Online art galleries are very important modern tools for artists in addition to traditional offline art displays. Uploading art images to online art galleries is a prime opportunity for otherwise little-known artists to establish a presence on the internet. Before the internet came to be widely used as it is today, art viewing and purchasing was limited to local showings of an artist's work with some exhibitions that would travel city-to-city. Aside from the in-person method, artists also have long used catalogs that show works from various artists made available to the general public. These methods are still good practice and getting out and taking your work to shows is always a positive, yet, the artists are limited in the number of people they can reach and the length of time their art display will circulate. A very important point to consider is that when using offline methods much of the control shifts into the hands of curators and gallery owners and the entire process therein is subject to be approved or rejected by them. 

Example: A Singular Creation Member Galleries

Sample of watermark to lower value of image
source: wiki user Canoe1967 

When a potential customer lands on your site, you want them to engage, browse, click around and ultimately convert to a sale. That is pretty simple to achieve, right? Well, hang on a minute, and read this quick article to make sure you are avoiding using conversion-killers. These are some seemingly harmless things that we can unknowingly be doing to sabotage our own success online, and here they are. Read on to see if you are using anything that can kill your conversions.

Watermarks ON Your Images

When you are selling your art you do not want to obscure the actual image with your @ or .com or copyrights.  When looking at any retail sales papers, catalogs, magazines or websites do you see them watermarking all over their photos? Although there is a possibility that people would use your photos without permission, the people that do that generally don’t care whether it’s watermarked anyway. So if you must put anything on it try to include it in the image name, such as jamesculverpaintingblueturtle.jpg or maybe a website or attribution name below the image if you can include a white space around the digital. That can help with tracking for you and for people that may see it shared on social media and wonder who made that? The exception to the rule would be a watermark which was semi-transparent enough to not mar your images, and show that you are serious about protecting them. As far as what I have heard artists say, the general rule to follow when putting your images online is not to upload high-resolution. Only make the resolution high enough to look good on a computer screen, not one that looks brilliant if they were to take it to the print shop and order a professional print on their own.

Auto-Play Music

When a visitor “bounces,” that means they left from the same page they landed on. So they did not see anything else on your site!  A high “bounce rate” can be directly associated with auto-play music. It is much like trying to find a nice spot at the beach and someone next to it has a boom box blaring and therefore the search continues.  So, do your visitor and yourself a favor and avoid having a soundtrack on your website. This goes for musicians too!  Let your fans pick what audio files they want to hear by you, saves them the hassle of finding the stop or mute button when they don’t want to have the soundtrack you have chosen playing at them.

Loud / Obnoxious Color Schemes

The colors you choose for your site should not take precedence over your great presentation of your work. Important information is best represented on white or light-colored backgrounds. It is possible to be too dark, it can make your visitors automatically disinterested. If you have different galleries for series of your art offerings you may want to have complementary colors for those.  A certain level of uniformity is important though, so that your site visitors do not feel like they have left your page accidentally.

Animated GIF Images

GIFs images are fun for personal enjoyment but they do fall short of professionalism. Customers that are serious about browsing your artworks for possible purchase are not looking for a cheap giggle. This means no dancing llamas, baby sloths, or otherwise hilarious animated GIFs should be displayed on your site; unless, of course, you are an Animated GIF artist…

Some of these things, I am sure you thought "well that is simple, of course I avoid those faux pas!" Maybe there is something I covered in this piece that you did not realize could jeopardize your e-commerce art business. It is best to avoid these aforementioned things in order to make a better impression on potential customers who visit your site to view your art.  

Maybe you have some ideas that were not covered here?  If so please feel free to mention them in the comments section.

So you have done the hardest part of all - being creative and you have gotten good at it. The next part is the tricky business of presenting your work and offering it for sale on the internet. There are entrepreneurial strategies which are specific to entering and harnessing the potential of the online marketplace.  Much of it is relative to setting up shop in a real-world setting, yet here I will list eight exceptionally important things you must do to achieve prosperity with your creative work online.

Visit Online Store Example Here!

1. First of all you must have technological acuity.  It is essential for doing business online that you are comfortable with the internet and your computer. Also get used to using digital photo images. From taking the photo, to using image editing software - digital photos make the biggest impact when all a customer can see is what is online. Also keep digital photos as visual records of your completed work. This may serve as a point of reference for if you need to do something similar at a later date and also is very valuable to have on hand in case of theft. Social media will be something else imperative for you to familiarize yourself with in order to start a buzz of people commenting about and sharing links to your available online work.

   

   source: Social Engage  CC BY 2.0

   
   
2. Accept this truth - the more places you appear on the internet the more easily your work can be discovered. Of course, some places are more ideal than others and so your main focus should be on those. Just keep in mind the internet is a vast arena where many other creatives also sell their works, so get all over it.
3. Know who is your most likely customer base - you need to know who is probably going to buy your work. This data is necessary when choosing keywords and, by association, putting your items in the best online location. One way to research where to sell is to find sites where others sell a similar style of work.
4. Get used to talking about your work. Practice with friends and family, do interviewing (mock or real), participate in forums or social media groups with similar interests. Read niche articles, posts, zines etc and after a while you will get the idea of the basic language and terms - but only you can offer your story. Communicating your personal relationship with your work creates more value and appreciation. Practice this online by typing in a compelling description to accompany each listing.  This is a great way to stand out from the crowd! Learn more about how to approach doing so in this article, The Art of Selling Art.
   
   

   

   source: Anthony Quintano  CC BY 2.0

5. Go out of your way to take care of people in ways that will exceed their expectations. This makes a huge impact with online customers who already have lessened their hopes for great service due to being removed from in-person transactions. Surprise them and increase your reputation which will usually lead to referrals and repeat sales.
6. Price fairly, based on quality of materials, level of skill and amount of time put into producing work. Try not to draw a foregone conclusion that you are a celebrity and can bump up your prices just because you have had a show or won an award. Sticker shock will not do you any favors. Keep the traditional supply and demand concept in place to help determine when to push up your prices. Be ready to explain how you determine what to charge as well. 
7. Keep documentation on what you do.  This way you can easily retrace steps to repeat what works best and also identify things that do not. This includes analyzing what links are visited the most and what type of marketing and back-linking is bringing the most visitors to your store.
8. Have patience and persistence.  The best way to accomplish big things is to break the larger tasks down into simple steps. This is how you combat becoming overwhelmed, as there will always be multiple things to take care of at the same time. Your online store will require regular attention, so make sure you keep it up and and create a schedule for doing so.

Taking strides to incorporate into practice these eight factors will improve your chances for success. As an artist who has already created the products what is left is for you to master these key elements. Doing business online is rewarding and worth the effort and I hope you enjoy much success.

If you are looking for a good site to sell your creative work on then check out this article, Review: Where to Sell Online? - Comparing Etsy, StorEnvy and Big Cartel

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