You’re a passionate digital artist wondering how you can monetize your work? Then you are in the right place! These 6 hands-on tips show you how to sell digital art online and make money. Selling digital art on the web is quite profitable, if you know how to go about it. In this post, I give you some ideas of the best digital products to sell and the best platforms to sell digital art on. And the best thing: you can even sell digital art for free by making it available as NFT. Sounds good? Let’s get into it!
You’re a passionate digital artist and now you want to turn your passion into profit? That’s a great idea, definitely. But if you come from a purely creative background, I know that it can be daunting to start selling your digital art online.
You don’t know where to start. Without any experience in selling your art, you might struggle with questions like, where can I sell my digital art? What is the best platform to sell digital art on? Is it even profitable to sell digital art online?
Don’t worry. Selling art online is never easy for beginners. That’s why I’m here. I’ve been into digital art for more than a decade. I’ve been selling my digital art and I know what works and what doesn’t.
My goal with this article is to provide you with a hands-on guide on how to sell digital art online and make money— even if you don’t have any experience in art sales!
I’m going to give you some ideas about what digital art products to sell, where you can sell them, how you can sell your digital art on Etsy and as an NFT.
Sounds good? Ok, let’s get into it:
Is selling digital art online profitable?
When artists ask me whether selling digital art online is profitable, I usually tell them that there are two things to consider in order to make it profitable.
First of all, it’s important to identify your target market as an artist. You must know your audience if you want to be successful. There’s no way around it.
You must know who is interested in buying your art prints and the other products you want to offer. You must understand your customers—what they need, want and like.
Then, you must also market your art. Yes, I know what you’re thinking! You’re a creative, not a marketer. But believe, without doing any online marketing for your art, you won’t be able to make sales.
Oftentimes, marketing is still associated with that sleazy reputation of trying to sell something to people that they don’t need. But that’s not what marketing your art is about.
Marketing means creating exposure for your artwork. You want to get eyeballs on your art. That means you’ll need to get the word out about it—you’ll need to show it to the world. Because, if no one sees your art, no one can buy it!
The second mistake that I often see beginners make when it comes to selling digital art online is undervaluing their work.
The digital art niche is becoming increasingly competitive—especially with all those AI-generated images flooding the market and being labeled as “digital art.”
It only takes a couple of seconds to churn out artificial images in masses—and people sell them in cheap bundles for a song. However, that business strategy won’t work in the long term, and it will surely not help you make selling digital art profitable.
If you want to make money online with digital art, you’ll first of all need to know the true value of your art. How much time and work goes into your creations? How much time did you spend on learning the ins and outs of your digital art software?
How do you want to position yourself on the market? Are you the passionate digital artist that puts a lot of thought in their work and creates everything from scratch? Or are you the AI-generating genius that types in a couple of prompts and mass-produces soulless images everyone can make?
I think the choice is easy. Don’t compete with low-cost and low-grade mass-products, but rather focus on creating meaningful art that reflects your own personality and unique art style.
Underpricing your artwork in the hopes of attracting more sales will only harm your artistic career in the long run. It also damages the overall perception of art in general and the value of digital art in particular.
Make sure to respect the time you put into creating your art and respect the money your buyers spend for a piece of yours. That’s the best thing you can do for everyone involved!
Are you worried about your creative future with all the machine-made imagery swallowing up the market?
My best tip on how to make money online with digital art
Last but not least, the best tip I can give you to make money online with digital art is to stay true to yourself—at all times.
Create the art that you love and that you think others will love. Don’t look at other artists that are successful in your eyes and try to imitate what works for them. Just because a product sells well for another artist doesn’t mean that it will do for you as well.
In my opinion, the best you can do is creating art in your unique style. Even if, at the beginning, no one takes notice of your work and you might be tempted to think that no one likes your art—stay true to yourself and continue what you love doing.
At the end of the day, that’s the fastest and most sustainable track to success!
That being said, here are some ideas of digital art products to sell:
- Art prints, including canvas prints, acrylic prints, poster prints, wood prints, etc.
- Digital art commissions
- Print-on-demand products like stationery, phone cases, greeting cards, etc.
- Digital art downloads, such as phone and tablet wallpaper, licensed files, etc.
- Digital art printables that people can print out themselves
- Digital art resources, such as Photoshop files, actions, layer styles, presets, brushes, etc.
- Fonts, patterns, icons, logos, etc.
- NFT art
- Mock-ups for wall art, e-books, etc.
- Home décor, such as wall art, clocks, cutting boards, etc.
- Merchandise, such as T-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts, tote bags, stickers, etc.
- Stock images
What is the best platform to sell digital art on?
Before we delve into the best ways to sell digital art online and make money, you must know that the absolutely best platform to sell digital art on will always be your own website.
Even though selling digital art on third-party platforms can be profitable, only your own website will give you full control over what you sell and how you sell it—and will allow you to keep the entire profit!
There’s a range of easy-to-use website builders for artists to help you create a website. If you also want to start an art blog and enjoy the highest creative freedom, you might want to consider making an artist website with WordPress.
That being said, here are 6 hands-on strategies for you to sell your digital art online and make money. Let’s go!
6 Proven ways to sell digital art online and make money
1. Sell digital art prints
The first thing you can do to make money with your digital art online is selling prints. To get your digital art ready for printing, it’s important to save it in an appropriate file format for printing and learn about the different photographic papers available for art prints.
