I've also seen more sales pretty much this whole year. I actually think this has to do with Covid, which is surprising but I think it's true. People in the US, which I believe is S6's largest market, are stuck at home. Suddenly they notice all those empty walls and decide to decorate. Any markets to do with home improvement and decor are doing well. Thanks for sharing though - I've been on s6 about twice as long as you, and seen similar growth. It's quite nice for how little work it is. I'm trying to branch out to redbubble now, you never know when one company changes protocol, so I don't like to have all my eggs in one basket. I put some designs up a year ago and literally not a single sale, not even views! According to their tracking pages anyway. So I'm trying to get some views/likes through fb groups, and see if that changes anything. I only sell wall art though, so it might be that redbubble has a more tshirt and sticker audience. Best of luck.
Yes, I think you're right about home decorating. I am also on Redbubble, Teepublic and Etsy. I have had a couple of sales on each but nothing compared to S6. I put it down to the audience. I think my pattern work is better suited to an S6 market and perhaps my style of design too. I also looked into Zazzle but wasn't that impressed with the quality of designs selling on that site. I think you're right to spread yourself over multiple platforms, I have also done this is an attempt to have multiple streams in case one falls through. It is also cool to compare and contrast the experience across them too, I think it helps me understand it a bit better. Have you tried Fine Art America for prints? I haven't, but I think that is targeted to wall art. Also Etsy? I sell digital prints on Etsy and what is good about that is the margin! You can set your price and the fees are low. Best of luck with all your POD endeavors and thank you for watching and commenting 😁 Wishing you and yours a happy holiday season 👌🏼
@@DesignbyCheyney I have an account on FAA, and no views/sales. There is WAY too much stuff on there, it's very hard to get found. People have literally thousands of digitally produced images and so I haven't figured out how to get your images to rise above that. I think the pattern I see with each of these PODs is that you need to figure out what their system is for selecting stuff that will be seen in search. I suspect 60-90% of the designs are just never seen by anyone, sandboxed almost. I haven't figure out what it is for FAA. Currently I have stuff on redbubble, society6, imagekind, faa and noir gallery. Best sales on s6, second by a far distant noir, and then almost 0 on the rest. I don't do etsy because I don't have time to do the customer support myself. I have an FT job that isn't photography related. I had a question - do you see clickthroughs from your pinterest pins? I post them, rarely see clicks.
@@considerphi yes, I think registering in the ever elusive algorithm is the key to success on these platforms. I feel that the more sales I have on Society6 the more my :visible" my designs come and as a result I get more sales... I also had similar concerns about Etsy however, when people purchase from my shop, I have it set up so they get sent the download automatically - Very rarely do I have contact with the consumer. I think with good templated responses and a seamless checkout system, it is a lot less 'hands on' work than you might think. But fair enough, I get it. Setting up a new store can be half the battle. I do see click throughs on my Pins but WAY more on my packaging design work than POD stuff. One of my Society6 prints went viral on Pinterest but I had it linked to my personal website so I'm not sure how much traffic made it back to Society6, my pick is not much because although that pin went viral, I have only sold one product on my S6 store with that print. I think a lot of people on Pinterest like the aesthetics of a pin rather than follow it through to the linked address (that's mainly how I use Pinterest too) - However, I still rate Pinterest, highly. Especially when it comes to driving traffic to my personal site, because I can see the analytics, I know that it is the number 1 referrer of traffic to my site. Like anything, it take work and a touch of luck, as in "hitting the sweet spot" - I keep pinning, some do better than others. Just ensure your pins are high quality enough that people will want to repin them and cross your fingers, haha.
@@DesignbyCheyney Ah, you do digital downloads on etsy! I considered it for a bit but actually decided that it was too much of a risk for piracy. It's the easiest way for the sketchy shops to get a good quality high-res digital version of the artwork to sell, so I decided against that for now. Yeah I do my best with the pins but no real clicks to s6 so it feels tedious. Maybe some day I'll figure out what works to get traffic on pinterest!
I've been doing POD since 2017. I didn't start taking it serious until winter 2019, although I was still working for someone else fulltime but with hard work and determination I was able to build it up with consistent monthly sales that were more than my monthly salary so I was able to quit my job back in August 2020. Now being fulltime I've seen it grow and still growing every month. Like any other business you have to invest time and money (marketing).
