How To Sell Digital Art Online And Make Money

Not for nothing is there the cliché of the starving artist. Historically, making a living from art has been next to impossible for all but the very best and most fortunate artists in the world.

It’s not necessarily much easier nowadays to make a full time living from art, but making some money from your artwork is another matter entirely. The internet has made it possible for almost anyone to turn their passion into extra money each month - so for those with artistic flair, it can be one of the best side hustles out there.

In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know about monetising your digital artwork, including how to get started, the best platforms to sell through, and useful tips and tricks to maximise your sales.

Art As A Side Hustle

There are some obvious benefits of turning your artwork into a side hustle. If you’re a hobbyist, you were going to be creating art anyway - so why not make some money from it for very little extra effort? Side hustles may be booming in popularity - 43% of Brits are making extra money from a side hustle, and as many as two thirds of Generation Z - but a relatively small percentage of those people are making their extra money from something they actively enjoy.

Source: Finder’s Side Hustle Statistics 2024

On the other hand, nothing sucks the joy from a hobby faster than having to do it. Turning your art into a business means tailoring your creations to the market, rather than simply creating what you love - and frankly, endless pet portraits get old pretty quickly.

Still, if you’re confident that your passion can withstand the rigours of business, art can be an incredibly rewarding and profitable side hustle.

Physical vs Digital Art

Selling physical art is perhaps the more ‘traditional’ method of making an income from art - it was, after all, the only form of art that existed for thousands of years. To some artists, it may also feel more legitimate - and there’s no denying the satisfaction that comes from making a beautiful physical object.

However, digital art is no less legitimate than its more tangible cousin, and has a number of advantages when it comes to monetisation. Selling a physical piece of art usually means that you have to physically ship it to your customer, meaning that there are packaging costs and the possibility of damage, or of it getting lost altogether. And while you can of course create prints from an original piece, the fact remains that any physical item can only be sold once.

With digital art, there are far more possibilities as to the form a sale can take. Print on demand services allow your digital art to be readily transformed into a physical object without any additional work on your part, meaning that one piece of art can be sold limitless times, in an incredible variety of forms. Your work doesn’t even have to be created digitally - modern photography and scanning technology allows you to turn a physical piece into a digital one, so you can have the best of both worlds.

How To Get Started

1. Consider your branding and signature style

To give your new digital art side hustle the best chance of success, it’s important to have consistent branding and style. Your work should be recognisably yours, regardless of what it’s depicting.

Potential customers who like something you’ve created are consequently more likely to buy other items from you, while existing customers are more likely to come back for more. You may be a master of a variety of artistic techniques and styles, but it’s wise to establish a recognisable brand early on before you start branching out.

2. Conduct market research

Conduct research into your potential customers as well as your competitors to see what’s being produced and how popular it is. As well as helping you to identify the kind of artwork that will sell, this will help you to set realistic prices for your own work.

3. Develop a portfolio

It may be tempting to dive straight into selling your work, but it’s wiser to build up a portfolio first. Customers tend to have more faith in artists who have more than just a couple of items or designs available for sale - and your sales are likely to ramp up faster if you have a good range when you first get going.

4. Protect your art

Unfortunately, one of the first things you have to think about when putting artwork online is the possibility of theft. You can consider adding watermarks, branded logos or signatures to your art when uploading it - and customers receive the watermark-free version only once they’ve made a purchase.

Another alternative is to use a low resolution file on the marketplace or on your online store, so that a customer can only access the full resolution file once they’ve bought an item.

5. Create a website and decide on a platform/marketplace

While you could choose only to sell your work via third party platforms/marketplaces, most artists also have their own websites. Potential customers can purchase from you directly, if they like, make contact to request commissions, or check out your full portfolio. It does take a little work to create your own website, but hosting platforms like Wix, Wordpress and Squarespace make it comparatively simple (and inexpensive!) to create an attractive, easy-to-use website.

As for third party platforms - well, you’ve got plenty of options, depending on the kind of art and products you’d like to sell, and we’ll go into further detail about them a little lower down. It’s best to sign up to at least one platform, to boost your exposure to customers.

6. Price your art

For a lot of artists, working out fair prices can be one of the most stressful parts of setting up an artistic side hustle. Self-doubt is a hallmark of the creative personality, and for many people it feels immodest to entertain the idea that someone might be willing to pay for your artwork at all.

However, if you want to make money from your art, you have to assume that people will want to buy it. Digital art is usually sold for less than physical art, given that the artist is able to sell their digital artwork to theoretically limitless customers. Your market research will have given you an idea of the amounts similar items are being sold for, which should allow you to identify a realistic price point for your own work.

7. Get marketing!

Now you’re all set up to sell your work, you need to find some customers! One option is to try paid advertising - but that does mean spending your own money, without any guarantee of a return.

Social media can be an excellent way of broadening your reach, especially if you’ve already got a following on your accounts. Artistic accounts can gain huge popularity by posting regular content - especially if you document the process of creating your art.

You can also network or collaborate with other artists; especially if they have a larger following, you’ll be able to reach some of their audience and, hopefully, encourage a portion of that audience to check out your own portfolio.

Where To Sell Your Art

We now return to the question of platforms and marketplaces. There are a lot of options available, depending on the sort of product you’d like to sell. We’ll run through a few of the best options below.

Etsy

One of the most popular platforms for creatives of all types, Etsy remains an excellent marketplace to sell art, including digital art. You will be restricted by Etsy’s terms and restrictions for sellers, though, which some people have reported to be over-favourable to the buyer.

Zazzle or Redbubble

Both these websites offer print on demand (POD) services. You submit your artwork with no upfront costs, and customers can choose the type of physical product they’d like to purchase your design on.

POD services can be an excellent way of widening the range of products that can be sold featuring your artwork, but the terms offered by these services aren’t always great for the artist. Through Zazzle, for example, you only earn a percentage of commission, rather than a fixed price for your product, and these platforms can also be fiercely competitive.

Stock image platforms

We tend to think of stock photography as the main medium for stock images, but stock graphics and illustrations are also licensed on stock image platforms, such as Shutterstock, Getty Images or Canva. Although you’re unlikely to earn huge amounts from stock graphics or illustrations, you will have the opportunity to reach a wide audience, and the potential to earn a regular passive income.

Social Media

Social media, and Facebook and Instagram in particular, can be effective platforms to sell your work. Whether you sell direct via Facebook Marketplace or simply steer interested viewers to your own website, you can take advantage of social media algorithms to expand your reach and increase your sales.

You can also offer commissioned work to customers via social media - portraits, especially pet portraits, often sell well, but people will be keen to commission a wide variety of projects.

Tips and Tricks To Increase Sales

• Pay attention to trends, and create accordingly. If you’re able to react quickly enough to what’s trending at any given time, you’ll give your sales a healthy boost.

• Pay attention to pop culture. TV shows, movies and games can be a brilliant resource. Fans of particular franchises will often purchase items featuring characters or quotes, so it can be a canny move to get ahead of the game and create artwork just as a franchise is initially gaining popularity.

• Combine your digital art sales with influencing. Artistic or crafty content can become hugely popular - so if you manage to build your following enough, you can make extra money just from affiliate marketing or sponsorship, without necessarily having to sell your work. At the very least, you might manage to get yourself some free art supplies!

• Keep an eye out for commission opportunities. When you’re first starting out, it can be worth your time to join places where people are likely to ask for commissions. This could be Facebook groups, freelancing sites such as Fiverr, reddit groups, or even in person community boards or groups. You might not be able to charge premium prices for work you’ve picked up through these channels, but as a new business it can be incredibly helpful to get a few commissions under your belt.

• Find a niche. It’s better to be a big fish in a small pond than vice versa, so specificity is your friend! As part of your market research, you should look out for niches that appear to be popular but relatively uncommon, and take advantage if you spot one. Sometimes, a niche can sound unpromisingly odd, but that doesn’t mean it won’t sell - we came across one artist exclusively creating whimsical flowery ghost art, who seemed to be having quite some success with it.

