Making a living as a career artist takes more than just producing exceptional paintings, sculptures, pottery, photographs, videos, or any other forms of artwork. You need marketing skills. Fortunately, there are endless opportunities today to share and sell your artwork, whether you are an established professional artist or just starting out.
Every day, many artists offer up their work through diverse online auction platforms designed to help artists sell their products. To help you maximize your returns, here is a step-by-step guide for selling art.
Seven Steps to Auctioning Art Online
1. Build a brand as an artist
The first step to selling your art is creating a strong brand for it. Your brand is what you are known for, and good branding helps attract more buyers. To create a strong brand, you must first determine the type of customer you are targeting. Next, create a key phrase built around your core competency and promote your brand constantly.
2. The golden rule: Know what to sell
There are several ways to sell art online, and deciding what art to sell and the medium in which you will sell is crucial. The following are some of your options regarding the type of art to sell:
- Original art: If you are an artist, you can produce art and auction it directly or indirectly to your customers. Generally, people love bespoke works of art, and unedited art could fetch higher prices.
- Other artists’ work: If you have an extensive network of fellow artists, you can host other artists’ work to complement your pieces. This help provides a wider variety for your customers while also supporting up-and-coming independent artists.
- Copies: You can also sell copies, art prints, or digital files of your photography or art. Remember that reproductions and print-on-demand generally sell at lower prices than their originals. However, print-on-demand products can help you maximize the ROI of your earlier piece of art.
3. Register your business
Once you’ve decided on the type of art to sell at online auctions, get your paperwork in order and register your art business. You can register your business as a sole proprietorship or as a limited liability company (LLC). An LLC makes it easy to hire employees when a need arises.
4. Choose your sales channel
Next, decide on online auction platforms to sell your art. There are several e-commerce art auctions and art fairs that make selling easy and convenient. However, you need to choose the best option that suits the type of art you are selling. The following are some of the popular platforms to auction art:
- Etsy: Etsy is one of the best-known sites catering to a community of artists of all kinds at every level.
- Artfire: Artfire is a marketplace, craft and maker community where people from across the globe come together to buy, sell and interact.
- Artsy: Artsy is a comprehensive venture-funded online gallery that offers art from artists across the globe.
- eBay: This is undeniably the world’s largest auction site. You can sell your own pieces of art and others you’re authorized to resell on eBay.
- Fineartamerica.com: You can also sell your prints for the best price on fineartamerica.com. The platform handles all the logistics related to fulfilling each order.
- Getty Images: This platform allows photographers, videographers, and graphic designers to sell images online and earn a commission for their work.
It’s recommended that you register and sell your art in as many channels as possible. The more channels you have, the more your art gets exposed and the higher the chances are for potential sales.
5. Determine the pricing
Several factors come into play when putting a price on your work. If you are selling original pieces or art, consider pricing them higher, but expect digital prints and reproductions to sell for less. Check out how other artists on the platform price their art to arrive at the best price. Additionally, take into consideration the cost of shipping when pricing your work.
6. Photographing and scanning your art
Once you’ve established an online store, you need to have a professional take photographs of your products to display. Customers should receive clear pictures that accurately depict the product you are selling.
7. Market your online art store
Marketing your work online ensures it reaches as many people in the art world as possible. Robust marketing can help increase awareness, build brand loyalty online and increase sales on online platforms. The following are some of the effective ways to market your art:
- Promote your art on social media networks like Facebook and Twitter
- Start a blog or guest post on other blogs
- Join and participate in art-related forums.
- Maximize existing networks to promote your art
Generally, it’s wise to market your art to a potential buyer using multiple methods to reach a larger audience and drive more sales.
Sell Your Artwork Through Newport Brushstrokes Fine Art
Selling art online is a great way to get maximum returns on your artwork. Auction houses expose your art to a large audience within the art world. However, before you achieve record-breaking prices, there is a lot you need to do first.
If you have been wondering how to get your art in an auction, our experts at the Newport Brushstrokes Gallery are ready to help. At Newport Brushstrokes Fine Art we sell and auction a wide range of art from various media, including reproductions of famous works by renowned masters and original contemporary works by emerging artists. We offer an online marketplace where you maximize the variety of tiers to sell your artwork for the best price.
