Before that, there was one more big development.
Let me report on that first. Sorry for the out-of-order sequence.
This time, I took on —
Not Red Bull, but Redbubble — https://www.redbubble.com/
※ It is surprisingly easy to confuse the two.
Previous article: The reality of day 24 of my Fiverr listing — read it here
What Is Redbubble? A Huge POD Market from Australia, with 800,000 Artists Worldwide
Redbubble is one of the world’s largest print-on-demand (POD) services, founded in Melbourne, Australia in 2006.
About 800,000 artists from around the world are registered, and more than 4 million buyers a year use this huge marketplace.
The system is simple.
When an artist uploads a work,
- T-shirts
- Smartphone cases
- Posters
- Mugs
- Tote bags
- Cushions
and more — it is automatically expanded into over 100 kinds of goods.
And when an order comes in, Redbubble handles the manufacturing, packing, shipping and customer support — all of it.
In short, all we do is “put the picture there.”
No inventory needed. No shipping work needed.
I can line up my work for the world market while living in Ehime. That is quite a dream.
Four Great Things About Redbubble
Here is what I felt after actually trying it, organised into four points.
1. Zero Startup Cost, Zero Inventory Risk
Registration is free. Uploading your work is free.
If nothing sells, no cost is incurred.
The biggest enemy of an independent creator is actually “inventory.” The fear of it is zero. That is really huge.
2. One Picture Becomes “100 Products”
The moment you actually upload a work, it becomes a T-shirt, a smartphone case, a poster — and more.
You draw once. But the sales opportunities multiply more than a hundredfold.
This expandability is a feeling you rarely get from Japanese domestic services.
3. It Reaches All Over the World
Redbubble has production bases in 16 locations around the world.
In other words, a work I drew in Ehime could be worn as a T-shirt by someone in America.
The scale is completely different from domestic services such as BASE. Honestly, it is a little romantic.
4. You Can Set Your Own Profit Margin
Against each product’s base price, you set your own profit margin yourself.
You can adjust for yourself “how much profit to add.”
Sales are paid monthly on the 15th via PayPal or bank transfer. ※ The minimum payout is $20.
I Actually Registered
Registration itself was surprisingly easy.
All you have to do is enter your email address and password, and your account is created. There is no advance screening like INPRNT’s.
I Asked Claude for My English Profile
I had Claude help me with the English bio for my profile.
“Taisho romance,” “dark romanticism” — I converted these ideas into expressions that would also convey them to English-speaking readers. Even with zero English, I had a decent profile in a few minutes.
The AI era is amazing.
I Asked Claude for Tags Too
Registering works was also quite easy. Just upload an image and enter the title, tags and description.
Tags were especially helpful. When I asked Claude to “think of tags that English-speaking people would likely search for,” it gave me very practical suggestions.
And so, I registered 9 works, including my signature piece “Salome.”
The “404 Wall” Waiting Right After Registration
Now. Just as I finished registering my works and thought, “Let’s have a look at Analytics” — something happened.
Click.
404.
Account settings.
404.
Typing the URL directly.
404.
……
551 would have made me happy, but 404 is a bit of a problem.
※ A joke that only people from Kansai will get, lol
The Result of Panicking, “Did I Fail to Register?”
I panicked a little, but the dashboard was normal, the work count showed 9, and the public pages existed — in other words, it did not feel completely broken.
So I explained the situation to Claude, and the cause became clear right away.
The Cause Was the “Review Waiting Period”
At Redbubble, after new registration, an automatic classification review into Standard / Premium takes place.
During that review period (up to 5 business days), some pages such as Analytics and Account Settings apparently return 404, by design.
…… I see. I panicked for nothing (lol).
By the way, even during the review, works are publicly available as normal and can be purchased. In other words, there is a chance they could sell while you are waiting.
INPRNT and Redbubble Were Quite Different Genres
What I felt most when I tried them was that these two have completely different concepts in the first place.
- INPRNT → “A place to display art.” Art lovers come looking for high-quality prints.
- Redbubble → “A place to turn art into goods and spread it.” People come who want to enjoy art as everyday items.
My personal image is like this.
- INPRNT → “The holy land of art”
- Redbubble → “A giant mall of goods”
INPRNT reaches “people who want to display it,” and Redbubble reaches “people who want to use it.”
This two-pronged approach, I think, is quite interesting.
Japanese Artists Are Actually Very Few
About 800,000 people are registered on Redbubble overall. However, Japanese artists are extremely few.
According to various AI surveys, they are said to be 1–2% or less of the total. Moreover, there are almost no Japanese-language reports of the experience.
In other words, there may still be a first-mover advantage at this stage.
To Be Honest: The Risks of Redbubble
I have written good things so far, but of course there are downsides too. Listing only the convenient stories would not be fair, so I will write honestly.
1. Less Profit Than Expected
This is the reality.
Even if a $50 product sells, your actual share is often only around $5. Raising your margin increases your share, but it also raises the price and can make it harder to sell.
2. There Are 800,000 Competitors
800,000 people — that also means there are 800,000 rivals.
If you post without thinking, you will simply get buried. Optimising tags, titles and descriptions seems very important.
3. Terms-Change Risk
This is the most important one.
In fact, between 2023 and 2025, Redbubble made major changes to its terms and fees, affecting many artists.
I feel the fear of depending on a platform quite strongly.
Why I Still Use Redbubble
Even with the risks, I think it is worth registering. The reason is simple.
“The experience of placing my work in overseas markets itself has value.”
Zero startup cost. No inventory. And still, I can line up my work for the world.
And most importantly, “not depending on just one thing.”
- INPRNT
- Fiverr
- Redbubble
- Displate
Place my works in several places. Even if one fails, not everything collapses.
This is the idea of “side income with multiple pillars” that this blog has been pursuing all along.
Now: The Review Is Passed, but Sales Are Still Zero
After that, the review passed safely. All 9 works are now properly lined up in the world market. Sales are still zero.
But for now, I think this is “the sowing season.”
INPRNT too, and Fiverr too, started with nothing happening.
There is nothing to do but keep building.
Placing my works, one by one, on overseas platforms where Japanese people are almost absent.
I feel that the record itself will become the value of this blog.
And someday, I feel, a day will come when I think, “I am glad I sowed those seeds back then.”
Next Time
Next time, in Vol. 9, as I announced earlier,
“The Fiverr Gig Improvement Edition”
will be delivered.
- Thumbnail improvement
- Tag review
- Description revision
- Trial and error with Claude
I plan to write all of it, as it really happened. Please keep cheering me on!
Next: Three points for improving your Fiverr gig — read it here
A complete comparison of five overseas platforms — read the summary here
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