I made $15k from digital products as an artist & you can too (seriously)

💰 USE ELEVATE.STORE AND SAVE $1600💰

I know, I know. It's kinda a crazy number. But I genuinely think it's an achievable number for artists out there that get decent traffic to their website via consistent marketing (think like 3k+ website visits per month) and are interested in exploring this option! Focusing some of my energy toward passive income streams has had a MASSIVE impact on my life.

I created my first digital products a year ago. A handful of notion templates and the beginnings of what would become my Artist Youtuber Workbook, a product that has made me $5k+ alone. I've spent a handful of hours updating and improving them since then, but they've continued to generate income every single day for my business.

If you can brainstorm 2-3 digital products that would provide value to your audience, MAKE THEM. Seriously. Even if you don't have a huge following right now. You never know when your marketing efforts might take off, and having products in your store when you do that are zero effort to fulfill can have a huge impact on your finances.

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[jennyjumpjump]

Be careful selling printables. Especially high-resolution files of your artwork like I see so many people doing. There are so many people out there who will disregard your license and think you're an easy target for stealing your images. Lawsuits are EXPENSIVE and STRESSFUL.

[ananta]

I always like the way you explain things. It's easy to understand and it feels... friendly ? like you're not pushing the viewer to do what you say, just genuine suggestions with positive intentions. Thank you so much!

[LindsayMarsh]

I made $64, 000 selling my pdf book on a site like squarespace (I use teachable because I have a course creation background). The great thing about the method she is talking about is you get to keep most of the profit. If I used a publisher I would have to sell 4x as many books to make the same profit. I would also have a printed book I would have to worry about how it comes out, how it ships to the customer. It would be so much hassle. I just sell access to the 230 page pdf through teachable and 97 percent is mine. I sell courses on third party websites and they take most of the profits (made $2.7 million in profit this way but $6 million in sales, I made less than the companies that sell my course). I actually make more selling my pdf book per student than I do selling a 30 hour design course. Crazy. I might even start running large scale ads to my pdf book so I can see if I can scale this further. Such a great video and she is right on her advice to you guys! You got a new Sub from me!!!!

[elihinze]

Though I'm an amateur artist, I've been selling books digitally since 2010. The scalability is SUCH a game changer! I've sent out a few physical items before, but OMG, it takes so much effort. Never again!

Love this type of content, btw. Definitely glad I found this channel :)

[Ellary_Rosewood]

These videos are always so inspiring and remind me that there is so much opportunity out there. I've worked hard building up my art skills over the years, but have never been able to sell any prints, even though loads of people have asked me to open up a print shop (which I did with no luck so far). I've always been pretty bad at putting myself out there and believing that I too can do these things and make it work. Thank you for the motivation! 🥰

[Blick_Art]

Great reminder that artists own their images and should be looking for ways to leverage that asset! We think Kelsey mentioned in a previous video that when artists sell an original, it's important to be clear if you are retaining rights to the image, so you can use it in other ways, including digital. Important advice!

[achypaintyart]

I have been playing with the idea of adding digital products to my store for a while, but rarely see other traditional artists offering them, which made me feel like as a painter, it was “wrong” or “unwanted”, I’m so happy to see another artist discuss this. You make a lot of great points and offer great suggestions! ❤

[s.melonita]

Here for the free art biz class 😭 you’re giving a 37y SAHM, that was talked out of becoming an artist at a young age, hope for new beginnings. Thank you for your service!❤

[LovingLioness]

Starts at 6:15 (before that is just her enthusing about digital art, and clearly we are here because we already WANT to do digital art).
After that, it was good. Thanks for the info

[whateveryousay]

You're so business savy, Kelsey. It's really inspirational, and makes me believe that I too can run my own art business! So thank you!

