Tips For Selling Your Art Online (or anything else, really)
What are the three words that always make an illustrator’s eyes light up?
Besides “Free apple fritters,” I mean. 😋💦
Answer: “Passive income stream.” Money that comes in by itself while you’re sleeping or eating fritters.
Sounds like an idea we can all get behind.
How do you create these streams? Many artists set up an online store so people can purchase their work. Then they sit back and wait for the money to roll in.
As you might expect, it’s not quite that easy.
Let’s look at some of the things you need to do to sell art, or anything else, online.
Be Visible
You can sell your work on your site, but that means doing everything yourself: processing payments, packing, shipping, etc.
Many artists (including myself) find it easier to create a store on a platform designed to sell art. The trick, of course, is getting people into your store. They have to know it exists.
Which means you have to promote it. On your blog, on your social sites, any way you can.
Find The Right Platform
There are a lot of places where you can sell your art. You have to decide which one is best for you. That means researching the sites (“best places to sell art”), then exploring them and learning how they work.
I use one called Fine Art America. Here’s a link to my store.
FAA is a print-on-demand service. I can sell prints, framed or unframed, at different sizes. People can also put my art on greeting cards and things like tote bags, iPhone cases, even shower curtains. 😊💦🛀🏼
Other sell-your-art sites (the coconut logos pictured above) include Redbubble, Zazzle, eBay, CafePress, Shopify, Etsy, Deviant Art, and Society 6. There are many others.
Most of these sites sell a lot more than prints. Etsy specializes in handmade, one-of-a-kind craft items. You can sell just about anything on eBay or Shopify.
Prints or Originals
As mentioned, I sell my work on Fine Art America. A big reason I chose it: all I have to do is upload high-res images of my work. FAA can print them at different sizes, and they do all the processing and shipping. Redbubble and Society 6 work the same way.
By contrast, if your selling original paintings or one-of-a-kind items on eBay or Etsy, you’ll have to handle the packaging and shipping yourself. It all depends on what you’re selling and how much control you’d like to have.
Add ‘Shop’ To Menu
Include ‘Shop’ in your website menu.
When people click on it, you can send them directly to your store on the third-party site, or you can link to a page which explains the third-party situation and provides a link to the store.
I chose the latter approach.
Add a Shop Graphic
I stuck one at the top of my sidebar and let it speak for itself. Kind of a visual call-to-action.
Click on the graphic and it takes you directly to my FAA shop.
Boost On Social Media
It’s not enough to promote your art on your website. You need to promote it on your social sites as well. It’s no good having a store if people don’t know it exists.
FWIW: Fine Art America has share buttons which allow me to promote any piece of art on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest (just those three).
Here’s a screenshot.
When I click the Facebook button, for example, I get a pop-up window which allows me to add text before posting the art to my Facebook timeline.
Other Ways To Promote Your Art
Some suggestions in no particular order:
1. Write blog posts about your work, showing steps, work in progress.
2. Write posts about the benefits of art, art appreciation, why you like certain artists.
3. Set up Pinterest and Instagram accounts, since those are highly visual social media platforms.
4. Add a rotating “Featured Work” to your website, especially if you have new work.
5. Have an About Page: share info about yourself to emotionally connect with prospective buyers.
6. Pitch yourself to sites that interview artists.
7. Write your own Q&A interview, and feature it on your site; also: pitch it to those who do artist interviews.
8. Set up a Facebook Business Page and share work in progress, etc. (Facebook Pages offer “Shop” as a menu item– take advantage.)
9. Put a video showcasing your work on your landing page, and/or blog.
10. Do searches for things like “tips for marketing art online,” “selling art online,” “promoting your art business,” etc.
11. Do the same kind of searches on YouTube to find helpful tutorials in video format.
12. Do searches for your competition, e.g., “abstract artists,” “mixed media artists,” and see what you can learn from their websites, blogs, social media sites.
13. Embrace niche marketing:
In order to start marketing your work, you must establish a target audience. Your efforts should be directly created for one individual person, just as you would create a custom painting.
