Digital art is a thriving industry with almost 70% of online creators drawing digitally. The growth of digital art has created an entirely new career path for creatives with employment within the industry growing 10% between 2008 and 2018. While digital artists can earn money through commissions and freelancing work, monetizing your art with dropshipping is a lucrative way of earning passive income.
Most digital artists have an online community of followers engaged with their art. Many struggle to sell products due to the up-front investment costs of developing samples, buying inventory, and shipping orders.
Dropshipping is the solution to all these problems. It’s a low-risk business model that empowers digital artists to scale their business by monetizing their art. You can easily transform your digital art into products, including custom wallpaper and wall murals.
We’re breaking down everything you need to know about how to use dropshipping to monetize your art and why custom wallpapers should be your first product.
How to Start Dropshipping Your Digital Art
Dropshipping is a low-cost way to monetize your digital art. It removes all the challenges that can make an online store inaccessible to digital artists. Instead of investing in inventory, packaging, and storage, your third-party supplier handles everything.
When your customer orders on your website, it automatically forwards it to your supplier. The supplier manufactures your product and ships it directly to your customer. Our API makes it easy to automate your order fulfillment, empowering you to monetize your digital art to earn passive income.
Dropshipping is the most scalable business model for digital artists, allowing you to offer hundreds of designs and explore different product types. Dropshipping is expected to become a $476-billion-dollar industry by 2026. It’s the perfect time for digital artists to leverage dropshipping to monetize their designs.
Custom wallpaper is a unique product for digital artists as almost any design can be transformed into wallpaper. Whether it’s branding for a business or a game-inspired design, you can adapt custom wallpaper to suit your customer’s individual needs. DIY decorating is on the rise with social media and platforms like Pinterest driving demand for more unique wallpapers. This allows for a market gap you can explore to monetize your digital art.
Turning Your Digital Art into Custom Wallpapers
As a digital artist, you might not initially intend to transform every piece into custom wallpaper. You can choose what designs work best from your portfolio or offer commission-based clients the option to purchase custom wallpaper as an add-on.
The key to formatting your custom wallpaper is to ensure you upload the design in the highest quality available and meet the resolution requirements. At Fancy Walls, you can upload your design in landscape or portrait format but must meet the minimum 4500-pixel width requirement. You can customize your wall mural by choosing between our PVC-free peel-and-stick or non-pasted designs.
Curate your portfolio into ‘collections’ and create your custom wallpapers accordingly. Selling your digital art as part of a collection makes it easier to attract different customers and upsell your products. Don’t forget to do your research on licensing and copyright to protect your digital art. In the era of AI, it’s always better to be proactive.
Dropshipping allows you to fully automate your online store. As a digital artist, you’ll have more time to focus on creating new designs and experimenting with new trends. Find a balance between exploring your creativity and creating designs that incorporate seasonal elements and trending aesthetics. Need ideas? Check out our wall décor blog for all of the latest wallpaper trends.
How to Launch Your Digital Art E-Commerce Store
The first step to launching your e-commerce store is to build your website. If you already have an online portfolio, you may be able to add a shopping feature for easy navigation. At Fancy Walls, our API streamlines order fulfillment for Etsy, Shopify, and WooCommerce.
Every platform will have its pros and cons, whether you’re choosing a marketplace like Etsy or a stand-alone website provider like Shopify. Do your research ahead of time and choose an e-commerce platform that suits your budget, brand identity, and digital skills. Platforms like Shopify make it easy to add additional dropshipping tools and plug-ins to grow your brand identity, like the option to plant a tree for every order you receive using Ecologi.
The goal when launching your e-commerce store is to create an easy-to-navigate website. You’ll have more success monetizing your art if customers can easily explore your website. Automate your dropshipping so that your supplier instantly receives the order as soon as your customer checks out. At Fancy Walls, we guarantee delivery within 1-week for customers in Canada, the EU, and the United States.
Curate a website that reflects your brand’s identity and feels authentic to your digital art style. Every product listing should include a detailed description with high-quality product imagery.
Scaling and Monetizing Your Digital Art
Once you start earning revenue from your digital art, you can reinvest it into new equipment, supplies, and subscriptions to scale your art career. Social media is the best way to showcase your portfolio – from sharing behind-the-scenes content to tutorials on your design process. Engage with your community and direct your followers to your e-commerce store. As a digital artist, you can collaborate with brands and influencers using your dropshipping store for products like custom wallpapers.
Don’t forget to focus on the basics. Invest in your search engine optimization (SEO) to drive organic traffic and create content for your website that feels authentic. Your main role in maintaining your e-commerce store will be uploading new products and handling customer service. Encourage feedback and reviews with follow-up emails and manage customer issues as efficiently as possible.
Monetize Your Digital Art by Dropshipping Custom Wallpaper
Earn money with your digital art by transforming your most popular designs into custom wallpaper. Dropshipping is the easiest way to monetize your digital art and build a thriving online business.
At Fancy Walls, we’re here to help you monetize your digital art as your dropshipping partner. Contact our team to find out more about our dropshipping program and try our print-on-demand wallpaper creator today.
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