Should I worry about uploading my art to online gallery marketplaces as my online strategy?

No, simply uploading to online marketplace sites is perpetuating the same third-party dependency problem that leaves you vulnerable. Those sites are just online galleries—the equivalent of one physical gallery downtown. Everyone is uploading to them constantly, and only about one in a thousand artists makes any meaningful sales there, typically just a couple sales per year. Going online doesn’t mean uploading to marketplaces; it means building your own online gallery that you control—your own international art gallery that happens to be online. You need to own your customer list, do your own direct marketing, and build a business where you control distribution. That’s the fundamental strategic shift required.

Asked by an artist considering marketplace sites as online strategy · Answered by Nick Friend · art-marketing-podcast · 2020-06-02