Many digital artists shy away from pursuing their dream because they still have the myth of the starving artist in their heads. They don’t believe it’s possible to make money as a digital artist. But the truth is a lot of digital artists get paid well and really make good money selling digital art. In this post, I show you 7 sales hacks you shouldn’t miss out on if you want to learn how to make money with digital art!
In today’s world, there are so many ways to make money with digital art that the days of the ‘starving artist’ are long gone. Thanks to the internet, anyone can make money with art skills – but there are also possibilities to make money as an artist offline, in case you prefer the ‘real world’ and some person-to-person contact.
So, whether you are an illustrator, designer, comic artist, photographer or any other type of digital artist looking to showcase and sell your art, hold on tight!
In this post, I’ll show you 7 sales hacks to make money with digital art (and to get paid well)!
You can use the table of contents below to fast-forward to the points that interest you the most. Or, you can read on to learn everything about selling digital art – from creating digital files, licensing your art to finding the best selling platforms.
- Here we go!
Can you make money selling digital art?
You can make money selling digital art and I’ve already wrote multiple posts on how digital (& other) artists can make money with what they do.
To give you a quick round-up, I showed you that there is a market for digital art and how to start a digital art business (including a FREE Digital Art Business Startup Checklist that you can download in the Freebie Library). And, you can even learn how to sell digital art on Pinterest!
So, if any of that sounds interesting to you, feel free to click through once you finish reading this post! ʕᴖᴥᴖʔ
- Grab your FREE Art Business Startup Checklist
One thing that is always important when it comes to selling digital art is proper licensing. Here’s why:
A digital art license agreement describes for what purposes the buyer may use the purchased file. Can they use it for commercial purposes (e.g. to resell it, create print-on-demand products, etc.)?
Or can they use it for personal purposes only (e.g. display it as a wallpaper on their computer or create a print for themselves)?
There is a plethora of different image license types available, for the most different purposes, so it is crucial to be clear about what usage permissions you are granting the buyer.
Moreover, the license agreement also makes sure that your customer knows that you, as the artist, retain the full copyright ownership of your work. After all, you want to protect your art and don’t want anyone else to claim it as their own – even out of ignorance!
If you are not sure how to write such an agreement, I have two Royalty-free license agreement templates in the Freebie Library that you can download free and adapt to your personal needs!
How much money can you make as a digital artist?
Some digital artists make five or six figures annually from selling digital products alone. But even if you ‘only’ make $300 a month from digital products, it’s a great side hustle.
After all, it’s one of the easiest things to do for digital artists. And, as long as you have a big enough audience who loves your art, your chances of earning some money are pretty good.
Selling physical products, on the other hand, is way more time-consuming and high-maintenance. Why? Because you have to package and ship every single order that comes in.
Moreover, the work you have to put in scales up linearly with your success, meaning the more successful you are as an artist, the more orders you will have to package and ship every day!
Eventually, you will have less and less time for creating art. This doesn’t happen when you are selling digital art. You only need to create a digital product once and then you can sell as many copies of it for as much time as you wish. It’s pretty much self-sustaining.
Of course, your digital art business will never run a hundred percent on full autopilot. But apart from the occasional customer service email, selling digital art is much more sustainable over a long period of time than selling physical items.
Where can you sell digital art?
To sell your art online, you will either need to build your own artist website or register on some eCommerce store or online marketplace. Here are some options:
Digital Art Sales Place #1: e-Commerce Stores
eCommerce stores make it easy for artists to sell their products and services. You can sell anything: physical prints, digital downloads, printables, subscriptions, mentorships, and even print-on-demand merch.
Sellfy, for example, is an easy-to-use eCommerce site that already has a huge community of artists and other creators who have built a successful online business on the platform. Sellfy provides beautiful ready-made store templates that you only need to fill in with your own content.
You will get sales and marketing tools, analytics to track traffic and performance, and even an included print-on-demand service. If that sounds good to you, you can start a free 14-day Sellfy trial here.
Gumroad is another popular sales platform for creatives of all types. Just like on Sellfy, you can sell digital and physical products, print-on-demand and services. Gumroad gives you super-useful ‘Buy Now’ buttons to directly sell via social media or promotional emails.
It is one of the most affordable eCommerce stores. The basic plan is completely free, but even the Pro plan only costs US$10 per month. To see if you like it, you can get started with Gumroad free here!
Digital Art Sales Place #2: Your Artist Website
There are lots of reasons why you should consider making a website for your art, and being able to make money with digital art through your own online store is one of them!
