Red Bubble: selling stuff on-line
By now, there are a hundred ways of displaying and selling your art on-line. We’ve looked at a few solutions in the past (Including the rather impressive one-man-band FotoViva I wrote about a while back), but I recently found a new one, Red Bubble, which seems to really resound positively with me.
Using a user interface that reminds me a little bit of JPG Magazine (i.e extremely Web 2.0: Simple but pretty and functional), Red Bubble doesn’t pitch itself initially as a photo sales site. Instead, it’s an online art gallery where you can upload - and sell - your artwork.
It’s a much simpler solution than some others out there, and it looks damn fine, too. I caught up with James Pierce, who works for Red Bubble, to find out how it all hangs together.
For a website that launches only about 4 months ago, they’ve sure grown fast, explains James: “At the end of May it has more than 3500 members and 30,000 works online.
“Artists and buyers from around the world are brought together online to interact, transact and enjoy art.”, he says, and claims that the most talented photographers have been able to make a large number of sales, too.
Judging by the list of most popular photos, ‘most talented’ actually means something in this context as well, with a large number of photos that aren’t only fantastic on a technical level, but are carefully selected to be great from an artistic perspective.
Doing a quick browse-around of the site, you find artists like Melody, Paul, Joe and, of course James’ own work, showing off a tremendous breadth of art genres and photography styles.
This photo, titled Angels of Allah was done by Anthony Begovic: an excellent example of the kind of creativity you can expect over on RB. Check out the rest of Anthony’s art, too!
Selling your art on Red Bubble
Eager to give me the marketing spiel of how RB works, James explains how it all hangs together: “RedBubble is free to sign up, and takes the risk out of selling your photos on-line - RedBubble only earns money when you succeed and sell your work. The photographer sets the retail price for everything they sell by choosing their percentage mark-up above the base price set by
RedBubble. 10%, 100%, 1000%, it’s up to the photographer.”, James explains.
The thing that drew my attention, however, was how the money works: “Unlike a gallery or stock agency, RedBubble only shares in the value it creates, the base price of each item; They believe the photographer deserves to get all their markup, regardless of how big or small it may be, as that’s the value the photographer creates.”.
What’s this? A honourable art gallery / picture peddler? Surely not? Well, yeah, that’s how it works! With products available spanning everything from simple flat prints (from $15) via mounted prints (from $40) to gorgeous, framed prints (from $80), there’s something for everybody!
In the future, Red Bubble are planning to do canvas prints, post cards and all that lark as well, so it’s worth staying tuned!
(photos used in this article are © their respective artists, used by permission. See (and buy, if you like ‘em) the full versions: Angels of Allah by Anthony Begovic, Tea & Tart by Naomi Mawson, Stolen Car by ARPhotography, Bombo Beach by Alex Lau, and Albert Stone by James Pierce)
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Categories: Business | Presentation
Tags: Red Bubble
This entry is © Haje Jan Kamps / Photocritic.org, and was posted on Friday, June 8th, 2007. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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#1 - June 8th, 2007 at 16:19
I just recently found your blog, it is a nice reference for a lot of information that is hard to come around! Since reading this article I have went ahead and signed up for an account over at red bubble, it seems like a cool place for photographers, and the interface is really clean! I haven’t uploaded any of my photography yet (Besides a profile picture), because I am at work, but later!
Here is my profile, add me as a friend or something: http://www.redbubble.com/people/will
#2 - July 5th, 2007 at 12:19
Great site! I am all signed up and posting my pictures for sale. Nothing yet, well I did sell a card, but that was to me! Ha! I wanted to see the process from beginning to end. Lots of talented people!!!
My RedBubble Profile: http://www.redbubble.com/people/cdobbs
Charles
#3 - November 21st, 2007 at 18:31
I joined RedBubble a couple of days ago and I’m really impressed with the site, the interface and the quality of the images.
My page: http://www.redbubble.com/people/talbright
#4 - December 7th, 2007 at 01:00
I also joined less then a week ago and have been really happy with the site. Feel free to look me up!
http://www.redbubble.com/people/boyerm
#5 - December 19th, 2007 at 13:37
It is great to see that quality is meeting response on RB’s website. As an upcoming competitor, we hope to achieve similar standards for our own project.
http://www.cutcaster.com
http://www.cutcaster.com/blog
#6 - December 24th, 2007 at 05:32
I am a new member of RedBubble.com and I am already hooked - it’s a great place - come check out my art and tshirts
http://www.redbubble.com/people/lapart
#7 - February 17th, 2008 at 12:46
Am contemplating joining Red Bubble but am slightly confused as to your description of it as an honourable gallery. The base prices are quite high in my opinion. So if I want as creator to make a decent amount off of each sale I am left with an interesting dilemma of how much mark-up to add to make the pieces affordable for people so that they sell, but still bring me a sensible income.
