Best Practices for Selling Art and Getting Paid on the Internet
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How to sell art online and make money as a new artist
There is a preconceived notion that the simply way to make a living as an artist is to hand your piece of work over to a gallery owner in the hopes of making a profitable auction. But that'south just one of the many, many ways to brand a living from your art. The rapid growth and advancement of technology have greatly increased the ease of doing business organization. The advent of e-commerce has made it possible to buy and sell most anything online, including artwork. Today buyers and sellers from all across the globe run into in virtual marketplaces. You lot can very hands kickoff selling your art online, promote information technology, and attract customers from all over the world.
It is possible to quit your day chore and make fine art your full-time career. The "starving artist" is a mere myth and we're here to testify y'all how to keep that from becoming a reality.
Hither are 12 simple tips for selling art online every bit a beginner:
ane. Observe Your Niche.
Earlier you begin to sell your work online, its good thought to find your niche and your unique style that sets your artwork apart from the residual. This will convey your strengths to your potential clientele and reverberate who you lot are every bit an artist. It may be tempting to go broad with your art mode choices but, learning from experience you'll have a much higher chance of success if y'all narrow downwardly your style, medium or theme to create or work within a niche.
2. Get to Know Your Art Business.
If yous're but starting out, information technology'due south a practiced idea to begin a self-study form for fine art business. Taking an online form has its own advantages as they're easily accessible, more affordable, and you lot can go at your own footstep. Our Resources Library has tons of online courses and business tools for artists. Past taking courses and reading books, you lot'll exist able to determine how to best manage your money, whatever legal items you may not have considered, what to do about taxes and self-employment, and so many other invaluable areas of an contained fine art business yous'll eventually demand to learn, so offset now and save yourself time by learning from others.
3. Find the correct marketplace to sell your art.
A practiced method for selling your art online is online marketplaces that are specialised in selling and buying art. ArtFinder is an incredible platform for artists selling original and unique pieces. Fine art buyers from all over the earth visit ArtFinder to purchase work from emerging artists. The site's art sale success rate is relatively high even for first timers. Artists are making thousands of pounds using this platform. Information technology may not be for anybody, but information technology's worth a endeavour.
The renowned Saatchi Gallery as well has their own marketplace for artists selling art online. Many people join this platform for the reputation the gallery has, not to mention the quality of entering traffic and potential sales information technology can attract to your fine art website.
Etsy is another very well known online marketplace for artisans, crafters, and creatives selling handmade products, prints and unique goods. It'due south a very saturated marketplace, so information technology an be difficult for your listings to prove up in search results, peculiarly when you lot're just starting with no previous audience or sales. There are many things to consider when posting your artwork for sale on this market place, good knowledge of search engine optimisation (SEO) and keyword research volition get you started the right way. Illustrator Bonnie Lecat has a course on how to successfully sell on Etsy.
4. Don't rely on one stream of income.
An important thing to exercise when you're selling your art online, is to utilise different online platforms or art marketplaces. At the starting time, it'southward best to focus your efforts on 1 platform, correct and learn from your mistakes before moving on to listing your art on other platforms.
Perhaps your art doesn't sell very well on a certain website, but it could practice very well with another. Selling your art on dissimilar marketplaces is a great fashion to expand your income sources. Consider selling your artwork in a few unlike means, with both high and lower price points. You may want to sell original fine art pieces, art prints, stickers, calendars, cards, T-shirts, mugs you proper name it. Just make sure you lot don't sacrifice the quality of your piece of work when you decide on products to sell your art on.
If you lot're skilled in working with a detail art medium, you might even consider education workshops, or launching your own online course. Platforms like Skillshare and Teachable are corking places for creatives to teach what they know, in order to create an extra stream of income for themselves.
Yous tin besides try selling your art on online auctions, in crafts fairs, fine art markets and online galleries. Whatever yous choose, make sure yous exercise your research and just pick the ones that are trusted and reputable. If you're not certain where to start with online auctions, you tin can effort your hand at an Instagram auction like @seeyounexthursday
Means to sell your art and diversify your income online and offline:
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- Selling art prints and original pieces on online marketplaces or your ain website
- Sell your art on products similar stickers, stationary, t-shirts, mugs with impress-on-demand
- Teach your artistic skills through workshops or launch a class
- Sell your art in online auctions
- Sell at local craft fairs and art markets
v. Create an e-commerce art shop on your own website.
If you already have your ain website or online art portfolio simply don't want the involvement of a third political party marketplace, you can sell your work on your own website. Whether you sell your work in an online gallery or elsewhere, it's still necessary to have your own website or online portfolio. The blueprint of your website should reverberate your artistic style and act as a showcase for potential buyers and fans of your artwork. Information technology should characteristic your all-time quality piece of work and be a virtual representation of your brand.