There are multiple platforms that offer you the possibility to build a website with shop features.
Squarespace is a popular choice among visual creatives because it has some of the most appealing templates. You don’t need any coding skills to make your own website and shop on the platform. Squarespace comes with an easy drag-and-drop editor, meaning you simply choose the design element you need and drag it on the page.
It has all ecommerce features you possibly need to start selling on a professional level. What’s more, Squarespace takes care of the digital file distribution for you. So why not try Squarespace free now?
Wix is another favorite of many creatives who have their portfolio and online shop hosted on the platform. Wix provides hundreds of pre-designed templates that are easy to customize and highly flexible. The site offers some of the most budget-friendly ecommerce plans that you can check out by starting a free Wix trial here.
Shopify is something you have surely heard about. It is one of the most powerful sales platforms in the market, but it’s not the cheapest. However, if you already have a large customer base in place, you might want to consider starting a free Shopify trial here.
For a greater overview, check out the best website builders to make a website for digital art.
Last but not least, if you are willing to invest a bit more time and work, you can make an artist website with WordPress where you can sell your digital art via WooCommerce. For more details, read the ultimate guide to selling art on WordPress.
Digital Art Sales Place #3: Online Marketplaces
When it comes to online marketplaces, then we have to talk about Etsy.
Etsy is the biggest sales platform for all things art. Really, there is a market for everything. You can sell all types of physical artwork – originals, prints, wall art, handcrafted items, jewelry, clothing, accessories, you name it. But you can also make money with digital art of all kind. Digital downloads, printables, e-books, graphics, fonts, presets, templates, … The sky is the limit!
All the same, selling on Etsy is very affordable, and therefore a good option for beginners to get started. Creating an account on Etsy is completely free, and sales and transaction fees are much lower than on comparable sites.
Conveniently, Etsy provides one of the easiest ways to make money as a digital artist. All you need to do is upload the digital product to the platform, and once a customer buys it, Etsy will deliver it for you! You don’t need to get involved in the process at all. If you want to go all in on Etsy, I recommend checking out the best selling digital art on Etsy.
Other online marketplaces that also specialize in digital downloads are Creative Market, Creative Fabrica and DesignCuts. All of those three platforms have wide product ranges, including illustrations, graphics, photos, fonts, templates, mockups, and on Creative Fabrica you can even upload art classes!
7 Sales hacks to make money with digital art (& get paid well!)
SALES HACK #1: Printable wall art
Since the global home décor market is steadily growing by almost 20% a year, offering printable wall art is definitely a sales hack worth considering!
As a digital artist, you already have your artwork in a digital file. That means you don’t need to buy any light bulbs, scanner or camera in order to photograph or scan it first, as opposed to traditional media. All you need to do is save your work as a high-resolution file adequate for printing.
To make sure the print is sharp and the colors true to the image your customers see on the screen, you should save your art at a minimum of 300 dpi as TIFF, JPG or Adobe PDF. More in the best file format for printing digital art.
Once someone purchases your artwork, they will receive the digital file and can print it out themselves. The buyer can choose the paper they want to print it on and their preferred printing provider, be it a local print shop or an online printing service.
SALES HACK #2: Other digital printables
Apart from selling printable wall art, you can create so many more resources for people to print out themselves. Digital printables are extremely popular. People love to get custom-made calendars, project planners, diet, meal & fitness planners, checklists, worksheets, etc. that are not available in every shop around the corner.
Other best selling printables include stickers, coloring pages, diary & notebook templates, and other stationery. For a more comprehensive list, download the FREE eGuide to the Best Selling Printables in the Freebie Library.
You can even make special printables for fellow creatives. For example, I discovered that daily affirmations are a great way for artists to spark creativity and build creative confidence. So I’ve put together a set of printable cards with positive affirmations for artists that I have made great experiences with myself.
What I also find incredibly helpful to uplift your spirits when you are in a creative low are quotes by other artists. To help you keep going all year long, I’ve designed two sets of 365 printable cards with inspirational artist quotes that have become one of my best-sellers!
This just goes to show that what works for you may also work for others. So, if you have found something that helps you, why not share it?
- Grab Your FREE Best Selling Printables eGuide
Free Download: Your eGuide with the Best Selling Printables –
SALES HACK #3: Digital downloads
Digital downloads are similar to printables, but they are not necessarily intended to be printed out. If you will, you can think of digital downloads as artwork that is rather meant to be displayed on some device, instead of printed physically.
