I thought I'd conduct an experiment today. I trawled through as many adverts and leads as I could find, on POL and on the SAA website, of those sites claiming to offer an online gallery or auction for those desirous of selling their artworks online. It hasn't been an especially reassuring experience. Of the two on which I had some work - Aarti, and Affordable British Arts - one (Aarti) has ceased trading, and the other hasn't so far done me any particular favours; you have to be a "featured artist" to get noticed, and that appears to depend on making an investment in the site greater than I think reasonable (or can presently afford). Of the others, eg arthamster, murmurart, essentialartwork, debutday, work seems to be hanging around for a very long time ... one of these is an auction site: the frequent "no bids" notice doesn't exactly encourage optimism about the advantages of participation. I don't for a moment suppose that any of these sites are anything other than completely genuine - I'm sure they were all started with the intention of promoting artists, and making a bit on top for their creators. However - none of them seems to be doing an awful lot by way of business. And the obvious flaw in all of them is that, like any ordinary gallery, they aren't going to do much business if no one knows they exist. I would like to know, before parting with any money or investing any hope in such sites, that they're going to be effectively promoted - that's going to take investment, and persistence; and I don't know that they stand any better chance than I do, through my website and blog, of being noticed. It would be interesting to hear if anyone has enjoyed any degree of success by posting on such sites, and which (if any) have been effective; certainly, I have seen very few of them being widely advertised to those who need to know about them, ie art buyers; and yet plenty of evidence of their being touted to those desperate to sell. I have a nasty suspicion that we're all just talking to ourselves on some (or all) of these sites, and not reaching prospective customers at all. Perhaps what's really needed is a genuine artists' cooperative website, with basic criteria for selection perhaps, to which we all make a small contribution in return for running it AND, crucially, advertising it. It goes without saying that I apologize to any website which does effectively market artists' work, and whose success rate has eluded me: perhaps one of those I've mentioned does have a solid record of sales? If so - let us know... and for the rest, the majority I suspect, is it perhaps time you stopped indulging dreams, and started investing in effective advertising?