That's so great, congratulations on the success of your store! I too see consistent growth and also agree it takes time to build. It seems that many people think of POD as a 'get rich quick' scheme but it takes just as much effort, time and energy as my design business and actually earns a lot less. It is a lovely supplement to my income and I love uploading to Society6 :) Keep up the good work with your store and thank you for watching and sharing your experience :)
I don't hear many stories of people living off of POD, how are things today? It's super motivating to hear comments like this! Thx so much for sharing.
Thanks for this update! I'd totally love a new one! I hear a lot of conflicting info about sites like society6, Redbubble etc...and this video helped a lot. Pleeeease do a new one! lol. Thanks so much for sharing the REAL side of print on demand. It is SO appreciated. 🙌🏼
I would love to do a new one but as you can probably tell from the delay in my responses, time is something I have little of these days. Hopefully I’ll be back up and running to my old level in a few years when my son spends more time in childcare.
Hi, lovely vid and channel. Your enthusiasm is contagious! My question is do you sell any of your art digitally ie available for download? If so, does it work for you? Thanks!
Hi Perry, yes, I do. I currently sell graphics and templates on Canva www.canva.com/p/designbycheyney - This has kept my business afloat the last few years as I focus my attention on being a stay at home Mum 🥰
Thank you, I have some more videos up my sleeve. It is summer in New Zealand and I am just waiting for it to cool down a bit before I film more. I get too hot in my filming space, haha. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks, stay tuned :) Thank you for watching :)
@@DesignbyCheyney definitely. Waiting for your videos....take your time. You are creating quality and valuable content and your expressions are awesome👍
Hi, I am really enjoying your videos, I am an architect and interior designer, I have just started finding my way around all the print on demand, etsy and so on. I am also living in Auckland, and will be happy to catch up for coffee or something :)
Thank you, I took them down with the intention of refreshing after my son was born but that hasn’t happened yet. I don’t have as much spare time as I used to. I did put a lot of work into my Canva while I was pregnant and that has been sustaining us since :)
Hiya, I am taking a little break from RUclips filming at the moment but there should be other videos online that talk about tags. In my upload process video I do talk about tags a little bit and show which tags I use :)
Thank you so much. After a year like 2020 it is important to celebrate the small wins 😁 If you have a store, I hope you have been getting some sales 😁 Thank you for watching!
@@hichemhichem5293 that is a pretty good ratio of artwork to sales 😊 Yes, I think persistence is key with these things. The more artwork you have up the more likely you are to be 'seen'. Best of luck for loads of sales in the near future 😎
As always, creative! =) society with you is fantastic and speaking of NZ flag, it was out awhile now. Just been a bit delayed 😅. Thank you for being part. Thank you for sharing positive mindset ❤️ you're an inspiration! Xixi
Hi Cheyney! Melina from Argentina here! Just wanted to say that I love that you are so honest on your earnings, it just feels that your advice comes from real experience that could happen to any of us and not this one time 20.000usd magic that feels not so easy to achieve at first! Still happy with this website? I want to enter this world of digital selling art, which platforms would you recommend me to start with? Thanks!
Hi Melina, thank you for your message. I do want to be honest and transparent about my experience because there are a lot of videos out there which promote "get rich quick, without having to do any work" and it's false. You need to do the work to get the return. Out of all the POD platforms, Society6 has performed the best for me in the past. I am taking time off to have a baby soon so am in the process of halting everything to focus all my energy there. Based on my experience, I would definitely say Society6 is the best however, that might be due to my style of art? I do know that many have good luck on TeePublic and Redbubble, but that has not been my experience. If you can afford the time, I would suggest you dip your toes into each and see which works best for you and your designs :) I hope this helps x
@@DesignbyCheyney Im new to your channel and didn't know why you had stopped posting...this comment explained it! Congrats on the new addition! lol 🙂 Definitely going to binge watch your past vids.
Thank you so much Cheyney, for the insights. Does society6 has its own organic promotions ? My designs would be visible with an organic search from day 1 itself, or does it takes time to show ?
