How do digital artists make money? 5 ways to make money through your digital art.
Seeing around the trend of digital art would have put you in doubt: do these artists earn? If they make, then how much? Your questions have logic. Doing something with much dedication without anything in return may sound dumb. Many traditional artists are shifting towards digital art because of its scope, various resources, and more.
Taking your hobby with your profession or studies is challenging. What if your hobby becomes your side hustle and pays your bills? You will accept the challenge and start balancing everything. In today’s blog, we will discuss creating your hobby of digital art into your income source.
5 ways to make money through digital art
The digital universe is large and unpredictable. You can find leads to earn in numerous forms. Let’s discuss the five most accessible ways through which digital artists make money?
- Sell Art prints
When I mention art prints, it directly means the copy of your digital art. You can choose your most appreciated or best artwork. Print the art in png or jpg format on paper, frame it, and publish it for sale. It’s okay even if you sell unframed.
If you have your website, it is way better for you to control and face less or no competition. If you don’t have a website, no worries, there are numerous sites online where you can sell your art prints in a few easy steps. The benefits of selling your art prints are:-
- They provide an alternative to the original artwork. Therefore it’s affordable and easy to seek
- You can offer the same artwork in Various types, sizes, and materials.
Art prints help you to widen your audience and reach out to the global market while making money at the same time. Before you directly jump to publish your artwork for sale, ensure you are ready with essential resources like a printer, HD pictures of artwork to print, payment method, and shipping process.
- Sell Artwork digitally
If you want a passive income source, you can look over stock websites to make a penny with your artwork—people buy images and pictures from stock websites to use in their businesses, blogs, advertisements, etc. And we know that demand for visual graphics is at a peak in marketing.
The work procedure of these sites is simple to understand. You have to upload your image or the artwork website to sell, and when an individual buys your idea, you get a fixed percentage of profit from the final amount. There is nothing complex in this; the website handles everything.
Sounds simple, right? But it isn’t. You can’t upload any random artwork for sale—every stock website has specific criteria for images. Furthermore, if you want to make more money from your artwork and are willing to invest in it, you can sell your digital art as NFT, a new trend in current times. You can learn more about NFT art from our recent blog.
- Start YouTube channel
Creating YouTube content may feel complicated, but it generates income in fair numbers and builds your brand in your niche simultaneously. YouTube is a slow process. You should keep patience and concentration and work hard to get the expected results.
YouTube is preferable if you are not interested in shipping, packing, or generating small income. If you are serious about earning money through digital art and investing your time and money, you can start with this. Here are quick tips to start your YouTube channel:-
- Choose your videography type.
Make sure what you want to do. There are numerous types of videos you can create on the topic of digital art. You can make tutorial videos as people love visual classes, you can make time-lapse videos of you completing the art, or you can make vlogs on your digital art journey and more. Make sure you post regularly (2 -3 videos a week)and focus on your niche.
- Invest in camera and videography
Video quality plays a vital role in gaining an audience for your YouTube channel. No one likes to spend time watching low-quality videos. You can use a phone, DSLR, or any other kind of Camera for shooting. Choose a peaceful place and be ready with your script.
And always make sure that your script is in a conversational tone, or you can say it like you are talking to your friend. Use your voice, the right keywords, and the description to interact better.
- Teach your skill online
Online courses are an easy spot to build a skill. And if you already have one, you can use the same site to generate money. Covid brought a big revolution and change in online courses. And nowadays, these courses aren’t limited to only students; many entrepreneurs and businesses use them to improve their products and boost brand awareness.
With the idea of online courses, there comes a lot more work to implement smoothly—preparation of content, filming, marketing, etc.
Make sure the topic you start has good demand and is already in trend.
The more helpful it gets, the better students you attract. Work on your marketing and course awareness, use the right keywords, talk about your course on social media sites, and more. You can also sell eBooks online, which is just a one-time investment, easy.
- Get digital art commission work
Social media sites and freelance sites give you numerous opportunities to get commission work. What is commission work? A commission job is similar to a freelance career. You use your skill to provide demanded artwork to the client at a fixed price.
The clients could be anyone, friends, followers, or business owners. You may get a long-term contract from businesses too. Furthermore, you can also print your artwork on physical objects like a mug, t-shirt, phone case, etc., and sell them. As you can customize it as per clients, you will attract better customers.
From where can I get digital art commission clients?
There is no straightforward answer to it. You can get clients from social media, freelance websites, cold outreach, etc. But what stays the same in all is:-
- Self Marketing
Building your brand is essential to get a reputation and build trust among your audience. Look for a unique name, and make Instagram and Facebook pages on that name. Social media sites help a lot in marketing and are convenient too.
To start with marketing, you need to post your best artwork and try to make content related to current affairs on social media pages. This will make your content engaging and let people know about your artwork and skill. Stay regular and interactive with your audience to build a fair number of followers. Once you have a humble audience, you can open up to get custom orders and get yourself counted in digital artists who really make money.
- And the amount you charge.
How much should I charge for my digital art? Well, this is the first question every beginner gets in mind. Valuation of self is quite a difficult task; you can always look forward to your other competitors and check how much they get paid. You can further negotiate the same, as per your skills and experiences. Many artists charge based on time or, you can say, per hour.
Before accepting your clients, ensure you have the correct payment method, and the client will genuinely pay you. You can ask for a little percentage of advance for surety and be aware of cheaters.
Bottom line
Digital art is a technical and artistic skill whose demand and competition increase timeously. However, the way you present your artwork matters more and get yourself counted in digital artists who really make money. Having skills isn’t enough to get attention and money. Look for the right platform as per your skills to reach out to more people and businesses.
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