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Becoming a successful, paid artist used to be just a fantasy for many, but now with the access of the Internet, many artists are finding customers all over the world to buy their art. There are several different methods artists use to showcase and sell their art, and over extensive research, I’ve tried many of them. I thought it would be nice to share some of my discoveries with other artists looking for a little bit of help in this department.

Let me first state that the following information is directed toward anyone who wants to sell his or her artwork and doesn’t care if it is done through a gallery or not. This is more of a ‘do-it-yourself’ technique.

One way to show the world your artwork is by making a custom portfolio website. You can easily make it yourself through services like Go Daddy.com or Names Direct.com, or you could pay someone else to do it for you. Before you go off and hire someone, you might want to consider the cost advantages of doing it yourself. After all, each time you’ll need to add new information it could become costly with a web designer.

if you haven’t already purchased a domain name, then you’ll need to do this before you can build your site. There are literally thousands of companies available and you can find one by google searching ‘domain name check’. For my portfolio site, I use two different domain names that both forward to the same place (GayleEtcheverry.com and GaylesPaintings.com). Since my last name is hard for people to pronounce, I figured it would be safe to create something simple too. it’s proved to be quite successful for me.

If setting up a website seems a bit too daunting, then consider starting a blog instead. Blogs are free services where you can upload photographs, links and text about your artwork. A few of the bigger most popular sites are Blogger.com and WordPress.com. Your fans, friends and family can stay updated on all of your new additions with a feature called an RSS feed. This could be a great place for you to make your start!

Now before I continue, I think it is fair to mention you should consider to invest in purchasing a digital camera if you haven’t already. This is the easiest tool out there to get images of your artwork onto your computer. My camera cost less than $300 and that was 2 years ago. This camera continues to be a great asset to my art sales.

There are several different places you can sell your artwork online, and in my opinion, the two most popular sites used by artists are EBay and Etsy. One great thing about these sites is that they already have a large customer base that visit daily. In fact, many people LOOK for artwork on these sites because it is affordable, original and can be shipped right to their home. These sites do charge to use their services, but it is much less than the normal 50% commission charged by art galleries. Also, they work directly with PayPal so you won’t need to worry about getting a merchant account to process credit card transactions! Then, you will be able to make links between both your website/blog and EBay/Etsy listings.

There are some artists who sell their art straight through their personal websites. This is also an option for you if you should feel inclined to do so. Nowadays, I mainly sell my paintings with PayPal right within my website. Sometimes I do post a painting or two on Ebay or Etsy just to stay in the loop with their customer base. If you are just starting out, you may want to go the public route and tap into their large customer pool.

Finally, for the most important part – you must become a skillful networker. What is a networker you may ask? A networker is someone who connects with other people and helps to find quality referrals for each other. This is what you would call a win-win business relationship. Zig Ziglar put it best when he said, “You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”

No matter where you go, you should always be prepared for networking either on the street or on the computer. The first thing to do is tell everyone in your life that you are selling your artwork online and you’d appreciate them helping to spread the word. If you should meet new people, kindly ask what kind of referrals they could use for their business and then tell them the types of referrals you would like to receive. Not sure of they type you are looking for? You want referrals of people who like to buy art, especially one-of-a-kind pieces created by you! Don’t forget to always have business cards on hand with your blog/website domain name, and contact information so people can get a hold of you to buy your art.

Since you’ll be spending more time online, you ought to sign up for some free networking websites. There are thousands of these available on the web. Some of the obvious are Myspace and Facebook, however there are many other sites out there that encourage you to post messages and links to your business sites (one such site is JasonsNetwork.com). Most importantly, you have the capability of meeting thousands of people all over the world – people that could turn into future clients!

This may sound a bit cheesy, but it is very important to stay confident and never give up. Continue to make your art, upload them to your website and plug away at promoting yourself. Ask people if they would like to join your subscriber list to stay notified of each new piece available for purchase. When you send these emails out, be sure to add active links to the artwork you are promoting and encourage your supporters to forward your email to anyone they feel would be interested in your art. Again, stick with it, it may take a little bit of time to get the word out there in the world, but in a little while you’ll build your subscriber list and begin to sell your art. You’ll be a paid working artist in no time!

Filed under: Networking