Making a Profit Because of Redbubble
Do I really need to say this? We can profit from our art on Redbubble. I get the feeling people are not understanding this concept.
Redbubble is merely and only our personal art gallery. It’s not a static destination where you stop and stare, but a dynamic gallery of photographs forever showing art that best represents what we’d like the general public to purchase. From Cards through to Framed wall-hangings, our work is available to purchase online.
Redbubble provides a slick website that is so easy for choosing frames/laminates/cards/t_shirts/etc, purchasing the product and easy-delivery system. They make it amazingly easy to be a small-business owner. Or at least make a small to moderate amount of play-money on the side.
I encourage all Artists to use Redbubble to get started, but don’t let it stop you in your tracks. It staggers me how many people are sitting behind their computers with tapping fingers saying, “OK, Now they can see me, they will come here any moment now to purchase my art!” “No they won’t!! You have to find the customers yourself.
Redbubble enables you to purchase your own work … and then on-sell it.
My Redbubble Business
In August 2007 I purchased thirty cards via Redbubble. I gave five as gifts to very close friends, simply blank cards without messages, but with a simple note … do what you like with this.
Some people kept them, others used them within minutes to send off as Birthday cards. Most asked where I got them from and can they have more? The remaining cards sold within 24hours of arrival from Redbubble!
Then I emailed those people, other friends and family, showing them my RB gallery. I have repeat customers because of this initial free promotion. We order $150 worth of cards and other stuff each fortnight, either in pre-orders or for stock. I have a box of about 120 card-ographs in stock at anytime.
My lovely wife keeps a very intricate and statistical ledger of all cards in stock, those sold and those on order. Clients choose from the gallery (telling me which ones they like via email, with the name of the artwork, the style they’d like it presented _card, laminate, etc and how many of each_), we order and receive, then we take it to the customer. About a two-week turn-around time.
I’ve also purchased a dozen 12”x8” of the ‘prettier’ of our photographs on each of our galleries, which are easily viewed in an A3-portfolio. These are used to determine the appropriate frame and matte colour when clients choose them.
Now that Christmas is gone, I can reveal that White Gums II was picked off my gallery by a work-friend’s mother here in Adelaide, I had it framed locally, and it now sits pride of place in their lounge room! I’m very proud of that!!
From the corporate world through to the suburban billiards room, everyone wants a suitable image to hang on the wall. Because I have clients who prefer not to purchase online, I’ve made it my responsibility to acquire the final product and deliver it to their offices and homes.
And this system works beautifully. (More about this in the next four weeks…)
To parody and plagerise a famous quote: “Give someone a fish and they eat for a day, give them a camera with with a zoom lens, and they can shoot the most beautiful carp every day of the week!“
Deborah Bowness
You are so right Stephen. This is something I have been thinking about for a while now, but am not sure how to really get started. I’m not sure how much to charge people either, not sure who and HOW to approach local businesses etc. Any help and advice you could offer me would be greatly appreciated. I have a few images that I think would make lovely cards for all occasions, so I guess maybe just approaching the big card shops maybe? Don’t know if that’s too adventurous or what?
Thanks for writing this post and giving us all a much needed kick up the backside!!
Stephen Mitchell
I’ve had a quick flick through your work , so I can see you definitely have a great range of work that has the potential to sell very very well. People love macro bugs and flowers, so start with them. Follow our approach as in story above…
My advice right now: Start with friends and family. Get their advice, their thoughts, heck, ask them to tell their friends, their friends, their friends friends neighbours friends … somewhere along the line, you might make a friend with someone who runs a newsagent. But that’s not something I would jump straight into. Sell to those people I just mentioned. When they start buying, they send the cards to other people, and this is the best free promotion you’ll ever get! Because of this technique, one of my cards got sent to the UK !
Ignore all the apostrophe’s I failed to put in that list of friends!
Oh, and don’t give up your day job. This is not aimed at you … that’s aimed at everybody. There ain’t nothing worse than counting them chickens before they’ve properly hatched. Sounds like a corny cliché, yet it is the best one to remember!
Look, right now, I am working on a great idea. I’m going to test it between now and the end of February (so many projects on the go right now!).
Whether it fails or has a future, I will do a write-up. This idea may rake in as little as $100 per week, but the goal is make around $300 per week. If it does, I will be able to quit my day job.
Them chickens, I mustn’t forget them chickens…
Tom Godfrey
Very useful info Stephen – good to get some practical ideas from an artist with a marketing brain :) Many of us get too lost in our art, myself included :) I actually did a Portoon (my term for a portrait head and cartoonised body and background ) for a client and popped it onto redbubble, so that they could choose frames etc. It worked very well. I paid for rb to print, frame and deliver and then charged the client once it was received. They love it. Thanks for your kind words re my crazy art btw.
Stephen Mitchell
Thanks Tom!