You're so welcome. I hope you enjoyed the insight. I am not entirely sure. They promote designs on the home page and in their emails but I have never noticed any of mine in there. They do post on Pinterest and have noticed them post some of my design before. As for Google ads, I am unsure. I have never seen any. But my prediction is that once you make sales, that design, or your profile, or both, rank higher in their search engine. I wish I could be more helpful but without analytics or seeing ads, it is difficult for me to say for sure. I am also on Teepublic and Redbubble who both retarget using Google Ads and I don't do nearly as well on those sites, so my assumption is that either my Society6 designs are being advertised somewhere I haven't seen, I'm ranking higher as I upload/sell more and/or my style of design beat suits Society6 customers (but not right for those that shop on Redbubble or TeePublic). It is all a bit of a guessing game, but I enjoy it 😆 I hope you get some further clarity some how. Thank you for watching 🥰
Heya, I would say at least 6 months on there before I started gaining any real traction with sales. It was drips and drabs for the first few months. I hope this is the answer you were after and that it is helpful ☺️
Hiya, I have a video in my POD playlist called "My Society6 Process to Upload & Sell Art Revealed and from timestamp 6:58 (in the description) I go through my uploading process including my process for tags. I hope this helps 😊
I've also seen more sales pretty much this whole year. I actually think this has to do with Covid, which is surprising but I think it's true. People in the US, which I believe is S6's largest market, are stuck at home. Suddenly they notice all those empty walls and decide to decorate. Any markets to do with home improvement and decor are doing well.
Thanks for sharing though - I've been on s6 about twice as long as you, and seen similar growth. It's quite nice for how little work it is.
I'm trying to branch out to redbubble now, you never know when one company changes protocol, so I don't like to have all my eggs in one basket. I put some designs up a year ago and literally not a single sale, not even views! According to their tracking pages anyway. So I'm trying to get some views/likes through fb groups, and see if that changes anything. I only sell wall art though, so it might be that redbubble has a more tshirt and sticker audience.
Best of luck.
Yes, I think you're right about home decorating. I am also on Redbubble, Teepublic and Etsy. I have had a couple of sales on each but nothing compared to S6. I put it down to the audience. I think my pattern work is better suited to an S6 market and perhaps my style of design too. I also looked into Zazzle but wasn't that impressed with the quality of designs selling on that site. I think you're right to spread yourself over multiple platforms, I have also done this is an attempt to have multiple streams in case one falls through. It is also cool to compare and contrast the experience across them too, I think it helps me understand it a bit better. Have you tried Fine Art America for prints? I haven't, but I think that is targeted to wall art. Also Etsy? I sell digital prints on Etsy and what is good about that is the margin! You can set your price and the fees are low. Best of luck with all your POD endeavors and thank you for watching and commenting 😁 Wishing you and yours a happy holiday season 👌🏼
@@DesignbyCheyney I have an account on FAA, and no views/sales. There is WAY too much stuff on there, it's very hard to get found. People have literally thousands of digitally produced images and so I haven't figured out how to get your images to rise above that.
I think the pattern I see with each of these PODs is that you need to figure out what their system is for selecting stuff that will be seen in search. I suspect 60-90% of the designs are just never seen by anyone, sandboxed almost. I haven't figure out what it is for FAA. Currently I have stuff on redbubble, society6, imagekind, faa and noir gallery. Best sales on s6, second by a far distant noir, and then almost 0 on the rest.
I don't do etsy because I don't have time to do the customer support myself. I have an FT job that isn't photography related.
I had a question - do you see clickthroughs from your pinterest pins? I post them, rarely see clicks.
@@considerphi yes, I think registering in the ever elusive algorithm is the key to success on these platforms. I feel that the more sales I have on Society6 the more my :visible" my designs come and as a result I get more sales...
I also had similar concerns about Etsy however, when people purchase from my shop, I have it set up so they get sent the download automatically - Very rarely do I have contact with the consumer. I think with good templated responses and a seamless checkout system, it is a lot less 'hands on' work than you might think. But fair enough, I get it. Setting up a new store can be half the battle.
I do see click throughs on my Pins but WAY more on my packaging design work than POD stuff. One of my Society6 prints went viral on Pinterest but I had it linked to my personal website so I'm not sure how much traffic made it back to Society6, my pick is not much because although that pin went viral, I have only sold one product on my S6 store with that print. I think a lot of people on Pinterest like the aesthetics of a pin rather than follow it through to the linked address (that's mainly how I use Pinterest too) - However, I still rate Pinterest, highly. Especially when it comes to driving traffic to my personal site, because I can see the analytics, I know that it is the number 1 referrer of traffic to my site. Like anything, it take work and a touch of luck, as in "hitting the sweet spot" - I keep pinning, some do better than others. Just ensure your pins are high quality enough that people will want to repin them and cross your fingers, haha.
