Imagekind is a print on demand service, owned by Cafepress, and has a membership of mainly professional artists and photographers.
I have been an Imagekind member for 5 years, though I have placed my emphasis on my Fine Art America profile. Personally, I like Fine Art America more than Imagekind. (This is my Fine Art America portfolio)
But, Imagekind seems to be better than FAA in two areas – customer service and print quality. For this reason, I am writing this article for those who are curious about Imagekind as a viable POD option.
Art and photography at Image Kind can be sold as posters, framed prints, and canvas prints. Imagekind is free to join. Free members receive unlimited uploads of images, with unlimited storage. The number of image galleries are limited to 3.
Free Imagekind users also receive a 5% commission of framing sales, though that amount can be increased to 15% with a paid upgrade. If you are one who makes lots of sales through Image kind, the cost of the upgrade may be basically paid for by this percentage increase. I do not recommend upgrading immediately after joining, but this can be a big incentive to do so for those successful with Imagekind.
How to Set up Imagekind to Sell Poster, Framed, and Canvas Prints
Go to Imagekind.
Click the Join for Free link in the top right.
- Currently, they have put a hold on new artist signups directly on the site. To join, email Imagekind at the address given on this page. Include a message, and a link to an online art portfolio. If you are approved, Imagekind will email a signup link to you.
- Once registered, setup your profile. Click My Account at the top. Enter an artist website, or another portfolio, and a short biography. Add an avatar here to help others identify you more easily.
- In the Account tab, enter payment information. Fill in the payment method, choosing either cheque or Paypal, and the tax information.
- Under the Pricing tab, set default mark-up for print prices. These can be an overall setting, as well as individual artwork mark-up. Imagekind places full control over setting the amount of mark-up.
- My Portfolio
Upload available prints in this section. Create a new artwork gallery or upload them individually right away. Remember, these are for reproductions, so your artworks should be properly optimized. Artworks that are blurry, or improperly cropped look very unprofessional, and will not sell! Please follow the tips in the following articles for advice in this area:
How to Photograph Art for the Internet
How to Fix Images With Photoshop
- Images can be uploaded individually, from Flickr, or the Desktop Uploader. Be sure to follow Imagekind’s tips to avoid uploading errors. Include a description, tags, subject, medium, genre, and decor. Then, click Save at the bottom.
Choose tags based on subject matter, color, theme, etc. Imagekind also sells prints and reproductions by famous artists such as Rembrandt. So, if your art has a style similar to Rembrandt, tagging it as such may help others find your art when they are searching for Rembrandt prints.
Some people have complained about how slow it is to upload artworks. I have not had any problem with this at all. If you have very large image files, and a slow internet connection, there may be some problems. To avoid errors and time-outs, keep image files below 20MB.
Click the Marketing Tools tab to find a variety of Imagekind widgets. Use Imagekind buttons to promote specific artworks in your portfolio. Banners are sliding galleries whereby users can view a variety of artworks directly within the widget, without leaving the website. An Imagekind sampler kit is also available here. This can be used as a reference, and helps to see what prints look like on a variety of papers.
Imagekind does not help in the promotion of artwork. To make sales, artists will have to refer others to their galleries. This is recommended with any portfolio site anyway. Use the marketing tools provided, and promote your art prints both online and offline.
Do you have a portfolio at Imagekind? Have you had success with selling art prints through this venue?
Yesterday I began a free account at ImageKind. I've uploaded one image so far and linked it with my website. It took me a long time for the first one - figuring out how to input tags and other references for people to find my images. I keep second guessing myself about whether or not I should have started with FAA instead because you said you liked them better. I assume that means you have had more sales from FAA? I plan to do FAA also, but not until I have a good number of photos uploaded to ImageKind. I'm also looking into a local shop here in Phoenix to do prints for my Etsy shop. This is a big step for me. Time will tell if it brings me any positive monetary feedback.
ReplyDelete