Selling artwork to earn passive income in the form of digital products or resources is a growing attraction for many designers and artists.
It’s not a new concept though. Royalty free image libraries for example, have been going for decades. But things have changed since then. Dramatically. Now artists have more control over their work and how they sell it.
But given the relatively new nature of the digital product boom means it can be difficult to find information about the ins and outs of earning “passive” income. I’m often asked by other designers and artist who want to start selling online, “what should I sell”, “where should I sell”, and the most common “can I make a living from it?”.
So I decided to write an honest article answering some of those questions and give you the pros and cons about selling artwork online in the form of digital resources or print-on-demand (POD) products.
It’s not a step by step guide that will take you through how to open a shop and upload your artwork. But rather it’s an article on my first-hand experience at selling digital products online as passive income, including the good, the bad and the ugly. And trust me, there’s a fair amount of ugly!
I’ll be focusing on selling illustration-type products, but most of the insights and tips below will apply to just about any online digital product. So grab a cup of coffee, I have a lot to say on the subject which I hope you’ll find useful!
Topics I’ll be covering:
- What should I be selling?
- How do I know if it will sell?
- Can I make a living from it?
- There’s nothing passive about passive income
- How much should I charge?
- Where should I sell?
- Then there’s the ugly stuff
- So why bother?
What should I be selling?
Actually, the first question you should ask is “Who am I selling to?”.
So many artists make the mistake of not identifying their customer. I know I know, we hate having to think about marketing stuff! But if you think about it, without a market you don’t have a business.
You don’t have to go deep into the boring stuff, just get a clear idea (and be clear, it’s important trust me), on who your target customer is and focus on their needs, wants and likes.
Don’t aim to please all the online buying customers, because you won’t no matter how hard you try. But rather aim to please the customer base you think is best suited to your style and type of products you love creating.
If you don’t know what you love creating yet, then by all means experiment. But at some point you’ll need to buckle down and focus on creating products for a particular customer.
Maybe you love painting watercolour flowers, so your market could be designers who create wedding stationery. And possibly crafting customers who love dabbling and creating projects like cards, invites, etc. Creating lovely floral watercolour graphics suited for these projects would be perfect for this market.
Or perhaps you love designing logos. You could create pre-made logo templates and sell it to customers who are new business owners with a tight budget or designers who need a quick logo for a client.
So you see, knowing your customer basically tells you what you should be selling! Do some research. Find out what your ideal customer needs, wants and likes.
Creating products with a particular customer in mind is easier than thumbsucking a random idea and hoping for the best.
How do I know if it will sell?
The short answer is, you don’t! Every time I invest time and resources into creating a product, I have no guarantee that it will sell. But what I do have is experience in my customers’ wants, needs or likes. You don’t have to solve all three of these areas in the same product.
I have a loose formula I’ve been using since I started selling products online:
Create a product your target audience wants that they can’t find anywhere else;
Or create a product that solves a problem they frequently have;
Or better yet do both;
+ do it in your own unique style;
+ create something you love to create;
= a successful product.
My genuine aim every time I create a product is to help my customers with their own work or projects by creating resources they will find useful and love using. Plus I don’t create work I don’t love creating myself. For me that defeats the whole purpose, and I believe people can pick up on your intention behind what you create. If you don’t love it, no one else will.
And the last, but very important tip I can offer regarding the success of a product is, be unique. Just because you saw another artist’s product do well, doesn’t mean by creating something similar, or worse identical, will mean success for you. I don’t believe that’s a sustainable business model. You’ll build a following much quicker and stand out a lot more if you focus on creating unique goods in your own style.
Make an effort to come up with your own concepts instead of piggy backing off others. Do you want to lead or follow? That’s the number one marketing strategy you can apply to fast track your success.
Can I make a living from it?
Yes absolutely! But how much you earn is directly related to how much effort you put in.
You could upload a few products, sit back and wait for a few sales to trickle in. But that’s the thing, it will be a trickle. The chances of you having success with little to no effort on your part are very slim.
Selling products online has the potential to earn you a very decent living.
To give you an idea, I ran my own graphic design business which was quite successful. I earned a good living doing that. It only took a year of proper, dedicated focus on my online business to quit my graphic design work and focus full time on illustrating and selling digital products.
Essentially I started earning the same income as my graphic design business selling digital goods by the end of that year. But be warned, it took huge commitment, sacrifice and serious hard work.
Think about it, if you’re a one man show as a graphic designer selling your services, your entire business relies on you, the service provider.
Your earning potential is directly related to how many hours you work. But selling online allows you to scale up without the need for more staff. Because you’re creating something once, and selling it over and over, possibly forever, your earning potential increases hugely.
You’re not relying on what you can achieve in an hour anymore, you’re relying on your product to earn you income long after you created it.
Which brings me to my next point (which has nothing to do with bunnies! he’s just there for his cuteness value).
There’s nothing passive about passive income
Many people believe that having a “passive income” business means you barely have to work to earn a living. How hard can it be? It’s called “passive” for a reason, right?
Well this may shatter all your dreams of earning a fortune for doing nothing. I’m afraid the only passive part about passive income is the automated sales. “Exactly!” You might be thinking.
Yes it’s true, you do earn while you sleep. But to get it to a point where you’re earning enough while you’re in deep slumber, takes a lot of hard graft which is the opposite of passive!
And when you’re awake, you’re basically working all the time. Ok, that’s not entirely true. But essentially I work 7 days a week. Some days longer than others.
There isn’t a day that goes by that I haven’t attended to something related to my business. Whether it’s answering emails, attending to customer support queries, writing a blog post, researching trends, preparing product files, creating product preview images, etc. it’s all related to building a successful “passive” income. And this of course excludes the main part of the business, which is creating products.
How much you put into all the above areas of your business is entirely up to you. That’s the beauty of being your own boss. But as I’ve mentioned several times already, effort = outcome.
How much should I charge?
Ah! The million dollar question. Actually more like the ten dollar question!
One of the concepts you might struggle with when first starting out is, you’re essentially selling work for as little as $10 that took you weeks to create and prepare. This can be difficult to wrap your head around.
But it’s a business model used by many successful companies. Your earnings come from selling the same low priced item over and over to hundreds, and hopefully, thousands of customers. Given that, it may take a while to make money back for the time you put in.
But once you’ve reached that point, anything earned after that is profit. And it can continue to give you returns for years to come if your product has longevity and isn’t too trend driven.
It’s becoming increasingly competitive to sell digital products. Customers have more and more choices, plus they’re constantly bombarded by really cheap, all-in-one bundles that seem too good to be true. The sad thing is, sometimes they are. Often quality is compromised when products are churned out so they can be bundled and sold for a song. This kind of business strategy can work, but it’s one that I chose not to follow early on in my online business.
I made a conscious decision to not try and compete with the mass, super-low priced products, but rather concentrate on creating quality over quantity and focus on building my own unique style and use that to help me stand out.
I feel undercharging for your work in the hopes of attracting more sales will be damaging to your business in the long run.
Do you want to be seen as the cheap clipart store? Or the quality, unique digital resource artist? It also damages the overall perception of this industry and the value of art. It creates a “race to the bottom” culture among designers and artists which is counter productive for all of us.
