Create And Earn Tip #8 - Monetary Value For Text-Only Graphics

It can be intimidating to look at any POD website's marketplace.  For the most part, they are full of awesome art work; enough to make you think you will never be able to replicate something like that.  Or at least that's how I used to feel.

As I've touched in the past, I learned my trade by trail and error.  The first thing I learned was that at the time I wasn't able to create any decent graphics.  To my rescue came the concept of text-only images.  I wasn't able to draw, or take a somewhat presentable picture, but I could type and be smart about it.

After that, I discovered people not only bought beautiful graphics, they also bought funny, inspirational, or encouraging sentences.

In this Create And Earn Tip we are going to cover how to create a text-only graphic others will find valuable.

Step 1- Have a defined target market

As with any image you create, the most important part in it is the person at the other end of the screen who is going to press that "Add to My Cart" button.  They are the ones who need to think your creations are worth the commission you'll be getting, not your friends, family, co-workers, etc, etc.

I already touched on the concept of having a defined target market in a previous tip I wrote.  You can check it out HERE or you can keep on reading.

To developed a defined target market you just need to answer these two questions:

"Who is going to buy my images?"
and

"Why are they going to buy those images?"

If your answers to these questions are:

Engineers and because they feel proud to be engineers.

Then the next step is to come up with a sentence an engineer will find encouraging, something that will make him/her feel pride in his/her occupation.  It is not that difficult.  Just think of what an engineer has to go through everyday.  Engineers basically solve problems everyday, all day.

Here is a little example of what I'm talking about.  Try showing an engineer or engineering student these sentences and see if they like them or not.

"Have problems?  No need to worry, I'm an engineer".
Or how about this one:
"I don't fear pain.  I was/am an engineering student"

Both sentences are directed to engineers and one to just engineering students.  And both sentences relate to what they go through everyday or what they went through in the process of becoming engineers.

On top of that, there's that positive emotion of pride both sentences were designed to induce.  Do you think an engineer or someone related to an engineer will find value in those sentences?  I'm pretty sure they will.

Never write a text-only graphic without knowing clearly who and why is going to purchase your work.

Having a well defined target market will take you a long way.  The best part of it is that you can have more than just one target market.  Therefore increasing the chances of someone buying your images.

Step 2 - Avoid filters

No, I don't mean filters like the one in your car, although in a way, I kind of do.  Sometimes filters can be good.  Example, an air filter in your car.  It keeps away dirt particles that will damage your motor over time.  Some other times filters are bad.  Example, the kind of font you used to write your text-only graphics.  If you picked the wrong font, others will not find it beautiful.

The worst mistake you can do when it comes to selecting a font, is to use a font that's difficult to read.  No one will find the value in your graphics if they have a hard time understanding them.

Nowadays, I tent to stick with simple and easy to read fonts like Times New Roman.  I can still remember my English teacher back in high school emphasizing how we were supposed to only use Times New Roman font when turning in our essays.  He made a comment about not wanting to spend more time trying to decipher what we wrote than to actually read our essay.

Also, don't forget to use an adequate color for your font.  Remember that with text-only graphics, the main purpose is to get your message across.  Try to use dark font colors when you're planing to use a bright background, and apply light colors when designing for dark backgrounds.

Another filter you'll find in the text-only graphics world is that of misspelling.  No one wants to wear a shirt that says:

"I love cats because their the best" 
or
"I love you because your my everything"

Take the time to double check your spelling.  There are countless of on-line dictionaries.  Over time you will memorize the proper spelling of each word.

Step 3 - Don't forget you're writing for your target market, not others
Sooner or later you'll find people who will not find value in your text-only graphics.  And they are going to have a great time pointing out how you're not a real artist and how your work sucks.

Once I got an email from some other designer in one POD website where I have a store.  He/she said:

"Does Anyone actually buy those god-awful t-shirts of yours? lol"
(Yes he/she wrote: Anyone instead of anyone)

Clearly this individual went over my work and found a bunch of white t-shirts with black writing on them.  On top of that nothing of what I wrote was funny because I can't be funny to everyone.  Some people like my humor, some hate it.  And that's fine.  I can only wonder why this person decided to contact me if he/she thinks my t-shirts are "god-awful".

I think maybe he/she was having a slow week and wasn't seeing as many sales and decided to check why.  He/she found my work and assumed his/her slow days were the result of my work and he/she decided to try to make fun of me.

I don't know why this person did what he/she did, but when I first got his/her message over two years ago, I went over to check their work and found some nice graphics.  Sadly, today, when I went to my mailbox to pull out their message, I found out he/she had closed his/her store.  Maybe sales really dried up.  Maybe someone said his/her work sucked.

No matter what others think of your text-only graphics, always keep in mind that if you're writing for a defined target market, your work will always have value to someone in this planet.  Don't listen to those outside your target market.  Keep on giving value to those you're designing for.

**********

And once again, we have come to the end of another Create And Earn Tip.  Please follow the three steps I covered and I'm 100% sure you'll start creating text-only graphics that will put a smile on someone else's face.

I hope you have found value in the preceding paragraphs.  Please write down your questions or comments in the box below.  I'll be more than happy to hear any suggestions you may have to help us make this blog better.

Create And Earn Tip #7 - Adding Your Work To Redbubble

Now that we have covered some of the most important concepts when it comes to selling your work via POD (print on demand) websites, it's time to learn how to actually put your work out there.

