Redbubble is a print-on-demand service that helps artists and designers reach new audiences and sell their work more easily. It’s completely free to join so you don’t have to worry about a subscription fee. As such, as a freelance graphic designer you should definitely consider making money with Redbubble.

Millions of people visit Redbubble each month — a huge market for your artworks. The site also has a wide range of product options from shirts to even pillows, giving you more ways to monetize and market your artwork. Rest assured that they will be put to their fullest potential on Redbubble.

Steps to Making Money on Redbubble

MORE ABOUT REDBUBBLE

Better yet, you just need to upload your artwork and Redbubble will do the rest for you, from printing and shipping to customer service. As a graphic designer this hands-free approach allows you to use Redbubble as a source of passive income, while focusing your time and effort on other projects.

More importantly, you retain full ownership of your artwork. As such, you can be making money with Redbubble while selling your artwork across different marketplaces such as Teepublic and Design By Humans to earn even more income.

Redbubble also gives you control of your price margins. To change the markup, simply go to Account Details and select Product Pricing under Artist Tools. You are provided with the base cost of all products so you can decide how much of a margin to set. Note that the average margin is around 17% of the retail price, so consider using that as a benchmark to keep your prices competitive.

UPLOADING YOUR WORK TO REDBUBBLE

To upload an artwork, go to Add New Work. Redbubble recommends a minimum of 1000px resolution, so make sure your artwork meet those requirements.

Once done, you will see that Redbubble makes it really easy to add and edit products. Everything is done on one page and you can use a singe image to make individual edits on all products, from sizing and positioning to colors. Finally, be sure to add a catchy title and description — proper tags will improve searchability and allow buyers to find your artwork.

MAKING SALES ON REDBUBBLE

Although it’s easy to put your artwork on sale on Redbubble, to earn a decent income you have to do your own promotion. With so much artwork uploaded to Redbubble each day, having people like and buy your artwork can be an uphill battle. Some of your artwork might be popular from the start and net you sales even without any advertising, while others might not see any sales for a long time. A look at the most popular artwork featured on the homepage should give you a feel of what sells.

Your Dashboard is your best friend, providing you with useful tips and features to help you increase sales and promote your artwork.

If you are serious about promoting your artwork on Redbubble, the site provides the option to add a Google Analytics tracking code so you can track traffic to each of your artwork and revise your strategy accordingly.

Your earnings are sent automatically every month so you don’t have to request for a payout. You can either receive payments through PayPal, or by ACH direct bank deposit if you are located in the United States.

MY EXPERIENCE WITH REDBUBBLE

Redbubble used to be good for me, but I’m not too sure now. With increasing competition it’s been getting hard to make sales even though I have uploaded more than 100 pieces of artwork over the past 5 years. As you can see below, I have earned around $50 in 12 months — which is a bit disappointing considering I made the same amount in one month in 2016.

All the same, I really like how easy it is to upload artwork and get paid on Redbubble. While I haven’t done advertising so far, it looks like I will need to do some promotion and marketing to find success there.

IN CONCLUSION

Redbubble is a well-designed, easy-to-use platform with a nice variety of products. If your artwork is of good quality and you promote them well, it should be easy to be earning a steady income and making money with Redbubble with little to no maintenance.