How to Price Digital Art to Sell at Online Marketplace

As technology progresses, we cannot ignore the role of artificial intelligence in many sectors. It has penetrated the art sector very well and now one can create art using AI prompts. This can be much better than actual paintings or photography. Interestingly, AI art has a much bigger market than usual art for a reason. Many publishers are not able to afford premium images and thus AI art can be very useful for them.

How to decide the price of digital art to sell at online marketplace

To understand AI digital art and find a good market price to sell it, consider the following factors:

1. Know Your Audience: Identifying Your Target Market
2. Assess Your Artwork: Evaluating Your Digital Creations
3. Costs and Expenses: Don't Forget the Nitty-Gritty
4. Pricing Strategies: Finding the Right Price for Your Digital Art
5. Offering Additional Services: Adding Value to Your Art
6. Adjusting Your Prices: Fine-Tuning Your Strategy

1] Know Your Audience: Identifying Your Target Market

We know artists who earn peanuts for their work and those who sell their creations for millions. The difference isn’t always about their capability. It’s targeting the right market. Art has many markets, and the buyers are very different for each market.

For regular bloggers and publishers

Regular bloggers and publishers need images for their online posts and videos. However, buying images from premium websites is too expensive for them. As an example, every image downloaded from Shutterstock can cost a few dollars per use. Now, the other option is to use creative common images. However, free images don’t have the best variety. If you are seeking a very specific image, it would probably be premium.

However, with AI-generated art, you have no limits. If someone needs a specific image, you don’t need to go and click the photograph. Simply create a realistic image using prompts. As of present, most images generated by AI are realistic, but not real. To create real-like images, you can pick random images from the internet and modify them using prompts.

For art enthusiasts

You know paintings and art sells for a lot in the right market. You can sell basic art for hundreds of dollars or maybe thousands. However, the problem with such a sale is that you can sell only once. The buyer will have all rights to the art. In the case of regular art, you can keep reselling it. Those who buy merely have permission to use the image.

2] Assess Your Artwork: Evaluating Your Digital Creations

As explained above, there are many types of AI-generated art. To be successful in making a profit from the same, you need to assess your artwork properly. Usually, the monetary investment for tools used to create art through AI prompts is minimal (like a few dollars). But the base prompts can be very expensive. If you are creating your own base prompt, a lot of time will have to be invested.

This investment needs to be considered while selling your art online. Many AI artists pick a specific niche. They buy a base prompt for that niche and then create images around the same prompt/s. By doing so, they save a lot of resources and eventually make a profit.

Those AI artists who sell their artwork at a premium cost do so by becoming a brand first. Else, why would anyone pay thousands of dollars for your art?

3] Costs and Expenses: Don't Forget the Nitty-Gritty

Once a logo designer was asked, why do you charge $200 for a 10-minute job? He answered that he doesn’t charge for those 10 minutes but the 12 years he put towards learning designing.

AI art is relatively new to the market and designers are learning the use of prompts. A lot of time is to be invested in mastering creating art by prompts. Other than this, tools and courses would be needed for learning the art. All this goes into the final product cost.

Usually, tools used to create AI art are dead cheap. The real investment is for buying the base prompts or creating them. If the base prompt is to be created, you would need time, and time is money. Since AI technology is new, you might not be able to find the base prompt of your choice and this in turn makes the process even more expensive.

If you look forward to selling premium art, then a brand would have to be created. This branding process can be costly. Other than this, you would have to pay a listing price for the websites on which you sell your art.

4] Pricing Strategies: Finding the Right Price for Your Digital Art

We have already discussed the cost of creating AI art. If you wish to sell this art, you will need to price it accordingly. Premium art cannot be sold on “per download” basis. First of all, no one will buy it and second thing, you cannot risk your efforts for not getting sold. The reason no one will buy premium art on “per download” basis is that they are of no use to commercial videos and blogs. Eg. A piece of modern art telling a story cannot be used often on commercial content platforms.

On the other hand, if you create AI art for selling to bloggers, websites, and video channel owners, create in-demand AI art. Price your art on “per download” basis and a lot of buyers seeking cheap AI art will accept it.

While pricing your AI art, it is also important to consider the competition. Focusing on in-demand niches which don’t have enough creators yet can be helpful.

5] Offering Additional Services: Adding Value to Your Art

If you are selling AI art to bloggers, channel owners, and content creators, then offering additional services can boost your sales. This in turn can increase your overall profit.

First of all, just like any other content creator, it will be ethical to offer a few customizations for your art. If the buyer doesn’t like the art, offer to redo it a few times. This will attract a lot of buyers. Also, you will be able to compete with websites that offer AI art for free.

Other than this, you can bundle your art and offer discounts. Eg. You can offer 10 images for $100 instead of one for $20. Eventually, you will make sufficient profit.

6] Adjusting Your Prices: Fine-Tuning Your Strategy

Many would wonder – what should be the exact price of my AI art to maximize both sales and profit. Everything apart, pricing is a game of demand and supply.

Once you start selling, judge the demand by monitoring the sales performance. Follow the 80:20 rule. If buyers are not as interested in your niche, then consider changing the niche. If buyers are more than interested in your niche and the competition is low, then increase prices. Lastly, if buyers are interested in your niche, but the competition is high, then consider increasing the prices.

Other than this, you will have to adapt to marketing changes. AI is a quickly evolving technology. You will need to keep upgrading your skills to make maximum profit.

Why is digital art so cheap?

Digital art is cheaper than general art because the latter must be created from scratch. Digital art uses base prompts. Once the base prompt is set, creating the AI art is easy. Thus, AI art is cheap. Other than this, since it is a new thing in the market, a lot of people are creating AI art for fun, and this AI art is available for free on the platforms on which they are created.

Is digital art profitable?

I can confirm that the market for selling AI art is huge and lots of people are making money in it. However, AI art’s profitability depends on how well you judge the market and sell your product. Making a profit from digital art is easier than making money from photography.

Conclusion

Selling digital art can be a very profitable business if you use the correct strategy. Since it is way cheaper than regular photographs and in demand, you can sell a lot after finding the right niche. This will need proper research and learning, but you can eventually make a significant profit from it.