1) A Digital Camera

When selling art online you are going to have to show the buyers exactly what they will be getting, and this means taking good photographs of your work. It’s a good idea to get a camera with a high megapixel value, and the good news is that you can find many cameras at reasonable prices these days. Expect to have to either email these to clients who commission you, or add them to your website for potential buyers to view.

2) A PayPal Account

Buying and selling online means a processor to accept the money, and PayPal is the merchant of choice for most artists asking about ‘selling my art’. It only takes a few minutes to sign up, but make sure you complete the sets it takes to verify your account to raise your receiving limits.

3) An Online Portfolio

Anyone selling online needs an online portfolio. This gives potential buyers, and others, valuable information about you and your work. Try to include a photo gallery of past works, the latest news and biographical information to help buyers get to know you. If you don’t have the skills to set up your own portfolio website then there are a number of services that can help you out with this.

4) Your Own Blog

As well as a website, many artists are now choosing to set up their own art blogs. This is a great way to write about what you love at the same time as gradually building a loyal customer base. Don’t make this over-promotional, but include details of your latest work whenever this is relevant.

Now you know exactly what you need to answer that question ‘how do I start selling my art?’ there is no reason for you not to get started and take advantage of the online market!

The Ultimate Guide to Selling Art

Looking for the latest and best tips for selling art online? Check out our new eBook guide called Fuel for Art!

Getting Buyers to Find You

Even if you have the most original and affordable art work out there, the hardest part is getting buyers to actually find you. If they don’t, then you won’t sell your art – it’s as simple as that!

The good news is that the internet is full of free ways to get your name heard and your art sold. And one of the easiest ways is to start optimizing your website and art work descriptions for the search engines.

This basically involves using keywords that you think users might search for to find your art. Use them regularly throughout the pages on your site and you will find that your homepage ranks higher in search engine results, bringing you free visitors.

Getting Your Name Out There

The internet is a very social place, so as well as marketing your website you should also focus on marketing yourself and your personality. This means getting your name out there and joining a number of social networking websites.

These websites are great for meeting like minded people who might provide you with valuable tips, as well as potential buyers who could purchase your work. Never use them purely as an advertising tool – your efforts will only be wasted! Instead, take time to get to know people and let them know your website like when appropriate.

These are the two main ways in which artists are maximizing their chances of selling art work online. Get used to each method and you will find that they are excellent, free ways to promote your business!

The Ultimate Guide to Selling Art

Looking for the latest and greatest tips for selling art online? Check out our new eBook guide called Fuel for Art!

Blogging Is Easy!

The good news is that blogging isn’t very difficult. Building your own website may have taken some work, but there are a number of free blogging platforms that make starting and maintaining a blog extremely quick and easy.

Start by looking at a few established art blogs and thinking about the way they set things up. You can then use a platform such as Blogger or Wordpress to get your own blog up and running, and give it a title either appropriate to you or your work.

What to Blog About?

A blog isn’t simply a promotional tool. You should view it instead as a source of information. What might your buyers be looking to learn? Perhaps you will include progress of your work, on general information on why buying art is such a great investment – both personally and financially.

Whatever you choose to write about, intertwining posts that are commercial in nature with those that are of real value to those looking for information will help to increase your chances of success. If your content is interesting you’ll soon build up a readership, and this is a great customer base should you choose to announce your latest work for sale on your blog!

Blogging is not going to instantly increase your sales overnight. However, over time it is one of the best ways to create a loyal customer base that is truly interested in what you are getting up to. Combine this with a passion for writing about art and blogging can be a great exercise!

The Ultimate Guide to Selling Art

Looking for the latest and greatest tips for selling art online? Check out our new eBook guide called Fuel for Art!

What Is An Authority Site?

This kind of website is one that can provide information on a given topic (such as art). It isn’t just any information – it is an authority in its field. This is a site that will quickly gain a reputation for providing some of the best information around on its given topic.

