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Creative Mother Looking for Advice

by danglang
6 replies
Hello there~

I've been browsing this forum for a few months now, and decided to make an account over the weekend.

Short description of myself, I'm a late-20's mother, who has been making small income as an artist since the age of 14.

Mostly when I was younger, I would draw a lot of anime (Japanese Animation) style art, and that was my sole income to support myself for most of my life. I still draw in this style on occasion, but I have been looking to branch out into things that are more geared to wider audiences (with money).

I love paper-crafting and stationery, so some of my new ventures involve those. My love for stationery is pretty big, but I don't know how far it will get me.

I wanted to try a drop shipping eCommerce store for products that still catch my interest, but still trying to work over my made-with-love, or packaged-with-love method I've been using for almost half of my life.

I have a feeling that anything I can produce, art wise or hand-manufactured will have the highest profit margins for me, but I don't know how long I can keep up with it.

I've been looking into making digital art products, such as printables or clip art. I have two printers and a electronic cutting machine I use to make stickers and other die-cut paper materials.

I like Etsy, but the niche that I recently dove into (planner stickers and accessories) is pretty flooded. I would love to have my own website, but unsure about how to get a lot of traffic to it either (and if it would be better than using Etsy itself).
There are many shops making thousands of dollars in revenue a day selling planner stickers on Etsy, but the amount of effort they put into each hand-drawn art work for their shop (some of them hand drawn), the administrative work, and all of the work in between just blows my mind because some of these shops seem like a one-person show.


TL;DR
Basically, my question is how can I use my creative talents to produce a lot more income per month? I don't mind a lot of hard work in the beginning, but the idea of it slowing down or some of the work being handled somewhere else is something I wouldn't mind in the future either.
Passive income is something I'm very interested in too.
#advice #artist #creative #mother #stationery
  • Profile picture of the author Brad Gosse
    It's great that you have artistic talent and that should help you to build up a business.

    I have 6 cartoonists on staff for my clipart company and I can tell you there is a huge demand for custom cartoon work. Being on your own it might be hard to build a large enough clipart business to sustain you.

    If I were in your shoes, I would set up some Fiverr gigs for your custom drawing and stickers. You can charge more than $5 for basic work and add on $ for extras like vector files etc.

    Good luck monetizing your talents
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    Free Clip Art
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  • Profile picture of the author agmccall
    You should look into 2 products by Erica Stone a.k.a. sojourn. They are Pinfabulous and pinplosion. They are great for generating traffic using pinterest. And pinterest is probably the way to go with the type of business you are interested in

    Just head over to warriorplus.com and look up those products or look up her name sojourn

    al
    Signature

    "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." Thomas Edison

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  • Profile picture of the author Alex Leizerovich
    One of my best friends is a painter.
    He started by writing how to books about drawing, and is selling them on Amazon.
    Even got a few best sellers.
    Now I am helping him to create marketing funnel and digital products in his niche.
    Amazon can create a decent income, if you can write a few books in a decent speed.
    If you wanna go to the next level it can be good to create digital products and marketing funnel for them.
    That way you can teach people the stuff you know and they wanna learn.
    And create a decent income.
    So you might wanna look for people that can teach you that.
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  • Profile picture of the author danglang
    Originally Posted by Brad Gosse View Post

    It's great that you have artistic talent and that should help you to build up a business.

    I have 6 cartoonists on staff for my clipart company and I can tell you there is a huge demand for custom cartoon work. Being on your own it might be hard to build a large enough clipart business to sustain you.

    If I were in your shoes, I would set up some Fiverr gigs for your custom drawing and stickers. You can charge more than $5 for basic work and add on $ for extras like vector files etc.

    Good luck monetizing your talents
    Thank you~ I have used Fiverr before, but I just thought of more ideas I could do based on your suggestions. Thank you~

    Originally Posted by agmccall View Post

    You should look into 2 products by Erica Stone a.k.a. sojourn. They are Pinfabulous and pinplosion. They are great for generating traffic using pinterest. And pinterest is probably the way to go with the type of business you are interested in

    Just head over to warriorplus.com and look up those products or look up her name sojourn

    al
    I'll look into that, thank you~ I don't use Pinterest too much, but I am interested in how to bring in more views and sales through it.