It is a bit of a balancing act between charging too little for what your work is worth, versus charging too much which could turn customers away. But as your confidence in your work grows and you gain more experience each time you put a product out, you’ll learn to balance the two and get a feel for what to charge.
Just remember to respect your time as an artist and in turn, respect your customer’s money by providing them with good, quality work.
Where should I sell?
Not all online marketplaces are created equal.
If you’re looking to sell your work on a site that has their own End User Licence Agreement, often that means your work will fall under their agreement and not your own. So do your homework! Read their licence terms carefully. Make sure you are happy with what they allow the end users to do with your work.
By law, the end user i.e. customer is bound by the agreement they enter into when making a purchase. You cannot impose your own licence on someone if it’s different to the licence of the marketplace they bought the item from.
This is why my licence and the licence of the other marketplaces I sell on are almost identical – the differences are minor, but the basic restrictions and terms are exactly the same.
I sell my digital products on four online marketplaces, my own website, DesignCuts, Creative Market, and Etsy. They all work well for me and my type of products.
I’m often approached by other marketplaces to join their site, but I’ve resisted the urge because I want to maintain a good focus on my current shops. And having my work scattered across the internet will make me feel scattered too!
Many other artists choose to have their work on several sites, but for me personally, that will become overwhelming and my customer service will probably take a knock, something I’m not willing to let happen.
I have also tried several other online platforms like Gumroad, Society 6, Zazzle, and more that I can’t even remember, that weren’t successful at all. So why did some work, while others didn’t? I believe it’s because I spread myself too thin and couldn’t give them each the focus they needed.
Giving them the focus they need would include uploading regularly. Promoting on social media. Sending out newsletters when there’s a sale. Basically reminding customers you exist.
This is all doable if all your different online shops sell the same product. But if you sell design templates on one, art prints on another, digital goods here and there, you simply cannot market all of them well enough unless you hire someone to help you. And the more you need to hop from shop to shop, the more time you spend away from creating.
In my passive income business I have noticed the shops, product types and platforms I spend the most time on, are the most successful. If you’re starting out my advice is keep it simple by deciding whether you’ll be selling print-on-demand products or digital resources. This will determine which platform is best for your product. Then pour all your energy into that. Once you’re established you’ll have more freedom to dabble in the stuff you want to try out.
Be aware though, not all customers within your chosen product and marketplace are the same. The customer base on Etsy for example, is quite different to the customer base on Design Cuts. So do your research. Read the forums. Look at what sells well. Does this suite your style and product?
Then there’s the ugly stuff
The internet is an amazing platform to connect people from all over the world. Which means your work has the potential to reach anyone, anywhere. But it also means it may end up in the hands of despicable people too.
There are hundreds, if not thousands of torrent sites that pirate work from artists, musicians, writers etc. And the bad news is, your work almost certainly will end up on at least one of those sites.
When I first saw all my products on one of these sites, I was devastated! It took me some time and several unsuccessful attempts at trying to get it taken down, to accept there was nothing I could do. The more popular my work became, the more sites it would appear on. It was, and still is, horrible.
You can try and spend hours finding the original site’s owner or IP address. Track down the host. Send them a DMCA. Send them another because they ignored the first one. But all you’re doing is trying to plug a huge hole with a tiny bit of chewing gum. Your stuff will be back within days if not hours. It’s also soul destroying and time consuming.
So I’ve learned to accept it and I’ve given up on trying to get my work removed from these types of sites. I also believe the people who use these sites aren’t going to buy from me in the first place. But it doesn’t make it easier to deal with and it doesn’t make it right.
Then there’s the legitimate customers who intentionally or unintentionally, breach the licence agreement terms.
Graphic resource licensing can be very confusing for some end users. And as a result many unintentionally use your resources incorrectly and ultimately breach the terms of the resource agreement. This in turn creates more work for you as you constantly need to educate customers about their obligations and terms of use and get them to rectify the situation.
Dealing with this ugly side of things can really have a negative impact on you and your work.
Recently I had to deal with a large well known international company selling my original files, as is, to their customer base which is worldwide. Their products are available in all major supermarkets and major online shops like Amazon. When I first found out I truly wanted to give up. It was kind of like the straw that broke the camels back. I’m still licking my wounds to be honest and I’ve learned a lot about how to deal with such a terrible situation. But I’ve also realized that I want to fight for my dream of illustrating full time. I’ve worked really hard to get to where I am, I shouldn’t let unscrupulous people stop me from creating.
I know I haven’t even scraped the surface when it comes to licence infringements. There are countless people out there either fraudulently obtaining my work, copying and selling my art and misusing my products. It can be soul destroying if you let it get to you.
But I’m learning to see it as a liability cost of selling digital goods. Much like the corner shop owner builds in loses like theft and breakages, I need to build in theft and licence infringements.
It truly is the ugly part of an otherwise amazing job. I promised you honest insights into selling online, so if you think you’ll be destroyed knowing your work is being stolen regularly, then this may not be for you.
But if you can somehow learn to see your work as a gift meant to be shared regardless of the obstacles you face, then it can be an extraordinary and fulfilling career choice.
So why bother?
You might be wondering at this stage why bother if it’s so much hard work and has so many drawbacks?
Personally I bother because I love what I do so much. I bother because it brings me independence as an artist. I bother because I wake up everyday knowing I get to shape my day to suit me and do things that replenish my soul. I bother because living my dream of illustrating and getting paid to do it, is like winning the lotto!
I don’t regret all the sacrifices I made to get here. It was all worth it. I live a life jammed-packed full of amazing experiences. I get to form wonderful relationships with my lovely customers from all over the world. I’m privileged to be able to create and sell products that can help others achieve their own wonderful designs.
There’s a saying “Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t, so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t.”
It is possible to achieve your dream but as with all worthwhile endeavors, it doesn’t come without a price. Effort = outcome. How much you’re willing to put in to reach your dream is entirely up to you.
If you decide to venture down this interesting path, I wish you great success and many happy hours of creating and putting your work out there! If you know of someone else who will benefit from this article on passive income, please feel free to share it.
What a wonderful blog post, Lisa. So much information, well written, and great insights! Rest assured you have a dedicated following who will continue to support you, both financially and emotionally.
BTW that little bunny is really, really, cute!
Thank you Natalie! You are such a lovely human being my friend! 🙂 So glad you found the post useful.
Couldn’t resist adding a bunny somewhere! XX
This is such an amazingly informative blog post. I love the last section. I’ve been asked the “why bother” question maaany times by my colleagues (at a geophysics research lab) and it’s really because I love it. Because the idea of not making fonts makes me so sad. The rush you get with a new sale, a sweet review or seeing your work in use just makes me too happy. 🙂
Exactly Ana! It’s hard for others to understand it if they haven’t experienced all those wonderful emotions yourself 🙂 So happy you found it informative!
I liked your article, I’d like to see more.
WOOOOW. What a great article, Lisa. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and being so real and honest about everything.
Yay! It’s a great pleasure, so glad you liked the article!
Thank you for sharing so much of your experiences! I’m glad you were so honest about the pirating too! I’ve seen many favorite artists copied and I’m really not sure if I could deal with that. It makes me wish I’d become a lawyer instead so I could represent artists! I’m still trying to figure out my own direction and you’ve been a tremendous help with that! And I LOVE your work!!!
