I have covered selling art online in so many formats from Etsy to private online galleries.  You name it, I have talked about it.  What I have not discussed are the technical parts as to why it is so hard.

How do some succeed while others fail?  Better yet, how is it that some artists are seen online and others remain buried in obscurity never seeing the light of day?

The Online Art Market Is Just Another Market

You need to think of art online just like any other market.  This is a major failure for artists, well because they are artists.  Markets are very mechanical and driven by data, not to mention algorithms in this modern time.

Social media is a beast all of its own and I will not deal with this here.  Rather the focus is for the artist who desires their personal website, gallery, or platform for art education.

There are a few key areas to focus on understanding the challenges which you will face.  These issues are technical abilities, time, web resources, monetary resources, and your plan which you will use to be seen.

The Achilles Heel For Artists Is Often Technical Abilities

Unless you can afford to pay someone to develop and build an online gallery of some kind, you need to know how to do it yourself.  I will give you a huge hint here, learn WordPress and how to set it up as a stand alone site on its own domain.

This requires minimal coding and most artists out there can handle the technical requirements needed.  It will require learning, but there is an abundant amount of resource material to help you.  What is great about it is that many resources to get you started are free.

You may not end up with exactly what you want for an online art gallery, but it is a start.  The point is to get your feet wet, and also to get the clock ticking on the time factor.

Time Is The Artists Greatest Enemy Online

If you are like most artists you do not have a ton of money to pour into marketing.  Rather you will be hoping to gain prospective buyers to your art gallery through some organic means.  Hopefully this organic method would be search engines.

At least gaining search engine traffic is like the holy grail for artists.  Too many get stuck in the social media trap where it takes multiple clicks just to get to your art gallery.

Why is time your greatest enemy?  A domain name which you will register as your site name takes time to mature.  How much time?  Years, as in a domain with at lest 5 years of age is nice.  Yours will be brand new and this hurts.

You can count on your first two years being heavy development and investment if you are working towards an online gallery that is driven by organic viewers.  There really is not another way around that.

The key to helping yourself is what you decide to develop alongside your art gallery.  It needs to be more than just images and prices.  You need to develop resources.

The Best Online Art Gallery Resources

If you want viewers, a blog may not be the best way.  Truly developing tools that people will use or access for information is the key.  How?

I know a woodworking artist that developed a tool which would calculate mathematical conversions for measurements.  It is one of the most used pages he has.  No it is not driving sales, but it definitely helps his overall position giving him a chance to be seen as an artist.

There are plenty of artists out there who create free little neat things for kids or teachers.  Yes it does help to do a little PR in this way.  It certainly cannot hurt you, there is just a lot of it out there.

Why do these kinds of things?  It creates a need for your material and it is used.  Driving metrics is what is needed.  Whatever drives traffic to your art domain and thus your art gallery is what you want.

Offer an education corner to your art site which gives others insights into your abilities or skill.  Share information which will not hurt you but rather promote you.

In many ways an online art gallery is much like a social media account.  You need to create content, but for a site it needs to be usable content, informative, and long term.

A Lack Of Monetary Resources Will Limit Artists Online

I get it, too much of this world is pay to play.  Art is no different especially when it comes to selling art or trying to sustain an online gallery.  Organic viewers often mean that a brand name has been established and that’s difficult to do.

First it is best to focus your monetary resources on what you need.  If there is left over resources then you can splurge some on what you may want to try or experiment with.  An example of this could be ad marketing.

No matter what monetary resources you have as an artist there is one critical aspect to understand.  Throwing money at the problem is not the solution anyway.  An online gallery is about having a long-term view.  In other words, it is about growth over time.

Hosting or development are needs, experimental ads or other programs are wants.  Always focus on what will drive your future long-term rather than an attempt to gain viewers just today.

Never Take Short Cuts

If you want an art blog, do not use AI or other authors to write for you unless those others people are a permanent part of your team.  Always think evergreen content, in other words the content you create will remain relevant as time passes and it ages.

While artists typically hate data you need to get accustomed to concepts like SEO.  You do not need to become obsessed with SEO, just follow the basic rules of the road and be natural to what you are creating.

Do not buy into games, schemes, or gimmicks that promise results.  Genuine networking may have some kind of basic barter system to it yet it should be simple exchanges of effort.

Remember that you are developing a brand for your art.  Always ask if what you are about to do is how you wish to represent your artwork and your brand?  If the answer is no, then do not do it.

Getting Over Being “You” As An Artist

In the art world there is a lot of focus about an artist being able to embrace themselves, being true to yourself, and all that.  If we are talking about how you express your artwork, then okay.  In marketing? Never.

Marketing is a science, not an expression.  Art marketing is no different.  If anything, it is far more challenging than any other market.  You are not selling commodities; you are selling your artwork.  In truth they do not “need” you.

When curating your gallery, creating your online presence as an artist, it is about resources and clear presentation.  You will catch or lose your audience within micro seconds.

If you rely upon SERPS and SEO as an artist then trust me the algorithm could care less about you.  Those metrics are brutal, and they sting everyone.  Eventually all rise and fall to slowly and hopefully rise again.

The emotional aspect of this you must let go of when marketing art.  Save the emotions for what you create as an artist.  The best friend you can have in this part is being stubborn and simply not quitting.