Are you thinking about selling art online but do not know where to start? The online marketplace is booming, and online art sales are increasing yearly. Potential buyers are searching on sites like Etsy, Saatchi Art, and other online stores for original art every day and are willing to pay top dollar.
Don’t worry if you are thinking about selling original work to the online art world and do not know where to start. We have you covered. In this post, you will discover the best way to sell your original artwork and reproductions to people worldwide.
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How To Sell Art Online
Before we talk about selling art online, we want to mention that there is no “one way” that works for all artists, and there is no magic spell that will give you instant results.
Much work is involved in building an audience and having your art seen by people interested in your artistic style.
The good news is that building an online store and promoting your art online is possible and relatively inexpensive.
Besides the cost of hosting and purchasing a domain name, you will not be required to spend any money at all. The only thing it will cost you is your time.
Some artists spend money on social media ads, Pay-per-click ads, eBooks, online courses, etc., but these are not something you will need to invest in to sell your art online.
Selling Art Online Blueprint
In today’s post, we want to cover areas you will need to focus on to build a successful online art business.
We will include links to helpful articles for more reading. There is a lot of information here, so you might want to consider bookmarking this page for future reference.
Goals, Vision, and Mission
It is a good idea to sit down and write down your business objectives before building an online shop.
It does not matter if you are going to sell fine art online, sell art prints online, or sell drawings online for money. Having a clear vision of what you want to plan on designing your website and develop online sales strategies is essential.
Start by knowing your objectives:
- Do you want to make extra spending money for the weekends?
- Do you want to generate some extra income to help out with the bills?
- Are you looking to make a career out of selling your artwork?
- How much money do you need to generate to reach your goals?
- How much art will you need to sell to cover membership fees, art supplies, or marketing costs?
- Are you going to sell your art at art fairs?
- Are you going to create different income streams to help you reach your goals?
All of the independent artists who are successful online started with a vision and a clear idea of what they wanted to accomplish. A great way to get started is to write down everything you want to achieve then you can focus on building an online art gallery.
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- 7 Steps To Help You Achieve Your Art Marketing Goals
What Art Sells Best
Once you have finished writing down your business goals, you will want to research what art collectors are searching for online and what keywords they use in search engines to find the products they are interested in purchasing. There are many tools available like SemRush that will provide you with all of the information you need to optimize your online gallery for search engines and know what your competitors are ranking for.
Another way to discover what art style is selling is to follow artists on social media channels to see what art receives the most engagement. Learning more about what art buyers are interested in will help you to build a wider audience.
Related Post:
Art That Sells – What Artists Need to Know
Pricing Artwork
Before discussing the best platform to sell original pieces, you must develop a pricing strategy.
Pricing your art correctly is so important and often overlooked by artists just starting to sell their art.
If you have never sold art before, how can you decide how much you would like to charge?
If you price your art too low, you will be ripping yourself off.
If you charge a higher price, you might never land a sale.
Deciding how much you should charge for your art is a difficult task you will have to do.
Here are some things to consider when developing a pricing strategy:
- How long have you been creating art?
- How long have you been selling art?
- Do you have name recognition?
- Do you sell art locally?
- How much does it cost for supplies?
- How long does it take to complete a piece?
- Who is your target audience?
- What type of art do you create?
- What size is your art?
- What medium do you use?
- How much do you need to make to reach your business goals?
Name recognition is a critical factor in pricing. New artists will not charge as much as a well-known professional artist, and their work is in demand. An easy way to discover what people are willing to spend on the style of art you create is to search for successful artists online and see what they charge. This will give you a good starting point.
Related post:
How to Price Art – Ultimate Art Pricing Guide
How To Photograph Art To Sell
Now that you have your goals know what style of art sells best and your pricing strategy. Let’s talk about how you can quickly increase direct sales. There are thousands of art lovers looking at art online every day. The art shared on social media and purchased by art enthusiasts is not often the best work online. It is often the art being shown online with a high-quality image. The critical thing to remember is that people can not see your art in person. They judge the quality of the work you create by the image you are posting online.
The picture you display on your site will determine if a person will purchase from you or not.
Here are some posts about photographing art you will want to become familiar with.
If you are serious about selling your work online, we recommend investing in a few online tutorials that will show you how to photograph your artwork.
- Art Photography: How to Photograph Your Art & illustrations
- How to Photograph Your Art: Learn to Create Amazing Images of Your Work
Best Places To Sell Art Online
The best place for you to sell art online is the platform is a personal preference.
There are pros and cons to every platform available, and there is no one platform that will make you more successful than another.
Your success depends on your marketing skills. After you have your goals, pricing, high-quality images, and a place where people can purchase your art, you will spend most of your time on marketing.
The easiest way to get started is right on Etsy.
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Sell Art Online Etsy Makes It Easy
Etsy is a well-known online art market platform that allows artists and crafters to build a free Etsy shop and sell products with low fees.
If you are interested in having your own website, Squarespace is becoming very popular with professional artists.
Do some research to decide the best platform for your art business goals.
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Art Marketing
A lot goes into online marketing, and you will continue to learn along the way. Selling art online is a numbers game. The more people who see your art online, the better your chance to land a sale. There are thousands of online art galleries online. The ones that perform the best are the ones that are being promoted online. Dedicate time every week to promote your art business.
Here are some articles that will help you get started.
- Find Your Niche – Increase Online Art Sales
- Digital Content Marketing – What Artists Need to Know
- How to Create a Social Media Marketing Plan – Sell Art Online
Final Thoughts On Selling Art Online
We know that there is much information for you to absorb, but this is the best way to sell art online.
Take one step at a time. When you feel comfortable with one task, move on to the next. Before you know it, you will be generating traffic to your site and landing sales.
Best wishes for your success.
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