Threadless

Existing

Recently Threadless added one of my designs to their store. I wrote about that here.

Now, Threadless selected another one of my designs:

"Existing" by Justyna Dorsz — One of those days

It’s a cat that has no motivation to get up. So, it’s relatable.

It has already been for sale in my Artist Shop. Threadless adding it to their own store means that more people see the design and more people buy it.

It’s good to have as many designs as you can create in your Artist Shop so that Threadless can browse them and select something for their store.

Also, when your design is selected, you usually get a $250 gift code, which is a nice bonus. I keep spending them on hoodies and t-shirts for my friends 🙂

Get “Existing” here.

What is this madness?

One of my designs has been added to the Threadless store. Yay! I received an email a few hours ago.

Now, what exactly does it mean that a design is added to the Threadless store?

First, what you need to know is that there are two ways to sell designs on Threadless:

One way is to simply create your own Artist Shop. For example, I have my Fox Shiver Artist Shop. You can add any design you want to your shop. You can have hundreds of designs. But, at least in the beginning, those designs might not be visible in the main Threadless store.
The second way is for Threadless to select one of your designs to add to their own Threadless store. Every time there’s a design challenge, a few of the best entries are selected. And sometimes Threadless might select a design from your own Artist Shop.

My first design that they selected was “Not Today” and it was one of the seven designs selected from the Black and White Design Challenge.

When your design is selected and added to the Threadless store, it means better visibility and a higher chance that someone is going to see it and buy it.

That’s why it’s so important to add all your designs to your shop. The more designs you have, the better chance that one of them is going to be selected. Same with challenges — submit your designs to challenges and you get a chance that Threadless likes them and wants them in their store.

And remember, you never know what is going to be popular, so submit every design. I very nearly deleted one of my best-selling designs because I thought no one was going to want it.

Oh, and one more thing, usually when your design is selected to be added to the Threadless store, you get a $250 gift code to be used in the Threadless store on anything you want.

Learn from the best

I just stumbled on a 6 years old thread on the Threadless forum: Top 20 best selling designs. And if you scroll down the thread, you will see another slightly newer list of designs.

This one caught my eye:

It makes me want to paint something colorful too.

But what surprised me most is that they all are so different. So many various themes: games, animals, retro, movies. That’s a good thing because it means that every designer can find their own niche.

Another thing that I noticed is that only two designs are with cats and I always thought that designs with cats sell best. So I checked the most popular designs right now and among the 48 designs on the first page, just two have cats and one of them is mine! I thought there would be 10 cat designs at least but I was wrong.

This is the first cat one:

Death and a Black Cat — “Death Rides a Black Cat” by Obinsun

And here is the second one. This is a cat about to jump.

I like browsing through designs and get inspired. For example, this dinosaur design has been popular 6 years ago and is still popular now:

T-Rex — “Technicolour Rex” by electric_method

That’s pretty amazing — to make a design that people love and buy for years.

Make your first sale in the next 3 weeks

Tomorrow is Black Friday and after that the best 3 weeks for all the artists who sell their art online.

Everyone shops for gifts and so artists make the majority of their income in November and December.

Conversely, January and February are very slow months and I earn very little in those months. Good thing that all the income you can earn before Christmas more than makes up for it.

You need to take advantage of this busy time.

If you haven’t yet, then you definitely should open your store. I recommend:

Threadless – which is my favorite one, and
TeePublic – which has the easiest and fastest system for uploading artwork.

You can also publish your art in a few other places. Wherever you submit your designs remember to add tags!

Usually, when you open your store you have to wait for weeks or even months for your first sale. Internet is full of people who complain that they get no sales and then they get discouraged and close their shops. But if you open your store now and upload even just a few designs, you have an amazing opportunity to make your first sale in the next few days.

Can you make money on Threadless?

Friends, family, and other artists often ask me: can you make money on Threadless?

I’ve been a designer for 8 years now and I’ve been selling my art on Threadless for the past 5 years so I think I can answer that. The short answer is: Yes! You absolutely can make money on Threadless. Nearly every month I earn a substantial part of my income from Threadless.

When you are just starting selling your art online it might seem daunting. I know – I was there. So here are a few things that will help you if you want to earn money on Threadless:

Make a lot of designs. You never know which one is going to be popular.
Don’t get discouraged when no one buys your designs at first. Just keep designing and publishing.
Try to find your niche. I make a lot of designs with cats and space because that’s what I like to draw. Maybe you like dogs or hiking or pizza? Draw that.
Post about your new designs on Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook. The more people see your designs the better.
Tags! Add tags to your designs so people can find them. I try to add at least 8 tags to each design. It’s a good idea to also write a short description.
Submit designs both to your Artist Store and to Design Challenges. Even if you don’t win a challenge, more people will see your designs and you will gain new followers.
When you add a design to your store make sure you enable it on other products, not only t-shirts. Customers often buy hoodies, masks, tote bags, and pillows.
If you haven’t yet opened a store, you should open one now! I have no affiliation with Threadless, I just like them a lot and earn a lot of money there. If you don’t know how to name your store, here’s a short guide.

Hope that helps. Here is my store if you want to take a look.

Threadless

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