Do you want to make money with digital art? In this post are simple strategies you can use to make money from your artwork.
You may be looking for ways to make money with digital art as an artist. There’s nothing wrong with that since we all search for opportunities to earn a passive income from our passion and expertise.
It is not easy to make a living as an artist. The process that any artist takes to make a decent living from his or her craft is tough. The competition in the industry is also fierce.
However, the internet has made it easy for digital artists to make people know about their work. To make money with digital arts, there are different strategies that you can use. These strategies will not only make you money, but they will also portray you as an expert in your craft.
We will consider these strategies in this article.
SEE: How to Monetize Your Creativity
1. Art Commissions
This method is popular among hobbyists and artists. It involves displaying your work on your portfolio site and social media platforms or websites, like Deviant art and Artstation, with your pricing options and contact details.
Interested buyers will get in touch with you for commission work. This is a great source of side income. For this option, you can charge either based on a fixed rate or hourly rates.
2. Teach Students
Another route that you can take to make money with digital art is to teach students your craft. There is a demand for digital art teachers and this demand is expected to grow. Depending on your expertise and skills, you can apply for the role of an art teacher at colleges.
The salary depends on the school or the college and the location. You can also set up your art classes.
Working as a digital art teacher has some advantages over working for a firm. For instance, you will have lots of creative freedom. Your schedule is fixed, so you don’t have to worry about overtime. You will also enjoy job satisfaction.
3. Enroll in Design Contests
There are lots of websites where artists compete. The nature of the competition is usually determined by the contest holder’s demands.
For instance, let’s assume someone needs a logo for his company. He can either get in touch with an artist for a commission-based work, or hire an expert at Upwork, Fiverr, or Freelancer.
The other option is to approach a design agency. At the end of the day, the person will be given about 5 or 6 variants of the logo that he wants. He will then choose one from these variants.
But what if the person wants 100, 200, or even 500 samples that he can choose from. This is where sites like Design crowd and Design contest come in. What the person needs to do is to provide his requirements, and artists will submit their designs. The person can then pick the right design from the multitude of designs submitted and the winner wins the money.
This is a great option for artists since they don’t need to provide their portfolios. In this case, your work will speak for you.
The ideal payouts for these contests may be between $1590, $300, and $1200. It may also be more dependent on the company and the type of design involved.
One of the drawbacks of these websites is the competition can be fierce and tough since you are directly competing with others.
4. Freelancing
Contests may not be for you what happens if after investing your all into a contest, you were not chosen as the winner?
Freelancing is a good way to make money with digital art. Apart from getting paid for your work, you will also enjoy the freedom of working from anywhere. You will also be able to choose who to work with and what to work on.
More and more people are embracing freelancing as a way to earn from digital art. There are different freelancing platforms that you can choose to provide your digital art service.
5. Sell Prints
In this digital age, selling prints online has never been easier. Let us assume an artist wants to sell his or her art, the challenges of shipping and delivery may discourage the person. However, this shouldn’t be your worry anymore.
There are series of websites that are focused on tasks like this. As an artist, you can just focus on providing the best without worrying about how to get them to your customers.
Apart from the fact that the sites are affordable, they are also hassle-free to use. The sites include Zazzle, DeviantArt, Redbubble, Etsy, and InPrnt.
6. Advertising
You can also make money with digital art by advertising your work. Ensure that your business website contains samples of your work. You can also advertise your work and products in local magazines and newspapers.
Also, you can use different ad services to advertise online. Tell your friends and loved ones about your business so that they can refer others to you. Another option is to approach local businesses to find out if they need your service.
7. Sell Merchandise With Your Art
Another strategy that you can use to make money with digital art is to sell other merchandise with your work. This can be done by using print-on-demand services. The service will be in charge of the printing, packaging, branding, and shipping of your artwork to customers.
You can achieve this aim by using print-on-demand services like Zazzle, Society6, and Printful. Some of the merchandise that you can sell include party decorations, wedding invitations, greeting cards for Thanksgiving, birthday, or Christmas, diaries, T-shirts, planners, towels, mugs, phone cases, pillowcases, kids’ clothes, and hoodies.
8. Sell Your Artwork on Creative Market
Creative Market is a platform that allows you to sell only digital art. The platform helps you target potential customers for your work.
You can sell lots of items on Creative Market. Some of them include Clip art, WordPress themes, stock photography business, and premade logos, templates, fonts, illustrations, branding kits, and lightroom presets.
