For those that are not familiar with the term cosplay, it is a portmanteau of costume play. Cosplayers dress up as many characters from films, books, or video games for fun, but now they can do so to make a living. As cosplay is an expensive hobby, many intricate clothing pieces need to be purchased and other props, most cosplay enthusiasts do look for ways to make a return on their investment.
In this article, we will go through some of the ways that popular cosplayers earn money from their craft. How do cosplayers make money? How is it possible that they can maintain an outfit indefinitely for free? There seem to always be more questions than answers when it comes to how much time and effort goes into making these costumes, so we hope you enjoy this list!
How do Cosplayers Get Started and What Types of Characters do They Often Portray?
The first question we must ask ourselves before getting too far ahead in this debate is “what is a ‘cosplayer’?” Many intricate clothing pieces need to be purchased and other props, most cosplay enthusiasts do look for ways to make a return on their investment.
Below are some of the best ways to make money through cosplay with the best return on your investment. If you are interested in doing so you may want to consider some of the ideas below.
Ko-Fi
This is a donation platform that helps cosplayers gain funding from their audiences for items of clothing, props, or to visit certain meet-ups that they could otherwise not afford to attend. Ko-Fi is good for quick injections of cash, or one-time goals, as opposed to long-term earning strategies.
Cosplay Commissions
Right now, commissions seem to be the go-to method for all prop makers and seamstresses to procure some form of cosplay-related earnings or income. There are various ways this can be collected, most favourable of all are sites such as Etsy. There you can sell various items you have acquired, older items you have that you do not need anymore or make items for people that would like to get into cosplay. Be careful of the fees included in these sites, sometimes it can get quite expensive. If this is the case for you it may be better to start your own site and sell various items, this way.
YouTube
As a video-related platform that has very high earning potential cosplayers looking to make an income from their passion should definitely consider utilizing this site. Once you have been able to increase your viewing potential and figured out what content you will share, then you should focus on getting the following you need to start earning money. At present, you must have over 1000 subscribers to start earning from YouTube. This might seem like a big number, but with the correct approach, it is easily achievable. Then you should start filming longer and more engaging footage, videos that are longer usually receive the best returns due to the increased ads that can be placed into a video.
Selling Merch
This can be as basic as creating custom t-shirts that are cosplay-related or related to the specific character, book, or video game that you enjoy. To a really diverse and niche offering to your fans or fellow cosplayers. The core principle to ensure this idea goes to plan is to ensure that you have spent time designing, strategizing and that you have a definitive business plan. If you spend enough time planning, then you could be able to connect with professional teams that would be able to take your branding idea further.
Cosplay Conventions
At present cosplayers are still having some trouble with convincing conventions that their presence is actually worthy of pay. Whilst some offer food and travel expenses, they rarely offer payment for their appearances. This can be quite frustrating for cosplayers but should not be a reason why they do not continue to break this cycle and get the honest pay they deserve for the works they carry out at these conventions. A good idea would be to host your own cosplay conventions and gain sponsorship deals that can be distributed fairly to the hosting teams, as opposed to the frugal reparations they receive now.
Cosplay Prints
Cosplay prints are probably one of the most popular ways to make a substantial amount of money as a cosplayer. As these are usually received as rewards from other players on certain sites, they can become quite rare. This means that they can become quite expensive and a lucrative way to earn some money easily for cosplayers. Not only can cosplayers sell pieces they acquire, but they can also make their own and sell these. Whilst this is a much more over-head-heavy way to make money, it can be extremely rewarding.
Website Ads and Affiliate Links
If you have good HTML knowledge, then this option could be very good for you. Mastering google ads on your site would increase its usage tenfold, but at first, it will take a long time to build it up. If you have a site that already gains a lot of traffic, then incorporating ads will be a big bonus for your site. If your website does have enough traffic it could end up selling ad space-relevant products, services, and sites.
Another possible way to make money is through a cosplay passion is by setting up affiliate links. An affiliate link is a specific URL that contains the affiliate’s ID or username, this means any discounts to a shop, product, or service. For example, Amazon has an influencer program now which means that you don’t even have to have your own site to be one. You just have to prove you have a healthy following on social media.
Influencer Platforms
There are specific cosplay influencer platforms that help connect brands with influencers that really identify with their products and could actually help sell them well. Sites like Famebit and Activate connects like-minded blogger, vloggers, and influencers to reputable brand to help them generate a decent income, depending on their following and ability to connect with their audience.
Becoming an influencer is getting easier and easier, to ensure you are connecting with your audience, especially as a cosplayer, you much continue to look out for the niche. Cosplay is still quite a niche topic, in its truest form, however, its name has been adapted and adopted by many that do not really know its true meaning. If you are able to gain a strong following via cosplay on social media you will ultimately get the trust of the community, this comes with effort and knowledge.
Conclusion
There are many ways for cosplayers to make money from their passion, it just depends on how imaginative they can be. For most cosplayers this does not come as a hard ask, considering their focus is so unique. Cosplayers need to focus on their strengths to turn their passion into a monetary source. If you are more technology-focused, then you should focus on this to help you make money. If you already have a large following online then becoming an influencer would be a better way for you to earn money easily.
Regardless of the above tips, there are many other ways one could make money from cosplay that we haven’t mentioned. If you have your own tip for making money from cosplay, then share it with us in the comments section below! We would love to hear what you think!
