Selling merch

[Anonymous No.55004978]

What's the best way to buy art to sell on Merchandise and clothing? Do I need an agreement for sole ownership and monetization or something?

[Anonymous No.55005054]

Also any use print on demand services before? I plan on starting with them at first before I start making my own

[Anonymous No.55005125]

Bump

[Anonymous No.55005321]

>>55004978
He saw beans beans beans he saw beans lotsa beans

[Anonymous No.55005410]

>>55005321
This gentleman is ingesting baked beans

[Anonymous No.55005462]

>>55004978
I think you have a few options
>1. Use assets from stock sources where purchasing usage rights is straightforward
>2. Use royalty-free clipart, fonts, and patterns
>3. Just make your own art
>4. Reach out to an artist you like and see if you can come to an agreement with them to use their designs, or commission some new designs from them

[Anonymous No.55005493]

>>55005054
I would be interested in hearing from anons who have tried this. I'm an artist myself and I've made a few custom designs that I think would go well on a hoodie or T-shirt, but there's the issue of actually marketing your merch and getting it to sell and stand out among the ocean of competitors who are out there

[Anonymous No.55005524]

>>55005462
>4. Reach out to an artist you like and see if you can come to an agreement with them to use their designs, or commission some new designs from them
Yeah this what I have in mind, I have specific designs in mind. What would be the best way to find artists? Etsy and just message people?

[Anonymous No.55005538]

>>55005493
I have a crappy YouTube/Instagram so I'm just gonna market with them. Even if it's only a couple hundred views a day, it's still more than a lot of people get for their stores

[Anonymous No.55005549]

>>55005524
Find some artists who have a style that you like, and ask them if they accept commissions. Some of them will even have public forms where you can see their pricing sheets and send commission requests. Artists can be found on Etsy, Twitter, Instagram, or any other site where people post their own art

[Anonymous No.55005561]

>>55005462
>>2. Use royalty-free clipart, fonts, and patterns
>>3. Just make your own art
Might try this out too and just chase memes and fads

[Anonymous No.55005580]

>>55005493
Since my business is from here I wanted to use art from anons the desk mats I had made. I spent some time wandering /ic/ and eventually stumbled on someone that I liked. Commissioned him for $400 with all commercial rights. Haven't sold enough to make up for the art fee yet but every item on the store is something people can shop around for and maybe pick up.

I'm the kind of person that likes doing things in house where possible rather than working with those generic direct to print places like Redbubble

[Anonymous No.55005596]

Did you make that design yourself? It's quite good, but you could run into copyright issues by using Taco Bell trademarks

[Anonymous No.55005601]

>>55005580
So you printed those mats yourself? What's your process for printing them like and how long does it take you to produce each one?

[Anonymous No.55005605]

>>55005580
Was $400 for that picture anon? Would you say thats the normal price? I had around $200 in my head but I have no frame of reference. Guess it depends on the artist though

[Anonymous No.55005611]

>>55005596
No not mine, most of these are just random things I've seen on red bubble

[Anonymous No.55005630]

>>55005601
I didn't print the mats myself but I got them made by a company and paid for their minimum quantity
https://www.custommousepad.com/
Then it's just a matter of keeping them stored somewhere. You can use a 3rd party logistics company who will handle the shipping for you, but that's back to leaning on Redbubble. I figured out what supplies I would need to ship them myself, and I keep those on hand as well.
>>55005605
That picture was $400, and the other one I commissioned was half that from a different artist. The black and white one sells much better

[Anonymous No.55005639]

>>55005630
better image of the mat

[Anonymous No.55005656]

>>55005639
The cave mat is kino. I would love to see the image on other stuff.

[Anonymous No.55005676]

>>55005630
I think both of the images are good, but from a graphic design perspective, I think I can see why the second one sells better. Simplicity seems to be a common theme among popular merch. The simple art style, the monochrome but high-contrast color scheme, and the overall composition make it stand out more.
What do you do to market your business and find customers?

[Anonymous No.55005708]

>>55005656
Thank you, I wanted to get a new one done by the same artist but he was busy with a comic book that's doing well
>>55005676
If I were to get another one done by the same artist as the colored image I'd have him go monochrome for it, agreed. Using him again though would depend on if he was willing to go down in cost for that reason, as $400 would be too steep to go again.
At the moment I'm not doing any advertising, but I was using 4chan's self serve. The new one is a bit less informative than the old but it's just as easy to get a campaign going. Minimum is $20, no clue exactly how many sales I even converted from it but it's a cheap way to get the word out.

