Making art your profession is not that poetic and accessible as many people, remote from this sphere, think. Simply putting your works out there is not enough; you’ll need to spend time choosing the right platforms and marketplaces with reasonable terms and an active audience. Good thing we did this for you in this review!
The word pandemic crisis has changed the rhythm to which modern society beats. If the digital business used to take a predominant role but not the major one, the accents were dramatically switched to strictly online existence. As a result, the digital market skyrockets, offering a plentitude of various items or services together with platforms to build your online presence. For many artists, the question “how to sell digital art” got replaced with “where to sell digital art” as the abundance bears a mere confusion, and a creator can feel lost in it.
Selling Graphic Design Tools
Sticking to the idea of efficient time and effort spending and having a vast experience of working in graphic design ourselves for years now, we’ve made a list of marketplaces to sell your design. No matter what domain you took (digital illustrations, graphic design assets for different software or creating physical merch), you’ll discover a handful of options to pick from. Selling digital artwork is not only about the marketplace but the community it revolves around and the profit-beneficial terms of use it implies. So we dove into the topic to spare you some time on the investigation of places for selling digital artworks.
Selling Graphic Design Tools
1. Creative Market
It’s, basically, our homeland: Creative Market was our first platform for selling goods (you can read about it in the guide we wrote on setting a shop on Creative Market). A lot has been changed, but the essence is still there — it’s a beautiful place to sell your design! The website features millions of users who purchase graphics, templates, fonts, brushes, web themes, and photos. You can release an item (and eventually modify it) without having to wait for the staff approval.
Winning Creative Market Strategies for 2021
by The Designest & Pixelbuddha
We’ve gained lots of experience on how to create & develop a shop on the marketplace, which we’ve been willing to share.
Moreover, you set your own prices for the sold products! Creative Market helps the shop owners to promote their goods via newsletters, seasonal sales, a hand-picked section with the best items and via many other ways. Keeping track of things in your shop is a piece of cake: the transparent stats and analytics help you to monitor all tendencies and buyers’ behavior so as to pick the direction for improvements accurately.
All these finer things would cost you 40% of your profit, but it’s a fair price to pay for becoming a part of this huge creative community!
2. Envato Elements
The subscription-based platform, where users get unlimited downloads for a fixed price is another place you can embark on selling graphic designs. It’s not only about the graphics, themes and templates: even your videos and audio files can be published. There’s no need for you to get into the complex licensing system for your items, there’s a commercial license covering it all. Besides, you don’t deal with customer support or products-promoting either, the Elements team got your back when it comes to technical issues and marketing. Start uploading to Elements and get your 50% revenue share!
3. Design Cuts
Tons of discounts and fair deals are a magnet for customers! So when you’re thinking of selling graphic design pieces and consequently enriching your community base (not mentioning a money-related side of things), you should get in touch with Design Cuts via their form. A curating team is a group of delightful people, always ready to help you with any question. If you’re not sure where to start or how to present your brand, portfolio or collection of works and whether it fits in the platform’s concept, take a look at the Product Academy page. It’s a set of 9 free video guides, telling the whole path from goal-setting to actually selling the items.
4. Dealjumbo
Swing by Dealjumbo to get your products featured in the next discounted bundle or deal! The website itself is a real treasure for designers as it has so many profitable deals anyone will enjoy. Share the freshest and rarest collections, boosted by a team of professionals, who make your sales skyrocket! The deals attract many customers, who discover this or that author/studio for the first time, so it’s undoubtedly a great opportunity to be noticed. We’ve been collaborating with Dealjumbo for years, and we simply adore the website’s support team! They’re always so considerate, friendly and welcoming, which is very valuable, especially if it’s your first platform for selling digital artworks!
5. Freepik
Aiming at the exposure to spread the word about your work is not the last of your concerns when starting a shop to sell digital art. Freepik can provide you with a huge community of users, having a taste for high-quality graphic design assets. How does immersion into this marketplace happens? You register the account and start upload resources: the best 20 files you have for starters, ‘cause they will decide the destiny of your marketplace presence. When the submission is approved, move straight to filling your account info, including taxes. Consistency and the number of provided files are two the most important things, don’t lose them out of sight if you become Freepik Contributor. To get into specifics, please visit the FAQs for contributors.
6. YouWorkForThem
Work for them while earning for yourself! Created by designers for designers, the website’s policy for contributors is fair and square: the profit is split 50/50, adjust the license features yourself, keep track of sales and your profile presence, get recognized via the promotion posts on Facebook, Twitter, Behance, Pinterest and dedicated newsletters. You can generate more revenue by applying for the affiliates program.
