One day I’ll have a thriving art business that fully supports me. But like a lot of artists that’s a stretch goal and the biggest roadblock for me is time. While the term passive income makes cringe, the concept of putting in the time to create a product that I can basically set and forget is necessary for most artists these days. And something that makes it feel less cringey is selling products that I know have value and will get me closer to a nest egg to focus on my art full time. Even if you work with more traditional mediums rather than digital, you can repurpose your art by selling it as digital downloads online without becoming an expert in Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign etc. Full disclosure, I am not getting rich from my Etsy shop, but it is a slice of the pie in becoming a working artist so I hope this helps someone else out there.
What is a digital download?
A digital download can be almost anything that can be formatted as a PDF, png, jpeg, .zip files. For this post, I’m focusing on art-based printables, but people sell everything from music to Excel accounting templates.
How can I sell my artwork as digital downloads on Etsy?
- Figure out what types of products you’d like to sell and build a catalog of products.
You can go about selling your art a few ways, but some digital products are easier to turn into specific products than others. If you’re looking to repurpose paintings or drawings of full-page scenes, digital art prints and simple greeting cards may be a good starting place. If you’re willing to put in some more work, you can also create artwork with the final format in mind, like bookmarks, gift tags, stickers, calendars, and more.
- Scan or photograph your artwork.
Scan your work at a high resolution so the quality will come through on your final product. A basic all-in-one printer/scanner does the job just fine, or you can opt for a dedicated scanner like this one that I use now.
Scan your work at the highest DPI possible. DPI = dots per inch so 300 DPI means there are 300 dots per square inch of your work. The higher the DPI, the more information available which means better quality.
Different scanners and computers may vary so here are a few other settings you’ll need for scanning:- Full color
- Save as .JPEG (some scanners may default to .pdf)
- Size: You may have to select the area of artwork that you want to scan.
You can also photograph your work with a camera or even your phone. This can be more challenging, but with good natural lighting, and your phone/camera set to a higher image quality and size it can still get you a good result.
- Format your work to sell.
Once you’ve got your scanned image on your computer, you’ll have to format your work into the product you’d like to sell. For example, some of my paintings were created on 9” x 12” paper, but I want to sell them at standard art print sizes like 8” x 10”, 11” x 14”, or maybe repurpose my art as a 5” x 7” greeting card. To do this I’ll bring it into Photoshop or another design application to crop and/or resize it. Canva is a great free website you can use if you don’t have Adobe applications like Photoshop or Illustrator or don’t know how to use them.
Once I have my work formatted how I want, I save it as a PDF. This PDF will be the actual product you’re selling as a digital download. To save time in the future, you can create templates in whatever program you’re using.
- Create mock-ups and images for your shop products.
Product images are required on Etsy and are important for showcasing what your product is to future customers. You can go about this a few ways: using mock-ups which are images of your work “mocked up” using a design application to show what your product would look like in real life, print out your product and take photos of it, or a combination of both.
Your images should clearly represent what your product is and I’d recommend sticking with a consistent style for the images you use in your shop. It’s important to note that one of your images will be the featured image that displays as the thumbnail for that product. I like to include a sticker that identifies the item as a printable or digital download as another way to let the customer know that this is a digital download and not a product that will be shipped to them.
You can create mockups yourself, use free mockups online, or buy mockups on a site like Creative Market. If you’re using mock-ups that you found or purchased, make sure that you have permission to use them for commercial purposes.
- Write a standard product description and decide on prices for your products.
Even if you’re selling a variety of products, having a few standard product descriptions will save you time when adding new listings to your shop so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time. Your product listing should include a description of your product including keywords and specs like sizing, file types included in the purchase, how to use your product, any copyright info, contact info, your website, and social media handles. I also like to figure out my pricing for specific types of products and stay consistent. Pricing is a whole topic of its own. If you’re totally lost, look at products similar to yours to get an idea of what the market is like for your product. Ultimately, the price is up to you.
- Launch your Etsy shop.
After you have your products ready to go, you’re almost ready to launch your shop. But you’ll have to set up your shop first. Create a name for your shop. Figure out your shop policies. Write your shop bio. Create a header image for your shop.
- Market your work.
Once your shop is live, tell people! Share it on Pinterest and social media, promote it in your newsletter, tell friends and family, and or share wherever else you share your artwork with others.
There’s so much more to cover, but these are some basics for getting started. For in-depth instructions on setting up your Etsy shop and digitizing your art, check out my course on Skillshare: How to Sell Digital Prints on Etsy: Turn Your Art Into Printables (Plus you’ll get your first month free with this link!)
I also recommend checking out the Etsy Seller Handbook. A shop that is successful for you is also successful for them, so they provide valuable content to Etsy sellers for setting up a successful shop and updates on trending items. Happy Etsying!