This kind of website can be a traditional static website with many pages, or it can be a blog, written one page at a time. This all depends on what you prefer to work with and, if you don’t have much web design experience, a blog will often be easier for you.

What Makes It Different From My Own Website Where I Sell My Art Online?

This authority website is different because it doesn’t just sell your art. Any website or blog that always posts about your art and how to buy it is more of an advertising slot rather than an authority. An authority site might mention, at times, what you are selling. But it will mainly focus on maintaining quality information on the subject.

You might think that this isn’t going to do you any good in making more sales, but the point is that an authority site typically attracts a lot more visitors than your standard blog. This is a place people will trust to find their information, and they will soon become loyal followers. Once they are, they will really pay attention on those occasions where you do choose to mention your art for sale.

Looking for the Latest Tips?

Fuel for Art is a cutting-edge guide to selling your art online . If you want to start selling more now, check it out today!

When selling online you will find that there is already competition. However, art is personal so it’s all about marketing your own unique art and letting buyers know just how they will benefit from buying that art. The bottom line is that you have nothing to lose and everything to gain from selling your work online.

Getting Started in Online Galleries

This is the easiest way to get started selling your art online. These online galleries host your work, along with work by a number of other artists, and do a lot of work when it comes to marketing their site and your work for sale. This takes some of the pressure off you, as you know their site already attracts thousands of potential buyers each day.

The major downside to using online galleries to sell your work is that they will take a commission. The exact commission with vary, but could range from 1 or 2 percent to as high as 10 percent. Whilst this will reduce your earnings, many artists feel it is worth it for the opportunity it brings to sell fine art in such a convenient way.

Do You Need to Sell Original Art?

When you sell fine art online you may be concerned that you won’t be getting what you deserve for that masterpiece. But the truth is that you only need to sell what you are comfortable selling, which can include prints of your art rather than the original work. This can be a great way to earn an extra income.

Looking for a Complete Guide?

Check out Fuel for Art a complete guide to selling you art online.

Tips to Sell Original Art

Raise Your Prices

You may be a new artist, but don’t cut yourself short. If you price your work cheaper than art buyers might think you are not in demand. By simply raising your prices you can see an increase in sales or get buys from more serious art buyers. It all depends on your target audience and how you brand and market yourself.

Create Similar Size Art

When art buyers decorate they often want several art pieces from a buyer that are the same size. While art work of different size can look good next to each other, many people prefer even size artwork that they can line up side by side or above each other. So try creating a few piece of original art to sell online that are of the same size such as 11×17 or 18×24 inches.

Bigger Can be Better

You should create art at any size you want, but just keep in mind artwork that is larger, uses more material or more expensive material can go for a lot more money than small 2×2 inch pieces of art. Many large paintings start at several hundred dollars a piece just because of the size. This isn’t always the case, but it happens enough to be good to keep in mind.

Think About a Series

Many art buyers are looking to decorate entire walls of a home or office and like art that matches. trying creating sets of art in odd numbers such as three or five that match in style. Some artists even create painting or art that appear to flow into each other when aligned side by side. Large pieces of art in sets like this can go for a lot of money even if you are early in your career!

Make it Easy to Buy Online

Many artists make it a real pain to buy online. If you wanna make the most sales possible you need to play into spontaneous buyers and impatient buyers who want art NOW. If you dont have easy to see buy now buttons, with an easy check out system you will be passing up a lot of potential sales.

Looking for More Tips?

Check out our new eBook Fuel for Art, a powerful Guide to Selling Original Art online.

Tips on How to Sell Your Art

This means you will need to give yourself and edge and you can do this by learning as much as possible about how to sell your art online. Below are a few basic tips to get your started.

1. Create a Portfolio Site

This is the best way to sell you art online while building up your brand name at the same time. Not only do people feel safer buying art from an official artist’s site, but they can learn about you and your work. You should have an about page, a store, contact page, a calendar if you have showings and so on.

