 So you're wildly creative, you're talented, and you're broke. We are going to change that with this video. I have 10 different ways for you to make money as an artist. So 10 ways to make money as an artist. The first five ways all have to do with getting rid of some of that inventory that you have kicking around your house and not making any money for you at all. So the first way, and it may be one of the most obvious ways, is just to sell through a gallery. This way, you as the artist get to make your art and you get to let someone else take care of the sales. Now they will take about 50% off the top of the price for themselves, but at least then, you might have a sale or two. Urban centers are going to generally fetch more money because they've got the clientele who can pay for it. Artists such as Christopher Dean, for example, have made a very successful art career selling completely through galleries, and it's definitely still a very strong way to go as an artist. Number two, sell your art through Instagram. Instagram is a great way to get exposure for your art, but it works well if you're trying to sell it if you are posting consistently and if you're posting a body of work that all seems to have a cohesiveness to it. That way you can attract an audience that appreciates that kind of aesthetic, and you can just feel the sales inquiries as they come into your DM. Instagram is also a really great way to tell a narrative about you as the artist and about how your art was made, so the process. When you sell your art, people want to know who you are, who is this person that made this artwork, and they feel better about making a purchase if they feel like they know a little bit of something about the artist. So you can talk to your audience about yourself, and you can always show that process as you make your art. For example, an artist like Callan Shah, his work is really hard to understand unless you see how he makes it. He has this proprietary bike wheel, and it spins the canvas, and it splatters the paint, and that's how you get the look that he's trying to achieve in his art. So without that narrative, it's kind of hard to appreciate what he's done, but it's really easy to appreciate once you see how he's done it. Another thing that Instagram is really good for is directing traffic to your website, which brings me to number three, selling through your own website. Having your own proprietary website is a must as an artist because nobody is going to receive a commission off of your art should you sell it. It's also really good to build your email list, and your email list is super important because that's what enables you to have communication with all the people who have said that they're interested in your art. A lot of people need to be massaged when it comes to making an art purchase. They need to have conversations, they need to talk to you, or they need to hear from you so that they're comfortable with giving their money to you. Now, how do you get people to sign up for your email list? Well, you might need to offer a little bit of an incentive. So for example, artist Josie Lewis, she offers early access to her new work for all those who are signed up to her email list. So if you really want a Josie Lewis piece, you better sign up for that email otherwise all the good stuff is going to be gone. It's actually not that difficult these days to make your own website. You've got a lot of templates out there. Wix is a platform that makes it super intuitive and easy to make your own website. And when you do put your work on there, you should have sort of a range of prices. So small work, big work, stuff that doesn't cost very much, stuff that might cost a little bit more because you never know who's out there and who's willing to buy. Way number four, sell your art through art shows. Once you have some inventory built up, you can take that inventory to public art shows. And there are a few advantages to doing this. One, you'll get a ton of exposure. Two, you're going to get some free marketing from the organizers of the art show. Three, you're going to build your email list, which is important for having conversations with your would be clients because you're going to have a little sign out there that says please sign up to my email list. And four, you might just make some sales. And our shows are really good because not everybody feels comfortable walking into an art gallery, but people do tend to like showing up to art shows again for something to do. Again, with art shows, always good to have a range of prices available. You don't know who's going to show up and you don't know what money they might have to give you. So it's good for all those reasons. It can be a drag dragging all of your artwork to and from the shows day in and day out. And it does the shows do happen to take place usually on weekends. So that can be a bit of a drag, but Toronto based photographer Laurie Slater, for example, takes a lot of photos in and around the city and then does the art shows in different areas of Toronto and has a lot of success selling her work that way. Number five, sell your art through platforms such as Amazon Handmade or Etsy. These are popular platforms that draw a lot of traffic. So you might get some eyeballs on your work if you post on there that you might not get otherwise. People who are there on those websites are there with the intent to buy. So the conversion rate tends to be pretty good. And they'll charge you about 15 percent commission for that service. But again, the traffic might just be well worth the cost. All right. So five ideas down, five more to go. All have to do with reproducing your original art so that you can work smarter and not harder. Back in the day, there was no option that you could ever reproduce your art. It was just you made a