@@DesignbyCheyney Ah, you do digital downloads on etsy! I considered it for a bit but actually decided that it was too much of a risk for piracy. It's the easiest way for the sketchy shops to get a good quality high-res digital version of the artwork to sell, so I decided against that for now.
Yeah I do my best with the pins but no real clicks to s6 so it feels tedious. Maybe some day I'll figure out what works to get traffic on pinterest!
@@considerphi good point, I hadn't thought of the piracy factor. Have you watched my Pinterest video?
I've been doing POD since 2017. I didn't start taking it serious until winter 2019, although I was still working for someone else fulltime but with hard work and determination I was able to build it up with consistent monthly sales that were more than my monthly salary so I was able to quit my job back in August 2020. Now being fulltime I've seen it grow and still growing every month. Like any other business you have to invest time and money (marketing).
That's so great, congratulations on the success of your store! I too see consistent growth and also agree it takes time to build. It seems that many people think of POD as a 'get rich quick' scheme but it takes just as much effort, time and energy as my design business and actually earns a lot less. It is a lovely supplement to my income and I love uploading to Society6 :) Keep up the good work with your store and thank you for watching and sharing your experience :)
I don't hear many stories of people living off of POD, how are things today? It's super motivating to hear comments like this! Thx so much for sharing.
Thank you for your cheerfulness and honesty. I'm glad I found your channel!
Aw, you’re welcome. Thank you for watching. And for your kind words 🥰
Thanks for this update! I'd totally love a new one! I hear a lot of conflicting info about sites like society6, Redbubble etc...and this video helped a lot. Pleeeease do a new one! lol. Thanks so much for sharing the REAL side of print on demand. It is SO appreciated. 🙌🏼
I would love to do a new one but as you can probably tell from the delay in my responses, time is something I have little of these days. Hopefully I’ll be back up and running to my old level in a few years when my son spends more time in childcare.
Thanks for sharing! Gives the rest of us hope :)
My pleasure 😎
Great job. The involvement with the groups has really helped me.
Yay, so glad to hear. Community is important in any context 🥰 Thank you for watching and wishing you even more growth on your store 😊
Hi, lovely vid and channel. Your enthusiasm is contagious! My question is do you sell any of your art digitally ie available for download? If so, does it work for you? Thanks!
Hi Perry, yes, I do. I currently sell graphics and templates on Canva www.canva.com/p/designbycheyney - This has kept my business afloat the last few years as I focus my attention on being a stay at home Mum 🥰
Thank you for sharing your experience!
You're most welcome, thank you for watching and best of luck if you too have a POD store 😊
Interesting comment on palette, I might try that and see if sticking to a certain palette works.
🥰
Great video, subscribed 🙂....pls keep updating/motivating us.Thanks👍
Thank you, I have some more videos up my sleeve. It is summer in New Zealand and I am just waiting for it to cool down a bit before I film more. I get too hot in my filming space, haha. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks, stay tuned :) Thank you for watching :)
@@DesignbyCheyney definitely. Waiting for your videos....take your time. You are creating quality and valuable content and your expressions are awesome👍
@@AmitGupta123 :)
Hi, I am really enjoying your videos, I am an architect and interior designer, I have just started finding my way around all the print on demand, etsy and so on. I am also living in Auckland, and will be happy to catch up for coffee or something :)
Oh awesome! When alert levels come down, that would be great. Where in Auckland are you based?
@@DesignbyCheyney I am in Mangere Bridge, and you?
@@lerabykova1362 all the way up near Warkworth…haha we are poles apart!
@@DesignbyCheyney it is quite far!! But beautiful location up there 😃
Very inspiring Video! However I can't seem to find your designs on your Society6 page. Have you taken them down?
Thank you, I took them down with the intention of refreshing after my son was born but that hasn’t happened yet. I don’t have as much spare time as I used to. I did put a lot of work into my Canva while I was pregnant and that has been sustaining us since :)
Congratulations 🔥please can you make videos about tags?its really helpful
Hiya, I am taking a little break from RUclips filming at the moment but there should be other videos online that talk about tags. In my upload process video I do talk about tags a little bit and show which tags I use :)
Thankyou 😃
Happy for you and thank you for sharing . 👌
Thank you so much. After a year like 2020 it is important to celebrate the small wins 😁 If you have a store, I hope you have been getting some sales 😁 Thank you for watching!
