Ready-To-Frame Motivational Prints

 Arleyart.com is a platform where Arley Clark, the owner, sells his unique motivational art. Arley, born in 1947 and raised in Bremerton, Washington, has always been inspired by words of wisdom. This includes quotes, phrases, song lyrics, and even advertising taglines. Throughout his career, motivational or thought-provoking messages were always on display on his office walls. Frustrated by the limited selection of display-worthy plaques, posters, or art prints available in the market, he decided to create his own. Upon retiring from a management career in the sporting goods industry, Arley decided to check the market for his kind of motivational art, leading to the birth of ArleyArt​1​.

 The Paper Tube Co. sells stock and custom tubes that you can brand to ship your oversized art prints professionally. The Paper Tube Co.

 If you are shipping original art, or elect to ship prints and canvases yourself, rather than through a print and fulfillment company, take extra precaution with your packing. Larger prints and posters are best shipped in cardboard mailing tubes, and smaller prints in rigid cardboard mailing envelopes.

 Use glassine (a water and grease-resistant paper) or clear cellophane sleeves to protect prints within the packaging. Custom branded packaging like tissue paper or poly envelopes that feature your branding or art can spark delight with customers and improve their experience with your brand.

 Many ecommerce platforms integrate with shipping providers and shipping apps to help you find the best shipping rates for each market and package. Determine if you will offer free shipping and roll the shipping cost into the retail price or charge a flat fee to keep shipping transparent.

 Framed works and canvases require additional precautions. Packaging supply shops offer packing and shipping materials like cardboard corners and specialty box sizes designed specifically for art.

 If you’re shipping original work to a gallery or art collector, there are ways to cut costs. “The cost to ship an oversized painting that’s stretched on a canvas can be pretty substantial,” says Ken. “Sometimes what we do is unstretch a canvas, roll it in a tube, and ship it that way, which dramatically lowers the freight costs. Then we can have the canvas stretched locally.”

 The easiest way to sell art online is to outsource all of the printing, fulfillment, and shipping to a print-on-demand partner. They are able to access great shipping rates due to volume and partnerships with carriers.

 Insurance is important when shipping original works, as a lost or damaged package can’t be replaced. Many standard carriers offer fairly basic insurance on most packages, and if you sell your art you should look into the specific extra coverage costs and limitations of each carrier’s insurance offerings.

 If you’re selling your own artwork at high price points, Ken takes additional measures to ensure the safety of the work. “Shipping anything worth more than a thousand dollars is definitely tricky,” he says, suggesting that artists look into using a private freight company or a carrier that specializes in art handling, despite the higher costs.

 Artist Tuesday Bassen waged war on copycats—large chain stores who ripped off her original designs—by hiring a lawyer and taking her story to the media. However, both Maria and Ken say copycats and plagiarism are just an unfortunate reality of doing business. Maria took legal action only once, before shifting her perspective.

 “At the end of the day, it took me my whole life to learn how to do this,” Maria says. “If somebody is copying me, they’re going to have to sit down and eventually learn for themselves, because sooner or later they’re going to run out of ideas.”

 Maria takes Hatecopy’s copycats as an indication that she’s onto something.“It’s a sign that I’m inspiring others and that what I’m doing is right because they wouldn’t copy me otherwise,” she says, “I’m not offended or bothered by it anymore.”

 For galleries that represent multiple artists and sell art online, copycat websites are a consistent problem. “We do have an issue with various online sites just bootlegging what we do,” says Ken. “It’s part of the way the world works, unfortunately. We do our best, but it happens.”

 While copycats may be a reality, artists and businesses have legal recourse and should seek the advice of a copyright lawyer to help protect intellectual property before infringement happens.

 For many emerging artists, the best way to sell art online is to just get started with what you have at your disposal. Cat started her art business from a spare bedroom. Whether it’s a basement or a kitchen table, it can work as your launch pad.

 In this stage of your business, you’ll wear all the hats: creator, marketer, packer, shipper, web designer, and customer service rep. Cat describes this time in her own journey as lean and humbling. “It gave me assurance of knowing every aspect of my business inside and out,” she says, “including its strengths and weaknesses.”

 You could know everything about business and you could know everything about art, but it’s the combination of both that really makes a successful brand.

 Thinking of yourself as an entrepreneur right from the get-go will be crucial to your success. You may stumble as a creative to learn the business aspects, but they will ultimately help you grow and scale. Eventually, you can delegate and automate, allowing you to focus on what you do best: making beautiful things.

 “You could know everything about business and you could know everything about art,” says Maria, “but it’s the combination of both that really makes a successful brand.”

High-Quality Print Art

 The best way to sell art online is by building your own branded ecommerce site with a platform like Shopify. You can also sell your work on a crafts and art marketplace like Etsy or on social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook Shops. Understand where your target customers like to shop to find out the best place to sell your art online.

 If you are an artist looking to learn how to sell art online, you can get up and running in a few simple steps:

 Yes, selling art online can be profitable if you’re intentional about your pricing and marketing strategies. Understanding your costs, including art materials, ecommerce or marketplace selling fees, marketing costs, and other overhead will help you set retail prices that include a profit margin. Selling on marketplaces will help you reach bigger audiences and make more sales, but be wary of fees that can cut into profits. Get started with Shopify

 Selling original art online is still possible through your own branded website. Price point for original art will be much higher, so it’s important that you build a strong, loyal audience for your work. Diversifying your sales channels, like also working with a gallery, will help you broaden your exposure as an artist. Get started with Shopify

 This is a tricky question because art is very broad and subjective. Selling prints of your work can be very profitable because you can continue to generate income from a single piece. Lower price points (versus original art) mean you likely can sell more volume. Curators should follow trends in art and design to help understand what art collectors and potential buyers are buying, then work with artists that have high success potential. As a creator, you should lean into the style that you do best and build a following from there. Get started with Shopify

 Yes, you can work with galleries to sell your art. Both online and physical galleries are always looking for new talent to represent. Reach out with a personalized and professional email with links to your portfolio. Each gallery may have different processes for submissions, so do your homework! Get started with Shopify

 Don’t you just love the idea of having a steady cash flow even if you are on your vacation or you are busy working on other projects?

 Don’t you just love the idea of having a steady cash flow even if you are on your vacation or you are busy working on other projects?

 To be honest, that’s one of the most attractive benefits of selling art prints online and, there are two major ways on how you can make art prints to sell online:

 As a digital artist, you can either focus your creative energies in making custom digital art for your clients or you can make a generous amount of money by selling prints of your digital artworks.

 Of course, you can also do both since selling prints won’t require much of your time and effort once everything is set-up on your website or on a certain art site that supports artists.

 In other words, selling prints of your digital art isn’t that labor-intensive as creating digital artwork for a client from scratch.

 Cementing a good reputation as a digital artist is crucial in your success in this art business and, one way to ensure that you are safeguarding your reputation is by creating a high-quality print of your digital artworks.

 Hence, you must know how to prepare your art for printing. You can’t just print your artwork right away, and you can’t either go to a printing shop directly.

 If you are working on a 13 in (33cm) by 19 in (48 cm) image, you can stick to the standard resolution of 72 dpi.

 Once you’ve adjusted the resolution, it will automatically affect the color of your work. Hence, you need to tweak the color and texture of your print from the color menu, so it will go back to its original color.

 If you are going to print your digital art for posters, banners, and other similar huge projects, consider using tools like Perfect Resize and Blow-Up.