It’s that time again. You know, the time where I decide I want to make more money with my art. Let’s recap the monetizing art experiments to date.

Experiment 1: Redbubble

Almost two years ago, I started a store on Redbubble, which was a rousing success. I’ve sold a ton of crap on there, over 300 tons of crap to be exact. Alright, so not 300 tons, but I’ve sold over 300 things. Woo! That’s an average of 12.5 sales per month if you’re counting.

2015 has been my best year yet. In order to get paid on Redbubble, you need to make over $20 in profits, and so far this year, I’ve gotten paid every single month. I’ve broken my record sales number twice this year alone; the new record stands at $72.35. While that’s awesome and certainly glee-worthy, it isn’t even close to quitting my day job kind of money.

Even with all those sales, in two years total, I still haven’t made enough to cover rent for even one month. So, maybe it wasn’t a monetarily successful venture, but it certainly proved to me that people want to buy my little critters on things, namely t-shirts and stickers, my best-selling products.

Experiment 2: Etsy

Because my slice of the profits at Redbubble is so very small, I decided to open an Etsy shop, where I get to keep almost all of the profits.

Unfortunately, because I’m poor (and cheap), I didn’t make that many sales. I was only selling signed prints on there, while my best-selling products are t-shirts and stickers.

I haven’t closed it down entirely, but all of my listings have expired. I’m letting it lay fallow until such time as I can invest in t-shirt and sticker blanks to reopen it. Maybe someday, I’ll be able to afford to print my own t-shirts and stickers. It costs money to make money on Etsy, and I just don’t have the money to spend.

So, then, what can I do to earn more moneys?

Experiment 3: Boom Boom and Society 6

I was going about my business the other day when I got this email:

I’ve been recruited. Woo! With a blanket email! Oh. Well, it never hurts to look. I’ve never even heard of Boom Boom Prints.

I did some digging and it turns out they’re a new print on demand service that’s very similar to Redbubble, except that they cater primarily to children and parents. No wonder I’ve never heard of it. They sell a lot of similar products to Redbubble (prints, tees, cards), but they also sell some things that Redbubble doesn’t, e.g. baby bibs and maternity clothes.

Since most of my art is very much geared towards children (the irony that most of my art is kid-friendly while I generally dislike children is not lost on me), I figured, why not. It’s not like Redbubble and I ever discussed being exclusive. A broader audience is never a bad thing, right?

So, I uploaded a few of my best sellers to Boom Boom, just to see how they would do.

And while I was at it, I did some digging into other print on demand services and found Society 6, yet another company that’s similar to Redbubble, but this one seems to be slightly edgier. From what I can gather, they cater more to the bearded/tattooed/hipster crowd, i.e. they don’t even sell kid’s clothes.

Society 6 also sells products that are similar and different from Redbubble, e.g. clocks, bigger coffee cups (hallelujah!), shower curtains, etc.

So, in the course of a week, I’ve opened two more online shops. In my sidebar, you can find little bubble icons I made for these guys:

I haven’t added all my drawings to either Boom Boom or Society 6 yet for two reasons. First, Redbubble will still be my main shop that holds everything. Kid-friendly stuff will go up on Boom Boom and more adult stuff will go on Society 6.

Second, both Society 6 and Boom Boom have precise measurements for all their uploads, and of course, they’re not the same as each other or what I’ve already created for Redbubble, so I have to create new images for every single item in both new shops. It’s slow going.

Before this, I thought Redbubble’s upload was terrible. Ha! Redbubble is cake in comparison to the other two. I have over 100 listings on Redbubble, so it’s going to take a while.

If you want a product from Boom Boom or Society 6, and I haven’t added the art over there yet, let me know and I’ll put it up. Fingers crossed that more print on demand services = more profit.  Happy shopping!

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Do you have any experience with print on demand services, Society 6 or Boom Boom?