In high school I had gotten used to the idea of selling your art. Mostly I was familiar with Etsy, but I had heard of Redbubble and some other online sellers. The concept back then was a little overwhelming. I didn’t know how Redbubble worked but I knew Etsy and other regular e-commerce stores you have to create the content and produce the products all yourself, then sell them and keep up with running a store front. That is too much for me. I also don’t totally enjoy making art. *art* as in fine art. I have in the past. But I prefer design, which granted does overlap into fine art a lot. I loved making t-shirts, and logos, and posters, as well as photography which is something I got into a few years ago. But, never the less, I dismissed these ideas as too much work and too little interest.

Recently I went down the rabbit hole of ecommmerce and droppshiping videos on youtube. All, I can say is wow. Those people are very persuasive and know how to pull the heart strings in selling you their ideas. But I eventually dismissed that whole business model because I am not an entrepreneur. I do not want to run my own business. It is similar to the esty shops, you are actually running a store, it doesn’t matter that it seems easier because it is remote, it is still a ton of work. But, in connection to that rabbit hole I found the other side of this which is print on demand. You create your own content, the manufacturer prints only when people buy and you get a commission from the sale. Wow so much more simple. I also found along the way, selling stock photos. Both the print on demand and selling photos to stock sites are way more my style.

I knew I wanted to focus first on my photography. It is easiest to upload because I am not making anything new, just editing and tagging my photos. I had a decent bunch, about 150, that were good enough. Most from my study abroad trip last year. So, last week I was editing and tagging, which took me quite a long time. Then I had to upload to shutterstock. I had to do FTP, something I learned in my web design class to transfer the photos because there was a high volume. Then I submitted a dozen for review. The process for that was long but once I submit them all, it will be passive. I don’t actually expect to get much revenue from the stock photos, but I wanted to test the waters!

Now, I finally started a Redbubble account. The one thing I had been hearing from other artists to do, for a long time. The shop’s name is hello-yesterday (TM- jk not yet). My plan for the content is this: my photos, including patterns, landscapes, travel photos; as well as my religious art. I have done a bunch of t shirt designs for my youth groups in the past, and a couple of religious art pieces, as well as the photos I have taken of catholic churches, statues, and stained glass. So far I have begun to upload my pattern photos. Those are the easiest because they are photos and because they are patterns I can easily tile them to get bigger sizes for the items.

I am actually excited for this, though I know I won’t make more that a few bucks. Wish me luck:)