it.
Go back to school, get your degree, improve upon your communication skills and then conquer!
Best of luck!
You can earn money from sites like 99designs, crowdspring etc. I did try it for some time and I won 1 out of 9. Which is not great at all but I did it wrong. I spent a lot of time on each design and this is not the way you will succeed.
I know a girl from my country (Bulgaria). She makes logos every day. This is her statistics. She participated in over 2000 contests in 3 years. She won over 200 of them. On average she makes $1000-$3000 every month. This is more than enough to live very good in Bulgaria.
What's interesting here is her strategy. She doesn't spend days to make a logo. She does it fast. It's not hard. It's just a different game. In fact I know she posts logos on other sites that sell logos. I guess she sells the designs that didn't win. Why not?! I guess she makes more money that way.
When you think about it ... it's a very good way to make money, if you are willing to do that. Make it a game! The "Make a logo in 10 minutes" game. 2 minutes for a concept, 4 minutes to sketch, 4 minutes to vectorize. Play it for 1 hour a day. That's 6 logos per day, 180 per month. If you win 10 contests you can make over $3000 with 1 hour of work. Win 20 - $6000.
Remember the motivational speech from "The Pursuit of Happiness":
You got a dream... ...you gotta protect it. People can't do something themselves... ...they wanna tell you you can't do it. If you want something, go get it. Period.
Good luck, bro.
