Three hundred Paintings sold in one year using the internet - Artist, Anthony White tells how. Getting started Last year I sold over 300 paintings to over 20 countries utilizing my web site www.anthonywhite.net and the internet. In this article I hope to give you the basis of how I achieved this so you can apply these methods to your own artwork. I believe that the artists of tomorrow are creating their own reputations on the internet today. A lot of art galleries will only display work by established artists. I think the internet is an ideal way to get established without having the frustration of rejection. I feel that far too many artists spend all their time on production and neglect promotion.. I make a conscious effort to work on production whilst sales are high and when I am not selling artwork, I work on promotion.. This way I never get overloaded with inventory and my cash flow works better. I live in a small coastal town of about 10 000 people in Central Queensland. Local exhibiting opportunities are limited. Everybody who is interested in art has seen my work and the town does not have a large tourism market. After selling about forty paintings locally since 2004, I don't think I am able to sell any more art to this market. I have made a decision never to exhibit or promote my artwork locally ever again. I am more likely to have an art exhibit in New York, San Jose or London. This is because I sell more artwork to these place and I don't want to major in minor activities. eBay The first and second time I tried to sell a painting on eBay in Australia, it just did not work. During this time, I examined the eBay listings of artists who were selling a lot of work. I was amazed by the number of artists who were making a full time living from their endeavours. It gave me a lot of encouragement. I also went to their personal web sites and did Google searches on them. I don't think I copied any of their "artistic ideas" but I did copy a lot of their business and promotion ideas. A summary of my findings would be that successful internet artists act with honesty and integrity at all times. Some tips here include making sure your paintings are well packed. Always have at least one painting listed for sale. Mail the painting the same day you get paid. Have a variety of payment options. Thank the buyer for their payment and acknowledge that you received it. Give them an estimate of how long the painting will take in the mail. Do not overcharge on postage. Give them a thirty day money back guarantee. Communicate quickly and honestly. Buyers can handle bad news. Nobody likes dishonesty. There is a difference. What I find is that when I follow this process, the buyers tend to come back to buy two or three paintings more paintings. The trust was developed on the first sale. I find that my life works better when I aim to maintain this trust at all times. Like all emerging artists I have had my fair share of rejections from galleries. The best thing about eBay is that it does not reject anyone who is prepared to pay the fees. After success with eBay in Australia, I started listing my work on eBay in the UK and also in America. It was just as easy dealing with customers from overseas as in other parts of Australia. I also found using the other eBays just as easy as the Australian one. I have heard many people say that their "style" of artwork will not sell on the internet. The flip side of this is that I have seen a wide variety of "styles" including stuff I really hate, sell well on the internet. Many people also say that their artwork looks a lot better when seen in person rather than on a computer screen. This is a good thing because your customers will be less likely to be disappointed when they get the original. Under promise and over deliver! Blogs After a few sales on eBay, I found that people who bought my work started writing about the experience and my artwork on their blogs. (A blog is like an online diary for all to see) This made me a lot more conscious of providing a quality product and quality service. This also made me aware of how important it is to ensure my own web site is interesting so the bloggers have something worth writing about or something they can just, "cut and paste". Not all the write ups I got were favourable. I only replied to one negative write up after a big night and I wish I didn't. The blogger just made me look more pathetic and I really deserved this. I come from the old school that any publicity is good publicity. I generally believe that most successful artists have one group who really love their work and one group who really hate their work. This way the work can generate some thought and discussion. I find it a real compliment that anyone can be bothered to write about my work. I was not getting any write ups from the mainstream media but it did not really matter. The blogs were going straight to my target market - people on the internet! One blog write up was from a guy who works for Google. Sending a painting to the Googleplex was very satisfying. He was quite influential because about a dozen people who read his blog also bought my paintings. I am still getting sales from his blog because he has published comments by other people who have bought my work. Thankfully all their comments are positive. I do a Google search on everybody who buys my work. One buyer in particular was H. R. Fricker. I did not know who he was but a lot of other people knew him as someone very influential in the "Mail Art" movement. I made sure I gave him a special write up on my web site and this has resulted in quite a few more sales. It also makes me look more interesting because I let others know that interesting people buy my work. This is a major advantage of managing your own internet art sales. You know who is buying your work and you can keep details on them, in particular their email address and their mailing address. I send a short email to the people who have bought my artwork about three or four times in a year. Some people might call this spam but I have never had any complaints from people who have bought my work. I think they appreciate the update on what I have been doing and that I am still promoting my artwork to ensure that it is a good investment for them. Sending out this email has always resulted in me selling more artwork to both existing customers and to people they have passed the email on to. I also ask people if they want to be on my mailing list. I inevitably get sales from utilising this list if it is used carefully. Just because someone doesn't buy a painting off you straight away, it does not mean they will not buy one off you in the future. Sometime they just need to be reminded that you are still alive and still painting. I keep the mailing addresses because if I have an art exhibit in New York or London I will have a good starting list of people to invite who live locally. I think people would prefer a hard copy written invitation. I feel that I have a much closer relationship with people who have bought my artwork on the internet than people who have bought my work in a gallery. People don't