Simplicity. Rule of Thirds. Symmetry. Lightness. Color Dominance. Composition. Bright Colors. Authenticity.
Create content types that competitors haven’t tackled yet. find a quality piece of content that covers a certain topic. Find
information gaps in that content and develop a more comprehensive piece, building on proven value to provide even more to the reader.
keyword their images correctly. you will not make money unless you cater to the trends.
Practical and Personal Advice is Memorable. Make your content understandable. Make your content take a stand. Be funny.

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Are you designing for male or female, young or old? At the end of the day you're designing a product that you want people to wear. Like a good marketeer would do, write down the exact person you want to attract to your design – who they are, what they like, what other brands they like and go from there.

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1. FIND A SUCCESSFUL NICHE
When you’re yet to figure out a niche for your e-commerce site, it’s important that you pick something you’re really passionate about.
First, take a piece of paper and write down all things that you like to buy and use in your hobbies and/or daily activities.
For example, if you’re into winter sports, then you could build an e-commerce store to sell snowboards, goggles, gloves, jackets, and many other snowboarding related things.
Next find out what most people are complaining about on social media platforms. For instance, you could review posts in Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ communities. Doing so will help you understand the most common problem people face in your niche. Thus, you’ll have a better idea of what to offer them.

2. DO MARKET RESEARCH
Once you find your potential product, next step would be to locate whether there is a big market for the long run or not.
If not, then you surely don’t want to start an online store only to realize later that there aren’t much people interested in the product you’re selling. For this, you can use Keyword Planner Tool to find a high volume of search phrases for your product on Google which usually means big market. For instance, if you want to sell custom t-shirts, this is what the Keyword Planner have for you.
successfulecommerce
You can further research by targeting a specific country to find the audience for your product.
Another option is Google Trends. This tool can give you data about the average search volume of a product has changed over time. And by studying these data, you can know whether your prospective market is shrinking, steady, or growing.

3. VALIDATE YOUR IDEA
It’s great if you already found a product and its market. But are you sure that people will pay you money for your product after you build your e-commerce store?
Instead of telling people about how great your product is, try to find a way to open their wallet. If people (the desired audience) is not willing to do that for you, then there is something wrong. Now it could or could not be among these following reasons.
You set your product price may be too high.
There might be a better version of your product.
You might be targeting the wrong audience.
There isn’t any demand for your product.
To figure out the reason, ask yourself:
What’s preventing people from buying my product?

4. KNOW YOUR COMPETITION
What is the competition for the product you’re trying to sell through your e-commerce site?
If there is no competition, then you need to rethink before you choose this niche. It may not be profitable enough or it may be too difficult to deliver.
On the other hand, if there is a competition, then it means someone is making money. Now you have to get information about that somebody. The business plan, the targeted customers, the products, how the product is helping, and whatever other things you can find. You need to know all these things before entering the competition.

10. USE POP UPS IN YOUR ONLINE STORE
You might have an image of popups in your mind as annoying boxes appear while reading content on a website. You think they really suck and wonder why most people use it. But the fact is, they work really well.
With pop-up, you can provide a strong call-to-action by announcing sales or free coupon codes by collecting their email addresses. And they’re proved to be worked. In one test, popup drove 1375% email subscribers than those who didn’t use.
A study also revealed that a website was receiving only 10-15 email subscribers per day despite having 50,000 visitors daily, while the popup increased the subscription amount by 150 per day.
With that being said, you can easily get a second or maybe a third chance to bring back the potential customers through their email addresses. The reason is, you get the permission to message them through email. And email is the most personal online environment where you have the distraction-free attention of your email subscribers or you can call them your potential customers.
11. REMOVE FRICTIONS FROM CHECKOUT PROCESS
If your goal is to increase your sales, you need to ensure that none of your visitors get frustrated and leave your site with abandoned carts. This friction is one of the biggest challenges e-commerce Entrepreneurs are facing, especially when the world is moving into mobile age. However, the following actions can be taken to make sure the friction is minimal in your e-commerce store.
Remove the need of account creation in the beginning.
Reduce the number of step-screens a customer have to go through.
Make sure to set the cheapest shipping option as default, unless there’s faster option with same price.
Provide multiple ways to your customers to pay for purchasing product.

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To sell ANY product [including your art] you must do several things:

Have a commercially viable/saleable product.
Know your target demographic.
Market your product to your target demographic.
To SELL your product, you must also sell yourself.
Treat selling your art as a business, not a hobby.
Employ the right people.

