January 12, 2009

How to sell art online

Graphic design by Gino Orlandi

Animal Shirt Design
by Gino Orlandi
© Gino Orlandi - Color Overload

In my long experience on the Internet, I've seen the works of extraordinary artists who show their great art on their blogs and webs. What a marvelous possession for anybody would be to have one of their creations!

But in many cases these wonderful artists don't find the right way to sell their works, despite the astounding quality of them. Selling art online is not easy, it is even much more difficult than offline.

Something is missing.

We artists must have the necessary confidence in ourselves to create Art. Most of us fortunately have such a confidence, me included. We believe in our capacity to create wonderful creations. But what if we ask ourselves: Am I a good seller of my art? Can we market it properly? Do we have the necessary knowledge to build a successful brand online as a platform to sell our works? In this case many artists lack such a confidence in themselves. I must admit this: I consider myself a very good artist, but I've not been a very good seller so far.

GINO ORLANDI

As in any field, in art there are also experts who know a lot about how to market and sell. They have the necessary experience and knowledge that we lack. Certainly we can learn a lot from them.

Gino Orlandi is an expert on marketing and selling art. One of the very best. I you want to know more about him, you can check some of his blogs, covering subjects like Graphic Design, Clothing design, and others.

I have visited Gino Orlandi's webs and blogs and I can say he has broadened my vision and expectatives about what an artist can accomplish online. We artists have on the Internet many possibilities available; only we must learn how to profit from them. Gino Orlandi knows many useful ways to do so.

Who is Gino Orlandi? He is an artist, graphic designer and Internet entrepreneur. During many years he has had the experience online both of a designer and an entrepreneur. He has always focused his attention on the twofold aspect involved in any business: creation/production/quality and marketing/branding/selling. If one of these components fails, our venture will ultimately fail in the long run. I've mentioned a very important word: "branding". Building a brand for ourselves as artists is essential. Even the name of any artist can be considered a "brand"; in fact it is so. Gino Orlandi considers branding as extraordinarily important, a cornerstone to success for artists as well.

HOW TO SELL ART ONLINE

Gino Orlandi has released recently an ebook, FUEL FOR ART, a guide on HOW TO SELL ART ONLINE. On it he pays much attention to how to build a successful brand for artists. He says: "Artist, brand Thyself! Did you know that you are a brand? You must develop an effective and memorable brand identity in order to stand out as a successful Artist that can be taken seriously. FUEL FOR ART will show you how with lots of great tips culled from years of personal and business experience". This ebook, FUEL FOR ART, focus on all the important aspects in which we must concentrate to market and sell our works successfully: The best places to sell our works online, how to display our art in a variety of ways, how to make easy for the customer to buy, how to pick a good niche, because "in the end is up to you what you want to paint, but do consider the niche of your paintings if you are looking into selling paintings online"...

As I've said earlier Gino Orlandi's fresh ideas, creativity and talent about how to sell art online have opened to me new ways and opportunities as a professional artist, most of which I was somehow unaware. Only an example: thanks to him I've known the existence of an extraordinaire site called www.zazzle.com, and now I'm beginning to display my works there.

Yes, by following Orlandi's path, it is now clear that if we want to sell our work properly, we must pay great attention to marketing and branding. Even we must pay great attention to aspects like how to get great number of visits to our blogs and websites, all of which is explained on his ebook, FUEL FOR ART about HOW TO SELL ART ONLINE. Certainly, Gino Orlandi knows perfectly how to do this: his websites and blogs are widely known, and he is a very successful designer and marketer. He even has a club of fans following his artistic career and listening to his valuable advice. He talks and writes directly from experience. As a designer, he has also written an ebook on HOW TO START A CLOTHING LINE.

Yes, if we want to sell the "products" of our soul, we must take seriously some aspects which apparently seem more "materialistic", such as how to sell art online. In the long run, this only can make stronger our determination to succeed in in our career. We must effectively learn how to brand, market and sell our work. And I honestly think one of the best way to do this is following the example and advice of people like Gino Orlandi; he has gathered through many years valuable techniques and experiences on how to sell art on the Internet (and even offline), all of which can be found on his ebook and visiting his websites and blogs.

Juan Bielsa