How to sell your art online without selling out...

One may ask themselves...is this possible?  I know I have, many, many times.  I now have some more insight on this artist inner conflict and a few reminders for myself and anyone else getting started on this journey of self-awareness and ethical enlightening.

1.  Trending / Staying Current.
You may think it's your original idea...but trust me it has been done before or it will be.  That being said, if you want someone to be interested, you have to do it that much better than anyone else.  That's what trends are for, and why they work in moving your works.  Some call that "selling out", I call it market research.

2.  Research the Competition.
Between social media, press, galleries, shops, blogs, etc. you will find a plethora of artists just like you and me. All we want to do is design, breathe and create.  Guess what?  If you want to sell your art and make a presence, it's so much more than that to get started.  You need solid branding, a strong logo, a fresh website, killer social media presence and then you can begin the search for shops online that suit your art product needs.  Why all that first?  So you can create a following.  I always check out the latest artists on Society 6 (where I sell my art), Juxtapoze, Beautiful Bizarre & Hi-Fructose art magazines, Facebook art pages, Instagram art pages, etc. to see what's out there.  Keeping up with the Jones's is a lot of work, but I'm always amazed at the talent out there and truly inspired along the way.

3.  Blog your Brains Out.
I am still working on this one- as this is only my 3rd website blog post, but it's all the advice I see out there.  I like to keep it real simple, and trust that when research is proven over time- you need to give it time.  So I will be patient, and keep pushing forward and know that "starving artists" definitely originated from some truths, but thankfully I am full and don't plan on "selling out" to stay that way.

Melissa Showers