#8 - February 27th, 2008 at 07:58
I have enjoyed being a member of redbubble for sometime now. It is easy to use. The people are friendly. And although base prices are higher than some other places I really think the quality is higher too. Redbubble really seems to care about producing quality products. Postage seems reasonable too, other sites may be cheaper for poor quality products but then sting you with ridiculous postage.
It was also nice to produce Calendars for my family at Xmas for just $20 per calendar and took advantage of one of the free shipping offers which appear from time to time.
#9 - February 28th, 2008 at 08:36
what about Deviantart.com, it is one of the largest, and has some of the best photographs and art
#10 - April 6th, 2008 at 16:22
I like Redbubble, but I think http://www.myartspace.com looks more promising. Myartspace is testing print service right now and they will soon have shops that both their free members and Premium members can use. Their also going to have forums, blogs, and group features. It looks like it is building up to be a great site and the fact that they have video capability is a plus for me. Here are some samples of the profiles on myartspace below. Anything is better than http://www.artwanted.com! And http://www.deviantart.com has a very negative vibe if you look up how one of the founders was let go for no reason AND there volunteer staff tend to delete any forum topic that includes links to other art sites. In that sense they are a very large, but closed community. Deviantart also does not allow people to delete their accounts fully so their membership numbers may very well be higher than what is actually active, but what can you expect from a site that is so focused on ad profits. I also think deviantarts traffic is overstated since most of it is from young teens who most likely will not buy prints. Other sites are smaller, but I think they probably have quality traffic compared to deviantart. I also like the interviews that myartspace does at http://www.myartspace.com/blog and http://www.myartspace.com/interviews. As for Redbubble, I do like their forums and sense of community. I’m also looking into http://www.nobullart.com. But for now http://www.myartspace.com looks to be the most promising site I’ve seen in some time. Samples of myartspace accounts below.
http://www.myartspace.com/wayneriggs/
http://www.myartspace.com/CHARLIEARTS/
http://www.myartspace.com/sarahmaple/
http://www.myartspace.com/balhatain/
http://www.myartspace.com/scottwolfson/
#11 - April 9th, 2008 at 02:38
I started out with redbubble and then went to one called zazzle. Starting with red bubble in Dec 2007 and since that time I have sold 2 items and have had a lot of views. Even though the sales it is more about getting yur works out to the public and I have joined several sites to date but only red bubble has sold anything. This is not to say one of the other sites will take off for me, the answer is really diversity, an like lot of others I have never heard of some other alternate to red bubble and I have been on the internet since early 90’s I still learn something every day about the net.
#12 - April 10th, 2008 at 01:52
Redbubble is a new site, they have not been around since the early 90s. I first learned about Redbubble on Artwanted and that was only because people from Redbubble were leeching members there.
#13 - April 10th, 2008 at 22:23
Well if by leeching you mean stealing that happens on every site and even in print as well.
I do searches for sites like redbubble but sometimes you just get junk in the search so sites like this one are great to find new sources to get your work published.
#14 - April 20th, 2008 at 16:20
I received a card statement yesterday, and discovered that there was an unauthorized charge from the InfoSys Technologies LLC in the amount of $11.98
I wanted to resolve the problem and called their customer support number 517-639-0760, but I reached their answering machine.
From the message I found out that the best way to contact them would be through e-mail support@infosystemplates.net
I wrote a letter about my problem to the noted e-mal address, and within 25 minutes I received a reply that the situation will be reviewed, and in about 5-7
hours, I will receive a notice to my e-mail, and then, during 72 hours will be a refund.
Today I have received a refund and want to take back all the claims for InfoSys Technologies LLC.
The mistake was corrected very fast, and they have shown themselves as a serious business team.
Besides, I got a free version of their product as compensation.
Good work, keep it up!
#15 - September 30th, 2008 at 09:03
The only problem I have with http://www.redbubble.com is the fact that their founder has a blog. Having a blog is great but not when the founder makes negative statements about the art world and museums and collectors who spend thousands on art. I’m a photographer and I’d be more than happy to show in a museum or in a New York City gallery. Redbubble is not the place for that. Honestly, I don’t think Scope art fair, Pulse art fair, Bridge art fair, or any other art fair would host a Redbubble booth because of some of the things Pilgrim has said against what he views as elitism. Art fairs and galleries might be elite but statements like that are a form of elitism as well. Like when he blased museums for spending thousands on art instead of giving the money to charity. Redbubble is a corporation making millions so how much of that money has he given to charity? His words turned me off from the site.