Starting a business, or growing an existing business, can be a slog. There’s so much to do, and so little reward at the beginning, that it’s easy to get disheartened.
One of the easiest ways to get started with selling art online is find a few quick wins. Getting a website up and running, or redesigning a website, can be overwhelming. You can often get started just by accumulating a few followers on social networks and making some quick sales by sharing images of your work online. These quick wins are a way of motivating you to keep going.
How to Get Quick Wins
In this post, I’ll outline a few of the ways that you can get some quick wins.
Print on Demand services
If you are an artist who sells large works or very expensive pieces, your art is out of the price range of what most new collectors feel comfortable spending. You can grow awareness of your work, and substantial side revenue, by offering prints of your art.
The Internet has given rise to a plethora of Print on Demand (POD) services. These companies will print, frame, package and ship your images. All you have to do is upload high-resolution images of your art. Of course, while these companies have substantial communities of interested art collectors, you’ll be competing on their sites with thousands of other artists, so you’ll need to market yourself as well – but that’s where the quick wins come in to play.
Here’s a few of those POD companies:
FineArtAmerica.com – a tiny little scrappy company, they only have a handful of employees, but they have become a juggernaut in the POD space.
SaatchiArt.com – perhaps the largest POD service, Saatchi also sells original art and is the center of an important part of the art world.
Social Media. Once you get a few high-quality images online, you can begin by sharing your process. Learn to tell stories and by the time you build up a few hundred followers (which shouldn’t take more than a couple of weeks) you should have a sale or two. Here are my favorite social media for quick wins.
Instagram. My friend Melissa Dinwiddie shared her experience of letting collectors in on the creative experience in her blog post on The Creative Process.
Here’s what she had to say:
“Another very sweet surprise is that, not long into my experiment with sharing my process pics, someone on Facebook asked if it would be possible to purchase one of my pieces-in-process.
Um, that would be yes! (And it quickly made me realize the importance of making this super-clear in my Instagram bio and in my posts as well — all work is for sale!)
This initial inquiry turned into not just a sale but also a commission, when it turned out the client wanted two sister paintings. And when she came to pick them up yesterday (see the blue/green pics at the top below), she also bought two other pieces I had in the studio, one of which wasn’t even finished yet.”
Pinterest is probably the most under-utilized social network among professional artists, which is astounding, because … it’s a visual social network where people put together images of things they like. Here’s a quick run-down of how to get started on Pinterest.
Tumblr has become the de facto social network for the upper echelons of the gallery, critical, and art magazine world. Sites like Colossal and Hyperallergic troll through Tumblr looking for stories, and many of the museums and galleries have active Tumblr accounts. Here’s our article on selling art on Tumblr.
Google Plus Hangouts are a great way of building relationships with collectors from all over the world in real time. Bill Inman shares his ideas on how he does twice-monthly Google Hangouts with his collectors in this article.
Facebook is not a quick win. While Natasha Wescoat has sold over $50k of art with her marketing there, Facebook is another beast entirely, which we have written about extensively. You need cash to succeed on Facebook now. We cover that in our course.
Take Decisive Action Quickly
One of the keys to getting quick wins online is to rapidly try things and see what works. Many artists make the mistake of trying to perfect their websites, their blogs, or their social media pages before putting some of their work out there to see how people respond.
If you’re just getting started, pick one social outpost and start sharing there. Let me know how it goes.
image by Stavros Markopoulos
Want to learn how to sell your art? Check out our free members-only resource library.
Great stuff, as always, Cory! And thanks for the mention. 🙂
New to blogging so I (as Cory Huff directed in his SUPERB book, “How to Sell Your Art Online”) moseyed over to
http://www.TheAbundantArtist.com and attempted to “Join the Blog”, but instead
(I think) I am commenting under remarks by Melissa Dinwiddie ….
Anyway, I am just finishing Cory’s book
(after many disappointing others) on building an art career online….
My unpaid comment is to BUY CORY’S BOOK and follow his beautifully written instructions !
SUPERB is an understatement in describing Cory’s book!
R. E. Branch
Dallas
Great resources – I’ve recently uploaded one painting to Society 6 – so that’s another POD option. I found they had great options and really easy to use.
I found Instagram to be the best out of Facebook, Pinterest and Google plus at gaining followers and engaging with them easily so far.
Nice Brad. I’m liking Instagram right now as well!
Great article Cory, very helpful! I suppose I need to bite the bullet and create an Instagram account, it can be hard to juggle so many social media accounts at once!
Indeed – that’s why I recommend starting with one and building from there!
If you post to instagram, you can have it post to Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler, and Flickr at the same time. 5 birds with one stone.
