Do You Like To Post Your Art Sales On ...

I don’t post my sales but I used to. The thinking goes it makes you look in demand and thus enticing to others. I could never tell if it helped one way or another but I got self conscious about it because I thought people might start making assumptions about how much I made. So I stopped.

I wouldn't post my sales anywhere.
Only posting I would do is on my accounting records.

I don't use social media because it encourages more subscribers to my mailing list, where I can better talk directly to them without algorithms. Still I don't post my sales in my mails. Because my mails are about THEM and not about me. I don't even dare ask for the sale.

More on my blog start page https://frankjcasella.pixels.com/blogs/welcome-to-frank-j-casella-artist-photography-blog.html

I also don't think you should post sales on social media even if you did use it, because social media is a symptom not a tactic.

https://seths.blog/2018/10/social-media-is-a-symptom-not-a-tactic

Some successful artists I admire announce their sales, so I do, unfortunately I don't have much occasion to do so. Keep in mind they post it as public thank you note not a brag.

The Vanderlaans told me I should and I've had a few really big sales days where I posted the sales as they came in and it seemed to generate more sales. April and the masks comes to mind and the 18th was around 100 sales of 98%masks. It kept going over the next few days to around 300 sales by the 21st...

Did it really generate more sales? I can't answer that. But it still depends on the mood of the customers... if they want it, and all I'm doing is to let them know its available then we'll see what happens...

I don't but I don't use any social media in general.

I post my sales some of the time. Probably most of the time but only larger sales. I do not post mask, mug or card sales any longer. I think that it does help because people see that I not only sell originals but prints and such as well. Not everyone can afford an original so they have an option to own some of my art on a lower budget.

Frank, that was some awesome reading. Thank you.

One thing I cannot grasp is how any sales would occur without social media sites.

I guess blogging and email campaigns.

Everyone else, thank you.

I don't want to announce my sales on social media because...I feel like I am bragging to the choir.

If I wanted to be in demand, I would simply lie and state I made a sale daily. The problem is it has a weirdness to it even when I do sell.

I can easily thank a person privately.

Anyhow I do think it's worth a try for others. Please report if it works or if you think it works and why.

Jeff Folger, way to go on those sales, and I hope others will follow your path in sales and the way you got them.

I do from time to time when I make announcements. Also for the larger content that is available such as art prints canvases ect. I usually let people browse through my online store too. It is worth a try to let people know that you do this. I am always open for constructive criticism too on my work, it will help me to get better when taking photos too. I'm not going to lie . I have not made a sale yet , I do feel it will take time, Someone out there might be interested in one of my works one day. I keep my Store fresh and up to date to allow my visitors to see what I have available. Thankyou for this post.

Okay I totally read your post wrong I thought you was asking do you post your art that you have for sale online to other media. Either way it is a great way to share your work with others.

I don't. If I sold originals I might, but for print-on-demand it feels weird. Imagine a book author tweeted every time s/he sold a copy of his/her book. My mouse would be on the unfollow button in no time.

I do post my sales on FB because they are few and far between. If I started getting several a month (actually last month was the first time in 10 years I can actually say I got several), I would stop doing that because I think it would look obnoxious. However, everybody that knows me here knows I don't sell high volume, so I think they forgive a little self-congratulations.

That said, EVEN IF I start selling tons (I'm not giving up), I will still at least share the art on social media if not my sales. I only post screen shots with links manually anyway, just to protect the art, since screen shots are only good for the internet. You can't really print them any larger than about seven or eight inches.

I also like to see my fellow artists post their sales on FB, again, as long as it's not every five minutes or ten a day or something.

When I upload, I upload a lot at once, usually, and I had to un-follow someone on Twitter recently who does the same thing, but has the Twitter thing on automatic. I LOVE this person's work, but post after post after post etc. just got to be too much - so you CAN obviously become obnoxious about it.

Since, I still rely on the sale of tangible art, I only announce a sale (on "Rats,Bats, Vultures, etc", a Facebook business site) when I have a new piece to replace it

I don't generally do that, mostly because I don't count a sale a sale until I receive payment. As yet I have had nothing returned but I still feel I have to wait for payment.

That said I am no good at marketing my work in general - I don't share much of my work on SM.

I have a FB page that I keep separate from my daily chit-chat page. I also keep up with Twitter and Pinterest, although neither of those seems to be worth much. Because I've never been able to link sales with any particular person on social media, it seems like something that does no harm but may or may not have much benefit too.

