I've been uploading my illustrations to Redbubble and Society6 for about 6 months now but barely made £50. My mates said to try Etsy instead. Is it worth the effort or should I just keep it as a hobby?
Six months in is still pretty early honestly - I'd give it longer before deciding it's not viable.
The real money comes from having a decent back catalog (we're talking hundreds of designs) across multiple platforms, not just one or two, plus you need to actually market your work somewhere like Instagram or TikTok rather than just uploading and hoping people find it. Etsy might help since it has better discovery than Redbubble sometimes, but the effort-to-payout ratio is genuinely rough starting out, so keeping it as a creative outlet while you build momentum is the smartest approach.
The market's pretty saturated but you can definitely make real money if you put in the work - i've seen people doing it. the thing is six months is still pretty early and £50 means your stuff isn't getting discovered yet. redbubble and society6 are passive income sites so they do some marketing for you but they also take huge cuts. etsy is worth trying because you control your own shop and can actually market it yourself, plus people go there specifically to buy from independent artists rather than just browsing like on redbubble.
what matters more than platform choice is getting your work in front of people. like seriously invest time in instagram, tiktok, pinterest - whatever you vibe with. in 2026 the algorithm still rewards consistency so if you're posting regularly and tagging properly you'll eventually get traction. also look at your designs critically, are they trending? what actually sells? sometimes it's not about your best art, it's about what resonates with buyers. hashtags matter, cross-posting matters, engaging with other artists matters.
if you genuinely love making art then yeah keep going and try etsy, but don't expect quick returns. most people who make decent income from digital prints spent at least a year building an audience. if it feels like a chore and you don't actually want to hustle the social media side, then keep it as a hobby and don't stress. but if you're willing to put in the effort to actually market yourself then there's legit potential there.
Thing is, Redbubble and Society6 take a chunky cut, so you're fighting uphill there from the start - Etsy might feel like a fresh start but it's honestly more about volume and discoverability than which platform you pick. I'd look at your actual designs first: are they niche enough to stand out, or do they blend into what thousands of other artists are already selling? My neighbor tried this route and realized after a year that her abstract stuff wasn't finding an audience, but when she pivoted to very specific gardening humor (weird plant jokes, that sort of thing), her sales picked up because she wasn't competing with everyone. Before switching platforms, figure out if there's actually demand for what you're making, then go all-in on whichever site has the audience that wants it.
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