Sell Art Prints Online Complete Guide
Have you been contemplating selling prints of your original artwork? Do you find yourself asking, should I sell original art or prints?
Selling copies and digital art is one of the easiest ways artists, photographers, and illustrators can supplement their income.
Using multiple revenue streams like selling fine art reproductions on Fine Art America is an essential marketing strategy that successful artists use for their online art business. There are thousands of artists who generate more money selling fine art prints on web stores and social media platforms. So can you.
Are you ready to boost your sales by offering wall art to collectors worldwide but do not know how to get started?
Don’t worry. We have you covered.
We have created a comprehensive article to show you exactly how to get started and how you can market your e-commerce store.
But before we get started, you will also want to learn more about:
- How To Make Prints Of Drawings
- How To Make Prints Of Water Color Paintings
- How To Store Prints
- How To Ship Prints
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How To Sell Art Prints Online
The only way you can successfully sell art online is by learning everything you can about digital marketing.
So many artists try to share their art on social media and become frustrated when no sales come in. Most of these artists thought that all they would have to do is show an image of their art on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest, and their work would magically sell for them.
The truth is, it takes much more than uploading an image on the online marketplace to land a sale.
Taking the time to learn about digital marketing is essential for artists promoting products and services online, and NFAM recommends artists start learning about online marketing from day one.
Did you know that the opportunities to generate an income selling your art online are better than ever?
There are almost 4 billion internet users in the world, and online sales are increasing every year. Online art can be seen on social media, e-commerce platforms, and blog posts from artists worldwide.
Everyone has an opportunity to sell art online and locally. The artists, photographers, and crafters who are doing well selling their creations are the ones who spent time learning how to promote their products and limited edition prints.
How To Make Art Prints
Before you can sell your art prints online you need to create digital images of your paintings so you can have a company produce prints of your work.
A digital image represents a real image that can be stored and handled by a computer and allows you or a printing company to make copies of your art, which you can showcase on your artist’s website, craft shows, Etsy, art blog, or POD sites like Fine Art America. The art you see is all digital images.
Digital images can be created by taking a photograph with a digital camera or scanner and save the file to a computer.
Photographing Artwork
If your art is larger than A4 paper (A4 paper measures 11.69 inches x 8.27), you will need to photograph your art. If your original is smaller than A4 paper, you can make a digital image with a scanner.
Taking a picture of your artwork can be a challenge. You might want to consider hiring a professional photographer if you are having difficulties.
The other option is to learn how to photograph your art yourself or ask someone you know who is a photographer.
It is important to remember that art sells online because of the image’s quality representing the art. People can not see the art in person or touch the work if they are looking at online art on social media.
If you are going to be taking photos of your artwork, you will want a decent camera. Purchasing a digital camera is an investment, but it will be cheaper than hiring someone to photograph your artwork.
Best Cameras For Photographing Art
- Sony Alpha SLT-A99 Digital Camera Body {24.3 M/P}
- Pentax K-5 Digital SLR Camera Body {16.3 M/P} – With Battery
- Canon EOS 50D Digital SLR Camera Body {15.1 M/P}
For more information about digital cameras, visit Best Digital Cameras For Photographing Artwork.
Tripod
Manfrotto 055CXPRO3 Carbon Fiber 3-Section Tripod Legs 25-68.9″ –
Photographing Tips
- Don’t place your painting in direct sunlight or use a flash.
- Photograph your artwork in the shade or a well-light room with natural light.
- Line up your painting so it will be easier for you to crop.
- Take multiple pictures using different lighting. Digital images are free, and you can quickly delete the ones you will not be using.
For more information visit: 7 Tips Photographing Artwork to Sell
Like we mentioned earlier, the quality of your image will determine if your artwork will sell or not. We highly recommend dedicating some time to learning how to take pictures like the pros.
The time you spend learning will significantly increase the chance of you landing a sale. Practice makes perfect. The good news is, if you do not like the images you took, you can choose another one at no extra cost.
Some mediums are more challenging to photograph, like watercolors and pencil drawings.
To learn more about how to photograph watercolor paintings, visit How To Make Prints Of Watercolor Paintings.
To learn how to create digital images of pencil drawings visit, How To Make Prints Of Drawings.