No, actually you can’t share to Tumblr or Flicker. The only share buttons are FB, and Twitter.
Thanks so much for the article! I’m following your advice. If anyone could take a look at my prices. As a newcomer, I’m really stuck.
Hi there! Have you looked at this post: https://theabundantartist.com/pricing?
I am very new to selling art, although I have been making are for nearly ten years as a hobby. My colleagues/friends have been to ones to encourage me to start selling my art. The issue is, although I can get hundreds of “likes” on social media, NOBODY is willing to pay. I have tried different tactics, but all to no avail. They say they love it and they want it, but not really…
I have been trying to sell on fine art america but the customer service will not respond any way shape or form.
That’s too bad because the work that has been printed by FAA looked impressive but NO CUSTOMER SERVICE AT ALL for artist or customers. That is a shame because both are the back bone of the company.
HIRE SOME HELP !
Hi,
Great advice here, thank you. I set up an Etsy store in Feb and sold my first painting within a few days. I was so excited! But I haven’t sold one since, so I’m thinking it was just a particularly lucky day!
Thanks for the info, I’m already on many of the popular social sites, and on a few of them I do step by step process. Even though I get a lot of interest, I’m still just not doing well with online sales.
Thanks so much for this, Cory. I’ve begun putting your advice into practice after dragging my feet. Got my first sale on Etsy, my wife posted a picture of me with the piece on facebook, and I got two more sales. I can’t tell you how encouraged I am after these “quick wins” and I’ll be looking at these options as well. Again, thanks for your generosity with your intellectual property.
Matt.
That’s awesome Matt!
Thank you for this article. I’ve been trying to help an artist friend create his social media plan, but not finding much clear information on the best platforms until I found your site and subscribed. I really appreciate your insights.
lura_frazey Thanks Lura. Let me know if I can help in any way!
Just looking through the forums POD sites like Fine Art America are definitely not a quick win in regards to bringing in sales. I think a common theme there is people upload their work and the sit back and wait, expecting FAA to do the marketing for them, which it doesn’t. It still takes finding the right people to bring in to see your work there.
KevinAnnala You’re right Kevin. You still have to drive the traffic to FAA yourself. That’s why, as I mentioned above, it’s a combination of using sites like Instagram in conjunction with POD sites. Quickly accumulate followers and point them to a place that takes an hour to set up a product.
I can’t think of a way that is quicker to drive online sales. Can you?
Hi Cory,
I am new to the art world. After working in healthcare for many years, I am at a point in my life that I can finally pursue a long awaiting dream of creating art. First of all I want to say thank you for such an in-depth article! It really inspired me in terms of how to begin selling my work. One quick question. You mentioned in statement above : “to quickly accumulate a following and point them to a place that takes an hour to set up a product”. Is it possible, that the point place you are referring to is in fact Etsy, or Ebay? As places to ultimately, process orders? I am totally new to this process so I just wanted to be clear. Look forward to your response!
Thank you,
Denise
Wouldn’t that be true of any of the POD sites? You still have to get yourself out there.
CoryHuff KevinAnnala Ahhh I see what you mean now. As far as getting up and running it would definitely be a quick way of doing that. I can’t even tell you how much time went in to setting up my website. Constantly tweaking, adjusting, reorganizing etc. To the detriment of doing the important things that actually bring in the money.
Hello Cory,
Thanks for the great information! I have added my artwork to several POD sites as part of our assignments, but they are different in the way they present your art. So far FineArtAmerica and Zazzle seem to be doing the best job in presenting my artwork. Now I just need to do more work on letting people know I exist.
-Warren
Thanks for the great article Cory. My brother just told me that his neighbour struggled with getting and keeping galleries then switched to Fine Art Online and hasn’t looked backed . I’ll find out what else he’s been doing to drive viewers but I’ll find out now!
All the best.
Hi Tracy,
I am doing some research now on PODs, as I am trying to get my original paintings in the public eye and sold. Did you find out what else your brother is doing to get his artwork sold.
What about POD for artists in Europe? I’ve been researching available options for reproductions on canvas in the Netherlands. One of the best art printers worldwide was based in Zwolle – but he got out of the business.
Since I’m an expat American living and working in Europe I essentially have two markets that I can target. Perhaps it’s worthwhile to work with two POD services – one targeted for North America and another for continental Europe – which should save collectors on shipping and import taxes. If anyone has experience or opinions on POD in Europe – I’d love to hear from you! erica@patberg.net
Hey Erica. If you’re in Europe, then SaatchiArt.com is probably a great choice. There may be others, but that’s one that I know about for sure.
