I need advice on marketing/selling art and art stuff (like stickers, magnets, etc.). Like, I've gotten good reach on posts advertising my stuff, and I get likes and comments on socials and Redbubble itself, but it doesn't really translate to sales. It could be that I'm marketing to the wrong audience (as in "a lot of Rhythm Heaven fans seem to be young and don't have the spending money for art goods," in which case do I need to diversify?), maybe it's larger/outside factors (as in "maybe the economy isn't stable enough for people to be spending on non-frivolous things", which. fair lol), maybe it's something I could fix with myself (aforementioned diversifying, maybe people just like art goods made digitally rather than traditionally, maybe I need to get better at art), maybe I just need to wait (technically I've been waiting over a year though, but you never know), maybe it's something else. I've tried commissions before, but those were few and far between, and even when I would get them, I would get really stressed out doing them.
This is sort of a request for advice on how to navigate art (or writing, or any kind of artistic thing) as a monetary pursuit, because I'm still fairly new to this and still trying to figure out how to balance "what is the art I want to make" and "what is the art people want to buy". I've considered other designs and products I could do, but I don't want to commit to anything that won't be worth it long term.
FTR I'm not in any bad financial situations or anything, and at absolute most, I'm hoping for this to be something akin to a side gig while I look for something more full time. But like... I am unemployed, I am disabled and don't have a degree yet, I don't have many other avenues for earning myself spending money (and the ones I do aren't anywhere near consistent), and trying to find work has been RoughTM. I just wish I knew what I was doing wrong.
