Great Artist? 4 Steps To Starting A Business Selling Posters Online
If you love to paint, but don't want to part with your original paintings or are having trouble selling them at the price you would like to, then realize that you can make money off your art work by starting a business selling posters based on your work online.
Read on to learn the three basic steps to turning paintings into posters and selling them online to earn a few extra dollars in your spare time.
1. Turn Your Paintings into Printable Files
The first step to creating posters to sell online is to turn your paintings into digital files that can be printed. You can scan them and open them in the photo editing software of your choice (this will allow you to perform color corrections or any other flaws that show up after scanning), take photographs of your paintings and upload the photos into photo editing software, or take your paintings to a digital print shop to turn them into printable images.
Each option has its advantages and disadvantages, so choose the method that is the most convenient for you.
2. Create a Website
Once you turn your paintings into digital files, it will be easy to upload the images onto an e-commerce website. The most affordable option is to create your own website from scratch. You can do this by by choosing a website host and domain name, then setting up your e-commerce store by uploading a free e-commerce website theme. You will then pay just a small hosting fee each month.
However, if you find the steps to creating your own website intimidating, you can hire someone to create it for you.
3. Choose How You Will Print Your Posters
Once your paintings are in digital format, the next decision you will have to make is how you will turn your digital files into actual posters. One option is to purchase a poster printer and print them out yourself. Another option is to take your file to a print shop, although realize that this option can be expensive for larger posters.
A third option is to choose offset printing. An offset printing company will make one "plate" of each poster design and then print copies from this plate. While this option can be very affordable if you would like to have large quantities of posters created from each image, it can be expensive if you have many plates made from many designs.
4. Choose the Right Shipping Tubes
Once customers begin ordering your posters, you want to have them ready to ship out as soon as possible to ensure they receive them in a timely fashion. It is very important to have plenty of shipping tubes ready to ship your posters in. However, when you look at the shipping tubes available, you may be overwhelmed by all of your options.
There are three main decisions you have to make when choosing your shipping tubes:
- The tube material. It is important to choose shipping tubes made of heavy-stock cardboard coated with a water-resistant wax or plastic tubes. Thin cardboard may bend during the shipping process, which could lead to your poster arriving at your customer's house already damaged. It is also a good idea to choose water-resistant or waterproof shipping tubes to ensure that wet weather conditions during the shipping process do not damage your poster.
- The color of your tubes. While you can send your posters out in boring white or brown mailing tubes, you can show your customers how creative you are before they even open their posters by shipping them in colored tubes. You can choose to ship all of your posters in tubes of the same color that match your website logo to aid in branding your artwork or you can mix and match colors and choose one for each customer that matches their poster.
- Choose telescoping tubes if you plan to sell posters of diverse sizes. Telescoping shipping tubes can be adjusted to accommodate posters of many different sizes. However, you can order an array of shipping tubes in various sizes to place your posters in if you prefer.
If you would like to make money off the paintings you created without actually selling the originals, then realize that you can turn them into posters to sell online for a little extra cash. Follow these four steps to starting a business selling posters online. For more information, contact companies like Chicago Mailing Tube Co.
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