I’ve used FAA for over a year (my premium membership just expired), Tumblr, Facebook (finally killed my public page because it was useless), Google Plus, Deviantart (even got a couple “Daily Deviations”), Twitter, Zazzle, Printerest, entered and ranked among the winners in 3 juried contests, but haven’t made enough in “quick wins” (outside of a handful of small sales to immediate family) to buy a sandwich and coffee. Must be doing something terribly, horribly wrong.
what a great article!!! thanks for all the tips and advice!! like hearing about other artists experiences in the comment section!!!
“Social Media. Once you get a few high-quality images online, you can begin by sharing your process. Learn to tell stories and by the time you build up a few hundred followers (which shouldn’t take more than a couple of weeks)” I have found this NOT to be true with Instagram…would Twitter or Google Plus yield more followers? What do you think of Linked In for artists?
Laura, it’s not necessarily about how many followers you have, it’s about how engaged they are. Are people responding to and commenting on your Instagram account?
Hi!
Thank you for your post. I’ve just registered with Saathiart and my artwork on the left shows “This artwork is not for sale.” Argh! Just great – I west my time to show how amazing artist I am… Lol. This artwork is not for sale.”. Great to know. What did I wrong this time?
Have you contacted their customer support to get help?
they have to aproove your id information firt, it take 24 hours
Hi Cory,
I loved the article – you provided some very insightful information!
I’m wondering if you do Art Coaching at all? Though I’ve dabbled in acrylic and watercolor painting, my current artwork is a little unorthodox, and I’m a little confused about how to go about selling it since it’s purely digital, yet looks hand-crafted. Any helpful feedback is appreciated 🙂
Hi Brett – I do business coaching for artists, but I don’t teach artistic technique. If you’re interested, go ahead and fill out this questionnaire.
Thanks for the article.
I’m 3 months into a once-or-more-a-day posting routine of original art. I’ve been leaning heavily on Instagram to build a following (from 112 to nearly 1,400), but have had no sales so far. It’s disheartening, because the engagement levels are through the roof on IG.
I offer prints starting as low as $8 with free shipping, and folks have expressed interest, but still nada. I wonder if the fact that you can’t post direct links or easily direct message on IG has something to do with it. For example, if I post a pic of a new artwork, I have to ask people to click on my profile link to click on another link to take them to another website to complete the transaction. It’s very inconvenient, but probably by design.
I’m starting to turn my focus more toward Facebook and other media…and trying to find time to turn some of my designs into apparel/product designs. I’m sure once I make my first sale, your site will be at least partially to thank.
What is the best way to get high resolution copies of your art work? Do you recommend a particular website host when starting your own site?
We often recommend Bluehost for hosting. For high resolution photos, you’ll need a dslr camera and a photographer who knows what they’re doing.
What about scanning?
I am an artist but I also run a printing business and do a lot of scanning for other artists. Scanning is an art form in itself and you need a high end flatbed scanner and someone who knows how to use it to get good results, And even then after scanning most times color and density adjustments need to be done to get a close match to the original work.
Thanks for this! It helped me out!
Nice article Cory. This is inspiring, thank you for the information. Planted the see to socialize the process on instagram vs. just taking in-progress pictures and posting after-the-facts
The advice I’ve read so far has been really helpful.
I’m redoing my website using WordPress (which I never quite grasped until I read your guide) and started to post on Pinterest. I haven’t got my head around Instagram yet!
Thanks.
Thank You
You have been giving Me great advice to further my career in selling My Art. It has been making a change in My Life.
Hi
I am not a pro artist but have passion and trying to get started with my photography and paintings. How can I sell them and take it as a professional business. Please help me out.
Thanks.
Okay, Cory: I just left a comment on your “overview blog”, looked back in my email (I’m stuck at home for a bit…I’m usually not online during the day, but I had decided to devote this time to marketing). So…I have been doing some “boosting” on Facebook. I’ve gotten a bunch of “likes” (nowhere near the 100 followers mark). No sales have come from these efforts so far. Should I bail on that and try the Instagram or Pinterest route? As you’ll find in my other reply, I’m really concerned about wasting time. I have no experience with either of those venues. I will take a few minutes now and explore a bit. Regards, Dan Grove
Hi Dan, thanks for the comment. Boosting posts on Facebook can be a useful part of an overall strategy, but I’m sensing that you don’t have a specific plan for why you’re boosting those posts. I’d love to chat with you a bit to see if there’s a good way for us to plan one together. I’ll follow up with an email.
Hi Cory,
Thanks for all the advice, I’ve just started loading my photos onto Saatchi at:
http://www.saatchiart.com/kenshaw
I’m getting a good level of interest but no buyers yet. I’m a little concerned about theft of the images and wonder if that might drive the interest at the moment. I wondered what your thought were on this thorny old subject?