After setting up your account, transform it to the contributor’s page and fill out the information forms about your account. You can ask the Support Team to do this for you, just make sure to provide them with the relevant info. Prepare the files, upload them to the website, add the product’s name, other details and start selling graphic designs!
7. Adobe Stock
Obviously, Adobe doesn’t need any special thorough introduction — this huge corporation provides a gazillion of people with efficient high-end tools for creativity and design. And you can join the forces with Adobe and share awesome assets you make with the world! To do so, create an account then turn it into a contributor’s one. You will have questions during the process of submission, it’s okay: the team of professionals in Adobe is by your side on any pressing topic you might have. Build your schedule for uploading the files, make it s systematic thing to let it yield results in no time!
8. ArtStation
Did you know that ArtStation is not strictly about displaying and selling digital artwork? Operating as Instagram for your illustrations, the website is suitable for distributing any types of assets (Photoshop effects, brushes, fonts and more). You won’t be in the wrong, saying the platform’s main purpose is not financially oriented but nevertheless, it bears benefits. Sometimes the products, sold badly on one websites, are hot hits on the others as the audience changes. So go for it: experiment with previews, the kit’s volume, types of products in order to find your happy medium.
Selling Graphic Designs: Print on Demand & Merch
1. Big Cartel
Even though the website’s name has the word ‘’big‘’ in it, and this resource has a massive base of items for sale, the marketplace refers to itself as a small indie platform for selling digital artworks. The marketplace has an appealing design, triggering a desire to present your store from the best sides.
All the vendors are offered a vast range of shop page customization, using the collection of free editable templates and themes, alongside coding the features you need (if you have enough skills and time for that). The handy and straightforward navigation significantly facilitates both placing the product and shopping for high-quality goods.
Big Cartel leaves nothing but a good impression and fosters a desire to sell your digital art while simultaneously dropping by other vendors’ shops to find curious items.
2. Society6
“Eat. Sleep. Create. Repeat.”, says the website’s motto in the registration form, can you put it better? Every time we scroll through Behance or Dribbble searching for inspiration, we stumble upon artworks that will look fantastic on a new t-shirt or inspiring poster for the office. The first question popping up is, “oh, does this author sell stuff on Society6?”.
Right after entering the website, your trust is conquered by uncluttered and stylish design, comfortable categories navigation, and an enormous diversity of items just about ready to jump into your cart. The Society6 team takes over managing the artworks’ printing and distribution to recipients. You just need to upload the files fitting all technical requirements and provide a constant flow of new gorgeous prints! Can’t wait to start selling digital artworks? Grab this registration form link and start making people happier with your illustrations and patterns!
3. Zazzle
Team up with customers themselves to create inimitable products they’ll be excited to receive! Zazzle is charged with multipurpose functionality, making it possible not just to purchase a ready-made end product but edit it in real-time the way heart desires. Meanwhile, you’re generating a profit by your content’s monetization.
The item’s adjustment features make your head go round! But it’s for the best because with a free choice of customizable elements for this or that print; your illustrations are more likely to never be rejected due to some teeny tiny detail as it can be promptly fixed according to the client’s taste.
4. INPRNT
This website is aimed at selling graphic designs in the format of art prints, device cases, and framed work. Getting featured on INPRNT is possible via a personal invite from the team or by filling out the registration form. To enter, you’ll be asked to upload 3 artworks as a test that will be reviewed by artists already running their shops there. When your portfolio is approved, your account gets automatically transformed into the vendor’s account, then sales, recognition and success await!
Speaking of the site’s design, it looks kinda old, but it doesn’t interfere with usability, so it’s not a big deal. The users can start searching for items either in categories of goods or by clicking artwork they like and checking out the offered things it can be printed on.
5. Etsy
While earlier Etsy used to be known solely for physical hand-crafted items by creators from all over the world, now it’s a pretty convenient platform to sell digital art as well. Bear it in mind when you choose a source of monetizing your works.
The registration process goes smoothly but be careful and entirely sure about the info you provide for setting up an account as the future impulses to change the shop’s name or email address used to log in will be impossible. Every product (called ‘’listing’’) is placed for a small fee of 0.20 cents for a limited period, and each purchase is taxed at the rate of 5% + VAT. If you’re confident about how your listings are filled out according to all the requirements, you can opt for Etsy Ads, boosting your shop’s rating and sales.
6. Redbubble
It seems like Redbubble has the largest placeholders’ base for printing artworks among the other online stores. There’s a plethora of categories, types, and variations of objects that allows seeing your illustrations and photos placed on the most unexpected things. But, of course, the passive income becomes more beneficial when you upload tons of content!
