After recently releasing my own gallery of artwork, I was wondering business wise whether or not to start submitting my photography/artwork to online galleries such as Etsy and EBay's art shop. The idea is to gradually build up interest in my work so submitting to high traffic sites was one of the attractions. My question is, is it really worth doing based on experience? I would imagine that due to the shear volume of artwork on these sites it is very easy to get lost in the crowd.
I have come up with a list of pros and cons and just wondered if anyone else has an opinion on the matter.
Pros
- A lot of sites have high traffic volumes so there is potential to be noticed.
- Some galleries already have an established reputation with customers so increased chance of sale.
- Some galleries allow you to sell your art with them.
- Some galleries are free to submit too.
- International traffic is a bonus if willing to sell to distribute internationally.
- Already established customer service systems so easy to interact with potential customers (ebay in particular)
- Social features in built so there is the possibility of increased traffic.
Cons
- Some sites charge you for submitting artwork with them.
- Some sites have massive amounts of artwork within their database so easy to get lost in the crowd.
- Keyword and SEO becomes important for listings and artwork titles may need to be changed to improve traffic.
- Fees for selling artowrk.
- A mixture of poor quality and good quality artwork (eBay in particular)
- If updating a product you may need to update a number of different galleries (takes time).
At the minute I think I will look at using online galleries but at the same time based on the above I am not too sure how much effort to put into this. I may end up concentrating more on the promotion of my own gallery through social networks etc.