Editing Your Digital Image
After you have photographed your artwork, you will need to crop, resize the digital image for prints and adjust the contrast and color to get your image to look as beautiful as your art does in real life.
Adobe Photoshop CC and Lightroom provide the best photography tools to organize, edit and enhance your photos.
Adobe Photoshop is a powerful software and will take some time to learn. If you are unfamiliar with Photoshop, we recommend taking some courses to speed up the learning curve. Skillshare offers many courses that will help you to become familiar with Photoshop.
Scanning Artwork
If your art is smaller than A4 paper, you have the opportunity to scan your art. Scanners work well for watercolor paintings, graphite drawings, colored pencil drawings, pen and ink drawings, and charcoal drawings.
There are many scanners available but you will want to use a high-quality scanner like the Epson Perfection V600 Color Photo.
For more information visit: How to Share Your Drawings Online
For more information about scanners, visit Best Art Scanner For Graphite Artists.
After you have a digital image of your artwork, you will be able to edit, share the images online and make copies of your artwork.
How To Create Prints
There are three options available for printing artwork after you have created a digital image.
Printing At Home – Many artists have started printing reproductions of their creations at home and market them on their online art gallery, local craft shows, and local small businesses. Ink printers have come a long way over the years and are now more affordable for artists.
Outsource Printing With A Local Printing Service – Local printing services are not as popular as they were in the past but, they are still an option for artists.
Outsource Printing With A Print On Demand Sevice – Thousands of artists are now using a POD service to sell their art on home decor, wall art, phone cases, canvas, and other products. Popular POD services are Fine Art America, Saatchi Art, Zazzle, and Society6. We will cover more about POD sites later in this article.
To learn more, visit How To Make Prints To Sell.
Giclee Prints Or Fine Art Prints
Giclee prints are referred to as high-quality prints made with an inkjet using archival inks on high-quality, acid-free paper.
Fine art prints also refer to as high-quality prints created with different methods, including screen printing, woodblock printing, and lithography.
For more information visit, Fine Art Giclee Printing – What Artists Need Ro Know.
Limited Edition Prints VS Open-Ended Edition Prints
Limited edition prints are when an artist decides on a specific number of prints available to the public.
The difference between open-ended edition and limited edition is that an artist can offer as many reproductions as they wish and a limited edition is a set quantity.
Where To Sell Art
There are many options available for you to make money selling art and art prints on the online marketplace and local art fairs.
Different Ways You Can Sell Art Pints
- Framed art
- Merchandise like mugs, shirts, calendars, keepsakes, etc.
- Greeting cards
- Postcards
After you decided how you will be printing your artwork, you will need to determine where you would like to promote your art prints.
Below are some places you can sell artwork without depending on art galleries to represent your work.
- Craft shows
- Art shows
- Fairs
- Open studio events
- Local small businesses
- Online
Selling Prints At Craft Shows And Fairs
Like we have mentioned earlier, more people are purchasing fine art online than ever before, so there is an opportunity for artists to generate an income online and introduce their art in the online art marketplace.
However, it takes time to be ranked in the search engines and to build a following online.
It is possible to start building name recognition quicker by attending local craft shows and fairs. If you want to sell your products online you will have to build a following first.
To find local craft fairs in your area, visit How To Find Local Craft Shows For Crafters.
How An Artist Can Build Name Recognition At Fairs
- Introduce yourself to people who visit your table
- Offer business cards and brochures
- Display an email sign-up list
The best way to build a following online is to start promoting your fine art locally. Making a presence at your local craft shows will help you to build name recognition. The people who purchase prints will talk about your art to their friends and family.
Those people might not be local, but they will visit your website because someone referred you to them.
Related Resources:
Even though more art is being sold online than ever before, it is still a challenge for many artists to be noticed online and land a sale.
You need to build an audience, build relationships, build trust, and have images that accurately represent your work.
Therefore, it might be in your best interest to attend a few local art fairs to start getting your name out locally while waiting for the search engines to refer your site.
Open Studio Events
Hosting open studio events is an excellent way to build name recognition locally and sell some original art hanging around for a couple of years.
