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You’re a visual artist selling your work on your social media accounts for a few years now, and you’ve been thinking about taking your career to the next level.
You’ve heard that you need a professional website to do this, but you’re unsure where to start. You don’t know how to build a portfolio website, and you’re not sure if it’s worth the investment.
You’ve also heard that you need to focus on search engine optimization, promote your website and get traffic, but you’re not tech-savvy and unsure how to do this.
This article will discuss why every artist needs a website and how you can build one. We’ll also provide tips for promoting your portfolio website and making it more successful.
The most common challenge artists face when building portfolio websites is not knowing how to build one. This can be daunting, especially if you don’t have any experience with web design. Another challenge is that many artists don’t know how to promote their websites and get traffic. Without traffic, your website won’t be very useful. Finally, many artists don’t know how to use their websites to sell their work or get gallery representation. These are all important things to consider when building your artist’s website.
The art world has seen a change in the way artists sell art and how art collectors discover new artwork. Art sales are increasing every year, and so has the demand for website builders for artists.
Today there are so many different website builders for art than in the past. Choosing the best website builder for artists can be challenging for artists interested in selling artwork online, especially if they are not tech-savvy.
Why An Artist Needs An Artist Portfolio Website
A website is one of the most important tools an artist can have in their career. A website is a great way to promote artwork, sell work, and connect with other artists and art professionals. It’s also a great way to get gallery representation or show in juried exhibitions.
To make the most of your website, it’s important to choose the right website builder. There are many different website builders for artists, and each has its strengths and weaknesses. You’ll need to consider your own needs and budget when choosing the best website builder for your artist portfolio website.
Some of the most popular features artists look for in a website builder include:
- Ecommerce features to sell online
- A portfolio that is easy to update
- Blogging tools to share news and articles
- Social media integration
- Search engine optimization
- Responsive site design
- 24/7 customer support
- Drag and drop functionality
While all of these features are important, they may not all be necessary for your artist portfolio website. It’s important to consider what you need and can afford when choosing a website builder.
What Are The Benefits Of Having A Website, And What Are The Drawbacks Of Not Having One
These days, it’s essential for artists to have a website. A website is a powerful tool that can help you reach a wider audience, sell your work, and build your brand. With a website, you have complete control over presenting yourself and your work to the world. You can choose what information to share, what images to use, and how often you update your site.
A website also allows you to connect with other artists and art enthusiasts from around the globe. You can build a community of supporters and followers who can provide feedback and promote your work.
In short, a website is a valuable asset for any artist who wants to succeed in today’s competitive marketplace.
Without a website, an artist may miss out on opportunities for exposure and may have trouble keeping up with the competition.
In addition, potential clients may have difficulty finding information about the artist or their work. A website helps solve these problems by providing a central location for all of the artist’s information. Furthermore, a website allows artists to control their own narrative and present themselves the way they want to be seen. In short, an artist without a website is at a serious disadvantage.
How Much Does It Cost To Have Your Website Built For You?
Building online stores can be relatively affordable, depending on your desire’s complexity and features. A simple web store could cost as little as $500, while more complex sites with custom features could cost upwards of $5,000. However, most artists will fall in the middle range and spend between $1,000 and $2,500 on their website.
How Difficult is it to Build a Website?
The difficulty of building a website depends on your level of technical expertise. If you are comfortable working with computers and have some basic coding knowledge, you should be able to build a simple website on your own. However, if you want a more complex site with custom features, you will likely need to hire a professional web developer.
What are the Benefits of Using Website Builders?
Website builders offer several advantages, including:
- They are usually much cheaper than hiring a professional web developer.
- They are easy to use and allow you to create a website without prior coding knowledge.
- They offer a wide range of templates and designs to choose from, so you can easily create a unique website that reflects your brand.
- They often come with built-in features, such as contact forms, all the eCommerce features, and social media integrations, saving you time and money.