Hi Bethany, I wish you became a lawyer too! 🙂 Someone with your passion and respect is desperately needed!! 🙂
Thank you for your lovely comments, I really appreciate that. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself to figure out your own direction, just be sure to create everyday, something, anything. And your path will become clearer xx
What an insightful article! Thank you for setting the bar so high and representing our trade well. Your commitment to maintaining great customer service, charging a fair price for your work, and not allowing yourself to be spread too thinly across various marketplaces are especially helpful reminders to me as I begin to lay the ground work for my “passive” income business. I, too, have had the unfortunate experience of having to go to bat for my work – a website I spent an entire year working on was carbon copied within weeks of launching. The whole “imitation is the highest form of flattery” sentiment does not make thievery and forgery any less painful! Keep up the great work, Lisa! Glad to witness your success and benefit from the work you put out into the world!
I hear you! “You should be flattered” just doesn’t cut it for me either. Sorry you had to deal with that! But I’m also super excited to hear you are forging your own path with a passive income stream. Glad you found the post insightful.
Thank you Allison for all your lovely comments, you are a fabulous and kind person! XX
Thank you SO much for this Lisa!
Really interesting read & something I have been pondering for awhile but seem a little overwhelming on where and how to start. But its given me the kick I need to go home after work today & start building up a proper library of work to sell as I’d love to be working for myself one day too.
Thanks for being realistic which is SO needed for us creatives – but mega inspiring – I’m a true believer too that you can make it happen if you work hard enough and have a realistic business vision.
Love a creative success story – well done and thanks again for the insight. Shiv Xxx
Hi Shiv, Yes to building your creative library!!
Glad you found the post useful and I hope the insights help you to navigate all this stuff a little easier 🙂 Best of luck with your creative endeavor, hope to see your work out there soon!
XX
Wonderful insightful article. I’ve been selling my designs for a few years without much success, but because I love it I keep at it. Finding the right market has been a huge challenge for me. Your thoughts on “who should I be selling to” gave me some idea of how to figure this out. The pirating & theft of the creations of others infuriates me. Like you I believe it’s something to be endured because there’s just no stopping it. Thanks for sharing your experiences & thoughts!
It’s a great pleasure Teresa! I know how hard it is to find your niche, but once you have, you’ll be unstoppable!
As artist we need to always stand together against theft and piracy even if it’s just knowing someone out there understands how infuriating it is, so it means a lot that you get that!
Keep creating! XX
Lisa
Thank you for your thoughts and candor. Your article was not only informative but the most honest perspective I have read regarding selling digital products. It’s something I would love to do one day and, if that day come, I will definitely remember your words. Thank you.
Hi Donna,
So happy to hear you found it informative and honest 🙂 Definitely give it a go if it’s something you’d love to try. And if you can think from the start about these important areas, you’re on the road to success!
XX
Fabulous article with amazing insights. Thanks so much for sharing!
It’s a great pleasure Sarah!
Hi Lisa,
Thank you for writing and sharing such an informative article. I love your work. The standard of your work is exquisite. I buy it whenever I get the opportunity and I use it to make my own physical products (personalised stationery)to sell locally online and at markets. I am going to re-read your T’s & C’s to make sure I am not infringing on your copyright. Please don’t stop creating your beautiful work. Would you be ok with me sharing your article on a closed FB group – Hello Boss Creative. It’s a group supporting freelance creatives like GD’s and photographers etc in SA. I think many people are ignorant of the damage they do when they use designs that are for personal use only in goods for sale or share digital files. All the best!
Thank you so much Melissa! Your respect is really appreciated. And yes of course, please feel free to share the article. I know so many end users don’t intentionally misuse work. And often people forget that there’s a real person on the other side of that piece of artwork they are using. The more that learn about that, the better!
And thank you for your business! I wish you great success with your own products 🙂
XX
Lisa
Lisa,
This was a REALLY great blog. I am trying to make more of a living with “passive” income as well – thank you for this!
Do you ever license your artwork?
Thanks,
Sarah
It’s an absolute pleasure Sarah! I have only done limited licensing of my artwork and some outright sales of patterns and illustrations. That’s a whole another world that I definitely would like to pursue more in the future, but I know it needs proper focus and commitment. So it’s something on my list for later 🙂 XX
Thank you so much Lisa for devoting so much of your valuable time to create such an in-depth and detailed post about this subject, that I have honestly not much knowledge about (and absolutely zero experience). My first real introduction to the money stream possibilities of “passive” income came from listening to your –incredibly aptly named– “Honest Designers Podcast.” I have recently decided I need to have a real career pivot to truly chase my dreams of being a creative full-time. I have been a long time DesignCuts client and recently have been unable to much (including work) because of a back injury, thus I have had a lot of time to listen to the podcasts and try to come up with a game plan for this career change. The podcast has helped immensely and I was wondering about this idea that kept popping up in your conversations. Your post has illuminated so much for me and allowed me to realistically envision how this method of income can fit into my transition. Your work and your advice always brighten my day. Thank you for the all joy and earnest hard work you put into this world that I feel lucky enough to share with you.
Hi AJ,
That means so much to me that you found this so useful! I’m humbled by your comments and feel so gratful that I can somehow help you a little in your journey.
So sorry to hear about your back injury. I’m glad you took the time to think about your plan for change. Any career change is scary, so congrats for making a commitment to chase your dream!! Do something everyday that will get you one step closer, even if it’s 5 minutes of your time, it really does all add up and you’ll get there much sooner 🙂
I wish you a speedy recovery! And many hours and days of excitement and joy as you venture down your creative path!
XX
Great article Lisa! Thank you for being so open as always. You are an inspiration to so many illustrators, myself included.
Maggie
xx
Thank you Maggie! That means a lot 🙂
This is great blog post! Thank you for sharing this important info and I love the bunny too.
It’s a great pleasure Lisa! Glad you found it useful (and that you loved the bunny too 😉 )
Lisa, this post is just great! I could highlight a lot of thoughts that are really true and your way of writing deeply touched my soul. I started with traditional scrapbook 10 years ago, they I discovered digital and in no time I was creating personalized stationary for kids parties. Yes, I know how it feels to find your work in this kind of sites, but I always had loyal customers and followers that even warned me about that. Some I could remove, some I couldn’t, and life goes on. After that I started designing digital scrapbook kits, but in the past 2 years I gave it a break and tried to follow new roads. I have some physical products I want to dedicate to, as planners, small kits with cards and stickers, wall art and small parties decoration. I’m always searching for designs to use in those products and I hope I can produce them at a regular basis in 2018. I intend to open a studio in the following years, to create and impart classes. I still cann’t get rid of my regular job (which I love as well, but not that much) and I think about my artistic side as a plan for retirement. It is what feeds my soul, maybe that’s why I’m still on it even if I can’t make a living… yet! Thank you so much for your words and your work, it really makes me want to create with it. All of it!! =)
What a lovely comment Vanessa! I love hearing about your journey. You sound like you managed to deal with the ugly side of things very well. I think I’m still learning how to do that although I’m a lot better than I was 🙂
Physical items are always so wonderful to sell, it’s something I’d love to get into one day too. Having your artistic side as retirement plan is the best idea! I thing creating feeds our soul and the wonderful part is you can do it at any age!
