Skip to main content

Creating a Mobile Independent Artist Business - Part 10: Opportunities to make money (Part A)

In my last post I looked at What to Create and Finding Your Market. This post is something of a natural follow on from finding your market as many of these money making opportunities include their own market places that you can research to see what kinds of themes and subjects sell best.

It's worth doing this research to find out if the art you're already creating is a good fit for that market place - which is ideal - or if you may have to consider expanding your interests to cover popular themes in order sell in a particular market.



Obviously the list of opportunities below are not exhaustive, I'm sure there are plenty I've missed. These are just things that I personally have either tried, am currently doing or have come across in my own research. I'm not recommending any opportunity over another and don't think that, just because I've tried something that is the best option. Some of these I discovered in the course of writing this article so I have no real experience of how good an opportunity they are.

It's beyond the scope of this article to go into specific details about each opportunity. Instead I've provided a summary and any relevant links. From there you should do your own investigation on whether a particular opportunity sounds right for you. Keep in mind that all of them require work and persistence in order to be successful.

Real World Galleries


Exhibiting and selling your work in real world, bricks and mortar galleries (or even shops) could be limiting if you want to be truly mobile but say you travel to many places on a regular basis, getting your original work into places where buyers can physically experience it is not such a bad idea.

The number one hinderance to selling art online is that people aren't able to experience the actual artwork. It's hard to understand the scale, texture, color and detail through a computer screen. Personally, the number one comment I get from buyers is that my art looks even better when seen in person.

Getting your work into galleries can be a challenge. More than ever, you need to research potential galleries to see if the work they sell is similar to yours in theme and subject matter. Most galleries sell to a specific market so if they don't show interest in your work it may be that they feel your art doesn't fit their market.

Online Shops and Auctions


Ebay is one of the biggest markets online. If you can't find a market for your particular style of art there then finding a market anywhere is going to prove challenging. That said, people shopping on Ebay are looking for bargains. I don't know about you but the number one reason I look on Ebay for anything is to see if I can get what I want for a lower price than retail.

If you're just starting out Ebay is a good way to attract interest in your art. Make sure you sell great examples of your work. Don't fall into the trap of thinking Ebay is where you sell your less successful pieces. I would recommend posting at least some artwork that you're happy to sell for a minimum price of about $49.95 (most people will impulse buy up to about $50.00).

My own strategy was to list artworks for auction with an opening bid of $49.95 and a Buy now Price of just over double that. Once a bid is made the buy now price is gone. If you're lucky you'll get bidders fighting over your art to the point where they go over your buy now price. That said, a lot of my paintings were sold for $49.95 (keep that in the back of your mind. Don't list anything you're not happy to sell at your minimum price).

When you make a sale use the opportunity to funnel your buyers to your website or wherever you sell your more ambitious and higher priced art. You may just encourage a sale, now that that buyer trusts you to deliver on their purchase.

Ebay also has the option to open an online store on their site. If you make a lot of art and find you're getting consistent sales then you may want to consider a shop. Unike listing individual items where you pay listing fees and final value fees, stores also include monthly fees that you need to pay whether you sell anything or not. There are different levels of stores at varying prices. The main advantage is it's one way to give yourself that one location to direct all your potential buyers too.

There are alternatives to Ebay stores. If you like the idea of selling your art through your own website FolioTwist is an artist webhosting service created by the makers of Empty Easel, the respected artist advice and showcase site. The tools they offer are geared entirely towards the needs of artists.

If you want something that also comes complete with its own market place Etsy and Zibbet both offer online stores attached to their market place. Both sites are exclusively for hand made art so be sure to check that your art fits with their guidelines.

 Fine Art America also has options to sell original art and build a store into your own website that is worth looking into.

Commissions


Accepting commissions is a popular way to make money from your art both offline and online. Once people start to get to know your art style it's almost inevitable that you will get people asking you to draw/paint/create their idea or concept in your artistic style.

As an artist who does take on commission work from time to time I can tell you it can be a fun challenge to collaborate with clients to bring their ideas to life as an artwork. Usually clients will be familiar with your art and, most of the time, they've come to you because they've seen that you know how to create something similar to what they have in mind. Many times, for me, it's ended up with a finished artwork that I just wouldn't have come up with on my own and is often work that I'm most proud to show.

Unlike your regular artwork, commissions have the added benefit of already having a buyer - which is a strong incentive to take on this kind of work.

