Recs on sales sites for artists

[karadinart]

I have tried them all, and the ones I don’t use are Cafe Press, Zazzle or Redbubble.

Cafe Press and Zazzle have issues with quality control on products, you can’t set your profit levels, and they can 3rd party sell your images to someone else involving redesign and adding corporate logos. It’s also sometimes difficult on all three sites to remove your product, even after you’ve closed up shop. This happened to me on Zazzle, they were showing images a year after I left and I never knew if someone bought anything in the meantime, I also never got paid what was left in my account (under $25) even though I emailed them multiple times and was assured I would get a check. They hold your money until you hit specified levels, and for someone starting out, you may never hit that level.

I was with Printfection for years, but they moved into selling for corporate clients and they were never very good for helping you promote your art. I also sold some prints at DeviantArt, which is good for letting you set your own profits, but I wasn’t too sold on the quality, they don’t offer many products and it’s difficult for a purchaser outside DA to work with their system.

My best luck has been with Society6, it’s free to set up shop, you can set your own profits on art prints, (Giclee on very lovely thick paper) framed art prints and canvas prints, for the rest of the items you receive a royalty, and these royalties are higher than CP or Zazzle. The quality of both the printing and the goods are excellent, they have good customer service and are always offering deals like free shipping international (which don’t come out of your profit) they have great storefronts, easy to manage, and they are always adding new products which are very popular. They also do a alot of promotion for you and give you tools to make mass media posts to facebook, twitter, pinterest, etc. For artists it’s great because you get paid every month regardless of how much you make. Maybe this site is great for artists because artists created it.

MOO for business cards, because they are fantastic quality, and you have the ability to choose a different back to each card, so you have a mini portfolio, and people will often take more than one of your cards.

Vistaprint has been good economical printing, I’ve been pretty satisfied with the stationary I’ve had done there. But for art prints, go with Society6

Comments

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

This is rally useful info!

[earthspirits.livejournal.com]

As an artist, I really appreciate these critiques - this is very good to know, thank you! : )

[shezan.livejournal.com]

I'm a Society 6 customer because of you, and their customer relations service is excellent — they replaced at once one broken mug and another where the art decal was washed-out pale. And I love those sturdy big 18-oz mugs. When I finally get a new telephone, I'll get the protective case there.

I use Vistaprint for cards and they are terrific. You can add your logo to one of their starter designs and if your logo fits over their design, it's as if you had an entirely custom-made design.