What are the Disadvantages of Using Website Builders?
While website builders offer many benefits, there are also some disadvantages to consider, including:
- They can be more limited in design and functionality than a custom-built website.
- They may not offer the same level of customer support as a professional web developer.
- You may need to upgrade to a paid plan to unlock certain features or remove branding from your site.
Best Artist Website Builders
WordPress
WordPress sites is a popular content management system that helps artists sell products and services online. It is a good choice for artists because it is easy to use and has many features that help artists manage their websites. For example, WordPress has a built-in eCommerce system that helps artists sell their products online. WordPress also has a lot of plugins that help artists manage their websites, such as plugins for marketing, SEO, and social media. In addition, WordPress is a very popular content management system, which means that there is a lot of support available. This can be very helpful for artists who are just starting to sell products online. Overall, WordPress is a good choice for artists selling products online because it is easy to use and has many key features that artists need.
Benefits of WordPress:
- Flexible and Adaptable website builder for artists. It allows you to easily change the function of your site while your art business grows.
- User-friendly. You can purchase hosting, a domain name and have your website live in just a couple of clicks with BlueHost.
- Unlimited Themes and Plugins will allow you to brand your art business and separate yourself from other artists selling art online.
- WordPress websites tend to rank higher on search engines.
- WordPress has a built-in blogging tool to help you drive more traffic to your art listings.
- Most themes are mobile responsive, making it a more pleasant experience for your viewers looking at your site using mobile devices.
- WooCommerce is a free WordPress plugin that allows you to showcase and sell products on WordPress.
- WordPress is a free website builder software for building professional websites for artists. (You will have to invest in a domain name and website hosting)
- Most WordPress Premium themes are optimized for search engine optimization.
- WordPress plugins make it easy to have your content shared on social media.
Watch this video to learn how to launch a WordPress artist website with BlueHost.
Shopify
Shopify is an e-commerce website builder for artists that allows anyone to set up an e-commerce store for selling products and services online.
Unlike WordPress fees (you only pay for hosting and a domain name), Shopify charges a monthly fee, and the monthly payments will differ depending on what features you decide to use.
Shopify provides a broad range of customizable templates that will allow you to brand your online art store without knowing the code.
HTML editing is optional if you are more advanced with coding.
The basic Shopify plan offers:
- Online store
- Unlimited products
- 24/7 support
- Sales channels
- Manual order creation
- Discount codes
- Free SSL certificate
- Abandoned cart recovery
- Print shipping labels
Shopify Pros:
- Easy to integrate print on demand companies like Printful so you can quickly sell prints of your artwork.
- Shopify has analytics that shows you how your website is performing.
- The site builder is easy to use, but there is a slight learning curve.
- Shopify offers modern and clean templates.
Shopify Cons:
- A poor blogging feature makes it challenging to drive organic traffic to the site.
- Advance modifications for the templates require knowledge of code.
Weebly
Weebly is an easy-to-use platform that makes building websites for artists effortless.
Weebly is a popular platform and an excellent tool for artists who would like to quickly build a website.
Weebly’s websites are optimized and guaranteed to have fast load speeds, which help in search rankings.
Weebly’s pricing plans range from Free to $26.00/mo.
One negative is that Weebly does not offer a high-quality management system (blog), which will make it more challenging to drive traffic to your fine art website with organic search engine traffic.
Organic traffic is free traffic generated from someone clicking on a link in Google’s search.
Weebly Pros:
- Weebly is user-friendly and offers a variety of customizable templates that can create beautiful artist websites.
- Apps are available to track visitors.
- Weebly allows you to sell tangible and digital products.
Weebly Cons:
- People complain about the bugs that happen often.
- Additional functions and addons are an extra fee.
- Data downloads do not allow you to choose what you can download.
FASO (Fine Art Studios Online)
Faso is a platform that was built especially for artists.
Over 12,000 artists use FASO artist websites to sell art online.
