The Online Art Gallery: Gaining Momentum

The Internet has expanded our world in many ways. Today, through the use of an online art gallery, we can buy, or just enjoy, works of art. If we are good enough, we can even sell our art work.

No one wants to be a starving artist, but can be hard for an up-and-coming artist to get enough people interested in his or her projects to want to purchase some of it. That’s only one of many reasons an online art gallery might be a godsend for those artists looking for their big break.

An online art gallery is a website that features art of various kinds. Whether the art itself is painting, sculpture, or any other form, the piece is first digitally photographed and then displayed on the website as a webpage image. Often, an online art gallery will display the works of several artists at once, or may offer several pieces from the same artist.

In return for this service, an online art gallery may make its money by receiving commissions from the sales of the work of the various artists. Usually, an agreement is tendered wherein any piece that is sold through the online art gallery is subject to a fee. The gallery withholds the fee once the art is sold and paid for.

This kind of arrangement works well for both parties. The artists can showcase their work to a broad audience, without the marketing expense having to come from their own pocket; the online art gallery benefits in that they collect a payment for the pieces that are sold and have a constant supply of art to draw in potential customers.

However, not all online art galleries use this type of arrangement. Some prefer to charge the artist a fee, which must be paid in advance. Generally, this fee is used to offset the bandwidth cost incurred by the site owners, as well as the cost for the website design itself. The good side of this is the artist will usually not have to pay a commission to the online art gallery once the sale is made.

An important added benefit to using an online art gallery is that the artist receives exposure as well. The online art gallery makes a profit only when people come to the website and buy from it. Because it is in their own best interest to do so, they will work hard at promoting their virtual space, which, in turn, promotes those artists showcased there. For the artists, this means more exposure, which can translate into more sales.

If you are interested in displaying your art work in such a manner, you should do some research as not every online art gallery is willing to feature the work of up-and-coming artists. Some of the more prestigious galleries prefer to focus on the works of more established artists.

Whether you are an artist, or simply an art connoisseur, you should browse the contents of an online art gallery. The level of quality and the sheer diversity of what you may find can surprise you.

Selling Art Online?

If you are interested at all in art and photography, you will no doubt have noticed the huge number of impressive looking online galleries all over the internet. Judging by the numbers of signed up artists and photographers they seem extremely popular. But do these online galleries actually sell the work they display?

Well yes, quite often. It is a fact that many artists do very well selling art and photography on the internet. However, as with any offline gallery, showing work simply provides the opportunity to be seen by a larger audience thereby increasing chances of making sales. That said, the internet is a gateway to a worldwide audience and by joining an online gallery an artist has the potential of tapping into it. A word of caution though; some galleries are far easier to find than others. This is very important because no matter how attractive the layout of an online gallery appears, if customers can't find it then the artwork is not going to be seen.

So where are the best places to sell art online? Well, there are now many options open to both professional and aspiring artists and photographers. It all depends on individual objectives. For high visibility, joining one of the larger online galleries who get many thousands of visitors daily might be a wise consideration. A visitor count is usually provided somewhere on the homepage of these sites. There are some excellent ones to choose from but each is slightly different in terms of selection and joining procedures, how they assist in promoting work and how work is displayed on the website. Also, attention should be paid to areas such as who takes payment for work sold and how money is received after a sale. Commission taken from a sale is another important factor and can vary from 0% to 40+%.

Can one really make any money from selling art online then? The short answer to that is 'probably'. A good indication is whether the art sells in the 'real' world or not. If it does, then it is likely to be also successful online. If an artist hasn’t yet ventured into selling, then there is nothing to lose by dipping a toe in the water by joining an online gallery. One place to test the waters is eBay but another word of caution here. If work is already selling at top end prices, it is very unlikely that these can be commanded on eBay. It is very important to avoid dropping prices for the purposes of selling on eBay too, or anywhere else online for that matter. Current customers won't like it. It devalues their purchases and also makes them feel they have been ripped off by paying higher prices. That said, some artists are making a good living on eBay with its phenomenal number, and still growing, of daily visitors.

What about fine art and photography prints, do they sell well online? Well, yes actually! Very well. In fact it would be fair to say that although the art print market is very competitive online, with huge websites offering everything from impressionist style canvases to Disney posters, there is still room for original art and fine art photography prints. The fact is that whilst people may be hesitant to spend a huge amount of money on an original artwork without seeing it 'in the flesh', prints are a safer gamble as they are much more affordable. As more and more people become comfortable with shopping online for a variety of goods, this can only help online art sales too.

Selling your Art Online - Website Tips For Artists

If you plan to sell your art online with your own unique website, my advice is simple: Be Different! There are hundreds of artist websites online today that are all making the same mistakes.

The first problem I would like to note, is the use of long multimedia presentations that artists are incorporating into their websites. I don't think there is anything more frustrating then arriving at a website and waiting for this huge multimedia presentation to download and play. The artist may think it's cool or adds something to their work, but in all actuality, it only frustrates impatient surfers. Not all Internet users have super fast cable or DSL connections. Many are still using dial up modems and if they have to wait for something to download, they will simply leave and visit your competition.

