How can artists sell their work today and earn money?

There's a common stereotype that making money as an artist can be quite difficult. But in today's world, artists have many opportunities to earn money. Knowing about the different ways can help you diversify your sources of income and achieve your financial goals.

Work to order

Painting to order is a very good option. You can promote yourself through social media or become a freelancer on an exchange. The most popular exchanges are Upwork, Fiverr, and Freelancer. An artist is asked to do something unique and individual for a client, according to their brief. You will need to start building your portfolio so that potential clients can see examples of your work. Orders can bring in a good income, especially if you have a good reputation and an impressive portfolio. You can also ask for feedback after the work is done, which will increase the chances of getting an order.

Sell your finished work

The first way to make money as an artist is to sell your work. Unlike custom work, this way you can simply post your finished paintings on the Internet, social media, websites, and blogs. In this way, customers look for work themselves. But selling original works involves many stages, such as putting them up for sale, promoting them, delivering them, and so on. You can set the price yourself, but you should do some research to find out how much other artists' works cost, your level of experience, the demand of your target audience, etc.

Selling art on Instagram

Instagram has become one of the most popular social networks for artists. But the more popular your Instagram account is and the more followers you have, the higher the demand for your art. By selling on Instagram, you are simultaneously showcasing and promoting your work and directing buyers into a sales funnel. If you want to get more potential customers, it's important to promote yourself and share your work to spread the word. So, post highquality images, publish regular posts, write creative captions, and use relevant hashtags.

Teaching art

Another way to make money as an artist is to share your knowledge and experience. But first, you have to decide what type of teaching is best for you: online or offline. If you want to help people with their studies and make money, then developing your own online course is a great option. This way, you can turn teaching into a form of passive income. Since you only need to prepare the material once, it can generate income over a long period of time. You can also offer drawing lessons or hold master classes.

Selling artwork as an NFT

If you are a digital artist, you can make money by selling your artwork as NFTs. NFT is a non-fungible token. Nonfungibility means uniqueness, originality, and the impossibility of replacing one object with another. Each NFT contains a digital signature that makes the token unique. This is a way to transfer unique objects from the real world to the blockchain. There are many sites where you can place your tokens. For example, some of them are OpenSea and Foundation.

Images for microstock

Microstocks are websites where authors post their works for further sale. It is convenient to work with microstock because the image remains in the system after uploading. You can place illustrations, clip art, web design graphics, vector graphics, comics, infographics, photos, etc. on the marketplace. For each sale, the author receives a monetary payment in accordance with the contract and tariffs. The low prices are compensated by the fact that the image can be sold an unlimited number of times. All sales are made online. The most popular stocks are Shutterstock, Adobe Stock, and Freepik.

Competitions and grants

There are many international programs and organizations that support artists and offer grants. You can search the Internet and find at least a few contests or programs where you can participate and win cash or other prizes. This is also a great opportunity to showcase your work and even gain fame, as participants and winners are often featured on websites or social media. However, this option is not a constant and reliable source of income, because grants and contests are not regular and you will not always win.