Would you like to sell your art online? In this post, you will discover 5 key steps you will need to take to start selling your art online.
How to Sell Your Art Online Tips
Starting an online business is not easy and will take a lot of work if you would like to be successful.
However, it is possible with hard work and dedication.
Most artists or other people starting an online business seem to think all they must do is build a website, add a few words and people will start to show up in their shop. That is not going to happen. People will not know you are online unless you let them know.
In this post. I would like to go over five essential elements for any online business. It doesn’t matter if you are interested in selling oil paintings or homemade jam, the bottom line is you will need to make people aware of your online presence.
How to Sell Your Art Online
- Set Goals
- Online Gallery
- Art Blog
- Social Media
- Email List
Set Goals
Before you can start implementing a plan, you need to have a plan. You need to have a clear vision of what you would like to accomplish.
It does not matter what you would like to achieve. What is important is you have a clear idea of what you want.
For more information on goal setting read, Sell Art Online Basics Setting Goals. or my How to Write Goals Course.
Don’t make the same mistake many people do when they start an online business. Take the time now to start off in the right direction. You do not want to find yourself saying, “I wish I did that in the beginning.”
Online Gallery
After you have your goals planned, you will need to have a place where you will be able to sell your art online.
You have a few different options when it comes to starting an online gallery. You can build a website, hire someone to build a website for you, or use a third-party service.
Building websites are now easy to do with software such as WordPress. You can find many helpful YouTube videos to help you build a WordPress site in just about sixty minutes.
If you have any computer knowledge or like to learn, building a website might be for you.
Some people do not feel comfortable building websites, or just do not have the time to devote to learning and building a site. If you fall into this category, your options will be to hire a person to build a website for you or use a third-party service.
I hired someone to build my first site in the early 2000s, and it cost me around $5,000 when it was all said and done. Today I build my websites. It is a different time, and WordPress has made it very easy to create a beautiful site.
This site, Nevue Fine Art marketing took me about two hours to build.
I also use FASO a third-party service for my art gallery. There are other services out there, but I have found FASO to have everything I need to have a professional online art gallery to promote and sell my artwork.
Art Blog
After you have your art gallery up and running, you will need to start letting people know it is there. You do this by building brand awareness through content marketing.
To learn more about the benefits of blogging read, 6 Blogging Benefits You Can’t Ignore.
Blogging does take a lot of work, but you will see long term results by developing a strategic plan and by staying consistent with your efforts.
Every post you publish will be searchable in search engines. Unlike Facebook, your posts will be available forever. The more posts you create, the better your chance of people finding you online will become.
Here are some articles to help you get started with your blog:
- Starting an Art Blog Part 1 Hosting
- Starting an Art Blog Part 2 Content Writing
- Starting an Art Blog Part 3 Building an Audience
- Artist Blog Startup: Step By Step
- Start an Art Blog Checkoff List
- How to Choose a Perfect Artist Domain Name
- How to Brand Your Art Blog with Themes
- Developing a Plan For Your Art Blog
- 7 Features Every Blog Needs
If you are interested in bringing your blog to the next level, check out my course Content Marketing Basics.
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing and blogging go hand and hand. By developing a strategic marketing plan that incorporates both blogging and social media, you will separate yourself from the competition.
Here are some articles to help you start planning your social media marketing plan.
- 7 Social Media Marketing Benefits for Artists
- 7 Effective Social Media Marketing Strategies for Visual Artists
- Developing a Social Media Marketing Strategy
- 11 Ways to Build Trust on Social Media for Artists
Many people are afraid of starting something new because they do not want to fail. The only way to succeed is just by starting.
The plan that you write will not be perfect. Do not expect it to be. You will be changing paths along the way. What you will be striving to achieve today will be different in the future.
Starting a plan and adjusting your plan will be the reason for your success, not the plan you have written on paper.
More important than the plan you have documented will be the statistics you document. You will be able to assess the outcome of your efforts, and you will then be able to decide on what areas need improvement.
Email List
Your email list will be the most valuable thing you own for your business. Your list will be the only guarantee you have to contact your audience.
If social media disappears and your PageRank diminishes you will still be able to contact your audience.
All the efforts you put into content marketing and social media marketing should be to increase your email list.
Here are some articles that will help you start building your list.
- 7 Email Contact List Benefits for Artists
- 7 Email Services for the Online Artist
- Email List Building Basics
- Best Places to Add an Email Opt-in on Your WordPress Blog
- 4 Email Opt-in Plugins for WordPress
Conclusion:
There is a ton of value and information in this post. You will not be able to tackle it all at once. Take your time and accomplish one task at a time.
Bookmark this post for future reference. Every step you take will help you to sell your art.
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