painting and you sold your painting and you had to make a new painting. And you were constantly in this battle with your own inventory. If you could duplicate the work, then you could duplicate the sales and you wouldn't have to duplicate the effort. So in the early 1900s, sort of at the dawn of all of this technology, Walter Benjamin wrote a similar work called Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. And it talked about how if we can reproduce art, it actually kind of diminishes the aura of art, he said. The originality kind of is devalued because now you can just have multiple versions of the same thing. And it's like a supply and demand scenario. Fast forward to the second half of the 20th century. And you had an artist called Andy Warhol, whose whole artist statement was about being able to reproduce what he had done. That's why you have the double Maryland that's so iconic. And you have that Brillo box that's just everywhere in galleries around the world. That was the point. Warhol was everywhere. So if the goal here is to make art and make money off of our art, then reproducing our art is one way that we can solve that inventory problem. So number six is sell reproductions of your art. Our reproduction obviously is not going to affect as much as an original piece. But you never know if you sell multiple reproductions, then maybe that could be your most successful piece overall. You never know. And you'll still retain that original piece that you can sell at some later day. You can Google around for a G clay printer, G clay is the word for reproduction. And you could do that or you could just look at apps like like Printful or SocietySex or artsyshark.com. And all of those websites and platforms are designed to take photos of your original art and transform them into something more functional, like a pillowcase or a phone case or or or like games such as you see here. And I got these from coalmichill.com. Her lovely bird art is now art on my legs. Idea number seven, turn your original art into a book or a series of greeting cards. So again, you're doing reproductions, you're getting residual income, which is always good. It's a different printer, though, so you'll just have to research it. But I actually did this idea because I was just sick and tired of running out of inventory as an artist. And I thought, how can I work smarter, not harder? So in this book, I did a series of children's portraits. And put a little story with it. And to date, this is actually my most successful piece, dollars wise, overall. So it worked well for me, a lot of little sales that added up. Number eight, sell the rights to your original art to a publisher. You know, when you go to Nikea or you look on Wayfair and there's a lot of prefab art for sale, well, somebody had to make that. And then they sold the rights to that original design to a manufacturing publisher who can then mass produce it and distribute it widely. So for example, if you see this art behind me, that's an original piece done by my husband, David. And down here, I have a prefab piece. So I ordered this off of Wayfair. Any one of you could go and order this off of Wayfair because somebody has sold the rights and they are producing it far and wide. Again, residual income through reproductions. I actually have a friend who's made a really good income this way. Her name is Heather Sinnet, and she has published a lot of stuff that I've actually seen walking into a local furniture store. Her art there on the wall, but in its reproductive form. Moving on to number nine, rent your art. Don't even sell it. Just rent it, make money off the rental fees and then get that artwork back so you can do it again or sell it at a later stage or do whatever you want with it. Keep it for yourself, but keep that art making money for you. Here's an example again by my husband, Dave. This is a piece that he rented to a show called Grand Army, which is coming out on Netflix sometime soon. I don't really know. Anyways, the standard going rate for a rental is 20 percent of the total cost of that piece of art. So 20 percent. And here it is, we have it back safe and sound. And a lot of set designers will go through galleries looking for art to rent. So if you have an urban center that has a gallery, most of them do have a good rental program. And I would start there if you're interested in that. Last but not least, number ten, put together a course. So let's say you know how to do something unique. You have an artistic technique that you think other people would be interested in. You can put all of that into a course on a platform such as, let's say, Thinkific. And you can teach people how to do it. You can charge per student for that course. And it's a great way to make money. Even though you're not selling your art, you're selling your knowledge about your art. Artist Jane Monti does this really well. She has a really unique style all to her own and she sells her artwork. But then she also sells a course on how to make artwork in her style. So all in all, it's just a really good way to make money from multiple different streams. And it's kind of like a really nice diversified portfolio for an artist. So those are my ten ideas. Some of them are going to fit your lifestyle and your capacity better than others. All of it involves a hustle. You can't get away from that. But having done a lot of the things that I just mentioned, I will tell you that the hustle is worth it. And besides, sometimes we don't have an option as artists to not make art. So do what works for you. Be happy and stay creative. If you like this video, there's so much more good content where this came from. Feel free to subscribe or check out our next video in the Diary Series or my interview with Jane Monti, where we talk all about being an artist entrepreneur.