Printable Wall Art....So I'd never heard of this (I live under a rock apparently) and was wondering what peoples thoughts were about it.

NessIllustration

@randarrington I do have to say, there is no true "passive income". There is low maintenance income, but "passive" strategies still require maintenance. Also, it's a large time investment upfront to set it up and usually takes quite a lot of effort before it takes off. That being said, they're still worth it! Another great thing about digital products is that they're very scalable. Once you've made the product, you can sell it 1 time or you can sell it 10,000 times.

NessIllustration

@hakepe I'm not selling printables, I'm selling digital planners and digital planner stickers I sell on Etsy, my shop is https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/thedigitalsiren?ele=shop_open

I'm nearing 3000 sales!

How you find your audience entirely depends on the product, and where the people who want it are. For digital planners, it's a small and tight knit community that hangs out in Facebook groups dedicated to digital planning. So I went there, and got people on a mailing list by offering a freebie. It worked really well so I was able to launch to an audience who was waiting for it and started strong.

Afterwards, because of my sale numbers, my products started getting picked up by the Etsy algorithm and showing up in search. I still use my mailing list a lot (about 1200 people on it), but my products sell a lot just from showing up in search which is the ticket, because that's less effort. But I also set up a system for bringing customers who come from Etsy onto my mailing list as well, it's a whole cycle of life that runs smoothly, but it took a long time to set up!

randarrington

@NessIllustration I can see that. I kinda think of "passive" as doing a piece of artwork and figuring out how it can be leveraged to create a revenue stream. You always have to feed the fire . Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge!!!!

NessIllustration

@randarrington Yes exactly! That's my favorite way to work I've always had several revenue streams, but up until this year they were all separate and required different art. It was like having 3 full-time jobs! I've completely restructured this year so that instead of creating 3 pieces of art and selling each one once, I can create one piece of art and sell it 3 times This is so much more efficient, and allows me to spend more time on each piece. When setting up revenue streams, it's good to think about how they'll fit in with each other.

randarrington

@NessIllustration THAT IS SO AWESOME!!!!!! Congratulations!!!!!! That's honestly such a beautiful thing. I want to be like you when I grow up!!! Thank you so much for sharing!!!!! LOVE IT!!!!!!!

K.Flagg

I feel like it really depends on what you are offering. I don't think its a good idea for really detailed fine art. I don't offer digital downloads of my art because #1 yes it could be misused and uploaded on other sites. This happens on Etsy all of the time. #2 I want to control how my art is presented. I want to know that when people are seeing my art that the colors are correct and its presented on nice paper. But I have considered opening a second shop where I just upload a bunch of simple designs that I'm not emotionally attached to, that people can use in whatever way they want because it is a very popular thing now with so many people making their own products for fun at home using fancy printers for tee shirts and stationary, decal/sticker cutters, CNC machines, ect.

NessIllustration

@K-Flagg Very true, it doesn't work for everything!

LouD

Another option for passive income could be a print-on-demand dropshipping service. When a customer buys a print on your website or Etsy, the order is forwarded to a company who handles all the printing and shipping. You are limited to the paper and sizes they offer but I think it would be more quality control than the customer’s home printer. The printing company charges more per print than if you do it yourself, but you can also charge the customer more than you would for a digital download.
I’m looking in to this option as a step before I invest in products that may never sell. This way, if nobody buys a print, it doesn’t cost me anything. If anyone has used companies like Printful or Printify, I’d love to hear your experience!

randarrington

@LouD LOVE IT!!!! I didn't know about that option either!!!!

Thank you so much for sharing that information!!!!!!

NessIllustration

@LouD I've used Printful before and liked them. I recommend ordering a couple sample prints so you can check if you like the quality, as well as check their packaging and overall experience. That's what I did, and their matte prints came out really great. They had this velvety texture that was incredible and felt luxurious. My print shop did horribly bad, crashed and burned But I was only out about $40 and a month of my time so it was no big deal, like @LouD said.

LouD

@nessillustration Thanks so much for sharing! Good to hear that you like the quality, and I would definitely order some samples. Seems like a relatively safe option for the proof-of-concept stage. And if the shop doesn’t work out, my whole family will be getting sample prints for Christmas

randarrington

Love love love!!!!! Thank you all for being so engaged and offering such great solutions. Hopefully I'll feel like I have a print to sell some day and will certainly be using all of this data. THANK YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!