Print on Demand - The Good, the bad and the Ugly
As a digital artist in 2022 there are various ways to make a multi-hyphen income. With passive income being the new buzzword it’s hard to avoid, and who doesn’t want to make money passively?
Print on demand companies allow you to upload your work and sell it, without the hassle of printing, storing and delivering it. For all this, you loose out on some of the profit. Sounds great, however, that percentage can become an issue if you’re looking to make a living from selling your artwork.
In my time selling artwork online I’ve had some bad and good experiences with Print on Demand, so I thought I’d share them with you
Society6
This is quite a well known brand which is immediately reassuring. In terms of pros you know there will be a lot of traffic, and if your artwork proves popular that could mean a lot of sales. However, the percentage of earnings is so small, how much will you really make? At 10% being the average cut, the answer is literally pennies. I’ve sold 62 items with them, and made about $62. For me, this really isn’t worth my time, so I’ve stopped uploading new work to the site. One thing I will say is you can edit the percentage you receive on prints, however, this will affect the price at sale.
IamFY!
This site is another well known and well presented brand. At 20% percent profit, there cut is similar to red bubble. However, for me this is not high enough for the intellectual property I’m selling. To make matters worse IamfY doesn’t share their sales with you, so how can you really be sure of what you’re making?
Artfullywalls
I was invited to this site, which I think is a good sign. Artfully, give more attention to quality art. Not everything you submit will be accepted. However, this is fine as you can still make a profit. The amount I make is not enough to live on, but it’s a comforting amount. The company takes about 20-30%. Again it’s not great, but compared to its competitors it’s a lot fairer.
Etsy and a giclée printer
For those wondering ‘what’s the answer then?’, my solution is to find your own poster printer, and get them to dropship your work. What this means is that you don’t print the work, nor do you store it, you simply fill out the order form. Working in this way I’ve made 40% profit. It’s not perfect (the perfect solution will be to one day buy a printer) but it’s a lot better.