Simply having cool artwork wont guarantee sales, you need to produce work that is saleable.
One of the most successful artists on RedBubble is ELLEN
Not only is Ellen a fabulously talented photographer with great technique and composition, but she also produces art that has mass-appeal.
Ellen’s art has such mass-appeal, that she has even received world-wide media recognition.
So, if you want to sell, then you must produce artwork that will appeal to the majority of the people [in your target demographic] afterall – what is the point of producing product that very few people will be interested in buying.
Know your style, and search the net for other successful artists work. See what they are producing and selling.
I am not suggesting that you copy their work or style, rather – learn what works and apply that to your work in your own unique way.

KNOW YOUR TARGET DEMOGRAPHIC
One word:
Market Research.

If you look at any failed business, one of the most common mistakes that are made is that the business has failed to identify their target market/demographic.
You must do this research. If people don’t know your art exists, how the hell do you expect them to buy it?
- You must identify who likes your style of work.
- You must identify where they are.
- You must tell them all about you and your work … ad nauseaum.
An example:
In your “area” there are 5000 people who are attracted to your style of art.
Maybe 50 of them buy art, of those 50 – maybe only 10 are active art buyers.
So, maybe 10 out of every 5000 would actually consider buying your art.
If you want to have the possibility to make 100 sales every year, you need to market yourself to at least 50,000 people, – and there is no guarantee that you will make those sales.

YOU NEED TO STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD

How do you do that? Well, to be frank, that is your problem. I can’t tell you how to be different, I can’t tell you what makes you different to everyone else.
Get out there, get some business cards. Approach local businesses where your target demographic are likely to shop and ask them if you can display your work there for free.
Warning: Don’t approach your local doctors surgery, if their clients are retired conservative middle income people and your artwork is hip, edgy contemporary. Your target demographic probably wont ever see your work there.
Do not expect to sell anything from these locations, this is about getting you and your work noticed.
Make sure that your contact details [RedBubble address, etc] are prominently displayed everywhere that your artwork is displayed.
Ask the shops owners if you can leave business cards and holders on their counter near their cash registers. People have enjoyed the food in the café, they have seen your work on the walls, and now when they are paying the bill the last thing they will see is your Business Card. This is a good thing.
Print a bunch of your product, and get a stall at the local markets. This is an awesome way to get lots of exposure and to also get direct feedback about your product.

TO SELL YOUR PRODUCT – YOU MUST SELL YOURSELF

What makes customers come back to the same shop time and time again?
Is it the price? – NO [lots of shops have excellent prices]
Is it the product? – NO [lots of shops sell the same type of products]
The thing that keeps customers coming back is their connection with the people who work there.
How often would you go back to a store where you got bad service, or the staff were grumpy?
How often would you travel across town simply because the shop owner knows your name and always knows what type of coffee you like.
As human beings we crave that sort of connection with each other.
Art is an expression of the self, and people who purchase art generally like to know about the artist.
People like that connection between the art and the artist. So you need to market yourself every bit as much as you market your art.
Include a bio with your art, especially wherever your art is on display.
Art is art, but if you include a bit about yourself, you will make it personal to your potential clients. This is an edge, this helps you stand out from the crowd.
Many people like to support local artists. So let them know you are a “poor starving artist” that lives in the local area. Actually, don’t tell them you are a “poor starving artist” – nobody likes people who try to play it for the sympathy vote, instead – let them know why you produce art, explain your feelings and your process, let them know why you do what you do. Try to keep it to a couple of paragraphs.
If you make yourself real to your clients, they will see your art as more than just another thing hanging on the wall.
As I have said previously, the world and the internet is chock-full of top quality artwork. It is also chock-full of unique and different artwork.
The only thing that sets your work apart from everyone else’s is: Y-O-U
You must connect with your potential clients, you must “sell” yourself to them, and if you do this then your art will stand a much greater chance of selling also.

TREAT SELLING YOUR ART AS A BUSINESS, NOT AS A HOBBY

You are either serious about making sales or you are not.
Choose one or the other. If you don’t want to treat it seriously, then just be happy if something sells, and stop complaining that you are not making any sales.
But, if you do want to make sales and you are not making any – then there is only one person to blame – yourself.
Every financially successfull artist, treats their art as a business. They take it seriously. They know that producing art is only a small part of the business. The biggest and hardest part is everything else that it takes to sell the product.
Look at artists like KEN DONE – Why is he soooo hugely successful? It is not because he produces cool art. It is because he treats it as a business and he treats it seriously.
If you really want to make money from the business of art, then study the art of business.
Do you want to be a success, or is it just a pipe-dream? Are you serious?… then do the right thing and go to night college – take classes in Business and Marketing. Learn how to effectively promote your business.