I will post a thank you response for a print sale, as we don't know who buys it through FAA. I feel I need to let the collector know I appreciate their business.

Yes I post all of them, originals and prints and products, bragging or not the posts do bring new sales.

After selling lets say a pillow, I make a screenshot of a pillow, I thank to the buyer and add sale announcement. Then add something like all of my paintings are available as pillows in different sizes, you can change background color to personalize bla bla then a link to my Pillows page..

Then I sell more one or two pillows.. Not always but is like that. I sell some mugs after eachother then some blankets etc..

After original sales is the same. They give them confidence and they contact me for custom orders etc..

It is part of my routine. I share them on FB, IG, TW and also create a Pin because I already have a screenshot about it directing them to the product or print pages or to collections to see always all the options.

(Without this I believe people wouldn't know that my art available for sale.. just to say I painted something what do you think, is not enough if you want to sell. I do that only in groups where they dont allow links or saying that you sell something)

Another advantage to post them that sometimes the buyer comment under they cannot wait to get it.. or they received it. So this is another way to know my buyers and see what worked and what not)

A lot of this is like the ads that are interjected into your TV watching. 99.99999999999999% of the time, I will NOT go out and buy a new car because the dealer interrupted a show, but they have to rely on some sort of belief or science or survey that recognition or hints eventually reach the person who IS about to buy something. You just never know.

I sold two pieces recently based on a long ago family link that I didn't know about until recently due to ancestry research. With nothing else to do that night I posted an FAA image of a gnarly, backwoods ancestor of mine in his bearskin coat. It was a scan of a ragged, century and a half old photo so full of dings that it's barely recognizable, a deliberate choice to NOT try any significant photo restoration, but somewhere between FAA, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and the Ancestry web sites, it found someone who liked it and actually knew who this guy was, just a bolt out of the blue.

Yes, I post a thank you to the buyer and a thank you to FAA for the sale. I noticed some top sellers doing it, so I do as well. It shows people your art and your art on different POD items as well. I like that Pixels and FAA give us the POD accessory images to post. I do it on my FB personal page and art page & IG. It does take time, but it's good PR as well. I'm with Dora. If I didn't do it , I don't think people would know about the availability of my art. I tag peeps as well, and they get a kick out it. I've had friends post a pic of them wearing my Face Masks on my wall as well. So it's a personal thing for them and great publicity for my art.

Oh that is just great information, peeps!


I love soaking in all the marketing strategies. I guess the way to see this is that making your art available is the key, not necessarily bragging or anything like that! I like that psychology of availability. That helps me a lot.

I still don't understand, however, how on earth one would sell anything at all if social media wasn't available. Even emails to some degree are social media and it makes sense to do as much as possible, right?

Anyhoo, thank you everybody.

I do sometimes. It serves as a reminder that I sell my photos and encourages browsing. It gives me a chance to get fresh eyes on old work. I usaully put a story to the photo so it is not just bragging that I made a few dollars.

Oh Bradford Martin, that is excellent. I'm steeling that one today. I was just about to close this thread, and the best tip ever came through. Go figure.

I just sold a work that I want to show off (not the sale, but the work in it's framed state.) I do not want to say I sold it because I sold it last week and it's yesterday's news between the buyer and me. Also, I still want to show of the art because it's amazing and just how do I do that? I

And that is why I'm going to do just Bradford does, that will be easier for me. Thanks.

Nope, to me is seems a bit desperate, like look at that, I actually sold something. Especially like when I see someone posting about a 5 x 8 prints or a coffee cup. Like they never expected top sell something or a $20 dollar sale is a big event in their business.

What I used to do instead was do a once a week posting of announcement my best seller images for the week. I would put five of them in an album and say, "Here are our five best selling image as of (today's date). I posted that to several FB groups and a Tweeted it.

I did two different posts. One of our own images and one of our PD images. It was one of the main components of our marketing plan. I felt it was working very well because some of those same images are still our best selling images.

What would be fun to do is just come up with the five ugliest paintings ever and say they are the best selling art. LAMO

Although disingenuous, t'would be interesting as a science marketing project.

But can someone else do it besides me and report? I feel the problem of desperation as well Floyd.

And the fact is, I'm not even needing art sales for money, I need it to avoid taking my art to Goodwill.

What would the buyer say?
What if the buyer doesn't want to advertise their purchase to everyone. It is ok, if you know the buyer and send a thank you card directly to the buyer. Otherwise it could be intruding on there privacy, I think thats why FAA doesn't give the names of there customers.

