You can’t have your own as far as I know 
I think that’s the norm with POD, since they incur a base costand can’t risk a discount eating into it (unlike say etsy where you can give away your items if you feel like it). But you can keep abreast of the site’s frequent site-wide discounts and pass them on to your patrons.
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I use Brand Marinade for my shop and they are great. Here’s my shop: https://shop.brokeassstuart.com
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Thanks for posting this! I’m curious if you or anyone else have come across companies that offer ethically sourced, sustainable and/or organic products? I’m having such a hard time finding companies with such options to do POD for my products. I really want to launch a merch store and offer merch rewards starting in May.
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Yes: https://teemill.com/
They only make t-shirts I think, but they’re exactly that!
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You’re amazing! Thank you for sharing.
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OK, after digesting everyone’s advice, I’ve setup both a Redbubble and Society6 account. I hear that RedBubble has over 10 times the traffic of Society6, but that can work both ways (harder to get noticed, perhaps). Anyway, we’ll see which one wins!
A few more questions:
(1) One thing I’m struggling with - and people who use RedBubble might be able to advise me - is the artist markup. What should this be? Would you apply it across the board (on all products), or just on art prints?
(2) Any advice on getting noticed? I’ve started joining Redbubble’s groups, but Society6 has none of these. It would be nice to use these to drive traffic to Patreon as well as sending patrons in the other direction.
(3) Has anyone had any luck integrating either of these services with a Facebook shop?
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- I apply 40% across the board. If a product is very popular, I may sneakily raise the markup a little.
- There’s always a question of luck, but good descriptions and tags are helpful. Whenever I make a new print available, I share this to my FB page (I believe this can be set up to be automatic). Also, every art piece in my website is linked to its RB print, so people who like a piece can fo to the print with a single click. I would probably sell a lot more if I put more work into the shop and its promotion, I just don’t have time for it now, but I still make a steady passive income from it. This is mostly thanks to a couple of items that hit a sweet spot and went viral, so that was luck (my cosmic best seller is an Appa sticker
why I bother with fine art, I ask you). Nothing prevents you however from getting a pulse of what is popular on the site and creating some things especially. Like every business, it takes time and experimentation to get it off the ground. But do share it with your patrons, followers, and on all your sites. The same applies to society6, though of course you’re going to have a slight conundrum in terms of how to promote both.
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I use Redbubble however I now have something a bit snazzy that I’ve started using (more expensive for the people buying but really high quality products and worth having your work in there, plus amazing customer service) and that is Contrado. https://www.contrado.co.uk/stores/artbyemilyhare is my page but they also have fabric printing available too (over 100 fabric types) and their reviews are AMAZING (compared to other POD or fabric printing services). They print on all sorts of unusual things too, like deck chairs and even umbrellas and things too! From cheaper things right up to more expensive things. I got my wallet made with them which has one of my creatures on it and it looks great and is amazing quality.
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Also with regard to getting noticed, it’s just a matter of posting regularly. But with Redbubble if you add a new thing every day (rather than all of them at once) that can help too (i hear!). These sites are helped massively by you advertising them - I don’t do enough of it but when I do shout about them then people buy things (not many, but it seems to be working slowly!).
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Thanks @artbyemilyhare and @joumana. Have either of you found that joining groups on Redbubble helps? Or liking and following? This is where Redbubble seems ahead of Society6, because it notifies you if you have a follower and it’s easy to see if you have a new like. With Society6, you have to hunt down each follow/like, and there are no groups.
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I used to have Society6 but gave up on it as never sold anything. I don’t really push my Redbubble page (and share it with my other half and neither of us push it anymore!), but it still ticks over. I’m not very good on that! I do know that just posting about these pages and especially when they are running sales is the best thing to do. I have some friends who make a large portion of their income via Redbubble and similar.
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I used to have a S6 page, and used to sell the odd thing. I’ve just restarted, so we’ll see. Actually, I used to have a Zazzle account, which used to tick over, but they turned a blind eye to someone stealing my art, so I stormed off in a huff! That’ll teach them/me. 
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I joined some groups but was never able to invest enough time in them to make them useful. From experience elsewhere, participation and being visible around the site is a good way of becoming well-known to RB users, but remember everyone there is a seller, and probably more interested in promoting their work than in finding something to buy. This is why I prefer promoting it outside the site. Liking and following never hurt, but as buying is anonymous, I have no way of knowing if any of my sales were related to that.
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I do promo images like this one, to post on social media, with info about my RedBubble shop.
I also follow someone on IG who showed me the value of posting the original image, plus the product shot, each time someone makes a purchase from my RB shop.
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That’s a good point. It seems groups are merely moral support for sellers.
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Excellent idea…
Hey folks! I do a ton of print on demand stuff. In fact my entire stop is print on demand.
If you’re interested I can connect you to my people. It’s a small outfit in the Bay Area called Brand Marinade who handles everything from printing to warehousing to shipping to customer support. All I have to do is market the products.
And the best part is that since they aren’t huge like Zazzle or Red Bubble they do a lot of really great one-on-one interaction.
If you’d like an intro, email me at Stuart@BrokeAssStuart.com
Thanks!
Stuart
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