You are doing so amazing with it which is really great, you are an inspiration, I have followed this thread since the start and I really wish I could get into doing this as well. I love creating things and desperately need money.
- Do you need much money to startup? (I'm guessing some of it is paper, ink, envelopes)
- Where do you find images to use that allow resale?
- How easy is this for someone that has never done anything like this before?
@Jon you could probably do something with this info on here (on your sites)
I think this post will help people on here make money. There’s lots of people doing online selling and I think it’s a growing market (that could change and that’s fine, nothing lasts forever) and if you want to work for yourself and make good money, you really can
Start selling framed and unframed prints…
You need to be able to use Photoshop or GIMP or something like that, I’ve heard about Canva too, not sure if it’s free, I pay for Photoshop, it’s £20 a month. I’m not advanced in Photoshop or anything, I just know the basics, copying and pasting, changing colours, etc.
Make sure the prints are good. I don’t even like most of my prints or my store actually. But I’ve been learning as I go and that’s why I’m excited to open another store on Etsy because I’m going to do everything that I’m about to tell you and if my current store has done so well, I don’t see why the next one won’t either. You don’t need to be a designer.
Ok so open your Etsy store
Pick a name, make a logo, Adobe has a new free logos site which is pretty decent, but yeah sort out a logo somehow haha. Add a privacy policy to your store because you need to have one. You can find help with that on Etsy or copy someone else’s and reword it. Go through all of the settings on Etsy and set it to how you want it. For “Returns Settings” you HAVE to put that you accept returns, but then you can say that you don’t accept returns on personalised items and it’s fine, you’ll see.
So as you might know, it’s been quite stressful running the store, especially at this very moment
I’ve been printing the prints myself, I’ve had about 10 printers in 18 months (seriously), gone through so many issues with paper and other stuff, ordering envelopes, boxes, etc… not knowing how to package them best, so on my next store I’m going to be using a site called Dot To Dot Printing.
We provide print services for artists, galleries and online shops, including On Demand print fulfilment and fine art giclée printing. All for the love of prints.
www.dottodotprinting.co.uk
They will print the prints, any size you want. They will post/ship them for you. They will frame them if you want to sell frames. Here’s some things I’ve noticed…
My prices on my new store will have to be higher, because I’m paying the drop shipping company.
I sell A4 prints now, and profit margin is good. I don’t have the exact figures, but I’d say it’s at least a 60% for definite. When I use the drop shipping company. It’s going to cost £7.50 for them to print and post it, unframed, to the UK. If the customer was outside of the UK, it would be £19.50. My prints at the moment are £10-12 each to buy. So on an A4 print with the drop shipping company to a customer in the UK, plus Etsy will take a small fee, I’m only going to make £2-4, but firstly you don’t need to sell personalised prints, you can sell pre-made prints which you can buy so if people like the prints they will buy them and those £2 and £4 will add up and you won’t be doing much work. I think I’m rambling now. Basically people want bigger sizes and that’s where I will hopefully make more money, and people want frames which I’ve never been able to offer. I had a set of three prints on my store of eucalyptus leaves unframed for £10 and I deleted them pretty quickly, but I sold about 3 of them and I paid about £15 online for the design online, I could probably still be getting the odd sale from them but I didn’t think they matched my shop’s family prints theme that I’ve got going on
What I’m saying is you could easily do that right now yourself, and once it’s set up, if the designs are good and your shop is good and you provide a good service, the money will come in and all you will be doing is finding new designs, checking your orders and replying to customers, and promoting your store if you want to, stuff that I haven’t been able to do because I’m always working on orders, personalising them, printing them, posting them, etc.
The International Shipping cost is high with the drop shipping company, but I’m just going to aim this new shop at the UK for now, it’s big enough
And depending on what prints you sell and how high you can charge for them, maybe you will be able to charge £12 shipping to Non-UK customers and still get sales.
So yeah, more sizes, better quality prints, frames. The other thing I forgot to mention was that my sister’s friend does this now selling modern art prints, and she sells from an A5 print up to an A1 framed print for £80+ and there is a decent profit on that. I know she gets sales too. I’ve picked up little bits here and there from her.
Someone here mentioned Creative Fabrica for buying clipart and stuff, but I prefer Creative Market, but they’re both good.
Here is an example of something you could buy and sell on Etsy. This example is a bit expensive, but I’m just showing you one that I think is good and would be easy too.
You can buy these premade posters for $60 (extended commercial use license). Also buy nice frame mock-up images to make your listings look great. You can get free mock ups but I would say buy some better ones. And that’s it! The drop shipping company connects to your store and handles the order.
Sites like Creative Market have lots of great designs that you can buy and use to sell prints, or you can find free stuff online too, just make sure the designs are good. You could even find a designer that you like and buy their stuff (the designers will bring out new designs a lot because that’s what they’re selling online, clipart) and this way your shop will have a theme because the designs will have been made by the same person.
Here’s another example of something to buy…
You could make these personalised star map posters. The ideas are endless, but you’ve just got to work out what sells well for you.
You could do all of this and not use the drop shipping company like I haven’t so far, but I want to make things simpler for me, and I think this could be more profitable and less work for me, so I’d say go with the drop shipping company, I know I’m gonna…
When I joined this site I was doing loads of different things. Mystery shopping apps, driving all over the place for a fiver, doing surveys for 10p, ADULT SEX CHAT MESSAGING
, Neevo, etc. Etsy is a bandwagon I’m glad I jumped on and I’m sharing this to help others do it too because there’s enough to go around
Go for it and good luck!