Most POD websites I work with are pretty simple to use and there's not much to it.  Perhaps the two exceptions would be Zazzle and Spreadshirt.  But for this article we are going to stick to Redbubble.  Later, similar posts concerning adding work to Zazzle, CafePress, Skreen and Spreadshirt will be created.

To begin type in your browser www.redbubble.com.  You should already have a RedBubble account.  It is free and fairly simple to set up.  Click the "Add New Work" button and you should be taken to a screen that looks like this:

(Click on the image to enlarge)

Click on the "Upload to all products" link and choose the image you wish to add.  For this demonstration, I'm using an image from my Rectangular Patterns collection.  After the image is done uploading, a preview of all the products with your image on them already should appear:





Underneath every product you will find two buttons.  One for editing and another for enabling or disabling a specific product.  The editing button is used to adjust the size and to rotate your image on the chosen product.  There you can also chose the view your potential costumers will first see.





After you're done editing and adjusting the image on all the products you wish your image to appear on, keep scrolling down.  You'll find a section where you'll be able to write down the title, description, tags, and chose the media for your graphic.





Fill out all those details  and keep scrolling down.





Finally, you will find the last sections.  There you can set up the default view (which product will customers see first), audience (if it is a private or public product), and if the graphic contains mature content.  After you're done doing that, just press the Save Work button and wait.

Processing time depends on how big or small your image is.  But after all is done, a new page with your graphic on the desired product should appear.





And just like that, you have added your work to the market place.  If it has any sort of value to other people, you can just sit back and wait for it to be purchased.  Or better yet, you can add even more work.

And this was our Create And Earn Tip for today.  Pretty simple, eh? As always, I hope you've gotten as much value from it as I intended to give.  Don't forget to ask any questions in the comment section.  I'll be more than happy to answer them.  Also, please help us out by sharing this blog via any social media website.  It means a lot to us.

Create And Earn Tip # 6 - What To Do When Sales Are Slow

It doesn't matter who you are, sooner or later you will experience a slowing down on sales.  You can be a big company making millions, or just a simple hobbyist earning $50 a month, but it will happen to you.  What do you do now?  What do you do to help sales pick up speed again?

In order to understand why sales have slowed down, first you need to understand why your graphics are being purchased in the first place.  If you understand this, you'll be able to take the steps necessary to get out of this situation.

Take an honest look at your graphics and decide if they are "timeless" or "seasonal".

TIMELESS GRAPHICS
Timeless graphics are those graphics that don't contain a reference to a particular day or week of the year.

A good example of a timeless graphic would be the picture of a beautiful lake.  Regardless of the time of the year, that particular image will have monetary value because it is pretty.  It doesn't matter if it is snowing outside or if you live in the desert where the temperature is 110 degrees.  Anyone, at any day of the year, can look at that picture and find it valuable/beautiful.

Another example of a timeless graphic would be a phrase or slogan that has no reference to a particular date in the calendar.  A graphic with the sentence: "Proud parent of a lazy teenager" will be funny  any day.  And people who have lazy teenagers at home will identify with it and therefore would want to purchase it regardless if it is November or May.

SEASONAL GRAPHICS
These are the opposite of Timeless Graphics.  Well, not quite.  Seasonal graphics have a reference to a particular day or week in the calendar, and therefore are more in demand around that period of time.

The perfect seasonal graphic would be anything with the image of Santa Claus in it.  What do we all think when we see Santa Claus? Christmas, right?

If you have a bunch of images with seasonal themes, it would only make sense that sales would slow down when we are not in that particular time of the year.

Of course, there are always exceptions for everything in life.  Sooner or later you will get someone to buy your Christmas graphics in the middle of June.  But look at these sales as what they are:  the exception and not the rule.

I recommend creating more timeless and less seasonal graphics if you want to see sales pick up again.

So you have looked into your portfolio and have determined you have more timeless than seasonal images, but sales are still dropping down.  I can't say I have every answer, I certainly don't.  However, over the years I've tried a couple of things when sales are slow and this is what has worked for me.

1.  Comment on products that have been purchased.
One day I noticed the same design kept selling, but only sporadically.  In order to keep track of it, I went to the comment section of that particular design and wrote:  "Dear Unknown Buyer, thanks for your purchase".  Few days later, I got an email saying that design had been purchased again.  I wrote the same comment and did the same with some other designs that had sold that same day.  To my surprise, they kept selling.  I started the habit of writing a little thank you note in the comment section of every design someone purchased.

I don't really know how things work, but may be a design with two, three or more comments will be more popular in search engines.  This will increase it's ranking and will have a bigger chance of appearing on the top spots when someone runs a search.

2.  Study your target market.
The subject of a target market is a long one.  And I will write a whole post about it some other day, but for now I'm going to keep it short.

If you don't know what a target market is, here is my definition:  The group of people who will purchase your graphics.  As simple as that.  If people stopped buying your graphics, there's a reason for that.  Sometimes it is a complex reason, others it may be a simple one.

For the sake of time, I'm going to stick with the simplest thing you can do regarding to "studying your target market".  That is, defining your target market.  If you don't have a well defined target market, you'll be shooting bullets into the dark.  You won't know what you hit, and you won't know if you'll ever hit it again.

The way I defined my target market was pretty simple and effective.  I started with a segment of the population with purchasing power.  Example: lawyers.  Then I though of a reason why a lawyer would purchase one of my graphics.  Example: because lawyers studied a lot to become lawyers and they feel pride for their profession, and my graphic makes them feel just that.  After having that concept clear in my mind, I came up with a line like this:

"Without lawyers the world ends"

And that is one of my most popular slogans related to lawyers in my store.