Offering giclee prints at an open studio event is another way to generate extra revenue from the showing. There will be people attending the event who can not afford an original painting but would be pleased to invest in a reproduction of their favorite piece.
An art collector might invest in an original and purchase reproductions as gifts for their family and friends.
Sell Prints Through Local Gift Shops
Take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way. If you are lucky enough to live in a small town or city with local gift shops that sell local artist’s art, take advantage of it and set up a meeting with the owner or manager.
As I have mentioned earlier, it will be easier for you to build name recognition locally. People in your town would preferably support local artists like you than an artist they have never met.
Local shop owners would also prefer to support local artists because it would be a good selling point for their business.
To read more, visit How To Sell Your Prints To Stores.
Coffee Shops That Sell Art
Research your area to see if any local coffee shops support local artists.
Many local coffee shops are interested in decorating their walls but can not afford to invest in original paintings.
Contact your local coffee shops and ask them if they would be interested in displaying your art on their walls, underneath the art, including a plaque with your name and contact information.
Offering your art on their walls will help local businesses to create a more inviting atmosphere with no upfront costs, and it will help you build name recognition in your area.
Enquire about selling your art in their facility. You can decide if selling your prints on consignment or wholesale will work best for both you and the coffee shop owner.
POD (Print On Demand)
Many artists are taking advantage of print-on-demand companies like Zazzle, Saatchi Art, and Society6.
POD sites (Print on Demand service) will do all of the transactions with your buyers, fulfill the order, and ship the product directly to the buyer.
You will not make as much of a profit selling your art with print-on-demand services, but there are no upfront costs, and you will not have to do any extra work.
To read more about print-on-demand sites visit, Print On Demand Sites For Artists – What You Should Know.
Popular Print-On-Demand Sites
PrintFul
Printful is a print-on-demand order fulfillment center that fulfills and ships products to customers worldwide.
It is free to set up a Printful account, and they do not have a minimum order requirement or monthly fees.
You can easily integrate Printful on:
- WordPress
- Shopify
- Etsy
- Wix
- Squarespace
- Webflow
- Ecwid
- BigCommerce
- Prestashop
- Weebly
- Amazon
- eBay
- Big Cartel
- Wish
- Magento
- Storenvy
- Gumroad
- ShipStation
- Bonanza
- 3dcart
- Launch Cart
Selling reproductions on canvas is another way to supplement your income, and many print-on-demand services offer printing on canvas.
To read more about selling canvas prints with Canva visit, Printful Print On Demand Canvas Prints – Increase Art Sales.
Fine Art America
Fine Art America is a name known by artists and photographers around the world and has become one of the world’s largest POD companies worldwide.
Prints are available on:
Art prints, posters, canvas art, framed prints, metal prints, acrylic prints, wood prints, paintings, drawings, photos, digital art, greeting cards, and mixed media.
Fine Art America has recently started printing art on merchandise like tech items, apparel, and bags.
They offer free and premium memberships. The premium membership allows you to create an e-commerce gallery where you can organize your work. Another feature is that once you upload and publish a product, it will be shared on your social media business accounts.
To learn how to sell prints on Fine Art America, visit How To Get Started Selling On Fine Art America.
Selling framed prints, greeting cards, or learning how to sell canvas prints has never been easier with print on demand platforms like Printful and Fine Art America.
Art Storefronts
One thing that makes Art Storefronts stand out from other POD services is that they will pay you immediately after a sale.
Some POD services will pay you monthly if you have to reach a required limit before getting paid.
Orders are printed on archival-quality inks and media.
More Popular Print On Demand Platforms
Sell Your Art On Products
The POD services listed below are a little different from the ones above.
Redbubble, CafePress, and Zazzle are known for providing art on over 100 different items like mugs, shirts, calendars, buttons, etc.
Many artists have done well selling their art designs on merchandise.
Review your art business goals to see if this is something that will benefit you.
Sell Your Art On Greeting Cards
Greeting cards have lost popularity over the past ten years. However, people are still interested in purchasing handmade greeting cards or greeting cards with artwork from their favorite artists.
There are a couple of different ways you can create greeting cards to sell.
The first way is to custom paint or draw art on greeting cards.