If you think this is all just a bit much, and I am being over the top, then consider this:
Coca Cola is the most widely sold domestic product in the world.
Do they know their target demographic? YES!
Do they market to that demographic? YES!
Do they put their product out there ad nauseaum? YES!
Do they treat their business seriously? YES!
Does Coca Cola sit back, knowing their product is the best, and just expect sales to magically happen? HELL NO!

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Variations and Pricing
In order to ensure that the seller (artist) has something for each buyer, it is advisable to have a variety of original pieces of different sizes at different price points. Few small articles with lesser price tags and as the size and complexity of the art increase, its prices can be set accordingly.

Attention to detail
Each art should be accompanied with a detailed description of the subject, the technique used and an interpretation of the artwork, if applicable. People would like to understand what they are buying. To quickly put this in perspective, pay attention to these details:
Detailed description of what your art means
The tools used to create the art and technique (e.g. Oil on canvas, waterpaint etc.)
What does the artwork mean: Interpretation.

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What Makes a Profitable Niche?

1. Plenty of Passion and Pride

No matter which industry you examine, those fuelled by passion are by far the most profitable. When it comes to the online t-shirt industry, tapping into your audience’s sense of pride is the fastest way to win their custom.

It’s worth remembering that all niches provide different levels of passion from their audiences. Ideally, you want to find an audience rich with individuals who would proudly boast your t-shirt to friends, family, and the rest of the world!

Most sales in this industry are strongly driven by emotions, accept this and you will already be ahead of the game. It’s not always about the most creative design, it’s the strength of the positive EMOTION created. Specifically, how they are going to feel wearing your t-shirts. In later stages, creating designs that can trigger your audience will drive home your success.

Begin your search by brainstorming niche ideas. Here are a number of broad categories to get you started and then you can narrow down into sub niches.

Hobbies
Sports
Cars
Occupations
Politics
Family
Religion
Culture/Ethnic Background

Some of my best t-shirts have been created for families, seasonal celebrations like Halloween and Thanksgiving and job professions.

For example, Pets has a Facebook audience of 500M but it’s far too broad. After narrowing it down to Dogs it’s still around 300M. You may choose target later designs by breed, or focus different emotions such humor and pride. Even Pugs has a potential an audience of 500K!

Larger niches are lucrative. But remember, it’s not all about size, if the passion or pride isn’t there it’s going to be a hard sell!

Even when all other factors point towards a surprisingly untapped niche, don’t forget about monetization. If the majority of your audience is not active online or not confident with technology, it’s dead in the water.

Similarly, if they don’t have access to PayPal accounts, credit cards or expendable income, it’s not a niche you should pursue.

As an example, marketing directly to children would be very difficult. The majority of your audience may be too young to even access the online payment systems, instead having to persuade their parents first.

Take a quick sanity test, will your audience be able to easily find and buy your t-shirts?

In order to be profitable, your niche must have an audience that’s easily identifiable for targeting. Not only is this essential for advertising campaigns, but your designs and even keywords on your website should be optimized to suit.

Facebook’s Audience Insights comes to the rescue again. Simply navigate through the targeting options and interests and look for your niche.

If you can’t find a close match, it signifies a difficult to target niche, especially through Facebook advertising.

FB ads and FB audiences offer a swift way to research interests and uncover niches. Search for large audiences or followings.

Use the Facebook Graph Search to locate fan pages related to your niche. If there’s a mountain of likes, followers and engagement, you’re on the right track. It also signifies fertile grounds for setting up your own group for marketing purposes.

The Image based networks, Instagram and Pinterest, are hives of passionate social activity. Try searching using hashtags, search for popular ones relating to your niche. If you discover furious pinning and liking, it’s likely there are grounds for a profitable niche.

1- Find what’s already selling like crazy
2- Design yours with an original or fresh approach
3- Excelling with branding, marketing, and targeting

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Be genuine
Be a good listener
Be interesting
Be relevant

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The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Artists
1 - Daily Work
2 - Volume, Not Perfection
3 - Steal!
4 - Conscious Learning
5 - Rest
6 - Get Feedback
7 - Create What You Love

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1- Be Distinctive, Be Unique, Be Yourself
2- Get Engage, Assosiate with People Better than Yourself
3- Make Good Art

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1- Have an Atractive Line of Products (to the consumer/to serve a purpose)
2- Good Tiles and Tags
3- Have Great Photos (Clickable)
4- A Good Selection of Items to Browse Through (200 Items for regular sales)
5- Add New Products Regularly

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Always Try to Pursue Irrasionatly Passionatly Audience

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Title your work with a descriptive and catchy title.

