It is so easy to sell digital art on Etsy. It only takes a few minutes to get started and it is the perfect way to earn passive income. I will go over all the steps you need to create digital art, size it to standard printing proportions, and create eye catching listings.
Once you create your listings, Etsy handles the rest. Each artwork is available for instant download to the customer as soon as the payment is collected.
Society6 in another great platform to sell your artwork, and they fulfill all orders for you. You are able to sell actual products and make a percent on each sale.This post may contain affiliate links.
How to Create Digital Art
There are many ways to create high quality art for digital download. Here are some of my favorite methods
Photography
Selling your photographs as printable art is a great way to make passive income. I have had the most success with location / destination photographs. Recognizable landmarks have done really well on my Society6 store, and have similar results in my Etsy shop.
It is important to add keywords to your listings and be extremely specific. For example, if you are listing a photo of a beach, make sure you add the name, city, county, etc so if someone searches “Laguna Beach Art Print” yours has a chance of coming up.
Digital Art
Creating Digital Art files is very simple and can be done on almost any device. I use the app ProCreate on my iPad Pro using the Apple Pencil. Buying the iPad was definitely and investment, but I was able to make back the cost in my first year of selling my art.
Any art piece can be photographed or scanned to create a digital file. This is a great way to earn money through your art without selling the original piece.
Artwork
To create this listing, I photographed my Resin Art using a Canon SLR Camera in the RAW setting, and edited the file in Photoshop. This is my most sold print on my Society6 store
On Society6, I have had the most success with quotes and typography art, as well as random designs that get purchased as decorative pillows. Because the Etsy listings are printed by the consumer, art prints and posters do better.
Collage Art
Creating a collage is fairly simple, and can be done with your own photos, or copyright free images from sites like Unsplash. Make sure you change the images to make them your own, you are not allowed to sell the photos without changing them.
I like to make collages using the ProCreate app with my iPad and Apple Pencil. Unsplash has so many high quality images you can download for free, making it easy to sell digital art if you do not have a high quality camera.
Digital Templates
Selling Templates is another way to make passive income on Etsy. There are many programs available for selling templates, but I prefer using Canva. For a step by step instructions on selling Canva Templates, read my tutorial here.
You need a premium Canva Account to do this – Sign up HERE for a Credit
How to Sell Digital Art on Etsy
Once you have a high quality file, it is very simple to list it to your Etsy store. I create 5 different files for more size options using Canva, a listing cover photo (also with Canva) and write a thorough product description
File Size
I create 5 separate designs on Canva using the largest measurements from each file below:
*proportions are similar in each option of file size*
◈ File 1: 6″x9″, 8″x12″, 10″x15″, 12″x18″
❖ 2: 6″x8″, 9″x12″, 12″x16″
◈ File 3: 8″x10″, 16″x20″
❖ File 4: 11″x14″
◈ File 5 (International Paper Size): A3, A4, A5
Once I have each file size created and named “File 1 Title” I load my art into my Canva Media Library and drag it in to each file, cropping it how I would want it to be printed.
Then you download each file and will add them to your Etsy listing as the downloadable files later on.
Cover Photo
Create a 2000×2000 px image on Canva and add your image. While the image is highlighted, press ‘Effects’ and choose a Mock up.
Create an eye catching cover for you listing. I like to showcase my listings as how they would look on the wall. This also makes it harder to screenshot and steal the image without paying for it.
Product Description
Create a thorough product description filled with keywords. Describe the style of the image, the room it would go in etc.
Don’t forget to add that the product is a DIGITAL file for instant download and they will NOT be receiving a finished product. This will prevent confusion for customers.
Be as descriptive a you can with the file size, how to print, where to get it printed, and that it can not be re-sold.
Tips for Success
Test your prints before listing them
Make sure your image quality is high enough to print as large as you advertise. This will prevent problems down the road if a customer has issues with the file quality and creates a claim with Etsy or leave a bad review.
Create at least 10 listings!
The more listings you have the higher your chance is to show up in the search. More listings = more sales. The most successful Etsy shops are the shops with hundreds of listings. I am currently trying to build my store to 300 Listings
Little Sales Add Up
Even though the selling price is low, each sale adds up and you can make a good passive income selling on Etsy. The first month of opening my shop, I only made $40, but as I added more listings and tried using Etsy Ads, it started to grow
