SELL YOUR ARTWORK & CRAFTS ONLINE
An Insider's Guide to the Worldwide Arts Market
by Heidi Rand
Dedicated to my husband George McRae. He's the one with the big hat and a chicken under each arm.
All content and original photographs copyright 2012 Heidi Rand
Garden Delights Arts & Crafts
Smashwords Edition
All graphics included with the artist profiles are copyrighted by the artists. In the order they appear: Kayla Garelick, Carolyn Hess, Toni Wynn, Rich Fowler, Tamara Holland, and Laurie Stern. Thank you all so much for your wonderful artwork and inspiring stories.
Smashwords Edition, Standard License Note
This ebook is licensed for your use only. It may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book, please purchase an additional copy. If you’re reading this book and you did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART 1: Basic Skills: How to Get Better, When to Get Help
PART 2: The Elephant on the Net: Should You Get a Website?
PART 3: Selling on Venues Other Than Your Website
PART 4: A Closer Look at the Different Kinds of Venues
PART 5: Selling Directly Through Online Stores
PART 6: Social Media Marketing
PART 9: Measure Your Success: Online Tracking Resources
PART 10: Legalities and Technicalities
PART 11: What's Holding You Back?
How long have you been thinking about selling your artwork or crafts on the internet? What's holding you back? Are you confused by too many options? Do you worry that having your own website will be too expensive, and you're not sure what other venues would be right for your work? Are you unsure how to get photos that best show off your art? Do you dread all of the tasks involved in packing and shipping your art? Are you concerned that your artwork or ideas will be stolen?
In this practical guide I help you discover where your artwork and crafts fit in online, teach you about the skills and tools you need to show and sell your work, let you know where to turn for assistance when you need it, delve into a wide variety of ways to market and advertise your work, and zero in on what's holding you back and how to get motivated.
Just not ready to start selling online yet? I give you plenty of insider ideas and leads to use the internet to promote your art sales offline, whether in brick and mortar stores, art fairs, galleries, through an open studio, or any other venue.
The internet is constantly changing and evolving, but by using the information and tools in this book you'll be set up to spot new opportunities and figure out how they fit into your business plan.
To help guide and inspire you, I've invited along six of my favorite artists who are at different points on the continuum of selling and marketing their work online. You'll find their profiles at the ends of Parts 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 8: photographer, painter, writer, printmaker, collage artist, and natural perfumer. Just as you and I have, they decided that ignoring the potential of the online arts market wasn't an option. And their choices about how to present their work, show it for sale, and market it, are as varied as their artwork.
PART 1: Basic Skills: How to Get Better, When to Get Help
The wonder of the internet is that you can reach such a large potential audience and market with a relatively small investment of money. The equipment, at least to get basic results, is not too expensive, and I'll mention free options when they're available. It does take time and hard work to succeed, but the skills you need are things that you can master with practice. The critical skills you'll need to sell visual art online: (1) photography, (2) image or photo processing, (3) writing, (4) word processing, and (5) marketing.
1. PHOTOGRAPHY: The internet is primarily a visual media; having good photos of your visual artwork is the most important aspect of selling it online.
Equipment you'll need:
*For 2-D art: scanner or camera
*For 3-D work: camera, lights or location with good natural light, tripod
What's a good product photograph? At least, show truthfully and realistically what your art or craft looks like. Your primary goal is to provide potential buyers with well-lit, clear pictures of all aspects of the piece.
Lighting: If you have abundant sunlight whenever you need to take photos, I want to live where you do. For the rest of us, the best option is a setup with artificial lights that you can use day or night, or when the weather doesn't cooperate. Depending on your budget, a setup can range from overhead lights to bulbs in stands with a neutral backdrop. Using flash is not a substitute for good lighting, although it may be useful to fill in shadows.
Focus: Without getting too technical, sharpness in photos is mostly a function of the amount of available light. In most lighting situations you won't get a good result hand-holding the camera, so make sure you have a tripod. Basic ones are good for most purposes and well worth the expense. Does your camera have a self-timer? Use it to reduce any vibration caused by pushing the button to take the shot.
Background: For many shots you can use a plain, light background. Taking the time to set one up will save you much time in editing out intrusive lines or details. Professionals use expensive continuous lengths of paper or fabric as backdrops. If you're shooting small items, you can buy or make a box to place the object inside and take a photo through the opening. Search the internet for "a photography light box" or "photo light tent" or similar words. For larger items, drape or hang a piece of cloth.
Taking the photo against a plain light background (as in the picture at the left side) makes it easy to cut out the product in image processing software, leaving a clean shot (as in the picture at the right side).
Close-ups: To shoot small objects or zero in on details in a piece, check whether your camera has a close-up or macro setting. Most basic point-and-shoot cameras have settings (often indicated by a flower symbol) that let you focus closer than the normal setting. With a more advanced camera you can buy relatively inexpensive close-up filters which you screw onto the front of your lens.
With image processing software, start with a basic shot of your piece and crop that to really show off the details. When you crop an image you're deleting pixels. That degrades the quality of the image, depending on how much you crop. For the best result, start with a photo that's zoomed in as tightly as possible on the object, given your camera and lens, and make sure to use a tripod so the image is in sharp focus.
Subject: To start, get a shot of the front of the entire piece. Then, take shots of the inside (say, of a box, purse, or vase), and shots of the back or bottom. Size always matters to a purchaser, so even though you're going to give them dimensions in your written description, include a ruler (or a coin) in at least one of your shots.
Show close-ups of smaller sections of the work. How is your painting hung? Is it wired? Does it have a sawtooth hanger?