Some examples of digital downloads include photos, logos, graphics, and infographics. But there is also a demand for digital artwork.
In fact, a lot of people love to have a piece of their favorite artist on their mobile device. I made some of my works available as phone & tablet wallpapers. But you can also offer desktop wallpapers or images for digital picture frames.
Furthermore, digital downloads can also be educational materials like eBooks or eGuides where you write up your tips or personal process you use to create your art. Basically like a downloadable tutorial.
In addition to the sales platforms I mentioned above, you can find more places to sell digital downloads here.
SALES HACK #4: Digital art resources
Digital art resources are all things that artists may use to create or display art. Brush presets, for example, are a classic in the digital art space. Making your favorite brushes that you have designed yourself available to other digital artists is very low-effort for you. But for other creatives it can be a really great resource they benefit from a lot.
Other resources include Photoshop actions and styles (some of which you can also find in the Freebie Library), PSD files that artists can use to create new artwork (such as my Glass Jars), stock photos, etc. But creatives might also need fonts, clipart and other design elements for their artwork.
Some very important resources to display art are mock-ups. Generally speaking, mock-ups are templates that help potential buyers understand what the actual product will look like.
A mock-up for wall art, for example, will show the buyer what the print will look like when hung up on a wall. Likewise, there are mock-ups for greeting cards, notebooks, planners, phone and tablet wallpapers, …
SALES HACK #5: NFT art
You’ve surely heard about Beeple’s NFT artwork ‘Everydays’ that sold for over US$69 million. Or, Pak’s ‘The Merge‘ that auctioned off for almost US$100 million. No doubt that NFT art has become a lucrative way to make money with digital art.
NFTs (non-fungible tokens) emerged shortly after crytocurrencies had been introduced. The Statista Research Department found that NFTs experienced a huge boom in 2021 with a total sales value of a staggering US$11.16 billion. After that, NFT art turned out to be one of the hottest digital art trends of 2022 – and it’s still on the rise.
So, if NFT art is something that interests you, you can find the best apps to create NFT art here!
…and did you know? You can even create your NFT without paying any money. Learn how to mint an NFT for free on OpenSea (*Step-By-Step Tutorial*).
SALES HACK #6: Digital art commissions
Offering digital art commissions is a common way to make money with art skills – and build your portfolio. Taking on commission work means you create a piece of art specifically for someone else, based on their preferences.
How much you can charge for art commissions depends on the difficulty of the particular project, how long it takes you to complete, and the required level of skill. Usually, it’s better to charge a fixed price, instead of an hourly rate.
To avoid scams and tricksters, you should always ask for advance payment – even if it isn’t full payment. If someone refuses to pay you in advance, don’t accept the commission. Many artists have made bad experiences with people who said they would pay once the project is completed, but then they weren’t heard from ever again…
You can promote your digital art commissions on your social media profiles, but you can also offer them on Etsy or any of the other top places to sell digital art commissions!
SALES HACK #7: Digital art courses
Teaching is perhaps not the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about how to make money as a digital artist. But have you ever considered sharing your skills with budding artists who are keen to learn from you?
Whether you have taught yourself digital art or had some formal training, I’m sure you’ve gained lots of knowledge and experience that can be extremely valuable to newcomers.
You know how hard and tedious it is to get to grips with a software like Photoshop, how to get familiar with the many brushes, styles, adjustment layers, etc. This is something you can help newbies with. But you can also educate about the essential tools you need to get started with digital art, which drawing tablet to choose and how to use it. There are plenty of things a digital artist needs to master their craft.
Now to the sales hack: you can create a membership section on your website where you offer your digital art courses. That’s one option. Another option is to sell your courses as ‘downloadable products’ on sites like Sellfy, Podia and Gumroad.
However, as you certainly know, there are also special e-learning platforms where you can upload your course to a huge community of learners.
Skillshare is a popular learning platform that many creatives use to enhance their skillset. There’s a demand for all types of art, so you can be sure to find students for your course. What’s more, Skillshare is one of the few sites that let you sign up as an instructor for free! Other platforms worth checking out are Udemy and Teachable.
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Your tips on creating a strong art portfolio were incredibly valuable. I particularly liked your advice on curating work to showcase both range and consistency. This is exactly what I needed to hear as I prepare my own portfolio.
Hi Daniel, I wish you all the best for building a strong art portfolio. Commissions are indeed a good way to expand your portfolio fast and get paid for what you do! ʕᴖᴥᴖʔ