5 Amazing Reasons To Create an Income Stream With the Figma Community

Do you work every day at your 9–5 job, and looking for an additional income stream? You’re tired to hear about starting a new blog or YouTube channel? Have you heard about the Figma community?

Or maybe you’re a newcomer and interested to build your portfolio. Finally, there is the ability with a clear design process only.

Figma recently announced that designers can start earning money in the community. This is a chance for you to stay with what you can do best — designing products.

So why I am excited about this opportunity? This is finally a chance to design products directly in Figma, train your skills, and earn extra money.

But there is something more.

Craft Your Portfolio

I remember myself 9 years ago. I just started my career and wasn’t ready to compete with other designers. My portfolio was empty, and I was looking for any opportunity to fill it with designs.

Luckily, I found 99designs and joined contests. It was fresh air for my portfolio because I immediately started to add works that were allowed to add by 99designs NDA contracts.

Within a short period, I finally got a portfolio with nice works I could present to my potential employers.

Today, being a senior UX/UI designer, and mentor, I know how it’s hard for newcomers to find some projects and fill portfolios.

Being a mentor, a lot of my mentees ask how to create a portfolio with no real projects. I usually recommend a few resources which to take inspiration from. Also, I advise creating concept products.

Figma community changes everything. It’s a unique opportunity to create works that recruiters can see online.

There is a big difference between concept work and the one you can click and go through.

Now, you can create any concept work, and publish it with the Figma community. It will be your additional portfolio.

Not being a junior designer anymore, even I think that the Figma community is something that I may explore for my own portfolio needs.

As you know, the more you design, the better UX/UI designer you become.

Create an Extra Income Stream

When you work with concept designs, it’s cool. You can experiment, and try new techniques, practices, or tools.

There is something more. I believe you agree with me that it will be even more enjoyable if your concept work will be paid.

While you design an app or web product, you can use the Figma community to create an extra income stream. This works for all design levels. It doesn’t matter if you’re junior or senior.

All you need to do is to create something valuable for designers, developers, or product owners.

For example, it can be a design system, landing page, or corporate website. Don’t restrict yourself, create anything that you think will be valuable and earn money.

You can explore the Figma community to find inspiration for what to design next.

I always recommend my mentees have at least 3 great case studies. But today, it would be even better to create these case studies as paid files and continue to create more of them.

If you struggle to get your first job, you can start from this small income stream.

Who knows maybe you will like it and transform it into a full-time job.

I learn to program right now, and there are so many opportunities for developers. Sometimes I am jealous. Why designers don’t have so many opportunities?

With the recent Figma update, I believe that we finally have a new powerful way to stand out.

Stay Connected With the Design Community

Another benefit of why you might consider creating paid files is community power.

When I was a junior designer, I couldn’t understand why I need to concentrate on staying in touch with other designers. What were the benefits? Why do I need this?

I thought that learning and practicing design was the only thing I needed.

Within that time I understood how wrong I was. Staying connected with other designers allow you to compare your skills and grow as a professional.

You can see others’ work and check how other designers create their products. Furthermore, you can find designers and connect with them via LinkedIn, or other social networks.

Every author page on the Figma community has details about the designer, so it’s easy to connect.

For example, you can reach out to designers, and create your design group, find an accountability partner, or even a mentor.

Think about the Figma community as the source of your opportunities that go beyond creating files only.

This is your unique chance and everything depends on your activity and the way you will use community power.

Learn About Trends

When you want to learn about recent design trends, what do you do? I believe that you will Google, or watch YouTube videos. Maybe you will read blogs or design magazines.

With the Figma community, you have a direct way to follow design trends. There is no need to spend enormous time on the search.

All you need to do is to use filters and sort works according to your needs.

By doing so, you can see what is a popular, best-selling, or recent design. And yes, you need to follow trends if you want to stay up-to-date with other designers.

Maybe you think that reading and watching videos will be enough for you, but I believe that checking real works is way more efficient. It doesn’t matter if those files will be paid or free. All you need to do is to check the design itself.

When you see the design, you can learn from it. Even when you try to replicate the exact design, which isn’t a good thing, but may be OK for your training, this will be beneficial for you.

Build a Brand Name

If you’re excited as me about this recent update and a bunch of new opportunities for you, there is another way how you can utilize this Figma update.

Were you thinking about why some designers create designs even for free? For example, some websites allow you to contribute your work. And you use these websites in your design process every day.

Some designers are ready to create designs for free because they know the power of it. This power is called a personal brand.

A personal brand is a unique thing and very powerful. I was also skeptical about it before. But I got the experience before and after and here are the details.

Before having my brand, I needed to look for a job, confirm my skills with recruiters, and technical interviews, and so on. I had a standard hiring process.

A few years ago I started my brand. I started to write articles, created my community, and participated in design contests and other activities.

As a result, the job I have now is the outcome of my brand power. A recruiter reached out to me because the company found my profile on LinkedIn with my brand details.

During the interview, I got many questions related to my brand activity. There were technical questions, but they were more interested to learn about my extra activities.

Today, I get many job proposals, even with a LinkedIn profile that doesn’t have an “Open to work” ribbon.

Concentrating on creating your brand can help you stand out from other designers and build a stronger profile for your future employer.

Final Thoughts

Figma is a powerful design tool, and it’s a lead giant for designers. As with any product, it has ongoing updates, and recently we have had a surprise with the paid files.

I love many design tools, and Figma is one of them because of its power. The power is not only in the design itself but also in the community. There are no other design tools that think about a community so much.

The recent update shows a new way for you to design unique works, get extra income, and use community power as you need. Now everything depends on you.