Thank you for leaving such a thoughtful comment, I wish you all the best xx
If you see someone selling your work on amazon, contact amazon customer service and and let them know. In my experience Amazon is quick to shut down unscrupulous sellers and they hate any kind of negative press.
Hi Kim,
Thank you for including that info, very helpful!
This post is terrific, thank you! You have given me new enthusiasm.
I’ve had a couple of nasty copyright issues and become despondent about selling my creations and had closed up shop.My worst was to have had my own work reported as a copyright infringement by someone who had pirated it and posted it elsewhere. .I found that impossible to fight and had to remove it before my website was closed down.
Hi Judy, So sorry to hear you went through such a terrible ordeal! I was gobsmacked to hear you had to end up removing your work!! 🙁 Please do keep creating and putting your work out there. Those kind of people will never win in the end, and the world needs more art and creativity that’s true and authentic (and not stolen!). Best wishes to your on your creative journey!
XX
Thank you Lisa for writing this wonderful and honest article about passive income work. You see i’m a 40-ish yr old mother who went back to school in graphic design and i’m finishing my course this december. I’m planning on being a freelancer but my plans were also to create digital items to sell in order to create a passive income. Thank you so much for laying it all out there in black & white, and it didn’t scare me away so that will still be in my futur plans.
thanks again!
Isabelle
Yay! So glad it didn’t scare you away Isabelle! I do think you should give it a go especially now that you are venturing into a new career path. Congrats! I think that’s amazing. I wish you all the best with that, and huge success in both your passive income and freelance business.
Hello Lisa,
I just stumbled across your delightful blog and this super helpful and encouraging article while looking for advice on pricing digital design work. Just taking a moment to say thanks and to wish you all the best! I have you bookmarked now and look forward to following your blog. Your illustrations are so delightful!
Hi Amanda,
So happy you stumbled across my blog 🙂 I’m thrilled to hear you find it useful, that makes me happy to hear. Thank you for taking the time to drop me a note, I really appreciate it.
Warm wishes,
Lisa
Thank you for this wonderful and honest post! Your work is really great! I am a stay at home mom at the moment who gave up a full time graphic design job to spend more time with my son. It has always been my dream to be able to sell my artwork on my own terms so to speak. I am currently with zazzle and am building my stable of designs. Like you said, it takes a huge amount of time and requires quality work but I love what I do too, so I am going for it 🙂
Yes! Definitely go for it Jen! You won’t regret putting in the hard work because it does pay off. It may be a little bit of a long road to get there, but once you’re there, the freedom and joy is amazing. Best of luck to you xx
Hi Lisa,
Thank you for your wonderful article.
I’ve only just designed to delve into the world of digital illustration.
The world of passive income via digital products certainly appeals to me.
Working on commissions doesn’t.. 😛
Do you mind if I ask, what sacrifices did you make to get yourself on this path?
I’m keen to hear what you’ve been through.
I’m a mom with 2 young kids, with a partner whom I run a business with, which my heart isn’t in.
Love your work. 🙂
Cheers,
Esther
Hi Esther, Congrats on deciding to delve into digital illustration! I wish you all the best on your creative journey 🙂 The sacrifices I made mainly revolved around my family and social life and spare time, which I had none of when I was trying to make the transition. I would work almost every night after my day job plus every single weekend to get it off the ground. My relationship with Cliff, my partner suffered, but thankfully he is very understanding. And because my weekends were taken up with work, I rarely went out with my friends. The bad side affect to all this, it became a habit, and now I find it difficult not to work everyday. But it’s something I’m trying to change and thankfully slowly getting right! 🙂
I would say it was definitely worth it, but the follow up to that is, I would advice to keep checking in with yourself to make sure you still have some kind of balance and don’t miss out on the other important things in life which are relationships and moments with people you love. So make time for yourself and your family and friends. Hope that helps! Best of luck!
Hi Lisa, I got to your blog through the skillshare class, this blog is informative and I thank you for your insights. I am making the transition from graphic designer to illustrator and indeed it’s been some long nights. This article is helpful about selling digital products. I just got approved last month for a Hungry Jpeg site and the sheer work of getting up a few starting files was tough. I learned that passive is not passive. The time of getting the store up and making the product page took away creative time for sure. I have been thinking about getting on a print on demand site but your thoughts about being spread thin definitely gave me pause and I will spend time trying to get the first market up first.
Hi Kaye,
Congratulations on launching your online store! As you’ve discovered, it’s no small feat so you should be really proud of yourself. I’m so happy to hear you found the article helpful. It can be tempting to start putting your work onto every platform out there, but in the end it becomes difficult to manage and really do it all justice. Best of luck with your new store, you seem to be willing to put in the work, so I’m positive it will go well for you!
Thank you so much for such a wonderful and informative blog post. I found it very helpful and thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I am currently a full time illustrator who works on commissions and I wanted to phase out of it. This article addressed my questions and concerns. So thank you again for taking the time to write it!
Hi Rhian,
I’m so happy to hear you found the article helpful! I know how daunting it can be to change your creative path, so I’m thrilled it answered some of your questions. I wish you all the best in your new venture and hope your journey is a happy and creative one 🙂
Your blog is very inspiring!!
I like this quote so much :
Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t, so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t.
Somehow I lose hope with my drawing business eventhough I get many orders but I’ll fight again.
I have to bookmark this post so I can reread it again since there are so much gem in your writing.
Thank you!
Xoxo
Hi Marcella,
It makes me so happy to read that the blog post inspires you to keep going for your art dream! I know it can be tough and sometimes it feels like your fighting a losing battle, but keep believing in yourself and backing yourself! Hard work does pay off in the end 🙂 Best of luck to you my friend xx
Thank you for posting this! I am looking to delve into the digital download realm myself. I have the same concerns about my original works being pirated too. I’m hesitant on posting some of my more time consuming fine artworks because of that…I may save those until I’m a bit more experienced. Thank you for sharing your thoughts!!
This information is very helpful! I’m a graphic designer. I’m in the process of defining my brand and who my target audience really is. I went to design school, so I have the ABILITY to design logos, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I want to create logos for restaurant owners. I have the ABILITY to design flyers, but that doesn’t mean I will enjoy designing flyers for people in the medical field. Personally, I love to create hand-lettering. My ideal client would include designing hand-lettered event invitations, such as weddings, parties, etc. This helps me narrow down the type of work I want to take on and how to market myself towards these types of people (who can benefit from what I have to offer). Instead of just creating random digital art, hoping that it will sell- which hasn’t worked for me at all! Because my skillset is broad, I often try to be all things to all people, for fear that if I turn away a request to complete a certain project, I just lost an opportunity to make money. But by doing that, I’m all over the place, with no clear target audience. You made a great point by cultivating your own unique style and creating art for a specific client in mind. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Alexis, so happy to know you found the info useful! I totally hear you about the broad skill set and also the pressure of not taking on the work you don’t necessarily want to do. But you’re already far down the path to success by knowing and understanding who your ideal customer is, sometimes it takes people years to figure that out! Best of luck with your creative journey, your hand-lettered items sound lovely!!
