When I decided to sell my designs on Creative Market, I would often read about success stories online and while those success stories are really encouraging, they don’t always represent reality. I have been on Creative Market for a while now, but I have only been selling my designs for about 5 months. This post is not intended to brag about how much money I made on Creative Market (sarcasm), but instead, I just wanted to show you what typical growth looks like on Creative Market so when you start your Creative Market shop you can be more prepared for what is to come. 

Let’s get into it!

I started selling my designs on July 8, 2018. This is going to go over all of my sales from July, to today’s date November 5, 2018. 

I have 24 products in my shop. Out of those 24 products I have sold 4 of them. These are the 4 products I have sold so far: 

Sold: July 28, 2018

Revenue: $10

Earnings: $7

Sold: August 26, 2018

Revenue: $4

Earnings: $2.80

Sold: October 24, 2018

Revenue: $4

Earnings: $2.80

Sold: November 5, 2018

Revenue: $4

Earnings: $2.80

Total Earnings: $15.40

When I opened my shop, I was pretty sure I was going to make at least $10,000 dollars that I would use to fund my trip to Disney World. I also remember asking my local city hall what happens if I go over the $20,000 estimated revenue I put on my business license application. I was a little off on the estimate, however, I do think there are things to be learned from my shop’s revenue. 

Things I’ve learned in my first 5 months . . . 

1.  Quality vs Quantity 

There is always this misguided notion that you cannot have a lot of products without sacrificing on the quality, but that is simply not true. On Creative Market, there are a lot of high-quality product bundles and if you can create a great bundle, that is where you are going to make the bulk of your money. My one sale of a pattern bundle accounted for almost half of my earnings.

2. Pricing

I still don’t know what I should price my designs at, but I have noticed some patterns based on my own sales. My patterns are underpriced, but I did so because I looked at other shops that were selling single patterns on Creative Market and priced my patterns similar to the market. I also thought that people would be more likely to buy a product from a new seller with no comments/reviews if the prices were cheap, however, I was wrong. Buyers on Creative Market equate higher prices with quality so, if you’ve created a high-quality product in a field that supports higher prices (e.g., fonts, brushes, etc.) don’t devalue your products for a quick buck. 

3. Cover Images 

The way you present your product is just as important as the product you are selling. I had different cover images than the ones you see now that were quite bland so I decided to change all of them. It wasn’t until after the change that I started to get sales, but even though my cover images could still use a lot of work, I like that when you look at them you can immediately tell that those are my designs. Consistency is key when you are creating your cover images. Your cover images are the first things a customer is going to notice when looking at your products. Having nice cover images is also something the Creative Market staff suggest if you want to get your products picked as free goods so spend the extra time making good cover images.

4. Just Have Fun

I am sure we have all had those dreams of quitting our jobs and successfully selling our designs online, but when you start your shop, do not make it your full-time job. 99% of the time you will not be successful right away. Your first few years of shop ownership should be all about creating new high-quality products and you cannot make those high-quality products if you are worrying about getting enough sales to pay your bills. 

Starting a shop on Creative Market is an easy process, but getting the sales to sustain yourself on Creative Market takes time. Hopefully, that success comes sooner than later, but in the meantime, work hard, make lasting connections, and enjoy yourself. This is the time when you have the most creative control so don’t waste it. 

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