[Anonymous No.55006324]

>>55005676
>Simplicity seems to be a common theme among popular merch. The simple art style, the monochrome but high-contrast color scheme
Will take it to consideration anon

[Anonymous No.55006394]

>>55005493
I tried a few months back and failed miserably but learned a few things.

I used Shopify as my CMS because its easy to use, automatically handles most items and automates S&H

You can go a WordPress route but you'd have to set up everything on your own and as someone who actually does that for a living its super tedious process. Pay the 60 bucks a month and let them worry about SSL, etc

For my products I used Printify. There's a few others but I was using printify due to a specific blanket type and manufacturer (USA based). Easy connection to your store and for an extra 10 bucks this handles the auto S&H between Printify & Shopify.

I had rented a PO box to handle all my S&H info. Roughly 10 bucks a month, you don't have to do that but I wanted to avoid putting my home address on shipping labels.

Creative Common Zero is your friend to re-use assets. Just type that and make sure it allows for commercial redistribution. Most will just ask for a mention in your terms and conditions or privacy policy, etc.txt

[Anonymous No.55006434]

>>55006394
Knowing your market is key and when you're starting its a bit of a hit or miss.

I thought I knew mine but I got no purchases after ~6 months online. Rough but lesson learned.

Instagram/TikTok does well for advertising. So does Facebook.

Facebook ads are VERY generous with ad spend. Easy to set up and run as well. HIGHLY recommend this route to run your ads.

Google Merchant Center provides free product listings BUT a bit of a hassle to sort out. I don't have the patience to check every little thing they ask for but could be worthwhile.

LinkedIn Ads are not worth it. The cost per click is too painful for what you're getting.

Google Ads is a hassle to set up as well. Not much experience here.

Source high quality products. I sourced mine straight from the US. I wanted to avoid long shipping times from China so I went this route.

Some SEO/Analytics know-how is great to have. You can optimize your site to show better across the web and with analytics you can start to piece things together.
>Is product A getting more views/purchases?
>Is my demographic males, ages 18-30?

[Anonymous No.55006485]

>>55006434
I used Chat GPT to write some ad copy
If you have pets or even cute friends ask them to model the product for you.

Unfortunately I do not and couldn't get great pics of my product....

You could alternatively use Stable Diffusion for art and then clean it up yourself or hire someone off fiverr for some touch ups. Best designs I've gotten have been flat color/line work so that I can fill up the color on Photoshop to give it a nice vector look to it.

If I had to be honest why my store didn't generate sales its because I didn't use my ad spend wisely, didn't have pictures of my product with pets/cute girls, wasn't running a more aggressive social media account.


Best of luck to you guys. I'm thinking of something new to launch in the following months so I'm hoping this one sticks

[Anonymous No.55006502]

>>55006485
>Stable Diffusion
Can you sell stable diffusion art?

[Anonymous No.55006545]

>>55006502
>Can you sell stable diffusion art?
You can sell it but can't claim it as copyright, this is from what I remember.

Also it goes to say but definitely avoid copyrighted artwork. I see TOOO many bootleg anime weeb stuff at cons and its a wonder none of these get clapped by the law, especially considering how serious Disney/Nintendo are about their IPs.

Always keep things above board and you can sleep at night.

[Anonymous No.55007663]

>>55005493
I am also an artist but I only focus on digital, eventually I will have to do something in print or t-shirts, I would like to know what I am going to face when that happens because I don't think PAPA will give me wisdom instead of money

[Anonymous No.55007677]

If you're hiring artists to create art from scratch, try using upwork to hire from the Philippines. They have some of the lowest wages in the English-speaking world. I recently hired a graphic artist for $5/hour.

[Anonymous No.55007696]

>>55005676
>Simplicity seems to be a common theme among popular merch. The simple art style, the monochrome but high-contrast color scheme, and the overall composition make it stand out more.
It’s the fucking mushrooms with apu combo
Great pic and art but mushroom shit sells hard. The first one is better art and more expensive but doesn’t have mushrooms

[Anonymous No.55008647]

>>55006434
Really appreciate the info anon, starting my own POD ecommerece apparel store soon.