I am often asked about how I'm making a full time living as an artist, and I'm finally here to share with you the tips, tricks, systems and secrets I use to keep the income, the inspiration, and the paint, flowing in this little studio of mine.
5 Income Building Steps When Creating: Make Money with Your Art
When you finish a gorgeous work of art, there are some crucial steps to take that will put your work in front of as many eyeballs as possible - which will eventually result in your work getting found, hopefully purchased, and possibly even licensed to create a form of residual, passive income that will help boost your bank account for months after you created the work!
Step 1: Etsy/Your own shop
After you've properly photographed or scanned in your new piece, the first step is listing that work of art for sale online - whether that's in an Etsy shop, or if you have your own website through a service like Shopify or Big Cartel. Getting the work available for purchase, on an easy to navigate platform, will make it that much more likely that it will eventually end up in the home of a collector, rather than sitting on a shelf in your studio. The easier it is for a customer to place the item in their cart and checkout, the better.
(Side note: Some might say that it is best to list one's work on a portfolio website, with no prices and no checkout, in the hopes that a collector or gallerist will be so in love with their art, that they will take the time to email the artist, begging to know more info about said painting or drawing. I have learned that this is a romantic fantasy, best left to the movies. If you want to make a living as an artist, the more people who have access to purchasing your art quickly, securely and efficiently, the better. This also prevents scammers from wasting your time via email!)
(Side note two: If you are the type of artist who enjoys working in collections (which is a GREAT way to set yourself apart and do great things for your career), stay tuned for another post on how one creates collections of art, how to hype it up, list and sell that collection the RIGHT way. This post does also apply to collections as well, but in the case of those, you would be doing all these steps in a batch for the entire collection.)
Step 2: Print on Demand
The second, and maybe the most fun thing you can do with your art once you've created it, is to upload it to a print on demand website where it can be made into products - art prints, cell phone cases, pillows, tshirts... almost anything at this point! A few great sites where you can upload your work:
These sites pay out a commission for each product sold. Some sites will allow you to set the commission rate yourself, while others have a set percentage on their products. It may seem like a small amount on some sites, but it begins to add up as your portfolio expands and you get your name and brand out there.
Step 3: Newsletter List
Now that you have your art available for purchase in several different places, it's time to tell everyone! (If you don't have an email list yet, you can skip this step, obviously... but my one word of advice in this day and age of followers, fans and changing algorithms - get thee an email list! Setting up a simple landing page for people to sign up for your newsletter is easy on most portfolio or ecommerce websites, and I plan to talk about awesome incentives for collectors to sign up for it in a future post!)
Some things to put in your newsletter include:
- Progress photos of you making the new work
- A short bit of text talking about what inspired you
- Obviously - the new work!
You don't have to make it too complicated or fancy - usually the simpler the better here. Many newsletter applications and sites will have built in editors so that you can make it nice, even without any graphic design experience. I personally use Mailchimp, and it is super easy to get that newsletter out into the world when I have something to share.
Step 4: Social
It's finally time to head to social media! I know some artists think this might be the best option to start with, but you want to make it as easy as possible for your fans and followers to get that art into their hands once it's scrolling rapidly across their phone screen. We are inundated with thousands of images a day, a lot of them trying to sell us things, so our brains have gotten very used to instantly finding what it is we're looking for when it comes to shiny things we might want to purchase NOW now NOW, or save for later for gift giving, a future project, etc. (Hello, my name is Christine and I have 80 Pinterest boards!)
The top social media apps I recommend are as follows: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. (Bonus points if you got some progress pics or videos of the process for you to post as well!) Be sure to include a descriptive caption - possibly about your inspiration, the subject matter, or anything that speaks to your audience about why you made this gorgeous thing. Hashtags are also a great way to get your work found on all of these sites. You can find ways to have your posts automatically populate on all your social media all at once through sites like IFTTT.com - If This, Then That, which will save you loads of time instead of posting on all those sites separately.
Step 5: Niche Marketplaces
This is a fun bonus step that I sometimes forget to do, but every once in a while, if I'm having a boring afternoon when I'd rather work on my business instead of paint, I go searching for new marketplaces to apply to, or add art to if I already have access. Here are some of the ones that I like to check out from time to time:
The sky is the limit with websites like these, and if you stumble across a marketplace that fits well with your style of work, you just may have created a new stream of income for yourself!
I hope you found this step by step guide useful! If you liked it, be sure to leave a comment and subscribe to my newsletter to stay up to date on the new biz posts that are coming your way soon!
Comments