Tag your work with words that accurately describe the work, and use as many multi-word tags as possible .

Descriptions are picked up by Google and other search engines – be as descriptive as possible.

Join and participate in Redbubble groups and become an integrated part of the community.

Promote your work on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Stumbleupon, WeHeartIt, etc.

Buy your own work to sell in coffee shops or other local businesses, or to give as gifts and show off.

Journal often to let people know what you’re up to or that there’s a new design in your shop.

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1-Nobody Cares About Your Original Work (Artsy-Fartsy doesn't sell well when compared to novelty, pop culture and humour)
	-Is Somebody already buying something like this?
	-Has anyone bought something like this from me already?
	-Am I able to reach the audience that is already purchasing this kind of thing?
It is a lot easier to sell something to someone if they want to buy it and are actively searching for it.
You should know it takes a long time to get attention and tractio nwith original work - so building it up to a point where it is bringing in regular income is going to take a lot longer than focusing on creating designs that cater to existing trends, markets and customers.
2-It Pays To Be First, If You Are Also The Best
3-It Can Also Pay To Be Second If You Are Better

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If you want to make a lot of money on Patreon, understand 80/20 and aim to be in the 20% of elite Patreon pages.
If you are familiar with the Pareto principle which is also known as the 80/20 rule, and the law of the vital few (read more on wikipedia here), you can immediately understand the value of getting your first 50+ patrons and offering a very high reward on your page to your most enthusiastic supporters.  The 80/20 rule basically says that in parts of life with positive reinforcement such as making money, the relationships will not be linear but will be driven by a power law.  The reason this happens is that positive reinforcement at extreme ends of many systems makes continued progress from a point of success almost effortless while success below that point is a constant struggle. You can see this clearly in world wealth where roughly 1% of people in the world own 99% of the wealth and in high school/college dating where a few guys go out with different girls all the time while most guys struggle to get a date.  Understanding this on Patreon is critical for success because around 20% of people on Patreon receive 80% of the pledges while 80% of creators receive only 20% of the pledges.  This is easiest to understand with making money when you ask which of the following is easier?  Do you think going from $0 to $10,000/month in income or going from $10,000/month to $20,000/month is more difficult?  If it were just about the amount of money, the logical answer would be that both were just as difficult?  In my experience, $0 to $10,000/month took more than 10 years while $10,000/month to $20,000/month took just a few months.
Finally, after reviewing all of the top creators on Patreon, I was surprised to see that very few of of them were supporting other people.  Usually in life, you have to give to others before you get anything in return.  Given what I shared about creating an audience, I think I can assume that most of these creators have given a lot already in videos, podcasts, and artwork to their fans before getting any contributions.  You can bet they have put in a lot of time outside Patreon contributing to others prior to having their page.  That said, if you want your creator profile to look really good, I think showing that you contribute to other people on Patreon is an awesome way to do it.

1-Figure out what you can create that people will love and how to share it with them.
2-Keep creating and building your audience while listening to their feedback.
3-Create and share your Patreon page with your audience after using their feedback to create rewards you know they will find valuable!
4-Connect with other creators on Patreon that need more patrons and do pledge for pledge with them.

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The reality is that, depending on the design or niche, a few improvements to your listing data can result in better rankings – which can lead to more sales – which in turn leads to better rankings – and more sales! (which can lead to good reviews – which means even better rankings – and even more sales!)

First, they create a design for a T-Shirt.
Then they list the design and hope people will buy it.
Then they get sick of waiting, and go looking for places they can promote it. They post it in facebook groups, or on reddit, or twitter…and a few days later feel frustrated that no one is interested.

This is 100% backwards.

If you want people to buy something, you need them to want what you are selling. And just because someone is a member of a Facebook group about ‘craft beer’ – does NOT mean they want to buy your ‘I love craft beer’ T-Shirt!
The truth is that such efforts to ‘market’ your Shirts are basically just spam – and they come across as such (spam doesn’t just exist within email).

1- Identify a market, niche or group of people you will eventually be selling to. (Even better is to identify a single individual or ‘avatar’ that represents the people you want to reach).
2- Begin to acquire the attention of this group by giving them something they want (or need or like) for free. (eg. If you are an artist, you can give people daily images of your work or works in progress. For people who like your work and are attracted to it, this represents a form of value).
3- After you have built trust and developed a relationship with this group for some time, you can introduce your products (eg. a T-Shirt) and let them know where they can get it.

It’s really not much more complicated than that. Give value, develop fans, turn those fans into customers.

if you really are a designer/illustrator/artist and you don’t already have some kind of online presence and/or brand identity, now would be a good time to create one. (And don’t worry about ‘not looking polished enough’ yet – people like to see and follow the progression of talented individuals).

