Justyna Dorsz

Useful

Google Alerts

I set up Google Alerts with the titles of my designs to be notified when they are put on sale illegally. For example, one design that gets stolen a lot is “Overthinking and also hungry”. When thieves try to sell t-shirts with that designs, they don’t even change the title so I created an alert for phrase “Overthinking and also hungry”.

This way, I get Google Alerts as soon as Google finds out about the infringing listings. And as soon as I get notified, I can send a DMCA takedown notice so that it’s taken down immediately.

I learned about Google Alerts from Michael Essek’s blog. There are other useful guides there too.

Overthinking and also hungry - by Justyna Dorsz

TeePublic Resources for Artists

TeePublic is one of the best places where you can sell your designs.

I don’t earn there as much as I earn on Threadless but TeePublic has the best uploader — very fast, easy to use, you can submit your art and start selling on all products in minutes.

Until recently, I didn’t know that TeePublic had an Instagram account dedicated to helping artists:

There’s also TeePublic Blog with a lot of helpful tips about designing, selling promoting, and tagging.

And if you are already a TeePublic artist and are subscribed to their Artist newsletter you get useful emails about how to improve your store and get more sales.

Why haven’t you opened your TeePublic store yet?

How to protect your art

If you create designs and submit them to online stores like Redbubble or Teepublic, you will soon find out that there are a lot of thieves. They will steal your designs and try to sell them in their own stores.

Luckily, there’s an easy way to deal with them. You have to send a Notice of Copyright Infringement (or DMCA Notice) to the website that stolen images are sold on.

So, let’s say you notice your art being sold without your permission in someone else’s store. All stores have dedicated email addresses for reporting copyright infringement.

You can find how to write a notice of copyright infringement on the Internet so I won’t repeat that here. But I will show you the template that I use for reporting stolen art. You can copy it, supply your links where indicated, and send it.

My DMCA Template

Hello,

<–Short intoduction, e.g.: My name is…, My website/porfolio … –>

The material being infringed upon:

<—Here you provide the title of your artwork that was stolen and a link to your design online, it can be on your website, or any of your stores. –>

The material that is infringing upon my intellectual property:

<— Here you provide links where your design is sold illegally –>

My data:

<–Your full name –>

<–Your address –>

<–Your phone number –>

<–Your e-mail address –>

I have a good faith belief that the content described above violates my rights described above, and that the use of such content is contrary to law.

I declare, under penalty of perjury, that the information contained in this notification is correct and accurate and that I am the owner of the rights described above.

Best regards,

<– Your full name –>

End of DMCA Template

No sales? Read this.

No sales, no income, 0 items sold

I belong to a few Facebook groups for designers and there’s one topic that keeps coming up, though it’s usually asked in various ways:

  • “No one buys my designs. Am I doing something wrong?”
  • “How to get customers?”
  • “I uploaded 5 designs already and no sales! Why?”
  • “Is it even possible to sell anything? Does anyone earn any money?”

I already answered that last question, but now it’s time to address the general issue here.

This is how it looks in the beginning: you make a design and publish it, then you make another and publish it too. Then maybe you make a few more. And then you wait for sales. But not only does no one buy anything, no one even sees your designs, they don’t show up in search results. You try to promote them, you post on Twitter or Facebook and you get no feedback, no likes.

At that moment we can divide designers into two groups:

  • Designers who get discouraged and upset and give up.
  • Designers who keep creating and publishing regardless of how their designs are doing.

There is only one key to success here. Ok, yes, there are a few important things that will impact how successful your store will be and whether you make money: you need to create something people will want to buy, you need to make your designs possible to find, and finally you need to put effort into marketing.

But there’s one thing that is more important than all that. Consistency. Yes, consistency is key. If you want to have a successful store on Threadless, Teepublic, or anywhere else, then you have to make a lot of, and I mean A LOT, of designs.

It’s not enough to make a few designs and hope someone will buy them. And you definitely should not complain about lack of sales just yet. First make sure that you:

  • Have at least 30 designs uploaded. Better yet — 50. I have over 130 in my store.
  • Add new designs consistently. Try to make a new design every few days or, if possible — every day.
  • Make sure all your designs have tags. I add 10 tags to each.

Only after you fulfill these conditions and there are still no sales you might start to worry and you might be entitled to a little complaining. But it’s a very unlikely scenario because consistently creating new designs will result in 2 things:

  • you will have a lot of designs in your store and a much higher chance that someone will see something they like and buy it,
  • after making a lot of designs you will improve. This is actually the only way to improve your design skill — make a lot of designs. So even if your designs are quite bad at first and, understandably, no one wants them, then it’s even more important for you to make designs. You will be much, much better after another 50 designs.

It’s very difficult to do something for a long time and not improve. To be successful, be consistent.

Can you make money on Threadless?

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:

  1. Make a lot of designs. You never know which one is going to be popular.
  2. Don’t get discouraged when no one buys your designs at first. Just keep designing and publishing.
  3. 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.
  4. Post about your new designs on Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook. The more people see your designs the better.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.

Useful gifts for artists and designers

Every Cat is a Gift

I drew a cat in a gift box, and it made me think that I could write a short note about gifts because I am asked about it sometimes. First, I think it’s better to save money than buy gifts this year. Covid-19 is in no way over, and the worst is yet to come. But we all like giving gifts, so here are the two most important things that all designers and artists and creators will find useful.

PENS

The one thing that any designer that I know would like to get, even if they still have a supply on hand. You don’t have to buy the exact kind, most designers will draw with whatever. Best buy black ones, here’s a nice set.

SKETCHBOOKS

I prefer square ones, but artists often use the standard A5 size like this one. But again, it doesn’t really matter all that much, any sketchbook will find its use.

7 websites that send me money

In March 2012, I quit my job. I had a three-month notice period, but my boss feared that a mistreated employee might sabotage the company, so he told me not to come to work anymore. Then an assistant accompanied me to the kitchen and watched closely while I retrieved my teacup, and that was that. They still had to pay me my salary, though, which was good because I didn’t have much money saved.

Long months of sitting in my room and drawing ensued. And I will write about that because I know how much we all love stories about grit and perseverance. But let’s skip it for now and let me show you how I’ve been earning money since then. Here is a list of 7 websites. To this day, I sell my art on all of them.

  • Design By Humans – this is the one that started it for me. A friend had a t-shirt from them and told me that they accept designs from independent artists.
  • Threadless – this is my favorite one. The nicest people work there. I buy my clothes on Threadless too and even right now I am wearing their hoodie. It was very difficult to be printed there at first. I simply didn’t have the skills for the first 2 years.
  • TeeFury – the first website that I sent my designs to and the first one that accepted one of them for printing. They look for different designs than Threadless, mostly related to movies or games — that was easier for me to draw back then.
  • Qwertee – like TeeFury, but it’s Europe-based, which is good because some customers prefer not to pay for shipping from the US.
  • TeePublic – this one didn’t exist in 2012, it was founded in 2013, and I was one of the first artists there. Also, very nice people, one of the few companies that put artists first.
  • Redbubble – a huge marketplace. Your art can easily get swamped there with all the other designs. Still, I earn a regular income from them every month.
  • Woot – they run a derby every week, you can submit designs and compete with others, and then they select a few designs to add to their shop.

This is a tiny sampling of all the websites where you can sell art online, but for me, those were crucial.