Thank you so much for this post..and the honesty. It’s what I needed. I’ve self published something like 7 books and repeatedly found them pirated- I echo the soul destroying moment you find out. I never thought about the same thing happening with clip art and such, I feel better prepared now.
So sorry to hear about your books being pirated! That’s such a disheartening thing to deal with! It’s so terribly sad how others don’t realise they are contributing to this underground market when they download these items. But I hope all that doesn’t stop you from creating xx I think there are lots of amazing customers out there willing to support and pay creatives for their hard work!
Dear Lisa, thanks so much for this insight.
I have a question for you. I sell decks of cards on Etsy, they are Yoga Permission cards that are the same image printed double-sided to hand to students. I have recently been bombarded with requests for digital files, but seeing as I deliver my cards in decks of 25, beautifully branded and packaged I feel that it is going to leave the world wide open to copy them and distribute them freely.
Would you allow someone to print out something like this themselves? I’m feeling not to, but dont want to miss out on sales either. Any advice you might have would be so helpful!!!
Hi Susanna,
This is a tricky one because your original product is a physical item and you’ve established a brand etc like that. I don’t know if it’s possible, but perhaps you could have a less elaborate image for the digital version? And keep the “Special” one as your hardcopy product. I think selling anything digital will definitely open you up to theft and misuse unfortunately, I don’t think there’s a way around that at this stage – if only someone would invent software to protect digital downloads better! My gut says don’t have the same product as a digital download and perhaps create a less expensive option that’s less elaborate, less time consuming to make and that you don’t feel as attached to. So if it does land up in the wrong hands, it won’t break you! Hope that helps! Good luck 🙂
Hi Lisa, Great article and so helpful. I sell graphics on Etsy and have been approached by someone who wants to use them to print on textiles for a new start-up business. I know I need to write up a license agreement, and have done a bit of research online & have discovered the high cost of hiring an Intellectual Property Attorney! I’m a bit frozen on how to word a license agreement and my customer is waiting. Do you have an example that you have used? I realize licenses are relative to their use – but I need someplace to start. Thank you!
Hi again Lisa, I just found your license overview and it helps a ton. Thanks! I am glad to see you are from Cape Town – my husband is from Durban!
Hi Suzan,
So glad that it helped! Licensing can be a minefield 🙂 But remember you can always tweak as you go and shape it to suit you and your business.
Have a look at Maria Brophy’s website, she has a huge amount of resources on the topic. She also sells licence contract templates which are fantastic!
Hope that helps 🙂 Best of luck with you project!
Thank you so much. I truly enjoyed this article. I have a silly question, is your artwork is done digitally with a Wacom pen? The reason I am asking is I have always done traditional artwork i.e. paint and colored pencil and have tossed around the idea of digital downloads. I am trying to find a place to start for my retirement years. I assume almost all artwork nowadays are created digitally with a digital tool except for maybe Fine Art America prints where the art might be scanned other than photographs?
Hi June,
Glad you enjoyed the article! That’s not a silly question at all! My artwork is a combination of traditional and digital. I always start on paper even if the artwork ends up digital. But I also sell watercolour illustrations made the old fashioned way (paint on paper), then scanned, cleaned up and background removed – like this example.
I use Procreate a lot in my work, before I bring it into Adobe Illustrator. I have two Skillshare classes you might find helpful if you’d like to look into that method which you can find here and here.
So the main thing to consider is your end product you sell to customers needs to be in the format that they can use for their projects. If you’re selling art prints then that’s not so important at all. But if you’re going to sell graphic resources for others to use in their craft projects then you would need to make sure they have usable files like PNG files with a transparent background for example.
Hope that helps! Good luck with your venture!
Thank you for sharing your valuable advice, Lisa! You’re such a generous resource to artists like myself who are trying to find our way through this exciting but scary digital age. Very grateful for the work you do!
Hi Leana,
It’s a great pleasure! So glad you found it useful. Good luck with your creative journey! 🙂
The article is really helpful for Artists who are looking to sell their art online. I like the part where you said it is important to keep in mind who your customers will be while creating the art piece.
Thank you for sharing
It’s a pleasure Michael, glad you thought it was helpful!
You know, I’m stuck in a financial job even though I studied Art/Animation. I’d rather earn a little less, but do what I love then get up every morning without any motivation. This article was a huge motivation booster for me, that I need to stick with my art and hopefully sometime make a living off of it. Thank you!
Hi Fabienne,
That makes me so happy to know that this post helped motivate you and keep on track with your art goals! You can get there! 🙂 I wish you the best of luck, and hope you enjoy the journey to realizing your creative dream.
Hi Lisa, I found your blog and enjoyed your article regarding the subject of selling ones artwork through digital downloads. It was helpful as an artist. First of all your art style is lovely. I love the nostalgic feel from it. I feel my targeted audience are women and children. Like you my work has that aw factor but my problem is marketing my work. I’m pretty bad with it. I think I also need to learn patience because when I feel no one is responding to my work I get discouraged. I then second guess myself as an artist and I start to listen to outside options which hasn’t been helpful because all I do is go around in circles. Example oh don’t create fairies no one buys that you need to create more mass market subjects. I then find myself flustered because I’m not really creating art that flows through me. I don’t just create fairies but also animals, flowers, and children. Anyhow, I’m thinking of sell art prints on Etsy but I”m a little uneasy about selling my work through the download system, because of those who go against the license agreement. I understand it’s a chance the artist has to be willing to take once the download is out but for now I think prints is what I’m going to stick with. I do agree with you in what you put into your work is what you get out of it. In other words the harder you work the more it’s going to eventually pay off. I have friends who are also a fan of my work and they tell me not to give up, plus I can’t or don’t want to no matter how frustrated I may get .To any other artist who read this please don’t give up, it’s worth loving what you do as a career no matter how long it takes. Thanks for sharing Lisa. I love when other artist are willing to help other artist.
Hi Sandy,
So glad you found the article helpful! It is a very long road but a journey worth taking. Without a doubt there is a balance you need to find between creating what you love and feel passionate about and creating to appeal to a particular market. Sometimes that may not be the same thing. For example some of my personal fine art work would never sell in the market that I create for in my shop so it’s something I do on the side with no expectations. But at the same time I adore creating the work for my shop too, it truly fills be with joy! So it’s important to know what your market wants then do your best to get noticed in that market. I agree that some people may give bad advice but at the same time if you’re getting a lot of the same feedback it might be something to look into more. Having supportive friends are great! But are they your target customer? These are just things to consider when creating work you love and also knowing what would appeal to and serve your market.
Hope that helps! Good luck xx
Great article. Wonderful writing style and methodical thinking, describing step by step. I will come again here. Thank you Lisa!
Thank you so much! So glad you enjoyed reading it 🙂 Hope you found it useful.
There is nothing passive about passive income sounds on the money. It takes a lot of work to create a product sales funnel and even when passive it takes work to maintain. Love the idea of selling art work as digital products, not something you really thing about, but I guess it is a niche market.
