Sites for selling your art

I am wondering what sites some of you use for selling your art, most of us have our own web sites and or we have blogs but there are so many sites out there that it can be a little mind blowing.

I just joined EBSQ , I have a few things on Zazzle and a few on etsy. My problem is staying on top of everything splitting my time between art and horses and life, I have to get better about it and I am wondering if maybe there are other sites that might be better or if I am going in the right direction. Any thoughts

Hi Dawn, I don't sell my paintings yet but I have a sight of an artist, Carole Marine, that sells her paintings on eBay and is very successful at it.

Here's a link to her blog: http://carolmarine.blogspot.com/

Here's a link to a list of buyers with how much they paid and their feedback: http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=carolmarine&ftab=AllFeedback

Another option I'd suggest is selling print reproductions. There are a few places online that will either make prints for you that you can sell yourself, or even ship prints to customers for you, and you set your own markup price.

There are a couple places I've been using for the past year with some success that offer free membership:
Imagekind
Redbubble

Thanks David. I've been selling prints for years mainly at art fairs, and had a printer here in Tucson who would print them. They were experienced with working with artists so it went very well. I tried Kinkos once and that was a disaster. Most were laser prints up to 12 x 19. They could also do giclee prints for larger ones. The good thing was, that you could have as many made at a time as you wanted .

I live in northern NY in the summer and could not find a printer experienced with artists so I bought my own laser printer and do all my cards, 5x7's and 8x 10 on it. I also bought a Canon Ink Jet that does prints up to 13x19 on their acid free paper or fredrix canvas paper. These have actually held up better than ones that I had printed with three color separation process. the cost was about he same, but for this I had to have 300 made of each painting. I still have 150 to 200 of each of the four paintings I had done this way in 1999.

Oh by the way, would you please look in your mailbox, there is a copy of the WSO Forum Newsletter waiting for you there.

Judy

Boy I really need to update my computer sites, I actually have a redbubble account but never did anything, I think I will head over there and take another look and will check out the other site as well. Thanks

I am trying a new thing, selling limited edition prints for 20.00 just need to find a following. I am actually hoping to find a few artist who want to do this maybe as a group just have not figured out the best way to start. You can see the first print I am doing this with on my art blog, who know if anything will come of it.

You know when I had my own shop I could sell any artist but now trying to sell me well its just impossible I need a manager, LOL

I just looked at your blog. The heart painting/print is very nice. What's especially well done is how you describe it - just enough info to tell us why it's special to you, then you lead us gently into all the sales stuff in such a friendly manner. It's very well-written - I think it would inspire confidence in prospective buyers, and make them feel good about their purchase

Thanks Callie that’s very nice to say. I have a chicken one I may use for this project and the story is kind of funny, well maybe not to everyone, lol, just not sure how much I should tell, will share here when I get it written

It would be good to have advise on how to sell or at least show your work on something that doesn't look so much like a blog or costs much. I don't produce a lot of artwork but would like to direct people to a site to see my work.

Any suggestions?

Here's one option:

http://jalbum.net/

You create your album, then you can either embed it in an existing site or just publish it to Jalbum (free). You could put a link to the Jalbum gallery on your website, and some of the album templates (skins) have built-in links, so you could put a link back to your site/blog there.

Great. Thanks Callie - I will check it out.

Just took a look at that site, wow, it looks awesome. I am going to give it a try.

I thought some of you might be interested in seeing how some people are selling their water soluble oil prints on the internet. Here's a link to one:

Water-Soluble Oil Canvas Prints

With the holidays coming I thought I would try something new for me. I'm in the process of setting up the Filarecki Fun Art Shop through Zazzle. You can check it out through the link in my signature.

When I used to do art fairs, some of my biggest sellers, what I called my "rent payers," were prints of my paintings on cards, magnets, t-shirts, and hand-sewn eyeglass cases, potholders and purses. It was time consuming to make these, but they always sold. So...I'm letting Zazzle do all the work for me and just collecting the money (I hope. I've only just started.)

One thing I have learned this weekend is that they don't work on weekends or something, because items I have entered on Saturday have still not been approved. Things I put in on Friday, were approved within about 4 hours. I guess maybe I should learn to take the weekend off.

Anyway, I'll keep you posted on how this progresses. I've been building my Etsy shop, also, but still haven't sold anything. On the Artistwebsite through Fine Art America I have sold three large prints over 8 months so that is encouraging.

Hope this has given some of you ideas on selling your artwork. Good Luck.

Hey Judy, I had a Zazzle shop at one time and actually sold items from time to time without a whole lot of promotion. I finally gave it up because of their pay policies. I never actually received a check from them - ever - and actually ended up leaving with them owing me money from sales because their policy is to not pay until you've earned at least $25.

What I did before that to collect what was owed to me was to order items to use as gifts but of course I ended up paying them more than was owed to me.

Anyway, be sure to read their policies very carefully. It might work for you if you work at it as sales just trickled in for me and my cut was slow to accumulate. As with most of these businesses, success is pretty much guaranteed for them and iffy for the artist.

I did start a Fine Art America store & website recently thanks to you but haven't sold anything & am still finding my way around there. I'm not sure what to do with my website there as it seems to be pretty much the same as my selling page. Oh well, maybe I'll figure it out!

Have you tried Red Bubble?

Thanks Jan. The website is identical to your FAA one , so you don't do anything with it. Any change you make on FAA is reflected in the website. It just looks more professional and is a better link to give people than the FAA one. As matter of fact, change your signature here to the artistswebsites one from FAA. See my signature below. It took several months befroe I sold anything on FAA, but then I ended up with6 the first year and have increased each year to about 20 this year.

On Zazzle, I don't really keep up with it and I am at $23 right now. I probably could buy stuff from them, but I think I'll hold off for the money. I have never tried Red Bobble, since I feel that FAA meets my needs.

Definitely hold out for the money as it's to their benefit to have you take it out in sales.

Changed my signature - thanks!

I see that. I checked both the blog and the artist websites oout and both look very good.

Thanks, Judy