art classifieds

These are websites where you pay a listing fee (anywhere from $5 to $30, depending on the site and the cost of the art) and then your art becomes a part of the classified, so people who are out looking to by art can more easlily come across it.

www.buysellart.com

www.selltheart.com

Even www.sell.com has a section for art and artists..

There are many art classified options on a local level, such as in newspapers, local magazines, or listings at local art museums or coffee shops, but the advantage of online classifieds is that they are able to reach a much broader audience.

the business of art

Selling art is harder than making it. The following is a list of tips and ideas that I've collected from the website artbusiness.com ..it contains many useful themes that an artist looking to sell should consider; ways to get consumers interested in buying and owning art.

Art is a powerful form of expression for artists as well as for those who own it. Art allows people to convey or demonstrate deeply held feelings and beliefs as well as moral, ethical, and political sentiments in socially acceptable ways.

Art encourages people to ask questions, to take brief moments out of their busy lives to reflect on ideas other than how to make more money faster or how to get over on the competition.

Art makes people think about ways how life might one day be better than it is now.

Art can stimulate the expression and interchange of thoughts, feelings, and ideas among total strangers who would not ordinarily talk to each other.

Children are fascinated with art. Art makes children ask questions. Art makes children fantasize and imagine. Art teaches children how to be creative and have fun with life.

Art beautifies and personalizes environments. Art can transform private homes or places of business into personal museums.

Art can be used as a tool of power-- to intimidate. For example, imagine an office with a bold, vibrant, oversized painting hanging on the wall directly behind the desk, and two imposing larger-than-life sculptures, one at either side of the desk. Anyone who sits and meets with the person seated behind the desk must contend not only with that person, but also with the art.

An original work of art is not only visually appealing, but it also communicates the personality, abilities, creativity, inspiration, mind, and sometimes the genius of the artist who created it.

An original work of art reflects and often enhances the personality of the individual who owns it.

Art attracts tourism, visitors, and dollars. People travel to the great cities of the world to see
great museums, works of art, and, of course, they spend money while doing so.

http://www.artbusiness.com

online auctions

I was searching for more ways to help price art when I came across this website: http://www.artfact.com/. it's actually really interesting. Not only does it give helpful hints for pricing but it also has direct links to art auctions online. There is also a search feature which contains many works by different artists which can serve as a compare and contrast tool for artists just starting to sell their work.

another great website to search around is http://www.artprice.com which is similar in that it showcases hundreds of thousands of artists and over 21 million auctions. It's very informative to search the art cataloge and get ideas on where ones work might fit in.

crafting a web site

This is a list of tips I discovered about howto craft the "perfect" website for selling art...

-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.

-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.


http://tools.devshed.com/c/a/Online-Business-Help/Selling-your-Art-Online-Website-Tips-For-Artists

knowing how to price

A major factor in selling art, or anything for that matter, is knowing how high or low to price it. Art can be tricky, though, like some other goods in that a high price might indicate that it is of higher quality while a low price might mean it's no good. An artist might think that if they just price their piece(s) low more people will buy and that they will sell their work quickly. Someone else, on the other hand, might think that by pricing something high they are giving buyers the impression that it is really worth something. The truth is, a buyer can be put off by both an overly high and an overly low price.

There are certain ways that an artist can determine how much their work is worth. One way is to go to gallaries, internet auction sites, or any other place where art is for sale such as restaurants or coffee houses, and compare their art to the art of others. Two big areas to compare would be the size of the finished piece and also the mediums used. For example, a 5 foot statue cast in bronze would most likely have a higher price than a 3 foot statue made of paper mache. When the work was completely can affect value, as well. Comparison can offer a reasonable price; one that someone would be willing to pay.


http://www.artbuys.com/selling_art.html

eBay & Etsy

(more on selling art online)

Most people who are familiar with the internet are familiar with ebay.com, a site where people can buy and sell anything and everything through auctions or "buy it now" offers. Selling art on ebay is becoming more and more popular and there is even a category for it on their main page.



http://www.art.ebay.com


Another site, less popular than ebay among everyday people, but much more popular among artists in the know is Etsy. Etsy is designed for artists and handcrafters, specifically. This makes it much better for buyers and sellers because there isn't a lot of other junk that must be navegated around.

http://www.etsy.com

Etsy is mostly helpful to the artist by being helpful to the buyer. The main page is constantly being updated with a list of the most recently added items (renewing itself several times a minute) and there is even a feature which allows someone to search for items by color. If it is fun for the customer to look around the site, and easy for them to find what they're looking for, the chances of them buying something are much greater.

There are also many unique ways for artists to network through etsy, such as with the 'convo' feature as well as through blogs and message board postings.

selling art online

There’s no question that one of the most recent and innovative ways to sell art today is on the internet. Building a website or a web page dedicated to selling your art is a great start, but building this site is a complex task. A few days ago I read the analogy that a website, if not properly marketed, is like a store in the middle of the desert.. No one visits. I particularly like this analogy because in the instance of creating a website for selling art it basically is a store, so it’s not so far off from the truth.


One way of promoting this online gallery would be through the contacts one already has set up in "real life" such as putting your site’s web address on business cards and other promotional items that might be given away at gallery shows. Another way is to promote the site through other artist’s sites by offering to link their site to yours for the same in return. This can create a web of artists and can create business for everyone by working with each other instead of against.



If the buyer will be viewing your art online another important thing to keep in mind is picture quality. The photos of your artwork should be a brilliant and clear as possible, while still being a true to life representation of the piece(s). It is also a good idea to post information about the artwork that the buyer might have uncertainties about such as textiles used, scale of image, and cost.

More at:

Http://www.PicassoMio.com