So you want to start selling your art online?! Well you are not the only one, so before you start consider this there are over a million artist selling there art online and only about 10% of these make a real business out of it.
Still reading? ok so maybe you are up for this. But consider this, getting your art online might now be a quick venture, using the latest technologies but maintaining and promoting your art will be far from easy or quick. Artist find that they end up spending more time on there blog then they do painting/drawing.
Still reading? Well you must be wanting this. So the good news art is a growing market and the internet is a growing medium. Get your art out there and you could have millions of people looking at your site.
Blog/websiteThese days is seems like every one from the queen to some guy on the street have a blog or website. So why be different, statistics show that more people then ever are going online and that the age range is broadening to so called silver surfers. So the first thing to do is to get yourself a web presence, that way if you are selling on any website then you can link back to your site. It also gives you a web address to put on business cards or on the back of your artwork.
Which blogThere are simply loads of places you can get a web presence these days. I have written an article on the subject here.
SEOSo you have a blog/website now and want to get people to buy your art. Websites are like shops, if a shop is down a back street and none knows its there then no one is going to see your site and in turn no one is going to buy your art. SEO (search engine optimisation) is a huge subject and not one I will cover here but you can read a post I did here.
E-bayThis is an easy choice and one may might good for you, its not a favourite as it does not work well with the way I work. There are fees involved but generally quite low. One plus this the security is very good.
AmazonYou can sell on Amazon although I have not done it myself I believe it involves setting up a selling/trading account. Some people have luck with so don’t rule it out.
BlogSo you have a blog and want sell directly from your blog. This option has advantages in that you wont have to pay cut out the selling site. But on the other side of the coin you don’t have the traffic that e-bay for example has.
Now depending on which blog you are using there are different options. The clear winner is wordpress.org which has a number of plugins that give you a shopping cart functionally. If you don't want to have to find a host for the blog then you can use any blog that will let you add html code. All you have to do is get a paypal button instructions below:
Getting a paypal button1. Head over to www.paypal.com (and sign in).
2. Click on "Merchant Tools" at the top. From there you can make donate, buy it now buttons etc.
3. Simply fill out all the information and once it gives you the HTML code, head over to blogspot, sign in there. (www.blogspot.com)
4. Under "Dashboard" click on "Layout".
5. Anywhere where it says "Add a Page Element", click on there and from the list select "HTML/JavaScript
Add third-party functionality or other code to your blog." and paste the PayPal button code (and nothing else) in that field.
Gallery websitesSo you don’t have a blog but want to get your work out there without all the hard work. Well you are in luck as recently there has been more on-line solutions aimed at selling art. These sites often give you a few portfolio space and some tariff (in theory) but take a cut off the profits. Others charge you a monthly fee. I should recommend to start with go for one that just takes a cut of any art sold then if you find you are selling then you can look at your options again. Bellow are a list of 5 of the best but not the only.
• Imagekind.com
• BoundlessGallery.com
• OriginalArtOnline.com
• Sistino.com
• ArtistRising.com
PricingAlways a hard topic, you must not over price yourself as you wont sell anything but you must not under price yourself or you could make a loss. The best away to start is to work out how much the painting cost you e.g. materials + time. materials are shop price and time is worked out on an hourly rate. Once you have a figure then start to research what other artists websites are charging. Try and align yourself with other artists that are at the same stage in their career as you.
Selling art online
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