If you are looking for places to sell your art online or just make money with your art blog or social media accounts, today’s article is made with love just for you!

Hello artists, My name is Khaoula, and I am here to help you make money from your art online. Throughout my journey as a self-taught artist, I have tried many different platforms, places, and marketplaces that claim to be great for artists to sell their art, and one of these happens to be Society6 which I will be talking about in detail today.

What is Society6 and how to make money with it?

Society6 is a print-on-demand (POD) marketplace and supplier. Artists create art and upload it to the website (link here). And as the hosting marketplace, once a customer buys your art, Society6 will make the item your customer chose, sell it to them, ship it to their door, and pay you for the art you sold. 

Two ways to make money with Society6

The first way is obviously by selling your artwork on Society6. This is especially great for digital artists, graphic designers, text designers, and anyone else willing to create art that can be sold on items like mugs, t-shirts, pillows, etc. Or selling it as art prints on paper and canvas. 

The second way goes if you’re not an artist and still willing to make money with society6.

You can do that by promoting your favorite shops from society6 in your social media, blog, website, or whatever channel you prefer and get up to 10% commission on every sale you drive to other artists through the link you provided.

Know that if you are an artist and proceed to promote your products online, Society6 is encouraging you and offering you a 20% commission on driving people to purchase your products.

Is Society6 a great marketplace for artists?

I would personally rate society6 a 6 out of 10 for a POD marketplace, and here’s why: 

Pros:

The things I personally appreciate about Society6 would be the fact that the platform is super appealing and user-friendly. People shopping on Society6 do that genuinely to support artists. You also have access to a bigger audience and ready-to-buy customers, which saves you the time and money you would normally spend on marketing and advertising when trying to sell or get exposure for your art online. And last but not least, you are not dealing with customers, so you’re hearing no complaints, and don’t have to think about returns or the fuss that comes with doing e-commerce. 

Cons:

To share your work on Society6, you are supposed to export your art on at least 4 different large file sizing for it to show up well on the printed products. Another downside is that the loading process takes FOREVER, literally! If you live somewhere with bad internet, your uploads might keep failing and you end up being frustrated. Another thing I didn’t like about Society6 is the fact that you have to keep going through the product list individually, again and again, to get all your products adjusted and checked, which makes the process very time-consuming for what it is. A better platform for POD would be Redbubble, which is way faster and much easier than Society6. 

How much would I get paid for selling my work on Society6?

Artists on Society6 only earn 10% of the retail price of products sold, except for art prints and canvas prints, where the artist will earn a fixed profit. On Redbubble, though, artists are getting a 20% commission on the sale they make. So if you are wondering if you can make that much money on Society6, I’d say no. However, it’s worth trying and would add to your online presence as an artist.

Is Society6 a great affiliate program for art enthusiasts?

I personally appreciate it more than Redbubble or Etsy affiliates, because the last two don’t allow you to promote your own products online, and if you do that and get caught, you risk losing both your store, your affiliate income, and your affiliate profile as well, which I think is super crucial because you are still driving traffic to the website and putting in hard work to give the platforms/artists more exposure. 

Other reasons why I highly recommend joining the Society6 affiliate program are:

  • Because of the high commission rate. Both 10% (promoting other artists) and 20% (promoting your own store) are very lucrative for affiliates. 
  • 30 days cookie duration.
  • You have an unlimited earning potential since you can use your links as much as you want, with no limit.
  • You can withdraw money from your account with no minimum payout threshold.
  • No sign-up cost. It’s all free you just need a PayPal account. 

How to join the Society6 affiliates and get links to promote your products of choice?

This link will redirect you to the Society6 affiliates page, and from there, you can follow the steps as required by the Society6 team to apply to the program.

Apply here

It takes about 24 hours to get a confirmation from Society6, so you can start using the links to promote your products of choice. And once your account is approved, you go to the product page and scroll all the way down until you see the affiliate link that you can copy. 

DO NOT copy the link from your browser. 

Conclusion

As an inspiring artist, I recommend you don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Show your work to the world. Put it out there and keep creating momentum. POD platforms are a great way to earn passive income online, so try them out! Investing time and skill is never a bad idea for beginners.  
Learn how to make money with Amazon KDP here.