5 AI Art Side Hustles That Don’t Suck

Last Updated on June 29, 2023 by John Cirelly

Are you ready to get creative, techie, and yes, a little entrepreneurial? Today, we’re unearthing some of the best AI art side hustles that will have you surfing the wave of tech-art fusion. It’s time to blend art and artificial intelligence and fill up those piggy banks. Let’s get into it!

Best AI Art Side Hustles In 2024

1. Print on Demand Clothing Business

Starting a print-on-demand business today is a lot easier with the help of AI. Imagine your AI working like an eager design intern, churning out ideas that you can choose from. That’s your generative AI at work.

Tools like Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, and DALLE-2 can create weird, unique, and detailed designs all with the right prompting. Partner with a print-on-demand supplier like Printify, and then link them to your storefront. This way, you make the designs and get traffic, and they handle everything else. (for a cut of course).

Spin up a niche store and start making designs you think your audience will love. Monitor your store and double down on what works. Tools like ChatGPT can come in clutch for product descriptions, and even power your store’s chatbot for customer support.

AI chatbots can act like your virtual customer service rep, answering queries, helping customers pick out products, and even tracking orders. Basically, they could be the friendly store assistant, but online.

Print-on-demand profit margins vary, but many stores make between 15-20%. If you’re selling shirts for $35, expect to pocket about seven bucks.

2. Etsy Pattern Design

People love Etsy pattern designs for craft fabrics, pillows, and even digital paper. These can be anything from spring-themed patterns, to funky retro-looking color themes. With the help of AI, we can make a ton of designs and list them on Etsty for profit.

First, you’ve got to pick your AI partner of choice – an AI tool that’s gonna be your sidekick in pattern creation. Could be PatternedAI, Fotor, Repper, or Designs.ai – each one’s got its unique charm, but I personally like Repper.

Throw in a description, feed in an image, or type out some text, whatever your AI tool needs to create those trippy designs. The AI will do its magic and before you know it you’ve got a fresh pattern right there. I like generating patterns in Midjourney, and then importing them into Repper for the best patternized result.

Make sure your patterns are of a high resolution so they can be printed, and then export them over to your Etsy storefront. I like creeping on other stores to see what patterns are doing well for them before I start designing.

Once your shop’s up, start listing your AI pattern designs. Be detailed, be descriptive, be persuasive. ChatGPT can help come up with your descriptions. While its great to make new unique patterns, follow trends and data to ultimate make the most sales.

3. Drop Service Custom Art

Drop servicing is when you act as the middleman for offering services; in this case, we’re talking about AI-generated custom art. Ever gotten an ad for custom dog portraits, or your image in the style of Bob’s Burgers, then you’ve experienced AI art dropshipping. Here’s how you set it up:

Websites like Hotpot.AI, OpenArt, and Artimator let you create unique art pieces with just a description or an image. You input the specifics, the AI crunches the numbers, and bam! You’ve got yourself a custom piece of art.

Then, you build your online storefront. You could use Fiverr, where there’s already a market for AI art services, or any platform that suits your vibe. Now, remember, when a client orders from you, it’s go-time. You’ll input their requirements into the AI generator of your choice and deliver the result back to the client. The trick is to make sure the markup you charge is worth your time and effort.

4. Sell Specific Prompt Styles

To effectively sell specific AI prompt art styles, it’s crucial to understand and capitalize on the trends and market needs in the AI art industry. The first step would be to make good use of platforms like PromptBase, which is a marketplace for buying and selling quality AI prompts. If you are good at creating specific art styles using AI prompts, you can sell these prompts on PromptBase and earn money.

Check out popular patterns, styles, and designs on platforms like Etsy, PromptBase, and other print-on-demand stores for inspiration.

If you’re selling AI-generated art pieces, familiarize yourself with a range of popular marketplaces and platforms including Etsy, Redbubble, Society6, Saatchi Art, and even blockchain platforms for selling AI art as NFTs. Understanding your target audience and researching your competitors can help you differentiate your offerings and appeal to your potential customers more effectively.

Creating AI art prompts isn’t just about typing some words, it’s an art in itself. To generate appealing and engaging AI art, you have to be specific with your prompts. The better and more detailed your instructions, the better the output from the AI. Some artists even use famous artists’ styles as prompts to create unique AI art pieces.

You can expect to earn between $2-$5 per prompt you sell, which isn’t too shabby for some side cash.

5. Sell Picture Books

With some guidance, AI can help you write entire books. Heck, people have written and sold entire children’s books with full illustrations using AI.

You’d start by using AI writing tools like ChatGPT to generate the storyline. Giving the AI a clear prompt like ‘Write a fairy tale starting a princess and an elephant for a 4-year-old in rhyme’ can do the trick. While AI does a decent job, you might need to fine-tune the content to make it more engaging.

For illustrations, MidJourney and other AI-based image-generation tools would be handy. AI has gotten better at creating diverse and quality artistic outputs, making it perfect for children’s books. You can also personalize your characters with AI, which adds an extra touch of uniqueness to your book.

Once your book’s content and illustrations are ready, the next step is combining them into a professional eBook. You can easily do this in Adobe Illustrator or pay someone on Fiver to format your files in ebook format.

Finally, you can sell these books in your own shop, or list them on Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing platform. You can list your books anywhere between $1-$20 depending on if they’re physical or digital.