Did you know that you can sell photo prints online like artists selling giclee reproductions of their original fine art?
The global online art market consists of buyers and sellers trading via the internet in services, articles, works of art, and culture commonly associated with the various arts. With the rise of the internet came the rise of the art e-commerce and auction market – bearing that in mind, online art sales are forecast to increase to 9.32 billion U.S. dollars by 2024. Over the past five years, the market has seen growth, and its current value is estimated to be over four and a half billion U.S. dollars. The global art market was valued at almost 64 billion U.S. dollars. (Source: Statista)
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There have been a lot of changes over the years related to selling products online, but the basics are still the same.
Selling photos online is becoming as popular as artists learning how to sell art prints.
In today’s post, I will talk about different platforms you can use to sell your photography prints and how to market your photographs so more people will see and buy them.
Best Platforms For Selling Photography Prints Online
There are many different platforms on which you can sell photos online, but if you are serious about starting an online business, I highly recommend owning a WordPress website.
Owning a website will allow you to have total control of your website’s look, and you will have control of the prices you charge.
With the increase in photography prints sales online, more people are selling photos online.
More photos are being published every day than ever before.
The only way a photographer has a chance to build a thriving business is to separate themselves from their competition by branding their business and building an online presence.
You can easily build a unique website that separates you from other photographers selling prints online.
Potential buyers will trust you and take you more seriously if you own a website.
You will also be able to build and maintain a relationship with your buyers by having them sign up for your newsletter.
According to Aspire Internet Design, the benefits of using WordPress are:
- Ease of Use.
- Manage Your Website from Any Computer.
- No HTML Editing or FTP Software is Required.
- Search Engines Love WordPress Sites.
- You Have Control of Your Site.
- The Design of Your Website is 100% Customizable.
- A Blog is Built-in and Ready to Go.
Did you know that starting a WordPress website is easier than ever?
If you can build a Facebook page, you can create a WordPress website.
You need to purchase a domain name for your website and hosting.
Sites like BlueHost and SiteGround offer excellent services at very reasonable prices. With one button click, your website will be up and running.
There are two ways you can sell your prints on your WordPress website.
You can use a POD service like Printful or print your prints home.
Both have pros and cons, and your business goals will determine your best option.
Printful is a print-on-demand service that prints your products and ships them directly to your buyer.
With one click of a button, Printful will be integrated into WooCommerce.
WooCommerce is a free WordPress plugin that allows you to sell products on your WordPress website.
- How To Add WooCommerce WordPress Categories
- How To Install WooCommerce On A WordPress Artist Website
This is what my WooCommerce gallery looks like on my site.
The other option is to print your prints at home and ship them to your customers.
Related Post: Best Printers For Art Prints
Below are some helpful articles that will help you to build and brand a WordPress website:
- Why Artist Websites Should Be Built On WordPress
- Social Warfare Review – The Ultimate Social Sharing WordPress Plugin
- WordPress Categories And Tags
- WordPress SEO Plugins
- WordPress Visibility Settings
- WordPress Themes
- How To Manage Plugins In WordPress
- How To Manage Menue In WordPress
- How To Manage Widgets On WordPress
- How To Insert Links On WordPress Blog Posts
- How To Manage Comments On WordPress
- How To Embed YouTube Videos On WordPress
- How To Upload And Install Media On WordPress
- How To Create A WordPress Category
- WordPress Discussion Setting
- WordPress Page Options
- WordPress Post Options
- WordPress Permalink Settings
- WordPress Writing Settings
- How To Install Social Warfare On WordPress Art Blogs
- WordPress Reading Settings
- WordPress General Settings
- WordPress Dashboard Basics
- What Do I Do After Installing WordPress
- How To Optimize And Hide Pinterest Images In A WordPress Post
- Best Email Opt-in Plugins For Artist WordPress Websites
- How To Install A Favicon In WordPress Art Blogs
- How To Add Links In WordPress Artist Blogs
- How To Protect Your Art Images On WordPress
- 2 Ways To Embed YouTube Videos On WordPress
- What Are WordPress Plugins And How To Install Them
- How To Revise Posts In WordPress
- How To Display Categories In WordPress
- How To Add Categories In WordPress
- Post vs Page WordPress Art Blog What Artists Need To Know
- How To Schedule Posts In WordPress
- How To Insert Images In WordPress
- How To Write A Blog Post In WordPress
- How To Install Premium Themes To WordPress
- How To Configure WordPress Settings
- How To Change Permalinks In WordPress
Selling Photo Prints On POD Services
POD is a print-on-demand service that processes your orders, prints the products, and ships them directly to the buyer with no upfront costs.
You upload your image, and the POD service will do the rest. You will receive royalties for every print that sells on the platform.
There are pros and cons to selling photo prints on POD sites, and your fine art business goals will determine what is best for you.
For more information about POD sites, visit Print On Demand Sites For Artists – What You Should Know.
Should you sell prints on POD services or your website?
You have total control of your website. You can brand your site precisely as you envision, and you will have total control of your prices.
Most POD sites will allow you to have a gallery where you can showcase your prints, but there are limitations to editing the look of the gallery.
Some POD sites allow you to decide how much you would earn for each print sold, while others will give you a percentage of the sale.
Reading all the terms and conditions before creating an account on a POD site is essential.
Printing and selling prints on your site will cost you money upfront, while selling prints on POD services is free.
If you print at home, you must invest in a good printer and paper.