Faso offers mobile-friendly website designs, domain, email, blog, and newsletter for a monthly fee.
Pricing ranges from $8/MO to $35/MO.
There are a variety of template designs, but they are not as customizable as WordPress themes.
FASO Pros:
- FASO’s websites for artists to sell work is easy to set up and manage.
- Excellent customer service.
- FASO offers multiple templates.
FASO Cons:
- Templates are limited.
- Artwork images are smaller due to the extra white space.
- Poor blogging platform making it difficult to drive traffic to the site.
- Poor newsletter templates.
Art Storefronts
Art Storefronts offers everything you need to run an online art gallery.
ArtStoreFronts started as a print-on-demand site but has incorporated an e-commerce solution for artists.
Art Storefronts Features:
- Build a professional-looking online gallery that will convert the maximum amount of visitors into buyers
- Get all the tools you need to run your online gallery business
- Get marketing education & ongoing coaching to help you acquire customers
According to Art Storefronts, artists and photographers who run their art galleries regularly sell anywhere from $20,000 to $100,000 per year.
ArtStoreFronts Pros:
- An excellent resource in marketing, making it easy to learn how to promote art online.
- It is a full artist website-building platform connected with a print-on-demand service.
- Unlimited technical support.
ArtStoreFronts Cons:
- They stress coupons and discounts, which could lower the value of the artwork.
- Limited options for customization.
- No email hosting
- 10% print sale fee.
- 5% original art or other products sold fee.
- Steep learning curve.
More Online Websites For Artist Options
The artist website builders mentioned above are not the only solution for artists looking to sell artwork online.
Below are other website builders that let artists sell art online.
ArtPal
ArtPal is an online art gallery that allows artists to sell original art, custom framing, prints, or ArtPal’s free Print-on-Demand service.
With over 136,000 artists selling art on ArtPal, you can feel confident knowing it is a reputable platform.
Start selling your art on ArtPal with no membership fees and no commissions.
Etsy
Etsy started in 2015 and has become one of the most significant creative marketplaces to buy and sell art and crafts.
Etsy allows you to set up a storefront to sell your art, prints, or crafts.
Related Post: How To Sell Art Prints On Etsy With Printful
If you are interested in an easy way to start selling your art online, Etsy might be the perfect platform for emerging artists to begin to sell products online.
Artfinder
Artfinder is a juried gallery that showcases a selection of talented artists.
You also have a chance that Artfinder will feature you as an artist, giving you extra visibility.
Artfinder Features:
- Have your art seen by a global audience of more than 500,000 art collectors.
- Have control of your store, pricing, and listings, and receive performance stats and insights.
There is a 33% commission fee Artfinder takes for artwork sales.
Saatchi
Saatchi showcases over 65,000 artists around the world.
Creating an account on Saatchi is free plus offers secure online payments and artist protection.
Saatchi makes selling art by shipping your artwork to the collector for you. You only pay for the shipping costs.
Saatchi is more than an online art gallery; they also organize fairs, and promote artists and curator groups.
Like every platform for artists, it will be challenging to have your art noticed on Saatchi with many artworks posted. But if you develop a strategic online art marketing plan, you could see your art sales grow on Saatchi.
Fine Art America
Fine Art America is a POD (Print On Demand) site that offers a free artist website for artists and photographers interested in selling artwork prints on museum-quality prints, canvases, frames, acrylic, and other merchandise.
Fine Art America makes it easy for you to generate more money by selling prints of your original artwork.
You have to create a listing, and Fina Art America will fulfill and ship the product directly to the buyer when they purchase a giclee print.
You can also promote your original artwork on the listings.
Artplode
Artplode was created in 2014 and was designed for galleries and art dealers to buy and sell artwork. They also allow artists to sell their artwork to private customers, making this a unique artist website builder.
There is a $60 listing fee rather than paying a commission fee when a sale occurs.