Add your precious masterpieces to the website, choose what item goes better with it, set the price, make sure the details and info are all set, and watch people go nuts about your glorious artworks! Redbubble is about sustainability, which means all items are manufactured only after the order request. How about earning some money and save the planet at once?
Sell Digital Art Online as NFT
For those who are hyped up for modern trends, it won’t be flash news that the NFT marketplace has swooped into the life of creators and gave them a new trend whose arrival couldn’t be better timed. The massive frenzy of acquiring the rights for this or that artwork skyrockets! Your wealth and glory are just one well-promoted and successfully sold item away. Bam! And articles about you are flashing everywhere! Just like it happened to Beeple — sci-fi digital artists, who sold his collection of everyday illustrations “Everydays – The First 5000 Days” for $69 million. Even if you’re not ready to conquer the NFT space, knowing how the marketplace works and what’s hot these days is very rewarding.
1. OpenSea
Get your Ethereum wallet ready for signing up on this leading marketplace for selling and buying digital collectibles, as it’s the obligatory condition for registration. Then go on rummaging through a pile of all possible items to dig around and eventually get armed with a precise idea about price formation. This knowledge will be invested in selling graphic designs you make. All the other marketplaces you’re about to see in this selection are presented on OpenSea, which means this platform is in high demand. Whenever you’re ready to start selling, consult this tutorial article for beginners, and may the force be with you!
2. Foundation
Watch out for getting sucked into this void of remarkable digital arts and photos! You’ll wallow in masterly-crafted assets dedicated to all sorts of topics, movements, social phenomena, memes, political events, and other pressing topics. This digital gallery is made into an easy-to-navigate auction platform, displaying both the renowned artists and talented beginners embarking on their way to the top. When you sell your NFT, a 15% service fee is taken from the total sale price, while your fairly-earned 85% fly to your wallet.
3. SuperRare
Find out if the platform’s name justifies itself by entering the community of dedicated digital artists. Getting the Instagram deja vus is fine, the website’s constructed the way you don’t need to struggle with unfamiliar navigation, cluttered categories or puzzling workarounds.
When you get tired of racing for recognition and tokens, have some rest and dive into SuperRare Editorial — you’ll surely find some attention-worthy pieces. Who knows, maybe if you strive for the most successful creator on SuperRare, you’ll get featured in this selection too, and it’s surely a powerful boost for your exposure.
4. KnownOrigin
The future is with NFTs, they say, then it’s vital to be familiar with it as well as possible. Reach out to the tempted audience via selling digital artworks they will add to the collection. The new drops are presented so masterly you rush to these pages and start investigating each piece carefully. The library is divided into 2 marketplaces: the primary (featuring the rarest items) and secondary (consisting of re-listed artworks by prominent collectors). The diversity of artists fascinates, making it impossible to leave the website empty-handed once you have an intention to purchase some artwork.
There’s no complex process of setting up your account in order to sell digital art. As usual, all the artists need to have a digital wallet (such as MetaMask.io or TrustWallet) set up before diving into the sea of creativity. After getting approved on the website, you need to know that the first NFT sale would bring you 85%, while 15% goes to the commission fee. For all other sales, the Seller gets 87%, and the commission fee equals 13%. For a secondary sale (and all sales made after the first sale), 87% goes to the Seller, 10% goes to the Artist, and finally, 3% goes to the commission fee.
5. Portion.io
From the first moment on Portion, it seems you’ve accidentally clicked the website of some law firm or educational portal about economics — anything but the platform to sell digital artwork. The home page design is presented engagingly. What about the marketplace itself?
The portal to it starts with the ”Launch app” button, leading to the robust world of art… and outdated Internet design, applied to the ”discovering assets” page. It looks antique compared to the surrounding categories. This little flaw is outshined by the animated works decorating the gallery.
I won’t be wasting time going through the registration process thoroughly: it’s the same as for the previous platforms. You should ask yourself the only relevant question before signing up: does this marketplace suit my creative intentions and preferred style?
6. Async
All hail to the websites, having the information placed to the point, no shadowed areas. You come, you like, you purchase! The stakes are rising when you find out some of the sold works come with layers you can adjust and customize! So cool, isn’t it? The video by Async tells about it in detail, don’t forget to watch it.
Recently the company added the opportunity to upload music as NFTs. The section isn’t entirely developed yet and raw in terms of included items. Still, this chance can be used to make an appearance on this platform before it becomes trendy and not that accessible. Imagine that by the time this category grows to an enormous extent, you’ll be having your own audience and a lot of experience.
