How I Made My First Sale on Redbubble!
In June of 2020, I opened my first ever shop on Redbubble after learning about the platform from a YouTube video. Basically, Redbubble is a website where seller can upload digital designs, which are automatically mocked up on dozens of products. Those mock-ups are displayed on the site, and when someone buys a product with your design on it, you get a royalty.
The reason I opened a shop at all is because there is no monetary risk to the designer-I don’t have to pay any sort of monthly fee, listing fee, or even advertising fee. You just upload good designs and wait to be paid!
Unlike with Etsy or Shopify, I didn’t have to worry about spending money and not making any sales due to poor marketing skills, since Redbubble takes care of all the marketing.
So I uploaded about 7–10 designs to my new shop, and to my utter shock and delight, about a week after uploading, I got an email with a sales notification! To say I was over the moon would be an understatement-picture something along the lines of a kid on Christmas morning jumping around in excitement.
I had sold a sticker of one of my designs and made a grand total of 31 cents! The amount was miniscule, but I was excited because this was proof that passive income was actually a real possibility for me.
I uploaded some more designs but kept my expectations low, since I thought it was possible that that first sale was just a lucky fluke.
However, about a week after that first sale, I got another sales notification! But this time, I sold a shower curtain with my design on it, which earned me $15. With that sale, most of my doubts disappeared, and I dove headfirst into researching everything I could about Redbubble and how to be a successful designer.
The most helpful information I found came from both veteran and newbie Redbubble designers. From them, I learned all about setting up my shop well and how to adjust my artist margins.
Today, I earn $1.70 for each sticker sold instead of just 31 cents since I am able to increase my margin on individual products. This is a wonderful feature that helps make each sale more impactful.
From all the information I’ve gathered, it seems like each person’s first sale can happen at a different time depending on a few factors.
The first and most important factor is the design itself. If you upload a high-quality design that people are actually willing to spend money on, the first sale should happen relatively quickly. If s new designer has not made a sale after several months, then that is likely due to the design itself.
Designs must be properly formatted on each different product and have a properly formatted title and relevant tags. Not doing any one of these three things greatly decreases the odds of making a sale.
Needless to say, with such a quick response to my designs, I felt I had discovered a truly wonderful and practical way to make passive income online. Once the design is uploaded, unless new products are added, I do not need to take any further action in order for my designs to sell, even while I am sleeping.
If you are looking for a way to make passive income online, then I highly suggest you look into print on demand websites like Redbubble in order to make it happen. I am very grateful I stumbled across Redbubble.
