How To Make $10k A Month Selling AI Art

Dils

January 25, 2023

This article will show you how to use AI tools to create unique, high-quality, copyright-free images that you can make money with.

You don’t need any artistic skills or experience. Just a computer and an internet connection. After reading this article, you’ll be able to generate images like these with only a prompt and a few clicks…

By setting up your own shop selling posters and canvases, you can easily make $10k a month selling AI art. Here’s a step-by-step guide to building your AI art empire.

Step 1: Decide your target audience and/or niche

To sell art, you’re going to need to find a passionate group of buyers that are willing to spend money on their hobbies. Alternatively, you will need to find a trending art niche that people are actively looking to buy.

You can use ChatGPT to help you brainstorm. Here are 10 niche ideas that ChatGPT came up with for both expensive hobbies and trending art niches.

Pro Tip: If you are selling on Etsy, you can use tools like eRank to check how many people are searching for products in your niche. The key is to find products with high search volume and low competition. For example, ‘Cyberpunk’ has 16k search volume (very high) and 25k competition (medium).

Step 2: Use Midjourney to create high-quality art

After deciding your niche, you can use Midjourney (an AI art generator) to create unique art that will sell like hot cakes. Here’s a simple guide to get started:

Join the Midjourney Discord

Midjourney is still in Beta, so you can access their tools on their Discord channel.

Go to a ‘Newbie’ room

Enter any of the Newbie rooms. You can find them in the channel list.

Enter the “/imagine” prompt

In the chat of the newbie room, type “/imagine”. You will then be able to write a prompt. Midjourney will take your prompt and turn it into a high-quality art piece.

Use creative and imaginative prompts

The only real limit here is your imagination, so get creative. Here are the images we get when we use the prompt “cyberpunk art for motorcycle enthusiasts”.

Layer different styles to create unique art

To take your AI art to the next level, you can layer images and designs to create something truly unique. For example, here is the result when we use the prompt “Abstract Neon Space Vortex”.

Then take the browser link for this image, and use it in your next prompt. Here is the result when we combine this image with the prompt “motorcycle”.

Pro Tip: You might notice that some of the details in AI-generated art are a bit odd. For example, AI really struggles to draw realistic hands. You could hire an artist on Fiverr to touch the image up to make it more realistic and take it to the next level.

Step 3: Create a print-on-demand product

An effective way to sell art is as a product. That means we could use our art to make posters, canvases, t-shirts, stickers and much more.

Using print-on-demand services, you can now make products with zero risk and start-up costs. Print-on-demand service providers will print the product when a customer makes an order, and send it directly to the customer on your behalf. Here’s how to get started.

Choose a print-on-demand provider

There are plenty of print-on-demand providers, and the best one will depend on the product you are creating and the locations you are shipping to. Here are some of my favourites:

Choose a product

Choose a product that makes sense for your niche and target audience. For example, if you are targeting motorcyclists or gym enthusiasts, then a t-shirt makes sense. If you are targeting gamers, then make posters or canvases they can hang in their gaming room. If you are targeting tech nerds then a mouse pad or mug could be very successful.

You can see what kind of products you can create by browsing the catalogues of the print-on-demand providers.

Step 4: Set up an online store

To sell your products online, you’ll need to set up an online store. To do this, you can set up your own e-commerce website using Shopify.

For beginners, a much easier option is to create a shop on Etsy. There are many great resources and tutorials on how to set up an Etsy store.

To avoid going into too much detail, here is a short checklist to make sure your store is set up for success:

Choose a shop name: Use ChatGPT to help you brainstorm.
Create a logo and banner: Use an AI tool like Looka to create your logo, and Canva to create your banner.
Stock your shop: You will need to create listings for your products. That includes product photos, product descriptions, pricing, and shipping details.
Upload product photos: You can generate product photos with your print-on-demand provider to begin with. As your shop grows, consider investing in professional product photos.
Write world-class product descriptions: Use AI writing tools like Copy.ai and Rytr to help write professional product descriptions.
Get the pricing right: To make sure your shop is profitable, you need to price your products properly. A good rule is to make sure you are making at least a 50% margin. So if it costs $10 to fulfil at the print on demand provider, make sure you are selling it on Etsy for at least $20. You need high margins to make sure you are profitable after marketing, fulfilment issues, and returns.

In theory, anyone could create thousands of products very cheaply in a matter of days / weeks. Only a handful of those would need to be successful to make $10,000 a month.

Closing thoughts

AI has levelled the playing field so entrepreneurs with little to no capital can create unbelievable art and products that their customers will love.

The cost of creating high-quality art has never been so low. Hiring an artist to create just one of these images would easily cost more than $100. AI tools like Midjourney enable entrepreneurs to create high-quality art for next to nothing.