Selling Art Online
Selling Art Online
With the internet being a major role in our world today any artist starting their art business can choose from a vast array of venues to promote and sell their artwork. The most common and popular site where artists sell their work is eBay. eBay has become a great way for artist to generate income on a regular basis however, it does require a lot of work and determination. You do have to keep in mind that with eBay, you can’t just put images of your artwork on the site and expect it to sell. You have to build up your feedback, constantly change keywords that will drive traffic to your listings, create an inviting web presence within the eBay community and do all these at the same time, consistently. There are two artists that I can think of right off hand who are doing well but did not get where they are in just a few months; they had to put in some work. The first is “the raw artist”, Michael Keck and the second is Debra Hurd, she’s known for her music and jazz paintings. Both have created a presence on the eBay.
The beauty of eBay is the people who go to eBay as buyers. It is a lot different than Google. People go to Google to get information and people go to eBay to buy things. There are millions of people a day searching on eBay who are ready to buy. It is the number one site, along with Amazon, that sells the most items online.
Selling art on eBay can be very lucrative if done right. The downside to selling art on eBay is that it can be a bit tedious when trying to post listings and build up a following all at the same time.
Another way artists can sell art online is through websites that host mini sites for artists. With these websites, artists are able to display their work under the umbrella of one site or company. This can be very cost efficient and requires less work from the artist when trying to design the site. Some of the most popular sites are etsy.com, yessy.com, foliotwist.com, artslant.com and artspan.com. I have been a part of one of these and had some interesting results. I suggest that if you are just getting started and don’t have any knowledge of web design or blogging, signing up on one of these directories is a great start. The only thing is you won’t want to stay long because you will want to have your own site without any other companies names tagged on to the end of your web address. For instance sherrylewis.com looks and sounds better than sherrylewis/artgalleryspot.com. There are artist directories who are changing this and have allowed artist to have their own web address without their company name attached to it. So again, if you are just getting started and don’t want to spend a lot of money, by all means, sign up to one of the artist directory sites.
The last and the most professional way of selling art online is having your own site with your own web address. Before you disagree, please let me explain. Having your own site makes you look professional and sets you apart from other artists who are using someone else web platform. Also, when someone comes to your site, they only see you and not other artists. When you are on a website that hosts other artists a potential buyer may be tempted to look at another artist’s works instead of yours. Another plus for an artist having their own site is that artist can receive all the money when someone purchases a work of art on their site without have to pay a percentage of the proceeds to someone else.
One of downside to having your own personal site is creating the site. You may have to pay a large amount of money if you don’t know how to create a website. With websites directories that host other artists on one site someone else has done all the work for you all you have to do is plug in the images and text. You don’t even have to know anything about HTML. There are some web platforms that allow you to create a site for less than $50. Wordpress, is a web based platform that can allow you to create sites in a blog format with ease. All you have to do is find templates that match your liking and began adding what you want to the site. Of course there are some technical things involved but with YouTube, you can learn how to do pretty much everything you need to by simply watching videos of others creating their site.
Overall, there is no totally right or totally wrong way of selling art online when starting an art business. I have seen artists be successful in uses all three selling techniques; using eBay, a website that hosts a bunch of artists, and having your own site created by the artist or a graphic designer. I would just suggest that you go the route that you think will be most beneficial and comfortable for you. If you want to learn how to use social media to promote and sell your art click here.
