Breaking into a creative industry and monetising your Intellectual Property (IP) to the point where you can support yourself from it can be tricky. The struggling artist trope does, after all, exist for a reason.
Thankfully, this doesn’t mean that it’s impossible. If you follow the right pathways and implement the strategies in this piece, you’ll have a better chance of getting your name and art out into the world and making a living off creating your pieces.
Get A Good Lawyer
Before you do anything else, getting a good lawyer and ensuring you’re correctly set up to monetise your art is crucial. Whether you work with a solicitor in Wodonga or a major law firm in Sydney, a legal professional can help you take charge of the copyright for your pieces. Your lawyer will ensure you’re correctly set up to profit from them and avoid IP issues. This should give you the best start possible for your business journey.
Sell On Third Party Platforms
Selling on third-party platforms is how many creators who are new to the world of art begin to make a profit. While the platform will take a cut of your earnings, it’s one of the easiest ways to get started with monetising your intellectual property.
Depending on the platform you choose, marketing may be included, which is a significant perk. Regardless of the inclusions, when you decide to sell with a third party, you’ll benefit from their name being well-known and the fact that they already tend to have a large audience who are looking for what you’re selling.
Take Commissions
If you’re open to working with a brief, consider taking commissions. Custom pieces always fetch a higher price tag, making them an excellent way to scale your income quickly.
Leverage Social Media
In the creative industry, your portfolio speaks for your brand more than it may in many others. While it is advisable to own the content you create (more on that below), social media is a great way to build an audience of potential buyers. It’s also an accessible way to showcase what you have to give to the world, which is particularly important if starting on a tight budget.
Create A Website
Speaking of owning the content you create, if you want to be in charge of how you present yourself and your brand, you will need to create a website. When selecting hosting, choose a company that allows you to maintain ownership of your site and everything published on it.
We also strongly recommend having an SSL certificate. This will enable you to build trust with your audience, enhancing their security when paying for your work through your website. If this all sounds complicated or outside of your skill set, we recommend engaging the services of a digital marketing agency to assist in building, optimising, and promoting your site.
Participate In Exhibitions
Another great way to monetise your intellectual property is to participate in exhibitions. Not only does this help increase your profile, but many exhibitions also allow the audience to purchase art that is displayed. Selling like this can often get you a far heftier price for your pieces than many other avenues, so it is certainly worth exploring.
Just be careful of vanity gallery scams. If you receive messages from people claiming to run “digital galleries” proceed with a great amount of caution. They’re probably just trying to separate you from your money.
They say you’ll never work a day if you love what you do. So, here’s to making your art in pursuit of the goal of never having to work again.
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