If you can answer these two questions:

"Who will buy my graphics?"
and
"Why will they buy my graphics?"

You will have a defined target market.  As I said before, the subject of a target market is a long and kind of complex one.  I'll write a complete article related to this matter, but for now we're going to stop here.

3.  Do your best.
I talked on this subject on the first Create And Earn Tip, however, I'm going to mention it here again just to highlight how important it really is.

Work on improving your existing designs and work on how to create better graphics.  Learn new skills if necessary.  If you're into selling drawings of flowers, but you know there are better artists than you out there, it's time to go learn their secret.  Do whatever it is necessary to help you create better graphics.

Make friends with people who are more advanced than you, take a class on how to take better pictures, on how to draw better; watch some tutorials on YouTube.

Do your best on developing your skills.

***************

I'm going to end this Create And Earn Tip with a simple thought.  

When sales are slow it is time to look at you and your work.  Try to figure out what you have done wrong, and how you could fix this.  It is easy to blame others, but to find our own flaws is the right thing to do.

As always, I hope you've gotten as much value from this post as I intended to give.  Your questions and comments are greatly appreciated.

Help me out by sharing this blog.

Create And Earn Tip #5 - How to Keep Motivation Up

There's no reason to look for motivation when things are going well, when your designs are selling like crazy and you're seeing results derived from all of your hard work.  But what do you do when you don't see any results, when days or weeks go by and none of your designs sells, when your friends and family think you're wasting your time in a non-sense dream?

When I first began working with POD websites I had more motivation than any real talent or knowledge.  I would consider myself working for Christmas and based on the results of that particular time of the year I would decide if all the work had been worth it or not.  I have been lucky enough to see sales raise with each year.

That was up until recently.  I noticed a constant decline in sales.  I didn't think much of it the first few months, however, as time went by, I noticed I was starting to lose motivation.  When I became aware that my emotional state was declining, I decided to change some of my habits, and thanks to those changes I have been able to go through some rough times.

In this article I'm going to post some suggestions on how to boost your motivation and not lose it as time goes by.  All of these have worked for me and I hope they work for you as well.

Remember to comeback to this page when sales have stopped coming in and you feel like giving up.  Doing some of the things I'm going to list here will get your spirit up.  It won't be easy, but we all know nothing good in life comes easily.

THINK AND GROW RICH by Napoleon Hill

Perhaps the best guide on how to achieve goals, any goals.  I strongly suggest buying a copy of this book or listening to the audio file in YouTube.  Try to get a hold of the version edited for the 21th century as it gives more recent examples of the concepts Hill talks about.  It sure has helped me and I hope it helps you out too.  I suggest listening to it only 1 hour per day since there's about 11 hours of content in this audio file and it can be overwhelming.  There you'll find new ways of how to use your imagination, cultivate persistence, develop faith in a non religious way, and so much more.

Study the Life of Inspiring People

There's nothing worse than believing your life is horrible.  I used to believe I had been born under the worse circunstancess possible, that I would never overcome the challenges in my life because they were "too big".  That was until I started to study the lives of some of the greatest goal achievers in American history.

These men were able to overcome bigger obstacles than any I would ever encounter.  Were they super smart people whose parents gave them everything to help them succeed?  No.  They were normal people like you and me.  The only difference is they found a way to achieve their goals.  That's why I admire them and want to be like them.

I personally believe Henry Ford and Walt Disney are a source of inspiration.  They both set up to do what at the time seemed impossible, but through hard work, dedication, imagination and persistence they both reached their goals.

Were these two individuals born in fancy houses and received the best education money could buy?  No.  For this and many more reasons I consider them my source of inspiration and watch a documentary about their life each time I want to boost my motivation.

I'm not saying you should become Ford's or Disney's fan.  What I'm trying to say is to find your own heroes.  Find inspiration in the journey someone else has taken.  One of the worse mistakes we humans make is to question our abilities when in fact we all should question our limitations.  Head out to the internet or public library and look for people who questioned their limitations and because of it achieved their goals.  It will get your motivation up.

Not Getting E-Mail Notifications

This one is a little counter intuitive.  One would think getting notified when someone has purchased one of your designs is a good thing, right?  In theory, yes.  In real life, not so much.  When you get a sale there's that rush of happiness, excitement and all those good emotions, but what happens when you stop getting sales?  Most people start to worry.  The problem only gets worse if you were used to seeing a certain number of sales per day, week, or month and you see that number go down.  That's when you start to doubt your sales strategy or if the career path you chose was the right one.  I know I did.

Not getting that doze of excitement and happiness creates a void, and that void is made up of doubt and anxiety.  It's difficult to maintain a positive outlook when you're full of doubt and anxiety. From first hand experience I've learned most of the time it is pointless to worry about not getting the number of sales you were expecting.

I've seen some depressing months turn into good ones in a matter of three or four days.  Sometimes it seems like people decided to buy our graphics just as the month was ending.  After experiencing that over and over I realized expending the best part of the month worrying wasn't a good idea.  However, for some reason I couldn't control I was still worrying.  That's when I decided to take a look at what I was doing and how that affected my emotional state.

I realized my days pretty much started well.  After completely waking up I was happy and full of energy, I did some work in the morning and then I checked my e-mail.  If I got a sale or two I was  happy, but not if there were no sales.  If I didn't see any sales I noticed I started to check my e-mail more often than if I gotten a sale and slowly started to get more anxious if no sales showed up.  One day something happened.

