How to Sell Art Online: 31 Best Sites to Sell Your Art & Make Money

Have a look at these 31 sites where you can make money selling your art:

1. WallSpaceExchange

Wallspace Exchange is a meeting place for venues, brokers, and artists.

This option allows you to sell your work to these venues at a small membership fee of $5 per month for artists.

You get to negotiate on factors like how long the art will be in the restaurant, the commission and who takes care of printing and shipping.

To make the process quicker and easier, the site lets you upload up to ten images at once.

They have a $10 per month Featured Membership option which gives you a newsfeed, promotion on the Facebook account and something they call “Feature Member Rotation”.

2. Saatchi Art

Saatchi Art calls itself the leading online gallery.

They take things a step further than most, also featuring items like sculptures.

Be sure to stop by the “Art School” section of their website first, that’ll tell you everything from the image resolution to the shipping details, and there’s even a guide on how to price your art.

3. ArtWeb

ArtWeb allows you to sell your art directly to the buyers.

Special features that make you want to join includes a customizable website and access to a community of other artists.

They handle all the nitty-gritty sales stuff like credit cards, and on top of that, the website says they charge no commission.

4. AbsoluteArts

Dealing in both prints and originals, AbsoluteArts says they have been in the business since 1995.

They have three levels at which you can sign up (or upgrade to):

1. Free
2. Midlevel
3. Premiere Artist

For the Premiere level, there’s a once off $25 sign-up fee and a yearly administration fee $100. Considering the sheer size of the website, it might be worth doing.

5. AllArtists

For a £35 per year membership fee, you can showcase your art (both prints and originals) on the AllArtists marketplace.

They take care of everything and allow you to set up your profile – on which you can stick an unlimited amount of artwork.

They let you keep 85% of the sales price.

If you prefer to test it out first, you can sign up for a trial account and upload three pieces.

6. Pond5

Pond5 deals in stock video clips and they boast with more than 4.5 million video clips in their library.

While their focus is mainly video, you can also find music, sound effects and stock images for sale.

They offer a 50% royalty rate.

7. Alamy

Mainly a stock image site, Alamy sources their images to worldwide designers, publishers and news desks.

Alamy has 100, 000 registered buyers and 40, 000 contributors, so you can be sure there’s a fair amount of traffic going around.

They offer 50% royalties to contributors.

8. VideoHive

Videohive is part of the Envato market, which also includes ThemeForest (website templates), CodeCanyon (programmers), 3d Ocean (3D models), AudioJungle (audio), GraphicRiver (vectors and graphics) and PhotoDune (photography).

You can sign up as non-exclusive or exclusive, and your rates vary accordingly.

9. Displate

Displate thinks outside the box and sells original art as a metal print.

Create a profile and upload your images. You earn 25% on every sale, which doesn’t seem like much at first, but is worth it considering they handle the rest – including production and shipping.

In addition, you keep the rights to your work and get to sell it anywhere else.

10. Hey Prints

Hey Prints is looking for talented designers to submit their art for showcasing on posters and prints.

Judging from their website, you’ll have to send them a portfolio and get approved before you can start doing business.

Just how much you get out is based on a fixed base price, and whatever above that you set as your retail price ends up as your profit.

11. ArtPal

ArtPal showcases a range of products, including photography, illustrations, and jewelry.

You can create a free gallery to show your work, and you can sell prints through their print-on-demand service.

That allows you the profits set on top of the printing press, or you can sell the original artwork (in which case you get to keep 95%!)

Profits are paid to PayPal.

12. Artist Rising

Artist Rising deals in original art and prints.

One of the big players in art dealing, they offer sellers a 30% share of every print sold. It goes without saying that they take care of the rest.

Payouts are monthly, with a minimum amount of $50.

13. FineArtAmerica

FineArtAmerica is more than just a site for selling stuff; They offer art blogs, portfolios, your own website if you’re a premium member, and you can take part in contests or post your press releases and media coverage in their newsletter.

The artist adds their own markup to the base price.

14. ArtFire

ArtFire offers three different plans:

1. Shop (free with a 9% commission fee, limited to 24 active listings)
2. Webstore ($20 per month, 3% commission fee)
3. Commercial Store ($60 per month, 3% commission fee with 5, 000 active listings allowed)

15. Dreamstime

To make money selling photos, most people go through stock photography sites. And Dreamstime is one of the lesser-known stock photo sites that is actually one of the best ones in terms of pay.

Exclusive Dreamstime contributors can get 60% of their sales while regular contributors get between 25-50%.

Payouts are at a minimum $100 and are sent as check, PayPal, Payoneer or Skrill payments.

