The Long and Winding Road towards Online Art Sales

It’s been two weeks since my last post but I haven’t been slacking off.

I’ve been learning more about Printful. I now have 33 active listings in my Etsy shop.

I am slowly replacing the prints that I have had pre-printed (by CatPrint – they do a great job) for stretched canvas prints from Printful. This allows me to avoid the hassle, stress and storage involved in packaging and mailing since Printful does it all. Another advantage of Printful is the nice mock-up photos they provide. (By the way, I am not earning anything by promoting them).

I have sold some CatPrint prints at galleries so I may continue to do that but only if the sales pick up as they are just dribbling in at present.

As of today, I have had TWO sales on Etsy! Both are from friends who saw my sample tote bags but it’s a start. Through the process, I discovered that 1) the Printful/Etsy integration works very smoothly and 2) my prices were too low. I earned a whopping $1.40 on the first tote bag (and that is without calculating Printful’s monthly membership fee into the mix).

I also started Pinterest posts in earnest this week. I am shooting for 3 per day (weekdays only). My take-away so far? It is exhausting and slow going.

Supposedly it is possible (in theory anyway) to create all your weekly posts in a day and schedule them. At the rate I’m going, this would take me a minimum of 5 hours. There are multiple online scheduling apps willing to offer you a free sampling but to post as many a day as recommended (3-5), they charge a monthly fee.

As I am heading into a period (five months) of very limited income, adding more monthly fees is not happening unless or until I get a part-time job.

Canva offers free templates that I have been using and they make my posts look professional, I think. But the only reason I can keep up with the 3 posts a day is because I don’t have much else going on right now. My goal is to get quicker at it and/or find a way to schedule posts.

Finally, after all this effort and energy I’ve been pouring into learning about online marketing, I met with a fellow artist this week who gave me some insight from the world of in-person sales. She has both an Etsy shop and sells regularly at fairs and other in-person venues.

She said that during the pandemic, online sales boomed but now, people save up their “play money” to spend in-person.

It makes sense but I’m still hopeful my shop can prosper.

She encouraged me to look for more in-person opportunities and I have applied to be on a waiting list for the local Holiday market. This is a huge leap of faith since I have nothing to set up a space with (although my friend offered to help) and I would need to pre-order (remember, limited income) product when I have no idea what will sell. But – gulp – no risk, no gain.

Community with other artists is so important. My friend gave me more great advice and encouragement and.... (drum roll)....has agreed to be a guest writer on this blog sometime soon.

Let me know in the comments what you’d like her to talk about. She's been a full-time artist since 2019, is a writer and all-around creative and interesting human being. You'll love her!