After getting home from the gym, and as I was getting ready to work some more in the afternoon, I said to myself, "Why?  Nobody is going to buy anything anyways?".  I shut the computer down and watched TV instead.  I didn't want to work and I didn't care.

I don't remember the exact moment when I realized checking my e-mail and not seeing sales was damaging my state of mind, but I do remember being at the gym and feeling great as I was heading to the locker room to get ready to go home and thinking to myself, "I don't want to get depressed by the lack of sales".  So I didn't check my phone.  Instead I got dressed, went home and did some work that afternoon.  To my surprise there were two sales after checking my e-mail when I finally checked it.  The two sales had come 10 minutes before checking my e-mail.

When I was 18 my Spanish teacher gave me a book called The Alchemist, written by Paulo Coelho, as a high school graduation gift.  In it he talks about signs.  According to the book, God, or the Universe, or whatever you want to call it, gives you signs to indicate you have made a good decision.  I took those sales as a sign.

Since that day I've set up specific times during the day to check my e-mail.  If sales slow down I check my e-mail even fewer times per day.  Anxiety levels have gone down, motivation level is high and tends to remain high, and for the most part income has remained constant even if most part of the month is slow as a turtle taking a nap.


Affirmations
This concept sounded a little too far fetched when I first heard of it, at least to me it did.  The first place where I heard of this suggestion was in Think and Grow Rich, the book/audio file I mentioned at the beginning of this article.  Then I ran into it again in another audio book, this one called "Feel the Fear And Do It Anyways" by Susan Jeffers.

The theory is very simple.  We all have two minds, the conscious mind and the unconscious mind.  According to these books, the main decision maker in our everyday life is not the conscious but the unconscious mind.  Since it is unconscious, there's almost nothing we can do to affect it.  But the good news is affirmations will help out change the way our unconscious mind works.

But what is an affirmation?  Well, the word itself says it all.  It is affirming something, whether if you're going to have a good day or if you will be able to perform a certain task.  If you repeat this affirmation three to ten times per day over a long period of time, your unconscious mind will start to believe that particular affirmation and you'll be able to perform that task or your mind will find ways in which your day was a good day.

The way I use affirmations regarding work with POD websites is I tell my mind I will produce graphics and pictures people will buy.  At the same time I do it without telling it how, this way my mind has come up with some creative graphics.

Ready for one of my personal affirmations?  OK here it is:


"I create funny and clever designs and beautiful pictures people will buy".


Quite simple, eh?  Well, according to these books, short and simple affirmations work best.  You can take this affirmation and use it if you want.  There's no charge for it.  Just remember to repeat it to yourself at least three times per day.

If you want to create your own affirmations there are a couple of guidelines to follow:

1. State what you want to happen as if it is already happening.  For example, if you want to become more creative and lack creativeness, you can use an affirmation like this one:
"I am a creative person".

2. Don't use the word "try".  I heard of this in Think And Grow Rich.  Apparently the use of the word "try" implies an ongoing effort.  You don't want to "try" to be more creative, you want to be more creative, right?

3. Repeat your affirmations throughout the day.  The books where I found this suggestion said to repeat the affirmations at least three times per day.  For me this was a little difficult because I'm always busy.  Instead of doing that, I decided to repeat my affirmations late at night when I'm in bed.  I used to have problems falling asleep, I would just toss around and have all sorts of thoughts in my head at night.  Instead of thinking all that nowadays I just repeat my list of affirmations over and over.  I found out it helps me fall asleep a lot sooner and I'm well rested and full of energy the next morning.  On top of that, the affirmations are working in my unconscious mind. 

******************************

So here they are.  I hope these suggestions will help you in those times when your motivation is down.  Feel free to share your own techniques in the comment section if you want.  I'll be happy to hear them.

Please, listen or buy the book Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, study the life of inspiring people who fought adversities and won, do not get notifications when someone has purchased one of your graphics, and use affirmations to state you'll be able to handle the pressure.

Don't forget comment and share this blog.  If you want to get a notification when another Create and Earn Tip comes out, don't forget to subscribe.

As always, I hope you've gotten as much value from this article as I intended to give.

Create And Earn Tip #4 - Don't Put All Your Eggs In One Basket

First of all let me clarify that this blog is not designed to praise the qualities of one particular POD website, call it Zazzle, CafePress, RedBubble or whatever.  The purpose of this blog is to help out designers who are looking for a way to present their work to the public via POD websites and profit from it.

Every POD company has its pros and cons.  Some are easy to use and some not as much.  A couple are well established companies while others are just coming into the arena.  In the end each one has its own advantages.

When I first began doing this kind of work, I felt the need to be loyal to one particular company.  In my case it was CafePress.  From 2006 to 2009 I only had one store.  Everything was going well and I though I would stay there for the rest of my life.  But suddenly, in 2009 they decided to change their royalty policy and I felt betrayed.  Without another thought I looked for another POD company and found Zazzle.

Again, I felt I was going to only be with Zazzle for the rest of my career and hated CafePress.  I hate it so much I decided to remove all of my content and closed my CafePress store.  Oh, what a big mistake that was.

As time passed by the Zazzle store started to grow, and I started to make more and more money.  The sun was shining, the birds were singing and I felt on my way to the top of the world.  That was until 2012.  One morning I woke up with an unsettling feeling in my stomach and a burning question in my head.  What if Zazzle betrays me like CafePress did?  By this time I had already quit my "regular" job and completely depended on Zazzle.

