POWER SELLERS ACADEMY

Spoonflower is competitive, yes. But competitive does not mean impossible.

A lot of shops on Spoonflower are inactive, inconsistently managed, poorly keyworded, or not built around what customers are actually searching for. Having designs uploaded is not the same as having a strategy.

This is where PSA helps.

Inside the membership, I teach you how to think about buyer demand, titles and tags, collections, search discoverability, marketing, and the kinds of decisions that can help your work get found by the right shoppers.

I started selling on Spoonflower when there were already many designers making a living on the platform. I looked at what was possible, took it seriously, and became one of them. Many PSA members are now building momentum too, consistently earning up to 15% in commissions, monthly.

What absolute RUBBISH!

Thankfully, when I started out, I didn’t even know what a surface pattern designer was, so I never heard these views. And I’m so glad — because these limiting beliefs could have stopped me from making decisions that quite literally changed my family’s life. 

Selling on print-on-demand does not automatically stop designers from licensing their artwork. Many truly incredible artists sell on print-on-demand platforms and license their artwork as well.

Many PSA members joined while already having licensing deals across all sorts of industries, and some designers have even been discovered by licensees through Spoonflower itself. One PSA member, for example, landed a fabric licensing deal after Cloud9 Fabrics found her work in her Spoonflower shop.

Licensing your art, even to a fabric manufacturer, does not automatically mean you're going to make an ongoing income that can sustain your creative career. In fact, my earnings on Spoonflower far surpass those of many designers who have fabric contracts. And because I can keep uploading new work and driving more sales, it compounds over time.

You still need to understand your own agreements, but selling on Spoonflower does not automatically make you less professional, less licensable, or less serious as a designer.

There is no fixed ceiling to what you can earn on Spoonflower. Every single design you upload has earning potential. 

Spoonflower artists earn a standard 10% commission on qualifying product sales. Artists who generate higher monthly retail sales can also earn automatic commission bonuses, increasing the total commission rate to between 11% and 15%.

To put that into real numbers, the monthly commission ranges look like this:

11% = $330 up to $1,099 for the month
13% = $1,300 up to $1,949 for the month
15% = a minimum of $2,250 for the month

So yes, Spoonflower can become a meaningful source of recurring monthly income.

Inside PSA, I have members who have reached the top commission tiers, including members who have earned at that level consistently for more than 12 months.

Of course, results vary. Getting designs onto Spoonflower is not enough on its own. The sellers who do well are usually creating with buyer demand in mind, improving their titles and tags, building collections strategically, uploading consistently, and paying attention to what customers respond to.

Yes. Selling on Spoonflower is different because Spoonflower specializes in products that are built for seamless repeating patterns, including fabric, wallpaper, and home decor. 

It is also used by customers who may buy in larger quantities, including handmade business owners sourcing fabric for finished products, interior designers buying for residential and commercial projects, and event planners buying for styled spaces.

That means you are not only relying on individual customers buying one product for themselves. Customers may be ordering multiple yards of fabric, several rolls of wallpaper, or materials for a client project, event, or product line.

This is one of the reasons I take Spoonflower seriously as a business opportunity. The earning potential can be much stronger than many designers expect from print-on-demand. It is not uncommon to earn commissions of $50, $100, $300+ and much more from a single Spoonflower transaction.

Of course, this does not happen automatically. Like any business, your results depend on the quality of your work, how well you understand the customer, how searchable your designs are, how consistently you upload, and how strategically you build your shop.

Yes! In the backend of Spoonflower you can choose to only list your designs for sale on wallpaper. There are great commissions to be made on wallpaper sales!

This can be useful if you have a licensing agreement that restricts where certain designs can be sold. For example, if a fabric manufacturer has licensed a design for fabric, you may still be able to sell that design on wallpaper, depending on the terms of your agreement. 

That said, you always need to check your own contract. Licensing agreements vary, and PSA cannot give legal advice. But from a practical Spoonflower setup point of view, you do have control over which product categories your designs are available on.

PSA can still be valuable if you are preparing to apply.

Inside the membership, there are lessons to help you think through what to design (and why), titles, tags, how Spoonflower search works, ways to market your work and drive sales, and how to approach Spoonflower as a real selling platform rather than just a place to upload patterns.

PSA cannot guarantee that your application will be accepted⸺because Spoonflower controls that decision. But it can help you prepare more thoughtfully and understand what to work on before and after applying.

Spoonflower has recently introduced an Artist Application for new artists who want to sell on the platform, so the setup process now includes an approval step before you can list designs for sale. 

That's a change from how Spoonflower used to work, but it's worth keeping in perspective⸺because, once accepted, artists can continue building their shops and adding designs without needing approval for every individual pattern.

PSA includes guidance to help new members understand the current setup process and prepare more thoughtfully.

Like any other business, selling on Spoonflower takes time, strategy, and consistent effort. This is where Power Sellers Academy helps: knowing what to focus on next, depending on your experience and stage of business. It's all mapped out in PSA.