Read time: 3 mins

Join Dora's AI Waitlist ASAP!

Don’t miss out and have the waitlist go into thousands, join the AI waitlist immediately!

I’m sending this newsletter out before the 10pm (GMT+5) official time because I want my subscribers to be one of the first to join the waitlist!

Things we’ll be cover:

• 🤯 Dora’s AI Waitlist

• 💰 Top 5 ways for you to start making money

• 🧐 Wisdom Street

• ⚡️ Design Inspiration

•  🎯 Tools to keep on using

💰 Top 5 ways for you to start making money

A lot of people try to make money by working (obviously), but we as designers have the superpower to sell what we design, and I’m sharing some ways in which you can make money in 2023 as designers.

Webflow templates
As I mentioned previously, you need to start working in webflow. But a lot of people don’t work there because they don’t have clients. Well, forget about clients and start working on templates. That would help you practice, develop a portfolio, be good at the tool, and also make money on the side. And with a portfolio, your chances of getting a client also increase.

Framer templates
All the above is also applicable for Framer templates.

Design resources
Simple things like backgrounds, patterns, gradients, etc making tons of money. Don’t miss out on the action! Just add whatever you can do, not what’s already available.

Teach - Be an educator
Add courses on sites like skillshare, or teachable teaching whatever you know.
As Phil Collins said: “In learning you will teach, and in teaching you will learn.”
Teaching has tons of benefits, you become better at what you’re teaching, you get popular, you get new clients, you get affiliate deals, you develop a following!

UI kits/Design Systems
Create design systems with your own flair, and upload them on gumroad. This may take a bit more time than the rest, and I’d argue would be a bit hard to make a lot of money with if you do not have a good following.

Wisdom Street!

🙌 Figma resources to check out

Design systems in Figma
A combination of a huge list of professional and enterprise grade + open source design systems for Figma. Use any of them to get started on your own design system for a client instead of building things completely from scratch!

Material Symbols plugin
A much powerful way to use Material Design icons.

Illustrations Plugin
Allows you to freely fetch illustrations from a few popular illustration libraries out there.

⚡️ Design Inspiration

I think it’s important for us to grow as designers if we see the awesome work others are producing. It just helps us see how behind we are (yes, even I myself am behind), and help us become better.

🎯 Tools to keep on using

Figma - For UX, UI and Web+Mobile Design
As many of your know, I teach Figma, and I think it’s currently the best UX, UI and Design tool out there, and I don’t see an immediate competitor right now.

Webflow - For website/landing page creation
I have worked on Wordpress, Shopify, and a few other platforms as well, and based on the growth of Webflow, and the jobs in the open market, I would highly suggest designers to familiarise themselves with it.

Eagle - Organize all your reference images in one place
When starting out on a project, download this tool on a free trial and give it a try if you have to collect a bunch of inspirations and generate a moodboard. You’ll be surprised how much of an aid this tool is!

1password - One of the more secure password managers
This is more for professionals and teams. I used to use Lastpass but there was a breach, so I could no longer trust it.

Todoist - Manage your personal tasks
If you want to manage your personal tasks with ease, and keep track of them. Try to read about the The Eisenhower Matrix to optimize your daily tasks a bit better. (feel free to use any other todo tool).

Thanks for reading! Ideally I’ve provided you value in this newsletter. If I have, feel free to share it with a friend. You can find me here.

Until next time!
Asaad