So a few months ago, I think I decided to stop adding to my Zazzle store and sell my own prints through my own website. Even though that freed up some time to create I was upset that there was no traffic to my sites. I mean why would there be? I wasn’t active in marketing the fact that I was selling my own prints as I did with Zazzle. And I spent A LOT of time marketing the products that I created on Zazzle. Honestly, I spent more time marketing than creating. This was what started my change in the business model. So I came to realize very quickly that unless I was willing to market my prints as much as I did for my Zazzle store then it just wouldn’t work.
Meanwhile, I had decided more than a year ago that a retail business was not the way I wanted to go and I wanted to move toward a Patreon business model. But to have any change with Patrean I needed a lot more followers on social media. I knew that moving toward this would result in something giving way. I needed to increase my follower count on social media. I couldn’t do that and create and sell all at the same time. Especially when the selling part was taking up 20 hours of my work week.
So here we are taking a leap of faith for the first time in my art career. Granted I am lucky that I’m at a place in my life where my salary is not required so it’s now or never.
The plan now you ask? Create, create, then create some more. Enjoy connecting with other artists and fans. And then maybe in a year move to a Patreon model so that I can have a steady even if smaller income. I hope you come along with me.
Kelly