For many budding artists in the UK, selling your art online, on sites like Zippi, offers opportunities that wouldn’t be available elsewhere. Getting prints and merchandise printed just for you can be prohibitively expensive, as well as potentially leaving you with a huge amount of unsold stock. Selling online means not only do you not have to shoulder that risk, but that you’re also exposing a whole new audience to yourself and your work.
Here’s a quick guide to making sure that you make the most of these opportunities!
Original content is best
Although the law can be a bit grey on matters of satire and fair usage, it’s safe to say that using registered or copyrighted characters in your work is not the way to go. For that reason it’s always best to create your own original art and characters, as there’s nothing worse than to spend all your time on creating something that will end up going to waste.
Let your own network know that you’re here
It’s great when new audiences find your work, but that doesn’t mean that you should neglect your own fan base! If you’ve got a following on social media, particularly on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, make sure that you cross-post new products to these sites. If there are discount codes available, then it’s definitely worth making a point of posting these to your own social media sites, as they’ll encourage sales.
Monitor and evaluate
Are there particular designs which are going well? It’s always worth keeping an eye on the sales you’ve made and seeing if there are any patterns. If you’ve got one design that’s doing really well, you might want to consider doing more like it, pushing variations on social media, or introducing a new product option. This will help you develop your personal brand, and bring in more sales.
Design with the product in mind
If you have a very intricate design, it’s probably best to go on a larger product. Small details on a small product won’t be seen, and this may well leave your customer unhappy and dissatisfied. Which, when you’ve put so much work into the design, would be a real shame.
Make regular uploads
Fresh content really is important! Artists often develop followings who will make a point of checking back to see what’s new. If they come back once or twice to find no new updates, they’ll stop checking very quickly. If you can organise a rolling pattern of new updates, then so much the better.
Why not join our fellow artists earning money from their art on Zippi!