I started my Society6 shop last year, and I have been asked a few times from artists if it would help; so, I decided to share my thoughts on why you should create a Society6 shop. If you’re an artist, you should drop everything you’re working on and create your Society6 Shop. Now, let me tell you why. Last year, I began uploading artwork, illustrations, watercolor, and hand lettering designs to my Instagram, but it wasn’t until I was doing some freelance work for my friends over at Happy Spritz, that they told me to start a Society6 shop. I wasn’t sure how or when I was going to create a Society6 shop, but I had been creating so much art and sharing it on Instagram, that it was absurd I wasn’t taking a bit of time to share it on Society6.

Reasons Why You Should Create A Society6 Shop Now

I stopped creating for awhile in order to create my Society6 shop because I had so much awesome feedback from the Instagram community and a push from friends. I started noticing a rise in people asking where they could get art prints or iPhone cases with my art. Well, I didn’t really have a solution, nor did I like the cumbersome work of getting a professional print, mailing it off, and worrying about returns. I just couldn’t really figure out a good solution and, honestly, I probably spent more time trying to figure it out rather than just seeking out Society6 to help. Here are a few reasons why you should create a Society6 Shop.

1. Stress-Free Shipping and Handling

After using Society6, I quickly realized that they take care of all the heavy lifting aspects of the job, leaving me with more time for all the fun of continuing to create art and design. As an artist, Society6 will save you a ton of time and stress. When a product is purchased, they print it and ship it. If a product is returned, they take care of the transaction. This leaves you with a sense of no worries and lets you continue creating art.

2. Promotions

Alongside stress-free shipping and handling, Society6 also provides weekly promotions that help artists promote their artwork. I get weekly emails with what promotions are going on in the Society6 shop. Last week, they had a “24HR BIG A$$ SALE!” which promoted 15% off everything plus free shipping. This gave me the opportunity to promote my artwork as 15% off and free shipping with social media posts informing my followers about the sale. Sometimes, they run week long promotions and give artists helpful sales templates to use in case they haven’t had time to create an advertisement for themselves.

3. Community engagement

Society6 has a great feed for artists and members to like, comment and share. Like Instagram, the feed has the newest art pieces at the top and you can scroll further down to see older posts. There is a feed to discover new artists or you can look at the ones you select to follow. They have also just released a new iPhone app that lets you keep up on the latest releases more often than ever. Now, you don’t have to be on a computer to see what your favorite artists are posting, you can now follow along with your app to find some inspiration any time during your day. I really enjoy being notified when someone follows me, promotes my art, or purchases something! They keep progressing on ways to create a fantastic community that helps with artist-to-fan engagement.

It’s Okay To Be Skeptical – It’s Your Art

Like any artist, I was a bit skeptical at first in starting my Society6 shop, because I really didn’t know how it worked. I remember 5 or 6 years ago, I considered creating a shop on Society6, but for some reason, I wasn’t into it. I wish I had known then how great the company was for an artist, or that I had someone tell me to “create your Society6 shop now!” However, I would be remiss to say it’s all peachy. Here are some cons to creating a Society6 shop.

1. They take a huge profit

Since they handle so much, they take a pretty good size profit. They only give artists opportunity to set profits for the art prints. For instance, If I want to sell my “Chill Vibes” poster, I can set how much I want to make on each size. However, all other products sold (i.e., iPhone cases, laptop sleeves, and mugs) have a defined set price for your profit. If you sell an iPhone case, you’ll only make $1.50. It’s pretty small, so you’ll want to really make some great art that makes a lot of people attracted to that iPhone case to really see some cash roll in.

2. You have to be promoted by Society6 to get into their shop

I think a lot of artists that start their Society6 shop don’t understand that Society6 has their main shop. This is the main website everyone views. Not all artwork uploaded to Society6 is shown. I don’t blame them. Can you imagine all the crazy art that would flood the shop if they let that happen? So, you can create a shop, but you have to advertise it enough for people to find it on Society6. You also need to spend a lot of time creating beautiful art (which we all should). But you need to create really badass work, where Society6 will promote it to their shop. This is when the majority of Society6 traffic will find you. I found this out when my “Chill Vibes” art was promoted. It gained a lot of traction and most of my sales have come from it.

3. Resizing and uploading

I love adding to my Society6 shop, it just takes a bit of time doing all the resizing. Basically, this is work for an intern. Remember those days where you had to do mundane tasks. This is one of those tasks. There is nothing worse than having to go through all your art, scanning, and resizing to all the product spec sizes. Especially when you first start your shop. You’ll spend hours of your time resizing and uploading art.

My final thoughts

If you’re an artist considering why you should create a Society6 shop, I say do it. Do it now and take time adding to the store. It probably won’t make much in the beginning, but just keep adding art to the store. Like any storefront, the more product you add to it, the more people will come back and hang around looking at everything you have for sale. So, stick with it, add great art and have fun.

Check out my store

For 2016, my goal for Society6 is to add more hand lettering, brush script, and watercolored flowers to my shop. If you like my art, please check out my shop today and maybe send me a few promotions (likes) to help me along! Check out BoelterDesignCo on Society6 Now. Below are a few examples of my work.