ART INSTITUTE ONLINE

For any artist working today, selling art online has to be a major concern, and well worth investing some time and effort into.  The use of a website and other online marketing resources simply cannot be ignored, as one of the potentially most lucrative ways of selling original artwork, as well as prints and reproductions.  The possibilities opened up by the internet are totally revolutionary and effectively create a limitless marketplace for your art.

There is much talk of online sales taking over from physical galleries, but I think this is never going to happen completely.  People still want to see artwork for themselves, particularly higher priced pieces of art.  What online marketing can do, though, is raise awareness of your art to a degree that would have been impossible before.  Simply by creating a website for your art you can instantly put your work in front of people from all around the world.  And if you get your website right, the people viewing your work are not just random visitors with no particular interest in art, they are people who have just searched for something very closely related to your work.

This is part of the beauty of a well designed website – not only do you get lots of free visitors to your site, but you know they are there because they are looking for something that relates to what you have to offer.  Therefore the chances of a sale are so much higher than with a person who sees your work just by chance.  Part of this is to do with choosing the right keywords for your web pages, and using search engine optimization techniques to ensure your site shows up in search engine results.

The fundamental tool of selling art online is your personal website.  Do not let a lack of experience or technical knowledge put you off getting your own website – it need not be an issue.  Artists tend not to have money to throw at web designers, so you will probably need to do it yourself, but this is far more advantageous anyway.  If you are your own webmaster you are in total control and can make changes and additions exactly when you want to.

With a little free advice you can find out all the things you need to create your own personal website.  While there are some costs involved in any website, these are very modest compared to paying a web designer.  The best thing, however, is that if you set up your website properly, it will earn you an income even if you do not sell any artwork.

Clearly there is an awful lot you can learn about website design and promotion, but you do not need to know all this to get started (or even later on).  The basic requirements are a domain name, web host and a design tool, though learning a bit about search engine optimization before you start will be very beneficial.  Alternatively there are even packages available that provide absolutely everything you need to create a successful website, and hold you by the hand all the way while you build and promote it.