Making Art Work: Community at a Distance (Part Two)
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- May 11, 2020
- Brett Kelley
Making Art Work: Community at a Distance (Part Two)
The sale has always been one of the most exciting, validating, and (fiscally) essential things about the arts. Now, with the industry relying more heavily on online and digital content to drive sales, there is an equal drive to streamline e-commerce and transactions for artists as well.
Luckily, there are many resources available for an artist to not only make sales but document them for their fiscal records.
Below is a list of a few different paysites that artists can use to help generate sales from either a patron, client or even donors and fans. You may see some familiar sites listed here, as we have addressed a number of them in previous articles such as “the art of crowdfunding” and our “mastering merch” article series.
Business-minded
Paypal: One of the original (and most widely used) online payment systems, Paypal allows for all sorts of electronic money transfers. You can connect your bank to your PayPal account for easy moving of funds to your official spaces, and you can have taxes applied to your client purchases. It is easy to use and is simple for transactions.
Visit https://www.paypal.com/us/home for more information.
Venmo: Founded in 2009, Venmo is a mobile payment service owned by Paypal. In 2018, Venmo handled over $12 billion in transactions in its first quarter. It is a popular system used by creatives and offers a few unique features that differ slightly from Paypal’s core program.
Visit https://venmo.com/ for more information.
Stripe: At ten years old, Stripe is a payment system that is known for its fraud prevention and banking support structures, as well as including billing/invoicing features and other business-oriented functions.
Visit https://stripe.com/ for more information.
Donation-minded
Ko-Fi: Ko-fi is a site that acts as more of a tip jar for artists in case patrons can’t afford to purchase artwork but would like to support their favorite artists in some way. Artists can post whatever they want to their accounts, and people can tip the artist in “Coffee’s” ($5 increments) that then go to another online payment system (Paypal, etc.) or a bank account. A tool like this can be great for artists to suggest donations and have a place to show artwork focused on this type of funding.
Visit https://ko-fi.com/ for more information.
Buymeacoffee: Another site that has the same principle as Ko-fi, but is more multi-faceted for creators of all styles and mediums (musicians, podcasters, cosplayers, nonprofits, etc.). This site allows creatives to receive donations and support in several ways.
Visit https://www.buymeacoffee.com/about for more information.
Hopefully, this provisional list of apps and programs will be a significant first step in getting your business set up and ready for e-commerce! Did we miss your preferred program or app? Let us know in the comments!