I would focus my efforts on a primarily visual social network like Instagram – and begin growing a following based around your work. The most important thing is to post regularly – at least daily – and to be authentic and genuine with what you create and share.

People are not interested in seeing an online catalog replicated on Instagram. But they will pay attention and follow those who create original designs, post genuine and funny content, and interact like a real, true human being.

The future belongs to those who produce valuable, quality content and can deliver it to an engaged and receptive audience. Building that audience for yourself is one of the best ways to secure this profitable future.

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Key Number 1: Licensing Over Clothing ‘Brand’
This means I give a website the right to print my design(s) on physical products and sell them to their customers – on the basis that they pay me a royalty per Shirt sold (usually between 10%-25% of the product price).
Without the various websites that sell my artwork on physical products, I would not be generating this kind of income.
It is easier and quicker to make money via an existing large marketplace or website, than it is to create your own website or your own brand.

Key 2: It’s a Numbers Game
There’s no way around it: the more designs you create and make available, the more income you will make.
If you want your monthly income to grow then you need to create more designs. And then more. And then more.
Let’s say you have 10 decent designs, uploaded to several different sites. You’ll probably find that only 2 will sell regularly, and the rest will not do much. This is called the 80/20 rule or Pareto Principle – and it’s a well known concept in marketing and economics.
You need to have a steady output of new designs.
After a few months you should be able to figure out what your specific designs-to-sales ratio is, and what amount of designs you need to create in order to reach your target income.
For example: You create 10 designs a month and 2 are regular sellers. After your first month you have 10 designs and make $50. After your second month you have 20 designs and make $100.
How long until you’re making $1k a month?
Well at this ratio you will need 200 designs. If you make 10 designs a month it’s going to take you 20 months to reach that target.

Key 3: Stop Trying To Make Original Work Happen – It’s Not Going To Happen
If you describe yourself as an artist or illustrator, this probably isn’t what you want to hear. You create what you want to create – and you don’t want to ‘sell out’ and create whatever the ‘market’ is telling you it wants. ‘Original’ work (or ‘artsy-fartsy’ as Jimiyo calls it) doesn’t sell to mass market audiences. …And in order to make a decent income from T-Shirts – you will need to have designs that appeal to mass market trends and likes.
The good news is this: it doesn’t have to be this way forever. You can spend a year or two creating designs that ‘the market’ wants to buy – even if it’s stuff you hate doing – but then shift gear into doing original work later. Basically you do something that generates income in the short term, in order to allow you to do the thing you really want to do in the long term.

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What Kinds of Designs Sell Best On Print-On-Demand Sites?

Usually pop culture, funny, trending, fan art and mash-up type stuff does well on Print-On-Demand sites. (Please do not take that as a recommendation – and be especially careful with ‘fan art’ and ‘mashup’ designs – as you may risk trademark or copyright infringement).

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The majority of people that are purchasing graphic tees are looking for design, graphics and slogans that connect with them and reflect their opinions and personality.
One thing that I've found is that if you want to sell something, it's easier to piggyback on a community or trend that already exists, rather than try and build your own.
I nailed down some criteria that I was looking for in a community.
Approachability - is it a "feel good" topic? is it something someone would be proud to announce "I'm selling (market or product type) t-shirts"?
Is it an "up and coming" market that will be here to stay?
Is there high shareability? Is the topic "viral"? Is there the potential for a single design to go viral?
Will the audience want to buy a shirt? Is the audience loyal, big enough?
Are there influencers in the space? Instagram accounts? Can we send someone a shirt for $20+pay them for a featured post and get a significant return?
Is there the potential for designs to be expanded to other mediums? Bags, Mugs, etc?

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Here are some things that I make sure I cover every time I setup an Instagram account. Consider applying these methods to your business account as well:

Get a username that is your exact business name or something close
Get a strong visual profile picture that will capture someone’s attention when they’re scrolling through their feed
Be sure to make your biography cute and fun with emojis
Use Google’s UTM parameter generator to track clickthroughs, and sales, to your store
Use a Google URL shortener to send visitors to a specific product or page on your store

Here’s a key takeaway to implement into your Facebook campaign strategy. What you’ll want to do is target things like:

Websites
Forums
Magazines
Associations
Clubs
Rescue groups
Newsletters
Events
Equipment manufacturers
By targeting these more specific groups of fans – you know that they’re already passionate about the subject matter.

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Regular, consistent output is more important than talent
A super-talented individual who doesn't produce a steady stream of work is always going to be outpaced by the less-talented person who produces something (anything!) on a daily basis.