You will have complete control of the sale, including the content and images of the listings and the ability to contact people interested in purchasing your art.
Artfire
Artfire is similar to Etsy and connects people worldwide to crafters creating unique handmade crafts.
Crafters can sell handmade goods, vintage items, and craft supplies.
Artfire is a marketplace where millions of people worldwide connect to make, sell, and purchase unique products.
Plans range from $4.95/MO – $40.00/MO
Amazon
Have you thought about selling your art on one of the biggest e-commerce platforms?
Amazon launched its Amazon Art section in 2013, which is a legitimate way for artists to get their artwork in front of a broad audience.
You will have to be pre-approved if you are interested in selling your artwork on Amazon, and if you are excepted, there is a $39.99 per month shop fee plus additional selling fees.
Amazon is becoming more popular with artists and crafters, so it will be challenging to have your artwork noticed. With a well-designed art marketing strategy, you might discover that Amazon might be the perfect fit for your art business.
Society6
Society6 is a print-on-demand website that allows you to sell prints of your artwork on art prints, canvases, and other merchandise such as bath mats, carry-all pouches, iPad and Laptop Skins, and more.
Society6 Features:
- You control the rights to your work.
- Easy to upload images.
- Unlike other POD sites, you can set the prices for your art prints.
Hundreds of thousands of artists and photographers uploading and selling their original artwork on over 30 premium products.
RedBubble
Redbubble is an Australian POD (print n demand) company founded in 2006 and is similar to Society6.
Redbubble is an easy-to-use platform for artists interested in selling prints of their artwork on a large variety of merchandise.
RedBubble Features:
- Retain ownership and control of your artwork
- Have total control over what you sell your art for
- Handle all transactions
- Print and ship products to the buyers
- You collect the royalties
- You do not have control over setting the prices of your products.
Redbubble connects over 700,000 artists and designers worldwide with millions of passionate buyers.
Rise Art
Rise Art is an online art gallery where artists can upload and sell their original art.
Rise Art Features:
- Art sales, rentals, and client commissions
- You have total control over how you use your profile
- Art advisory service for personal recommendations
- Specialized seller console
- Professional framing service
- Shipping and logistical support
- Artist seminars and tutorials
- And more….
Alternative Artist Website Builders
If you haven’t found the perfect artist website builder from the site builders mentioned above, you will want to take a look at these website builders.
These website builders are not as popular as those highlighted above, but they are still good alternatives.
Some of these alternatives are free websites for artists, but research to see all of the features available and if there is any costs associated with upgrading to a better plan.
Final Thoughts On Artist Website Builders
If you want to sell art online, you must have a platform that showcases your artwork and allows art collectors to purchase your artwork and products.
So, whether you’re looking to start an online store or simply showcase your artwork, it’s essential to have an online art portfolio website. Thankfully, many artist website builders are available that make the process easy and affordable. With the right website builder, you can create a professional online portfolio that will help you grow as an artist. Have you chosen the right website builder that offers marketing tools and business tools and has tailored solutions for your business needs?
FAQ
What is the best website builder for artists?
The best website builders offer important features to growing your art business. Look for a website builder with an easy-to-use interface, a drag and drop editor, marketing and business tools, and tailored solutions for your specific needs.
How much does it cost to build an artist’s website?
Costs vary depending on the artist website builder you choose. Some builders offer free plans with limited features, while others have monthly or yearly subscription plans. Before selecting a website builder, research the different features and pricing options.
Is Wix good for artists?
Wix is a famous website builder that offers a variety of features that can be beneficial for artists. Wix provides an easy-to-use interface, a drag and drop editor, marketing and business tools, and tailored solutions for your specific needs.
Is GoDaddy Website Builder a good choice for artists?
GoDaddy’s Website Builder is a good choice for artists. It offers an easy-to-use interface, a drag and drop editor, marketing and business tools, and tailored solutions for your specific needs.
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