Internet Presence Is Extremely Important

[Dmitry-Afremov]

Alright, the website is ready. What’s next?

This is where most artists make a mistake.

They think:
“I built a website — now people will magically come.”

No.

A website is only the foundation.

Now you need the internet to actually know you exist.

Internet Presence Is Extremely Important

At the beginning, your main goal is not sales.

Yes, that sounds strange.

But the first goal for an artist is simply to appear online.

You need:

people to start seeing your name,
your paintings to start appearing online,
Google to understand that you exist,
and people to randomly discover your work.

This is called internet presence.

And that’s exactly why, after creating your website, you should start placing your work on external platforms.

First Platform — DeviantArt

Yes, DeviantArt is ancient.

By internet standards, it’s basically a dinosaur.

But it’s a good dinosaur.

It has:

a very old domain,
strong trust with Google,
a large audience,
and powerful indexing.

So yes — you should absolutely create a profile there.

Don’t turn it into a giant project.

Simply:

upload your paintings,
add short descriptions,
and most importantly —
add a link to your website.

That’s the key part.

You need links pointing toward you.

The internet needs to start seeing that you exist outside your own website.

Will you get sales from DeviantArt?

Maybe.

Maybe not.

Honestly, nobody can guarantee that.

Art is emotional.

Some people will love your work. Others won’t.

But having a presence there is still important.

Next Step — Etsy

Now Etsy is something I genuinely recommend for artists.

Probably the only major platform that still treats artists somewhat fairly.

Why?

Because they don’t take insane 50% commissions like many galleries and aggregators.

Yes, Etsy takes a percentage.

I think it’s somewhere around 10%, though it changes constantly.

But that’s reasonable.

That’s a fair fee for traffic and platform access.

But Etsy Is NOT Your Home

This is extremely important to understand.

Never build your entire business only inside Etsy.

Your main foundation should always be your own website.

Why?

Because your website belongs to you.

Etsy belongs to Etsy.

Today the platform exists. Tomorrow:

the rules change,
the algorithm changes,
your account gets suspended,
or traffic disappears.

And suddenly you own nothing.

That’s why Etsy should support your business — not become your entire business.

Especially in the beginning.

For a new artist, Etsy is excellent for:

getting first visibility,
understanding the market,
seeing how people react,
and hopefully making first sales.
Etsy Already Built the Marketing System for You

This is what I like about Etsy.

Very smart people built that platform.

They understand e-commerce extremely well.

The system itself guides you:

how to upload artwork,
how many images to use,
how to structure listings,
how to write descriptions,
where to add videos.

And the interface is very intuitive.

Even without experience, you’ll naturally do many things correctly.

What Matters Most on Etsy

The most important things are:

lots of photos,
videos,
detailed descriptions.

Why?

Because Etsy has its own internal search ecosystem.

Inside Etsy, Google matters less.

What matters is how Etsy itself ranks your work.

Will people find you through keywords?

Maybe.

But most new artists get visibility through Etsy Ads.

Now Let’s Talk About Advertising

Don’t go crazy.

Seriously.

Don’t immediately start spending:

$100 a day,
$500 a day,
or taking loans for advertising.

Start small.

Very small.

1–2 dollars a day is more than enough in the beginning.

Choose:

a few of your best paintings,
the strongest commercial pieces,
the most visually attractive works,

and give them a little traffic.

That’s enough.

You want the system to start learning:

who clicks,
who reacts,
what people like,
what kind of audience responds to your art.
Now the Most Painful Topic — Pricing

And here I’m going to say something many artists won’t like.

The market today is extremely overcrowded.

Extremely.

And you’re not only competing with other artists.

You’re competing with Chinese factories.

And factories work:

fast,
cheap,
at scale.

Most ordinary people today are simply not willing to pay:

$5,000,
$10,000,
or a million dollars for a painting.

Let’s be honest.

Most people buy paintings as:

home decoration,
interior design,
emotional purchases.

And that’s completely normal.

So Be Realistic in the Beginning

If you’re just starting —
don’t try to become Picasso overnight.

If you create work:

neatly,
beautifully,
consistently,

then selling paintings for:

$300,
$400,
$500

is completely normal.

And honestly, that’s already a good level.

But once you go above $500,
the market becomes much harder.

There are:

fewer buyers,
higher expectations,
more competition,
and more difficult sales.

So my advice is very simple:

Don’t jump into those jungles immediately.

First learn how to:

sell consistently,
communicate with customers,
handle shipping,
understand the market,
understand what people actually like.

And only after that gradually increase your prices and level.

[OldTownWalker]

Really solid advice, especially for artists who are just getting started online. I like the emphasis on building your own website instead of depending entirely on platforms you don't control. The pricing section was refreshingly realistic too.

[CoffeeAndRoads]

Solid advice.

[DailyHikerSam]

The whole advice feels a bit contradictory — on one hand it’s presented as practical guidance, but on the other it leans heavily on assumptions about what artists “must” do without really accounting for different paths or markets. The comparisons to “factories” and fixed pricing ladders also seem oversimplified, like the argument is shaped more by a specific selling strategy than the broader reality of independent art. It makes me question whether this is universal advice for artists or just one very narrow experience being generalized.

[QuietHarbor22]

This reads like a fairly practical step-by-step breakdown for beginners, especially the emphasis on external platforms and realistic pricing expectations. At the same time, it simplifies a very fragmented art ecosystem into a single “correct path,” which doesn’t always reflect how differently artists grow depending on niche, style, and audience. I’m a young artist—could I sell my paintings through you, and how would that process work?

[LakeHouseTom]

This offers a practical reminder that building a website is only the first step and that visibility takes time and consistent effort across multiple platforms. The emphasis on treating marketplaces like Etsy as tools rather than relying on them completely is especially valuable for new artists. The advice about starting with realistic pricing and small advertising budgets also feels grounded in the realities of today's online art market.