There are also sites that insist on putting unrelated banner ads or other unrelated advertising on their websites. Just the other day I was doing a search for original watercolor art. The first website I arrived at had a big banner at the top of the website advertising a dating site. I am not sure how dating is related to watercolors? This is simply a distraction and you are immediately sending visitors off your website. If you are going to advertise on your website, make sure it's related to the theme of your website and is helpful to your visitors. Do not make it the very first thing they see when they arrive at your home page.

You need to catch your visitor's attention right away. This means putting your most important information near the top of your website in plain view. Your goal is to draw your visitor into your site immediately with a compelling headline so that they stay long enough to check out what you have to offer. Once you draw them in with a good headline, you must then direct them to take an action. That could be to subscribe to your newsletter, or to check out your latest product(s).

Keep your site navigation consistent throughout your entire site. This means having the same navigation links in the same order on every page of your website. Your goal is to make it as easy as possible for your visitors to get from one place to the next, not to confuse them.

Make sure your visitors can easily contact you. Put a link to a contact page on every page of your site.

If you have testimonials, use them. Testimonials are awesome sales tools. People love to hear good reviews about a product or products they are about to purchase. It really does boost sales. If you have ever received testimonials from customers, highlight a few of them on your home page in clear view. If you do not have testimonials yet, contact people that have purchased from you in the past and ask if they could provide feedback on the product they purchased for inclusion on your website. Make sure they know how you plan to use their testimonial, and ask if you can site their name with the testimonial.

Start an opt-in newsletter. If you do not already have a method for collecting your visitors email addresses, then you may be losing sales. Many people who first come to your site will usually leave without making a purchase. It is important therefore to collect as many email addresses as possible so that you can follow up with your visitors. You could send out an announcement to your list of subscribers whenever you have a new piece for sale. If you regularly attend art or craft shows, you could send out an email and let your subscribers know when and where. You could also send out surveys or questionnaires to your list to get a better idea as to the type of products they are interested in purchasing.

Make certain that you have a variety of different payment options for your customers, especially payment by credit card. Studies have shown that sites, which accept credit card payments, have significantly more sales. Use a service like PayPal to accept credit cards from your website. It's free and easy to setup.

Make sure you have detailed purchasing and shipping instructions in place.

Have a good refund policy. When your customer receives your product, it may not be exactly what they anticipated. By having a good refund policy upfront, you will gain your customers trust and they will be more comfortable making a purchase, especially if they are parting with a lot of money.

Include a "Privacy Policy". Internet users are a paranoid bunch. People are still somewhat reluctant to part with personal information, so it is your job to make them feel at ease when they use your website. In a nutshell, a privacy policy clearly states what you do with users personal information. What kind of information do you collect from your visitors? What do you do with that information? Do you share it with anyone? If you are not sure how to create a privacy policy, visit the following website to access an easy to use Privacy Policy Generator: http://www.the-dma.org/privacy/creating.shtml
Include a "Terms of Use" section. This section outlines the terms and conditions for using your website. For instance, you probably want to restrict visitors from copying or reproducing the images on your website. You would put that in your Terms of Use section.

When adding images of your products, always use thumbnails that can be clicked to show a larger image, so that your pages download quickly. If the larger image is a big file, let the visitor know that they may have to wait for the picture to load.

Avoid putting traffic counters on your site. Counters make your site appear amateurish. If your site is fairly new, and your traffic is not yet established, you are broadcasting this to everyone that arrives at your site. If you need to track your website statistics, check with your hosting company. You may already have a good website statistics program included.

Choose a basic color scheme and only one or two different fonts. If you go overboard on color and use too many different fonts, your site will look out of balance and amateurish. Your website does not have to be a work of art. You are trying to sell your art, not your website.

Use a light background, preferably white, with dark text, preferably black. Don't use images or textures for your background. This makes it difficult for your visitor to read the text on your site.

Avoid adding music to your site. You may think it sounds nice to include your favorite songs when your page loads, but not everyone will agree. If they find the music annoying, they will leave.

Don't make your visitor have to scroll horizontally to view information on your website. Web surfers are lazy. Most hate to even scroll up and down let alone left and right.

Avoid animated graphics and scrolling or flashing text. This only distracts your visitors.

Put prices on all of your products. If people have to contact you to find out the price of something, they will more often than not leave and look elsewhere.

Make sure your site works in all the major browsers. The most popular browser today is Internet Explorer, but there are a good amount of surfers who use Netscape, Opera, and Firefox. Check out http://www.anybrowser.com/siteviewer.html. They have a great tool that enables you to see what your site looks like in various browsers.

Lastly, make your website personal. Speak to your visitors. Let them know who you are and what your art or craft is all about. Educate and enlighten. Include a step-by-step article or demonstration on how your work is created. If people have more of a connection with you and your art, they will be more comfortable buying from you.

I hope these website tips have helped. I wish you the best of luck in everything that you do.