Hi everyone! It has been a few months since I wrote a blog post, which should be no surprise to anyone by now. I know I have been away forway too long, and I am trying to make it up to you all. I didn’t mean to leave you hanging like a forgotten Labubu. Life is just… ugh, a total mess. I lost my laptop mouse, so I am typing this on the family desktop computer. Normally, I wouldn’t have time for a personal blog update, but when the husband’s away… the wife will write, or at least pretend to! 😝 I’m back for now, but don’t count on me blogging regularly. I have #ADD brain (high functioning, no meds). I don’t know when I’ll find my laptop mouse, but its got to be somewhere in the house (hey… it rhymes!). Speaking of which, I need to finish refining and uploading my poems but I don’t want to get carried away and risk blogging burnout again. Just be happy there’s something new to read, okay?
Redbubble Broke My Heart 💔
Redbubble was my side hustle and it ate up most of my free time when I wasn’t gaming. Now? It’s more like #Deadbubble —it’s not going to be my side hustle for much longer. Remember my little sticker shop? I made 116 unique designs since I joined, and poured my soul into these whimsical designs. I used what little commissions I made for coffee money (hello, caffeine addiction), in-game purchases for my Infinity Nikki obsession, and to support small artists on Etsy. Last week, Redbubble sent us the most disrespectful email I’ve ever seen. Redbubble’s fee changes, starting September 1st, 2025, is straight-up unethical, taking up to 50% of artists’ earnings, plus an extra 50% if you dare set your margins above 20%. That’s almost ALL of our profit margins, which is straight-up theft and a slap-in-the-face to small artists like me. I joined Redbubble because it seemed fun to design aesthetically pleasing stickers and merch, using the knowledge and skills that I learned about image scaling, resolution, and vector design. To date, I’ve sold 190 stickers and 8 buttons. You’d think that is a lot of money, but I don’t make much in commissions.
Still, it was nice to have little $20 payouts from Redbubble every few months.
Redbubble artists are leaving in droves and I don’t blame them. I’m not closing my shop, but I can’t keep up with their greed and need to offset it in some way, which only adds to my side hustle struggle. That coffee money is coming to an end, and not only that, but my passive income is coming to an end. There’s currently $8.20 sitting in my account that Redbubble is holding hostage until I reach the $20 threshold. At this rate, come September, it’s going to take forever to even make $20. Redbubble’s new scheme for Standard and Premium tiers reeks of a scam at this point…. artist income no more!
🌸 My Redbubble Shop: @sereneluna 🌸
I left that message for anyone who stumbles upon my shop to warn them about what’s actually going on. I doubt it will be enough to bring about change, but it did force me to re-evaluate where I should put my time and energy. I mostly post my thoughts on Twitter/𝕏 (@serene_hilz) because it helps me with my scattered #ADD thoughts. Perhaps, it’s time to share my thoughts with you guys through long-form content, which ironically helps me manage my ADD (the one without the hyperactivity). You can also find me on Bluesky if Twitter/𝕏 isn’t your thing (@sereneluna.bsky.social) but DMs are deactivated on Bluesky.
Grateful for You, Always ❤️
I’m not giving up on my Redbubble shop entirely, but I’m pivoting to blogging to keep my creative block at bay while I search for a new side hustle. By the way, I started Ko-fi crowdfunding to fuel my caffeine addiction, so if you want to support me ($5 CAD or $3.50 USD is just a suggestion), I’d be forever grateful (link below ↓). The money will go toward keeping this blog alive—blogging ain’t cheap, folks!
I’m grateful for you, my readers and subscribers, for sticking around despite my silence. The sound of silence is uncomfortable, isn’t it? (cue the crickets….) Despite being MIA for months, this blog still manages to get organic traffic, which was another reason why I upgraded my WordPress Plan yet again. Like all of my hobbies, this one might not last because blogging burnout is real, but I see potential and hopefully, the start of something beautiful. 🐇💕
Thanks for stopping by! ♥
Welcome back
Thank you, Sheree!
