Make Money Selling Art: Using the Internet

Before worldwide access to the internet, artists had a much harder time selling art. They had no choice but to visit galleries themselves or hire an art agent to help them.

Most art was sold via art dealers, who took on a limited amount of clients. Today, any artist can use the internet to sell their art works personally and it is an invaluable tool for artists of any level looking to make some money.

Your Own Website

One of the ways you can use the internet to sell art is to make your own website. Don’t use space on a free hosting service, which will litter your page with advertisements. Buying your own domain name is inexpensive and well worth it. A good choice for an address is www.firstnamelastname.com, but if you have a common name, you might need to throw the word “art” or “paintings” in at the end.

Make the design of the website a reflection of the type of art you create. Include information about yourself and why you make these projects. Have clear, large photos of your works and include the prices—most people don’t want to have to take a second step to email or phone about a price. It could be the difference between someone deciding to buy your work or not.

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If you’re planning on selling to individual buyers, consider what they’ll be using the art for. Tell them why they should buy each piece, and how it would fit into their home or office. Have clear pictures of the work itself, but also include pictures where the work is hanging in a living room or workspace. This will help customers imagine the work in their own locations and give them more of a reason to buy it.

Finally, make sure people know about your website. If you read any art blogs, see if the writer will include a review of your website and works. When attending art events, hand out business cards with your website address clearly displayed. If no one knows your website exists, you won’t sell any art on it.

Sell on Another Website

One of the biggest up-and-comers in the art website community is Etsy. Etsy is an online marketplace where people can buy and sell homemade goods. It’s extremely easy to set up shop here, and the Etsy design is very intuitive and easy to use. Many artists have Etsy shops and include links to their own websites in the About Me section.

This way, they can find buyers via Etsy whilst simultaneously promoting their own website. If you get popular enough, you can switch all business over to your own site and you’ll get to stop paying commission to Etsy (which isn’t too large, to be honest).

Another big vendor for art is Ebay. You might not think it’s a great option, but there are a large number of artists who make fantastic profits by selling art through Ebay, and the people who visit the site are there to buy, not just to look. There’s definite potential in using this site.

Regardless of what website you use, remember the importance of selecting good keywords. The keywords you enter will determine which words people will have to enter to find your work, so describe it accurately. If there seems to be no interest, try changing your keywords until you find something that works.

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