List, and Overview, of Print on Demand Services for Graphics Designs
Hello, this is my first blog so it may be a little rough :) Anyway, hang
in here with me and we will go over different ways to sell your artwork online.
When I decided to start selling my designs I found very few helpful
resources. Sure there are tutorials, but they seem to be site specific.
So, I started looking for print on demand (pod) sites. I realized
that this was not going to work when all I could find were ways to make a book.
After some serious internet surfing I have found a list of seven web
sites that will allow you to upload your art and then apply it to different
merchandise (Follow Link to Download Chart as JPG, Word, or Excel File from Deviant Art). Each of these
sites has benefits and drawbacks. For the first blog we are going to
stick with where you can go to sell your art, general information about the
site, and how much their services cost.
Personal Views on Individual Stores
I love Zazzle I see decent traffic through the site and it is completely free. I make more commission from a single sale on Zazzle than I do from 3-4 on Café Press. Feel free to set your commission between 20% – 31% and be in line with most artists on the site. DON’T undersell on here. I raised my commission by 8% and started selling more.
I tend to get more sales on Café Press, than on Zazzle, but the commission per sales is much lower… and the amount of time it takes to make a design into merchandise is frustrating. I have also encountered extremely slow load time and random, although not infrequent, glitches.
Redbubble has an unusual layout, and takes a little getting used to, three different size images (of the same design) are necessary to sell all types of merchandise.
Artist Rising also has an unusual layout, but they allow bulk uploads with batch editing, and adding images to merchandise is automatic (after image descriptions are entered).
Fine Art America has a great set up. They support both Square and Rectangle prints and allow the designer to set commission price on each size of print.
Deviant art is a great way to sell and share designs. They have a huge community of happy friendly people who are extremely supportive of their artists. The also offer a print on demand service that is customizable and easy to use. I HIGHLY recommend getting a deviant art account ASAP.
Spread shirt can be daunting but a few tricks can make the process much less time consuming. The frustrating part of spread shirt is that there is no way to add a design to multiple products… it is one by, one by, one... yeah frustrating. Cloning can help cut down on the time involved. It is also VERY important to ensure that you are in a specific country (icon in upper right of web screen) you can create a store for each country and they do not carry over. I happen to have a full shop in the USA and a half shop in the UK… took me forever to figure out why all my products suddenly disappeared for my store.
Next week (Hopefully)
Next week I want to cover excel inventory sheets, excel template, and ideas on how to better manage file storage. The next few blogs will be on the individual sites. I will talk about (site specific) uploading designs, managing merchandise, and provide helpful tips and tricks that I have learned along the way. I will have a photo walkthrough on uploading designs, and include templates for image size and DPI settings. (I will eventually make video walkthroughs of these photo shots for youtube and other video services. (However, that is only in the works rite now.)
In Closing
Lastly, please feel free to ask me any question you might have. I will do my best to answer them in full. However, if I am going to cover the question on a future blog I might ask you to give me more time to research the topic. I will also try and upload my blogs in order of which store people are most interested in. Thanks for taking the time to check this out! I hope it helps you promote your art and expand your business.
I love Zazzle I see decent traffic through the site and it is completely free. I make more commission from a single sale on Zazzle than I do from 3-4 on Café Press. Feel free to set your commission between 20% – 31% and be in line with most artists on the site. DON’T undersell on here. I raised my commission by 8% and started selling more.
I tend to get more sales on Café Press, than on Zazzle, but the commission per sales is much lower… and the amount of time it takes to make a design into merchandise is frustrating. I have also encountered extremely slow load time and random, although not infrequent, glitches.
Redbubble has an unusual layout, and takes a little getting used to, three different size images (of the same design) are necessary to sell all types of merchandise.
Artist Rising also has an unusual layout, but they allow bulk uploads with batch editing, and adding images to merchandise is automatic (after image descriptions are entered).
Fine Art America has a great set up. They support both Square and Rectangle prints and allow the designer to set commission price on each size of print.
Deviant art is a great way to sell and share designs. They have a huge community of happy friendly people who are extremely supportive of their artists. The also offer a print on demand service that is customizable and easy to use. I HIGHLY recommend getting a deviant art account ASAP.
Spread shirt can be daunting but a few tricks can make the process much less time consuming. The frustrating part of spread shirt is that there is no way to add a design to multiple products… it is one by, one by, one... yeah frustrating. Cloning can help cut down on the time involved. It is also VERY important to ensure that you are in a specific country (icon in upper right of web screen) you can create a store for each country and they do not carry over. I happen to have a full shop in the USA and a half shop in the UK… took me forever to figure out why all my products suddenly disappeared for my store.
Next week (Hopefully)
Next week I want to cover excel inventory sheets, excel template, and ideas on how to better manage file storage. The next few blogs will be on the individual sites. I will talk about (site specific) uploading designs, managing merchandise, and provide helpful tips and tricks that I have learned along the way. I will have a photo walkthrough on uploading designs, and include templates for image size and DPI settings. (I will eventually make video walkthroughs of these photo shots for youtube and other video services. (However, that is only in the works rite now.)
In Closing
Lastly, please feel free to ask me any question you might have. I will do my best to answer them in full. However, if I am going to cover the question on a future blog I might ask you to give me more time to research the topic. I will also try and upload my blogs in order of which store people are most interested in. Thanks for taking the time to check this out! I hope it helps you promote your art and expand your business.
