Trying to earn some extra income? How about taking your best cartoon and turning it into a gold mine?

I drew a cartoon years ago that seemed to get laughs from everyone that read it. This cartoon has been used over and over and has become a part of that spam email that travels around the world with a dozen or so really funny gag cartoons.

I decided to turn this cartoon into some profit. One of the first things I did was put this cartoon on one of my ChuckleBerry's greeting cards. It is my most sold card ever. Buy the card here.

I then opened a FREE Cafe Press store and threw on some specialty items including t-shirts. This design is by far my most sold design on Cafe Press. See merchandise here.

I also allow people to purchase rights to print the actual cartoon. It has been published in papers, on posters and other silly merchandise. See cartoon licensing here.

Sooo, take one or two of your favorite cartoons and turn them into money making machines!

Labels: How To, Making Money, Marketing, Niches

Okay folks, if you're checking in on my blog I've got something free for you! A fantastic funny free Christmas eCard. Send this card to all of your friends and family. It's brand new and only on ChuckleBerry's so no one will have seen it yet.

Enjoy and Happy Holidays!!

Send card here.

Labels: eCard, Greeting Cards

From time to time if you do freelance long enough you are going to get stiffed on a payment. Many times it is not on purpose, rather unfortunate circumstances. To avoid going out of business you should require a deposit from new clients before you begin a project. I require a 50% deposit or I don't add a project to my schedule.

On numerous occasions I have had clients pay a deposit, receive art, make changes and then vanish without their high resolution art files and no explanation. Rather than spend time hunting these clients down I have created a few good side ventures with this left over art.

On one site I outright sell these orphaned images for the amount owed by the original client, which basically makes the designs half price for the new client. On another site I use these images as royalty free designs which I sell over and over again. I eventually make more money off the reused artwork than I would have originally.

The art below was abandoned and will be added to my www.lifesacharacter.com website. I lost $550 on the project but will price each image at $29, two for $49 or all for $99. It will only take about a dozen sales and I will make my money back and eventually make more than I would have.

Do you have old cartoons or art just laying around? Why not turn them into profit? Clients are looking for funny original cartoons, clip art and royalty free characters.

Labels: Clip Art, Design Prices, How To, Making Money, Royalty Free

Are you getting any business? Do people know who you are?

I've been adding short videos to my personal blog and also to my greeting card site. I've gotten really good feedback that people really enjoy the videos. I also pick up traffic from YouTube.

Why not add a little video to your cartooning site? It's simple! I bought a cheap Canon PowerShot SD1000 digital camera for a trip to Disney World. Come to find out you can shoot movies with the darn thing also!

I set up the camera in my studio, turn it on, act like a goof and upload the video to my computer. I then open my YouTube account (you should have one, do you?) and upload the video to YouTube. I then take the code it creates for me and paste that into my HTML or blog. And Bingo! Instant video.

The video below is a prime example. Total time to film, upload and embed was maybe an hour. Most of that was waiting on the file to upload to YouTube. Lights, camera, action!



ChuckleBerry's Paper Card Co.

Labels: How To, Marketing, Video