The most common papers are matte and glossy. If you want to deliver such prints to customers in different countries, you can use drop-shipping services like Printful or Printify. Those companies offer worldwide shipping and will take care of everything—from manufacturing, to packaging, to shipping. You just need to place the order.
The best-quality prints that sell at the highest prices are Giclee prints. For Giclee prints, I recommend using a specialized printing company like Giclee Today, The Stackhouse or the Prints Giclee Shop.
Learn more: → Fine Art Explained: What Is Giclee Printing And Where To Get It?
Don’t forget to offer your digital art on a variety of print sizes—this will allow you to cater to different tastes and sell more of your digital art in the long run! For more sales hacks, find out about the best size for art prints that sells the most!
In my Web Store, I offer different printing types and sizes for people to choose from. In the above image, you see an example of a framed art print of ‘Smudged‘ from my Lip Service Collection.
2. Offer digital art commissions
Another popular way for artists to make money online is through offering commissions. Commissions are artworks you create specifically for other people. For example, you can create surreal portraits of other people in Photoshop based on a photo they send you. You can as well create digital paintings or 3D characters.
These are just some examples out of many other possibilities. Ultimately, the type of digital art commissions you offer always depends on your style of art and your creative skillset.
As commissioned artwork is pretty high in demand, this is also a fantastic way of selling art online for beginners. You don’t need a huge following before you can start offering commissions. Uploading a few samples of your work to platforms like DeviantArt, Behance and ArtStation and then mentioning your services is a great way to get started.
Etsy is another place to sell digital art commissions. For a greater choice, check out the TOP 7 Places To Sell Digital Art Commissions.
3. Create digital art downloads & printables
Downloads and printables are another way to monetize your digital art. And, it’s even one most of the convenient ways, because you’ll only need to create a downloadable or printable file once and then you can sell it as many times as you wish!
There are many different types of downloads and printables to offer. Some examples of downloads include phone and tablet wallpapers, graphics, fonts, brushes, Photoshop resources, Lightroom presets, and templates.
As for printables, you can offer printable artist quotes, art prints that people can print out themselves, birthday and wedding invitations, stickers, calendars and planners. These are just a few examples.
For more ideas, download your free eGuide to the 60+ Best Selling Printables in the Freebie Library.
- FREE eGuide to the 60+ Best Selling Printables
What are the best places to sell digital art downloads and printables?
Well, first of all, Etsy is a great platform where both downloads and printables sell well.
Apart from that, there are some other huge online marketplaces for various types of digital assets. Things like graphics, templates, fonts, patterns and brushes sell especially well on these platforms:
For more options, check out the 13 Best Places To Sell Digital Downloads and the TOP 8 Platforms To Sell Digital Printables.
Phone and tablet wallpapers as instant download are popular items in my Web Store. These are some high-resolution wallpapers of ‘Carnivore‘ from my Lip Service Collection.
4. Offer your digital art on print-on-demand
Print-on-demand platforms offer you the opportunity to sell your artwork on a variety of different items. This does not just include fine art and canvas prints, but also merch like t-shirts, mugs, tote bags, phone cases, stationery products, and many more.
Offering your digital art on PoD products is super-easy. All you need to do is upload your artwork and select the products you want to sell it on. Once a customer buys an item, the PoD company takes care of production, packaging, and delivery. You don’t need to do anything in the process!
Popular print-on-demand platforms that specialize in art-related products are Society6, RedBubble, and Fine Art America.
Other PoD providers, with a wider range of products, that many artists use include:
5. Sell digital art on Etsy
I’ve already mentioned Etsy a couple of times in this post. In fact, Etsy is probably the best placed for selling all things art. Unique, hand-crafted items are particularly popular, including original digital artwork.
As opposed to PoD platforms, you as the seller are responsible for everything on Etsy—including packaging and shipping of physical products. However, when it comes to selling digital art on Etsy, things are way easier, because digital products are obviously delivered digitally.
That means selling digital art on Etsy is a pretty straightforward process that doesn’t require much involvement on your side. Seller fees are very affordable on Etsy as well. Currently, there a $0.20 listing fee for each item you offer for sale, plus a 5% sales fee when someone buys your product.
Some more good news: Etsy also allows you to integrate print-on-demand providers like Printful and Printify that will automatically take care of order fulfillment once someone buys your digital art product on Etsy!
6. Sell your digital art as NFT
My last tip for you on how to sell digital art online and make money is NFT art. NFTs are a form of crypto art and the latest hype.
NFT stands for Non Fungible Token and describes a non-replaceable, one-of-a-kind asset on the blockchain. You can “mint” single pieces or an entire collection of your artworks as NFTs.
For example, I’m currently offering all pieces of my BL∆CK NIGHT lip art collection as hand-signed and numbered NFTs on OpenSea.
I’m currently offering my BL∆CK NIGHT Collection as NFTs on OpenSea.
NFTs are one of the few ways to sell digital art online free—at least on OpenSea! OpenSea currently offers you the possibility to mint your artwork for free, without paying any gas fees. If you want to learn how to do it, here’s a step-by-step tutorial on how to mint an NFT for free on OpenSea.
That being said, here are some more cryptoart platforms where you can sell your digital art as NFT:
