Income Sources in Art/Craft Industry
Online and offline income sources for artists and crafters
I’m myself a self-taught artist on an emerging stage. I will update this list as I discover more ways to earn and diversify - because it is very important!
Here are some good online and offline way of making money with your craft.
I once heard a very snobbist opinion that having a blog or selling prints is not a decent way to make money for a True Artist. That I call big fat lie because bills are not paying themselves. Artist job doesn't come with paid leave or insurance. So we do what we can and we thrive.
Disclaimer: I’m an artist who wasn’t born in US or graduated an art school. So I have to make do and find ways. I will mention if some income sources are better for specific regions or not. Also, when I say income, it means anywhere from 500usd to 2,000 to 100k, it will depend on many factors and please, use critical thinking. There is no real and honest quick buck scheme anywhere, for any industry. And there is always a part that luck plays.
And my notes on this email newsletter will also reflect all of these sources and tips.
Online income (active, semi-passive)
What I do - Website-blog
Do you like to write and explain things? Blog is perfect then for you!
A website with a blog requires knowledge of SEO, which is not super easy but not rocket science either and takes time. Aprox. 9-12 months to see first results. Challenging to stick to it, but it is very rewarding afterwards.
There were times I could completely focus on travel and life while my blog supported me.
When blogging there are many ways to earn but 2 primary are:
- ads your reader see scrolling your article and NO you don’t need to spam them every sentence. You can adjust it with good ad platform so it does not interfere much. Good ad platforms also make sure there is no nasty ads or stuff like that.
- affiliate income - you share what brushes, sewing machine, kiln, camera you use exactly (and you are honest!) and add your affiliate link with a disclaimer. When people buy it you get a commission. Now, commissions on Amazon are shit, but it is still a good platform, there are brands that give you 10-30% commission which is very nice.
Income: if solely relying on Google , it can be tricky and your blog with ads can earn from 500USD to 2000USD per month on ads in the second year. I’ve been at both ends.
Affiliate income will largely depend on what exactly is your craft niche. Mine is painting, and majority of audience are beginners so they are not looking to buy a pastel or paint set for 200 dollars. Thus, I’m not making much on affiliates.
It can be anywhere form 100 to 800 USD on affiliate products per month.
There are also high and low seasons in terms of both incomes. As you can guess, Christmas is a high season, but immediately after follows a very low season when everyone realizes they spent way too much :O
And of course, you can always have more than one blog;) Food, travel, home decor, hobbies, motherhood, personal finance are very popular and high-paying niches. I know bloggers making 20,000 USD per month! I follow, but do not know personally female bloggers making 70,000+ USD per month.
Disclaimer: in terms of ads income there are a big difference in how much money you can get with different regions. US audience visiting your blog “pays” the most. Following are Canada, UK, Australia and sometimes NZ. But regions like Asia pay peanuts. So if you think your audience will be mostly from the West and you write in English, you will be earning decent money.
Writing
Close to blogging there is another way to earn decent money - writing for other people’s blogs!
It is highly valuable to have a knowledge in a specific niche/niches and successful bloggers are always looking for writers - they want to scale their blogs faster.
You can write for others while your own blog is taking off or without having your own blog - choice is yours.
It was exactly what I did when I started - I showed my own articles as “samples” and worked for 1 year for an agency as a freelancer. It also brought some clients outside agency as managers were sharing my contact with other agencies etc.
Without sacrificing much time of my own blog and actually making art, writing for others made me extra 1000 USD per month.
Sell content
As there are tons of blogs for kids, recipes, hobbies, the bloggers are constantly looking for good quality pictures and step-by-step tutorials.
Especially for holidays - Easter, Mother’s Day, Halloween, Christmas, etc.
If you’re crafty (or love cooking) you can pre-make a craft, say paper craft or knitting pattern. Take pictures, write down steps, make a collage - and this pack can be sold multiple times for 15-25 USD.
If you add video, it is an additional min 40 USD.
If it is an exclusive ownership you’re selling - some packs cost up to a few hundreds.
People buy it because they can reuse it (and you are selling your content knowing they will use it) on their blogs.
I didn’t sell my crafts like that, but I did buy a few. There are multiple groups online (Facebook) where you can both sell and buy such printables/photos/crafts.
And the beauty is, once you sell a good pack to someone, it can become a long-lasting partnership and stable income for you.
Monetizing Youtube
This is another way I’d like to go. I’m currently growing my Youtube (give a follow if you’d like).
We can make money on our Youtube meeting a few requirements: number of subscribers and how many hours our content was watched.
Opportunities are endless - tutorials, reviews, you commenting on art, overviews of art market, tips, showing your process etc.
Video editing takes time but often I find it more enjoyable to record myself quickly than to write a long post.
Downside is that Youtube take a cut.
