Selling your original art online isn't easy. Before you leap in there are some things you should consider or be aware of.
If your goal is to turn your art into an investment property then selling online is likely to be a much longer path to this end. This is largely because it is generally more difficult for unknown artists to secure higher priced sales with serious collectors online than it is through a traditional bricks and mortar gallery.
Serious investors tend to purchase original art by emerging artists through galleries because they respect the galleries opinion on the future value of the work they are buying.
As well, if you are an unknown artist, selling online, you won't have the security and support of a trusted gallery to give your buyers confidence in the investment value of your art.
Selling your own original art online is better suited to artists who wish to manage their own career and sales. It requires a lot of dedication, research, knowledge and strategy to sell at respectable prices whilst managing your artworks investment value potential.
Before you start you should be aware that buying original art online is not the same as buying from a real world gallery. The buyer does not get to experience the original art in person. They only get to see, what is usually, a smaller digital reproduction.
Thus it is very important to provide as much information about each of your artworks that can't be determined from a single digital image. For example, whilst stating the size of the work is mandatory, if your artwork's texture is an important feature then you may want to include a few detail photos showing areas of texture.
That aside, no matter how much information you provide it'll never equal experiencing the art work in person. Welcome to the world of the 100% money back guarentee! That's right, if you want your buyer to have complete confidence in your art, then you will need to state that you will provide a full refund should the work not be what the buyer expected once they receive it.
So long as what you represent in your digital images and description of your art is as accurate as you can possibly make it then offering a full refund should be something you can do with confidence.
Experiencing the actual artwork should always be better than seeing digital images of it - that's why collectors tend to shop in real world galleries. Unless you're misrepresenting your art, it's very unlikely a buyer will not like the real thing even more than the images they saw online.
Pricing your art for online sales is an art form in its self. Unlike real world galleries it's much easier for an investor/collector to fall victim to a scam online. This is something you should be very aware of - especially if you're planning to sell your art from your own web site.
Investment art is typically priced high in the thousands of dollars. In order to obtain investment prices online you're going to have to build some trust between you and your buyers. Give them confidence that spending a large amount of money on your artwork is going to be a great experience.
One way to build trust is to offer smaller, cheaper 'sample' works for sale. These works should still be high quality (don't sell off your rejects) because they act as an advertisement for your larger pieces.
Give your potential buyers artworks to purchase that have less financial risk whilst giving them a real idea of the quality of the work you produce when they receive it. This will help build that trust and may prompt them to buy larger more expensive artworks later.
As previously mentioned most investor collectors tend to buy from real world galleries. Hence the market for art online tends to lean towards the 'buying art for decorative purposes' rather than investment value. This is something else that, if you're aware of it, you can create some works priced for this market. It may even be quite profitable whilst your waiting for your next investment sale to come along.
Be sure to create a clear distinction between each market you produce work for. Under no circumstances should you produce artwork that is of the same standard and quality of your investment pieces that you then sell to the 'decorative market' for lower prices.
Whilst I'm not saying work for the decorative market should be of lesser quality I am saying there should be some clear difference such as size, work involved, quality of materials used etc.
You must maintain these clear distinctions between markets in order for your investment artworks to retain their value. You don't want to undercut your own prices!
If you're serious about selling your art online then your own web site is essential with a domain name that is either your own name or the name that you want people to associate you with your art. e.g. you could use a domain made up of your first and last name i.e. firstnamelastname.com or if you work under a pseudonym then you could use a domain name using that i.e. pseudonym.com.
Professional Web hosting is relatively inexpensive and many hosts provide templates that allow you to create a site even if you have no knowledge of web design.
You can sell directly from your site via email correspondence with potential buyers (ask them to contact you for prices, to make a purchase etc.). If you want to automate the process with 'Buy Now' buttons, Shopping carts and the ability to accept credit card payments then Paypal.com offers all this free of charge (almost - you pay a nominal fee each time you make a sale).
Having your own site means that you can optimize every page for search engines. It also means that the viewer is not distracted by other artists and their work whilst browsing your art.
If you want to just test the water before establishing your own web site you could try uploading images of your your art to one of the many gallery web sites.
Gallery web sites usually provide space for some of your images and may handle the processing of sales on your behalf. Although that may seem ideal it easy for your work to become lost among the hundreds of artists who also use the gallery site.
Whilst you might get the benefit of combined marketing and traffic of a gallery site you'll still need to work just as hard as having your own site in order to get your work noticed. A good way to use Gallery sites is to channel people from them to your own web site.
Another option is to try auction sites like ebay. Online auctions can sometimes be very lucrative in terms of number of sales but you may find your cheaper works are easier and more likely to sell.
This is because people who buy from online auctions are generally looking for bargains. They are usually a great way to start getting people interested in your art. Any sales you make should refer people to your web site where people can view your more expensive art.
There are additional options like taking advantage of the many Print On Demand (POD) sites that allow you to sell prints of your artworks. These can be useful as an alternative to creating smaller affordable works. You could use the sale of prints as an introduction to your larger works for sale.
Summing up, if you're looking to turn your art into an investment property then selling online is a more difficult road than selling through a respected, real world gallery.
However if want to manage your own career and sales then implementing strategies to build buyer trust through varying price structures and money back guarantees can be effective.
A personal artist web site is essential whilst gallery, auction and Print On Demand sites can be useful tools in raising awareness of your art, channeling people to your web site and building trust.
There are many other tools and things to consider such as Postage and Packing options, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), artist blogs, social networks (for marketing purposes), video and more. However the above mentioned considerations are a good starting points to think about when deciding upon whether to sell your art online.