How to Earn Big Money Selling Your Art Online

Artists, just starting out, are often disappointed to learn that their work probably won't sell for the high prices of artworks they see by other, mostly unknown, artists selling in galleries or online.

They tend to think of their artwork in terms of 'well my work is just as good, if not better so I should be able to at least price my work the same'.

At the same time new artists are told that if they price their work too low people will not buy it yet they know if they price too high people won't buy their work either.

Thankfully I've taken out all the guess work and come up with five easy steps to earning the big money selling your art. They are:

1. Become a famous artist.
   
   
2. Create art that everyone wants to own.
   
   
3. Never make enough art to meet the demand.
   
   
4. Set reserve prices high and always sell at online auction.
   
   
5. Sit back and watch people aggressively trying to outbid each other in order to own your art.

It's right about this point that you're probably starting to suspect that this article isn't going to tell you anything about how to earn big money selling your art however, is my five step plan so unrealistic? Let's break it down.

1. Become a famous artist.

There's probably a bit more to this than waking up one morning and deciding to be a famous artist. Let's assume you have actually done some art that you want to sell. (If you haven't why are you even reading this?)

Fame is a relative thing. In order to sell art people have to know about you and your work. If you aren't out there telling people on your social networks that you are an artist and that you sell your art then how are you ever going to get famous?

Online, you can take away all the face to face embarrassment artists sometimes feel when it comes to self promotion. Build a web site for you and your art, post your art on your facebook and other social network profiles along with descriptions that specifically say if an artwork is for sale.

Most importantly start talking to those 10,000 plus friends you've collected on myspace. Let them know about your art. If you can get less than one percent of your 10,000 plus friends buying your art regularly you'll be on your way to earning a living.

Talking to people about your art is how you get famous. Expect to be doing this for the rest of your career.

2. Create Art that everybody wants to own.

This is a broad statement but, to give yourself the best possible chance of selling, you need to create art that has broad appeal.

That doesn't mean creating the same thing over and over but it does mean keeping an eye on trends. Look at what artistic themes/subjects are popular and see if you can create art that would appeal to those same people. Bring your own creativity and ideas to whatever is selling for other artists and reinvent it in an original way.

Whatever you do don't copy another artists ideas or work. Your goal is to bring your own style and ideas to an existing theme or subject.

3. Never Make enough art to meet the demand.

If you're painting to a specific theme that is popular then you shouldn't just keep creating art until no one buys anymore. Set yourself a limit - say until you get bored of a theme - and stick to it.

One of the reasons art has value is because of its rarity. Don't fall into a production line mentality. If people know they can just get you to create another artwork in that theme for the same price then your previous works will be less likely to increase in value. This will also make it difficult to raise the prices on your current works as you become more well known.

That's not to say you can't accept commissions for more artwork on a theme you've already covered but be sure to charge a premium. Make sure people know it will cost more to commission a work than it will to buy something that you've already created as part of your ongoing work.

4. Set Reserve Prices high and always sell at online auctions.

Even I'm skeptical that this is a good strategy however, if you've been doing your networking and got people interested in buying your art then, in theory, people will be fighting to buy your work thus pushing up the auction prices.

Your goal with networking is to encourage people into visiting your auctions. Get them excited about owning your art. You don't want just one buyer at your auctions you want many.

If your online auction site allows you to set reserves then a high reserve tells people that they can't just walk away with your work at bargain basement prices. You're telling people that your work has value. You're not just trying to off load it.

At the same time you don't want your reserve so high that people won't bid. It takes a bit of trial and error. If a work sells easily then maybe next time you raise the reserve or if it doesn't sell at all try lowering it.

5. Sit back and watch people aggressively trying to outbid each other in order to own your art.

If you've done all the promotion then this is the pay off. You shouldn't be looking at single bid auctions ever again. You should be selling your work at higher and higher prices because you've done all the work getting people interested in and aware of your art.

Now all you have to do is keep repeating these five steps for as long as you're trying to sell your art.

The purpose of this article is to emphasise that even in the simplest business plans, for selling your art anywhere, there is a lot of work to be done that has little to do with actually creating art.

You can't just sit back and wait for customers to come to you. If you want to earn the big money selling your art you have to be actively promoting what you do at every opportunity.