Cosplay patterns you make can be digitized via software like Inkscape or Photoshop and then sold online. If you have a bunch of patterns you want to make available to the masses and try to get a little bit of revenue for your hard work, you’ve come to the right place. This guide on how to sell your own cosplay patterns can help you understand where to post your listings and how to be profitable.
You can sell a variety of patterns for your cosplays too. Simple patterns for foam or sewing and more complicated files like for embroidery machines, Cricuts or STLs for 3D printing can be sold by cosplayers.
How to Make Money With Cosplay Patterns
These tips will help you make money with cosplay patterns:
- Stay digital – Selling digital patterns over physical ones can help cut down costs. You don’t have to print and ship a digital product and thus you can save on shipping, paper and ink costs.
- Offer sales – Running occasional sales or limited-time discounts can encourage hesitant buyers to purchase. Sales can also help bring attention to older patterns and boost overall shop visibility.
- Link your patterns in tutorials – If you create tutorials, link them directly to the patterns used. Showing your patterns in action builds trust and gives potential customers a clear reason to buy.
- Marketing – Promote your patterns consistently across social media, newsletters and your website. Use behind-the-scenes content, progress photos, and finished cosplay images to show how your patterns work in real builds.
- Create quality patterns – Clear instructions, accurate sizing and clean formatting are essential. Include helpful notes, labeled pieces, and visual guides so customers of varying skill levels can successfully use your patterns.
- Optimize your products for search – Use relevant keywords in your product titles, descriptions and image alt text. Strong SEO helps your patterns show up in search results and get more organic traffic.
- Choose high demand patterns with little competition – Research popular characters, genres or cosplay needs that aren’t already oversaturated. Filling gaps in the market can help your patterns stand out and sell more consistently.
- Choose the perfect platform – Sell your patterns on platforms that fit your audience and business goals, whether that’s your own website, Etsy, Gumroad or another digital marketplace. The right platform can make a big difference in visibility, fees, and ease of use.
Is Selling Cosplay Patterns Profitable
Cosplay patterns do have potential to be profitable. It’s not as simple as list it and forget it. It requires quite a bit of work to sell patterns and actually generate decent revenue. The biggest pro to it is the fact it can be a passive income with little to no overhead costs. Digital patterns don’t require you to spend money on the creation of a physical product or fulfillment costs. Thus you can start earning from the first pattern you sell.
However, if you pay for a platform to list the patterns on or for software like Photoshop to make them you could struggle to breakeven at first. That’s why you can use free software like Inkscape while you’re getting started and need to pick the perfect platform to sell on.
Where Can I Sell My Cosplay Patterns
For digital patterns, there’s an abundance of platforms you can sell them on:
- Etsy – Etsy can be similar in the sense of how easy it is to list digital products. However they do charge a listing fee and definitely take greater percentages. Etsy is already a popular shopping site and could make it easier for your product to get discovered.
- Website – Whether you use WordPress, Wix or Squarespace, you can set up ecommerce options on a site. They’re a little bit more difficult to set up than other platforms since it’ll require external plugins and such, but it gives you the most customization. Depending on what plugins you use and how you collect payments, you might even earn a bigger cut than on other platforms. Different sites all take different percentage cuts of your sales for using their platforms. It’s important to research and compare those percentages ahead of time.
- Ko-fi – Ko-Fi has the ability to offer subscriptions, one off tips, a store with digital and physical items and take commissions. You can completely customize your page to fit the needs you have. As for selling cosplay patterns on Ko-Fi, you’ll rely pretty heavily on the store option and the ability to list digital products. That way it’ll collect payments and provide shoppers with the downloadable digital files. All you have to do is upload and list the product and promote the store.
- Gumroad – Gumroad is a popular platform for selling digital products like patterns, PDFs, and tutorials. It handles file delivery, payments, and even basic analytics for you. Gumroad is straightforward to use and requires minimal setup, making it a good option for creators who want to start selling quickly. While Gumroad does take a percentage of each sale, many sellers find the ease of use and built-in digital delivery worth the trade-off.
Where is the Best Place to Sell Cosplay Patterns
Not all platforms are the same. Here are the top 3 platforms that are best to sell your patterns on:
- Website – Website hosting comes with more advanced offerings, the ability to keep people on your site instead of pushing them to external places and complete customization. They can be a little more expensive when using certain ecommerce platforms like Shopify, but ultimately makes for the best platform.
- Ko-fi – Completely free to use and list on, Ko-fi is by far the next best. It is pretty customizable but just not as freely as a website. It also is the lowest cost since they don’t charge listing fees and only take a 5% cut unless you have Ko-fi Gold.
- Etsy – Etsy is a reputable platform which is really the main reason it made the list. It otherwise can be expensive due to listing costs and large cuts of each sale it takes. It also lacks in being customizable like Ko-fi and a website.
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