..... https://www.edx.org/school/harvardx
Audience is Key
Don't forget that if you are an artist there are plenty of ways to get your art out there. There is pinterest, reddit, blogger other social media. Stumble upon, Dribble and some people even get gigs from their LinkedIn act. Instagram is the best for art to find people that are artists to really get inspired and to inspire others. But they do not allow you to share links directly to your art that is for sale.Well you can post the link but its not like on other social media sites where you can easily post it to deviantart and then just hit share. When it populates on Pinterest or Facebook then you can easily see that when you clicl on the image it takes them back to your POD page. I hate it because that is my main audience, but facebook is so jam packed with advertisements it kind of irritates me too so I try not to do it to others. If they choose to like my page that is spicifically for my art then that would be fine.
Pay attention to your stats!
What ever you see doing well do more of that...........So I made a separate page from my personal page on fb where I see that 50-75 people view my art but do not click on it or share it hardly ever. It is kind of disheartening. Don't let it be discouraging because you know that it is getting views and that is a plus. My art I do not make for the demographic that I live in. I was not raised in the south and so my art is not that southern but I do make commissions for people who are interested. In the mean time I use Pinterest to reach my audience of people who are more like me. It has been my saving grace!!! I post for 20 min in the morn at the peak times for the things that are trending. When people are online and my numbers go up. At night I post my art. It is imperative that if you want to make sales you post first on the Print on demand site (deviantart or zazzle is my fav. or redbubble great quality from redbubble then share to your pinterest boards....................)
How do you get your stats?
Nothing will encourage you like seeing those number go up and up and up every single day!
If you sign up for the business acct and post things that you love and things that are current people will search for these things and may also notice your art. This is how I have started to make sales. Then you can look at the stats and see what does best for you its planters and zombies YAY for me. Because I love both. My number one board was hanging planters. Which I love and have been making with my Mom since I was a kid. But at this time of year it brought numbers to my page(25k) Post what is really trending. and Post what you are passionate about. Deviantart has stats and so does zazzle. You can also use statcounter. Analytics is fun but a pain in the but.
Here is the steps it really takes to get going.
1 Draw or Digitally render high resolution prints. (Quality is sooo important do the research for each site and their print requirements.)
2 Then edit them to make them really pretty and shiny or eye catching and put your LOGO on it! (even if you have not made it legal just make sure you copyright it.) By Law the Judge will ususally side with you if you either put your logo on it or use the © just go ahead and copy it right NOW!!! Put it on all of your posts you can even change the code in your image and add the copyright code into the image its self. Even if you have not done a trademark you can still protect your work. There is no guarantee that the courts will allow this but if someone steels your art and makes millions you can not do anything if you can not prove it is yours!!!
3 Then post to a sales site first before SOCIAL MEDIA.
(these I recommend from experience) Amazon Merch
zazzle (add more % or you will be sad when you make a lot of sales and only get 1$ each :0)
redbubble
society 6
deviantart.com
These are my favorite but here is a massive list you can check out. If you are an artist posting your art to these sites before you have it copyrighted you really need to read that fine print on each and every site you sign up for BECAUSE you may loose the rights to your work. FOR EXAMPLE ; Deviantart does allow you to post your art and you will not lose the rights but if you delete your acct and something sells they are not going to be paying you ......SO think twice before posting and think twice before deleting your acct as well. Most importantly you dont want to take a crappy photo that is low low quality but super cool and post it all over because it it sells a ton and everyone is upset because of the print quality they may want their money back and if like zazzle and most companies they have a clause in the terms of service that says they are not NOT LIABLE of course they are always going to say this. So always make sure your images are top quality. This is the main reason I use deviantart because they have really high standards for quality I post first there and then if it will not let me make large prints then I know that it will have a poor print quality.. I think Zazzle really needs to impliment some print quality standards. I ususally just use the template that is available through amaxon merch it is like 4500 X 5400 and 300dpi (ppi)and this will cover most products and look pretty good. Some people will try to tell you that the ppi and DPI do not matter and that it will come out the same but that is just not tre 100% of the time the larger the image the less pixels will print.... For Cameras there are PPI charts you can look up. As I make accounts for these and use them I will update my blog but it is a long and tedious process to read every single bit of the terms of service to make sure I am not selling my soul in the process. ROFL Shopify costs some money but I hear it well worth the cost.
