Are you wondering how to make money as an artist? If you’ve been an artist for any length of time, you’ve probably created a great deal of art and gleaned a lot of information and ideas along the way that could be useful to other people.
Many artists are flourishing financially, not necessarily because they sell a lot of art, but because they’re selling their art or services in more than one venue. They have learned how to tap into their niche market by offering diverse services and products. If one revenue stream dries up, they still have money coming in from other sources.
With some imagination, the possibilities are endless. There are a lot of ways to make money as an artist. Here are a few ideas.
1. Offer your art in more than one place. Places like Etsy, Amazon and Fine Art America are some examples of places where you can sell your art online. You might also be able to display and sell your art at local restaurants, coffee shops or gift stores. Also see if there are any art or craft shows in your city or surrounding areas where you could set up a booth.
2. Create and sell prints from your artwork. This can be done by scanning your art at a high resolution (I scan mine at 600 dpi and then scale it down to the size I want). You may want to increase the contrast and edit it further using a photo editing program. Once you are satisfied with your image, you can either upload it to online print-on-demand sites that sell art or you can sell it on your own website.
3. Advertise for businesses in related niches (that are not in direct competition with you). There are many ways to do this. One way is to place Google Adsense or private ads on your website or blog that are compatible with your niche. For example, if you sell paintings or photography, you could advertise for a picture-framing business. This may not be the best option, as it can distract your viewers and take their focus away from your content. It can also detract from the appearance of your site. Another, less intrusive way, to make money with ads is by placing affiliate links within your content.
4. Teach classes in your area of expertise. Are you skilled in graphic design or oil painting or rubber stamping? Do you enjoy teaching others what you know? If so, consider offering classes to people who want to learn about it. You can hold live classes in your home or studio, or use a room at your local library or rent a room at a church or local business. Another option is to create online classes. There are many online learning platforms (both free and paid versions), where you can upload courses that you’ve created.
5. Upload your art to print-on-demand sites such as Zazzle, Cafepress, and Redbubble. These sites will print your artwork on various products such as mugs, stickers, buttons, t-shirts, and many other items for customers to buy. It’s free to join and set up your own store.
The downside to these sites is that there’s a lot of competition. In order to have any significant sales, you need to have artwork that stands out in some way. It can be cute, funny, beautiful, or make a statement of some kind. You must also be actively involved in marketing your store and your products.
6. If you create designs or take photos to use in your art, you may want to sell them at places like Dreamstime, Fotolia, or Big Stock Photo. This is a very competitive field and it’s challenging to get your images accepted. You also have to actively drive people to your site if you want to earn any money. I did this for the first several years of my online art career but used it mainly as a learning experience.
7. Create greeting cards with your art or photos. If you own, or have access to professional printing equipment, you may want to print the cards out yourself and ship them to your customers. Another option is to have your cards printed and created at your local print shop. They can take care of the printing and cutting. Another option is to upload your images to a place like GCU and let them take care of the business end of it. In either case, you can sell the cards through your own website.
8. Create and monetize YouTube videos. Do you enjoy making videos of yourself creating art or talking about art-related topics? You may want to start uploading your videos to YouTube. If you start getting a lot of interest, check into using AdSense, affiliate marketing, or sponsorships as ways to monetize your videos.
9. Write and sell e-books about your topic. Are you passionate about photography? You could write an e-book titled 25 Tips to Take Better Photos. Are you skilled in creating assemblage art? You can write a step-by-step instruction book on how to create it. If writing an e-book seems like too much work, you may want to look into buying PLR products that can be revised and rewritten to fit your niche market or you may want to hire someone to write it for you.
10. Create and sell photo books with your pictures and artwork. You will have to research and find out what’s already on the market and what sells well. Let’s say you specialize in pictures of horses. After some research, you decide that even though pictures of horses sell well, there’s too much competition.
11. This is not a sign that you need to throw your idea away. You just need to take some time to brainstorm and come up with a few ideas on how to make your book unique. Maybe instead of just images of horses, you could add text to turn it into an educational book for kids or a book on how to care for horses.
12. Start an online membership site for other artists and creatives. Give them information and resources to help them be successful. You can charge either a monthly rate or a flat fee. Some things you can include in your program are: e-books, online videos, audio downloads, articles etc.
13. Buy things such as refrigerator magnets, bookmarks, notebooks or journals, pillowcases, wooden drawer pulls, metal tins etc and decorate them with your art. Do your research and make sure to use quality products to create your art. You’ll want your buyers to be happy and come back for more. You may want to sell these items on sites like Amazon or Etsy.
These are just a few of the ways you can make money as an artist. Do some research and use this list as a springboard to come up with ideas that work for your unique situation.
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