I came to the conclusion to start looking for another POD company and open a second store.  After a couple of days of searching and analyzing my options, decided a company called RedBubble would be my best bet.

It wasn't as big as Zazzle, and I didn't make nearly as much as I made in Zazzle, however, it was really easy and fast to upload and edit graphics.  As time went by, it also started to grow, very slowly, but constantly.  Again, I was happy and the sun was shining.  And then things took a turn for the better.

Out of nowhere Zazzle announced a change in their volume bonus program.  In a few words the change consisted of me not getting the $50 bonus I would normally get each month.  Instead of being angry like I was when CafePress changed its royalty system, I was happy and relieved.  I felt that way because I was able to foresee the future and prepare for it.  I didn't give that much importance to Zazzle's change and kept adding content to both stores.  After all I never "lost" any money, it was just a bonus Zazzle was giving all of us.

My two stores were growing and everything seemed fine.  That's when I realized something that had avoided me.  POD websites/companies are nothing but a way for people to find our graphics.  That meant the more stores we had in different POD websites, the bigger the audience for our graphics.

After that realization, something changed. I didn't feel betrayed by CafePress anymore.  In fact, I was eager to open a new CafePress store and start uploading my different graphics.  I was feeling so well that after 8 or so months of opening the new CP store, I found another POD website and opened yet another store.  The name was Skreened.

Nowadays my graphics are uploaded to 4 different POD websites daily.  I consider these 4 companies the best ones out there.  I also happen to have a store on a 5th POD company called Spreadshirt, however, for reasons I'm going to discuss in the next paragraphs I don't upload as much content or as often as with the other 4.

Now I'm going to go over the good and not so good aspects of the different POD websites I work with.

****ZAZZLE**** 
This is probably the best POD website out there.  They have a great variety of products to feature your designs on and the quality is magnificent.  This is by far my #1 store.  They are a big company who is willing to invest in its infrastructure and is not afraid to compensate your good work.  Of course, first you need to create and prove your work is any good.  It's marketplace is huge and filled with work from very talented individuals.  For that same reason I feel so proud when anyone purchases any of my image-only graphics.  I feel I'm competing against the "big boys" and I'm wining.  You won't regret opening a store there.

****REDBUBBLE****
Technically not as big as Zazzle, however, it has been growing constantly.  In 2012, when we opened our store, the only "good" product they had to feature any of our graphics were the stickers.  But now everything has changed.  Now they offer different kinds of t-shirts, hoddies, sweaters, mugs, pillow cases, tote bags, photographic prints and so much more.  Uploads are very easy.  In short, I'm very happy to work with this company.

****CAFEPRESS****
Here is where the dream began.  At the time I didn't like the change in their royalty system, however, after learning a couple of lessons the hard way, I've come to realize how wise that move truly was.  I like their new format.  Pretty simple and quick.  Just upload an image and their software will automatically edited into any compatible product they're selling.

****SKREENED****
I don't really know much about this company other than it is really easy to use.  Kind of like CafePress, just upload an image and it will automatically appear on any product they carry.  However, here you do need to make one or two adjustments if you didn't like the positioning of the design.  I believe this company is pretty new, however, I did make my first sale just after two months of opening a store.

****SPREADSHIRT****
The 5th and smallest store we've opened up.  Ironically, it is the oldest one.  I don't really remember how or why we opened this store.  All I know it was created sometime in 2007.  Overall, it seemed like a good company.  They were offering a variety of products and the site seemed to work well.  There was only one small, but very important problem.  If you wanted to upload more than 5 graphics per day, you would need to pay a monthly fee.

At the time I was just barely starting and was doing the POD website gig as a hobby without really expecting too much from it (2007).  I didn't see a need to pay in order to work.  As time went by I began to forget about this particular store.  From time to time there would be a 1 week period where I would upload images to this store, but then forget about it again for another year or so.

That continued to happen until January or February of this year (2015).  That's when I noticed the 5 graphic upload limit had been lifted.  For a week or two I debated about putting the effort necessary to upload daily to this store, but came to the conclusion it  wasn't worth it.

Compared to the rest of the stores, this one takes too much time to upload and edit products.  Hopefully this will change and this store will become a big player in my playbook.  However, I do get a sale from this store every few months or so.

********

I've noticed I didn't write any bad aspects from any of the POD companies I work with.  That's because there aren't actually any.  Sure, from time to time their site goes down for a couple of days or images don't display properly, but that's all.  And those are problems all websites suffer all the time.  All of these companies are in the business of delivering what they've promised.  I've seem them grow in different aspects, but all with the same goal in mind: to deliver a better product to the customer.  And a happy customer is a customer that will come back.

Once again we've come to the end of another Create And Earn Tip.  I hope you have learned from my mistakes and please consider opening up another store in some other POD website if you only have one.  Remember, the more stores in different sites you have, the more eyes that will look at your designs.  This all translates to a higher chance of someone falling in love with one of your graphics.  It doesn't have to be in any of the ones I mentioned here.  These companies have been good to me and they deserve to have their good work recognized.

Please don't forget to write down your comments, suggestions or questions and to subscribe to the blog to be notified when a new Create and Earn Tip comes out.

I hope you have gotten as much value as I intended to give.

