So you have a passion for painting and you think that you can express yourself through all those vivid colors that make up your brush strokes. You want to share your talent with the world and be able to afford the essentials for your personal life. It is an admirable dream. You may even have heard of people who sell their paintings for money, but you probably never thought about trying it out yourself. If you are looking to make some extra cash, you have probably considered trying online selling platforms such as Etsy that allow you to sell your paintings for other people. Perhaps you will find it easier to sell your work this way; you can put in a little bit of effort to market your paintings and stay in touch with your customers. Let’s have a look at how you can make money selling paintings online.
Sell Online Without Any Restrictions
One of the things that you will discover on your journey to becoming a full-time artist is that there are numerous restrictions that you must follow. The good news is that none of these restrictions apply when you are selling your artwork online. When you sign up with a traditional selling platform such as Etsy, you will have to commit to a certain number of sales per month. Traditional selling platforms also expect you to display a certain number of items per month. In some cases, you may be asked to participate in a gallery where you will be required to show off a certain number of pieces per week. All of this may not seem like a big deal, but remember that you are committing to a certain amount of sales per month, which may be a lot of pressure. There are also many limitations when it comes to the style of artwork that you can sell on these platforms. If you want to really be able to showcase your full creativity, you will have to find a different way to make money.
Find A Niche
When you are first exploring the world of online selling, it can be quite overwhelming. There are so many different platforms to choose from and all of them claim to be the best. If you want to be able to make money from your artwork, you will have to figure out a way to stand out from the crowd. One of the best things that you can do for yourself as an artist is to identify a niche. A niche is a group of people who have a common interest or a need to meet. If you can form a niche around a specific theme, style, or color, you can create demand for your work by offering it to people who share the same interest as you. The best thing about a niche is that it can be quite small, which lessens the competition and allows you to sell your products to people who are more likely to be interested in your work. If you can get a good feel for the marketplace with this kind of small online community, you can develop a stronger sense of ownership over your work and build a more personal relationship with your customers. If you want to be able to market and sell your product on your own terms, find a niche is the way to go.
Pick Your Battles
Once you have found a niche, the next step is to figure out which battles to fight and which ones to let go. Some niches are definitely more competitive than others and you will have to decide if you want to go head-to-head with other vendors or if you want to work with partners who have complementary products. It’s not always easy to tell what kind of products a specific niche markets, but you can use online tools to figure it out. One of the best free tools for finding out what products your customers are seeking is called Google Trends. With Google Trends, you can enter a niche or topic and it will tell you what kind of products are trending in the marketplace. This can help you determine what products your customers want and if there are any opportunities to expand your product line. You can get a sense of how successful you will be in the marketplace with this tool by entering your product’s URL (uniform resource locator) or brand name into the search bar and hitting enter. When you add your product to Google Trends, you will have to set a trend score that denotes how well your product matches the criteria for the niche. The higher the trend score, the more people are looking for your product and the more potential there is for you to be successful. If you want to be able to put in the extra effort to find the trends for your product, you can set up email notifications so that you will be notified whenever your product’s score changes (goes up or down). This can help you determine which markets to fight for and which ones to accept as part of your business plan. Keep in mind that some businesses, including some large organizations, will try to crush your dreams of becoming an artist by competing with you on the same platforms. The key is to find a way to stand out from the crowd and show the world your artistic side.
If you want to make money selling paintings online, give it a try. You may find that it is a great way to get your artwork out there and make some extra cash. Just be sure to find a way to market yourself that doesn’t get crushed by the big companies who want to make a buck off your talent. Good luck out there.