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Redbubble Review: Make Money Online as an Artist

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Last Updated on December 1, 2020 by Yovana

There are so many ways to sell your stuff online, including your digital art (without having to commit to buying inventory).

Are you an artist that is looking for ways to make money online? Well, look no further because you can sell your art on Redbubble for free. Redbubble is a platform that thousands of artists use to monetize their designs.

If you are interested in earning money in exchange for your art (whether that is extra money as a side hustle or potential full-time gig), then read on to discover how to sell on Redbubble and make sure that you are earning top dollar for your hard work in this Redbubble review.

Redbubble is a platform that thousands of artists use to monetize their designs. Click to Tweet

What is Redbubble?

Redbubble is a website that gives independent artists an easy, profitable way to sell their creations. Over 700,000 artists have signed up for the platform, and millions of independent sales have happened on Redbubble. 

Based in Australia, Redbubble is a Print on Demand (POD) website that sells user-designed products. Artists can open a shop on the website and sell their designs in the form of t-shirts, stickers, phone cases, and more.

While there are other POD services on the market, Redbubble sets itself apart in how to they bring themselves to market and how well they take care of their artists. 

How Does Redbubble Work?

For artists to sell on Redbubble, they must first open a Redbubble shop. Redbubble does not interface with Shopify or other e-commerce platforms, so users may only sell via the Redbubble platform. However, they make this process very easy. 

Artists must first sign up for a free account. Then, they can upload their designs and logos, and put them on whatever products they choose. Then, artists can choose to promote their products.

Artists also choose the price point at which they will sell their items. They choose this by setting a specific product margin for each item they sell.

For example, if a t-shirt will cost $15 to make, the artist can set the price at a $10 profit margin or $25 per shirt. 

Once an artist’s store is set up, it will be available for potential buyers to browse. Users can search the website by artist, the item they want to purchase, price, and other filters. When someone purchases an item, they pay for the item and shipping, and the artist gets paid

How to Sell on Redbubble

Now that you understand how Redbubble works, it is important to understand more details on how to sell on Redbubble. 

The first step after creating an account is to upload your artwork. If you are a digital creator, you should have a transparent .png file of your work to upload. If you create physical pieces, you will have to find a way to digitize your art before uploading it.

Once your artwork is uploaded, you will be able to upload it to over 60 products on the website. Then, you will be able to add products to your online store. 

redbubble review upload snippet

How to Optimize Your Sales

When selling on Redbubble, you have a few opportunities to optimize your online store. The first is to ensure that your product descriptions are optimized to help people search for them. You should call out something that is unique and desirable about your item.

For example, if your designs are very LGBT friendly, you might want to include words like ‘pride’ and ‘coming out’, especially if you are advertising or putting new designs up around pride month or national coming out day. 

Another way to optimize your sales is to decide which products you will be selling your designs on. For example, if your designs feature animals drinking coffee, you may want to focus on selling coffee mugs. However, if your designs are about food, you might want to focus on bags that people can take to farmer’s markets. 

Redbubble has over 60 product offerings on which you can print your designs. Some of the product offerings include:

  • Men’s clothing
  • Women’s clothing
  • Drawstring bags
  • Mugs 
  • Scarves
  • Technology accessories
  • Socks
  • Buttons

By creating products that speak to a specific market, you can optimize your sales. While posting items for sale is easy, you are responsible for advertising your products and ensuring that what you create is attractive to others. 

Presentation and promotion is what will determine if Redbubble will be a lucrative money making venture for you or not.

Artist Payment Process

Artists on Redbubble set their prices by choosing the profit margin that they want to earn from each product. Redbubble has a set price per item depending on how much it costs to make.

For example, a t-shirt base price is $17. You can choose to mark up the item by a percentage or a dollar amount, but the standard is a 20% mark up. A 25% mark up would earn you $4.25 per t-shirt.

When you create your Redbubble account, you will add your bank account information. This is how the website will pay you when you have made sales. You may also add your PayPal if you do not want to link your bank account, or do not have an Australian, US, or UK bank account. 