16. Zazzle

Zazzle produces all sorts of items, including pillowcases, greeting cards, doormats, hats, mugs, shoes and shirts.

You set your royalty rate, and they set the product’s price to go along with it.

Use the site’s royalty calculator to figure out just how much you’ll earn on that item.

17. Fiverr.com

Fiverr is a marketplace for services set at $5. You can add extras to the base service, which can earn you some more.

It’s the lowest paying on the list, but the contacts you’ll build here are worth a lot more than a $5 job.

18. The Book Cover Designer

Want to see your art on the cover of a book?

Become a pre-made book cover designer and sell your work directly to authors.

The Book Cover Designer offers a flat-rate of 70%, and you can set the price of the cover yourself.

19. SelfPubBookCovers

SelfPubBookCovers is another option geared at cover designers.

Covers sold to them have to be exclusive one-off sales – to one author, for one book, only through SelfPubBookCovers.

If anything, it ensures you won’t see the same picture on two different covers.

They pay $50 on covers sold for $69, or 70% on covers sold above that.

If the sale is to a new author from an affiliate link, the rate becomes $45 or 65%.

20. VectorStock

VectorStock is your place for vectors and clip art. They have a payout minimum of $100 and pay via PayPal or Moneybookers.

You earn a minimum of 25%, but once you reach over 25, 000 downloads this can go up to 45%.

Exclusive files get an extra 5% added.

21. Printful

Printful is a print-on-demand service offering your images on t-shirts, posters, canvas, mugs, pillows, phone cases and even leggings.

Profit margins vary according to the product you’re putting up for sale.

One bonus here is there are no minimum orders.

22. Deviantart

Deviantart lets you sell both stock images and prints.

It’s a popular community of artists if you’re looking to build up contacts.

Artists are paid 20% of the retail price. Their guideline of retail prices can be found here.

23. CafePress

CafePress lets you sell your design on a range of more than 250 items, including mugs and t-shirts.

Your CafePress shop takes care of details like payment transactions and returns, and they ship worldwide.

Royalties will vary depending on the product you sell.

24. Artplode

Artplode puts you in touch with dealers and galleries, and lets you keep 100% of your sale price.

Keep in mind they charge a once-off fee for advertising.

They offer help for those who aren’t sure how to price their artworks.

25. Stocksy

Stocksy is another stock image site.

You have to submit your images for approval first, and they pay a 50% royalty rate once your images have been approved.

They request exclusivity from the start, but for the rate offered it might be worth it.

26. 123rf

123RF claims a library of over 55, 000 000 images.

You can earn royalties of between 30% and 60% for your photography.

Exactly how much depends on your contributor level, which can be found here.

27. CanStockPhoto

CanStockPhoto lets you create an account and then submit three images for approval.

Once that’s done, you can earn according to their payment schedule at 50% for custom licenses, 20% for prints or a calculated rate for subscriptions.

28. TurboSquid

Like 3D Ocean, TurboSquid is a marketplace for selling 3D models.

Exclusive contributors can get up to 80% of their sales according to their seller level.

29. CG Trader

CG Trader is rated one of the best CG-marketplaces.

Their site guarantees sellers up to 90% of the royalty rate, and aims to put clients directly in touch with artists.

30. Etsy

Handmade items are works of art as well. And if you’re good at making stuff, there is no reason for you not to make money by selling them.

One of fastest growing marketplaces for selling handmade items is Etsy. I have written a very detailed guide on how to make money selling on Etsy, so I won’t repeat that here.

And if you want to try other sites like Etsy, check out this list of 40+ Etsy alternatives.

31. I Am Attitude

This last one is for those of you who have a knack for fashion.

If you design creative and truly individualized items, this site is where you want to sell them on.

The best thing about it is that it’s 100% free to join and sell.

The company does not charge yearly fees and you can upload as many products as you want.

And at the time of writing this, they don’t even charge a sales commission.

Although I think at some point they’ll have to change that policy if they intend in keeping the site going for longer.

Understanding rights

As a seller of artwork, it helps to understand and know exactly what you’re selling when it comes to rights.

According to StockPhotoRights.com, rights are divided into two categories:

1. Royalty Free
2. Rights Managed

Royalty Free means that almost unlimited usage rights are being bought or sold, and the image can be used in a number of projects, including commercial use.

Rights Managed content will have some agreed restrictions placed on them, like the industry or region.

Don’t forget about Creative Commons licenses, which allow for free and unpaid usage.

Knowing these will help you price your work accordingly and avoid any future issues.

Your Turn

Have you made money from your art online and have a site or tip to share?

Let us know in the comments!