How To Get Started With Society6
What you’ll need to start:
- PayPal
- $1.00 for verification
- an image you own the copyright to
- image should be at minimum 6500 x 6500 pixels @ 72dpi using RGB (not larger than 150MB in file size)
- title for you artwork
- category of the type of art it is
- tags
- 250 character max description of the piece
- profile photo of you or your logo 150 x 150 pixels
- a small bio about you as the artist and links to your website or social media
- cover photo for your store 1000 x 100 pixels appears to be what they are using
While I did not add it to your need list, ideally you would have a business name and a tax id number so you can receive payments from these different sites. If you are opting to do this on the side I would still recommend getting a sole proprietor tax id number so you don’t have to put your social security number out on all selling sites. This has become a lot more important since identity theft and website security has become a daily issue in our society.
If you create then sites like Society6 can be a way to continue to make money off of the original artwork even after you have sold that piece of work. If you created your design digitally then you are probably ready to check the file sizes and tweak.
If you are working with something such as a canvas then you are either going to have to get a hi-res physical scan done at a location that provides that service in your area. Or the other option is to take some hi-res photos. In these types of things, you want to get something that’s more than you need so you have room to make adjustments.
An example, a client sent me a photo taken on her iphone with a resolution of 2333 x 3048 pixels, 72 dpi, RGB. This did not meet the minimum size requirements for Society6 out of the box.
So I created a new file in Photoshop with a 6500 x 6500 pixel, 72dpi, RGB specifications. I then pulled the provided photo into the file and scaled it the best I could to make it fit. In this scaling it’s important to do is proportionally so it doesn’t become skewed and distorted. This will take some massaging with each piece.
Keep in mind that the 6500 x 6500 requirement is for the majority of their designs. But there are specific sizing requirements for a number of their items so it may be that that specific piece of art would look best on just a few items.
After you’ve created your account, added your seller information and become verified then you are ready to add a product.
You will first upload the jpg and if it does not meet the minimum size requirements, the system will let you know immediately and not let you move past that area. Then you would just go back and check your sizing, dpi, RGB and file size. Make the adjustment and try uploading again.
Once you have uploaded the file then you’ll come to the “information” page that you would enter the details of the artwork: name, category, tags, and description. This is actually important as you want to be found easily in the search process. I know for me personally when I am looking at art I really like to know what the artist was thinking so this also provides a way for you to communicate with the consumer.
Now here’s the fun part!! You’ll be shown all the items that your graphic will work on. You will need to go into each one of these and make adjustments (centering & scaling) to layout and pricing (where you see the dollar sign in a circle). This is also where you can upload specific photos for specific products. Of course, if you only want to offer your design on certain products then you would just turn off the items that you don’t want to use. A good example would be wallpaper, maybe what you created just looks crazy as a wallpaper, turn it off.
Once you have everything the way you want for this product go ahead and publish it. Keep in mind you can always come back and tweak layouts and add products. After you have published it usually takes ~30 minutes for it to show up in your store. Though I’ve had it take much longer.