Online sales only for mini paintings?

[CSForest]

I've heard a lot of people say Etsy's a good place to sell. But looking around it seems those doing the most sales are selling crafty stuff such as knitted yarn toys, jewelry, and vintage items, mostly under $50. I don't see many painters selling much there. And if they are it's mostly small inexpensive work.
I've heard people say DailyPaintworks is a good place to selling paintings. But even those artists who sell frequently only seem to be selling tiny works for $100 or less.
Same with ebay. Those who sell any at all seem to sell mainly very small paintings for a couple hundred dollars or less....usually on the "less" side.
Is that pretty much what you have to stick with to sell online, paintings 8"x10" or smaller so you can sell them dirt cheap?
I haven't seen any sales for larger pieces priced at $500+ on any of these sites.

[Davkin]

I definately have no experience in this department but from what I've seen the strategy appears to be to use the small painting sales from sites like Etsy and DPW to gain new collectors and drive traffic to the artist's own personal website where the bigger paintings are available. I've seen at least a couple artists who seem to use that strategy, others seem to be just happy selling small, inexpensive paintings. If there really are artists that use that strategy I wonder how successful it is. In other words, if you really aren't that interested in making small, inexpensive paintings is it still worth it do them anyway as a way to gain market exposure for your larger paintings?

David

[CSForest]

Originally Posted by Davkin

I definately have no experience in this department but from what I've seen the strategy appears to be to use the small painting sales from sites like Etsy and DPW to gain new collectors and drive traffic to the artist's own personal website where the bigger paintings are available. I've seen at least a couple artists who seem to use that strategy, others seem to be just happy selling small, inexpensive paintings. If there really are artists that use that strategy I wonder how successful it is. In other words, if you really aren't that interested in making small, inexpensive paintings is it still worth it do them anyway as a way to gain market exposure for your larger paintings?

David

But it seems even those who do paint small and large are still using DPW and ebay, etc, as their shopping carts. But if you look at their sales history it seems the only sold pieces are small ones. So even if they paint small ones to build a following it doesn't seem to result in sales of larger pieces, only more frequent sales of small ones.

[Davkin]

Probably not a strategy I'd want to follow then. I'm not interested in becoming a single artist painting factory. I want to be able to take some time with my paintings.

David

[artyczar]

Man, I gotta start painting smalls. It seems the only way to go in this economy. I sell prints and small items on Etsy, but few and far between, because they are NOT cheap. But there's nothing I can do about that. I can not lower my prices.

Actually, I've even had another seller on Etsy email me and ask my WHY I was asking the prices I do. If you can believe that. I took offense, but I explained why anyway. It was very odd. Etsy: Not the place for a fine artist I guess. I sell items for $100 (artist book), $35 (very small printed sketch book), and $250 for limited edition sculptures. I have sold 4 things on Etsy. My first sale was for $350. An original, small paper sculpture.

[painterswife]

Smaller paintings, prints, studies do well to bring in the bigger sales for us. However people buying the larger paintings never press the buy button on our website or any other site we have tried in the past. They contact us by email and we send a Paypal invoice. They buy larger paintings they just will not do it through the cart system. This last week it was a painting for 3500.00 shipped to England.

They want some contact with you first.

[CSForest]

Originally Posted by painterswife

Smaller paintings, prints, studies do well to bring in the bigger sales for us. However people buying the larger paintings never press the buy button on our website or any other site we have tried in the past. They contact us by email and we send a Paypal invoice. They buy larger paintings they just will not do it through the cart system. This last week it was a painting for 3500.00 shipped to England.

They want some contact with you first.

Thanks, that's encouraging. Yeah, I was wondering if I would spend much money through some third-party checkout myself and decided I would probably want to contact the artist first too. In fact, being an artist myself, I would probably deal with them directly to save them the fees and commission.

And congrats on that nice sale to England!

[RobinZ]

Don't assume that because you can't see their sales they aren't selling.

You don't know what shopping carts people are using. They no doubt send invoices via paypal for their larger pieces and you can't see that. I do that all the time. I get a lot of repeat buyers and word of mouth from an original sale via etsy.

I don't think you can figure out someone else's business by looking at their sales on sites.

If you don't want to sell small piece, don't.

