Start Selling Art and Photography Online

May 27, 2008

We know that many of our readers are web designers, graphic designers, photographers or maybe even aspiring designers. Well here is an idea which might help you to become a self employed designer with your own store.

Last week I got an email from a webmaster’s club I’m involved with. It was a summary of the meeting (which I’d missed) and spoke about the mounting excitement over the upcoming SEO convention in the area. Anyway, one of the members created a t-shirt design for the occasion and by next morning it was available for any member to purchase in twelve different styles and five colors. Wow! that was fast. I had to find out how this was possible.

Next Stop Zazzle: It seems he has a store on Zazzle.com . This website allows anyone to signup for free and start their own store. Essentially Zazzle provides the products, does the transactions and shipping. You provide the designs (or photography) and get a commission check on your sales. So maybe you have a great idea for a t-shirt for your local soccer team. Just upload the design and use their very cool design system to apply it to a t-shirt. That t-shirt will then be available for sale to the public (or you can make the url private if you wish). You control your pricing and what products you wish to sell. Hats, tshirts, buttons, bumper stickers, cups, posters, even fine art (with archive quality paper and framing). You also have the ability to integrate the content of your new store into your own websites and blogs.

This really is a great set up. No money down, just create and sell. A great way to start your own business without investing a bunch of money OR just a great way to practice one’s design skills with a purpose (maybe bring in a few extra dollars).

Posted in Make Money