Create And Earn Tip #3 - Monetary Value for Image-Only Graphics

What am I trying to say with "Monetary Value"?  Well, it is my way of suggesting your graphics should be designed with the costumer in mind.  That means the costumer should be able to find some sort of value in your images.  Why?  Because if they find it, they will buy them and you will get money.  And if they don't, you won't get any money.  Simple, eh?

Zazzle, Redbubble, Cafepress, Skreened, Spreadshirt and many many more POD websites are a great tool to generate revenue selling your pictures or just any other type of graphic.  That is if anyone in the internet thinks they are worth purchasing.  For that same reason you can't just try to draw what you consider to be an angry red face and hope someone will buy it.  I mean, yes, there is a small chance someone will buy it, but chances are no one will buy that thing.  And how do I know that?  

Yes, you guessed it.  Back in 2009 I though I had what it takes to be a successful graphic designer.  So, armed with Photoshop 3.0 and not lots of imagination I created and tried to sell this:

Angry Red Face T-shirts by Supernova23
Shop for Basic T-Shirts online at Zazzle.com

So, how many times has this particular design been purchased in the 6 years it has been in the Zazzle marketplace?  You're right zero, cero, nada, 0, a complete failure.  Why? And more importantly, how come now I can create graphics that people have bought just days after they were introduced into the different marketplaces that help us distribute our graphics?

The answer is very simple: Monetary Value.

Back in 2009, when this Angry Red Face was created, I thought people liked the same things I liked.  I'm not going to lie, I enjoyed every second it took me to create this face and the thought of making money out of images that came to my mind really brightened my day.  But the reality is there needs to be a strategy behind every image, a strong reason why people will buy your image.  Remember, you're not designing for yourself, your creating graphics for others.  Well, that is if you're serious about making any kind of money in any POD website.

But what actually is "monetary value"?  There are 3 components that make up monetary value.  Those elements are:  Subject, Image Creation Quality, and Advertisement.

To illustrate this I'm going to post the most successful image-only graphic I've created so far.  Here is Vintage Los Angeles Theater Sign:

Vintage Los Angeles Theatre Sign Pillow by Supernova23a
View other Los Angeles theatre signs Pillows at Zazzle.com

If we compare both images, we can easily see why one has been purchased many times by different people when the other has never been bought.

SUBJECT
Both images have a subject.  In one the subject is the representation of an angry red face and in the other it is a vintage sign of a theatre in Los Angeles.

As far as beauty goes, this elegant vintage sign is a lot more pleasing to the eye compared to an abstract image of an angry red face.  I believe there's a certain beauty in the combination of black and white and just any other color (in this case red), but that's not a reason strong enough to make you want to purchase it.

In the previous tip I wrote, I touched on the subject of beauty.  When it comes to my image-only graphics, I try to make beauty the sole reason why someone is going to buy that particular graphic.  In other words I try to make everything beautiful.  That includes, having a beautiful color scheme, and a beautiful subject.

Think before you start drawing or taking pictures.  You should always ask yourself:  "Is this _____ really beautiful?  Or is it beautiful just to me?"  In fact, go ahead and ask people around if they think the subject of your graphic is beautiful.

Once you have determined your subject is actually beautiful, and not just to you or your friends, try to remember if you've seen places where people have actually bought images similar to the one you're creating.  I got that idea of taking pictures of anything that looked kind of urban and old from doing service calls in people's apartments.  One day I noticed people really liked to decorate their home with black and white pictures of old buildings. For that reason it was obvious to me to take a picture of that particular sign one day when me and my friends were walking around in Downtown LA.

Remember the subject of your graphic has be beautiful, and not just to you or your friends.  It is also helpful if you've seen that same subject in a situation where people have actually paid some money in order to get it.

I'm not saying you should be out trying to copy every picture you see out there.  If you do that, you won't find any kind of reward doing this work.  Well, at least I wouldn't.  I'm just saying you should always make sure the subject of your graphic is beautiful.

IMAGE CREATION QUALITY
Would you pay for dinner at a restaurant if the food wasn't completely cooked?

Neither would I.  Quality is very important in every aspect of our life, isn't it?  That includes your graphics.  For that reason you need to only offer high quality images to the public.

When I first began creating image-only graphics, I though my style would be an abstract one, you know, no symmetry, no straight lines, and very simple elements.  That's why I created Angry Red Face.  But as time has proven, images like that one rarely get purchased, in fact, I don't recall someone buying any of the images I created around the time Angry Red Face was created.

After six years I can see why.  Just look at it.  Angry Red Face looks like something anyone with a minimum knowledge of color and Photoshop 3.0 could have created.  In fact, it looks like something that was created using Microsoft Paint.  In other words, creating Angry Red Face wasn't a challenge.  The are no skills necessary to replicate it.  It is just 3 ovals, a rectangle, and a bunch of white figures pretending to be teeth. Who would pay for something they could have created?  No one.

On the other hand, if we look at Vintage Los Angeles Theatre Sign, the story is completely different.

Special skills were necessary to create that particular image.  I remember taking 9 of 10 pictures of the sign because I couldn't get a shot where the image was centered and straight.  I stood on that empty alley that smelled like hobo pee and kept shooting until I was completely happy with one picture.  After that I needed to come up with a way to make this photo more appealing to the eye.  The original picture had the sign painted red, but everything else around it was painted tan.  The picture as it was wasn't very beautiful.  So the bright idea came to me to find a way to make everything black and white except the sign.  I went on-line and looked for tutorials on how to work with layers and how to isolate the sign so it wouldn't be turned black and white.

