I’ve made over $15k from digital products so far this year in my online shop, and that wouldn’t have been possible without Squarespace. Use code KELSEYRODRIGUEZ to get 10% off: https://squarespace.com/kelseyrodriguez
I know, I know. It’s kinda a crazy number. But I genuinely think it’s an achievable number for artists out there that get decent traffic to their website via consistent marketing (think like 3k+ website visits per month) and are interested in exploring this option! Focusing some of my energy toward passive income streams has had a MASSIVE impact on my life.
I created my first digital products a year ago. A handful of notion templates and the beginnings of what would become my Artist Youtuber Workbook, a product that has made me $5k+ alone. I’ve spent a handful of hours updating and improving them since then, but they’ve continued to generate income every single day for my business.
If you can brainstorm 2-3 digital products that would provide value to your audience, MAKE THEM. Seriously. Even if you don’t have a huge following right now. You never know when your marketing efforts might take off, and having products in your store when you do that are zero effort to fulfill can have a huge impact on your finances.
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✨ SOCIALS AND SHOP ✨
💕 MY ONLINE SHOP: https://www.kelseyrodriguez.com/shop
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📖 RESOURCES 📖
○ New Master’s Art Academy* (this is how I’m learning art online, and is an affiliate link that helps support the channel): https://www.nma.art/?ref=137
○ My art book collection: https://bookshop.org/lists/my-art-book-collection
⚙️ GEAR & FURNITURE ⚙️ *referral / affiliate links*
○ Studio tour with everything linked: https://youtu.be/IZ2nNQc9ujo
○ Desk & Chair From Fully: https://bit.ly/3U8xJXt
○ Grovemade monitor stand & desk accessories: https://bit.ly/3fr5e8A
○ Main Camera – Lumix GH6: https://amzn.to/3AL2YBn
☆ MUSIC ☆
All music courtesy of Epidemic Sound!
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* Referral or affiliate links allow me to gain a small commission off of any purchases you make through the link, at no extra cost to you!
Hi, I feel like this is tailored directly to me. Thank you so much for this content. I wish you continued success in all you do!
Timestamps:
6:12 – Printables
8:24 – Educational
11:22 – Non educational like assets
Kelsey!!! Can you please explain licensing for digital products? pls!!!
Hi. I have a bunch of illustrations I did of this escort I see in Photoshop and I've thought about selling them as posters through her e-commerce site on bigcartel or other sites she has. The thing is that I don't have a lot of social media presence myself. And doing so will require a lot of time versus using her links and sites. I've thought about doing POD on eBay too. Do you have any ideas? I don't like to sell them as printables because people can just rip it off for free. I'd rather add a watermark and sell it as a poster instead. I would appreciate an answer.
Is your art digital or paintings?
I wish I had your success with my digital printables. I'm a watercolour natural artists and half my Etsy store is digital printables of my watercolour art. They hardly get any views and have zero orders. I'm wracking my brain trying to tweak Etsy SEO every few months, making sure my pictures and captions are catchy, and pricing them at an affordable and competitive rate. Nothing is working. I'm trying really hard not to think that my art is crap because no one is buying them but at this point I honestly don't think it's that.
One time I packed an order which took me at least 3-4 hours. It was only for 1 order! That was too much for me so yeah the time spent in packaging is so real. That order was for retail, the t-shirts were bulky and I didn't have the right size for the box, and I had to do tagging on the t-shirts too aside from making it look pretty that was why it took so long. Thanks for this video 🙂
Churning out great digital products requires a LOT of effort up front, like a physical piece would, but oh my god is it nice to just set it and move on. I've been working on planner templates for a month or so now but once it's perfected i can cut it up and reskin it as many times as I want. Nearly infinite possibilities! Just a lot of beta testing and a/b testing and interactivity before we get there.
Also do you sign your digital prints and list your company name on them?
Is i it possible to add my copyright logo on my artwork that I will use on printable art? Thank you
all of that babbling without telling anyone how to do anything. What a waste of time.
I have a question and I hope you see this! DO you recommend sticking to a small number of categories, and if so, how many? I kinda want to dabble in several categories but I'm constantly hearing how important it is to "niche down."
❤wow. You girl, are preaching to the CHOIR girl!! Well done❤❤❤🎉🎉🎉🎉
Is squarespace a good website for your art career and art business?
As a 50-year-old, art school trained digital artist who now works for a government contractor, I have always given a piece of advice to young artists (and young people in general) that you rarely EVER hear because it sounds negative but…the truth is, in spite of the World endlessly repeating the phrase “You can do anything you set your mind to do”, the harsh reality is that “You also have a limited pool of time, energy and personhood to accomplish everything that you can accomplish, and everything in the world will fight you tooth and claw to steal that time, energy and personhood, which you begin adulthood already short on, and with every year that goes by, that limited pool of time, energy and personhood shrinks smaller and smaller.”
So the truth may be that you can do “anything” but the harsh reality is that you will never do “EVERYTHING” that you want, and each wasted minute and expense of energy causes that “everything” to shrink. Sorry to say, but that is reality and a reality that as a young person, I used to say, “That’s stuff that only old people worry about.” I swear, it feels like that was just yesterday, and it will feel the same for you.
The key (aside from hard work) is to also work HARD at streamlining your habits, processes, workflows, organization, to-do lists, image database, practices, living space, time wastage, etc, mitigating or even reclaiming every minute of time and every newton of energy that life progressively causes you to shed. By personhood, I mean that you have only one body that can be in only one place at a time, only two eyes and two ears that can only study one thing effectively in a given moment and only two hands that can only produce so much product. So, the “You can do anything” phrase becomes an extremely precarious philosophy that a large majority of young people fall back on too easily without realizing how time accelerates, how responsibilities and time sinks multiply with age, and how much sacrifice you need to make just to mitigate the loss (or waste) of time, energy and personhood. Remember, the world is full of people trying to streamline their lives better than you for that resource that you are also after, be it a job, media attentions, exposure, networking, opportunities, etc.
Another key is to wage war against interruptions! Interruption is the apex predator of inspiration and productivity.
Remember: you have a limited pool of these. Protect that pool and use it judiciously to get ahead of the competition.
I am targeted by A LOT of DIY artist-entrepreneur channels thanks to the algorithm~ and I gotta say, yours is a great one! Thanks for not just being another talking head. I also have already been using Squarespace for years- but only recently started considering its commerce options. Up until this point, I've just a modest Patreon following- Your videos are really helping me advance to the next steps! I'll check out your website today~ Thanks!
Thank you for this!!!
Thank you! You always help a lot!!
Nicely explained! Thank you
What are the 'digital products' that you sale ?
This is really insightful ❤ I have some books I started writing. I need to start selling my pdfs. I would love to know how many pages can a pdf be limited to for a short lesson😊
1000 true fans? Are you a creative pepperoni? XD
this is very timely advice, considering I'm starting to expand into my storefront on Ko-Fi – thanks for the advice, and the validation! i also want to say- the good thing about digital products is that they're so much cheaper for your customers, too, and for those that want to support your work but maybe cant pay for merch or a physical product or a print, some of these options especially like colouring pages or stickers and digital wallpapers is very accessible for a much broader audience
Hi Kelsey, I love your videos. You are on top of it and on top of the world. My problem is I have a degree in art, and was trained as a classic artist, and in my retirement years, I have changed media from oil to watercolor. I would just like to make it pay for itself not looking to make a lot of money. But your ideas are so new age for me, that I am not sure I understand the vocabulary. I think i must get a coach😅.
I’m doing a 9-5 and it is no normal healthy job 💀💀💀