Redbubble is a fantastic platform for artists to get noticed and sell their artwork.
It is a print-on-demand site that allows people to upload their designs and sell them to the public on a wide range of products such as stickers, t-shirts, phone cases, pillows, or mugs.
Each uploaded design can earn the artist royalties, a margin of profit that can be easily changed, unlike other POD platforms such as TeePublic or Spreadshirt.
While Redbubble does not make you rich, it is a free way to make a nice amount of income every month.
The next step is to upload your first design to the marketplace. In this video, I will show you the best practices I am currently using for my product listings.
How to Upload Your Art on Redbubble
To upload your design, you need to click your avatar and then click the red button labeled Add new work.
Click on your avatar to see the option for adding your artwork. (Click to expand)
This action will lead you to the window where you can upload a new design or use an already created design and copy all the settings it has. This option saves a lot of time because you will mostly use artwork with the same dimensions.
If you have already uploaded a design, you can copy an existing work with all its settings. (Click to expand)
I’m usually uploading my designs in two dimension sizes – 8000 x 8000 pixels and 6000 x 8000 pixels. This is because I can easily size down the image in the Redbubble interface for each product.
The best practice is to upload your design in PNG format and with a transparent background. After you upload such a design, you can change the background on each product, or make a pattern from your art too.
It is important to edit designs on each product because sometimes you will find that the artwork doesn’t look good on some products.
A good practice is also to create a black or white variant of the design. In other words, if you have a white design, it looks great on products with a dark background, but it is not visible on stickers, which are the best-selling items on Redbubble.
For this reason, you need to have a dark variant of your design and put it on stickers individually.
Here are other tips and practices you should use when uploading your art on Redbubble.
Important Tips When Uploading Your Art on Redbubble
Make Your T-shirt Default to a Dark Color
Black t-shirts are the best-selling t-shirt on Redbubble (Click to expand)
While a dark design looks great on a white t-shirt, on Redbubble white is not the best-selling color on t-shirts. The truth is that most t-shirts are sold in dark colors, like black, dark grey, or dark blue.
That’s why it is good practice to set a default color for your t-shirts to a dark color. All your T-shirts should be dark colored.
Don’t Forget to Activate All Products
People are weird sometimes, and you never know which product with your art will sell. I’m personally activating all products for my designs, and sometimes when they don’t look good, I use the pattern feature and set the design as a pattern.
Set Your Default Product View
Do not use the optimized feature. It is better to set your artwork as a sticker or t-shirt, by default. (Click to expand)
As I’ve already mentioned, the best-selling products on Redbubble are stickers and t-shirts. While Redbubble is using the option Optimized for your designs by default, the best practice is to use either t-shirts or stickers.
And every time you upload your new design, take a look at all your products and check if it looks good on every single product. This is especially important when uploading a white design. This is because the white design does not look good on the sticker. Instead, use an inverted or darker design for stickers.
The most important thing to get traffic from Google is to create keyword-rich titles and descriptions and make tags that describe the design.
Be Patient and Consistent
I cannot describe how important it is to be consistent with creating and uploading designs on Redbubble. I have made a mistake by uploading 10 designs, letting it be for a few months, and hoping for quick money in the past.
The reality is far from such thinking.
My first sale on Redbubble came after 6 months, at a time when I completely forgot that something such as Redbubble existed.
After I saw the email with the You Made a Sale subject, I returned to Redbubble and started creating and uploading more and more designs.
Right now, I have over 400 designs, some are simple text designs, and some are pretty difficult artworks.
Selling on Redbubble or Spreadshirt takes time. Yes, you can see a few sales in the first month, but for most of us, it will take more than 3 months to see a single sale.
Redbubble is Just a Starting Point
Because Redbubble is free to join and use, it attracts lots of people who are looking to sell their artwork. This has its cons and pros, but for me, being on Redbubble is just the beginning of my journey.
There are tons of free POD platforms similar to Redbubble, but there are also huge marketplaces, where you can sell your designs too.
I am talking about Etsy, eBay, or Amazon. Those websites have huge traffic, and loyal customers, but selling on them is not free.
For me, Redbubble is a marketplace, where I see which designs are getting exposure and sales, and in the future, I will take these designs and put them in a marketplace with a bigger audience.
So, I am using Redbubble to learn the t-shirt business, I’m recommending you should too.
FAQs about my Redbubble business
Do you only sell on Redbubble?
No, I am selling my designs on Spreadshirt, and in the future, I will start drop-shipping t-shirts on Amazon.
The great about Redbubble is the non-exclusivity of your design. In other words, you can use the same design you have on Redbubble and put it on Spreadshirt, TeePublic, Zazzle, or Mech by Amazon.
Do a majority of your sales come from your website shop or Redbubble?
At the time of writing this article, the majority of my sales from my designs were coming from Redbubble. But I starting to see a few sales from Spreadshirt too.
How long have you been selling on Redbubble?
I uploaded my first design in May of 2020 as I was introduced to the print-on-demand income model.
Here Are Some of My Favorite Tools For Print-on-demand
As a graphic designer and POD seller, I’ve had the opportunity to discover different helpful products and tools that can be time-saving and make the process of creating your designs a bit smoother.
DESIGNS:Kittl (best for t-shirt designs), Vexels (for professional designs), Placeit (for unique product mockups)
Disclosure: Some of the links above may contain affiliate partnerships, meaning, at no additional cost to you, NechEmpire may earn a commission if you click through to make a purchase.
I'm Miroslav, a passionate graphic designer, Etsy seller and AI enthusiast. At NechEmpire, I'm here to share my knowledge and skills. I want to turn your design passion into a successful online business.
