Exploring The World of Digital Art: Etsy Makes Starving Artists Really Starve

Things I have learned reading forums and talking to artists online. Apparently Etsy is unpopular, yet has a monopoly. Sounds familiar...

As artists, we have all heard the old adage that we have to suffer for our art. While this may be factual and necessary on a mental or emotional level it cannot be true on a financial level for long or we will starve to death or more likely seek other employment and give up our passion and art.

At one time Etsy was the artist’s go to site to sell their art at a reasonable and even superb profit. It may be that with success comes greed. Etsy has gotten to the point that their price structure and add-on fees are so strangling that they might as well be a brick and mortar gallery.

The situation has gotten so bad that even those artists who had a good run of success on Etsy have started looking for alternatives to selling their creations so that they make a reasonable profit. These are a few suggestions for those who just want to dispense with the low return and hassles that Etsy has created for artists regardless of the type of art they produce.

1: Do it on your own

Create your own site and sell from it. Unless you are a master at marketing and the intricacies of SEO that abide by the dictates of Google, you are probably going to need some help.

Good help in developing a site and creating wording that will produce top billing in search engine results will cost you. You need to understand that most people use phones to look for art and the top three results are the first thing displayed on phones. It is worth the cost of paying a professional to create a site that consistently sells for you.

2: Go to Amazon

Amazon has a special category for hand made art of all kinds. The category is further divided into the majority of articles that are made and sold by artists.

The idea is to place your work in the right category. You have to understand that you will have a lot of competition. Adroit descriptions, adept presentation, and recommendations from reviews are the keys to success at Amazon.

The costs for presenting your work on Amazon are very low. You need to consider all costs including delivery when you price your work.

3: Other Alternatives

There are several sites that have begun to compete with Etsy in price. Some specialize in particular forms of work so you need to shop. These sites include aftcra, ArtFire, ArtYah, Big Cartel, Bonanza, Craft is Art, Dawanda, RebelsMarket, Silkfair, Storenvy, Supermarket, Yakaboo, and Zibbet.

The advantages of these sites are low costs, higher profit, the use of social media to sell your work, and the ability to learn from other artists about selling and your particular craft or art. It's worth searching a bit!

(all illustrations are public domain)