In this edition of For the Win, designer Matt Olpinski shares his Dribbble success story. Read Matt’s story about how a Dribbble Pro account helped him make over $150,000 in just three years.
I was drafted to Dribbble by one of my college professors shortly after the platform launched in 2010. I already had a portfolio website to house my work, but was eager to display it wherever I could.
At first, I used the platform for inspiration while learning how to design websites and apps. Soon after, I started freelancing on the side and things were going pretty well. My shots regularly received likes and comments, but the work inquiries still trickled in slowly. I found most of my first projects through family and friends.
When I started paying $20/year for a Pro account in 2012, everything changed. Dribbble had become the place clients look to find the best design talent, but having a Pro account really opened up the floodgates.
I made over $150,000 in just 3 years from Dribbble alone and it only cost me $60 total. That’s a serious ROI.
These opportunities came from popular startups and major brands such as Google, Yahoo, New York Times, Verizon Wireless, American Express, Anthropologie, and Tiffany & Co. many of whom found me through (or contacted me because of) my Dribbble account.
An average of 5 leads per month was more than enough to fuel my freelancing career and I soon found myself rejecting work for lack of availability. By May 2015, my freelancing career was doing so well that I decided to quit my Interactive Art Director position and pursue a full-time freelance design career instead.
Since then, I’ve been booked out several months in advance and my best (and most lucrative) projects continue to originate from Dribbble. I work fewer, more stress-free hours than ever before from my home office in Rochester, NY. Dribbble is a critical part of my sales funnel and a big reason for why my design career has been so successful thus far.
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