this is a step-by-step guide on how to
start selling your art online with no
experience hi i'm frankie i'm a
full-time artist small business owner
and content creator and i'm here to help
you pursue your creative career path
dreams no longer are the days of
starving artists i feel like that term
is being deleted from our society
there's more than one avenue for selling
your artwork than through galleries we
have the internet at our fingertips now
it's easier for us artists and creative
people to get our work in front of the
eyes that it's intended for i am going
to show you how i'm able to do that for
myself and hopefully help you do the
same in this video i'm going to be
talking about everything from platforms
where you can sell your art to making
products to promoting your art and so
much more if you guys see this past
video that i made this is a very updated
version of this you don't even need to
go back and watch that i have a lot more
experience in this and a lot more to say
now so if you see that suggested don't
even go back and watch that watch this
one but but for now let's get into it
these are the steps that i would take if
i was an absolute beginner starting my
art business again from scratch step one
sounds pretty obvious but is make your
art and develop your own style obviously
you have to make art to sell art so
start developing a large body of work it
doesn't have to be too big but start
developing a body of work to work
towards your first launch this is the
time before the grand opening of your
store where you get your inventory and
you stock your shelves start creating
work to sell and or turn into products
when i first launched i tried to start
with around five to ten pieces i
definitely recommend at least shooting
for five just so you have a little bit
of inventory for when people come to
your shop once you have this work you
can turn it into other things but i'll
talk about that in a second but once you
actually have your work decide which
platform you're going to use to sell
said work on you have a few options when
it comes to places to sell your art you
could start on an already established
platform like etsy or redbubble
platforms like these can be helpful
because they are already established and
people are already visiting these sites
so it's easier to get eyes onto your
work especially if you do not have an
audience yet these platforms are nice
because they help to make your work more
discoverable but generally a lot of
these platforms tend to take large fees
from the artists which is why i stray
away from things like this for that
reason i personally choose to use my own
website i personally this is just
personally think it looks a lot more
professional when someone is coming to
purchase art from you when it is your
own website with your own branding but
that's just my opinion i think it allows
you to further express the energy of
your art by doing that through the
branding of a page that someone will
visit my website matches my artwork and
it just gives you and it just allows you
to communicate your energy to your
audience in another way that is another
major reason why i use my own website i
personally use shopify to run my
business i really really love them i
honestly don't even see myself ever
switching to another platform or needing
to for any reason it cost me about
thirty dollars a month to run my website
right now which is a lot better than
using a platform like etsy which takes
six point five percent of every sale if
you're selling a thousand dollars in
product that's 65 out of every thousand
dollars that adds up very quickly i know
there's a big like strike on etsy right
now but i don't know it's just not for
me it's up to you guys to determine if
that is right for your business but a
lot of these platforms do take advantage
of their creators that's a rant for a
different video but i personally just
love going with my own website but yeah
determine which platform you want to
sell your art on and step three now that
you have art and a place to put your art
start determining which products you
want to sell you're most likely going to
want to sell original artwork which is
great but if you want to make this into
a scalable sustainable business that's
not going to burn you out and eventually
hopefully make this into your full-time
career only selling original work is not
the most sustainable route to go some of
the most common products that i see
artists making are prints stickers mugs
t-shirts hoodies tapestries postcards
notebooks and just so much more there
are literally so many things you can
create with your work but don't let that
overwhelm you i'm going to tell you how
you can make all these products pretty
cost effectively in a minute something
that i have found very helpful when
making sales is offering low mid-range
and high range products on my website i
try to make it a goal to make my art
accessible to people it allows people
shopping in all price ranges to be able
to find products that they connect with
artwork is expensive artwork can get
very very expensive especially original
artwork that someone put 20 30
50 hours into that's going to be
expensive and you want to offer ways for
people to still enjoy your work without
having to purchase original artwork
original artwork should be expensive for
me i am 22 years old and i've been
drawing since i've been like before i
could walk i've pretty much been
practicing this skill for 18 years very
very seriously pursuing this as a career
since i've been like 16. so that is
years and years and years of a person's
experience to be able to create this
work that also needs to be factored into
the price when pricing your original
work because it is not just that piece
of art it is all the time that you took
to build the skills to be able to create
that piece of art all the materials art
supplies are expensive very expensive so
do not undervalue your work at all
because it is a piece of you original
artwork should be expensive okay i'm
gonna go on a rant about that if i keep
talking about it so yes but offer lower
range priced items on your website when
i say lower range items i'm talking
about like stickers prints postcards
just smaller less expensive items that
you can offer to people mid-range is
like hoodies tapestries or getting a
little bit into a higher price range and
then high range being original work or
canvas prints of your work like
embellished canvas prints of your work
just higher range items make sure you
have
different categories if you are starting
your art business on a budget like i did
and the startup cost of making all these
