The benefits and drawbacks of 5 "passive" & boosted income sources for artists.

If you want to make a total-time living as an creative person or creative, it'due south non enough to rely solely on online sales or gallery representation. If you have been a professional artist for any number of years, you are probably already familiar with the slow seasons, with flopped shows, and rained out art fairs. It can be hard to count any single income source.

You don't put all your money on 1 equus caballus, or all your eggs in one basket, and then why do y'all want to go all of your income from ane identify?

The good news is that at that place are so many different ways for artists to make a living today. The better news is that nearly of these ideas crave some work up front, but minimal ongoing labor. The all-time news is that as an artist, you already have the creativity to remember of unique ways to grow your business.

Diversifying your income as an artist allows yous to take the pressure off purely production and gives you the time and freedom to pursue new creative projects, while withal having a steady income. Information technology besides allows for fluctuations in profits from each platform, without stressing out over whether one bad month selling at art fairs is going to leave you unable to pay the bills.

If yous first looking at your artwork and talents every bit asset creation rather than building your week around a set number of hours or events, you tin can start planting the seeds for multiple acquirement streams over the long term.

Here are just a few of the ways you tin monetize your artwork beyond online and gallery sales and gain more freedom and flexibility.

Make Prints of Your Artwork Available

Prints are a great option for customers who dearest your artwork and imagery, just might not exist able to beget it all the same.

On the other hand, prints are not bad for artists because information technology allows for passive income for your business organisation. This ways that you exercise the majority of the work up front and then keep to become money through print sales. Of form, it will require some occasional ongoing promotion on social media to continue the sales up, but passive income requires considerably less effort and more flexibility than creating a new, original artwork.

Y'all tin can mark that you have prints available of a piece on your Artwork Archive profile, or use one of the many print-on-demand sites. Print-on-demand sites like Society6, Redbubble, Fine Art America, along with countless others, allow artists to easily print their artwork on phone cases, totes, clothing, linens, wall art and more than, for a small commission fee.

The benefits: Prints and print-on-demand objects are easy to create with some piece of work up front. You can detect a new audition with prints and focus.

Having your prints listed on Artwork Annal or on a print-on-need platform increases your exposure and new collectors might notice and attain out most custom or original pieces.

The drawbacks: There is a lot of noise on print-on-demand sites like Society6. Information technology can be difficult to stand out among the thousands of artists and artworks. Successful artists on these sites spend a lot of time up front promoting their profiles, interacting on social media and creating unique sales opportunities. The profit margin tin can also be low on prints or print-on-need objects similar cards. You may have to spend money up front for the products that may only render a few dollars on each purchase.

Tip: Be agile! Let your fans know what you just posted on y'all Artwork Archive portfolio by sharing it on your Facebook page or Instagram profile. You can even create some urgency around your prints by doing 24-60 minutes limited edition sales. Requite your followers a heads up about when your prints volition be on auction and generate a buzz effectually the auction for a week or and so beforehand. Then, put your limited edition print (ex: 100-200 prints) upwardly for sale.

Lead a workshop in your studio (or someone else's studio)

Exercise yous have a passion for teaching others the skills you lot have learned? Workshops are non simply a keen mode to diversify your income, it'southward an opportunity to educate others about the skills information technology takes to create your work.

It'southward also an opportunity to appoint with the community and have a social aspect to your otherwise lonely fine art practice. Workshops can be revitalizing and requite new energy and purpose to your own work when you encounter the passion sparked in new students.

For artists who nonetheless want to maintain a full-fourth dimension studio path instead of a classroom route, but nonetheless savor art education, workshops are the perfect solution.

If yous have your ain studio and plenty infinite and materials to host a small-scale workshop, the overhead is mostly low. Alternatively, you lot can seek out studios to partner with and split the enrollment fees. This generally happens if y'all require a lot of equipment —say y'all are a potter and need 12 wheels—yous would partner with normally an arts middle and travel to teach a workshop.

You can even build your schedule around travel opportunities! Seek out studios and opportunities beyond the globe, practise some outreach and fund your side by side international vacation by teaching a workshop.

The benefits: Establish your name amid potential new collectors and your peers. Potential to travel, learn and share your craft with others. Create a significant amount of income in a few days without fabric fees. If you host the workshop in your ain studio, you volition often meet a boost in your sales as well every bit participants. There isn't a big time delivery. Gain teaching experience that leads to more opportunities.

The drawbacks: Advance planning and physical space needed. Most benign for mid-tardily career artists who demand a higher tuition rate.

Tip: Make sure you accept a clearly divers focus for your workshop, are teaching at your level within your skill level and specialty. Possibly even give it a practice run with a few friends for feedback. Read here for more ideas on how to become prepared for your get-go artist workshop.

