Skip to content

How To Use A Text Widget To Sell Your Work Online

December 6, 2017

I have an online store. It’s on Fine Art America, a hosting and fulfillment service for artists who want to sell their work.

I wanted to publicize the fact that people can buy Christmas cards which feature my art.blank vertical space, 16 pixels high

FAA is very tech-savvy. They create embed codes (HTML) for every piece of art. Artists can embed this code in their site or blog. It will generate a small display ad. Viewers can click on the ad and be taken directly to that piece of art on the FAA site.

Here’s what the display ad looks like for a Christmas illustration of mine:blank vertical space, 32 pixels highad for Nativity Selfie Christmas card created by pasting Fine Art America HTML code into text widget WordPress blog sidebar

blank vertical space, 32 pixels highIt’s very slick, very attractive. There’s just one problem: I can’t access the detail code and change what displays. I can’t change it to “Buy single cards or packs of 10 or 25.”

FWIW: Single cards cost $4.95 (I get a dollar, FAA gets $3.95). I didn’t want to confuse
the issue by displaying “Buy a print starting at $22.35.”

(People can also buy a shower curtain with the same art on it– now there’s a gift idea!!)blank vertical space, 16 pixels high

I decided to create my own ad. I pulled an FAA logo off the internet, and built the ad in Pixelmator, my image-editing program.

One nice thing about buying greeting cards thru FAA: you can write your own inside greeting, or just leave the inside blank.

But I’ve always suspected that many people like to buy cards that come with an inside greeting– so I include a suggested greeting in the description of each card.blank vertical space, 16 pixels high

For Nativity Selfie, my suggested greeting is: “Smile– we have a Savior!!”blank vertical space, 32 pixels highNativity Selfie Christmas card smile we have Savior for sale in Fine Art America store

blank vertical space, 32 pixels highI resized the ad to fit my WordPress sidebar (300 px wide), inserted it into a Text widget, linked it to the corresponding FAA page, and moved it to the sidebar.blank vertical space, 16 pixels high

I repeated all the steps and created two more ads. Now I had display ads for cards (not prints, not shower curtains). The ads also let people know they can opt for my caption or write their own, and that they can buy single cards or packs of 10 or 25.blank vertical space, 16 pixels high

Here’s one of the other ads:blank vertical space, 32 pixels highWe Three Spacemen card I saw three ships on Christmas Day for sale in Fine Art America store

blank vertical space, 32 pixels highOne of my stranger card designs is called King Kong Kristmas. The famous ape has stolen the Baby Jesus from a church creche and climbed a tall outdoor Christmas tree. The Magi are flying around trying to shoot him down, as in the final scene of the 1933 movie.blank vertical space, 16 pixels high

I have an inside greeting for it, but why should  I  have all the fun? Here’s the image. I put it to you, dear reader: what would you write inside the card? Please share it in a comment. 😊blank vertical space, 32 pixels highChristmas card design King Kong steals Baby Jesus from creche manger scene front church climbs tree Magi three kings trying to shoot him down in airplanes like famous movie scene

blank vertical space, 16 pixels high

    *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *blank vertical space, 16 pixels high

You might also enjoy reading about one of my dumbest Christmas greetings ever.

blank vertical space, 16 pixels high

    *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *blank vertical space, 16 pixels high

About Mark: I’m an illustrator specializing in humor, branding, social media, and content marketing. I create images that get content seen and shared.

You can view my portfolio, and connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Questions? Send me an email.

blank vertical space, 32 pixels high

blank vertical space, 16 pixels highblank vertical space, 40 pixels high

4 Comments leave one →
  1. RKLikesReeses permalink
    December 10, 2017 1:02 PM

    Haaa! Wonderful, as always! Brilliant idea, too. 👏👏👏👏👏

    Like

  2. December 11, 2017 5:14 PM

    Your Christmas cards are delightful and very creative! Brings a great big smile to my face. I love Fine Art America too…great site.

    Like

A penny for your thoughts. I'm on a tight budget here.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.