How to Sell your Art Online for Free

The internet is becoming increasingly effective among artists as a way to get art seen by a broader international audience.

Many artists are either using the internet along with galleries to market their artworks, or skipping the gallery system altogether and selling their artworks themselves without any middleman.

I highly recommend a certain process to follow for artists who intend to sell art for free on the internet. This process will help artists maintain focus, and use their online time efficiently. It will also increase the likelihood that interested buyers will find an artist’s work on the internet.

 

This art selling process has been mentioned before, but I will summarize it again below.

 

1. Create a plan for selling art online
2. Build a website portfolio – Get one for free at Wix, then upgrade later.
3. Create an art blog – Create a free one with Blogger or Wordpress, A custom domain is recommended.
4. Begin an art newsletter. Mailchimp is free, and provides support for 2000 free subscribers.
5. Make a Facebook page and Twitter account for your art.
6. (Optional) Setup profiles at free online portfolio sites, and link to your website and blog for art.

As you know, most of these things are easily accomplished for free on the internet. The artist need not spend thousands of dollars hiring a website designer, when they can easily create one for free with Wix – then upgrade to a professional site with more storage, unlimited bandwidth, and a personalized domain name. This do it yourself approach has become popular because it is cheap, no risk,  and many artists like the control it gives them over the design of their websites. It may take a lot of time to setup a website, art blog, newsletters, and everything else, but it’s not necessary to accomplish everything at once. Start with a strong foundation (artist website), then build out from that in the order I have already mentioned.

I have written several articles on the subject of selling art online for free. To help you get started on promoting artworks online, I have some conveniently listed below according to the aforementioned art promotions steps.

 

Ways to Sell Art Online for Free

 

1. Art Marketing Plan Structure
   
   This post outlines different types of art promotion plans according to whether an artist is seeking gallery representation, or promoting independently through the internet. 
   
   In both cases, a professional artist website is recommended, but the way art is promoted may vary.
   
   
2. Creating an Online Portfolio
   
   The internet has many options for artists to host their own portfolio website. This article covers a few of the best choices for online portfolios, including Wix, Foliotwist, Wordpress and self-hosted websites. A general rule to follow is to choose a service that is trusted and has longevity. Smaller website services may disappear in an instant, leaving all your hard work lost, as was the case with Fine Art Registry.
   
   
3. Website Myths
   
   This is part 3 of a series about myths of online art promotion for artists. This post deals with the greatest internet myth – that a free portfolio is suitable as a professional website. Realize that free website services have premium options for a reason. The free website is meant as a free trial of the service. If you intend to continually use it to professionally present your portfolio to art collectors, then upgrading for premium features along with a custom domain is essential.
   
   
4. Build an Art Website Series
   
   We are currently posting a series of articles on creating an online art portfolio, and using Wix as an example. This series will go into great depth about all stages of the website creation process. If you do not want to miss any posts, please subscribe. Here are the articles that have been published so far:
   
   Choose a Website Name
   Fix Pictures in Photoshop
   HTML5 Slideshow
   Keyword Research List
   
   
5. Creating an Art Blog
   
   Blogs are one of the best ways to promote art on the internet. The internet has many free options for blog creation, Blogger and Wordpress being the most commonly used. Here are a couple of the articles I have published about artblogs, with more to come.
   
   Making a Contemporary Art Blog
   103 Blogging Topics for Artists
   
   
6. The Art Newsletter
   
   Newsletters are an effective way of keeping in contact with your most valuable fans and repeat collectors. The newsletter service I currently use is Mailchimp, which is free for up to 2000 subscribers.
   
   
7. Facebook pages for art
   
   Several articles are included here on the topic of promoting art with Facebook pages, Twitter, Pinterest and other social networks. Find them with either the topics tags below, or at the Artpromotivate contents page.