Get started with easy drag & drop site-builders:
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- Wix (Drag & Driblet, best for beginners with no experience)
- SquareSpace (Best for beginners & designers)
- WordPress (Best for creators with website edifice experience)
6. Consider Impress-on-Demand products
Print on demand websites are also condign increasingly popular platforms for artists and designers to profit from their art. Once you lot've uploaded a high-quality image of your artwork, it tin be printed on just nearly anything. The best part is, after you've submitted your work, the website takes care of the rest.
Get started:
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- Society 6 – (best for illustrators, printmakers, photographers)
- Deviant Art – (all-time for grapheme designers, illustrators)
- Zazzle – (best for illustrators and designers)
- RedBubble – (best for illustrators and designers)
- Printful – (best for illustrators, printmakers, painters)
7. Get Social Media Savvy
For contained artists, fine art marketing is an important part of selling your artwork especially online. The art world is saturated with fine artists trying to do the aforementioned thing. You'll find that it'southward a lot easier to sell your piece of work to an existing audition. If yous use social media to connect and engage with the people who are interested in your artistic skill and already find your Instagram folio inspiring, you'll take a captive audition fix to sell to.
Utilise Blogs, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, even TikTok, whatever social media platforms you're comfortable with at the moment, to tell people more than near the new fine art you've produced, or are in the process of making. Although beware that mindless self-promoting doesn't usually lead to sales. Instead, requite your audition a sense of who y'all are as the person behind the fine art. Share behind the scenes, your art studio, or talk about the inspiration for your pieces. This will assist them to build trust and confidence in yous and your work.
eight. Know your worth, and how price your fine art accordingly
When information technology comes to pricing your fine art, it'due south important to research the various ways to practice this while still making sure you don't underprice or overprice your artwork. If you're a beginner and accept never sold your piece of work before, rather than pulling random numbers out of the air, you may find it useful to utilise an art pricing formula to begin with and make adjustments equally you abound.
At that place are a number of online tools that tin can help your determine a price for your artwork, similar this Free Art Calculator app. Information technology'south a great tool to proceed in your armory, although it'due south not entirely accurate, it is a great starting betoken. All you do is put in the size, medium and manner of your artwork and nail, you get a cost. You volition demand to make some adjustments up or down, and prices are shown in US dollars and so you lot'll also need to convert the currency if you lot're non in the U.s.a..
9. Make Professionalism a Priority
If y'all're accepting payments online, you lot need a very secure eCommerce store for people to feel condom and confident nearly buying your work online. Brand the payment process piece of cake and secure. Also make sure you are compliant with the policies on returning goods and giving refunds. Another thing to keep in mind is, don't start selling until you've worked out how yous are going handle packaging and shipping and brand sure you're very clear on where in the earth y'all are willing to ship to. Paypal is a groovy way to begin accepting online payments as they integrate with almost every platform and website builder and it's complimentary and easy to fix and use.
x. Become to know the legal side of things
Selling fine art online ways you should know, empathise and observe the laws and legal items pertaining to selling, trading and buying artwork. Find helpful websites, courses, and books on our Resources Library. The other side of the equation is to understand the rights to your own intellectual belongings. Would y'all know what to practice if you discovered someone on the internet reselling your artwork equally their own? A-North insurance is corking website to get information from, the Business and IP Centre at the British library, and ArtLaw accept hundreds of resources and complimentary legal advice for artists.
xi. Know Your Client
It's important to understand who your online consumers are and what they're looking for in their search for online art. You need to know who it is you're trying to attract and what exactly it is that they want. Pay attending when people compliment your piece of work. Keep an eye on your social media too. Which posts have the near comments, likes and shares? Practise yous receive feedback on the same fine art pieces fourth dimension and time again? These are indicators that these are pieces of fine art that sells all-time to the people near likely to purchase it.
12. Describe your artwork with the love you put into it
Lastly, you're likely here considering trying to make more virtual sales, so information technology'due south very important to communicate the value of your work to your customers online as you're non in that location to talk with them in person equally you might at art fairs or artist market. Connecting with people well-nigh and describing the stories and inspiration behind your fine art, the process involved in making it, even where the materials are sourced would surely help people to better sympathise the quality of your artwork and value you every bit the creative person behind it, Share your passion for fine art with your audition and they'll feel more inclined to support the work you do.
Source: https://www.darkyellowdot.com/sell-your-art-online-beginners/
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