Potentially the best method of selling art online falls between selling the art directly and employing an artist’s collective, with its stringent rules and regulations. This is to use a commercial online art trading website which will handle the business of promoting and marketing your pieces but lets you decide how you wish to handle any transactions and shipping requirements. Effectively, you’ll be renting a shop window in the cyberspace version of Broadway or Bond Street that isn’t reliant on the passerby on the street and those in the know for your custom.
But how can you be sure your picture gets the profile it deserves and will be seen by enough potential buyers? Well, let’s use the example of Artbank.com, the Internet's premier fine art trading website. Artbank takes the job of connecting its sellers with potential buyers very seriously indeed, and uses a good percentage of its budget to this effect. With its extensive knowledge of the art world, Artbank places advertisements in various key publications that are read by the sort of buyers you’ll want to attract. And that’s not all, because Artbank understands how things work in cyberspace too, and uses this knowledge to advertise in the right places on the web, in addition to understanding the art of search engine optimisation, so the site will come high up in the list of search engine results when a contemporary artist or prominent figure from the twentieth century is keyed into Google or Yahoo. In fact, after a quick browse online, you’ll discover that Artbank is difficult to avoid. And what do they charge private owners for this kind of exposure? Well, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to discover they only charge a very reasonable fixed fee for renting wall space in their virtual gallery and that any profit from the sale is yours, just as the conditions of sale are also yours to decide. An additional feature of Artbank is that it can secure your anonymity up to the point that a buyer needs to contact you to enter into negotiations over a piece you have for sale.
Now the thing to do is start researching the piece of art you are considering selling, before ensuring you follow all the steps laid out in this article including investigating the means of selling the work, although we strongly recommend you give Artbank careful consideration. The very best of luck, and may your efforts attract the interest of a Saatchi or Guggenheim!
