Dear Creative Ones,

One of the frequent questions I get about opening an online shop for your photography, art, or for that matter literally anything, is ‘Is it right for me?’ ‘Is it easy?’ ‘How long will it take before I will start earning money?’ And the list goes on…

In this blog, I talk about what having a successful online shop involves. 

Online shops aren’t for everyone, they aren’t a get-rich-quick program where you just upload your art or product and bingo, you are selling. 

Just like a real shop, an online shop requires time, love, energy, marketing, promotions, and creativity. 

You know how your local shop changes their mannequins and clothes each week, creates a whole new look for Summer or Winter, and has a party to launch something new, an online shop requires the same sort of creativity and love. 

The selling and marketing of an online shop depends on different pieces of the puzzle and how many of them you may have in place and how many others you are willing to put in place. You also need to know ‘why’ you want to do this. What is your reason for having an online shop?

My publisher once spoke at a workshop of mine in relation to publishing a book and she asked people, ‘Do you like this idea enough to live with it for 3-4 years?’ Publishing a book isn’t about just making the words and the photos, after you have passed this to the publisher then comes the editing, the layout, the backwards and forwards over the fine detail, then comes the launch, the promotion, and the interviews. 

Writing a book is no longer just a solitary exercise.

This is a question I believe you should ask yourself when considering opening an online shop. Do I love this idea enough to do it for the coming years?

In my humble opinion, opening an online shop is for those people who are good at what they do and love creating their work, have a fire inside, want to make a career out of it or it to be part of a bigger picture they have for their future. 

It’s for the folks that want to be doing what they do in years to come, they want to build a solid business and they want a place they can direct people to complete a sale. 

They want to ‘expand’ what they do and the great thing about this mindset is that all sorts of opportunities can open up for you when you decide to share your work with the world. 

When you open yourself up to new opportunities, who knows what incredible relationships you will build, whether it will not only lead to selling your work but maybe publishing a book, encouraging you to have an exhibition, or seeing your work in one of your favourite bricks and mortar stores.

That’s what I wanted when I pressed the publish button on my online shop almost 7 years ago, I wanted to create my own work and sell it. I wanted it to be part of the mix that would allow me the freedom to keep creating, and exploring what brings me joy. 

I hope to share with you in the coming weeks stories of other creatives and how they have created their own shops and created a life they once dreamed about.

If you would like to know more about selling your work online, you can access my free masterclass here.

Carla x

P.S. If you want to know more about setting up an online shop and selling your art or photography online, join my Free Workshop here.