I can't say I'm not happy to see the end of this road, but it certainly has been an education for me, and hopefully some of you too. If you're just checking in, today I'm wrapping up a five part series on different places to sell art prints online. We've already discussed Storefronts, Marketplaces, Production Houses and Curators. We'll wrap this up in a somewhat neat little package with a little "Boys Club" action from Communities. Take Socializing to a New Level Right from the start, I'm going to state that there are a bazillion communities online, and many of those are art related; too many to mention in a lifetime, let alone in the confines of this post. I told myself I wouldn't go to bed until I finished this post, and since I want that to happen sometime before the next millenium, I'm going to cut this a bit short and discuss a few that I personally have experience with. Also, many of the sites I've discussed previously have a bit of a community effort going on (Etsy, … [Read more...]
20 Places to Sell Your Art Prints Online, Part Four – Curators
Before I begin, I want to say that when the idea of writing this post came to me, I had no intention of this being a multi-part series with 800 word diatribes each day. I'm not upset that it became that kind of discussion, but I am shocked at my own resolve to get this whole thing out to you, especially because of all the other posting obligations I gave myseld during this stretch. Personal note to self: do not schedule more than 1 post series at a time unless I'm going for some sort of posting record. I just hope I'm delivering the goods and you folks are appreciating the info I'm laying out here. Speaking of which, let's pick up where we left off from last week. We've already discussed storefronts, marketplaces and production houses. Today we're moving onto what seems to be the fastest growing segment of art sites: Curators Hand Picked for Your Lifestyle Curated and Juried websites such as 20x200, Fab, 1xRun and others are popping up all the time, and each one has its … [Read more...]
20 Places to Sell Your Art Prints Online, Part Three – Production Houses
In the last two installments, we talked about websites where you can take your pre-existing art and get it up and ready to sell in a very short period of time. What if you have some creative designs, but may not have the means to print your own pieces right away? Or Maybe you'd rather spend your time creating and let someone else do the fulfillment. Today we'll talk about the on-demand services of sites like Red Bubble, Society 6 and Imagekind so you can do just that. Production Houses - Fulfillment is for Suckers Assuming you're completely unfamiliar with these sites; as opposed to marketplaces and storefronts where you are the source of all the materials being created and shipped, production houses take your art, create the end product and ship it to the customer themselves. Once you load the art onto the site, add some detailed information, it becomes a nearly hands off situation. Sounds pretty ideal, right? Perhaps, but there are a few things you need to consider. (More after the … [Read more...]
20 Places to Sell Your Art Prints Online, Part Two – Marketplaces
In case you missed us yesterday, we're discussing the numerous ways an artist can sell their art prints online and I've come up with 20 to share with you, placing them in one of 5 groups: Storefronts, Marketplaces, Production Houses, Curators and Communities. Yesterday I rambled on about Storefront options: Big Cartel, Storenvy and self-hosted websites. Today we're moving on to sites like Etsy and eBay. This is a bit of a long one, but lots of things to say here, so have at it. Marketplaces - Pay the Cost to be the Boss A simple way to define an online marketplace is a website that provides you everything you need to start selling no matter how limited your resources. Even if you only have one art print to sell; as long as you have some photos, creative verbiage and a Paypal account, you can start selling online with these options below. There are, of course, pros and cons to going the marketplace route, but the biggest upside is the rapid delivery to market. The downside are the … [Read more...]
20 Places to Sell Your Art Prints Online – Part One
With all this talk about art and crafts shows lately, it's easy to get wrapped up in the idea that the best place to sell your art is at shows like Unique or Renegade. However, for those looking to build an empire based around their art, you need to branch out to other arenas, diversify your clientele, and the best way to sell your art to the masses is online, but which site do you choose? I am as guilty as the next person when it comes to suffering analysis paralysis over where to sell my art. Maybe you have a few in mind, but don't know which to settle on. Perhaps you have no clue whatsoever and just need a push in one direction or another. I won't claim to be an expert in all these methods, but I came up with a list of some of the more popular ways to get your art prints in the the hands of your admirers. I have broken down the options into 5 main categories: Storefronts, Marketplaces, Production Houses, Curators and Communities, and I will discuss each category in detail over … [Read more...]
Hi! I'm Dave and this site is about art, design and how to make it work for you. If you're an artist or a designer and you're looking for help getting your work to market, come along and we'll learn something new together.
