As I type this, the people are loosing it over Instagram changing their grid from a square format to a rectangle format and I am among the few who really don't mind it at all, but some people still hungover from the ultra-aesthetic grid trend that was at its peek circa 2016 is not taking the change too well. Why? Because it's making their perfectly curated grid looking all funky. I was planning this blog post about the main 3 business expenses you should not skip when planning to sell your art and this later social media development is making it even more important now.
See, some people were relying exclusively on Instagram for all their marketing strategy, including building their portfolio. It's free, and it's easy, but the problem with everything that is free is that you are completely dependent on the platform and if they decide to make changes or shut down, or get banned you end up being left to hang dry. As I said it a few weeks back, it's never a good idea to put all your eggs into one basket.
Along the same line, it's not a good idea to be cheap with certain expenses when it comes to building your business.
Don't get me wrong, I get being on a tight budget, when you are just getting started, it can be hard and if you can get something for free it's tempting. There are also many expenses that aren't as necessary as they are made to be, like paid ads on social media to promote a PoD business. But these 3 below are really important and I'll explain why below.
your own domain name and website
If there is one expense you should ABSOLUTELY not skip, it's this one. You can temporary ignore the other two I'm about to list, but this one is non negotiable. The key to building your creative business is to establish yourself and your work as a brand and like all brands you need to have a presence online. So if you haven't already, narrow down on a name, and check the availability for a domain name. There are a number of domain registration services like Go Daddy, Wix, or Google domains. Look at the prices and packages and see which one fits you better. I bought this one years ago when I still had a blog on Blogger and did so from Go Daddy, all in all this should set you up to around 15$ a year or since I am in India around 1500 rupees a year. Your first year is likely to come up a lot cheaper as many of these domain registry sites offer discounts to new customers. Bear in mind that this will ONLY buy you the domain name though. You are then free to link it to a website or blog platform of your choice that may or may not attract hosting fees. As I said when I first bought my domain, I was bloging on Blogger which is FREE, you have the option to add static pages along with your blog including a portfolio page, so if you are on a budget, know that Blogger will do the trick just fine. I moved away from Blogger in 2022 and started this website which is hosted by WIX, again they have different plans, and I picked a premium plan because my website is image heavy and it sets me 2600 rupees a year but they do have cheaper plans, so if you are just getting started, you can opt for a cheaper plan and upgrade later on as you grow. Having a website or a blog is pretty much buying yourself a slice of the internet and ensuring your content doesn't vanish as easily as it could with just a social media handle. All of your update will have their own URL and can be searched on Google. Bonus expense : Buy an email ID that ends up with @your-domain-name. com. I did without for years, but I now like having all my professional mails be delivered into one mailbox that is separate from my personnal one. Plus to a client, having an email address that ends with your domain name instead of gmail is going to make you sound a LOT more professional. You can get it as an add-on with your domain registrar or web host service, or you can get with with Google workspace. For the sake of disclosure, this sets me up to about 400 rupees a month. As I said, less essential but a nice bonus if you can afford it.
Buy your own products!
I keep seeing people asking if running an ad campaign on Instagram or Facebook is going to help them make sales on Redbubble or Society6 and my answer is : NO, it's a waste of money
I did it once for 5 days back in 2018, boosted one of my Instagram posts, back then it was I believe 600 rupees for those 5 days and at first I let IG decide for me who my target audience should be based on who I follow and who follows me. I ended up getting a bunch of creepy guys wanting to "be friends" in DM and people from India kept liking my post without any further engagement. Not where my potential buyers would be for Society6 products! So I changed the parameters of the add to select the countries and target the demographics better. At the end of 5 days, my posts got a lot of likes, a handful of clicks and only TWO new followers! There is a much better place to invest your marketing budget and that is in buying your own products. Either from those PoD sites since several deliver to India, including Society6 and Threadless (both links point to blog posts I wrote about it). You also have the option to get your designs printed locally, I do it all the time for the cushion covers on my sofa, and other items like the canvas prints on my wall and mousepads. For this I mostly rely on an India based service called YourPrint, but I also used Vistaprint in the past. A picture of an actual product in the flesh posted on social media will give you a LOT more credibility than posting product images after product images straight from your Redbubble shop. Plus you can style your products to be consistent with your own branding. It looks more personal and you'll look less spammy. Plus they can be great conversation starters with people visiting your home or seeing you carry your Society6 bottle at the pool/gym.
With PoD, the key is to wait for a significant promotion deal to recover the shipping cost and a portion of the possible custom duty (depending from where it ships). Threadless is also periodically sending artists coupons to use in their own shop to buy samples, so take advantage of any deal you can.
Invest in professional editable mockup files
This one is a follow up on my previous blog post about using mockups in your portfolio.
Buying mockups vs using free ones will give you an edge as they will be less overused, ESPECIALLY on social media. If you are trying to build a professional portfolio to pitch to clients, using .psd mockups that you can edit at will is the way to go.
And yes, I am part of the Creatsy Affiliate program so I obviously will always recommend theirs, but even without being an affiliate, they are mockups I can 100000% vouch for. They are easy to edit, and always look great. A couple of days ago I bought this retro bathroom scene and edited it in many way, including one version with my "Beach n Surf" collection. Out of all 3 businesses expenses you shouldn't skip this is the less urgent, but in the long run you benefit from using paid mockups over free ones. Like with buying your own products, consider it a marketing budget expense that is going to be worth more than paid ads.
These 3 essential expenses are the ones you should be planning in your budget before any other ones. Forget expensive courses, or fancy and expensive ad campaigns or expensive video filming equipment. You can still buy into these later if they makes sense to you, but as long as you don't have your own website, and unique quality products images you'll be at the mercy of social medias making changes on you and fighting the algorithm for a chance to be somewhat seen. Those 3 business expenses are helping you buy your way out of the rat race that everyone else is running.
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