It is a well-known fact that Etsy has become one of the leading platforms for buying and selling handmade items like original artwork and crafts. Artists, designers, crafters and other makers can sell their products through their individual shops. However, did you know that Etsy is also a great place for selling art prints of your artwork.
Selling prints of your art will allow you to make more money because you can sell more art without spending more time painting original pieces. Selling prints is also a great way to allow people who love your art, but can't afford to buy an original piece, to still get to own a piece of you work at a more affordable price.
However, when artists start selling their prints on Etsy, they are not always aware of the intricacies involved in doing so.
In this article, we’ll walk you through the steps you need to take to sell art prints on Etsy. By the end of this guide article, you’ll have everything you need to sell your art on Etsy and information which will help you.
So, lets start!
Helpful Tips for Selling Art Prints On Etsy
Etsy is a popular online marketplace for handmade and vintage goods, which allows you to sell your art prints.
To help you get a better understanding of how to sell your art prints on Etsy, we have compiled 10 tips that will hopefully make it easier for you. Then we will go into more detailed steps on how to actually get your Art Prints onto your Etsy store.
Tips #1: Make sure that your artwork has been printed professionally or take the time to do it yourself.
Tips #2: Find a niche market that is not saturated and try to dominate it by making your product unique and different from the others in the market.
Tips #3: Use SEO keywords in your titles and tags so that people can find your work more easily when they are searching for something specific on Etsy or Google search engine.
Tips #4: Take good quality photos of your artwork so that buyers can see what they are purchasing before they buy it, as well as provide detailed descriptions of each piece of work on their listings so customers know exactly what they are buying before they purchase it.
Tips #5: Find ways to display your artwork in home decor stores or on a website, as well as on Etsy if you are selling through that platform.
Tips #6: Find ways to market your work on social media platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest. Take photos of items that you make so people can see how they look in person before buying them from you. For example, if you sell jewelry, create a Pinterest board with photos of pieces of your work and then pin them to that board. If you sell paintings, take a photo of the painting and post it on social media so people can see it before they buy it from you.
Tips #7: If you are not selling your work, think about the different ways you can display it. You may be able to create a space in your home that showcases your own artwork, such as an art gallery or an area of the living room where people can enjoy a drink and look at pieces. Or perhaps you could create a website showcasing all of your original work and sell your and sell prints of it on Etsy or in print form through local craft fairs.
Tips #8: Consider becoming more involved with the local arts community. Join the local art guild to meet other artists, attend classes offered by the city's art school, sign up for a class at the local university, or volunteer at an artist-run gallery.
How to scan Artwork at Home or Fedex?
The most important part of selling art prints on Etsy is getting high quality scans of your artwork so that you can then upload them into Etsy and sell them through a print-on-demand supplier like Printful.
There are a few different ways to scan artwork at home, and FedEx offers a variety of scanning options as well. Keep reading to learn the best ways to scan artwork at home and through FedEx.
1. If you're scanning your artwork at home, you will obviously need a flat bed scanner.
2. Scanning your artwork is easy! You'll just need to place a section of your artwork on the scanner bed and press start! Scan different sections of your art until you have scanned the whole piece. Take a look at the 2 video tutorials below where Katie from Hidden Fauna and Shannon from Shannon Mullin explain how they scan and edit their artwork at home.
3. If you don't have a scanner and prefer to scan your artwork at Fedex, just take your artwork to their location and ask them to scan different sections of your art, until they've scanned the whole piece. Take a look at the video below for more detailed instructions on how Heather from Heather Cash Art does this.
4. If your scans don't look quite right, play with the scanner settings. Make sure you scan your artwork at 600 dpi to get a high quality scan.
The three videos above show how to scan large pieces of artwork and then convert them into digital files.
Type of Scanner I use for Digitizing My Artwork
To get high quality scans, you need to first determine determine what type of scanner you want to use to scan your artwork for selling art prints on Etsy. There are three types of scanners: flatbed scanners, sheet-fed scanners, and drum scanners.
Even though I prefer flat bed scanners, here are the advantages and disadvantages that you should consider about each of them before making a decision about which scanner to use.
Here is a breakdown of each scanner type:
Flatbed Scanners
This is the most common type of scanner and the one that most people are familiar with. These scanners are good for scanning small pieces and also large pieces of artwork (with the help of an editing software), such as paintings and drawings.