Ways to make money on Youtube:
directly be sponsored by a brand to mention them (youtube doesn’t take a cut here)
Youtube ads (yes, those annoying ones for people without Premium)
tagging recommended products
having a closed paid community
“donations” from subscribers
More ways to have a side income (I will add details for each one with time)
Sponsorships
Being sponsored usually requires you to have some following base already. But it doesn’t mean a lot. And it doesn’t have to be social media, it can be a blog, a youtube, a Substack, an email - anything where you have some people who read you.
Because even if it is a small amount the brand knows - they are all interested specifically in this niche.
Paid guest posts
I’m not supporting this as it kinda goes against Google guidelines, but many people do that. Can be anywhere from 40USD per blog.
Amazon Book series
Do you know that anyone can publish a book on Amazon?
Of course, I’m not talking about AI crap, but about real good books. If you have an idea, an interesting style you are working with, or just want to share your art journey you can do that.
But, to earn money with such book you can also do a market analysis (there are tools for that) and get royalties paid out monthly.
Amazon coloring books
A special niche is coloring books, not only for kids but for adults, on different topics. Very competitive niche and yet, still successful.
Can be from 200 USD and more, but of course, can be nothing. All things coloring pages related are still a gamble for me but I will try and update here.
Etsy prints
I’m still waiting for when I will be able to open my Etsy shop and as soon as - I will report here.
But apparently, people are successfully selling prints, ornaments, t-shirts with their designs there.
There are a lot of downsides but even though the Etsy market is very saturated I still regularly see success stories.
Selling art online
An obvious one. I will be posting separately on this subject. Basically, you can use online galleries, marketplaces and online exhibitions as a way to sell originals.
I don’t have much success with this yet.
Licensing art
You can do this through agency, approaching companies yourself or if you’re registered on Saatchi you can be approached by their curators (if you opted in in settings that you accept projects from hospitality)
This way I, without even doing anything special, got a message from Saatchi curators about licensing one print for a hotel in US. We negotiated the price, I signed all the paperwork and that’s it.
I didn’t have to ship anything.
The downside is that the process is quite lenghty as I guess there are so many parties involved in negotiation, but you just wait. At some point I thought it was a scam but no, all good. So in totla from first email to me getting paid it was around 6 months.
Educational course
Nice niche courses and pre-recorded workshops in form of video or e-books are very popular.
Again, can sell through any channel you want or can.
Most popular now are mixed media, textured art, creative side hustles workshops.
A 2-3 hr course costs from $35-55. If it is an “award-wining” artist can cost up to $250.
Grow email
Emails are still very much alive! And they are your property 100%, unlike a blog or social media. Tomorrow Meta will come up with some new rules and bam, we have nothing. But email is always yours.
And via emails you can sell anything and build very good relationships with your readers.
One email provider is especially lucrative for advanced levels (once you have a few thousands subscribers) - ConvertKit. And for a few reasons:
they will have monetization option for your emails
they have an in-house network of sponsorships
you can set up paid subscribers there
you can use their “recommendation” system and get followers from others’ email lists!
if you have more than 10,000 email subscribers and use all of the above features, ConvertKit projects that you can earn up to 7,000 USD per month only from emails. Wild! Where do I get 10,000 subscribers? I don’t have an answer yet, I’m on my way to find out :)
But, ConvertKit is bloody expensive and it is not worth it for a beginner.
My email community is with this provider (affiliate link) where I have a free account for under 1000 subscribers.
Substack
Close to email providers there is Substack - the very platform you’re reading this.
Here you can have a version of your website which will be basically an archive of all your posts. But each of your posts will also be sent as an email to all your subscribers.
The beauty is - you can set up a paid section with min 5usd per mo.
Social Media Monetization
Both TikTok and Instagram have monetization programs for accounts with high following.
TikTok pays way more. There are reports of people earning up to 3000 USD from one trending video on TT vs 30 USD for the same video on Instagram.
Min requirement for Instagram is at the moment 10,000 subscribers, for TikTok 100,000 subscribers.
Apart from it, you can of course sell your courses, recommend affiliate products and promote your blog and most importantly YOUR ART on social media.
Growing there is very annoying and mentally taxing for me, I’m yet to achieve it. It requires consistent effort for at least 40 to 60 days - multiple attempts show that you will see real action only after a certain amount of days of consistent posting.
However, I did see faceless accounts gaining 100k easy and in less than 6mo going from 100k to 500k. And they are nice painting accounts with no AI, idiotic trends and stuff. So there is hope!
Offline Income
Art fairs
Art fairs is an amazing tool and platform to get paid for your art. But. They are mostly common in US, UK and Australia. And they are not a stable income source.
However, if you’re lucky to be in an area that organizes it - use this opportunity.
Working with a gallery
This options unlocks only when you have a bit of traction. Good galleries that are really selling things regularly usually select new artists themselves.
So our goal here is to simply do our best and get noticed.
*This list is to be updated*