FANTASTIC article, thanks a million Lisa for sharing this information with us all. Love Denise in Australia
Glad you enjoyed it Denise! Hope you’re surviving the fires 🙁
This is the most insightful article I’ve ever read re. earning passive income online. Five stars from me and I wish you all the very best.
By the way, I’ve just started my digital art online shop “Artsy Websy” at Etsy yesterday. How exciting…!!
Thank you, Lisa… 🙂
Congrats!! That’s so exciting! So glad you enjoyed the article. Best of luck with your new shop.
PS. Unfortunately I don’t allow external links as this would open the sluice gates for spammers, I hope you understand. But people can still find your lovely Etsy shop by searching for your shop name.
Wow Master Lisa! this is so so so awesome & inspiring as.
Thanks so much for the valuable lessons. Heard so much of you from Honest Designer Podcast & finally land on your site.
Well I’m ready to venture in this things ( print-on-demand products or digital resources ) However, it is terrifying to hear about stolen digital property, so much hard work & to be exploited by others, Mad world.
I realised the post is awhile back, is that a better solution to combat it in 2020 ? Using password or serial number to every digital download u sells ? Like those big software company ( i.e Adobe & things ) Curious to hear what’s your take on it.
Btw, I’m Stan from M’sia, self taught portrait illustrator ( IG: Wulfland ) Only when u free pls take a look, would be wonderful if u provide some constructive criticism or any commercial value in the arts itself..always struggle to think of one rather than just creating pretty images.
What a pleasure to find out about ur blog, learn so much! Thanks again & have a great day.
So glad you enjoyed the post Stan! The ugly side of selling online is unfortunately a very unpleasant reality that probably will never go away. There isn’t unfortunately a way to protect your work that I know of (if there is I’ll be the first to buy it!), our products are files so that makes it really difficult to apply restrictions like they can on an app. You can add metadata to your work, but that ultimately doesn’t deter pirates I’m afraid.
I’d love to be able to give one-on-one advice for artists, but unfortunately I struggle to find the available time given my work schedule. I will definitely do my best to have a look at your IG account and give you feedback 🙂
If you do decide to venture into digital resources or POD, I wish you all the best!!
Thank you so much Lisa for taking the time to write this informative, well thought out articleI’m an artist and I’ve been thinking about how to create passive income for a while, your thoughts and experiencing really help! I’ve read many articles on Pinterest and this one had so much useful information, I loved hearing about your own experiences selling online. Can’t wait to sit with this and see what works for my art business
Thanks again,
Hi Melanie, So glad you found this helpful and informative! I know how I struggled to find info when I first started so I’m only to happy to provide insights where I can. Best of luck with your passive income venture!
Hi Lisa! Thank you very much for your post, it was very helpful. I admire your lovely work and your contribution on The honest designers show is very inspirational.
Thank you Tamara! So happy you found the post to be helpful! Always lovely to meet a listener of the Show 🙂 Thank you so much, I really appreciate your lovely comments!
Well put! I’m very new to your site and artwork but I enjoyed reading your blog post so I know I’ll be back. Happy designing! Xx
Hi Marike! Always lovely to have new people stopping by my blog! Hope you found the article useful 🙂
Hi Lisa,
I am a graphic designer. I have had trouble finding a job in the sector. So I have thought of selling my art online. While researching I found your article. Thank you fr that it was helpful. I was wondering if I could pick your brain a bit further on the subject.
Hi Kiri,
So glad you found the article helpful. As much as I would love to help everyone unfortunately as a one woman show it’s not possible, I hope you understand. But what I can do is send you an email (which should have reached you already) with some advice and info that might help.
Best of luck to you!
Thank you for this!
What kind of tools (iPad, computer, old school paper and pencils) and software do you like to use?
Cheers!
Hi Malia, Thank you so much for your interest in my work! I answer a few of those questions on my help section which you can view here, hopefully that gives you some insight into my processes 🙂
Great article! My question is, which platform do you sell the most on, and since each platform truly does cater to a different audience, was it harder to get approved for platforms you have to apply to like Creative Market vs Etsy where you don’t?
Hi Tamara,
I was pretty lucky because I didn’t have a problem getting approved, I think when I started there was less competition so being accepted was probably easier. In terms of which platform does the best, it moves around a bit between my website, Design Cuts and Creative Market. Because I don’t spend much time and effort promoting Etsy, it’s my lowest earner but generally my products are aimed for the slightly more serious creative whereas Etsy caters more for the dabbling crafter I believe. So it’s SUPER important to be clear which audience you want to serve and then focus on that. Hope that helps!
Hi Lisa,
Thank you for writing and sharing such an informative article. very inspirational and helpful.
Cheers!
It’s a great pleasure! So glad you found it useful x
Hi Lisa.
Thanks for this inspiring blog. (even its a couple years later).
I think you did great research and helping a lot of people struggling, even today.. I’m a Motion-graphic artist in the high-commercial range. But due to the Pandemic, its quiet in the business. I’d searched for answers to do what I really like (drawing) and what It could do to fit my creativity, somewhere I never thought of.
Thanks for this.
It’s a great pleasure! I hope it’s help you get some better clarity and ideas how you can sell your drawings. Best of luck with your creative adventure!
Thank great read 🙂
It’s a pleasure Robert!
I am thinking about becoming a digital artist. I have a long way to go. But as a former IT tech, I am savvy to the various online resources for how to obtain digital art(DA) without paying. Sharing is caring, the pirates say. But sharing, in these cases, is bad. If you’re the person trying to earn your living from your DA, this sharing freebie stuff is really just plain bad. That is why, one tier of my new career shall be to eliminate all websites around the globe who pirate digital art. Sure, that’s a tall order, I know. But trust me, there’s nothing more dangerous to a pirate, than an FBI agent/digital artist/bad mofo wearing his pirate costume.
You’d be my absolute hero Troy if you managed to take down just one of those sites!! And I’m sure the many other thousands of artists around the world would be so grateful if you succeeded! We fight this every day so having another “pirate slayer” on our team is always welcome. Good luck with your artistic endeavours!
Dear Lisa,
As someone who is brand new to digital art making, thank you so much for your time on this post its given me so much to think about. Your work is amazing, I can see your thought process on creating different markets after reviewing your different stores. I really appreciate the quality you bring to your images, and your ethos on customer service. Happy 2021!
That makes me super happy you found this article useful! So glad it gave you some insight and things to think about when creating your products.
Thank you so much for your lovely comments about my work, I really appreciate it. I wish you all the best with your new digital art making venture!
This was really helpful! Thank you! I’m a photographer and I’m thinking about going digital with some parts of my work so this was great reading and lots of good advice to someone who hasn’t tried the digital market full out! Thanks again!
So glad you found the article useful Louise! Best of luck to you and your creative online endeavours!
This is the best blog I have read in a long time. Thank you for being so informative and wonderful!
It’s a great pleasure! So glad you found it useful Kristian!
I am a designer myself, I make ui kits. Sometimes I do lose my patience, sometimes I don’t, but the passion overcomes any obstacle, somehow. I resonate with you Lisa! Thank you for these real insights, it really takes courage to write such an useful post, in a world filled with glamorous promises.
Hi Dorin, So glad you enjoyed reading the article! Best of luck with your UI kits
Hi Lisa, thank you so much for a good read. A good reality check for me.