I’ve never had anyone say or suggest I have a “marketing brain”, it’s just something I’ve done for a long time. My first few jobs twenty years ago were door-to-door sales with crapolo products raising funds for diseases.
I was the only kid in the crowd who could see that the corporate offices should have the money to give, not the urban residents. But I learned fast that the suburbanite was MORE willing to donate money they really couldn’t afford to lose.
I also sold women’s (outer-)clothing for a short time. Need I say more? (Post-Xmas Sales are not a reduction in price, it’s an indication of the TRUE value of an item, yet the shops are still clearing a MASSIVE profit.)
Lois Romer
thanks for this steven, I gave a set of my macro shots as cards to a feind the other day and she said i should be selling these. I had bought a few extras and I am thinkin if i buy some more I could sell them at the local community market. not sure how much to charge for the cards though but sometimes you pay $4.95 for a store bought mass produced card.
Kenny Gulley Jr.
Hi Stephen, if im not too sure on how much profit i make. I still have a few friends on my old HS babseball team that like the photographs i took of a pitcher from the team. It costs 21 dollars to get the image to me, i know some of the costs pays the artist….me…so how much should i charge the buyer of the image…would $15 do? $17? what do you think
Stephen Mitchell
Kenny, all I can seriously suggest is you try to make a profit, not a loss. Charging the buyer $17 for a product that is costing you $21 to get printed, this is a loss. As to how much you set your profit margin, that’s a tough one to answer … and is a decision you need to determine. Good luck with your sales!
Justine Bolton
Hi Stephen.
I just stumbled across your post, and am so pleased i did! The idea of buying some of my own cards and using them / selling them to friends / seeing what it leads to has been drifting around at the back of my brain for a while now. But your thoughts and suggestions have given me the shove i needed – im going to order some RIGHT NOW (especially before the South African currency gets any weaker and i’ll have to fork out a fortune if i want to give them as Christmas cards etc!).
Thanks for taking the time to share your wisdom.
Nikkitta
What i don’t get is why you don’t just print the cards your self. instead of ordering from redbubble. rb is expensive to purchase small quantities because of the shipping, and they have a long delivery time at 10-15 days.
i started to look at this option, but think it is faster and cheeper to print cards on my hp printer on high quality 220gsm watercolour paper. your still get a great print and you can even at messages inside for those special occasions.
i do love the idea of sending them out to your friends and family as marketing.
i would love to sell them at my local art market or at gallery shops.
Nikki
Stephen Mitchell
Because I’m yet to find a printer that can do 400gsm for cards, A3 for printers, and easy online purchase and distribution, and of a high enough quality that it won’t fade away in 12monts time.
Stephen Mitchell
For the record, I don’t buy cards as often as I did six months ago.
Now it is about 40 cards a month. But I am not giving up, not at all
Raz Solo
This is really helpful! I had been thinking along these lines recently, but it’s nice to have it spelled out/affirmed that it’s an idea that works! Thanks! :)
Stephen Mitchell replied
My pleasure Raz.
Smurfesque
Stephen, I have been drawing and painting always but since February this year I have devoted my every waking hour to photoshop. I have about 100 images on here but not one painting or drawing as I am too busy making new stuff all the time. Just last week I decided to order 5 tees fromm rb and am really excited waiting for them to arrive. I am also having one of my photomanipulations ( Protect Rainforests Forever) printed on canvas and entering it into the Caldera Art competition (QLD/NSW border area). I will take the t-shirt samples around designer outlets in the Byron and Surfer’s areas (I live midway between). I have no idea how it will go but I have bags of enthusiasm and even more bags full of energy and creativity. If all goes terribly wrong I can always wear the tees and enjoy the canvas on my own wall. Any extra ideas!
Stephen Mitchell replied
Calendars are all the rage this year. That’s my prediction.
Set them up now, and within the next few months (if not sooner, and I hope it is), Redbubble will start converting them to the 2010 months.
I also have made the transition to Photoshop (tho I still use GIMP for quick edits), so understand the fascination with this wonderful program.
Your writing displays an enormous amount of love for your art, so I wish you well in all your endeavours.
Smurfesque
Thx 4 the reply and I will definately put together a calander and then let you know in due course how sales went. Another little project to get my teeth into! Thanks… I have to go now as photoshop is calling!
Stephen Mitchell replied
LOL. Photoshop is certainly addictive!
midnightdreamer
Wow, I am just loving all your awesome info, Thank You, Thank You for taking the time to help us redbubblers. I have been tossing around my art for awhile on the internet, but now I seriously want to start doing something with my art. I want to reach out and touch people with it, but first I have to take the time to get my stuff out there and your so right customers dont just magically come calling at your door. Thanks again so much, now poof, I am off to read some more of your awesome insightful words ;)
Peace,
Leah♥