Anonymous asked: Hey you seem to be very knowledgeable about red bubble, I'm not a very popular blog but I need money for traveling. I want to sell my art prints but I'm not sure how to create an account and handle the whole money thing? Do you know how much it costs and all that? Also if you know, is it possible to get a greater viewer base on the website or should I try and sell my work a different way altogether? Xoxoxoox thanx
Hello!
RedBubble is entirely free, they set their prices for what the times cost, and then you choose your mark up (how much you want to make each time the item is sold). So, they say it costs them $17 a t-shirt, and you want to make $5 every time a t-shirt is sold, so you set the price for the customers to be $22.
The complicated part is making sure your artwork is in good condition to be sold, because RedBubble doesn’t do any editting whatsoever. What you give them, is what they print. They tell you what sizes the files need to be in for best printing appearance, but other than that you’re on your own. It’s super simple if you do digital art or can digitally edit your artwork, because that was the hardest part for me, was making my traditional artwork look best to printed on their products (sizing, editting out specks on my scanner, making backgrounds transparent, etc). After you get it in the right sizing, they print it for you, you get paid every month. You don’t have to do anything after you post your artwork.
Once you get your work there, you’ll want to reach your audience. T-shirts and stickers are the big money makers, I hardly ever sell actual prints, but I’m sure other artists have better luck there than I. To get the most people to see your work possible, use their tags system thoroughly. Tag your work with legitimately anything you can think of to associate your art with. After that, RedBubble has a ton of groups geared towards specific styles or subjects. I do a lot of fox art and children’s artwork, so I joined like 10+ groups with that theme. They’ll advertise for you if they like your stuff. Larger groups are more picky, but smaller groups aren’t. I apply for both.
Then, after that, advertise your work elsewhere! I bought some shirts with my stuff on it and wore them to all my art fairs and handed out business cards like crazy, but if you aren’t out and about with your work, then online works just as well. Take pictures of yourself in your products (just one shirt or sticker will do) to show how good they look in reality! Advertise your work on Tumblr (again, abusing the tag system lol), find Tumblr blogs that share pictures with certain themes that match your work to advertise for you. For example, I run a fox themed Tumblr with over 500 followers. So, every time I make new fox art, I post it there with a link through to my RedBubble, and that’s potentially another 500 people who could link through and buy my stuff. If you don’t run a theme blog yourself, I’m sure you could find some that you could submit your work to.
Outside of Tumblr, I advertise and share my work on Facebook, Twitter, and DeviantART. I don’t have a large following on Twitter or Facebook, but sometimes friends share my work and they have like 2000 Facebook friends, and they might share it to their 2000 Facebook friends. DeviantART has a similar group system as RedBubble so you can join and advertise the same way.
Aside from that, your best bet is good ole supply and demand capitalism. Look to see what tags are trending. Are you an animal artist? Owls, foxes, and cats are money makers! Are you a part of a fandom? Draw the favorite characters. Popular subject matter will always sell. My biggest moneymaker is STILL my image of foxes curled up into a heart. It’s simple, instantly understandable, cute, and foxes are so gosh darn popular.
Through all this, I make an additional $30-100 a month, but I haven’t actively advertised in maybe six months, hahaha. My art just sits there and makes money for me, by some miracle. If I tried a bit harder, I’m sure I could easily make more. Geothebio makes anywhere from $500-6000 a month if I remember correctly. But she REALLY knows how to milk a fandom.
Wow, this was long! I hope it was helpful, though. I really love RedBubble because it is free and you control your prices.
Best of luck, and if you have any more questions you can definitely message me again! ♥
PS
RedBubble is having a sale, all men’s and women’s shirts are 15% off with promo code “RBTEES15” so everyone can check out my stuff here if you’re interested!