[SpecialSays]

I literally was just talking to my friends yesterday about breaking down ways to ‘make money in our sleep’ (so thanks algorithm lolol). I especially love these ideas because as a minimalist I struggle with the fact that my shop and even gifting things from my shop to ppl adds to all the stuff we have and then on top of that ppl feel obligated to keep it forever b/c you made it for them, gifted it to them, etc. Thank you so much for this video, so inspiring! Can’t wait to watch more of your vids 💕✨

[victoriamurzi]

Kelsey I wanna thank you so much for this kind of videos. I'm finishing college and feel so lost as a newbie artist, you motivate me to do things and just start. I'm already planning so many ideas for next year. Thanks for sharing what so many art youtubers are not willing to, people like you make the difference uwu

[_the_little_mermaid_]

Hi Kelsey, thank you so much for this helpful video. I only wish you could’ve talked more about the legal side. Can you go more in depth about the whole licensing agreements when selling stuff, etc.? I feel like there’s not enough videos explaining these topics that are extremely important to protect us as artists. Please consider it, Kels! I love learning from you! ❤

[StylizedStation]

You're crushing it, love your stuff. Your videos always have tons of useful and transparent information, please don't stop making videos Kelsey!

[adriennepriceart]

Your point about people suddenly having to ship things and that being their new job (however you phrased it) is I think the most boring part of the YouTube art vlogs that we see. I prefer to see the artists talking about what they are making, what choices they are making. Instead it becomes a person in a mailroom with some "omg so cute!!!" stuff interspersed.
Digital makes sense. I haven't had luck with it. People don't have printers and/or are lazy and don't want to get things printed locally for themselves. But I also don't sell workbooks. Glad it's worked out for you! You've created value and I enjoy your videos and your podcast.

[Larindarr]

pure analysis... so before she could make 5K a month on a good month and now 15k for a whole year. Meaning the struggle of ppl is real and what has to be offered must be something ppl value. And it also can be created through community. As always thank you for your valuable insight🙏🏻

[shainaashleyart]

I have never commented before, but I just wanted to say that YOU inspired me to start my own channel. You made me feel like I can do this and I am EVER so grateful for that. I know that you recently had some hard times over coming TROLLS and I just was screaming the whole time I watch your video that you DO NOT have to listen to those jealous arse holes. You are an inspiration and I thank you deeply for what you do.

[jakewaitart]

I've been really considering doing phone wallpapers after a piece I did earlier this year where I had a bunch of color variations of it and two of them fit really well with the new iOS wallpaper blending thing, its still my background lol, just need to get over some vision issues so I can paint more again.

[NuraysArt]

Thank you so much Kelsey for actually taking the time to make these kinds of educational videos. Whilst succeeding and growing in your own journey, you're also telling us exactly how we can do it ourselves. Not only are you showing us how 'you do it', you're also sharing and giving us options for 'what can work for us' I really appreciate you sharing this knowledge I haven't seen another artist share so insightfully like this. So yeah just wanted to say keep it up, and thank you!! :D

[cubicspacestudios]

As a 50-year-old, art school trained digital artist who now works for a government contractor, I have always given a piece of advice to young artists (and young people in general) that you rarely EVER hear because it sounds negative but…the truth is, in spite of the World endlessly repeating the phrase “You can do anything you set your mind to do”, the harsh reality is that “You also have a limited pool of time, energy and personhood to accomplish everything that you can accomplish, and everything in the world will fight you tooth and claw to steal that time, energy and personhood, which you begin adulthood already short on, and with every year that goes by, that limited pool of time, energy and personhood shrinks smaller and smaller.”

So the truth may be that you can do “anything” but the harsh reality is that you will never do “EVERYTHING” that you want, and each wasted minute and expense of energy causes that “everything” to shrink. Sorry to say, but that is reality and a reality that as a young person, I used to say, “That’s stuff that only old people worry about.” I swear, it feels like that was just yesterday, and it will feel the same for you.

The key (aside from hard work) is to also work HARD at streamlining your habits, processes, workflows, organization, to-do lists, image database, practices, living space, time wastage, etc, mitigating or even reclaiming every minute of time and every newton of energy that life progressively causes you to shed. By personhood, I mean that you have only one body that can be in only one place at a time, only two eyes and two ears that can only study one thing effectively in a given moment and only two hands that can only produce so much product. So, the “You can do anything” phrase becomes an extremely precarious philosophy that a large majority of young people fall back on too easily without realizing how time accelerates, how responsibilities and time sinks multiply with age, and how much sacrifice you need to make just to mitigate the loss (or waste) of time, energy and personhood. Remember, the world is full of people trying to streamline their lives better than you for that resource that you are also after, be it a job, media attentions, exposure, networking, opportunities, etc.

Another key is to wage war against interruptions! Interruption is the apex predator of inspiration and productivity.

Remember: you have a limited pool of these. Protect that pool and use it judiciously to get ahead of the competition.