Advice on creating your own products and making money with art

Geoffrey Gordon

This post was inspired by "What Are You Working on This Year?" podcast. A from what jake said I suffer from idea debt heavily... meaning I have so many ideas and i go nowhere because I don't know where to start, so nothing gets done.

I would really appreciate some solid advice, from the veterans here, please. I have been a member here for about a year. What a great and talented group to be part of. So my concern is the money-making side of art and the direction I would like to go in. I hear a lot of people trying to get an agent or want to work as an illustrator. What if you don't want any of that, what I mean is .... what if you just want to create your own books or artwork to sell. I come from being a web developer for the past 12 years and running my own business so I understand client relationships and the finance part of the business. My dream is to simply create my own stuff and sell it. I have no interest in publishers or other authors. I am rambling so I will get to the point, here is what I am thinking...

I want to sell artwork on Etsy, Red Bubble, and Society 6.
I want to write and illustrate my own books, I will self publish or kickstart it.
I am thinking of selling prints, stickers, custom object art sets.

My medium is inking, I am also good at vector work. Since this is a whole new area I am breaking into, I have just been inking pics of fan art and posting it on Instagram..... I get likes but no follows.

I was thinking

grow a fan base on Instagram doing fan art
when it's big enough....open a website and sell art online

I am still going through the tutorials here on svs since I am not so competent digital coloring.... but learning aggressively with clip studio and a pen tablet

After that long into I have the following questions:

What are the best art product ideas to make money?
Is it best to do work digital or traditional, I have to the tools to do both?
Must I develop my ow art or should I do fan art?
Am I going about this all wrong or any thoughts or advice?
My business pays the bills so I have time to ease into this field and no pressure to earn, just want to transition out of what I am doing. This means I only have about 3-4 hours a day I use, how should I use my time?
Should I develop my own style first ?

I am sure I sound like an absolute noob, but any honest feedback would be appreciated