Vintage Los Angeles Theatre Sign wasn't created in one hour and without any problems.  It took dedication, effort, acquiring new skills, plus two hours or so selecting the right pixels so they wouldn't be turned black and white.  In other words, you would need to go through a lot if you wanted to replicate this image.  It was a challenge for me back then.

When it comes to image creation quality, go for the difficult images.  Make your best effort until your images look exactly like you pictured them.  If you work hard enough, you will develop the skills necessary to edit any picture the way you want regardless of the kind of software or camera you're using.

I took that picture with a HP Photosmart M537 camera.  Great camera for about $150 in 2007 when I bought it new.  And here is the biggest surprise, I edited that picture with Photoshop 3.0, the same software I'd used to create Angry Red Face three years earlier.

Let me close this section by saying, Image Creation Quality is not something you'll find in fancy and expensive cameras and software, it is inside your head, in the effort you put to make your images beautiful.

ADVERTISEMENT
You don't need to pay 1000s of dollars for a commercial on TV.  You don't need to post a huge billboard next to a freeway exit or on top of your house.  And you don't need to go on TV telling people why they need to buy your graphics.

However you do need a way to make it easy to find your pictures/drawings.  And that's all what advertisement really is: An easy way to find your graphics.

I'm sure there are many ways to advertise your graphics successfully, however, in this section I'm only going to cover the one that has worked in my experience.  With that out of the way, here is the most effective way I use to advertise my graphics.

*Tagging

Why is tagging so important?  Tagging is the cheapest, most efficient, and dynamic way to make your graphics easy to find.  Again, just look at the two products I've listed in this Create And Earn Tip.

Angry Red face has no tags at all while Vintage Los Angeles Theatre sign has several tags related to the image.  As a result of this people looking for angry red faces will not find our design while people looking for vintage signs will.

A trick I use to tag my graphics nowadays is asking myself: "If I wanted to buy a picture of _____ what words would I use trying to find it?"  The answers to that question become my tags.

And please don't spam-tag.  If you don't know what spam-tagging is, it is the habit of trying to sell something as something that is it not, or trying to sell something because that something is vaguely related to something else. A clear example I've seen is a picture of Santa Monica Beach with tags such as "Los Angeles" "Hollywood" "California".  While Santa Monica Beach is in Los Angeles and at the same time in California, and somewhat related to Hollywood, people looking for pictures of Santa Monica Beach are not going to type "Los Angeles" "Hollywood" or "California" when doing a search, are they?

Think about it, wouldn't a person looking for a picture of the beach be more likely to type "beach", "beach picture", "picture of the beach" instead of the three previously mentioned?

On top of that, people who are actually looking for pictures of "Los Angeles", "California", and "Hollywood" are going to become very frustrated to get search results containing pictures of Santa Monica Beach.  Please don't spam-tag.  If you have done so in the past, that's OK, no need to hit your head against the wall.  I'm sure you didn't do it on purpose.  I've made that mistake in the past too, in fact, I wouldn't be surprised to find one or two of our images with what is considered "spam-tagging".  Just remember to stop doing it the next time you tag an image.

*******

We've come to the end of this tip.  I hope you have learned from my mistakes in a fraction of time it took me to learn from them.  Remember to give value through your graphics to your costumers.  How?

1. Make sure your subject is beautiful (and not just to you).
2. Create images with the highest image creation quality possible.  Go that extra mile, get new skills if necessary.
3. Tag your graphics properly so people will be able to find them.

One last thing I have to say is this tip only covers image-only graphics.  Later I will write another "Monetary Value" tip related to text-only graphics.

Please write down your comments, questions, suggestions and subscribe to this blog to be notified when a new Create And Earn Tip comes out.  I hope you've gotten as much value from this tip as I intended to give.  Happy creating and earning.

Create And Earn Tip #2 - Define your primary style

In order to define your style, first you need to know how many styles there are and what's the difference between them.  There are basically 3 types of graphics I've found in my experience.  They all are beautiful in their own way.  They all need creativity from the designer's part, and if they are well designed, they can become a source of income.  These 3 types of graphics are:

1. Image Only Graphics

2. Text Only Graphics

3. Image & Text Graphics

IMAGE ONLY GRAPHICS

These can be anything, from a picture to a drawing, to a collage.  To me this kind of image is challenging to create and it normally takes me a lot of time to complete.  In my experience the key to getting people to buy your image-only graphics is: Beauty.  The end result for me is normally a sense of awe for the image itself and the beauty it portrays.

Different people find different things beautiful.  Because of it I decided to only create image-only graphics I find beautiful.  The pictures I take and the designs I make are not really designed for a certain target market.  These images are created just for the sake of beauty.

Competition is fierce when it comes to image-only graphics.  There are lots of people who can really draw.  In fact, I've seen some drawings that look like photographs.  Also nowadays almost everyone has a good quality camera in their phone.  This only increases the competition in the image-only market.

So you have been warned.  If you want to get into the image-only arena, expect lots of competition.  But don't worry, in the future I will give lots of tips on how to design a good image-only graphic that people will gladly buy.  This is only an introduction to the different styles of graphics I've found in my experience.

TEXT ONLY GRAPHICS
Although these may be easy to create, it is difficult to design a good one.  About 95% of my work is text-only designs, so I have a bit of experience.  