If you are considering this option, always make sure you ask for a non refundable 50% deposit up front. No matter how confident you are with your art there will be occasions where the client doesn't like the finished result and refuses to pay or just abandons the project with no explanation. Either way you want to be sure you at least get some pay for the work you did.

Generally most jobs should go well and end with a happy client if you've consulted with them at every critical step and corrected any issues as they've come up. That said, make sure you receive full payment before delivering your art.

Print on Demand Sites


The beauty of Print on Demand sites is that you can sell the same piece of art over and over again as framed prints or your art printed onto gift items etc. Some artists view this as selling out but it's really selling smarter.

Nothing is stopping you from continuing to sell your original artwork. Selling prints or gift items is just another way for people to enjoy your art and you may get sales from people who otherwise can't afford to buy the original artwork.

Of course if you're primarily a digital artist then Print on Demand sites are a great way to bring your art into the physical world.

Many print on demand sites will allow you to create a shop through their website. I personally have a CafePress Shop (which costs nothing to set up - Prints, Clothing and Gifts) and a Redbubble Porfolio (which includes a shop section - Prints, Clothing and Gifts). I also have a BoardPusher shop (Skateboards) where I sell designs on Skateboard decks.

There are many different print on demand sites with varying fees, shop fronts and even types of products you can create. One interesting site I discovered recently is Shapeways a service that will print out your 3D model designs in various materials including plastic and metals. Through the site you can open a free store selling your 3D objects (seemed popular with jewelry designers).

A few other POD sites I've come across include; Fine Art America (Prints, Clothing and gifts), ImageKind (art prints), Zazzle (Clothing and gifts), Society6 (Prints, clothing and Gifts), Blurb (Books), Lulu (Books).

If you want to add some exclusivity to your print on demand products you can limit the print run of each product (and make this clear to your buyers). Once you've sold a particular number of each item, remove it from your range - never to be sold again.

By doing this you can justify charging higher prices than if you sold an unlimited number of prints but you should weigh the pros and cons. Would you make more money in the long term from an unlimited number or does exclusivity encourage more sales across your whole range if people know there will only be a limited number available?

---o ---o--- o---

There are just so many opportunities to make money online from art that I couldn't fit them all into one post. Next time I'll continue on through my own list of opportunities, hopefully giving you some further options for getting your own online business up and running.



This post is part of a series called Creating a Mobile Independent Artist Business. Read earlier parts at the links below:

Part 1: Introduction and Equipment
Part 2: Business Software
Part 3: Creative Software
Part 4: Social and Marketing Software Plus Your Website
Part 5: Documenting and Sharing Your Work in Progress
Part 6: Photographing and Preparing Your Art for Printing
Part 7: Maximizing Your Art By Creating Variations
Part 8: Legal Obligations and Employee Care Plan

Comments

Buy Gifts and Apparel featuring art by TET.

Popular posts from this blog

How to Transfer Any Line Art to Your Griptape - Easy Skateboard Griptape Art Tutorial

Dog Star Griptape Art by TET Griptape art is once again gaining popularity amongst modern skateboarders. For those of us who have tried to create our own griptape art, using paint pens, you'll know reproducing your design onto the grip, without making any mistakes is incredibly challenging. Mostly because you just have to go for it and draw the design freehand, with paint pens, directly onto the griptape. You can make the odd mistake here or there but if you get the proportions of the design completely wrong, it can be very difficult to fix. Often you just have to live with the mistake. To address the problem I've come up with an easy way anyone can transfer a line art design to their griptape, removing almost all the anxiety of getting the proportions wrong. In fact, you could do this with any line art design, even if you have no drawing skill at all. Watch the video below to see my technique in action and/or skip past the video where I highlight the basic steps to get your de

Skateboard Trick Tips: Two Ways to Ollie North (Ollie One foot)

You have to be quick to see my Ollie Norths! Ollie One Foots, otherwise known as the Ollie North, is one of those skateboard tricks you learn and then tend not to do very much as more interesting trick challenges grab your attention. However it does look really cool if you learn how to kick your front foot well past the nose of your skateboard. Still shot from Braille Skateboarding's Ollie North tutorial. I was inspired to make my video below, showing two different techniques to achieve a successful Ollie One Foot, when I not only saw that Braille Skateboarding's Tutorial used a different method to the one I had learned but also, when I looked at various other video tutorials, I discovered yet another technique, with no one using the method I had originally learned. Braille's method is to simply Ollie and drag your front foot past the front of your board. The second method I came across in several video tutorials is to Ollie, drag your front foot and tap your

Are Ion Thrusters the Future of Flying Cars? Spoiler - Probably Not But... Hover Boards... Maybe?

