Selling Your Art and Photographs Online

While many amateur artists work primarily for pleasure, or to create cards and gifts for family and friends, there can be no doubt that selling your art is an appealing prospect.

With my husband I have explored several methods of online selling and below will share some hints and tips to help you navigate your way through the options to see what might suit you.

First of all, to sell online you'll need some equipment. I can assume that you have access to a computer, but you'll also need some equipment to share images. An attractive clear image of the picture you are selling is essential. After all, would you buy something if the only thing you have to judge quality is a murky thumb-nail on the screen? A camera and photo-editing software are essential and there are some good free products available. You will also need a scanner if you are selling prints of original paintings rather than photographs to be able to upload them. When we sell framed items, we take photographs of the framed products to upload. It is essential to spend some time experimenting with different lighting and effects to make sure that your image is as true a representation of your art as possible.

Like many, we started selling through an online auction site, listing our framed pictures for sale. Pictures are not an essential commodity, as no one has to have a picture right now and so you cannot expect instant high turn-over. Consider your pricing, to make sure you haven't overlooked any over-heads. While as an amateur you may not need to make a huge profit, you certainly shouldn't be selling your art at a loss.

It is also important to think about the category you put your work into. There are many thousands, or millions, of other sellers, so your art needs to be in the right place. Spend some time checking trough the categories, thinking about the key words you would search for, until you are happy.

We use the auctions to test new products and to raise awareness of our art. We sell little in the auctions, however, as we are careful not to make our starting price too low. However, this is a matter for you to decide for yourself.

Our next step was to use online store-sites. There are some sites where you create your own online store, posting images of your product. The site handles payments, but you manage the shipping yourself. Registering and uploading images is usually easy, and there is a small charge for each product you post together with commission when you sell. Read the small print!

Other sites do more for you, taking care of all the printing and shipping of orders, so you make less per item but have no administration yourself, so you don't have to keep checking to see if you have a product to package and post. It's usually easy to get started, and you usually have a choice of products to have your image printed on, to include smart phone and tablet cases and clothes as well as posters and prints, framed or unframed. These sites can be an economic way to buy your own prints to sell yourself. In my experience the quality is great, but check where your company does it's printing, as if it is overseas you need to allow time for shipping.

We have also started using a company that provides buttons for you to include in your own website or blog. Such companies handle the printing and shipping for you. The difference here is that you get code to create a 'Buy this print' button. You can also share the button on social media. Customers clicking on the button go through to the printer's site, where the order and payment are finalised.

For many a natural step is to create your own website. There are many build your own sites and it's worth taking some time reading reviews as well as the information provided to see if it suits you. We found our site easy and enjoyable to create. It's a great way to keep all the information about our work in one place in one place, and we promote the URL on receipts, letter-heads and social media.

A final piece of advice is to use social media as much as you can. No-one will know you are out there with beautiful products to sell unless you tell them.

Now off you go - get started!

To see the work I produce following the principles I have outlined above, visit my websites. http://www.alecarte.com and http://www.redbubble.com/people/magsart.

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