[artist123]

I've been doing small paintings lately. I can scan them and get them on line. I bought a new camera and my husband took it over for family pictures. When he takes a picture of my art he won't down load it in the computer. he wants me to wait to sell until I get a new computer because its running slow and its full of family photos. I bought the computer 8 or so years ago so I could get my paintings on line. The other day he asked when I buy a new computer how to get the family photos transferred over.
I have a few of my larger paintings on my blog now. he figured out how to print pictures and I scanned the picture but it turns out milky.

He's a spend money to make money person so thinks I should spend on the new computer first and I'm a my paintings should make there own money and buy my computer type person. He means well but its not working for me.

I have noticed a few people making money with there small paintings but they have slowed down on the number they did in the past. Duane Keiser sometimes still puts one in and starts it at $200 and sells some. Mikki Senkarik starts hers at 1 cent and gets $70 $80 for an ACEO or $700-$800 for an 8 by 10. They are just doing one sometimes two a week. This week neither have anything for sale.

[artist123]

Heres what I mean by milky paintings. 4 paintings in April. The two in the middle are scanned from prints. The top and bottom paintings fit in the scanner.

http://maryspaintings.blogspot.com/2...1_archive.html

[timelady]

Keep in mind that people who sell small on Etsy/EBay/other sites are building a clientelle and they may buy later directly from the artist. I've had some buyers from Etsy, who started small, just email me about bigger items or visit the studio to see things. So a few (not lots, I won't pretend all Etsy buyers go bigger) of those won't show in my sales history there.

Ditto with eBay. I sell the drawings there and list the large paintings as advertising. But for the larger ones people usually email me and want to come view them first.

Customers from *all* venues are invited to join my mailing list and my newsletter can generate more sales regardless of where the person first bought something or how big it was.

I have neglected Etsy for a while... will re-vitalise it with small originals when I get back from vacation.

[RobinZ]

Tina, you convinced me last year to give it some serious time. Thanks so much for your advice!

[artist123]

The smaller paintings are good to start with. With E bay many people want to see a few stars and positive sales before they think about investing. Its also a lot easier to start with lower price and raise it as it goes Rather than Start high and try to lower them later because they aren't selling. Think of it like the stock market. Your customers that just bought one aren't going to want to see the prices drop.
If you absolutely have to lower the price and sell some. You might want to have something like a one week special sale then put the price right back up and don't do it often. Every one will be waiting for your next sale to buy.

[markshirar]

Originally Posted by artyczar

Man, I gotta start painting smalls. It seems the only way to go in this economy. I sell prints and small items on Etsy, but few and far between, because they are NOT cheap. But there's nothing I can do about that. I can not lower my prices.

Actually, I've even had another seller on Etsy email me and ask my WHY I was asking the prices I do. If you can believe that. I took offense, but I explained why anyway. It was very odd. Etsy: Not the place for a fine artist I guess. I sell items for $100 (artist book), $35 (very small printed sketch book), and $250 for limited edition sculptures. I have sold 4 things on Etsy. My first sale was for $350. An original, small paper sculpture.

what's your etsy link?

[keemo]

Timelady, hit the nail on the head.

If you are a self-representing artist, interested in selling work online and being successful at it, I would highly recommend that you figure a way to offer artwork that falls in the $35-$65 range.

From my experience, this price range works very well for selling online and attracting new collectors.

I see the phrase, "dirt-cheap" or "give it away" being used. This is not the mind-set to approach with this business model. What you really have to do is look at your artwork and decide, how big of a painting/drawing and what materials do you need to use to create a piece at that price range and still be profitable. (yes, still be profitable) This will be different for everyone depending on your style and medium. You definitely won't sell a 16x20 oil painting at that price but what about a 4x4? or an 8x10 drawing?

Small paintings/drawings are a great gateway to the rest of your portfolio.

These small paintings are a fantastic way for people to be introduced to your art and to you. They can see the quality of your work, the quality of your packaging and communication. They see if you ship quickly and handle the whole transaction in a professional manner. This is all part of creating relationships with your collectors. If all goes well, many satisfied people will return to purchase larger pieces when the time is right or the budget allows.

My experience is the same as timelady's, Many of the large pieces are not sold on different sites (ebay, etsy, etc...) but are sold directly, through email, facebook, my website or in person. Most of the large sales originate from people who have purchased small paintings to begin with. I can't remember the last time I sold a large painting to a first time buyer.

I hope this helps.