What Are The Advantages of Selling Art Online?

Web-based artist networks, art marketplaces, and online art galleries are helping artists who are selling art online, a more and more common practice as time goes by. More often than not, selling your art online on your own can be an experience that disenchants many artists with the prospect of selling art online using any tool; even a personal website can be difficult to manage in comparison to an online gallery account.

The online art market is growing considerably, and with online art sales on the rise, it is proving to be an increasingly fruitful avenue for artists, even compared to traditional methods for selling art as an artist. Previously established networks like those used by online art marketplaces and gallery settings have many things going for them that personal websites do not, namely the ability to draw on greater authority rankings that help them appear higher on search engine results. Larger sites draw a large portion of the market of online art buyers looking for artists who are selling art online. These buyers are already seeking art to buy online, and are open to the prospect of purchasing directly from the artist. Selling your art online can be difficult if you are only selling from your own personal website. Increase the scope of the audience who can potentially see your work by including your pieces in an online art gallery or marketplace!

Traditional galleries have the problem that they are highly localized in their traffic, whereas with the online revolution, someone in England can buy a painting or sculpture piece from an artist in Hawaii, arrange for shipping, and pay the artist directly. Galleries also have limited wall space, which is not an issue when you’re selling your art online.

Many websites have sprung up to help artists with the task of selling art online; they often charge a nominal fee, some one time, some annual, and some taking a commission of each sale an artist makes, but no matter the payment model being used this is often much less than an artist would pay to display their work in a traditional brick and mortar venue. A virtual listing for a piece of art allows the artist who is selling art online to display at least one image, often more, of their work as well as a description of the piece that can be key word optimized for better search engine exposure, and contact information for interested buyers. The advantages of selling your art works online are numerous, and center around the several ways that you can save both money and time. Your worries over maintaining a physical gallery space are over if you decide to work on selling your art online! No more rent and maintenance worries, no more adjusting your schedule to fit that of the gallery, with online art sales it is all between you as the artist and your buyer, and that is as it should be.

Compared to selling art pieces online, gallery sales are a lot harder to come by. But just because there is greater potential for an artist selling art online to make more sales does not mean that these sales will come without a little effort on the part of the artist. The way the internet works for someone selling art online it is all about your ‘findability’. So when someone searches for something using a specific word or phrase, the websites which are ranked best for those terms come up in order of relevance and importance. The better you describe your work when creating a listing on an art sales website, the better chance you have of making a sale. Now this does not mean that you should find a list of popular search terms for selling art online and cram as many of them into your description box as possible, but rather select a few that are most closely associated with your piece or gallery as a while, and work those into your description text.

Making a sale using your new online gallery pages can be fun if you want it to be. This does not mean that marketing yourself effectively will not require a little effort on your part, but if you let yourself enjoy the challenge, it can be a very rewarding way to see the fruits of your labor ripening on the vine. Promote yourself and your work through social networking sites like Facebook and Google+ with links to your gallery and pictures of your work (make sure to use watermarks to protect your unsold pieces) and encourage your friends and contacts to share these with their contacts as well. Selling art online doesn’t have to be expensive or time-consuming if done correctly, so stay tuned for more information how to sell your art online and all the benefits you can expect to enjoy!