There is a stereotype of starving artists who don’t make any money from their work while they’re alive. That may have been true for someone like Vincent Van Gogh, but it is no longer the case today. In this digital age, it is possible to build a committed customer base online and make money from your talent.
1. Sell art prints
There are plenty of blogs and videos that talk about making money online with some easy ideas like affiliate marketing or monetization. But very few talk about selling art to make money. If you wonder how to make money selling art, one of the top ways is to sell art prints.
For example, you could start an Etsy shop where you sell prints of your work. Selling art prints makes your art available to those who may not be able to afford an original piece. You can expand your audience by selling prints and even sell limited edition prints for which you can charge a little more.
What you can expect to earn will depend on the platform you use and your costs. If you don’t have your own shop and you use an online gallery to sell your work, you will have to pay a commission on your sales.
To print your art prints, it will help to work with a print-on-demand company. It will only make prints when a customer places an order. This means you don’t have any storage or inventory worries. You don’t even have to handle packaging and shipping as it will do this for you.
2. Sell vector designs
If you have a talent for graphic design, you can make money from your creativity. You can sell logo designs, icon packs, illustrations and more to stock websites. Shutterstock, Adobe Stock, and Sellfy are just a few stock websites where you can upload your designs for customers to buy. You earn a commission when a customer downloads your designs. Uploading new designs constantly can eventually result in a good stream of passive income for you.
3. Sell merchandise
Using a print-on-demand company can also help you to transfer your art onto merchandise to sell. Some of the merchandise you can sell includes:
- Greeting cards
- Wedding invitations
- Diaries, journals and planners
- Home décors such as mugs or placemats
- T-shirts or hoodies
- Cell phone cases
It is easier to earn money by selling a real-life product than a digital product. Customers like to have a tangible product to display or use. The print-on-demand company you use will take away many of the hassles, but you need to factor in the cost of using this service.
4. Look for commissions for original work
Today, you can showcase your work on social media platforms. All you need to do is mention in your bio that you accept commissions for portraits or any other kind of work. If earning a living from selling your original work is what you want, then this is a method that could work for you. You wouldn’t have to use a middleman to sell your work so all the profit would be yours. The disadvantage is that you would have to deal with customers who can be difficult.
5. Start an art blog
If you have some writing skills as well as artistic skills, you could start an art blog. An art blog shifts focus to the readers, and you can produce useful content for them. Quality content will draw readers to your blog and give you the opportunity to market to them. You could feature artists in interviews and write opinion articles about new trends and art exhibitions. Creating videos showing how you work on your art pieces could be very popular.
When it comes to making money from your blog, you could create a course to sell that teaches paint techniques. Blog posts about the art supplies you use could help you make money by inserting affiliate links. Apart from affiliate marketing, other ways to earn money from a blog include using paid ads, creating commissioned reviews or marketing your own art.
Conclusion
The above five ideas give you some idea of how you can make money from your art. If one method doesn’t work for you, you can always try another. A combination of methods may help you to develop steady income streams that can support you on a monthly basis.
