How to Make Money From Art, 9 Proven Ways [2022]

 Do you know how to make money from art?

One of my blogging students is a creative professional. Like many other artists, he had no idea how to monetize his talents and make money online as an artist.

When he signed up for a blogging course, he just wanted to be able to create a blog and write about his works. But I had to train him on how to also make money on the Internet as an artist.

Whether you are a digital artist or you are an expert in crafting physical objects, there is a huge market and money-making opportunity online, and in this post, I want to help you discover some of these money-making channels and add to your income stream.

By the time you are done reading, you will know how to make money from art online and where you can submit artwork for money.

Besides fine art investing there are numerous ways to make money from art. I will share realistic ways you can do it. Let’s get started.

How to make money from art, 9 ways

1 – Give a name to your works

Branding begins with naming but it’s not always easy to come up with a catchy name for your business. If you’ve been operating for some time now, it’s possible you already have a name for your creative business. For beginners, it’s highly recommended to brainstorm and come up with a business name in order to start branding yourself and your work.

I stumbled on this free artist name generator while helping my student come up with an attractive name for his enterprise. Giving your business a memorable name is as important as trying to grow your business. You must not take this lightly if you want long-term sustainable income.

Once you have a name, always check to make sure the domain name is available online before you go ahead and adopt the name. One of the difficulties in coming up with a creative business name is the availability of its domain name. While the .com domain name extension is more common and hardly available for many keywords, there are several other extensions that are readily available.

2 – Create a blog, publish content, and sell space

Without a doubt, creating a blog and constantly publishing content is one of the most effective ways to build a marketplace online. While blogging is becoming more and more stressful, its success highly relies on content creation and marketing strategy.

As an artist, you stand a better chance to generate income online if you blog about your works and produce useful industry-based content to educate and retain your readers. Once you have your blog in place with content and readers clicking every moment, you will be able to generate income in several ways. One of them is to sell ad space.

Developing ad revenue from your blog can drastically increase your online earnings. This is one of the ways that I constantly make money as a blogger. You may want to use platforms like BSA or simply run plugins that allow you to manage your ads from your blog’s dashboard.

As your art blog grows in traffic, you may want to sign up to contextual advertising platforms like Google Adsense, Mediavine, Monumetric, etc.

3 – Sell your works on your blog

One of the most practical things to do on your blog is to sell your own works. Whether they are digital or material finished artworks, your blog provides one of the most accessible marketplaces at your disposal.

You may do this by adding a personal shop to your blog where readers go through your works and buy directly from you. You can do this using most website builders such as Wix, which has an ecommerce solution as well. 

4 – Sell your works on micro-job platforms

There are many job websites online to expose your works and attract buyers. A common example is Fiverr.

Both digital and physical creative works can be sold on many of these micro-job boards. All you need is to sign up (In many cases, they are free to join) and follow instructions to start taking advantage of the already existing marketplace.

5 – Write books or create courses online

Another way to demonstrate your expertise and monetize your skills is by writing books and creating courses to teach your audience. There are lots of people out there who are certainly interested in what you do and are ready to pay a fee to learn. While writing an ebook to teach your skills can generate some income, creating a video course will go a long way to increase your earnings and establish you as a leader in the industry.

There are lots of course selling platforms including Udemy, Thinkific, Teachable, etc. You may want to sell your course directly on your blog but if you want to be free from the hassles of maintaining a course website, you may just go ahead and sign up to any of these platforms and pay the required fees.

Let’s discover more information about how to make money from art.

6 – Sell your works on Amazon

Amazon is one of the largest marketplaces to sell both digital and material items. With a solid product delivery structure and a massive army of affiliates, you cannot afford not to tap into it for increased income.

7 – Join affiliate programs of the tools you use

As an artist, you work with tools. Whether they are software or physical tools, some of these have affiliate marketing programs that pay you a commission if you help them sell. When you become an affiliate of a tool you use, you will be given marketing materials and a dashboard to sell and track your earnings.

If you are using software to create digital art, find out from the software website if there is an affiliate page. What if you bought a digital Camera from Amazon? If you have a blog, your readers will be interested in knowing more about your camera or the software you use.

To generate sales as an affiliate and earn commissions, you may want to do reviews of your tools and direct readers to the tool’s website through your affiliate links. Once they order those tools as a result of your recommendation, you earn a portion of what they spend.

Apart from posting banners and reviewing your tools on your blog, you may go ahead and do YouTube videos, giving details of how you use your tools to get your work done. This will always drive relevant traffic and create an avenue for you to make more money. 

8 – Get paid to write

Besides writing on your personal website, you can be paid to write as an artist on platforms created for artists and art enthusiasts. One of these is Artistsnetwork created to publish lessons, interviews, and discussions related to art, artists, and artistic processes.

Do a quick search on Google or other search engines and you will come up with a list of sites that offer a reasonable amount of money for art-related content.

9 – Submit artwork for money

Discovering how to make money from art is easier when you know where to submit your artwork.

There are many sites online where you can submit artwork for money:

• Patreon
• Webtoon
• PosterMyWall

Here are descriptions of these three sites where you can submit artwork for money:

Patreon

Fans of artists support the artist financially. At Patreon, fans become patrons of artists. You need to apply to join Patreon.

Webtoon

Webtoon is a social media site for artists who are cartoonists. More information about how to submit artwork for money at Webtoons can be found in this Mostly Blogging article about social pay.

PosterMyWall

Submitting to PosterMyWall is another way to make money from art online. PosterMyWall is a graphic design tool.

If you design an image that PosterMyWall sells, you make 35% of the royalties from the sale. More information about how to make money from art by submitting to PosterMyWall can be found in this article about the PosterMyWall app.

How to Make Money From Art Frequently Asked Questions

What kind of art sells best?

That is subject to opinion. An expression states, “Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder,” and it’s true. What might be appealing to one art admirer might be unattractive to another. This subjectivity is one of the more challenging aspects of discovering how to make money from art.

How much money can you make from making art?

When explaining how to make money from art, there is no “one size fits all” answer. The amount of income potential varies on many factors. For instance, do you have an advertising budget? If so, will you pay to boost the visibility of your art? Also, where will you promote your art? The Webtoon platform pays cartoonists, and the artists’ yearly incomes vary greatly. Some cartoonists make over $100,000 yearly while others make less than $10,000 yearly.

Conclusion: How to Make Money from Art Online

As an artist, you can make money online while doing what you are passionate about. Online income opportunities are limitless. While I believe this post has given you some points to start with when learning how to make money from art, you may want to do more research to locate more ways to monetize your skills on the Internet.

Readers, please share so artists discover how to make money from art.

I look forward to your views in the comments section. Do you know how to make money from art? What additional suggestions can you add?

Authors: Janice Wald and a Contributing Author