Once you’ve made a sale, you will be alerted via email. After two to three days, the item will be printed and shipped to the buyer. Once the item has shipped, you will be paid. However, the website only pays out monthly. The billing cycle for each month begins on the 15th, and you must earn at least $20 to be paid. 

If you do not earn the $20 minimum, your pay will carry over to the next billing cycle. Artists can look up all their payment information on the Artist Payment Dashboard. 

Is Redbubble Legit?

Redbubble is not a scam.

Redbubble is a publicly-traded company on the Australian stock exchange. They were founded in 2006 and have helped thousands of artists get their work into the world.

They pay their artists based on what the artists set as their prices and they pay out when an item sells, so the process is fair for the company, the artists, and the buyers.

There have been questions about the legality of the company selling artist’s designs. When artists sign up to sell on the website, they give Redbubble permission to print and sell their designs in exchange for payment. Therefore, the website is completely legitimate and legal. 

How Much Can I Earn on Redbubble?

Earning on Redbubble is straightforward. If you want to set a very small profit margin, you will earn much less per item but may also sell more items if you are in a competitive genre. The beauty is that you get to choose how much you want to earn per items sold, and therefore Redbubble pays as much as you want to earn, permitting that your items sell (just as you set a price for when you are selling any other item online, print on demand or not). 

Pros and Cons of Redbubble

There are a few players in the POD market, so there are a few things that set Redbubble apart from the rest of the companies. 

Pros

Perhaps the best thing about this website is that artists are not responsible for creating items and that they will never get stuck with unsold products. If an artist wants to purchase several items to sell at a show or something they may, but otherwise, people from the internet can simply drop in and support the artists without the artist having to do more than simply posting the item for sale on the website. 

Another pro to Redbubble is the user experience. Not only is the website high quality and easy to use, but the items shipped are of high quality as well. Artists can choose which items they want their designs on, and they can customize how the design will appear on the items. 

Redbubble’s customer support is very strong as well. The company guarantees a response within four hours when customers write in. The website also has a live chat feature, and they are available for support on Twitter on weekdays excluding holidays. 

Cons

Because each item is printed specifically for the customer, it can take a long time to receive the items. Therefore, if anyone is shopping on the website and needs an item quickly, they will not receive it right away.

Typically, it takes two to three days to print and ship an item. The website ships globally, so shipping times can vary. However, users can select faster shipping at check out if they want to, but it will still take two to three days to print the item. 

Artists also claim that it can be frustrating to wait for a payout. If they do not sell over $20 in profit in a month, they will have to wait until they have earned the minimum threshold to get paid. Additionally, it can be frustrating for an artist to see a piece of their art sold at a specific price but only earn a small amount. You won’t always make money fast, but the payment is both fair and predetermined.

However, the artists also do not take on the burden of creating the piece and buying the materials, so in some situations, this is more advantageous for the artist. 

The Bottom Line: Should I Sell on Redbubble?

If you are an artist or designer and want to earn extra cash, Redbubble is a completely legitimate website.

While artists may be able to earn a higher profit margin if they were selling in-person, Redbubble helps artists to reach a much broader audience. However, if you set your profit margins high, can appeal to an audience with your work, and make a lot of sales, your earning potential is unlimited. 

Add social media to the marketing strategy of your Redbubble items for sale and reach even more people. Instagram is great for this!

Have you ever tried selling your designs and digital art online before with something like Redbubble or looking to get started? Let us know in the comments below!

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Redbubble

Free
9.4

Security

9.5/10

Ease of Use

9.5/10

Earning Potential

9.5/10

Shipping

9.0/10

Availability

9.5/10

Pros

  • You don't need to buy any inventory to sell.
  • Items are easy to customize how you want them to look with your designs on them.
  • Customer service is highly rated.

Cons

  • Shipping can take up to 3 days or more.
  • You have to wait until you reach the payment threshold to get paid.

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