For more information about printers, visit Best Printers For Art Prints.
The best way to determine if purchasing a printer is in your best interest is to know how many prints you will have to sell before making a profit and how long it will take you to sell that amount.
If you are starting, you might want to use a POD site until you build a following.
Popular Print On Demand Sites
Below are some of the most popular print-on-demand services for photographers.
Printful
Printful makes it easy to integrate into multiple e-commerce platforms like Shopify, Etsy, WooCommerce, Wix, Squarespace, Ecwid, BigCommerce, Prestashop, Weebly, etc.
Related Post – Best Shopify Print-On-Demand Sites
Simply decide what platform you will showcase your photographs on and start designing your products.
Fine Art America
Fine Art America is one of the most popular print-on-demand services for photographers and artists to sell prints on.
I started using Fine Art America in 2013 and could not be happier with its products and service.
You have the option to start for free or upgrade to a premium account for $30.00 a year.
I use the premium to incorporate my listings on my WordPress site.
There are more sites like Fine Art America where you can sell photo prints online:
Related Posts
Best Printing Companies That Print On Canvas
How To Choose The Right Canvas Size
Know Your Objectives Before You Sell Prints Online
- What are your goals?
- How much money do you want to earn selling prints online?
- How many prints do you have to sell to reach your income goals?
- How will you promote your prints?
You can not create a marketing plan for your photography business if you do not know what you are shooting for.
Goal setting is one of the most important activities in your small business, regardless of how old your business is, where you are located, how profitable it is, or what you sell. Goals help you stay focused, and they can prevent your business from becoming stagnant. (Source: The Balance Small Businesses)
To learn how you can set goals you can achieve visit:
- Sell Art Online Basics Setting Goals
- Review Your Art Goals To Increase Sales
- How To Set Business Goals For Artists
How To Sell Prints
Now that you know some popular websites for photographers to sell photos let’s talk about how to sell photo prints online.
There is more to learning how to sell photo prints online than just uploading photos on a website or print-on-demand site.
You need to promote your photography to the right people. Those people are known as your target audience.
Your target audience is people passionate about the subjects you photograph and your artistic style.
For more information about your target audience, visit:
Simple Strategy For Finding Your Target Audience
How To Sell Your Art Online By Knowing Who Your Target Audience Is
Sell Photo Prints Online Marketing Strategies
Driving traffic to your prints will be one of the primary objectives you will be working on daily.
There are several ways you can drive traffic to your website:
SEO (search engine optimization) – Optimize your website and blog posts for search. You will receive more organic searches via search engines than your social media accounts combined. It does take time for your site to be ranked, but you can speed up the process if you focus on SEO.
For more information about SEO, visit:
9 Effective SEO Tips For Selling Art Online
WordPress SEO: Optimize Your Artist Website For Search Engines
How Artists Can Compete And Build Brand Awareness With SEO
Blogging – Writing content that focuses on your photographs and business will attract your target audience. People are searching every day on Google for prints, just like yours. Those people will be able to discover your website by the blog posts you publish.
For more information about blogging visit:
The Guide To Producing Shareable Content
Best Art Blog Traffic Tips That Work
How Long Does It Take To Rank In Google
6 Places To Promote Your Art Blog Posts
Pinterest – Pinterest is a great way to get people to your site while waiting for your blog posts to rank in search.
For more information about Pinterest visit:
5 Ways To Repurpose Your Content On Pinterest
How To Maximize Pinterest Opportunities To Sell Your Art
4 Pinterest Tools To Skyrocket Your Pinterest Traffic
7 Pinterest Business Tips For Artists Selling Art Online
Social Media – Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are great ways to build an online presence and build relationships with your fans.
For More Information about social media visit:
Social Media Marketing Resource
Email Marketing – Your email list will be the biggest asset to your photography business. The people who give you their email addresses are the ones who will be interested in purchasing your prints first.
For more information about email marketing visit:
Best Art Newsletter Topics To Write About
How To Avoid The Top Email Errors Made By Artists
7 Email Contact Lis Benefits For Artists
How To Build An Email List From Scratch Fast
How To Turn Visitors Into Buyers With A Cakemail Email Newsletter
Apart from these strategies, if you’d like to know more ways to market and sell your photography prints, you must check out a detailed guide on selling photography prints by Pixpa.
Decide On What Size To Sell
If you’re an artist interested in selling prints of your work, it’s essential to know which size prints are most popular with buyers.
While there is no definitive answer to this question, knowing which size prints sell best can help you make more informed decisions about pricing and marketing your work.
Generally speaking, smaller prints are more popular than larger ones. This makes sense from a logistical standpoint – they’re easier to transport and display and more affordable for most buyers.
However, that doesn’t mean that large prints can’t be successful sellers – it just means that you’ll need to price them accordingly.
In general, the sweet spot for print sizes is somewhere between 8×10 and 16×20. These sizes are large enough to make a statement but not so large that they’re prohibitively expensive.
Of course, the best way to determine which size prints will sell best for you is to experiment. Try offering a variety of sizes and see which ones generate the most interest from buyers. Over time, you’ll better understand what your audience wants, and you can adjust your prices and marketing accordingly.
Conclusion:
You now know how to sell photo prints online. Now is the time to take action and decide on what platform you will showcase your prints on and how you will start driving your target audience to your website.
Related Posts:
Fine Art Giclee Printing – What Artists Need to Know
The Importance of Photographing and Displaying Images of Art
Best Artist Website Platform for Selling Art