Undefined Technologies Ion Propulsion Drone prototype 3D concept image. You may have heard of Ion engines or, more likely, Ion thrusters. NASA uses them on their spacecraft to help maintain a craft's position or to propel them through space.  Upon hearing that you might think they're big, powerful engines, but actually they are not. They work well in the vacuum of space but, once any kind of atmosphere and gravity is involved they'd be hard pressed to launch you off the ground if you strapped four of them to your lawn chair and yelled "up, up, and away!" I am no expert on Ion thrusters - they're basically magic that science has an explanation for. If you want to know the details, The Space Techie website has a layman's explanation .  Build Your Own Ion Thruster Earth based Ion Thrusters work a bit different to their  space based cousins by Ionizing the same air that we breathe to create thrust (an effect known as Ionic-wind ).  While they sound highly soph

Book Review: Brand It Purple by Ashley Knoote-Parke

Ashley Knoote-Parke. Image: Facebook It seems almost redundant to review  Brand It Purple  given you probably won't find a hard copy edition without digging into the second hand market. The book's author and publisher, Ashley Knoote-Parke, seemingly, disappeared off the face of the Earth around about 2015. Which is a story in itself. However, the book is still a very informative guide and, while not specifically targeted at women, many may relate more to a book written by an experienced female entrepreneur. Brand It Purple is a personal marketing and branding guide released in 2009 by then, star on the rise author, Ashley Knoote-Parke, an English born, South African expatriate, who made Adelaide, South Australia her home. There she started her own publishing company releasing a photographic, coffee table book of South Australian sights, along with books showcasing female, then male, entrepreneurs. As well she published 'Brand It Purple'. I came across the b

Movie Review: Force of Nature - The Dry 2 (2024) *No Spoilers*

Eric Bana returns as Detective Aaron Falk in Force of Nature - The Dry 2 , and that's the only real connection between this and 2020's  The Dry . This is an all new mystery set in a new location. I will say, given that it's either wet or rainy, with the incoming threat of a major storm for most of the movie, the filmmakers really missed a trick in not renaming the film, The Wet. Back when I reviewed the first film I noted that I would love to see the second book made into a movie too, and here it is. This time Aaron and his detective partner, Carmen (Jacqueline Mackenzie), head into the mountains to investigate the whereabouts of a missing informant, who disappears on a workplace, team bonding retreat. All the performances in this film are easily on par with the first, though I do think some pretty outstanding actors really didn't have a lot to do here. In terms of mystery the first movie was better constructed as a who dunnit film you could play along with. Here you mo

I'm Joining the Illuminati Brotherhood By Personal Invitation of Hiltom Rothschild... Wait, What?

How special am I to have finally come of age (53 years young) and am now eligible to participate in building the world alongside other members of the Illuminati Brotherhood... Yes I've received the call by way of an email, which I'm sure is real because I had to translate it from the Dutch language and it was personally written by Hiltom Rothschild, one of the non-existent members of the Rothschild family (or perhaps deep undercover because Google has never heard of them?). A Transcript of the email below: To: etourist From: Illuminati Brotherhood  Subject: Illuminati Broederschap (Illuminati Brotherhood) I am Hiltom Rothschild, a member of the Rothschild family, one of the 13 families of the Illuminati brotherhood. I'm here to let you know that you've come of age and are eligible to participate in building the 🌎 world. It is a calling and a privilege to honor him with pride and gratitude as not everyone will ever be chosen by the LIGHT, many are called but few are ch

Robot Uprising Update: Robot Waiter, Fasta Pasta, South Terrace, Adelaide CBD, South Australia

On the second evening of my partner, Enigma, and I's weekend stay in Adelaide we decided to have dinner at Fasta Pasta . Strangely enough our hotel staff, at the Alba, had not mentioned Fasta Pasta as an option for an evening meal while their restaurant is closed for refurbishment, even though it is literally next door on the corner of South Terrace and Pultney Street. You may be aware that Fasta Pasta is an upmarket Italian restaurant franchise with its beginnings in Adelaide. Currently they have 19 restaurants Australia wide (with the majority in South Australia - we even have one in Gawler, our home town). I've never had bad food at a Fasta Pasta, and their food never looks like a franchise meal. You always feel you're at a restaurant that's a little bit more quality than your typical hotel/motel meal. Maybe it's because you don't see as much pasta based meals on an Aussie pub menu. Despite the name, it's not all pasta. I went with a basic plate of fish a