I’m bookmarking your great site and wish you all the best.
Regards,
Ken
Hi,
You mention ;high-resolution images of your art’ are needed for PODs. Exactly what do you mean by that? This is the point where I’m stuck because I need to buy a camera and I want one that will give me good enough quality images for larger prints. Hey, if I’m going to do it, I might as well do it right, right? Any suggestions?
Meg
Thank you so much for the article. I’ve recently joined Twitter and love how I can embed my own timeline into my website to create a kind of ‘rolling wall’ of interesting tweets around the subject matter of my new art venture – (hopefully to become a business!) I wondered though whether this was a little ‘old-fashioned’…?! Am learning a tiny bit of tech savvy at a time …- configuring that widget was a real achievement! – I was also wondering about how to get a ‘watermark’ added to pics that I post/are on my website with my name faintly on them- I noticed this in another comment here… Thanks again, so much.
Hi, I put watermarks on my images by using Photoshop but also sometimes it’s best to use smaller files so people can’t download them and print them larger or make them bigger in an editing program.
Hello, thank you for the info. I’ve joined Tumbler and am on Saatchi and also think that Artfinder is a good website. I don’t think it offers POD but as far as an online gallery, I like that they make images easy for folks to find when you first post them – they show up in the ‘New’ section. I’ve been getting more response on that website compared to Saatchi but so far no sales yet. It’s only been a couple of weeks though 🙂 I’m working on a bunch of other marketing strategies too like making small original works, writing my website on the back and handing them out whenever I’m at events. Or just giving them as gifts. It feels great to give gifts and it is a fun way to promote without feeling slimy.
I’m not on instagram yet because I “only” have a semi-professional camera and no smart phone. But I am on twitter, facebook, pinterest and google and I think tumblr as well. Facebook is slow motion re reactions from people to pictures. Google people are more interested in abstracts while twitter people tend more to liking realistic pics. I put most of my paintings and photos out there for feedback and find it very entertaining. LinkedIn people are even slower to react to art than facebook. So obviously, there are very different types of people on each of these social media. Pinterest is great in many ways.
I haven’t done the FAA or SAATCHI yet. No time.
Hi Cory, would love to get an updated version of this article on what’s still relevant/working since social media changes so fast. Thanks!
I stand by this article as current and helpful now. 🙂
I would love to know – where do you think the tumblr uses have migrated to?
Overcoming resistance and building momentum is my goal, and the information and comments have been very helpful by providing some structure. Also knowing I am not alone in this process is good. Bought the book today and am eager to read more.
Hi Cory,
Great article as always. I am a big fan of Instagram and even if I have 400 followers I have no sales requests. Would you have any tips on the how to tell stories part? Thanks a lot!
Thank you, Cory, that was really inspiring! I’m new to your site and newsletter and loving it already. Knowing people like me are out there makes a huge difference to my confidence. Looking forward to reading much more from you!
Kind regards from Hamburg, Germany
Hi Cory,
Insightful article and I love all the feedback. I am new yo your sight and like others learning as I go. I am in Australia and would like to know if besides the sites you have mentioned if you know of add ons to investigate downunder?
Thanks
I’ve been on facebook for years and finally broke 100 likes. Instagram is also slow moving for followers. I honestly don’t know why. I post competitions, free giveaways, art processes, blog posts, and videos. I don’t find my work less interesting or lower quality than other artists I’ve seen with thousands of followers. What am I doing wrong? (Some Instagram artists have thousands of followers with only less than 30 posts – what are they doing that I’m not?)
Thanks!
I feel you here. I’ve been posting work, both in progress & finished, for over a year on IG and have about 50 followers. “Grow your followers to hundreds in a few weeks”?? Not in my experience.
Instantagram does seem to be the best option for engaging with others and building a fallowing. It remains to be seen if then peoplease access a storefront from instagram.
Hey Cory! I got your book in the mail the other day and it is great. I love the dialogue here. This is a great resource for artists and I honestly think the future is online sales. More and more stores are closing, sadly, but it’s the future. Thanks for this venue.
I’ve spent the last 2 weeks wading through the flood of YouTube videos on POD shipping.
It’s mostly about tee shirts, leaving me wondering how many more tee shirts the world needs. There are some videos about selling POD art, but I need to try it to find out how much ‘commission ‘ you get, usually around a month after your sale. There seems to be a huge demand for mugs and stickers, so if you’re producing strong graphic art images that are ‘on trend’ and can fit on bags, shirts, mugs etc it might be a way to get your name known.
Should you put artpal.com on your list?