Cafe Press has good pricing but I have not used it
threadless
designs by humans
inktale.com
Imagekind.com (I have an acct here but I dont use it )
Aliexpress
Sunfrog
teespring
Artbeatstudios. (these poeple have some really good equiptment and they say they can print extremely high quality from low res photos. ) I sent them all my info and have yet to hear back from them :(
Society 6 I have an acct with the but do not post to it because they have some crappy print quality on a lot of their reviews online. It costs three dollars to get started and I am too frugal to give them money with the amount of bad reviews they have.
Fineartamerica I have an acct with them and I have not done the necissary amount of research to really post a lot of work there. Before I post to a site I go to you tube and watch the unboxing of product if they can not do a good job I do not post work to them .
customink ???
absolutearts.com
Here are a few more I am super excited to check out
BUT HAVE NOT HAD THE TIME
art.com
saatchiart.com
Crated
Artstorefronts
zenfolio
smugmug
Printful
Nuvango
gaerbubble
I am working on a document that has lines up all the different costs and percentages of money you make as well as reviews and all that good stuff. Zazzle is MOST DEFINITELY the funnest one to work with. they have cute fonts so you can just make images and then you can overlay the font from the web site.They have built in filters that are super pretty. Zazzle's on the actual PC is great but if you go and download the app I can make no promises I have had no luck with the app. I used to use it to upload images but now I cant even get it to do that but for one product at a time, but they have made it so that if you upload it to one shirt it is available for purchase on 153 shirts that your customer can choose from.. IF YOU set your settings to that feature that automatically populates to new products. The best thing for me is fractals I love to use fractals and kaleidoscopes! then overlay some text on a shirt. If you want to look me up just google liquidartz. For example here is one I uploaded from the zazzle app. (make sure it says made by you and not someone else.......) Usually if you upload to the app later if you are on the web site you can go in where you uploaded designs are and you can add the additional products with that picture that you used. Now you can not You lieterally have to plug your phone into your computer lol like we did ten years ago lol.upload all 2 million of your photos lol and then upload it to your zazzle......... Once you have decided on one of these then you upload your designs............. 4) SHARE SHARE SHARE a) Share it to facebook , pinterest, reddit b) add a stat counter on your sites that have sales so you can watch the stats go up. c) I like to make deviations of my original work and then edit it in a kaleidoscope and post to instagram. 5) Make a you tube video about what sells and what does not sell ! I have not got this far yet but my internet is sooo tremendously slow I just will have to go live and that is sooo freaking scare y. So I blog instead Love you all and I hope that everyone gets their cake and eats it too! (diabetics sorry I love you too) As a raging workaholic nothing is ever good enough for me! I am always pushing myself to be better. (sometimes you have to tell your sister, brother, Mother or lover to just take your art away from you when it looks good.) Otherwise you will end up like me an art hoarder that will never let go of anything until someone actually comes and snatches out of my cold dead hands. You wont get anywhere without the drive. I have started making art a repetitious task daily grind. Help others and collaborate they will help you back!!! If you find a design that is soo cute dont forget to add a little bit extra on the royalties. MAN I sold one of these and only made 1.50 you think I would be happy but you have to remember on zazzle if you don't make 30.00 you wont get paid UGH Affiliate Links
What if you are not artistically inclined but you are in the same boat. Maybe your a stay at home Mom or a single parent that just really needs some extra income but you just don't have the time to create any art.
Well that is where Affiliate links come in.......
see my other blogs. So amazon and many other sites have affiliate links all you have to do is sign up for the program and then do some research. If you have had your social media open for a long time and you have a lot of followers it can be pretty easy to make sales just find something that is necessary or coveted. Like this time of year in the south where I live if I were to try to sell some affiliate products I would sell humidifier, heaters, guns and hunting or camping gear. There were so many products that I recommended for hurricane preparedness I made a blog and added affiliate links to all kinds of self sufficient products. Mainly because I had a lot of people I love and just really good friends that had to survive through hurricanes this year... Surviving a hurricane is pretty easy as long as the power stays on and the roof stays in place.
Click Bait or Pay per click
Another thing you can do is if you are like me and you have time to spend researching you can write and awesome blog and set up links for pay per click sites. But this I have not tried because I am not sure which ones are good and which ones cause viruses. This blog is perfect for pay per click it is much much longer than I anticipated and people keep asking me questions and I add a little more to it. SO I probably should set up some pay per click and each time a person clicks you get a tiny bit $ but the more important your info or the more trendy then the more money you will make. Ok so any other questions just send me a message and I will update the blog. Good luck, Hustle Hustle Hustle