Make up one's mind which category your workshop will autumn into and don't forget to list your workshop on phone call-for-entry sites like Artwork Archive'south calls page. Calls pages similar this help get your workshop in front end of thousands of artists and they often marketplace opportunities, so yous do good from cross-promotion and campaigns.

Teach online courses or sell instructional e-books

If you like the idea of teaching, just don't have the physical infinite to host events or don't similar the idea of traveling, you may want to consider taking that curriculum online.

In that location are lots of sites online where new artists are looking to expand their noesis by either watching video tutorials or downloading instructional books from professional artists.  Just about anyone with an artform tin do good from teaching classes online. Or, if you don't want to be an on-screen personality, an instructional ebook is another way to create an educational resource to add to your passive income as an artist.

Don't know where to get started? Consider if y'all want to cocky-host your content or upload it to an established site like Skillshare.

There is some cost/benefit analysis to be fabricated: self-hosting may be a greater investment upward front, but yous don't have to pay committee on every enrollment. However, brands like Skillshare bring in big audiences and have the fourth dimension and resource to market their courses. Market options like Skillshare won't accuse you up front but volition pay a royalty on your courses.

And, don't forget that with tools like Instagram and Facebook Live you tin can start building a post-obit for your courses and test-drive ideas for classes or tutorials.

For artists that adopt writing, there are an countless corporeality of guides y'all can create for download. Check out these 32 places to upload your ebook and go started. If you are computer challenged or non pattern-inclined, y'all tin e'er download an ebook template!

The benefits: Passive income as downloads for e-books or enrollment in an e-learning course.A chance to build your brand and grow your name. Opportunities for cross-promotion with your other income sources: prints, artwork, workshops etc.

The drawbacks: No contiguous fourth dimension with your students. No real control over the skill level/feel of your course. Ameliorate for the tech-savvy crowd.

License & Trade Your Artwork

Y'all can earn royalties from your work past licensing it to retailers or brands. Imagine the aisles of your favorite store lined with images of your artwork on their products. Sound exciting? Not but does it go your art business concern some pretty big publicity, but it'south a fun way to make coin from your original artwork.

Learn how to put together an effective portfolio to get started licensing your artwork.

Y'all could also become the route of selling your images and designs directly to a stock bureau. If you can build a strong portfolio of commercial work, the royalties chop-chop add up in monthly acquirement on top sites like Getty images, AdobeStock and Shutterstock — with picayune ongoing effort on your part.

The benefits: Passive income in the course of royalties. Associate your name with top brands.

The drawbacks: Commercial and on-tendency work tends to perform amend. Will need to file copyrights for those images, which can be expensive. Royalty rates tin vary.

Tips: Read your contracts thoroughly. Expect out for whatsoever wording that includes non-exclusive or exclusive rights. Unless it is the opportunity of a lifetime, you volition want not-exclusive rights so that you can sell your images elsewhere and on multiple platforms.

It can exist more than cost effective to copyright your images in collections of images. You can use Artwork Archive to easily grouping, categorize and present your collections with all the necessary information. And then, rails your contracts and growth with insights.

Make sure that you lot retain all copyrights to your artwork and wait for a fair royalty rate. In that location are a number of factors that go into determining a fair royalty charge per unit such equally book, popularity and the blazon of production beingness sold. Maria Brophy has a nifty guide on how to summate a off-white toll and make sure you are getting what yous deserve in a licensing deal.

Become an influencer through social media, YouTube, and blogging.

Have yous already built up a big post-obit on your social media accounts? Practise you spend all your extra time posting, liking, scrolling, and connecting with other artists on Instagram?

You could exist making extra money or getting art supplies past collaborating with companies to post sponsored content.

You can likewise use your account to advertise your own ebooks, courses, artwork, and prints. Artists who build a loyal following through genuine content on their social feeds ofttimes sell piece of work as soon as they post it on Instagram.

Beyond advertising, having a potent presence on social media or through blogging or youtube helps buyers notice your artwork through building your SEO and ranking your work college in the search results.

The benefits: Can atomic number 82 to significant income. Working with art suppliers and brands that you back up.

The drawbacks: Make sure you lot believe in the brands that you partner with as they will reflect on your own brand. Endeavour not to utilise ads in your feed sparingly. Stick to about fourscore% original content and twenty% max sponsored content.

Don't await overnight success. Many successful accounts that y'all see took years to abound before making a significant income from advertisements.

Tip: Yous don't need millions of followers before you commencement earning from your accounts. However, some ways to grow your account include doing a giveaway where fans take to follow your account to be in the raffle, posting works in progress and engaging with other artists.

You tin can as well get matched upwardly with a brand that fits your account on platforms such as Influence.co.

Don't forget to have fun and be yourself. Your accounts are an extension of your phonation and vision equally an artist.

Do you have any experience with these methods? Let us know what worked or didn't piece of work for your fine art business organization below!