Are you an artist wanting to learn how to sell your art online? You’ve come to the right place! I’ve been selling art online for over 6 years now and have written many blog posts on the topic, sharing what I’ve learned along the way.
Today I’ve created this definitive guide to round up many of those posts in a new, and hopefully helpful way.
If you want to get a crash course on how to sell your art online, don’t miss my Skillshare class: From Design to Product: Sell Your Art Online Through Print on Demand
Otherwise, read on to learn more about how to sell your art online.
Getting Started
To get started selling your art online you’ll need to have a collection of designs to start off with, decide on a platform for selling your art, and optimize your artwork for the web.
Then, you’ll need to upload your art or list your products on the platform you’ve chosen. Finally, you’ll need to market those products to your customers.
To dive deeper into some of these topics, check out the following posts:
- How to Sell Your Art Online in 5 Steps
- How to Design for Print on Demand Websites – Best Practices
- How to Digitize Your Art for Print on Demand
- Cleaning up Scanned Line Art in Photoshop and Illustrator
Where to Sell Your Art Online
The website you choose to sell your art online will depend on factors like your artistic medium, and what you want to sell. If you want to sell original paintings or screen printed t-shirts you could try Etsy.
On the other hand, if you don’t want to carry an inventory or ship physical goods yourself, then a Print on Demand marketplace like Society6 might be better for you.
If you want to sell your art through your own website (best if you already have a large following), then you might consider Printful, which integrates with e-commerce platforms on your own site.
There are a lot of different options which I’ve discussed in depth in other posts on this site, which are listed below.
- Where to Sell Your Art Online in 2022
- Selling Your Art on POD Websites: Zazzle vs. Society6
- Selling Your Art on POD Websites: Redbubble Edition
- Selling Your Art on POD Websites: TeePublic Edition
- Merch by Amazon: What I’ve Learned After 1 Year
- How to Sell Your Art on Books with Amazon KDP
How to Market Your Art Online
Marketing your art can mean handing out business cards to your network, sharing on social media or even blogging. You can try all of these, or just focus on a few like sharing on Instagram and Pinterest.
One thing I recommend is having consistent branding across all of your stores and social media channels. This includes having the same or similar headers, logo and profile photo. These can be changed and improved over time so just start with something simple and go from there.
I have several in depth posts about the different marketing platforms I’ve experimented with. You should do your own experimenting, or take some marketing courses (many are free!) if it is not your strong suit.
- How to Grow your Instagram Art Account
- How to Use TikTok for Artists
- How to Sell More Art with Pinterest
- Social Media Marketing Tips for Artists
- Blogging for Your Art Business
Running an Art Business
If you want to make money from your art then you need to think about it as your business.
You may already have a career or full time job, but that doesn’t mean you can’t also be an artist or business owner. Thinking about it this way can really help you reach your goals in the long run.
As with any business there are risks and responsibilities, like paying taxes! It’s best practice to keep a log sheet in Google Sheets or Excel to track your business expenses and income. This will help you determine where your money is going, and where it is coming from.
Most large businesses have an accountant, a marketing person, a CEO, and other roles. As a small business owner, you are all of these. As a result, there is a lot to learn, but you should strive to continue learning and filling in your knowledge gaps.
Below are some posts I’ve written on topics related to the business side of things:
- How to Fill Out the W-8 BEN Tax form (For Non-U.S. Sellers)
- Common Scams for Artists to Watch out for
Resources
Now that you have a handle on how to sell your art online, you may be wondering what the quality of the products are like. And how to optimize your shops to increase sales.
Below are some posts including product reviews, conducting keyword research, and other things you can do to improve your stores and reach.
- Society6 Product Review: Yoga Mat
- Society6 Product Review: Leggings
- Redbubble Product Review: A-Line Dress
- Finding Keywords for your Zazzle Products
- 10 Ways to Get Your Print on Demand Shops Ready for the Holidays
- What to do when Sales are Slow in your Print on Demand Store
Find even more resources in the Artist Resources section of my website!
My Print on Demand Stores
Below are links to my different print on demand storefronts. I’ve also got a shop on my own website you can take a look at for inspiration.
I hope this guide will be useful for all of you artists out there who are trying to make some extra money by selling your art online through Print on Demand websites.
Be sure to subscribe to my blog so you don’t miss any new posts, and bookmark this guide so you can come back to it whenever new information is added.
If you want a more in depth crash course, don’t miss my Skillshare class: From Design to Product: Sell Your Art Online Through Print on Demand.
You can watch the intro below:
Let’s do this!
Cheers,
A very informative Print On Demand post, Julie – thanks for sharing!
Thanks Phil, I’m so glad you found it useful!
Was going through mine and came across this as well
OH my gosh thank you for a list! Before you made this and when I was studying POD back last fall/into winter last year, I was literally saving your posts via my web browser having a bunch of saved links – now it’s all in one place! Convenient! :)
Oh my gosh, sorry I didn’t do this sooner ? I promise to get this website more organized soon. I’m planning a big overhaul actually! (but not losing the content)
Actually, I have a question.I don’t know where else to put this. Long story short, my partner now wants to team up and do POD shirts, and with no affiliation to my “katesartz” accounts , but rather under our own “business” name in which we’re using for other freelance jobs (word of mouth mostly right now, we’re working on our website). Do you know anything about having to register ourselves as a business, or if we even have to bother? I read somewhere that it depends on how much you make or something. We’re in Ontario if that helps any, and I know we’ll have to fill out those tax forms as freelancers. But like, if we’re making a small team of artists and collaborating on jobs – including designing shirts and selling them online – do you think we should register as a business?
I registered my business in 2019 , as a sole proprietor. Once i was making over $5000 in a year I decided to do it, but that was just an arbitrary number I came up with, not from a legal standpoint. This year will be my first year doing taxes as a “business” but I think the main reason you’d do it is so you can deduct any expenses involved with your business and pay slightly less taxes.
Right gotcha. Thanks for the reply, and information. I decided that this year I’ll just stay low since I won’t be making enough anyway, but I get why you’d want to do that once you hit the 5k mark.
Thanks for the helpful post.
You’re so welcome 😁