@@DesignbyCheyney I have store with 19 designs and 4 sales . I stop sharing on s6 but I think I will try it again .
Thank you
@@hichemhichem5293 that is a pretty good ratio of artwork to sales 😊 Yes, I think persistence is key with these things. The more artwork you have up the more likely you are to be 'seen'. Best of luck for loads of sales in the near future 😎
@@DesignbyCheyney are patterns designs the most selling on s6 ?
@@hichemhichem5293 yes, mainly my pattern designs 😁
As always, creative! =) society with you is fantastic and speaking of NZ flag, it was out awhile now. Just been a bit delayed 😅. Thank you for being part. Thank you for sharing positive mindset ❤️ you're an inspiration! Xixi
Heya, thank you. I hope things are well with you and your family
Hi Cheyney! Melina from Argentina here! Just wanted to say that I love that you are so honest on your earnings, it just feels that your advice comes from real experience that could happen to any of us and not this one time 20.000usd magic that feels not so easy to achieve at first! Still happy with this website? I want to enter this world of digital selling art, which platforms would you recommend me to start with? Thanks!
Hi Melina, thank you for your message. I do want to be honest and transparent about my experience because there are a lot of videos out there which promote "get rich quick, without having to do any work" and it's false. You need to do the work to get the return. Out of all the POD platforms, Society6 has performed the best for me in the past. I am taking time off to have a baby soon so am in the process of halting everything to focus all my energy there. Based on my experience, I would definitely say Society6 is the best however, that might be due to my style of art? I do know that many have good luck on TeePublic and Redbubble, but that has not been my experience. If you can afford the time, I would suggest you dip your toes into each and see which works best for you and your designs :) I hope this helps x
@@DesignbyCheyney Im new to your channel and didn't know why you had stopped posting...this comment explained it! Congrats on the new addition! lol 🙂 Definitely going to binge watch your past vids.
Thank you so much Cheyney, for the insights.
Does society6 has its own organic promotions ? My designs would be visible with an organic search from day 1 itself, or does it takes time to show ?
You're so welcome. I hope you enjoyed the insight. I am not entirely sure. They promote designs on the home page and in their emails but I have never noticed any of mine in there. They do post on Pinterest and have noticed them post some of my design before. As for Google ads, I am unsure. I have never seen any. But my prediction is that once you make sales, that design, or your profile, or both, rank higher in their search engine. I wish I could be more helpful but without analytics or seeing ads, it is difficult for me to say for sure. I am also on Teepublic and Redbubble who both retarget using Google Ads and I don't do nearly as well on those sites, so my assumption is that either my Society6 designs are being advertised somewhere I haven't seen, I'm ranking higher as I upload/sell more and/or my style of design beat suits Society6 customers (but not right for those that shop on Redbubble or TeePublic). It is all a bit of a guessing game, but I enjoy it 😆 I hope you get some further clarity some how. Thank you for watching 🥰
What dimension best for society 6 products??
Hi I have this in another video I have posted about Society6 - Off the top of my head I save 8500px x 8500px at 200dpi. Thanks
Thank u so much 🤗✌
Hi! early days, how long did it take you to feel sales are ...building up let's say, and not just 2-3 randoms very rarely?
Heya, I would say at least 6 months on there before I started gaining any real traction with sales. It was drips and drabs for the first few months. I hope this is the answer you were after and that it is helpful ☺️
@@DesignbyCheyney sure did! Thanks ☺️
@@nishma :)
Do you have to market a lot?
I did market quite a bit when my store was active. It’s been out of action since I had my son so I’m not really clued into S6 these days
Please do a video about tags
Hiya, I have a video in my POD playlist called "My Society6 Process to Upload & Sell Art Revealed and from timestamp 6:58 (in the description) I go through my uploading process including my process for tags. I hope this helps 😊
Does Society6 Has Daily Upload Limit???
Hiya, not that I know of. There have been days I have uploaded many designs without any issues ☺️
@@DesignbyCheyney Thank You :)
You’re most welcome 🤗