The second way is to print your cards at home or use a print-on-demand service like Fine Art America.
To read more about selling greeting cards, visit Printing Greeting Cards To Sell – Complete Guide.
Artist Website
If you plan on selling your online art long-term, you might want to consider owning a website with an online gallery.
The main benefit of owning an online gallery is that you will have total control of your site’s look, feel, and you will have the option to sell original paintings and reproductions of your artwork as well as promoting upcoming art fairs you will be attending.
The possibilities are endless.
We recommend beginners learn how to build a presence online with a platform like Etsy and know everything about making a WordPress site and digital marketing.
Related articles:
- How To Install WooCommerce On A WordPress Artist Website
- How To Add And Manage Products In WooCommerce
Building a WordPress site where you can start selling tangible goods is easier than you might think.
All you have to do is purchase a domain name and hosting from a hosting service like BlueHost and use their one-click WordPress Installer.
Within just a few minutes, your site will be live, and you can start designing it exactly the way you envision it to look.
WooCommerce is a free WordPress plugin that allows you to showcase and sell tangible and digital products.
You can either sell your prints via printing and shipping or integrating Printful to WooCommerce.
It is possible to separate your art by adding different categories to make it easier for your buyers to find what they are searching for.
Selling art has never been easier, thanks to WordPress.
Related Resources:
Related Post: Sell Art Online – 16 Websites And Website Builders For Artists
Etsy
If you are starting and are not familiar with WordPress or building websites from scratch, you can start an Etsy shop very quickly or pick from different art marketplaces available.
Etsy is a third-party site that was created for artists to sell handmade products.
It didn’t take long for Etsy to quickly built a large following.
Collectors around the world learned that they could find unique art and crafts from artists worldwide.
In the beginning, Etsy would only allow an artist to sell original artwork from the platform. Over time Etsy decided to allow artists to offer reproductions.
Related Resource:
How To Sell Prints On Etsy With Printful
The artist is responsible to produce and ship tangible items to buyers after a purchase has been made.
Related Resource:
How to Open an Etsy Store Video Tutorial
What Size Prints Should You Sell
Most people purchase artwork for home decor. In most cases, a buyer is searching for a specific size and color. You have nothing to lose if you sell your art online with a POD service. Most POD services will produce your art in various sizes, depending on your digital image’s size and quality.
However, if you are selling products at a local craft show, you might want to consider deciding what sizes you will offer at the event.
For more information, visit, What size Art Prints Sell Best.
How To Price Your Prints
If you want to sell your reproductions and make a profit, you will need to become familiar with the market. Take some time to research what people are paying for limited editions and what artists are charging who have a similar artistic style as you.
The information you gather will give you a good idea of where your pricing should be.
Many artists price their artwork without knowing what people are willing to spend.
After some time, when their products are not selling, they start to change the prices.
Changing your artwork’s prices regularly will only confuse your audience and scare off potential buyers.
A more effective plan will be to learn how much your artwork is worth and price it accordingly.
Keep in mind that your art is only worth what someone is willing to spend.
Do not price your art with your emotions.
To create excitement, you might want to consider holding specials throughout the year.
Providing specials will help you to generate extra income while showing the buyers your regular prices.
The buyers will feel they are receiving a discount instead of becoming confused with sporadic price changes.
Consider the costs of making the prints when developing a pricing strategy.
Pricing Prints Formula
Cost of Print + Cost of Marketing (if any) + Cost of shipping (if you offer free shipping) + Proffit = Sales Price
$15 (cost of print) + $0 (no marketing costs) + $6 (shipping cost) + $20 (how much you would like to make per print) = $41 per print.
How To Make Money Selling Prints
Nobody starts a business to lose money.
Take into consideration what the costs are associated with creating and selling your products.
Make a list of all the costs for printing, promoting, and shipping prints.
If you are selling at a local craft show, it is important to add the fees associated with selling your art at the craft fair.
Write down the average price people are paying for products.
Decide what price will produce the highest profit for you.
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How To Protect Your Prints
Many elements can ruin your prints even before they sell and leave your house, including sunlight, temperature, humidity, and pollutants.
Storing them in a safe environment will protect your assets when it is time to display them at a local fair or ship them to an art collector.
