Recently an email was sent out to Artist Rising members that listed some changes planned for the coming months.
I thought those changes were worth a mention, especially since my last post on Artist Rising was a little open-ended, so here they are (along with my analysis.)
The most obvious difference in store for Artist Rising members will be Sistino’s integration into the Artist Rising website. Shoppers will no longer go from one site to the other, and they’ll be able to search for print-on-demand AND original works. (Before, shoppers could only search Sistino for prints and they couldn’t search Artist Rising at all.)
Also, there’s the possibility that your work could be chosen to appear on Art.com and/or AllPosters.com. For several months it has seemed unlikely, so this is welcome news.
Only a few artists will end up making the cut, but that’s to be expected, and if your work sells well on Artist Rising or if it fits into the current trends that Art.com thinks its customers will like, you’ll have a greater chance of being chosen.
Other changes for Artist Rising include membership fees dropping from $50 to $25 for the Select Studio Package, and $175 to $50 for the Premium Studio Package.
There’s also a limit now on the amount of images you can upload for the Studio and Premium memberships—500 and 2000 respectively. Before, you could upload as many images as you wanted with either of those packages. (Not that this will really makes much difference to anyone.) The Open Studio membership is much more restrictive at 50 images, but hey, at least it’s free.
Royalties on print sales will go from 10% to 15%, BUT, before you get too excited, get this: there will no longer receive a 10% commission on frames purchased along with your artwork.
One of my Artist Rising contacts pointed out (and I entirely agree with him) that this far overshadows any of the other changes being put in place.
As you probably know, framing services are the real moneymaker for Art.com (and most art sites) often costing customers up to $100 or more compared to prints which usually sell for $5-$20.
That 10% commission from frame purchases used to be a welcome bonus for those of you that make a living selling your artwork online. Now it seems you’ll just have to do without.
Of course, there is ONE way to make some money from the frame sales, but it won‘t be easy. (If you read my article about becoming an affiliate for Imagekind or BoundlessGallery, you might know where I’m going with this.)
Art.com (and AllPosters.com) both have affiliate programs just like Imagekind and BoundlessGallery, meaning that if you sign up as an affiliate and send a buyer to Art.com or AllPosters, you’ll get paid a 25% commission on the complete sale, including any frame purchased.
But here’s why getting that extra 25% commission is truly a long shot: first, your artwork would have to be chosen for Art.com or AllPosters—something that‘s entirely out of your control—and second, you would personally need to be able to send internet traffic to your artwork.
In my opinion, with options like Imagekind available for prints and BoundlessGallery for original artwork, the only reason I’d use Artist Rising is if I knew they were going to put my art on Art.com.
Just take a look at this traffic comparison by compete.com. It shows the number of visitors Art.com, Artist Rising, Imagekind, PicassoMio, and BoundlessGallery receive per month.
And it also shows there’s really no comparison at all.