Selling Your Art with Zazzle - Arts & Crafts 101

Zazzle is a POD (Print On Demand) site that allows you to upload images and place them on various gift items for sale. Selling your art through Zazzle can be very rewarding.

I have been using Zazzle to sell my art for over a year, and I really enjoy the opportunity they provide for getting my work out into the world on a variety of items. I have two shops right now: Blair Peacock Creations and Mandala Magic. The first contains a variety of art by myself and my husband, while the other is dedicated to my kaleidoscope art. Zazzle is free for all users, and is a great way to bring in some extra income from your art.

So, other than an account at Zazzle, what do you need in order to make money from your art? You need images to upload to the site. You should have images that are a minimum 200 dpi and at least 2000 x 2000 pixels. The larger and higher quality your images are, the better they will look on products. Large images can also fit a wider variety of products without being stretched or too small for the item.

If you're a digital artist, then selling your art with Zazzle will be easy, since all you'll have to do is make sure your images are the right dpi and dimensions, then upload them to the site. If you weren't making your art at the right resolution and size, you can create future work to fit the parameters. If you're a traditional artist, you're going to have to go through an extra step before uploading your images.

You'll need to have a good quality digital camera and take photos of your work. You'll want to use the highest resolution and size your camera is capable of, and make sure that your photos are clear and steady. Once you've taken photos of your paintings or sculptures, download them to your computer and clean them up. Crop out anything unnecessary, and make any other adjustments you need to get a clean image. If you like, you can do digital editing on the photo to make it a unique piece of art. Once your photos are ready, upload them to Zazzle.

Once you have your art uploaded, you need to add your items to products. I won't go into all the details of that, there are other tutorials available on the internet. I do suggest that you choose whether you will specialize in a single type of product, or multiple types. Some people sell only shoes or shirts or cards, while others sell many types of items. In our stores we offer our designs on nearly everything to give the customer choice. However, focusing on a specific product can be good if you're aiming at a particular market.

Another tip for selling your art on Zazzle is to upload and place as many designs as possible. The more variety you have, the greater your chances of being found and making sales. If you only have a handful of designs, it'll be hard to make sales, but I you have a lot of variety, your chances will improve. I have over 200 designs in each of our stores and I periodically add more.

Zazzle offers flash panels and WordPress integartion, and I highly recommend using them once you have a good selection in your shop. These two items are a great way to show people what you have for sale in your shop and encourage them to click through and buy. On my blog I use the zStore for Wordpress to advertise my art in scheduled posts. You can also use WishAds to make slideshows of your products and place them on your blog, site or anywhere else.

Once you get the hang of using Zazzle, you'll be selling your art with ease. My shops haven't really taken off yet, but there is a lot of potential. I know a lot of artists who are selling art on Zazzle and making a very good income. At any rate, it's a great way to get your art out into the world without extravagant expense.