Life's curve ball....Any tips on how to get started selling....I need to focus on online selling now

Life is full of curved balls Gerry....I am sorry , I have had a few myself.   I'm sorry I can't help on the selling front, I use local exhibitions etc. I live quite near to a touristy spot and some of mine are going into the Tourist advice gallery in July.  Have a home exhibition and invite people to come and see you working.  Usually involves acup of tea and a bun.    Hope you find something.... I'm sure someone on here will have better ideas than me.

Gerry, I sold a couple of paintings at a Christmas Fayre recently. Like Sylvia I live in a tourist spot but there are lots of artists here so lots of competition! I intend to go to a few local craft Fayre during the summer. However I do like Sylvia’s idea of a home exhibition/gallery! Good luck Gerry!

Hi again Gerry.  I belong to an art group and they have annual / bi annual exhibitions.  Open exhibitions in galleries... ask around, join some groups , I have never tried on line selling though I'm sure someone will know .  Oooops wrong...memory laps I've sold a few to the states ages ago via a friend  who's friend passed my contact onward . Yes word of mouth works.... 

The majority of my sales have been from my personal facebook page. I used to have a business page on FB but realised that FB restrict the number of people who see it unless you pay to promote it. I noticed that even members of my own family didn't have the post in their feed at all. I spoke to a photographer friend of mine who said he had the same experience and recommended I use my personal page instead. You need to set the post to public and you need to engage your audience. If your friends comment it will show in their friends feeds (with default settings) so try to get them to comment rather than just clicking like. Make sure to thank people who leave comments and encourage people to share the post. 

I just had a look at your work Gerry, really nice. Have you considered selling downloads on Etsy for card makers? I think it is easier to get £1 off 500 people than £500 off one. Also I know this may sound strange but I've earned a surprising amount from a graphic I posted on pixabay. I've only got 34 graphics on there. Although it's free to download some people will give you a few dollars donation. One has been very popular and has given me a steady drip of mostly $1, $2 donations since 2017, over time it's a lot of money for what it is. 

Duplicated post sorry can't delete only edit to this. 

Well Collette who's a clever girl then....great advice. 

I don't know that there's a 'best way', as it were: probably a combination of ways, and always bearing in mind there are an awful lot of artists out there, would be likely to produce best results. 1) Establish a web-presence: not because it'll attract attention, it probably won't, but it's somewhere to which you can point people; and you need to keep reminding them of its existence and to keep it up to date.  So website, or blog, and Facebook page.  I agree with the comments on business pages: the only use I've found for mine is to concentrate there on the one subject, and not fill it with meanderings about politics or what you're having for dinner. 2) Have a catalogue of your paintings available; take it to local galleries, compose a good covering letter, or ask if you could come in and have a word with the gallery owners. 3) Somehow, anyhow, get into a gallery: have an established physical space in which someone else is responsible for promoting your work. 4) Hold regular exhibitions, in the same places at the same times of year. 5) Advertise in the local press - advertise what you do, what you can offer, tell people why they want your work even if they don't know it.   6) Have a lot of luck - get people you know to talk about your work, promote it, share your posts, put links to your website/blog on theirs. I should say that these are all things I have done, not necessarily in that order, and that my best sales have come from solo exhibitions.  I don't do any of this now because circumstances have changed - I'm older; I'm full of arthritis, so the physical efforts are getting to be beyond me; and it's a lot of work, and I haven't the energy to do it all.  (But I'd snap up any offer of a gallery to show my work, so all I'd need to do is supply it, framed of course, and let the gallery do all the real work for me:  but while I live in a tourist-y place, I don't do tourist-y paintings: no disrespect to those who do (and can!) but I just have zero interest in doing that, or in painting pet portraits, or adorable little moppets with pretty little bows in their adorable little curly locks - ugh!) Those are the steps I would recommend; and if you would find it possible to paint The Wotherspoon Family at Sunny Cove, with Pippin the Puppy - well, fine, good, you will probably find customers, and though my hatred for those genres is obvious, that's just me being an anti-social old man: I have no criticism at all of those who can turn their hands to cheerful, colourful, even 'cute' paintings, IF that's what they like to do.  But don't be like an artist I knew - he was very good, he could paint anything, but he hated it - he hated the 'maritime' paintings, of 'rich buggers in their yachts' he had to do to keep sales going.   So only do that if you can live with it.  (He's dead now, and I'm not sure there wasn't a connection there.) Finally - if you can really throw yourself into your local community - get involved with things, offer your services at fetes, bazaars, grand openings, sprucing up the local church, anything like that - do it.  Take every opportunity - don't let anything put you off.  But you need to be an extrovert, or to make yourself one - if that's not you, and it certainly isn't me, it's probably quite a quick way to total mental collapse!  Some people love that, though - you're a lucky man if you're one of those people, because you're your own walking advertisement.  Those of us who'd much prefer to live our lives in a heavily fortified castle on a remote island have to find other ways: which is why my sales fell away when I stopped holding exhbitions. Finally finally ..... art groups, clubs, societies: if you can bring yourself to work with others, and better still, enjoy it, this CAN be a way to get your work out there; but you might well find yourelf having to be the secretary, chairman, treasurer, hanging secretary, events organizer, publicist.  Again, some love that sort of thing and it gives them a whole new approach to life; but if you do that, make sure you leave yourself enough time to actually paint.  

Can’t give personal advice as I’ve never sold a painting, but a local artist I knew used to organise a show of his work once a year from his house and studio. It did involve tea and buns as Sylvia says, but he was successful and his clientele came year after year and swooped on all of his work. He did a new piece every couple of weeks so by the time the summer came he had 25 plus pieces which helped to supplement his pension nicely. 

I do know that there is no easy way! It could take at least five years to establish your presence, that’s if you’re willing to put in the hard yards. All of the above have some merit, but don’t cold call on gallery owners, they don’t like it and won’t see you without an appointment. Generally they will insist on you sending digital images of your work, that’s providing you can convince them that you have something to offer, something that they don’t already have! Then, if they take you onboard… and it’s a big if, you will have to take into consideration commission fees of say 40 or 50% plus VAT in most cases. To put this in perspective, if you sold a painting for say £395, take off the initial cost of materials and framing, probably £60, then deduct commission and VAT from the full price - you could end up with £120…  And these are the provincial galleries, the chances of having a presence in any London galleries such as The Mall Gallery is close to zero! A website is probably a better way to go… I haven’t seen your work apart from a couple  of drawings on this site, so your output isn’t what we’d call prolific… and it would need to be. To be brutally honest, which I always am when giving advice, the challenge ahead won’t be easy - very few succeed but a few do, one of my college friends has made a good living from selling his work, he’s a very accomplished artist in watercolour and oils, but it took time and dedication… you’ll need both so good luck to you!