Hi {{first_name | there}},
I want to tell you about a conversation that genuinely surprised me.
I sat down with Liat Karpel Gurwicz, Chief Revenue Officer at DeviantArt, and asked her a blunt question: the platform's been around for 26 years — so why does its revenue story feel so recent?
Her answer stuck with me. In 2023, DeviantArt made the call to rip out third-party ads entirely. No more selling attention. Instead, they rebuilt the whole business around creator monetisation.
The result? 2025 was their best commercial year ever — $23 million in creator sales, beating the previous five years combined.
What really got me was the principle behind it:
"we succeed when creators succeed."
It's not a slogan — DeviantArt only makes money when their artists do. No ad sales, no data sales, just a cut of what creators earn. That single alignment changes every product decision they make.
Then there are Exclusives — one-of-a-kind digital products with a twist I hadn't seen before. When a buyer resells one, the original artist automatically earns a royalty on that resale. A single sale becomes a perpetual income stream. And it's working: over 55% of Exclusive buyers come back to buy more from the same creator, and 98% of top sellers also offer subscriptions or downloads alongside their one-off pieces.
I also asked Liat about something controversial — DeviantArt allowed AI-generated art back in 2022, well ahead of most platforms, and took real heat for it. She didn't dodge the question. Her view: "access to new tools should be expanded, not gatekept." With labelling requirements and opt-out controls for traditional artists in place, they're betting on coexistence rather than prohibition.
So what's next? Liat gave me three priorities for 2026: expanding into physical commerce (a new handmade-goods marketplace, plus print-on-demand on the way), going global with five new languages, and building the infrastructure so creators anywhere can run a real business — not just a side hustle.
If you want the full conversation, it's worth your time.
Keep Optimising!
Chloe
Podcast Host, Author, and now... Chief Success Strategist @ Emetko Media
Sent in partnership with DeviantArt
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