Draw out your ideal customer profile and pretend as if you are speaking only to that person when creating marketing materials. You want to be exclusive to this audience as opposed to trying to please everyone.”
14. Be able to articulate the value of your art: what does it offer the buyer in terms of feelings, experience, memory, inspiration?
15. Connect emotionally via stories: share your own story, your journey; every creation has a story: figure out what it is and relate it.
16. Find and cultivate influencers (search: “people who blog about art, painting, etc): comment on their posts, ask questions, etc.
17. Research and reach out to art dealers (search: “art dealers who work with emerging (digital) artists”).
18. Seek out opportunities for writing guest posts about art (search: “guest posts about art”).
19. Explore opportunities for submitting your art and getting links back to your site (search: “submit your art”).
20. Share something every day on your social channels, even if it’s not finished.
21. Consider being open to commissions.
22. Print up postcards of your art. Hand them out as business cards, mail them to prospects, give them to galleries to distribute and display.
23. Add keywords to your images by including a description in the alt-text field: it will help search engines find your work when people do a search for that kind of art.
24. Include appropriate keywords when you create social media profiles; write them to attract your target audience.
Likewise, use appropriate hashtags when you post art to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social sites.
25. Join local art associations so you can feature your work in their exhibitions.
26. Contact cafés, restaurants, banks, and other venues, and ask about exhibiting your work. Include a sale price and contact info on each piece.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
About Mark: I’m an illustrator specializing in humor, editorial, branding, social media, and content marketing. My images are different, like your brand needs to be.
You can view my portfolio, and connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Questions? Send me an email.
Follow @mrstrongarm
Mark Armstrong Illustration Specializing In Content Marketing Advertising Editorial Infographics Animation Videos and Social Media 
Best advice I’ve ever read! Bookmarked and pinned on my wall!
A bow to maître Mark Armstrong!
Oh, and: 🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨
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Wow! Never in all my wildest dreams did I ever imagine I’d become a pinup!!– this is definitely the highlight of my career!!! 😅 😆 😂 😊 Thank you, my dear Marina! So happy you enjoyed it and found it helpful. In a perfect world, hordes of online shoppers would descent on your store and clean out the digital shelves!! That’s my ongoing wish, anyway. You’re already a Superstar, of course, I just want the world to recognize it, that’s all– is that asking too much?? No, no, no!! Always a delight, and thanks as ever for the nutritional supplements!! 🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨😋💥🚑👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽😊😘
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…infinite nutritional supplements: 🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨🍨
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Thank you from a French illustrator for these tips. it will help me a lot
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You’re very welcome, mon ami, it’s always a pleasure to meet a fellow illustrator. I took the liberty of visiting your site and looking at your work– truly excellent! And I really laughed when I read, “Ah, l’humour! Ma caféine et ma malédiction.” Ha!– bien dit!! 😊 Glad you found the post helpful, and thank you for your kind comment. This American illustrator wishes you great success! 👍
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Good to hear from you again – excellent post with lots of great ideas. Hope your sales are going well – I think a lot of people have managed to have an income stream during Covid because they are doing the things you suggest.
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Hi, Margy!– great to see you! Yes, a long time between posts– why am I such a slacker?? My apologies for not visiting your own blog recently. (I owe all my other blogger friends the same apology.) What have I been doing?? Stacking firewood and grinding my teeth over the election– that’s all I can think of!!
I sell something every so often– always puts a smile on my face. Ever thought about selling some of those great photos of yours? I’m thinking there might be some buyers out there– your nature shots are lovely. Cheers, hang in there, and thanks as always for your good cheer and support! 😊
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Glad to hear you are okay. I’ve been trying to touch base with a few bloggers like yourself who are running on silent. I know Covid is taking a toll, as has the last four years of American politics – no matter which team you are on!
So kind of you to boost my morale!
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Really appreciate your checking on me, Margy– thanks! And do think about offering some of your photos for sale– you’re a real pro, and that’s no baloney! 😊
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