Minted

What is Minted?

Minted is a retail site that enlists artists to create and upload work that you may be able to sell on the site.

How does it work?

The site has a fairly unique way to qualify artists to sell on the site — you’ve got to enter and place in a contest. Or, if you don’t win, you need to be an “editor’s pick” to join the site as a seller.

To clarify, the site offers copious “challenges. ” Some are for fine art and crafts. But the bulk of challenges involve greeting card designs for weddings, birth announcements, holidays and other special occasions.

Each challenge is a little different, offering prizes of up to $10,000 for first place. There are also significant payments/prizes for those ranking second through fourth in each contest. And you’ll also get a reasonable stipend if Minted’s editors determine that your design is worth naming an “editor’s pick.”

Visitors to the site vote on the designs they like the most. The typical contest can gather anywhere from a few thousand to hundreds of thousands of votes.

Winning is everything

If you happen to be a first- or even second-place winner, this can be a good deal. You get both a generous upfront payment and royalties of 3% to 6% on every future sale.

But you’re not guaranteed a generous prize. In fact, you could win as little as $100. And Minted sneaks an unpleasant surprise in the terms of entering these contests: If you win, you’re barred from selling this design anywhere else.

Exclusivity

It’s worth noting that Minted otherwise works much like other print-on-demand sites, such as Society6 and FineArtAmerica. If someone buys one of the greeting cards that you designed, Minted will produce and send it, paying you a royalty.

The site does have some direct artists sale, where the site’s customers can commission original art. But the bulk of the site is geared toward sales of greeting cards, which artists design and Minted sells.

However, other print-on-demand sites do not demand exclusivity. Sell elsewhere and you can sell anywhere. Sell on Minted after winning a design contest, and you’re barred from selling with other print-on-demand sites, such as Zazzle, Society6 and FineArtAmerica

Minted justifies the policy by saying that it takes risk by providing upfront payments to winners. But you have no control over the size of the payment you’ll receive when you enter a Minted contest. The amount you get upfront depends on where you place in the competition. So, entering a contest here is taking a big risk.

Pay

In addition, Minted is slow to pay artists. The site pays commissions once monthly, 45 days after the calendar month in which the sale occurred. In other words, if you made a sale on January 1, you wouldn’t see a royalty payment for that sale until mid March.

Commission payments are also net of discounts and returns.

Recommendations:

Although Minted clearly does brisk sales — and the payments to “winners” can be mouthwatering — we give this just an average Husl$core because of the site’s rights grab.

We recommend almost all of the other print on demand shops, including Zazzle, Society6, RedBubble and FineArtAmerica. If you have crafts to sell, we also like Etsy.

What their designers say: (From Glassdoor)

Several designs of mine appear on Minted, but I’ve yet to be paid for my design sales. I have still not been paid for sales that I made in June, and was told I would be paid within 90 days of the quarter the design was posted for sale online. In the freelance world for designers, this is really not acceptable. Read the fine print when entering a competition, and be wary of this company.

A lawyer, who specializes in Art law, also wrote this blog post about what you give up by signing with Minted.

Updated 1/4/2024