    Originally Posted by Alex Leizerovich View Post

    One of my best friends is a painter.
    He started by writing how to books about drawing, and is selling them on Amazon.
    Even got a few best sellers.
    Now I am helping him to create marketing funnel and digital products in his niche.
    Amazon can create a decent income, if you can write a few books in a decent speed.
    If you wanna go to the next level it can be good to create digital products and marketing funnel for them.
    That way you can teach people the stuff you know and they wanna learn.
    And create a decent income.
    So you might wanna look for people that can teach you that.
    eBooks is definitely something I'm interested in. I have a lot of resources and methods for amateurs to utilize. If you have any specific suggestions to learn how to do this, let me know. Thank you~
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  • Profile picture of the author Oziboomer
    Hi danglang,

    I've had a few creative types both work for me and sell items to me over the years.

    One artist sold their work to a bedding company who produced the work into bedding collections. Another produced greeting cards and other printed images.

    There are always the mainstream supporters who can buy your designs and enable you to branch out into individual ventures if that is your choice.

    Companies like Hallmark -->
    https://careers.hallmark.com/?utm_source=careersite
    They do greeting cards as i'm sure you know.

    We have a big fashion brand is Oz - Pacific Brands - they do various clothing, underwear etc and they have a craving for new designs to go onto their products.

    It really depends on where you want to go and how much time you want to spend.

    Do you want to work from home, do you want to work in school hours only etc?

    Those are things to be decided.

    BTW. Al's recommendation of Erica Stone is pretty good as she teaches how to promote via Pinterest amongst her other talents.

    I know plenty of Moms doing well promoting niche type stuff on Facebook. e.g. cake decorating, baby stuff etc. They have built a following and they network within Facebook.

    Themed parties for kids could be an avenue.

    You provide the whole themed design and the host produces the physical product.

    Photo Booth props and personalized graphics is another area.

    Personalised kids wall paper strips is another and so on.

    These are just ideas I've seen working for customer's of my business and suppliers to my business who have that artistic edge and look to monetise
    .
    One a few years ago was doing personalized identification bracelets for kids that had a cool artistic design and also contained their medical info and contact details if the child became lost. It was a good seller amongst the mom's army who worried about their kids but also wanted them to look cool.

    Best regards,

    Ozi
    Signature
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    • Profile picture of the author danglang
      Originally Posted by Oziboomer View Post

      Hi danglang,

      I've had a few creative types both work for me and sell items to me over the years.

      One artist sold their work to a bedding company who produced the work into bedding collections. Another produced greeting cards and other printed images.

      There are always the mainstream supporters who can buy your designs and enable you to branch out into individual ventures if that is your choice.

      Companies like Hallmark -->
      https://careers.hallmark.com/?utm_source=careersite
      They do greeting cards as i'm sure you know.

      We have a big fashion brand is Oz - Pacific Brands - they do various clothing, underwear etc and they have a craving for new designs to go onto their products.

      It really depends on where you want to go and how much time you want to spend.

      Do you want to work from home, do you want to work in school hours only etc?

      Those are things to be decided.

      BTW. Al's recommendation of Erica Stone is pretty good as she teaches how to promote via Pinterest amongst her other talents.

      I know plenty of Moms doing well promoting niche type stuff on Facebook. e.g. cake decorating, baby stuff etc. They have built a following and they network within Facebook.

      Themed parties for kids could be an avenue.

      You provide the whole themed design and the host produces the physical product.

      Photo Booth props and personalized graphics is another area.

      Personalised kids wall paper strips is another and so on.

      These are just ideas I've seen working for customer's of my business and suppliers to my business who have that artistic edge and look to monetise
      .
      One a few years ago was doing personalized identification bracelets for kids that had a cool artistic design and also contained their medical info and contact details if the child became lost. It was a good seller amongst the mom's army who worried about their kids but also wanted them to look cool.

      Best regards,

      Ozi
      Hi Ozi! Thank you for your reply.

      I do want to work from home. My child currently goes to daycare anywhere from 8-10 hours every week day. I don't mind doing some administrative type work with him home, but anything more hands-on I try to get accomplished while he's at care. I work in both traditional and digital mediums though.

      I love your ideas regarding kids decorations and party supplies. I'd love to do something more involving mothers and children. My child recently turned 2, so he's a huge source of a lot of inspiration I have.

      Thank you also for the second recommendation on Erica's products. I'm actually going to check them out now!
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