seem to have a phobia about communicating via email and they are much more direct than if you were talking to them in person. These people know a lot more about me because they have read a lot about me on my web site. They also have the chance to ask me any questions they like at any time. I always answer the questions. People who ask questions often buy my artwork at some time. They would not ask you a question if they were not interested. The Paintings The canvases I use are 1.5 inches think and do not need framing. I always have the back of my paintings professional prepared to gallery standards ready to hang. This costs me five dollars at the local framers. I do this because I want the person who bought my painting to hang it up straight away. Having my painting hanging up in your lounge room is my best form of advertising. Having the painting hanging up in my own lounge room is almost a waste of time. I only ever use artists' quality paint for my work. I do this because in years to come I want to make sure that my work is still a quality product. On the back of all my paintings, I write my web address. This might not be good art but it is good marketing. I don't know where my art will end up so I would like all subsequent owners to know where to contact me and to keep up with the latest news of what I am doing. Web Site Being able to update your web site yourself if probably my best advice in this article. About six years ago I did a one day web page course and I have been doing my own web site ever since. Before then I used to rely on other people and it just never worked the way I wanted it to. This way I can update my site how I want, when I want without having to rely on others. People don't like returning to web sites that are never updated. I always put my real phone number and address on my web site. So far no one has ever phoned me to buy a painting or ask a question about my work. I put these details on my home page because I believe that it adds credibility. Would you deal with someone who will not give you their phone number or address? Make sure your web site has some Meta Tags that make sense on every important page. If you do not know what Meta Tags are, do a Google search on them. I don't put too much effort in trying to get hits from search engines. A good link from a popular web site will bring in a lot more traffic than all the search engines combined. I do like it that if you type "Anthony White" into Google, my web site is the first to come up. This helps my long lost friends keep in touch. Online diaries, blogs and news pages about yourself seem compulsory for the top sellers. Why not? People want to learn more about you. When you buy someone's art, you are also buying a part of who they are. I have many people writing to me, wanting me to update my online diary more often. I didn't know I was that interesting. However I do edit out the 99% of my life that isn't interesting. I often feel that I am not selling art and that I am really selling a story. Give people an excuse to come back to your web site. I have a photo of every painting that I have sold in the last three years on my web site with the owner's name and the date they bought the painting. This gives people a chance of internet immortality just by buying one of my paintings. My buyers get to see where they fit into my progress and development as time passes. I feel that my web site is a part of my art. I don't think my artwork would exist without the internet. Have other people who know nothing about you proof read your web site. I am still correcting mistakes and trying to make my ideas clearer. I try and make small improvements and changes all the time. Web Counter I watch my web counter very closely. A good web counter will give you more than just numbers. It tells me what search phrases people use to find me in search engines, what countries people are accessing my web site from, which online write ups are bringing people to my web site. A couple of web sites were really good in bringing customers to my web site. I made sure that I asked them for another write up. I found that posting my work on some art critic web sites also worked on bringing people to my web site. Getting Paid? I am a big fan of PayPal. (www.paypal.com) This company lets me take credit card & direct debit payments in multiple currencies and then convert them into Australian dollars and then into an Australian bank account. I sell paintings in four different currencies and I don't think I could operate my art business without Paypal. Paypal is owned by eBay and I think this really helps because people might not trust me with their banking details but they don't have a problem trusting eBay. Also I don't want the responsibility of knowing your banking details. I am an artist not a banker. I have an account with net banking and I give out my details to anyone who wants to pay by direct credit. I am also happy to take cheques in any major currencies but I am yet to get one. Secondary Market I follow the secondary market of my artwork as closely as I can. Last year I had about 30 resales of my art work. I helped these people sell and market these paintings because I wanted them to make a profit from the sale. Thankfully all the paintings sold at a profit for the seller. This is a great form of advertising. People love bragging about how they made money from buying my artwork. I write about these resales on my web site. This is viral marketing that works. I would sooner buy my paintings back at the same price they bought it off me than to let them make a loss on the sale. I can always resell this work at a later date. If people can see that your artwork is appreciating in price, this will be a strong incentive to buy your work. Confidence As my sales grew, so did my confidence. Telling people that I was an artist was no longer an embarrassment because I had some credible figures regarding my art sales. Before I was selling my art, I felt like I was trying to be an artist. When my art work started to sell, I felt like an artist. I think this boost in confidence was also good for art sales as well. I now carry some business cards with me that only have my web address on them. When I am out socially people will often ask me what I do for a living. When I tell them "artist", they always want to know what I paint. I find it easier to just give them a business card and tell them to have a look. How does any artist explain their own work? I also include a few business cards with the paintings that I sell. Any one who is keen enough to buy your work is probably keen enough to hand out a couple of cards for you. Conclusion I have been criticized in the past about being too business orientated when it come to selling my artwork. I don't really care. I would rather feel like a professional artist by being able to sell artwork. I always make sure that I have a lot of fun on the production side. If you have any questions regarding this article or some new ideas on selling art on the internet please email me at anthony@anthonywhite.net and of course make sure you see my web site at www.anthonywhite.net