Setting up a website is not as had as you may thing. The first thing you need is a domain, then web hosting then a website design. You can get all of that for pretty cheap and if you need help setting it all up try posting in a classifieds such as craigslist for a web designer.

2. Start a Blog

A blog is the perfect compliment to a portfolio site. Its easier to get traffic with blogs and publish new content and as the visitors come in you can drive them to your portfolio site. You should consider creating a blog related to art or something similar so that your blog’s audience would be interested in possibly purchasing your work and spreading the word about you.

WordPress is my favorite blog engine because its powerful, free and easy to use. It comes with many plugins and is ver flexible, allowing to to accomplish pretty much anything you want.

If you do not know how to create your own WordPress theme consider buying one of the many Premium WordPress Themes to start. They are easy to install and you could have a great looking blog up in no time to start promoting your art work!

3. Network in the Online Art Community

Networking is an important aspect of any business. You should always be networking with people in the art community such as fellow artists, art buyers, fans, gallery owners and so on. Websites like DeviantArt.com allow you to do a number of things such as network, showcase your art and even sell prints.

Want More Tips?

For more in depth information and tips on this topic check out our eBook about How to Sell Art Online!

Great Sites to Sell Art Prints On

So check out each of the sites below to see which best fit your needs so you can start to sell art prints online and finally make more money doing what you love to do!

1. Imagekind.com

2. Monoprints.com

3. Artistrising.com

4. Cafepress.com

5. Deviantart.com

Want More Tips?

For more in depth information and tips on this topic check out our eBook about How to Sell Art Online!

Selling Original Art

1. Sign Your Art

This sounds simple, but many artists forget to do it. Start perfecting your signature and be sure to sign and date all your work. This is the final touch on a piece of artwork and instantly adds value to the work and the more popular you become as an artist the more valuable your work can become! it is truly amazing how important the artists signature has become.

2. Frame Your Original Art

If you can, you should consider framing your artwork, mounting it or putting it on some sort of stand to make it appear more finished. This will make it appear more professional and can increase the value even more, especially if you are using a high-quality or unique frame. Your art should be ready to be displayed in a home or office.

3.Present it Well Online

If you are going to sell your original art online and I highly recommend doing this even if you have a gallery. Many people like to buy art online, but in order to build confidence you need to give us much information as possible about your work online. This includes a having variety of photos, a description, price, contact information and a buy now button for each piece. All these elements will help ensure your art sells well online.

Want More Tips?

For more in depth Information and Tips on this topic check out our eBook about how to sell art online!

James White Case Study

WordPress

Visit James’ WordPress Blog

Blogging is a powerful way to promote your work, yet many artists still do not take advantage of it! WordPress is a blogging engine that is free to download and install, which allows you to easily publish content in the form of blog posts. All you need is web hosting, a domain name, the WordPress software and a free or custom WordPress theme to give your blog a cool look.

Flickr

Visit James’ Flickr Profile

This website is a well known photo sharing website, but you can also submit design work and its a super way to get people to view your work. If you tag your work properly with keywords, a solid title and description related to what you are submitting and promote your Flickr profile you should see some great results.

Behance

Visit James’ Behance Profile

Behance is one of the biggest design galleries on the internet and is geared towards professional artists. You should be sure to create an account here, upload and tag your work properly. Network on the site, leave comments on other peoples work and stay active and you will see the benefits.

Facebook

Visit James’ Facebook Page

James did the best thing you can currently do on Facebook and that’s create a Facebook Page, which can be done after you create a profile and log in. It’s often used by businesses, because people can become a fan of your page which allows you to contact them in the future with updates and news. He has over 500 fans which is a lot more than most big brand names have on their pages!

The Key Is..

…To promote your social networking profiles on your WordPress blog, the first item mentioned on this list. If your blog gets a good amount of traffic, your fans will follow through to your social networking profiles, which you can link in your sidebar or footer of your blog.

Did You Find This Post Useful?

If so, check out our eBook Fuel for Art if you are looking for a Complete Guide on how to sell art online and earn great money!