To learn more, visit How To Store Prints.
Sell Photo Prints
Many artists are earning a decent income selling photo prints.
You might want to consider selling prints of your photos if you enjoy photography.
Not only can you sell limited editions to collectors, but you can also sell digital images for reference images to artists.
Online Marketing Strategies
It does not matter what platform you are going to use to sell art creations.
To see any results, you will need to learn how to market and promote your art online.
You can have the most beautiful art globally, and if no one knows it exists, it will not sell.
Selling art online is easier than you think.
It does take work, but you do not need to have a marketing degree to sell your art online successfully.
Are you new to selling art online?
You will want to become familiar with five areas so you can build a solid art business foundation.
Once you know what to focus on, your job will become easier.
Focusing and putting your energy into these five areas will separate you from your competition.
To make this learning process more comfortable for you, I came up with Sell Art Online Startup Plan.
The Sell Art Online Startup Plan is free and packed with easy-to-understand information to build a solid foundation for your business.
It does not matter if you would like to sell art online for extra spending money or trying to build a career as an artist; you will want to take some time and become familiar with the startup plan.
Schedule sometime during the week to learn about all of the different types of online marketing strategies available.
You will not be able to learn it all in one sitting.
Learn what will be productive for your business today and build on it.
Selling Digital Images On Etsy
Another way to earn extra income is to sell digital printable downloads on Etsy.
Etsy makes it easy to sell digital files, and once you have the listing published, there is no more involved.
To read more, visit How To Sell Digital Downloads On Etsy.
Selling Art Online – What’s Next
Many artists think that just because they have the right image of their artwork uploaded on an online shop, people will stop what they are doing and visit your artist’s website.
Uploading an image of your artwork is just the first step.
The next step is to market your artwork to your target audience.
You will want to schedule some time during the week to promote your art.
Decide how much time will work best for your schedule and stick to it.
Keep in mind that artists spending time on their art marketing plan will reach more people than artists, not investing time in marketing.
Importance Of SEO For Artists
SEO is search engine optimization and is how people will discover your site in the search results.
There are on-page SEO and off-page SEO that you will want to learn about.
Many artists are afraid of SEO, and I want you to know that SEO is easy to learn and implement.
Most people visit Google or Bing to find an answer to a problem or product and type in a few words that describe what they are searching for in the search bar.
The phrase they type into search is known as keywords.
Knowing what keywords your target audience are using in search and how to optimize your blog posts and website pages with keywords are essential if you want to write content that people will discover in the search results.
If your content does not match the keywords your target audience is using; your posts will not be displayed in the search results.
The bottom line is that your target audience will be landing on another artist’s website.
How do you find what keywords people are using in Google’s search?
There are free and premium keyword tools available online.
Free Keyword Tools include:
- Google Keyword Planner
- Google Search Console
- Google Search
- Ubersuggest
- Ask The People
Premium Keyword Tools
I have tried most of them, and my favorite premium keyword tool and the one that I still use every day is Keysearch.
Keysearch will show you how many people search for a specific keyword and give you other similar keywords.
You can also find out who your competition is and what keywords they are ranking for.
Keysearch has helped me increase my website traffic because I am now only writing content that people are interested in reading, and I know what keywords they are using in search.
If you are starting your online art business or do not have the money to invest in a monthly membership, I deeply recommend reading Get Your Keywords Together: How To Do Research With Only Free Tools by Trinity Owen.
Trinity’s eBook is loaded with valuable and actionable information that will help you gather a list of keywords that will drive traffic to your website.
Final Thoughts on How To Sell Art Prints Online
Can you make money selling reproductions of your original artwork?
Yes, you can.
Selling art online is exciting and rewarding, and selling art reproductions online is a great way to supplement your income while waiting for your paintings to sell or keep earning money from art that has already been sold.
All you have to do is decide is where to get copies made of your paintings and drawings, what art websites you will use for your online shop, decide if you will sell limited edition prints or open edition prints, and learn how to market your art online.
Artists no longer need to be represented by art galleries to make a career from their artistic skills. More and more art collectors are viewing art on an online gallery rather than traveling to their local art galleries which makes it possible for artists to sell their creations to collectors worldwide.
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