Hi beautiful people!
Does any one has experience selling art/design online? Have you tried stock image markets or any other online website like etsy or zazzle? #Question #Advice #workingartist
@qwazix
I recently joined Shutterstock, but I'm not a photographer, I uploaded Vectors and after a couple of minor changes in the final EPS exported file, they accepted my designs. I haven't sell anything (it's to early for that) but so far, the interface is easy to use.
@Helsic I have not tried these sites personally but Impress, RedBubble, Society6 are also popular choices. Alternatively, you can make / ship prints yourself at home.
@lillendandie Thanks for the suggestions! Since I live in China, my choices are limited. There are tons of websites/domains that are blocked or don't accept Chinese bank cards etc.
@Helsic Gumroad is also a storefront for digital goods. I have seen some stock on there.https://gumroad.com/
@Helsic online websites like redbubble and zazzle are very crowded and hard to stand out. they're great if you have fandom related merch ideas (like Nintendo mash ups, star trek jokes) or if you can appeal to a big niche like people who like cats or dragons, queer flags, etc. otherwise original art gets like, no hits unless you have a huge existing following on social media sites
@Helsic Etsy has more stores selling orginal art but successful art stores often sell more than prints, for example, buttons, enamel pins, jewelry, greeting cards, cell phone charms, hand bound or silk screened notebooks, framed art and handmade clothing or plush animals, crafts,,
@Helsic trying to make money off art and design is difficult. many artists design a product, like a set of enamel pins, phone charms, a set of tarot cards (years of work), an art book, a comic book, then crowd fund the project through preorders on kickstarter and then use the funds to get and ship the products
@Helsic if you go the design route, design can be like value added for fabric. there's printed patterns on spoonflower, T-shirt designs at many sites like design by humans, teepublic, Threadless, (or search for T-shirt design contest). usually profit is a small percent of what's sold, but sometimes companies will buy designs outright for more money.
@oceana1009 Yeah, that's what I noticed too. It's hard to get original designs/art noticed in an ocean of fanarts. Growing a fanbase is really difficult nowadays, there are too many good artists already established in many social media platforms.
@Helsic I just found out about this higher profit method of running artist stores, I posted it on bird site here https://twitter.com/oceana1009/status/1005722690118877184
@oceana1009 I've been looking for something just like this, because I'd heard about the big chunks RedBubble and the others take outta da profits!
@AesAthena yeah and it's so hard to sell anything in the first place and so demoralizing when you sell a 30 dollars shirt and make like 3 dollars. occasionally I hear about an artist who can sell thousands of products a month this way and thus actually profit, but that seems pretty much the exception rather than the norm
@Helsic I tried shutterstock, with <10 photos. Crappy upload process (they upgraded since, havent used it). Too stringent anti-trademark/release policies, they kept rejecting a photo that I had checked every inch and removed any trademarks. I never sold a copy.
I have also ticked the "for sale" box for some of my photos on 500px. No sale there either.