Advantages of Flatbed Scanners:
Disadvantages of Flatbed Scanners:
Sheet-Fed Scanners
Sheet-fed scanners are sometimes referred to as book scanners or document scanners. They are ideal for large prints and books because they can accommodate documents up to several inches thick.
Advantages of Sheet-Fed Scanners:
Disadvantages of Sheet-Fed Scanners:
Drum Scanners
Drum scanners are very large and heavy. They also require special software to load and edit the documents you scan. Because of their large size, they are usually used by libraries and museums that have a lot of items that need to be scanned. Now that you know a little bit about each type of scanner, let's look at some of the advantages of using each of them:
Advantages of Drum Scanners:
Disadvantages of drum scanners include:
Good Flatbed Scanners to choose from:
Here are some good options for flatbed scanners in case you decide it's time for you to start making some cash selling your art prints on Etsy:
Epson Perfection V19 Color Photo & Document Scanner
Epson Perfection V550 Document Scanner with 6400 DPI Optical Resolution
How to open up and connect a Printable Account to an Etsy Account?
The best way to sell your art prints on Etsy is by using a print-on-demand service like Printful and connecting it to your Etsy shop. This will allow you to not spend a single dime on inventory until you have actually sold a print.
Using Printful also allows the whole printing and shipping process to be hands-off for you... meaning that once someone places an order on Etsy for one of your Printful digital products, Printful will automatically print your artwork and ship it to your customer. All you have to do is upload a digital scan of your artwork into Printful, select what type of product (poster, canvas, tshirt, mug, towel, etc) you want your artwork to be placed on, and list the item on your Etsy store. That's it! Once it sells, Printful will do the rest for you.
You can open up your own printable store on Etsy and sell digital prints to your audience without needing to produce or ship anything. When you open up a shop in the Prints category of the Etsy shop marketplace, you're responsible for producing and shipping your products to your customers. That's a lot to take on as a small business. That's why I love this Printful alternative solution that allows artists like you and me to sell products without any upfront costs or the hassle of managing shipping and inventory.
Let's get started!
Note: This tutorial assumes that you already have an Etsy account/shop and are familiar with the basic functionality of Etsy.
Step #1: If you don't already have an Etsy account, you'll first need to sign up for an account on the Etsy website before you can proceed further in this tutorial.
Step #2: Then you'll need to visit the Printful website and sign up for a free Printful account. Next, you'll need to connect your Etsy account to the Printful app.
Step #3: To do this, you'll need to click the "Connected Accounts" link under the "Selling" tab in your Printful dashboard. This will take you to the Connected Accounts page where you can click "Connect New Account" to add your Etsy account.
Step #4: After clicking that link, you'll be prompted to log in to your Etsy account. Then you'll need to agree to the terms and conditions by verifying your email address.
Step #5: After that, you'll be taken back to the Connected Accounts page where you'll be able to select the Etsy account for which you want to connect. Once you've selected the account you want to connect, your Etsy shop will be connected to your Printful shop.
Checkout Getting Started with Printful and Etsy Video Tutorial:
Now you're ready to start designing products and listing them for sale on your Etsy shop!
Should You Sell Print Arts on Etsy?
Yes, selling prints on Etsy can be a profitable endeavor. Prints can be a popular item on Etsy, and there are several reasons why.
First, prints are an affordable product that many people are looking for. Many Etsy sellers find that their customers are particularly interested in items that are high quality and affordable.
Second, many people like to display their art in their homes. For this reason, they purchase prints that are of a good quality and fit their personal style.
Third, prints and posters are easy to ship and easy to display. For these reasons, people frequently turn to Etsy to find unique prints that they can use to decorate their homes or to give to friends and family as gifts.
Conclusion
If you're an artist, you know that it's difficult to get your work out into the world. This is where Etsy comes in. Etsy is a marketplace for handmade goods and crafts, and now you know that you can sell art prints of your artwork on Etsy without investing any money on inventory by integrating Printful (a print-on-demand service) with your Etsy shop.
The possibilities are endless for what you can print your art on. You can print your art on anything from clothing, to canvas, to posters, to mugs, to metal, and much more. So start now!
