How To Make Money Online Work From Home Selling Digital Artwork
Since the virus is encouraging many traditional workers to work online, I thought I’d share this information with you today about How To Make Money Online Work From Home Selling Digital Artwork!
The Basics Of Selling Digital Artwork Online
If you are a digital artist, and have some art files sitting around collecting dust on your hard drive, you may be interested to know that there’s a lot of demand for all kinds of art online these days. Digital downloads can be quite lucrative, providing you have the artwork people are looking for.
First, some basic information. It’s important to understand that what we are talking about here is providing your customers with digital downloads of art files. So, you’ll only need to deliver your art files, in the appropriate file types depending on their intended use, via zip folder. Your customers will simply download the files from the marketplace(s) you choose to sell your files on.
As I’m sure you already have figured, the beauty of this is that there’s no shipping or dealing with physical product involved here; just digital files. Yes, that’s right! No frustrating shipping fees, packaging, or scheduling USPS pickups; just digital downloadable goods.
And yes! You can absolutely make money online, working from home, selling your digital art 😉
How To Package Your Digital Files
For the most part, depending on the types of artwork you’ll be selling, you’ll simply need to compress your art files in a zip folder. Of course, if the marketplace allows, you’ll want to include a digital “packing slip” and thank you note. You can pretty much use the same information you would use to send out physical product just, of course, in terms of digital artwork.
Important Things To Know Before Selling Digital Art
As with any business, you’ll need to provide excellent customer support should anyone ask questions. Customers will usually reach you via the message system of the marketplace you are distributing your artwork on. And you’ll want to respond politely, in a timely manner. I’ll leave it at that for now; if you are interested in more information about communicating with your customers, check out my blog post here>>
Make sure to check the marketplace you want to join, and thoroughly review their policies. These can vary widely from one place to another so, be sure you know what you are doing before you apply to a marketplace, or upload artwork for sale. They will provide you with any information you will need to provide excellent services and fulfill the marketplace requirements.
Suffice to say, always make sure your artwork is top-notch, or your work may be removed. You can also have your account canceled if your work doesn’t meet the marketplace requirements.
Most marketplaces require an application and have an approval process. Most require some type of portfolio where they can view your work. (A quick tip: you can easily set up a portfolio on BeHance if you don’t have one. Here’s mine as an example>>) Lol the branding is a bit muddled right now but, I thought you might like to see what you can do with Behance so, it’s good enough to give you a fair idea 😉
Lastly, and it should go without saying but, NEVER use other people’s artwork. It’s violation of copyright law, and marketplaces will remove your work if they catch you doing it.
Digital Art Marketplaces To Join
One of the top marketplaces to join where you can sell your digital art is Envato. You can sell a wide variety of digital art there, from website and social media banners to photography, Envato sells it all! However, it’s also one of the most restricted places to sell your artwork, with some of the steepest competition online. But if you have quality artwork to sell, you should have no problems.
Two of the best places to “get your feet wet” so to speak are Etsy, and DesignBundles.net (affiliate link). Etsy of course, requires that you set up a seller shop. I found a great article with information about how you can set up your store here>>
While DesignBundles allows you to have a shop too, it operates a bit differently. Instead of getting paid for your artwork directly, this marketplace gives you a commission when a customer purchases one of your designs. Be sure to check their policies for more information.
Places like Dreamstime, 123rf and Shutterstock are also great places to sell your artwork and photography online. Again, more difficult to get into but, worth trying if you are serious about selling your artwork online, and working from home!
I know this post is a bit short compared to my usually longer posts but, it should give you enough information to get started. And of course, be sure to follow the links I shared here for more information about specific marketplaces 😉 Of course, if you have any questions you are always welcome to get in touch with me; I’m always happy to help!