Earn royalties with art

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Want to earn royalties with art?

There are dozens of so-called “print-on-demand” shops that invite artists to upload their images to illustrate everything from iPhone cases to coffee cups. Several will also put your art on canvas. Artists decide what designs to upload and generally pick the products that they want it to illustrate. After that, you sit back and earn money with art without doing additional work.

In some cases, the site will tell you how much of a royalty you’ll earn on each of those products — say 10% to 25%. In other cases, the site lets you set the royalty rate. Either system can work and none of these sites demands exclusivity, so you can list with them all, if you want.

Some of the best royalty-based platforms:

Printful

Printful is a print-on-demand operation that allows creatives to upload art — or create a design on the site — and have the site print the uploaded art on one (or many) of 200+ products the site offers for sale. The site publishes its prices and shipping terms, promising to fulfill orders within days of receiving them. Creatives simply add a mark-up to ensure that they earn a profit on each sale.

However, unlike competitors RedBubble and FineArtAmerica, Printful doesn’t offer your products through its website. You need to have an e-commerce site of your own that you link to your Printful account. That allows you to essentially “white label” Printful’s products as your own. You can learn more about Printful here. Or you can sign up to offer products through Printful here.

FineArtAmeria

FineArtAmerica is one of the oldest and largest print-on-demand operations in the U.S. With most products, FineArtAmerica sets a base price that represents the cost for the site to produce and ship the product to the customer. The artists adds their mark-up to come up with a final price. The site suggests standard — and relatively modest — mark-ups. For instance, it suggests you set your mark up at $10 for a 36″ x 27″ print, which will sell for $208. If you, instead, want to earn $50 on that sale, the print will cost $248. However, the site also licenses art and makes it available for digital streaming. Learn more about FineArtAmerica here

Spoonflower

Spoonflower is specifically geared to designers who want to create wallpaper and fabric designs. And, where it operates much like other print-on-demand shops, it is uniquely well-suited for fabric designers. It gives designers and buyers a wealth of choices about what type of fabric is used — from simple cottons to lightweight chiffons and heavy linens. It also provides discounts to interior designers — a smart marketing tactic. And the fabric is expensive to buy, ranging from $19 to more than $50 per yard. So, even at a 10% royalty rate, artists are likely to make a decent amount on every sale. Learn more about Spoonflower here.

Society6

Society6 generally sets the royalty rate for you. The one exception is with prints. If you’re selling a print, the site will tell you its cost for each size and you add whatever royalty rate you want to come up with a final price. With the other products, Society6 simply pays you 10% of the sales price. Learn more about Society6 here.

RedBubble

Like Society6, Redbubble puts your art on t-shirts, hoodies, notebooks, stickers and posters — and a wide array of other products. However, where Society6 sets a price per product and tells you how much you’ll make on each, Redbubble has a dynamic pricing formula where you can set your own margin. For instance, if a t-shirt’s base price is $18.50, you can add a $10 mark-up and the site will sell it for $28.50. Or, you could decide to accept a lower mark-up to sell at a lower price. Learn more about RedBubble here.