Discover How To Increase Your Income Stream Selling Wearable Art

Last Updated on January 17, 2020

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Would you like to make extra income from the art you have already created and sold? In this post, I will show you some options you have to increase your income stream selling wearable art.

How To Increase Your Income Stream Selling Wearable Art — Original Pastel Painting by Dave Nevue

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By the end of this post, you will know…

What is wearable art
What is print on demand sites
Popular print on demand sites
How to market and sell your wearable art

How To Increase Your Income Stream Selling Wearable Art

The “starving artist” myth no longer exists.

Artists have many opportunities to generate income from their artistic skills.

You do not have to rely on a sale from your original art to generate income anymore.

This is good news for artists that take a long time to complete a project like me.

Most of my drawings take between 4-8 weeks to complete.

If I only generated income from my original drawings I would not be able to have an art business as a career.

The only way I am able to be successful is by creating different income streams that relate to art.

There are many opportunities to create different income streams as an artist. I will be covering all of the options you have available in future posts, but for today I would like to focus on wearable art.

Wearable art is one of the top passive income ideas many artists are now taking advantage of.

What Is Wearable Art

Wikipedia defines wearable art as:

Wearable art, also known as Artwear or “art to wear”, refers individually designed pieces of (usually) handmade clothing or jewelry created as fine or expressive art.

Wearable art is one way many artists generate extra income from their art.

In the past artists would have to print their own products or have them printed by a printing service.

Today, artists can sell prints of their artwork on clothes with no upfront cost by using a POD service.

A POD site (Print on Demand site) is a process whereby individual copies of text or artwork are printed to order, typically using digital technology.

Many companies have discovered the benefits of providing a POD service for artists.

Companies no longer have to hire artists to create designs for their products.

Instead, the company offers a platform where anyone can upload digital images of their art and then print the image on merchandise they have available for sale.

Because it is a Print on Demand service, the company will not print anything until there is a sale. There is no risk for the company.

Artists can also benefit from this evolution and generate extra income from their art with no risk.

You as an artist, have the opportunity to generate extra money from your original artwork as long as you are good at promoting your products online.

If you are interested in generating extra income from your art, you might want to consider working with a POD service

Popular POD Sites

Below are a few popular POD sites used by artists.

There are many more to choose from but this list will give you a good idea of what is available.

Zazzle – has been around since 1999 and has become very popular with artists. They provide high-quality prints on a large variety of products like shirts, sweatshirts, iPhone cases, bags, mugs, water bottles, stamps and hundreds of more items.

Zazzle also allows you to set the royalty rates you will be receiving. The royalty rate you decide will affect the selling price of the product.

Society6 – is another popular POD site for creative minds. Thousands of artists have uploaded original artwork to put on everything from fine art prints, canvas prints, metal prints, throws, and tote bags.

Society6 will take the orders, print the product and ship the product to the customer.

Another positive to Society6 is that you control the rights to your work.

RedBubble – works a little different from the previous sites I have mentioned. They offer similar products but the main difference is they allow you to set the retail price. They have a set price for the manufacturing cost. You decide how much money you would like to earn from each sale. They will add your amount to the manufacturing cost to determine the retail price.

For example, if the manufacturing cost of a mug is $8.00 and you would like to earn $5.00 per mug the retail cost would be $13.00.

Fine Art America – was launched in 2006 and is very popular with artists and photographers. They started by just offering Fine Art Prints, Canvas Prints, Metal Prints, and Greeting Cards but have recently started offering other merchandise like iPhone covers, pillows, mugs and more.

Fine art Marketing is similar to RedBubble in the sense that they allow the artist to determine how much money they would like to make per item.

How To Generate Extra Income Selling Wearable Art

There will be a certain amount of work involved in every income stream you create.

Selling wearable art is no different.

The work will start after you have uploaded your image to the POD site of your choice.

Your job will be to drive traffic to your listings.

Do not be fooled by businesses telling you that you will have a ton of traffic seeing your products.

You have to put everything into perspective.

Yes, a site might generate a large amount of traffic.

But how many artists are uploading images on the site?
How many products are listed?
How is the company at marketing?

Do not make the same mistakes many artists make.

They upload their artwork and expect sales to be rolling in.

I don’t know if it is because they feel uncomfortable promoting their art, they do not know how to promote their art or if they think it is the site’s job to promote their art.

Whatever the reason is, if they do not market their product, their listings will not be seen.

Schedule time to promote your art and your wearable art.

Where To Promote Wearable Art

How many times have you heard me say, “The internet has made it possible to sell art to people around the world”?

The internet has made it possible to sell art to people around the worldClick To Tweet

It is a great time to be an artist or entrepreneur.

With a basic art marketing plan, you will be able to grow your art business larger than you could have ever imagined.

Art Marketing Strategies

Art Blog – If you want to grow a large audience and produce an online presence you will need to start an art blog.

Using a hosting service for your artist blog like BlueHost is both affordable and user-friendly.

Within just a few clicks you can have a WordPress website that allows you to showcase your wearable art, showcase your original art and a blog that will drive traffic to your site.

Why Artists Who Blog are Successful Selling Art Online

How to be a Successful Blogger – Artist Blogging Tips

Best Content Marketing Strategy for Visual Artists