Edit to add.
I just came back from my painting...
So if you are looking for an ugly painting, you need to wait a little longer 😊

Tony, you are so perceptive and cool.

I think keeping the privacy is extremely important.

Although some people want a picture taken with the artist, not everyone does. That is a fact.

I do it occasionally but mostly for larger print sales. I actually spoke with a marketing expert about this very thing. She said as long as it's not overdone it's good to post the occasional announcement both as a thank you and to show that you're an artist whose work people want to buy. Some people have it in their heads that the more you sell the more legitimate you are as an artist. I don't agree with that thinking but then I gave up trying to understand human behavior a long time ago lol. I actually had someone buy one of my prints because they liked the frame and mat choice that another customer picked for their purchase which I had posted on my FB page. I also don't think it's an invasion of privacy because the only information we have on a customer is the location not the name. If I don't include the location information on a sale announcement I fail to see how that is an invasion of privacy.

"What would be fun to do is just come up with the five ugliest paintings ever and say they are the best selling art. LAMO"

That's funny!

You could actually do something like that, well not just like that but that does give me an idea.

"Here are five of may favorite images that have never sold and I don't know why?"

Or...

"Here are five of what I think are my best images that no one else likes."

It would be really interesting to see the Facebook comments where they don't care about respecting the artists... lol

If I know the purchaser I only put their first name. It is then their decision as to whether they want to reply. I have warned a few that if they reply, they may get fifty friend requests from other artists and galleries. LOL

I can't see any downside to posting sales. There's no mention of the identity of the buyer so there's no privacy concerns. It's on my "business" account so it doesn't look all that braggy to people that are on my social account and it creates the impression that something's going on. When I have a dry spell, I go back to some old ones that are probably forgotten and repost those sales or images pages. The point is to have your images and name show up in searches run by search bots, which are completely non-human and don't get tired of your stuff. It's all an algorithm and you're better off being in it rather than lost back in time.

I don't know if any of this does anything, but it's such a small investment in time and effort that there's not much to lose. If you make it part of a routine, then it's a bit like taking out the trash cans the night before collection, like just something you do.

You know, Floyd, I'm going to take you up on that. It's more honest and fun. Excellent idea!!

Hi Phyllis. You are a total pro and I cannot believe other artists would be so rude as to try and get your art patrons. That would be so beneath me, I hope I've never have done this subconsciously or by accident on Facebook.

All this said, the privacy thing is really weird, I don't like giving my hometown, address even to people picking up their art. It seems so unsafe to me, not that I'm paranoid or anything.

Excellent point Doug.

It's a funny thing how marketing is simply unique to each artist.

Mark Andrew, great points. I think the privacy issue comes into play with painters because we sometimes know our buyer. We know who they are and what they bought, so respecting their privacy becomes an issue. Some of my patrons want a picture of me with them and the painting they bought and other's want none of that business. Some people are very private about who they support.

RE:..."Ugliest Work"

At times, in my selling life , I've placed a piece that been around a long long time ("Dog"), under the counter...

And sure enough, along comes the one, that insists on seeing the "Hidden" work, thinking it is being saved for a "Special" (a lot of quotation marks) person, and are willing to pay "Mucho" for that piece.

"Cha Ching"

I have a similar story Roger. For some reason, I put out all my art ugly, unfinished, half done, super ugly epic fail and those are the ones people seem to need.

I haven't a clue what they do with them, but when they tell me they gave it as a gift, I'm horrified.

I don't usually post them...for 2 reasons...it seems a bit like "bragging" to me, also anybody who likes the work might think there aren't any left...I used to post them with a disclaimer "many more available"....but rarely post my sales now.

any time i can call attention to my work i would. if i had dozens of sales a day, i wouldn't bother though. it would be like having a full time job telling people about it. i don't see how its bad, it could create a sale. but if i sell a mug, a poster and a mask with the same design, i only post the one, i might mention it was a set. i don't usually toot my own horn on things, but i usually show it off.


----Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

Lisa, you are a sweetheart and have never done anything to upset me in any way. ♥

Just food for thought. When you want to make a purchase, would you look for a company or store that has sales experience and a good reputation?

That is a great analogy, Phyllis. Definitely food for thought!

Rose, I must have a similar psychology to yours, but I am glad you found a way to show availability for prints.

Every time I want to close this thread, another brilliant person writes ✍ their amazing breakthrough.