#redbubble fees

RedBubble and TeePublic are owned by the same company, but TP has always operated very differently. When RB originally bought them, I'd actually been hoping that the better parts of both sites would find their way to the other, but that never happened.

The main difference for artists is that TP pays flat fees for items. For example, for classic T-shirts, you get $4 per shirt or $2 if it's bought on sale. For stickers, it's .75/.50. No percentages, nothing you set yourself.

After RB's recent ridiculousness, when I saw an email from TP about changes, I was worried. But it's actually pretty reasonable, if they have to increase fees.

Tiers (but not as bad)

Yes, they are doing tiers like RB. And like RB, they won't give the exact formula or let you pick your tier, BUT the criteria are far better.

The lower "Apprentice" tier, it sounds like, is mostly for accounts that spam them with hundreds of automated designs or that have a normal number of designs but almost no sales. NOT for regular small-to-medium accounts like RB's lower tier.

I have 56 designs that I've slowly added over the past five years or so, and I make maybe $10/month on TeePublic. And I am in the higher "Artisan" tier. I don't know what might get me bumped down, like if I don't sell anything for a few months in a row or something, but for now I'm good.

So if you're a small-to-medium artist with a couple dozen designs who sells a few items a month, there's a good chance you'll be Artisan tier.

Fee changes (but also not as bad)

As for the fee changes, they're more reasonable, too. For Artisan accounts (which, remember, little ol' me qualified as) they're just standardizing the artist cut to $4 ($2 on sale) for all apparel and home items. Which means for the most popular items, like the classic tee, there's no change! The biggest cut here is on hoodies, which will drop from $8 to $4. Which sucks, but I've only sold a handful of hoodies in several years so it's not a huge hit. Most other cuts are just going from $5 to $4.

For Apprentice tier accounts, apparel and home items will be $3 ($1 on sale). Which is more of a cut, since nearly all of them were at least $4 before, but it's definitely better than RB's 40% fee, and seems unlikely to hit most regular artist accounts.

There's also the fact that while RB closed my account with no warning or explanation and ignored my appeal, TP has done no such thing. As a fanartist I've also had far fewer DMCAs on TP, probably because it's less popular than RB so companies aren't monitoring as closely.

So anyhow, if you're a RedBubble refugee you might want to check out TeePublic! I'm in the process of uploading whatever designs I had on RB that I hadn't put there already. It definitely has downsides (the search is absolutely awful), and again it's owned by the same company, but for the moment it's staying more artist-friendly than RedBubble apparently.

Redbubble just announced new tiers! Artists occupying the lowest tier get as much as 50% of their earnings taken as fees, as well as being denied advance sales dates, insights and tips, and the ability to sell through the fanart program. <3

This may result in new artists being set up to fail and paying hefty fees on any earnings they DO make from Day 1, much like a pyramid scheme where only the people who got in early make money and every "salesman" at the bottom is really just a customer. <3

So what do you think? Tell the nice folks at Redbubble! :D :D :D :D <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 uwu

Redbubble FEES (Zen Rant) - Audio Only