Competition is not that much, I suspect because it is relatively difficult to design a text-only graphic that will sell well.  The key to designing a good text graphic is: Emotions.  Since much of the text can't really be stylized, the real product a text-only design is selling is that abstract idea of an emotion.  These emotions can include: happiness, pride, determination, optimism, and many many many more.

Besides emotion a good text-only graphic also needs to be designed around a specific target market.  If you define a particular target market and combine it with the emotion you have chosen, you will have a good text-only image.

For example, let's say you've chosen the emotion of happiness and you've also chosen that your target market will be carpenters.  You can say:  What sentence will make a carpenter feel happy?  Answering that question over and over will give you an arsenal of text-only images designed to be bought by and for carpenters.

I will go more into dept about how to create a good text-only graphic in later posts, but for now I will stop it here.

IMAGE & TEXT GRAPHICS
I won't really talk much about them because my personal experience is very limited when it comes to image-text graphics.  I know there are lots of those in different POD websites' marketplaces, but I'm not qualified to give any kind of advice on this particular topic.  Most of the image-text graphics I've seen are wedding or just any kind of party invitation templates.  Although I'm pretty sure there's more than just that.  Probably I haven't looked hard enough.

I'm not going to touch on this topic because I wouldn't be able to give you advice on which colors would work best, or what kind of emotion you will need to convey in order to create a good and solid image-text graphic.

Sorry for that, but I know my limitations and I refuse to give any kind of advice that hasn't personally helped me and my different POD stores grow.

Now that we've covered the 3 main graphic categories, we'll need to talk about you.  

It is important you understand these categories and decide which type are you currently interested in creating.  This doesn't mean you will only create that particular type of graphic for the rest of your life.  You can start with one and then move to another.  That's how I got started.  

When I began creating graphics one of the first things I did was to be honest with myself.  I knew I wasn't very talented creating images (In fact, I barely knew how to use photoshop at all back then).  I checked out my competition and was amazed at the astonishing work some designers were able to create and realized that competing with them wasn't going to be easy.

So be honest with yourself.  Are you capable of creating top-notch images?  If not, maybe you could consider creating text-only graphics while you work on your image-creating skills.  Maybe you'll find a hidden talent you didn't know you had.

Take some time and do some thinking.  Define your style.  In fact, I personally think you should try creating all 3 styles for some time and stick with the one you feel the most comfortable.

If you have any questions or suggestions on how to improve this series of tips, please post them in the comments section.  I'll be happy to hear from you guys.

See you in the next one.

Create And Earn Tip #1 - Do your best

This tip should be applied to everything we do in life.  Don't just settle for an "OK effort", do your best.  This includes your designs, pictures, drawings or anything you're hoping people will buy from you.  

If you can only draw stick figures, make sure you draw the best stick figures possible.  Once you can draw the best stick figures on earth, move on to something more challenging.  It's OK to lack the skills necessary to create a masterpiece, however it is not acceptable to not be developing your current skills.  There's always room for improvement.  

Today we live in a wonderful era where most of the knowledge we need to develop any skill is mostly free.  Just go to Google and do a quick search, or go to YouTube and look for an instructional video.  Heck, this series of tips was designed to help you develop your "creating and earning" skills using POD websites.  See my point here?

Make a promise to yourself to do your best, to go that extra mile.  If you can make this promise and keep it, it will make everything else a lot easier.  If you don't get this handled, all the other tips I will write will be pointless.  No amount of advice will ever substitute your best effort.

So please remember to always do your best and to keep developing your current skills.

Create And Earn Tips - Introduction

In this series of tips I will give you the secrets I've been using to make income uploading images to Print On Demand (POD) websites like Zazzle, Redbubble, CafePress, etc, etc.

But first, here is a little story about me and how I ended up making a living out of creating graphics and selling them over the internet.

I never went to design school, I never went to a computer class outside the ones I took in high school back in 2001, and to be honest I never thought I would be able to make money using what I call the "design-computer" combination.  So, how did it all start?

The year was 2006, I was 22 and was working as a HVAC & R technician.  I had always liked tools and solving problems, so that career path was the most logical.  However, I had also always liked computers, and drawing.  I didn't have a computer while growing up and the first computer I ever had was the one me and my brother had bought together 2 years before (2004).

I was 22, living an OK life, learning the HVAC & R trade, making money and expending it on superficial stuff (phones, electronic gadgets, clothes, etc, etc).  Until one night it hit me.  Every night, after work, I had a couple of hours free.  I loved to play computer games since my internet was slow (dial-up) and YouTube didn't really exist.

So I asked myself, why waste this time when I could be doing something productive with it?  Naturally, the first thing I did was a quick search on-line:  How to make money on the internet.  I had heard people had become extremely wealthy on the internet and I decided I wanted to see my possibilities.

Everything I found sounded too good to be true.  "Make $500 per week taking on-line polls".  "Become your own boss selling Amway to your friends and family".  You know, that kind of opportunities.  So I though that was going to be the end of my "internet career" when suddenly I saw an ad that read something like this:  Sell your art on CafePress.

To make a long story short, I liked my chances and started creating graphics.  To my own surprise people started buying my them.  So from 2006 to 2011 I did this as kind of a "hobby" every night.  Then on mid 2011, after a lot of thinking, decided to quit my job and started creating graphics full time.  

I didn't know what was waiting for me.  I have learned so much since then and I'm planning to share all of it with you.  So please keep an eye on this blog once per month or maybe once every two weeks.  Who knows, maybe you'll find something that will help you "Create And Earn".