Letter No. 17 [selling on Society6]
Dear friend,
As I’m sure you already know, I’ve started a little online shop through Society6 this past month. It was a strange feeling I had after officially launching it; my dreams weren’t just in my head anymore. I wrote in my journal that evening, “It’s such a vulnerable thing to create something and then put it out in the world and ask people to love it so much that they purchase it.” It is, but I also wrote, “While I am feeling scared and vulnerable and very bared to the world, I also feel a sturdiness and realness to my dreams. I feel a cement foundation beneath my feet because I’m not just talking about my dreams, like I always do. I’ve done something. And it’s a little something in the grand scheme of things, but it’s a big something right now.”
So I wanted to share the process with you, from my research, to opening a shop and uploading files, to officially launching that shop.
Research/Resources:
I did plenty of research before choosing Society6, and wanted to share the most helpful resources with you.
Marc John’s blog post:
Why I sell my work on Society6
Cat Coquillette on Skillshare:
-Building a Career in Illustration: Explore Print-on-demand
-Design Top-Selling Product Mock-ups with Your Art
-From Paper to Screen: Digitally Editing Your Artwork in Photoshop
-Growing Your Creative Business Through Instagram
Society6:
Society6 Blog:
-Artist to Artist: Every Question I Get About Selling My Artwork On Society6 with Luke Gram
-Start to Finish: How to Sell Your Artwork on Society6
In addition to these resources and others, I also just explored the Society6 website and other artists’ profiles and products. This was some of the best research I did, because I saw exactly how my shop would look, how artists wrote their bios, what the products looked like, and customers’ reviews on the quality of those products.
Equipment/Software:
Starting a Society6 shop is fairly straightforward and simple, but there are a few items I believe are necessary before starting, which are a scanner, and some kind of photo editing software.
Scanner: I have the Epson Perfection V600 Photo Scanner, which I love. When researching which scanner to buy, the V600 was one out of 2-3 scanners that almost every artist uses. It’s solid, quickly scans artwork, and provides excellent, high-resolution files to work with. I don’t have anything bad to say about it, except that it’s a bit large and clunky.
Editing Software: I use Photoshop, which I pay for with a monthly subscription. After scanning in my photos (at 400 dpi), I edit them in Photoshop—taking away the background, creating transparent PNG files, and creating new files in the sizes that I need to upload (Society6 provides a list of different sizes, I’ll go over that later).
Profile:
Most artists I see on Society6 don’t utilize this free marketing tool, and I think it’s a huge loss to them. Particularly as new artists, it’s essential we take every opportunity to build trust with our customers and gain new followers. I want my profile to:
-give visitors insight into the person behind the art
-provide my social media and website links
-briefly describe my style
-encourage customers to tag me in social media after buying something so I can share it—and not only make them feel special, but continue to market my products and shop to new customers
Your profile should ultimately reflect you. As artists, we’re selling the image and story of ourselves, so keep that in mind, and be genuine and professional.
Layout/Uploading Artwork:
Layout: One of the biggest reasons I liked Society6 is because of their clean, professional layout. they make customers’ shopping experience easy and seamless. On the back side of things, artist profiles are also clean and easy-to-use.
Uploading Artwork: To upload work, you click on “add artwork” and add your files. then you adjust the files to the products you want to sell and fill in the description and tags/categories. You can also give a short description of your artwork. Once you publish the piece, and it will be in your shop within thirty minutes. Check this page for file size requirements. I now make 3-4 file sizes in Photoshop that cover the dimensions of the products I want to sell. You can also add a markup on certain products (I’ve added a 30% markup on those in my shop).
Collections: This is another under-utilized feature for your shop. I have 11 pieces, organized into two collections: illustration and abstract. When people click on your shop, your artwork automatically shows up categorized from most popular to least popular. They can organize it by newest, at random, or by department or product, but collections condense everything, especially as your shop grows and you have thousands of pieces. In my opinion, collections provide an easier path to purchase for a customer, which is what we want.
Set Up: Society6 pays you through PayPal every month, and they require you to sync your PayPal account before selling anything. Because of this, I recommend doing a few things on the business side before making a Society6 account:
-register your business (single-member LLC or S Corporation are the most common for artists…I’ll be writing in the future about these)
-get an EIN (Employer Identification Number). It’s free after you register your business, and like a social security number for business. This is also wise for artists doing commissions or contract work if you don’t want companies having your SSN number, as they will ask for that or your EIN on your payment forms. You also need this number for opening a business bank account
-open a business bank account. As you grow your business and file for taxes every year, you need to have a separate bank account and track all your business expenses and income. It’s also wise to save paper receipts and scan them in. I do this at the end of every month because my business is still small, but I know other more established artists do this once a week. The objective: stay organized, know what’s going in and coming out of your account, and document everything.
-once you have your bank account set up, create a PayPal account linked to it. Now you can open your Society6 shop.
Society6 also provides this checklist:
note: the business side of being an entrepreneur and artist completely overwhelmed me when I first started, but I just kept researching, had a chat with an accountant, and set my business up in an organized manner, even though I’m small right now. If it’s organized from the beginning, taxes, registration, and all of that won’t be a hassle later on.
Official Launch:
I opened my shop about a month before officially launching. I did that so I could upload at least five pieces to each collection and get a little footing in the community on Society6.
Society6 app: I found this app helpful for networking on Society6. You can like pieces and comment, but know that if you like a piece, it goes on your profile in a section called “promoted” that anyone can see. As far as I’ve seen, commenting on artwork is a great way to be involved in the community and bring people to your own profile.
Tips on launching:
-advertise some of the mock-ups of your pieces on your social media accounts. People especially loved this iPhone case I shared.
-set a specific date for launching and create a count-down to build excitement and anticipation. Most people won’t realize your shop is already available, so this is a good way to let everyone know you’re ready for business.
“You only need one follower to open a shop.” Cat Coquillette said something like this in one of her Skillshare classes, and I needed to hear it. Most of us don’t have huge followings on social media yet, but we don’t need a large following to start. We’ll continue to grow as we market ourselves and create more art and content, and it’s never too early to get started. I needed this little pep talk and confidence booster, because I don’t know about you, but I was thinking, “Who would even want to buy my art? I don’t have a huge following.” You just need one person. The rest will come.
Extra note: it can be discouraging looking at established artists and their shops on Society6, but one thing I liked to look at was the date they started, shown at the bottom of their profile description. Looking at those dates—often times 2014 or earlier for really established artists—gave me the right perspective as I browsed through their shops looking for ideas and insight.
I hope these tips and resources were helpful in the launching of your own shop—I’d love to hear about it!
All the best,
Tara