Thanks, Karin
So glad you found it useful Karin!
Here I am a couple years later….. this post is definitely helpful, meaningful and surprisingly hopeful. I don’t know where it came from but I’ve gain this new passion for digital art, illustrations, and anything anywhere near this field. I’m soul searching for my “thing” something I’m going to be great at. Thanks to YouTube,Pinterest and many. Many more sites that I’ve used as reference to learning the basics but you my friend have gave me the motivation I’ve needed to keep going. (Some days I feel as if I’ve lost my mind, actually thinking I would be good at something lol ) I quit everyday and end up on procreate or auto desk or Adobe for several hours. THANK YOU
Aw!! So glad you found this helpful and motivational! The journey can get difficult in places but it’s definitely worth keeping at it and working your way through those difficult times. Also remember to be kind to yourself, we are always our worst critic and that can sometimes be very toxic. So give yourself a huge pat of the back, often! Creating art is a wonderful thing and you should be proud that you are pursuing something you love!
Umm hello….
I wanted to Ask, and i Hope i am not bothering you, about the art selling stuff..
I want really hard to start my own online Bessines and i decided to make my own website and to sell my art online but i still have some questions..
1- do i have to print my art to sell it or i Can just sell the designs? ( If i Can just sell them without printing then how?)
There are people who demand they get them printed so what do i do? I don’t live in America or Europe (i am from Africa) so i don’t know how to sell prints..how do i send them ? And is it expensive ? And how does it work?(to sell worldwide cuz in my country they don’t Care about digital art)
2-do i have to get a bank account or do i just use a PayPal account with my postal account? ( I am getting 18yo this year so i don’t know how bank/money accounts work )
3-is Etsy a good option for someone that hasn’t much money? ( I am entering university and i want to start to make my own money)
Thank you for your Time and i wanted to Say that i really love!!!!! your art and website style❤️
Hi Samah, Congrats on launching your art business! I wish I could answer all your questions in detail but due to the volume of enquiries and questions I get unfortunately I don’t have the available time for comprehensive replies. But I can tell you that you don’t need to sell physical art prints. There are many artists (myself included) who sell digital prints. Paypal is also 100% fine. And finally, Etsy is a great starting point. Best of luck to you!
wow!!! its was amazing blog post. actually i am begginer and looking for mentor whom i can learn about digital artwork and your article guide me lots of things so thank you so much for this information. As YOU your blog post is also unique.
Thank you so much! So glad you found it helpful! Best of luck with your creative journey x
Yes, I read this article with my morning cup of coffee, as you mentioned. Thank you so much for taking the time to write this and share your experiences. I’ve been a graphic designer for over 30 yrs and always pushed back on the selling of digitals until lately. Starting to contemplate my options, so this was a huge help! I’ve bought your portrait creator in the past. Your work is stunning! Thanks for the pirating info. I think it may soften the blow if it should happen to others. Simply knowing it’s not just happening to one of us, makes it a little more comforting. Sorry it happened to you on such a big scale though. Keep up the great work. Thanks again!
So glad you found the article helpful! Thank you so much for your lovely comments, I really appreciate it. I wish you all the best with your creative journey x
Hi Liza,
I am not sure if someone already made this comment/remark. Too many of them I did not read them all 🙁
Have you considered NFT (Non Fungible Token) for your digital arts? If not, please explore.
Tha k you for this. Recently I’ve been exploring what I want to do with my life and trying to figure out what I’d like to make a living off of while also doing something I enjoy. I’m 19 and I’ve been struggling with whether or not it would be worth it for me to pursue this as a career because I’m young, don’t have experience, and school is expensive. I’ve been trying to find something that talked about the co s as well as the pros and this is really helpful. I really appreciate it. I want to do my best, I just wanted to know if my best would even be enough or if it would be a waste of time and effort. I just wanted to thank you from the bottom of my heart because reading this made me feel like I had a bit of a better understanding of what I would be getting myself into, especially since you actually do this for a living rather than talking about something you looked up briefly online like many others I’ve read. So thank you so much. I’m still going to keep researching because I’m still anxious about it, but thus gave me a little boost of confidence to keep looking and not just get overwhelmed and give up out of nervousness without even trying. I appreciate you sharing your knowledge 🙂
Hi Acacia,
So glad you found the article helpful! You are still very young and have lots of time to explore. I would recommend concentrating on your skill development and style and start dabbling in selling your work even if you think it’s not perfect. This is how you’ll learn about what works for you AND your audience and what doesn’t. Just keep creating and learning, it all adds up to valuable knowledge you’ll use throughout your life and career.
Best of luck!
Thank you for this article!!!
Unique advice that hits the mark. We all need that dose of reality as we enter that “digital” products market. It’s exciting and new and endless. Thank you for being both real and encouraging. And your drawings are so delicate and friendly.
So glad you found the post useful! It’s important to understand all sides of the industry. The amazing thing is the wonderful potential it has to help us creatives build a business we love! Best of luck to you!
I know I’m hopping in on an old post, but I wanted to say Thank You for writing this article. I am a nature photographer who has struggled with the idea of selling digital prints for years. I’ve stuck to my guns on only selling prints, but I’m now opening the door to selling a few as digitals. Your “ugly” scenarios were true and I’m coming to terms that it could happen to me. And now I feel like I have better information to guard myself with and dip my does in the digital download pool.
It’s a great pleasure Alisha! So glad you found the post helpful! I know it can be daunting putting your work out there in a more vulnerable manner, but I truly believe your real customers will always want to support you and pay for your work. The kind of people that download pirated work aren’t really your true customers and don’t appreciate the work in the first place. You will always be supported by people who care xx Best of luck to you!
I just made a report on telegram for copyright infringement. If more people can report this issue, maybe they can close the channel. Here’s the link.
[link removed]
I’m sorry Lisa, I’m trying my best to help. I love your work! Yuki
Hi Yuki,
Argh!! Why do these people do this!? Thank you so much for alerting me. I see the same person has stolen many works from other creators. I have also reported them, it looks like they have already removed the post after me contacting them as well. Thank you again for alerting me and also taking action I really appreciate it!
I saw that you have written to them on the post and I was like YES! Tell them, Lisa, Who is the Boss??!!! I have written to two other artists too and sent them the link of their work. Happy to help. Please keep creating, I’m addicted to your work.
Haha! Yes it looks like these thieves get a little nervous when you threaten them with legal action – unfortunately that doesn’t always work though. Thank you again for alerting me I really appreciate that, you’re amazing!
Your work is beautiful and this article was excellent! I was drawn to it by an “honest” look and from your personal experience. Just loved it and as I encourage my fellow creatives, I will definitely pass this on to them as well!
Thank you Christy! So glad you enjoyed the article and found it useful x Thank you for the recommendation, much appreciated!
Stumbled on your post, thanks for writing it. I am looking at how to promote my unique photography. I’d rather be extremely selective. To avoid the mentioned theft problems. Any online appearance would be for info only and not the original to make copies impossible. Prints only and not wanting to spread to greedy masses.
Hi Joseph,
Sounds like you have a clear idea on how to approach presenting your artwork online which is fantastic! Best of luck to you and wishing you many sales of your work
Thank you and same to you!