You’re going to have a new subscriber/follower on your blog very shortly here! Trust me, I know it will always be way easier said than done of course, but please keep going and don’t give up! 💪
Thank you so much for subscribing to my blog. The more, the merrier! I subscribed to your blog as well. It’s nice meeting you, Christopher! 🙂
You’re very welcome of course! It’s been nice meeting you too Hilary! 😀
Ahh thats so frustrating about Redbubble! 💔 Have you considered Printify before? Or is there more of a community on Redbubble as Printify doesnt have that 🤔. Anyway, is nice to read a post from you! ✨️💗
There’s a huge community over on Redbubble and most of my customers find me through Redbubble. Redbubble has a high ranking, similar to Etsy. People who shop via Etsy use the Etsy portal and Redbubble has a similar setup. With Printify, I would have to find my own customers and idk how to market Printify items on Etsy. It’s doable, but I’m so unfamiliar with it. Everything on Redbubble was an upload-it-and-leave-it ordeal, which is why I loved using it.
With that all being said, I’m back on WordPrsss and will try to post more content over here because it’s the main thing I use now that Redbubble doesn’t give me much hope anymore. I also upgraded my WP plan to give me more motivation to write (it seemed to work last time). Thanks for reading, Lucy! 🙂✨
Oh right! Wishing you the best of luck in all future endeavours, I like how you’re pivoting onto blogging for your Creative side and I hope it all works out for you ✨️💗
Even though I make no money from blogging, it’s a good outlet for me. I think that’s part of the reason why I keep coming back to it. There’s so much that I want to do to grow and expand my blog. There’s always something to do, the creative mind never sleeps. 🙌✨
Nice to see you back again Hilary! That kind of deal at Redbubble would make me leave right away. I just don’t have any patience for that kind of treatment. Yeah, blogging burnout is real, but you don’t need to post daily, or even have very long posts all the time. You are a great writer though and your posts are always well done, keep up the good work!😊😺
Thank you so much for reading and commenting, Steve! 🙂 Writing was not my strength when I was younger. I only got better at writing after taking a grammar course as a pre-req for university, and through journaling. All of my journaling is digital, as I could never keep up with a physical notebook (not to mention, my hand cramps up from using a pen after a while!). Btw, I wrote a new blog post today! 2 blog posts in 1 week…. who am I? 😆
A lot of people are leaving Redbubble, but after pouring so much time and effort into the designs since May 2023, optimizing my descriptions, tags, etc. it would feel like such a waste to pull my designs from my little shop. It was SO much effort to set up, so my next best option would be to inflate my prices to send a clear message to #Redbubble. Cause I’m passive aggressive like that….😝 Also, someone made the most hilarious logo by changing Redbubble to “Feebubble”, which made me laugh out loud, quite literally! Cause it’s true! 😝😂
I probably should have taken some kind of writing course, it likely would have been very helpful. I have been writing for a long time, but most has never been seen by anyone except me. I was told years ago that I had no talent for writing so I should give it up, and I did for a while. But I went back to it since I find it enjoyable and a nice quiet hobby. And it’s relaxing too. So, here I am writing a blog, something I never dreamed of doing until I was challenged by someone to try it.😊✍️
That’s such a great story. Thank you for sharing, Steve! 🙂 I think you’re a great writer! Writing can be self-taught with enough practice. ✍️
It is nice to see you blogging again, and I hope you find your laptop mouse soon!
I had no idea Redbubble was raising their fees, and taking 50%+ of your earnings is terrible!!
Redbubble is taking 70%+ in fees after doing the math. They have an “excess markup fee” of 50% on top of the 20-50% monthly fee that is taken from your earnings at the end of month. I was in Premium Tier and was except from fees, but with their new structure, both Standard and Premium tier get hit with these fees! It’s ridiculous. And an “excess markup fee” is just another excuse for another fee. All of this comes out of what little commission we were earning, which wasn’t much. And Redbubble holds our earnings hostage which makes it 10x worse. They can also downgrade your tier without warning, if you’re inactive on their platform. At least with blogging, we own our websites.
In happier news, I found my computer mouse a the mouse pad! I’m pretty much done with Redbubble at this point and debating whether to upload the rest of my designs so I can better organize the digital files on my cluttered computer. I have yet to tackle my digital clutter, and it’s a lot….
If you want more context about what Redbubble is doing to small artists and hobby artists, there’s some interesting threads on Reddit. I kinda find it comforting seeing others vent about this, including much bigger shops, because I know I’m not alone in being upset about these changes.
Thank you for reading and commenting! 🙂