Where can I sell PATTERNS online?
Updated: May 9
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I love making patterns. The process of creating patterns is very calming and you can be as creative as you wish. To be quite honest I have one flash drive of 32GB filled with patterns but then it hit me.
What am I going to do with all these patterns? Where can I use them? Can I sell them online?
Of course, you can sell them online, and there are multiple sites that allow you to do so. The only difference between them is that some are free others not so much. As a beginner, I suggest that you try out the free platforms first and see how it goes and after that try some of the paid ones. It’s best to not spend money you don’t have. And you don’t lose anything by using free platforms, well just your time and electricity and Wi-Fi…
So, where can you sell your patterns?
You can sell your patterns on POD (print on demand) sites such as Redbubble, Zazzle, TeePublic, Teespring, Society6, and so on. These sites are free to use and can bring you a decent secondary income. Needless to say, you do need to utilize niche research, keyword research, and write SEO-friendly descriptions to get noticed by the algorithms and actually make sales. And then also promote your patterns on social media sites to get views and possible sales. It doesn’t matter how great your designs are, if you don’t tell people about them, they won’t find your designs
Some sites where you can sell your patterns are also Etsy, Spoonflower, Artfabrics, Shutterstock, Fotolia, iStock, CreativeFabrica, 123rf. Some of these sites are not free to sell on them, they only allow vector patterns, not raster patterns, before you can sell on them you have to pass an exam they give you, the number of patterns you can post is limited, and they are more a commercial direction.
Before you decide to sign up with any of these sites, I do suggest you read through their TOS and frequently asked questions, and decide for yourself which one suits your needs the most.
It might be overwhelming if you sign up for all of the sites at the same time. That is why I suggest that you join one or two at first and give it some time and then add on new sites but only as much as you can handle when it comes to promoting them and keeping up to date.
Which site is the best is actually up to you and your own experience you have with it. For me, I prefer Zazzle because it allows me to make templates that the customers can customize, and you can open as many shops as you like. The only downside I can see is the uploading process because you need to upload one design to multiple products separately and repeatedly. It takes time and it’s quite boring.
When it comes to the uploading process, I like Redbubble the most because it is easy and quick, and you upload your design on multiple products at the same time and also manage them all together. The downside is that it’s harder to get noticed.
But like I said at the end of the day it’s up to you and your own experience. Try them out for 6 months up to a year and if you don’t see any results with all the effort you have put in, go to the next one and leave this one to sit for a bit and come back to it later.
