They say if you can find a job that you love, you’ll feel like you have never worked a day in your life, and this is what motivates many artists to monetise their work and start selling online. However, this process can be a lot more complicated than it first seems. In fact, without the proper knowledge artists can end up succumbing to pitfalls that will cost them money. Read on to find out or about these and how you can avoid them in your own endeavours.
Delivery can be dangerous.
Unless you are creating downloadable digital art, you will be producing a physical product like a canvas, sculpture, or watercolour that needs to travel from your studio to your buyer’s home once they have made their purchase.
Make sure your work is treated with respect during delivery.
The big issue here is that so much can go wrong with the delivery including the piece becoming damaged in transit. This, of course, will have a very negative effect on your buyer’s perception and will cost you money because you valuable work will need to be repaired or replaced.
To that end, picking a transport company that is reliable, as well as financially reasonable is essential. In fact, in the long term, it can be more sensible to invest a little more in quality transport and insurance to ensure your peace of mind and financial protection of your work.
Talent is only a piece of the pie.
Sadly many talented artists can become quite despondent because they don’t start to sell pieces straight away. The reason for this is because it’s not the only talent that sells artwork. In fact, it’s a whole host of other factors as well including excellent marketing.
What this means is that you need to be pretty adept at marketing if you are going to make a go of the selling art online business. With that in mind, it’s a good idea to take a look at some of the most successful examples like http://www.ellenjewettsculpture.com/ online and make a note of what they are doing.
Remember too to use all the visual platforms you can including Pinterest, Instagram, and Youtube. Such places are so important because they are where people are most like to be searching online for inspiration for their home, and so can be a great spot for them to come across your work.
You’re probably also going to need to brush up on your It skills to ensure that you can use all of the relevant selling platforms for your art, run your won website efficiently and ensure that you comply with any and all data requirements, amongst other things, Of course, if you can afford it, hiring a good IT support team can help you with this part of the equation, at least.
Reputation can help you sell.
In addition to having lots of images up on social media platforms your artistic reputation, and the story behind your work is a big deal to a lot of buyers. To that end, it’s pretty important that you don’t embrace the silent loner artist stereotype, especially online.
That means having a blog that explains your process, although don’t give too much away, or you could end up having people copy your work and experience intellectual property disputes.
Additionally, try to include some information about you as an artist including your training and education, your exhibitions and shows, and the reason that you create in the first place. It is crucial that you do not forget this as it is this connection between artist and buyer that most often tips the latter into actually purchasing a piece.
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