Selling Copies of Your Original Artwork Can Be Your Day Job

I think it's possible to make a day job by looking at your creative practice and seeing if you can “commercialize” work that’s already made. The traditional way to do this is to sell copies of your original artwork and sell more copies for less money.

How can you make copies?

There are 1,000 (okay, maybe just 186) ways to do this, because you can now, thanks to the Internet, print anything on anything and make anything available to download anywhere.

If you’re a 2D artist, don’t scoff; every museum in the world does this with the works in their collections. Look at The MOMA's store if you don’t believe me. I’ll never be able to afford an original Keith Haring, but I enjoy drinking tea from my Keith Haring mug.

This also works for performing arts; you can make digital copies of your work like CDs, downloads, and videos.

Sure, you need volume sales, but not that much volume

Let's say you do decide to sell copies of your original artwork. The issue with this is actually having enough fans interested in buying work from you that is less expensive than your originals, whatever form they take.

But if you are engaged with 100 people on Facebook or Instagram, you have enough people to start experimenting on.

Be part of my new, beta program

I am running a “Design Your Day Job” beta program. If you’d like to be a guinea pig in this 6-week, individual coaching program, read more about it on desktop here, or on mobile, here. Also, you can schedule a 15-minute appointment to talk with me and see if it is a fit.

Commercializing your work and learning what sells is a slow but rewarding process. As you learn what your fans want, you can create a range of products/services for them that start out at a lower price. Not everyone can afford to sit in the front row at your concert or buy an original painting. Selling copies of your original artwork expands the number of people you can start touching with your art.