The Secrets of Selling Your Art Online. It's Really Simple!
Clicks over Bricks
£40bn - The massive amount that the online art industry is now estimated to be worth and growing by 20% a year according to a recent BBC News report.
Buying art online is big business; Saatchi Gallery recently declared they sell more art in a month online than most bricks-and-mortar galleries do in a year. Internet giants Amazon are so keen to tap into this huge market they’ve now launched an online gallery. Buying art online has become the industry norm and if you’re an artist you need to know how to capitalize on it.
Where to start? It can seem daunting but there are just 3 easy steps...
1. Be Website Savvy
You only need a simple CSS website to showcase your work. Once built, this allows you to easily add and update your images whenever you want for free. Now you know what to ask for, you’ll save a fortune.
Keep it simple. Let your images do the talking. Less words, more pictures. Choose block white or light background colours and avoid white text on black as it’s hard to read on a screen.
Take good quality photos of your work against a white background in natural daylight. Use a free watermark tool to protect your copyright.
So you get a website. What next?
2. Get Social!
Never done it before? Be brave and jump right in! The key with social networking as an artist is to tell your story. If your website shows your finished exhibition, your networking should depict the blood sweat and tears which go into it.
Show insight into your creative process, build a personal connection to your potential buyers. Document your works in progress, your trials and errors.
Learning as you go as we all do, you post and tweet and share and blog. But then what?
Well the good news is you’re more than half-way there. And Step 3 is the easiest of all...
3. Get to the top of Google, Fast
100,000 - The number of weekly art fans reached by Award-Winning Global Art Directory, Artists Info, Page 1 on Google.
Without doubt, 95% of all your potential customers are searching for art on Google. And they rarely look beyond the first page. So, unless you are a very big name in the art world, being lost in cyberspace can feel like being a needle in a haystack.
It takes a colossal amount of time and resources for sites to rank at the top of Google for popular search keywords like Online Art Gallery with the top spots all dominated by leading online galleries, including Saatchi and Artists Info.
So, how to get your site to the top of Google without remortgaging your home or becoming the next Damien Hirst?
Now, this is the biggest secret of all. And it’s so, so easy.
Simply choose your favourite from Google’s Top Ten Online Art Galleries and join them! Join as many as you can, the more the merrier. Tap into their customer base, levy traffic to your site from theirs, increasing your exposure and your sales overnight.
Steps 1 + 2 + 3 = Success!
So, the Recipe for Success is...
1) Keep an up-to-date portfolio with a simple CSS website to show off your work. Secure Pay facilities can be set up so you can take payments. Easy & fuss-free.
2) Build relationships through social networking. It’s much easier than you think and is actually a lot of fun! It’s also often a great morale boost to receive ‘likes’ and see lovely comments on your work.
3) Get to the top of Google the smart way (well, the only way)
The beauty of this system is that each supports the other, like in a big circle. By getting your work out there you ignite interest from potential customers who can then enjoy getting to know you and seeing your work evolve, they then become customers, you produce more work and that gets seen by more people, that ignites interest and so on. Go at your own pace but for maximum success, don’t leave any step out.
This is a tried and tested formula; just see what the happy artists on Artists Info have to say about their success with selling art online at www.artistsinfo.co.uk - Global Art Directory
