I’m obsessed with printing digital wall art on Etsy so it is only natural for me to consider selling my own wall art designs on Etsy. From nursery wall art, to seasonal decorations, to bathroom decor, to office decor – there are so many people looking for wall art on Etsy.
Everyday shoppers visit Etsy looking for anything and everything under the sun. The online marketplace is home to furniture, clothing, toys, and more. You name it; you can find it on Etsy.
For people looking to start their own Etsy shop, the variety of items sold in the marketplace can make choosing a product daunting. If you think digital wall art is your Etsy niche, keep reading. However, if you’re looking for something a little different, I have dozens of other ideas for you to choose from in my post on the Best Etsy Shop Ideas for 2022.
What is Digital Wall Art?
There are many definitions for digital wall art out there, but in the case of Etsy, digital wall art is an art that buyers can download and then print themselves.
If you search digital wall art on Etsy, you’re going to find various art types. Some are as simple as inspirational quotes. Some require a little more artistic skill, such as photographs or hand-painted or hand-drawn images.
All of these items can be turned into digital files and then sold on Etsy.
Benefits of Digital Wall Art
The reason buyers like digital wall art is because they can find images and art that speak to their personalities without paying outrageous sums of money. Most of the digital wall art sold on Etsy costs less than $10.
A buyer can purchase the digital file and then customize the art to fit their home. They can choose the print size—large or small—to fit the space they’re trying to decorate. What’s more, they can also choose a frame for the print that fits their style.
After downloading the file, the buyer can print the wall art at Staples, Walmart, or another big chain store for an inexpensive amount. Then frame and hang it and it looks great!
Digital wall art allows a buyer to create art to their specifications.
For sellers, digital wall art offers a form of passive income. A seller needs to create the art and then upload the file. After that, every sale that’s made is money in the seller’s pocket.
The seller doesn’t need to worry about filling an order, packaging an item, or shipping it. What’s more, the seller doesn’t have to take up physical space for inventory.
How To Create Digital Wall Prints
If digital art is what you want to sell, you need to decide what kind of digital wall art you want to create. If you’re an artist, then use your skills to create art in your favorite medium. Once the work is done, you can take a photo or scan the artwork into your computer and go from there.
Use Canva
However, if you’re not blessed with artistic talent, don’t give up. A graphic design tool like Canva can be all you need to start your foray into digital art creation. Canva offers design tools to help you create everything from postcards to posters to letterhead. It’s easy to use, and there are plenty of fonts and designs to choose from to get you started.
Canva is a perfect tool for creating wall art with inspirational quotes. The blog, Plan a Healthy Life, tells you how to turn inspirational quotes into digital wall art here.
If you find success using Canva, you might want to upgrade to Canva Pro. Canva Pro offers you even more font and design options. I wrote a review of Canva Pro a little while ago. You can find it here.
I personally use Canva Pro but started out with the free Canva platform. If you use Canva, make sure you read the license terms for any clipart you use in their free media agreement.
If you’re interested in this side hustle, I have a free ebook about how I sell printables on Etsy and make sales year-round offered here called The Seasonal Product Secret.
How to get Clipart and Fonts to put on the printable
Personally, we prefer to buy clipart and fonts from Etsy, Design Bundles or Font Bundles that have the appropriate commercial use licenses.
It’s just easier for us this way since we know that what we are buying for cute clipart and fonts are OK for commercial use in a printable that we will then sell.
If you’re more skilled with words than you are with design, WordArt could be your best bet. Paula at Colorful Craft Corner swears by it.
WordArt is free, but you have to provide your email address to download anything you create. You also must read the terms and conditions in the footer to make sure you can use this medium to sell on Etsy.
Create Digital Wall Prints From Free Digital Art
Another option is to source art from the public domain.
According to a 2019 Vice article, you wouldn’t be the first to do this.
“On Etsy, there are thousands of listings for downloadable prints and lithographs that are in the public domain. The concept is pretty simple: these merchants round up and download the most visually beautiful art in the public domain” and then make digital files to sell as wall art on Etsy.
Sourcing art from the public domain is completely legal. That’s because the works of art have existed long enough (like over 100 years in the US) that the copyright has expired. Once a piece of art is out of copyright, you don’t need permission from the owner to use the image, and you don’t need to compensate the owner if you make a sale.
To find out more about the public domain, Copyright Laws has details here.
Botanical inspiration seems to be doing really well in this space.
Where To Find Free Digital Art
If you decide to use art in the public domain, there are some great resources for you to choose from.
For example, the Library of Congress has a digital collection including photographs, letters, and paintings. Similarly, the New York Public Library has its own digital collection that you can scour through for beautiful art.
And, oddly enough, the United States Department of Agriculture has a collection of agriculture-themed art that includes images of fruit, vegetables, and more.
How To Size Digital Wall Art Prints
Once you decide what digital wall art you want to create, you have to make sure you size it properly. Remember, you’re supplying art, so it needs to be a high-quality image whether you print it yourself or offer it as a digital download on Etsy.
Christopher at The Self Employed Artist has sold plenty of digital art. He says the size of the digital art can make or break the creation of your art and your sale afterward. He has a great chart on his website of how many pixels to design the art to fit standard print sizes in the US and abroad.
Make sure you remember that the sizing in the chart is in pixels, not inches or centimeters.
We noticed that Etsy sellers offer digital wall art in a multitude of sizes and aspect ratios so the customer can select what works for them and their room size. For example, they may offer the digital files in 11×14 and 8×10.
Research and buy other digital wall art on Etsy first so you understand how to best package your own files for sale.
Listing Your Digital Wall Décor on Etsy
Once you’ve created your digital wall art, you’re ready to list it on Etsy.
Step one is to create a shop. That includes coming up with a name.
Then, you can start listing your wall art. Make sure you have quality photos to include with your listing. All of your listings need to include detailed instructions, including how to download the digital wall art and how to print it. Print dimensions will be important.
For complete details on how to sell on Etsy, check out my How to Sell on Etsy post.
Framed Digital Art
So far, we’ve talked about selling downloadable digital wall art. That’s the easiest and least labor-intensive way to sell digital wall art on Etsy.
However, there are Etsy sellers who will sell and ship digital wall art. Usually, this art comes matted and framed for the buyer.
Some people don’t want to do the work of printing and then framing the digital art they purchase. They only want to buy it and hang it. If you have framing and matting skills, selling framed digital art can open up a whole new stream of revenue for your Etsy shop.
You can invest in a high quality printer and make this a bigger side hustle for you. You could even sell at craft fairs if you wanted.
Marketing Your Etsy Digital Art Prints
Whether you sell downloadable digital art prints, framed digital art prints, or both, you need to find buyers.
The best way to market your digital art is to be smart with your SEO search terms. These are the terms that you include in the tags and titles of your listings on Etsy. SEO tells Etsy whether your item fits a shopper’s needs when they input information into the search bar.
However, SEO is not the only way to market your digital art prints. You can also use Pinterest, Facebook, and other social media platforms.
If you’re serious about selling digital art on Etsy, I suggest you invest in a course on printables. I’ve come up with a list of some of the best ones on the market today. You can find it here.
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