Advice I have read about selling online mentions that you should visit eBay and Etsy to find out what other people are selling their creations for. While that is good advice, there are other factors to take into account when selling your art online so that you don’t create a “losing” with your art instead of a “living”.

Within your price, you need to include replacing the materials that you used otherwise you will not be able to make more art to sell. Additionally, you need to tack on another five percent so that you can get extra supplies to grow your art business. Your talent, skills and time that went into creating your art should also be taken into consideration. You are very valuable!

When selling online, be sure to write a thorough description about the artwork. Include an explanation about the style that you used, the materials that you used and, most especially, include a story about your art.

What is behind that piece of art that you created? What was the inspiration? Tell the story well and it will help to sell your art.

The most important point to know when selling your art online is - take great pictures. Taking great pictures tells a story that words alone cannot convey. It isn’t hard to take great pictures of your art. To do so, place your creation on a black matte material on a flat surface such as the floor or a table. Then climb up a step ladder and take the picture from above.

When taking the photographs, take lots of photos. Get close-up shots and full shots of the item. When adjusting the photos in your graphics program be sure to make the width of each photo the same. Keeping the width the same makes it easy to line up your photos in your description.

It looks very unprofessional to have one picture a small width, the next one that fills up the screen from side to side and another one that only fills two-thirds of the screen. Keep the picture width size consistent and you will have a professional online presentation.

One point that should be mentioned is that the height can be any size, it is the width that is the only thing that needs to be kept the same. Ensure that the photos stay between 400-500 pixels wide - no bigger and no smaller. Keeping the width this size makes more white space on your presentation which in turn makes it easy to read and view so your potential customers stay to find out more.

To polish off your online sales presentation, speak about the advantages of owning your art to your prospective clients. You created your art for others to enjoy, so speak about the things a person would enjoy as the owner of your art. Your focus should not be on selling yourself, it should be on selling your art to one person - so write the copy as if you are talking to an individual.

There is at least one person that your piece of art is going to hit home with. Talk to that one person about the perks of ownership of an original piece of art. Some items that you can include in your presentation are pride in helping an independent artist, the artist signed it, the colors accent most interior designs, works in both homes and business spaces and so on.

At the end of your description, be sure to mention a few lines about yourself. Two or three brief sentences is all it takes to add the information that will give your potential buyer more reasons to purchase from you.

To create a professional appearance to your overall presentation, keep your paragraphs small. Doing so makes a nice first impression and keeps the person interested to read the entire description.

Have a great time selling your artistic creations and may you prosper.

Warming up your audience while making a presentation can make it a lot easier by easing the tension in the room.  Also, a relaxed audience tends to react better to the presenter, making your task much easier.  Just be sure to consider the following points when selecting your joke:

1.  Choose an appropriate joke.  You do not want to select a joke that would offend an audience.  Don’t forget that your sense of humor may be different than your audience.  Try out your joke on your friends and colleagues to be sure that the joke will be ok.

2.  Check if poor language skills will hinder the understanding of the joke.  It is very embarassing if you are the only one laughing at your joke.

3.  Some jokes to avoid are sexual, religious and political jokes.  Some people are very sensitive in these areas and you do not want to offend your audience.

4.  Be aware of the cultural relativity of humor.  It is one thing for the locals to make jokes about many things and everyone rolls in laughter, but the moment someone from overseas cracks the same joke it may be viewed as cultural affront.  In the cases you are going overseas, try and pick a neutral topic for your humor - you want your audience eager to hear what you have to say.