The main issue with Creative Market is that it accepts only U.S. dollars. This may be a problem for businesses that are not registered in the U.S. The platform also charges a 40% commission on each of the sales.
SEE: Places to Sell Crafts Online
9. Sell Your Digital Art at Stock Image Websites
One of the simplest ways to make money with digital art is by selling your artwork as stock images. This is a great idea because your artwork will be working for you instead of gathering dust on your computer. You will receive a specific amount of money on each sale of the art pieces.
So if you have any artwork that you made in the past while practicing, you can upload them to stock image websites to reap the fruit of your labor.
In terms of financial gain, you may not rely fully on them to give you full-time income but they are good for supplementing your main source of income.
SEE: How to Make Money with Digital Art
10. Donations
This strategy can be used by those with an active YouTube channel. You can also use it if you stream on Twitch and offer useful content. The method works by requesting donations from your audience. If your audience is pleased with your content and finds them helpful, they will donate.
You can accept donations on YouTube through third-party platforms like PayPal. There is a built-in system that you can use to receive donations on Twitch.
Apart from YouTube and Twitch, you can also request donations on portfolio websites and social media platforms.
SEE: How to make money on YouTube
11. Sell Digital Art on Amazon Kindle
This is one of the most underrated methods of making money with digital art. Artists usually get commission work that is related to creating comics or designing an ebook cover. As an artist, you create those comics, accept the commission, and proceed to the next project.
However, you can think outside the box by self-publishing a comic series or children’s illustration book on Amazon via the Amazon self-publishing platform.
Although you can sell your comics on other platforms the competition on most of them is stiff because they are the main platforms for self-publishing comic books.
Self-publishing your work on Amazon gives you complete control over the content and price of your comic book. Your product will be available in both digital and hard copy formats. Amazon will handle everything and you will receive about 70% commission on each sale.
Click here to sign up on Amazon Kindle
12. Sell Vector Designs on eCommerce Websites
If you are adept at doing graphic designs, you can use eCommerce platforms like Sellfy to make money from vector designs.
On this site, you can sell lots of digital art like logo designs, illustrations, icon packs, character designs, and lots more. You can also sell music, knitting patterns, and ebooks on this platform.
Click here to sign up on Sellfy.
13. Sell Your Art on Instagram
You can also promote your digital artworks on Instagram. However, you need to have lots of followers to make enough sales.
To sell your artwork on Instagram, publish high-quality images of your work. You can get high-quality images by choosing a clean background while taking photographs of your work.
Also, use certain hashtags that best explain your work when posting the images on Instagram. Then write creative content that best describes your work. Ensure you post your work regularly.
SEE: How to grow your Instagram followers
How can you be successful as a digital artist?
To be successful as a digital artist, you need to market your website and art. You will not be able to sell many digital artworks if you don’t do proper marketing.
Doing business without marketing is like winking to a lady in the dark; only you know what you’re doing, no one does.
SEE: How to make money with 3D printing
How much can you make with digital art?
The salaries of digital artists in the United States are between $10,764 and $288,999. The median salary is $52,035. The middle 57 percent of digital artists earn between $52,036 and $10,763 while the top 86 percent earn $288,999.
FAQs
How much does digital art sell for?
The pricing for digital art can start from a few dollars to $50. The actual price depends on the quality of the artwork and how complex the project is. Premium prices are reserved for artworks (such as designs) that are exclusive to the customer. Some exclusive cover art designs cost at least $70.
Do digital artworks sell well?
Yes, they do. Digital art is competitive with physical art. It is commercially successful in some industries. It is a viable career that anyone can embark on. However, it is different from selling physical art.
How do you deliver digital artworks to customers?
Most digital artworks are emailed to the buyer and are then downloaded after making payment.
Conclusion
If you are a beginner or a professional artist, there are many ways through which you can make money with digital art. We have considered some of the easiest methods in this article.
Do not rely on only traditional methods of displaying your work for physical buying and selling. Most businesses are now digital.
I have explained several ways that you can use to make money from your craft as a digital artist.
If you are just starting, I recommend starting as a freelancer because you don’t need to spend a dime. The already-existing freelancing platforms, like Fiverr and Upwork, will also give you easy access to those that need your service.
You can also sell your digital artworks, such as prints, on sites like Etsy. Here’s an article that shows how you can make money on Etsy.
I hope you found this post helpful. Thanks for reading.
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