If you are an artist or an aspiring one and want to make a living of your art, you need to know how to sell your art. Long gone are the days when artists only had patrons as their source of income. These days, you can sell art online and do it with ease. There are many platforms where you can sell art online. Community and forums dedicated to selling art online are just one click away.
However, selling art online is still easier said than done. The internet is such a huge place and selling a product has never been an easy task. In the age of the digital world, how you sell art online is as important as the art that you sell. To maximize your chance of selling art online, you need to have a solid grasp on how to sell art online and where to sell it. This article will tell you everything you know on how to sell your art online.
- Decide your niche
Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash
The first step in your journey to sell art online is to decide your niche. A niche is a thing or kind of thing that you decide to focus on. In this case, a niche includes what kind of art you want to sell.
For example, you can sell artwork online. You can focus on a specific kind of artwork; photography, illustration, painting, etc. Once you have chosen a specific kind of artwork, you can focus on yourself by specializing yourself. For example, if you choose photography, you can decide to focus on nature photography or urban photography.
Another alternative is that you can sell art prints online. Art print is a printed version of artwork. Selling art prints can be profitable. People often prefer art prints more since they are less expensive than the original artwork. If you already have an original artwork that you can sell, creating a printed version of it can help you make more money.
Deciding on a niche before selling art online can bring you much benefit. By having a niche, you can focus on selling a certain kind of product, for example, an oil painting or colorful portrait. Having a specific product in mind can help you to target the right audience which can help you sell your art online better. By focusing on a specific product, you can also focus your learning process to become better at creating that particular product. Deciding a niche can help you focus on that task you need to solve.
You can find your niche through several ways. One of the most common ways to find your niche is to ask yourself a question; what motivates you to create art? What kind of art do you want to make? Do you have any skills in creating certain kinds of art? By answering these kinds of questions, you have a better chance to find your niche.
- Create Your Persona
Once you have discovered your niche, it is time to create your own persona. Simply put, a persona is a story about yourself that you want to tell. A persona is intentional, that is you decide on what kind of story you want to tell about yourself and how you want to tell it.
A persona is important in selling your art online. You do not want people to only know you as someone who sells art online. You want people to know that you are someone who sells art online that resonates with heart-broken people. A persona can help people to identify and relate with you. It can be really helpful when there are lots of artists that sell art online similar to you.
You can create your own persona by first identifying yourself. Similar to niche, you can start by asking yourself a question about yourself; what motivates you? What goals do you have in mind? You can draw from an experience when you first fall in art, for example. You can also imbue your art with a mission.
A good example of persona comes from Menhera-chan. Ezaki Bisuko draws Menhera-chan to draw Japanese people's attention towards mental health. It is a big issue since people often doubt a person’s illness because of a healthy appearance. Ezaki uses bright color in drawing Menhera-chan to do just that; telling people that beyond a healthy appearance there can be a person who is struggling with their mental health.
- Showcase Your Work
Showcasing your work is an important step in selling your art online. Your potential customer often wants to get a feel of your work before deciding to buy your art. Showcases like portfolios or an art blog can do just that.
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
For an artist, a portfolio is their calling card. Portfolio is a way for you to introduce yourself to a customer and potential customer. Portfolio can also help you in organizing your work and choosing your best work to maximize your chance in selling your art online.
Having a portfolio can bring several benefits. A portfolio can add value to your branding. If you decide to create your own professional portfolio website, you can personalize your website to suit your persona and your niche. Having a portfolio can also give you credibility. By showing samples of past work, potential customers can see and measure your art and style. Portfolio can also display your achievement or reviews that further boost your credibility. You can also tell your persona’s narrative in your portfolio and link it with your samples.
Image taken Strikingly user’s website
An example of a great artist portfolio is Alex Ruiz’s portfolio. Alex is a digital artist that focuses on the dark disturbing image of fantasy and sci-fi. His image features creatures that can only be imagined in the deepest and darkest place. He uses his picture as a background to emphasize his persona. His usage of black and white further provides the atmosphere that can make his image shine better. Visitors are also able to contact Alex directly in contact form provided in the page so both Alex and his audience can communicate easily.
Besides a portfolio, you can also try to create an art blog. With an art blog, you also can add other types of content, such as writing or tutorial videos, to add more value to your branding. An art blog can help your audience to navigate around your work much better. You can also add a newsletter to your art blog, so that you can always appear at the front door of your customers every day, metaphorically speaking of course.
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
An art blog can bring you many needed benefits. Art blog can help you attract both commercial and professional relationships. Having an art blog is much more powerful than a standalone portfolio. With a blog, you can create many kinds of content. Creating content often challenges the limit of your knowledge and pushes you to become a better artist. This can help you to build your expertise and people love and respect someone who is an expert on their respective field.
Image taken Strikingly user’s website
An example of a great art blog comes from Pretty Olive Interiors. In their art blog, Pretty Olive Interiors offer their audiences a huge catalogue of product and content. Using the content in their blog, they can educate their audience and market their product at the same time. Writing content about your product to educate and persuade your audience can become a great way for you to sell art online.
- Choose the right platform
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
The next step is to find the right platform where to sell your art online. You can always start by using your social media to start and grow. It is always a good idea to join a community or forum that appreciates or follows your niche. After all, how to sell your art is as important as the art that you sell.
In deciding where to sell art online, you need to confirm several things. If you decide to use a platform, such as Etsy, you need to make sure that your artwork does not violate their rule. You also need to make sure that a platform where you sell art online has a great reach. This will help your customers and potential customers to find your work. There are lots of platforms to sell art online, so you can take your time to pick one or two.
One of the best ways to sell art online is by opening your own online store. An online store can help you to sell your art online more effectively and efficiently. With an online store, you can also create your own platform and design it to your liking; the possibility is endless.
Having an online art store can give you an extra edge in selling your art online. The most important edge is that you can have a better online presence. If people can find you easier, that means you can have a bigger potential customer. Another benefit that you can get is automation. If you are selling through social media only, most of the time you cannot get orders done when you are not working. By having a website that can process order automatically, you can get much more from selling your art online.
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
Creating an online store is not as hard as you might think. Strikingly is a website builder that helps anyone to create their own website. With Strikingly, you can add a touch of your own personality to your branding.
Image taken from Strikingly product
Strikingly offers benefits that boost your business even more. Strikingly can help you to create a multi-language website. This feature really helps when you have international customers that speak different languages. With this feature, you can easily globalize your business. Strikingly also comes with an easy-to-set-up payment system. With Strikingly, you do not have to bother yourself with security and all the technical stuff to set-up a payment system that can help you get orders done even when you are not working. With all of its benefits, Strikingly is surprisingly affordable.
When everything is said and done, selling your art online is hard but it is not impossible. With today’s technology, it is possible to start making money out of your art and live the life that you always dreamt.
Start selling your art online today using Strikingly. Strikingly can help you create your own customizable website to sell art online that can help your art look striking and stand out from the crowd.
