5 weeks ago, I opened my new store, Trufflepig.
There are 41 designs in the store so far. All of them have cats! I have plans to add other animals but I enjoy drawing cats.
You are probably curious how much the store has earned so far. In total, I earned $52 🙂
My best-selling design is SAY NO TO ACTIVITY.
My plan for the next few weeks is to make a lot more designs. I want to have at least 100 designs in my store.
My new store, TRUFFLEPIG, got featured today as “Artist of the Day” on Threadless! That’s a delightful surprise 🙂
Someone bought a t-shirt from my new TRUFFLEPIG store!
To give you some context — I opened my store 3 days ago and have uploaded 11 designs so far. Of course, I know it is luck — someone noticed my design among thousands and liked it and bought it. But you might be just as lucky if you open your own store. The more designs you upload, the greater chance that someone will buy something from you.
It might seem like a humble start — one t-shirt sold. However, this is exactly how it was in the beginning when I opened my Fox Shiver store. I didn’t have huge sales from the start. But one by one people visited my store and bought something. I kept adding new designs, and earnings were increasing month by month. You can do the same — open an Artist Shop and add a few designs. Don’t get discouraged by a slow start. Keep making designs, and be patient.
If the person who bought the t-shirt reads this blog — thank you!
Today, I opened my new store on Threadless. It’s called TRUFFLEPIG because I like pigs and it’s a funny words. There will mostly be cute and humorous designs there. The main reason why I had decided to start a new store is that my main store, Fox Shiver, has gotten too big and is a mess — there are all kinds of designs there, no consistency.
From now on, I will be adding most of my designs — if they match the style — to my new store. But designs that aren’t funny and don’t have cute animals I will submit to my old store. I am also planning on opening yet another store with a completely different style. But for now, I want to make more designs for TRUFFLEPIG.
Here is my new store: TRUFFLEPIG
And here is my main store: FOX SHIVER
Everyone always says you should find your niche. But it’s not easy.
Years ago, when I started making designs, I couldn’t identify just one theme to focus on. I named my store Fox Shiver because I wanted to draw a lot of foxes. But then I also drew cats, and dogs, and gloomy birds, and space. Now my store is a mess.
I’ve been thinking, it’s possible that in 10 years I will still be making designs. I like drawing, I have a lot of ideas, I have sketches that I want to turn into designs. If I keep adding all my designs to my main store, in a few years I will have, say, 500 designs. It will be difficult for anyone to find what they want. For example, if someone who loves cats searches for a cat shirt in my store, they will have to go through 350 designs of dogs, space, trees, pigs, and other topics that they have no interest in.
I’ve decided to make a separate store for some of my designs. It will be focused on cute and funny animals. I will maybe even move some of my existing designs from the Fox Shiver store.
Now I am in the process of searching for a name for my store. I am using random word generators like this one, and this one, to search for interesting and unique words. I also check word combinations using a portmanteau generator. I write down all the words I like and look for connections. Something will jump out at me soon.
Edit (15 June, 2021): My new store is TRUFFLEPIG!