For artists, its one of the profound things to have their art hanged on someone’s wall. Displate offers similar thing to digital artists and photographers to display their work on their site and if someone likes it s/he can order that piece of art on different sizes of wall frames.
Its another kind of print on demand business model, but the question is, can you really make money or is it just a waste of time!
Just like Redbubble, Merch by Amazon and TeePublic etc, Displate is also a print on demand platform, but they focus more on metal posters.
If you look at the similar, a web analytics tool, displate.com has very handsome traffic with over 5 million visits per month and its considered very impressive for a niche specific marketplace for metal posters.
One of the pros of Displate is that you can’t simply sign up like other print on demand websites. You need to apply to start uploading your artwork. This means there’s lower competition and it’s not a crowded market like some other companies out there.
Now let’s delve into the main topic of this article. is it worth it or just a waste of time? I started uploading my designs in 2021. Initially creating simple text based designs then I stopped uploading, because I didn’t get the desired results.
However, since TeePublic and RedBubble changed their tier system I resumed uploading to Displate and began taking it seriously.
I conducted some niche research in the marketplace, just a few months ago, and uploaded some high quality designs. Currently I have 30 artworks that are not text based anymore and they are performing well.
I am making sales regularly and its quite a decent return for me, as I’ve only been taking this seriously for a few months and the results are indeed encouraging. I have a firm believe that sales will steadily increase over time.
This is the reality of print on demand that there’s no get rich quick scheme. So, if you are wondering whether it’s worth it or not for me it’s definitely worth investing time and effort in the Displate marketplace.
The market is not over-saturated and I have some artwork in the marketplace that competes in highly competitive niches, but still managers to generate sales.
The only drawbacks are first, you need to apply to sell your art in their marketplace, second due to the rise of AI they have imposed limits on how many designs you can publish daily.
I can now only upload one artwork per day, however, I think this is a good move to prevent market saturation and the increase of AI generated art in it.
For testing purpose I’ve uploaded a few AI generated artworks, but honestly every artwork I submitted undergoes a review and not a single one accepted.
My best advice for anyone planning to sell their designs in their marketplace, is to avoid adding AI generated art because it’s likely to get rejected, which could also lead to your application being rejected.
For artists, Displate is a great platform to showcase their art. Unlike, most POD websites, the user base of Displate is more art centrist. They don’t hold-back to express their gratitude to deserving artists by buying their art pieces.
Though, I love art and understand its forms and concepts to some extent, but by no means I consider myself an article. If I can generate relatively consistent sales and passive income at Displate then I am quite sure that any telanted artist will definitely generate more me.
If you want to join Displate, create a strong portfolio that you can link to your application and make sure it doesn’t include AI generated art.