After spending way too much time digging through r/passiveincome, I decided to focus on building up my Youtube channel, incorporating affiliate marketing into my blog and starting a Redbubble store this year.
However, the passive income potential for Redbubble sellers seems to be pretty mixed. Most people make very little money, even with a lot of hard work.
So, I've been digging into tips and strategies suggested by the small percentage who make consistent sales. I figure it can't hurt to try.
Setting Your Designs Up For Success
Redbubble sellers face two unique challenges; creating a range of designs with a long-term appeal that will look great on various POD products and getting their designs noticed in an oversaturated marketplace.
Most of the top Redbubble sellers set their designs up for success by;
✅ Niching down (Either by developing a unique art style or by zeroing in on specific fandoms that are under-served in the merch department)
✅ Optimizing titles, tags and descriptions for better SE performance
✅ Paying close attention to file formats and image sizes while also customizing individual products as needed
✅ Enabling designs on as many different kinds of products as possible
But that stuff is a no-brainer, and everybody does it. Including the sellers that don't make any money.
So, I've decided to run a few little experiments to see if there is a way to add juice to your store performance through promotion and some unique platform quirks.
Social Media Promotion
Although I have a relatively small IG following of under 200+ followers, I sold about twenty-five copies of my first book, Dear Atlas, in the first eight months. So, I don't think it'd be impossible to boost sales using my personal social media account(s), a Pinterest board and my Youtube channel.
Unfortunately, I'm unsure which traffic sources correlate to my Redbubble sales. For example, my sales over the last three months may be purely from Redbubble's promotion efforts.
Product Curation
However, my instincts tell me there are probably a few quirks to how Redbubble groups and recommends products that I might be able to use to my advantage. So, I've started curating lists of my products and similar designs using their 'Lists' feature.
While the lists I've created aren't 'visible' until I share them;
They serve a few purposes.
I can identify what elements make a design stand out by curating examples of top-selling and trending designs in my niche. The lists are a quick reference for SEO patterns seen in top performers. And it introduces me to other artist profiles on the platform that create high-quality (profitable) designs.
Tweaking the Strategy
I've begun to realize there is a social media element to Redbubble. Most of my design interactions are from other shops browsing and favouriting new designs, which took me a while to understand.
Each 'save' notification pops up in your seller's feed the same way a sale would. So, every shop owner sees them as they roll in. And when you're the one doing the liking and saving, it encourages those sellers to check out your Redbubble page.
I've even had sellers send me follow requests.
Hello :)
You have some great Artwork & I’ve followed you! Please have a look at my profile too and follow me back if you like my work!
Thanks
While I'm not sure how effective these interactions are, I'm curious to see if the right Bubblemail message or a carefully curated store page could boost my sales.
But at the bare minimum, I'm aiming for consistent uploads over the next several months. Wish me luck. ✌️