Advantages Of Digital Art As A Side Hustle

• For most people, the chief advantage of digital art as a side hustle is that it allows them to do what they love - and to make some profit from it.

• If you’re already a hobbyist, the start-up costs are minimal, as you’ll already have the vast majority of the equipment and software you need.

• Once you’re established, there’s the potential for earning an ongoing passive income through your existing available artwork.

• You can devote as little or as much time to your side hustle as you like - you aren’t committing yourself permanently to a certain number of hours per week. If life takes over, your side hustle can take a back seat for a while.

• If you’re creating digitally, you can generally work from anywhere. You might prefer a studio, but it isn’t an essential in the way that it might be for someone making physical art.

Disadvantages Of Digital Art As A Side Hustle

• Your earnings won’t be huge. Very few artists are in it for the money, and for good reason. It’s relatively uncommon to be able to sell your artwork for enough money to justify the length of time it took to create. Of course, as digital art can be sold innumerable times, there’s more potential for it to make you a decent return - but even so, the chances of it doing so aren’t brilliant.

• The risk of theft. It’s all too common for unscrupulous people to steal an artist’s work and sell it themselves, despite that artist’s efforts to protect it. The likelihood is that if you have any success, you’ll have the frustrating experience of seeing your work making money for someone else.

• While you can organise your schedule as you like, there’s no getting away from the fact that the creative process is a time-consuming one. You’ll need to devote a considerable portion of your free time to your side hustle, both in terms of creating new art and marketing your existing art.

• There’s a lot of competition out there. And with digital art, your competitors aren’t just from your country but the entire world. That adds up to millions of other artists all competing to grab the attention of the art-buying public.

• The risk of burnout. Few creative people can go on producing new content indefinitely without taking a break - but if art is your business, a break means taking a hit to your profits. Balancing financial considerations with the creative process can be tricky, and for some people actively stressful.

• Having to treat your art as a business. Some artists are lucky enough to have both creative ability and business acumen in spades, but a lot of creative types dread the idea of running a business, thinking about finances, and working on self-promotion. If you want to make money from selling digital art, however, you’ve got no choice but to get stuck into the business side of things as well.

Alternative Side Hustles For Creative People

If you’re looking to harness your creative side to make some money, but aren’t sold on the idea of selling digital art, what else could you do? Well, here are a few ideas.

• Selling physical art. To some people, this might feel more like ‘real’ art - and it bypasses some of the disadvantages of digital art (although it does come with downsides of its own).

• Tutoring or offering classes. Whatever your creative outlet, if you’re talented and experienced, your expertise could be hugely helpful to someone just starting out.

• Photography. Whether you decide to sell stock photos or offer your services for weddings and other events, it can be a lucrative side hustle for a skilled photographer.

• Writing. Whether through self-publishing, blogging or copywriting, there’s a lot of scope for making money if you’ve got a way with words.

Tax Considerations

Selling digital art as a side hustle will mean that you count as self-employed, unless you decide to register as a formal business, in which case you’ll be a sole trader. In either case, you’ll normally need to submit a yearly self-assessment tax return and pay tax on your earnings.

As a fledgling business, though, you don’t have to register for tax unless you make at least £1000 in the financial year - so if you change your mind before you hit the £1000 mark, or if you find that sales are very slow, you won’t need to worry about tax at all.

Assuming you’re successful enough to make at least £1000 a year, you’ll need to register for self-assessment and submit your tax return by the 31st January after the end of the tax year. So, for example, for the tax year 2023-2024, which ended in April 2024, you would need to submit your tax return by the 31st January 2025.

Summary

If you create digital art already as a hobby, selling your work is a very obvious way to make some extra money, especially if you’re willing to follow trends and popular culture. You’ll need to commit yourself to your side hustle, and you probably won’t make a fortune - but you’ll have the satisfaction of earning money from essentially nothing but your imagination.

If you aren’t already an artist, however, the time and effort it’ll take to build your expertise is likely to be a major barrier to entry. You could try another creative side hustle as an alternative - or even have a go at Matched Betting.