Tips on selling your artwork

I found this article from Cris Wilson very useful for both amateurs and professionals alike. If you find this very useful, please visit his site @ http://chriswilsonstudio.com/

Original photo from http://www.ehow.com/how_4451605_make-money-selling-art.html

Here’s a basic birds eye view of a strategy to selling more art:

YOUR PERSONAL BRAND STORY - Understanding how you want others to perceive you and your art will help you in every other part of your art business. From the way you design your site to the voice you use in your content, your personal brand story is at the root of your art biz. It’s your job to make sure people describe your work the way you want them to. Don’t leave it up to others to brand you.

YOUR ONLINE HEADQUARTERS - This is the center of your creative universe. This is where anyone from anywhere in the world can learn more about you, your art, and how to collect it. All your promotion efforts should funnel your target audience back to your site and onto your email list where you can take them deeper into the world behind your art.

AUDIENCE - The “general public” and “everyone” isn’t your audience. I always hear from artists saying, “If I could only get my art seen by MORE people I could sell more art!”. It’s way better to have your art seen by 50 of the right people in your target audience rather than 10,000 random people. Think of who your art would appeal to based on either who you are and what your personal background is OR based on the subject matter of your art OR the creative problems your art solves for a specific group of people.

EXPOSURE - The root of your exposure is the content you create and share with your target audience. Your content is the shiny object that attracts the right people to your art. From your sketchbook drawings to the pictures of a messy table in your art space, share your process. It may not seem like this would be interesting to others, but to "non-artists" it is! 

How you share your content depends on your preferences and communication style. Would you rather take 20 photos and write about what you're working on? That’s fine. Are you more comfortable making a time lapse video of your drawing, that'll work!

However, once you create your remarkable content, you still have to hike out into the world and put it in front of your target audience. Leading them back to your site where they can sign-up for your art newsletter. There is a group or online community for everything.