Wow Lisa, thank you so much for your words. I stumbled upon this blog post and found it very encouraging. We’ve been creating hand painted clipart for 5 years now and half of that time we were bullied online / constantly deal with people breaching our ToU, these horrible torrent sites, clipart being sold on as is etc etc etc. I honestly am just comforted that it isn’t just us that have found this to be a struggle. I can’t imagine not creating artwork though so it is just something that we will have to overcome in due time. Thank you for sharing all this information and keep up your beautiful artwork – we love seeing your artwork pop up on Etsy!
So glad you found it encouraging! Yes, it’s one of the terrible parts of selling art online, so many issues with piracy and misuse. Sadly I tend to ignore most of them otherwise I’d end up spending my entire day dealing with that and not creating art or resources. But having the freedom to do what I do for a living still outweighs the bad stuff Plus I get to meet lovely people like you xx ❤️
Thank you very much, Lisa. Your comments are very insightful.
It’s a great pleasure Janice! Glad you found the post helpful
Hello! 🙂 I’m Charlotte and I’m thirteen years old. Your post was great! 🙂 It’s my first time on your blog and I absolutely love the design. Well done. I am working on my own online business and I think your posts will help me a lot. Keep up the great work!
Hi Charlotte, so glad you found the post useful Thank you so much for your lovely comments. Congrats on pursuing your online business! Wishing you loads of success
You are welcome! Thank you so much for the help!
I licensed a character from Asia (think in vein of Hello Kitty). I know people will be trying to ‘knock it off’ but I entered prepared. I was a fashion designer in my early career and I had one of my world wide trends knocked off by a Chinese manufacture that came through the California Market (where my rep showroom was located). They (unknown by me prior) placed some of my trend items for the season in the lobby display boxes. Some think this is an honor, I think it is a recipe for theft. Sure enough, within less than a month my most profitable designs were already distributed. I learned a lot from that. Now, you can log in and bam.. no one even needs to make that trip to the lobby of a building in LA or NY. I think the best weapon is to have some good marketing because that is what makes one product a success and another a flop.
Hi Brie,
Thank you for your insights! Yes it’s such a fine line between putting your work out there to get exposure and at the same time, opening yourself up to copycats. It’s really not great that we have to think this way. As you mentioned I think marketing yourself and your work and building a loyal audience is the best defence
Hi Lisa. thankyou for this great article. I have just started up my own etsy store and i want to sell my digital art. I just want to know, is there any real need to remove metadata from my digital images? I am maybe not very technical in this area. Is it like a standard thing digital artists do? Thanks so much again
Glad you enjoyed the article! Congrats on pursuing your art shop!
Unless the metadata contains sensitive personal info, it’s actually a good idea to include or keep that. This is another form of “protecting” your work because you could add copyright information to the metadata. But this won’t stop people who are driven to steal but it will at least act as a form of digital signature. Hope that helps!
Hi lisa, This is an earnest blog and I felt so connected with you although I’ve never heard of you ever! Thank you for this genuine post – especially about the challenges. I wanted to get an unbiased/unadulterated opinion before embarking on starting my ‘passive income’ digital business. hahah I was also wondering how passive can it be in truth too. Definitely taking major notes on your advice and points.
I wish you well and definitely bookmarking you as an illustrator should I ever need good designs. <3 <3 <3
Aww! Thank you so much Jannah! Really appreciate your comments. So happy you found the article helpful. I wish you all the best with your digital business!
Hi Lisa, so glad I stumbled upon this article thank you for writing it. I’m learning how to use Procreate and bought a couple of your procreate brush packs from Design Cuts last year, having watched you on a YouTube tutorial I found, I love your style and your watercolour brushes have been great to use, I have been working on creating my own unique designs.
I’m loving Procreate to the point where I’ve love to learn how to turn my digital creations into digital products to possibly sell but don’t know where to start or what type of product to sell.
Do you have any online courses that teach to the whole process of creating digital art to sell, using Adobe or Canva and Procreate to produce artwork with graphics and text?
Hi Tracy,
So glad you’re pursuing your creativity and venturing into selling your art! I don’t unfortunately have any courses along those lines but it is one of the projects I hope to create soon as I know there is a great needs for such information. Hopefully I can get to it soon!
Brilliant thank you Lisa that’s good to hear.
hi lisa just wondering how do you choose to get paid on your own website? thanks
It depends on your country’s laws and what’s available to you in terms of payment gateways. Some payment gateways don’t offer their services to certain countries so it’s best to do some research into what would suit you and your business. Compare costs and convenience as well. Hope that helps!
Thank you for offering your advice! I earned an art degree a million years ago, but ended up pursuing a much different career. Two years ago, I started saving for an iPad Pro to learn Procreate and sell printables (and I missed making art!). Your post is informative without being overwhelming, and it leaves me feeling hopeful AND helps me stay pragmatic. So appreciative of your willingness to share your knowledge and support your fellow artists/illustrators!
It’s a pleasure! Congrats on pursuing your art again, I wish you great success!!
This is one of the best and simply put articles I’ve read. I love how you said that if someone steals your work you can’t take it hard because you love what you’re doing. I feel the same. Thank you! I know it feels good to have people appreciate your work. How would I go about doing a theft and copyright infringement?
Glad you found it helpful Kimberly! If someone infringes upon your copyright you can send them a DMCA takedown notice. There are quite a few templates on the internet that you can use as a starting point. You can also send them a Cease and Desist notice, do a quick Google search to find a template, or some attorneys sell templates for that as well. Hope that helps!
Hi Lisa, thanks for your really comprehensive post! I bought a few of your brush packs, like the instant artist, cute art, and watercolour packs, they’re really user friendly and thoughtfully made 🙂 I was just wondering what brush you used for outlining the little plants, veggies and bunny on this page? I thought it was one of the sketching pencils but it looks different. Thanks in advance!
It’s a pleasure! Thank you so much for your purchases, it’s much appreciated! For these illustrations I used traditional pencil on paper then vectorised it in Adobe Illustrator, it’s the same technique I teach in this class in case you’re interested learning more.
Hi Lisa, I am a huge fan of your wonderful brushes and have purchased quite a few different sets. In your reply to Cece’s comment and question about brushes, you mention your course on using Adobe Illustrator. I do understand the difference between vector and raster images but just wondering how often you create/sell vector art. I am trying to decide whether it’s worth my time going down that path.
Hi Reinete, Thank you so much for your lovely comments and support, I truly appreciate it! Regarding your question, it depends on the application. If you want to create graphics to sell to the design industry, generally designers like to work with vectors. But this is not an absolute necessity. If you are wanting to license your work to clients who will produce products, it depends on the client’s preference of file format. In short, creating and selling vector art is very dependent upon the end application. But I also like to encourage people to play to their strengths, so if creating vector art is very removed from your style and skill set, rather focus on what you’re good at and become better at producing your art so clients/customers come to you for that specific artwork. Hope that helps!
Hi Lisa, That makes sense. Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my question in detail. I guess I am still trying to figure out my style so I am experimenting with both at the moment.
What a great article Lisa. The points are as relevant in 2023 as they were when it was first published.
Thank you so much Kate! Appreciate that. Glad you enjoyed the article!