How to sell your art online - the dos and don't

This is the first in a series of posts I will be writing for emerging artists covering a range of topics on the subject of how to sell your art online.

This first post will start with the basics of choosing an online platform, following posts will cover topics such as photographing your work, writing a statement, curating your page, pricing and packaging work etc.. If there is a specific topic you'd like me to cover - please let me know!

When I launched New Blood Art in 2004 there were just a few of us in the market so there wasn’t much of a choice.. now of course there’s an abundance of online art galleries, so take your time to choose the right one for you. As a general rule I’d encourage you to think about best practice in physical spaces and recreate this within your online offering - you do after all (I imagine) hope to end up being represented by a well-respected physical gallery? So, look at their roster of artists and ask yourself if you’d be proud to show your work alongside theirs? Also, are their artist’s careers developing from exposure at these online spaces? Do they go on to secure physical gallery representation? Do they make steady sales, win prizes etc. – do some research.

There is a temptation from artists to list their work on multiple platforms and to get as much exposure as they possibly can.. This is a mistake! I don’t think you ever want to have exactly the same original artwork available on multiple platforms - it’s confusing for serious collectors to see the same work on many websites and therefore it’s a risk to your future career, because you want to appeal to serious collectors! If a buyer is interested in an artist and they search their name in Google and find them on 3,4,5 different websites – sometimes seeing the same artwork – with slightly different descriptions of the works and the artist perhaps.. it can undermine the integrity of their offering and worse begins to cast doubt over whether the artworks are even originals. Again – think best practice in physical spaces - you’d never see an original work for sale at the same time in more than one place!

This advice is based on experience not whim - I have had buyers contact me and say they’ve seen an artist on multiple websites, which has left them questioning the authenticity of their work. So, try and see this from a buyer’s point of view – buying art on the internet is intangible enough and serious collectors like the security of going to one place and knowing that an artist is being managed or at least ‘contained’ in the one place. Then they’ll know where to go to keep updated about their new work and career developments – it makes the whole experience more tangible and reassuring. I think if you have your own website, an online e-commerce platform that you trust and your social media channels and then, if you’re exhibiting in as many physical shows as possible, where you are handing out promotional material for your own website.. then -you’ve got it covered!

And as with all things there’s something to be said for focusing on one thing and doing it really well and there’s also the practical risk that if you’re on lots of different online galleries that you’re more likely to drop the proverbial ball.. you might for example sell a piece on one website and forget to update the contents on another and then make a sale for said sold piece.. which isn’t actually available.. it over complicates things. It also means that you’re not fully invested in the platforms that you’re on and you won’t get to know how successful it could have been for you if you’d more wholeheartedly committed - you’ve probably watered down your collection to have a few pieces here and few pieces there and a few pieces somewhere else.. so buyers aren’t appreciating a full, coherent collection of your work in one place.

So, in summary, do your research, think like you’re showing in a physical space and commit to one ecommerce gallery to test the waters properly.

Ok, next time I’ll share my thoughts about curating your page..