things hoodies t-shirts notebooks like
stuff like that scares you if you can't
do that right now i got you you can look
into a little something called print on
demand i'm sure you've heard of this by
now but maybe not so i'll explain it
print on demand is this really cool
thing that allows you to upload and
place your artwork onto a lot of
different products you can then take
these products and put them on your
website and when people order these
products they will go to the production
company where they will then be produced
packed and shipped out the best part is
you don't have any upfront costs the
customer is paying for the coverage of
the production of that item all you have
to do is send over the order and you get
to keep the profits this is a very great
option for people just starting out
their business it makes creating all
these products accessible to you without
a very heavy startup cost this is how i
started out my business i'm starting to
phase away from print on demand right
now because i really want to start
carrying my own inventory as well as be
able to use custom packaging and stuff a
lot of these companies just send out
your print-on-demand stuff in a white
poly mailer and it doesn't feel very
personal when the customer gets it which
is something that i really don't like so
those are some of the downsides to it
but it's also great because when you
when you're using a print on demand
service you don't have that fear of this
is a new business i don't know if i'm
going to be able to sell all of the
stuff that i just ordered to sell like
it is as you go sales so so it deletes
that fear from your startup which is
awesome and then you're able to move
away from things like that and start
carrying your own inventory later in the
future when you gain confidence in your
business definitely definitely research
print-on-demand companies heavily before
you start using them i've had some very
bad experiences some of which that have
reached my customers and i have felt
absolutely terrible so definitely do
your research and definitely get samples
of anything that you're going to sell
from these companies just to make sure
you have felt the quality and approve of
the quality because you are putting your
name on these products it's not the
company it is you delivering these
products to your customers you're just
using someone else to do that so make
sure that the quality of what you are
delivering is still good but yeah so i
definitely recommend looking into print
on demand if you want to put your on
different products at a low cost now
that you have your art your products and
a place to sell your art it is time to
set up your art social media platform do
not mix personal and art platforms make
pages solely for the purpose of
showcasing and promoting your artwork
and i am talking everywhere instagram
tick tock pinterest a facebook page
youtube so you can use youtube shorts
get on every single visual platform that
you can think of and link back to your
website from all these platforms and
just start posting your art consistently
that is the key word consistently this
is how you're going to get your art in
front of the right eyes we have the
power now to get our art in front of
millions of eyes with just a little bit
of content creation in the click of a
button i
could almost make an entire separate
video on content creation just
surrounding artwork i do this every
single day it is a major key part of my
job second to making the art it is the
most important part of my job because
it's getting it in front of the people
that need to see it i think i'm actually
going to because i have so much to say
about this i'm probably going to make a
separate video i need a sip of my coffee
for now you can go look at my socials
seriously i'm not just plugging myself
go look at the type of content that i
create around my art because i know what
works i i really do study this i started
off 2022 with 3 000 instagram followers
and 20 000 followers on tick tock today
i am almost at 25 000 followers on
instagram and this morning i just hit
110 000 followers on tick tock and these
platforms are all surrounding just my
artwork these are all new people that
connected with my artwork and these
people could eventually become customers
which in turn supports your dream of
being an artist i think i know a little
bit just a little bit what i'm talking
about when it comes to art content
creation so i definitely will make a
separate video on that because if i
could help someone out change y'all's
life too like that would be awesome so
that is a whole whole another thing but
but seriously once you get your art your
products in your store set up just get
on social media all the social media and
start blasting your art in front of
everybody if you want to make this
happen get in front of the right eyes
once you have all of that stuff set up
you can eventually do stuff like paid
advertising you can pay to boost your
instagram ads you can pay for pinterest
advertising you can now sell your art
directly through pinterest you can sell
your art directly through instagram you
can sell it directly through twitter you
can do ads on pretty much all of these
platforms i haven't even dabbled in that
yet because what i'm doing with the
content creation is working and it is
supporting my business so you don't have
to worry about that yet all you have to
worry about is creating the art and
getting it from the right eyes and
scaling the business so yeah that was
pretty much everything i've done up
until this point in my business
hopefully that was helpful for giving
you a place to start those are all the
tips that i have for you for now if
there's anything that i didn't cover
that you're still curious about feel
free to comment them down below i'll try
to get back to you and if any of you
watching this have any tips for selling
artwork that i did not mention please
drop them down below help each other out
the more artists we see being successful
the more mainstream this industry
becomes and the easier it gets for all
of us so
help each other out down below if you
can but yeah all that's left to do is
for you to get out there and sell your
work i believe in you it is just a
matter of getting it in front of the
right eyes and you can totally do it we
got the internet if you guys would like
to check out my art all of my socials
will be linked down below as well as my
website but yeah thank you guys so much
for watching i love you guys so much i
will see you all in the next one bye
it's not over no it's only just a gun i
used to have away with words but now i
trip over my song yeah yeah
[Music]
let's go