Promo Toolkit: Everything You Need to Build Social Media Posts for Your Shop

For more than 20 years, Threadless has helped hundreds of artists grow their art into successful brands. Over that time, our team has found that Artist Shop owners who enjoy the most success generally follow three essential steps: create, promote, and repeat. The Promo Toolkit is here to help you with the step that artists appear to stumble on most: promotion, particularly on social media. It’s no mystery why many artists struggle with this step. First off, promoting your ownRead more

10 Ways to Promote Your Merch on TikTok

Since launching in 2016, the video-sharing app TikTok has amassed more than 1.2 billion users worldwide and has been downloaded more than 3 billion times.1 In other words, it’s a pretty big deal. While older generations brush off TikTok as an app reserved for Zoomers, it actually has a much larger influence on culture than you might assume. It’s where people go to see what’s trending in the world, and it has the potential to expose artists to millions ofRead more

Ink Tuesday, Month 3: Giving My Artist Shop a Refresh

Trying to start a brand from scratch while still having a day job is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. Some months it feels like I have all the time in the world, and others I’m lucky if I get enough sleep and food in me, let alone work towards my side hustle. Despite my obstacles, this past October, I was still able to put out Ink Tuesday content, go viral once with a TikTok video that receivedRead more

Ink Tuesday, Month 2: My First Sale, the TikTok Algorithm, and More

Starting a brand from scratch is thrilling, but after that initial enthusiasm wears off, things get progressively harder. Especially when you don’t see much success posting online to keep you motivated. It’s easy to get frustrated making artwork no one sees. This is part of what I experienced during Month 2 of Ink Tuesday, my 365 project where I freehand paint for 52 weeks straight. Even though I didn’t see the kind of growth I wanted during September, I’m stillRead more

Introducing Ink Tuesday: Month 1 of Starting a Brand from Scratch

I’m the creator of Ink Tuesday, and this past month has been the best of my life. This is surprising, considering this summer I was the most anxious I’ve been in years. I felt like the rug had been pulled out from under me. I was just going through the motions of work, eat, sleep, and repeat with very little to look forward to. All those gut-wrenching feelings of self-doubt went away when I decided to start a 365 projectRead more