Would anyone care to share their advice on selling artwork? I’ve researched a bit and read a lot of articles about the topic, but I’d love to hear directly from other artists. Thank you!
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Hello Megan
I struggle to know what general tips to offer as I have hardly been the most successful seller in the world.
DPW has worked best for me as a general site, although my sales dried up when i put my prices up. But as my husband says, selling is not hard if you are practically giving stuff away. So that’s one option I suppose - sell for very little. I am not recommending this, mind, as I found it quite bad for my confidence.
When I had a website, and was offering very specific things for people to buy (pet portraits) I sold quite a lot. As soon as I offered just “stuff I had painted” I sold nothing at all.
In the U.K. it seems to me people sell more if they paint local scenes and offer them for sale locally. If you don’t paint landscapes I guess that is not very helpful.
So, in a nutshell, I think sales come from targeting your work to specific audiences/subjects; plugging away at it and getting lucky (attracting collectors); offering commissions of subjects that people want paintings of. I did pets, I know someone who does cars and someone else who is big on tractors!! Prize-winning cows are good, too, I believe!
Just starting this thread off in the hope that someone will join in with better ideas as I could also do with the advice 
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Good morning! I know this is way past this original post, but I also am looking for advice on advertising and driving activity to DPW/my gallery as well. I have a Pinterest personal site that I post my DPW postings as well as a Facebook business page and Instagram, all posting DPW postings. I haven’t paid for any advertising yet but am thinking about Facebook since I already have quite a few friends there and would be nice to move out to different audiences. Has anyone had any luck with Facebook boosting/advertising?
With facebook I’ve only had sales to people I know, except one time when I posted in a special interest group I am part of.Then I got a few sales from stangers. I never tried to boost a post, and don’t know if that works.
I think one big part of selling is to get your work seen. While I was making a photo list of all the paintings I did the past year I thought, why not make a video with them. I never did this before, but I think it came out nice. It’s not even all of the work I did, but a selection. So this is another idea, that’s why I’m sharing this here. (well, at least I wanted to share, I guess I can’t just copy the link; it might work by clicking on “watch on Facebook”).
I would not rely on luck with FB 
I mean you need some luck but it’s beyond your control. Working hard on your skills, yes, posting regularly great content, finding your best theme etc. Pricing is also important. I see often people sell a few pieces, got excited and then triple their prices and then wonder why there are no sales
I boosted a post on Facebook a couple of months ago. This was using their free $10 credit. They said it was seen by 500 people, who knows… Total outcome = 3 new likes/followers for my artist page.
But, I now see more traffic to my Fine Art America website, when I post a painting on FB.
In the analytics, I can see the viewers’ locations and painting viewed and it is within 1 to 2 days after I post on FB (since I know most of my followers, I know their location, and it is not them).
I guess people are looking at my FB page without being a follower. Perhaps they bookmarked it or something.
I have heard Google Shopping Ads is the absolute best way to advertise and get traffic to your site.
Haven’t tried it, but might. I see a lot of Etsy shop ads there.
I have had sales from Etsy. I had an Etsy store with a few paintings listed. People saw those and followed a link to my DPW Gallery and purchased them.
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I do post my work on my FB page with links to DPW. I’ll keep trudging along and see what shows up before I spend any money in there. Thanks Annemiek!
Thanks Julia for responding. I keep my prices reasonable in my opinion anyway. I’ll keep painting and posting and see how it goes!
Thanks Cynthia! I have paid for advertising on both FB and Google for my Etsy store I have since closed where I sold prints of my paintings. I did sell a little there but frankly I could never tell where the sales came from. No one responded when I requested feedback. Kind of frustrating to say the least.
Thank you for sharing!