EDITOR’S NOTE: Prices and information below may be out of date. Since launching our own solution for artists who want to sell art online via their own artist websites we no longer feel unbiased enough to continue updating or reviewing other art website services. Visit the website below for their most recent information.
DailyOriginal.com is a website with a unique twist on selling art online—instead of listing hundreds, thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of works of art in a massive online art gallery, it only lists one per day.
The artwork changes every 24 hours, so if a visitor doesn’t like the one that’s up, he or she can always come back the next day. People that do like the artwork listed can buy it instantly or purchase a print of the artwork if available—and occasionally, you might find that only a print is available.
So how does this quirky little online gallery compare to the mega-galleries? After a little research, here’s what I found:
DailyOriginal pricing and features
All you have to do to join DailyOriginal.com is send in an image of your work via their contact form. If they feel that you’d be a good fit for their site they’ll ask you to agree to a few logical terms (i.e., that you won’t sell the piece being featured during the 24 hours that it’s listed and that you’ll pay the commission fee if your art sells.)
DailyOriginal doesn’t say what their commission fee is, but they do state that it’s much lower than a traditional gallery, and I’m sure they’ll tell you before you have to agree to anything.
There’s no sign-up fee of any kind, so it would only cost you something if your artwork sells. You’re also allowed to set your own price and sell prints of that same artwork during the 24-hour listing window.
While your artwork won’t go live on DailyOriginal.com immediately, your name and a link to your website will be added to their artist’s page.
There are currently only 41 artist members of DailyOriginal.com, so that alone may give you some extra exposure—according to the founder, DailyOriginal gets from 150-1200 visitors per day depending on the artwork listed.
Design and layout
Really, how much design work do you need to do if you’ve only got one painting displayed on the entire website? Right. . . not a whole lot.
DailyOriginal.com consists of 5 pages, total (not counting the checkout/purchase page). The design is simple and the layout works. The only truly unfortunate part was the logo, which just didn’t say “art” to me at all. If anything, it made me think of Oakley, the sunglasses company.
Logo aside, everything else was fine, if a bit ordinary. I also thought the “close-up” art viewer on the home page was a nice touch.
Finding and buying art on DailyOriginal.com
DailyOriginal gives a truly unique buying experience for art collectors—either buy the artwork listed, or wait 24 hours and look again. There are no other options.
This may be frustrating to some, but I love it. It’s just so simple.
And if a visitor really wants to see more than one work of art, they can browse through to one of the artist’s websites and look around there.
The only (small) downside to artists is that their work isn’t featured every single day, and once you’re featured, it might be months before your turn comes around again.
But that’s what your own website or art blog is for, right? Plus, that one day of big exposure might be just what you need.
Bottom line—is it worth trying out?
Absolutely.
As a promotional vehicle, DailyOriginal is doing things right. It’s putting one item in front of as large a crowd as it can, and hoping for the best. Not only that, but at the moment this method is fairly unique among art galleries so it’s bound to get some good press and publicity in the near future.
There are a few things that can be improved upon, of course. . . I noticed some basic SEO (search engine optimization) mistakes, and the logo definitely needs an upgrade, but those are little things. The underlying idea is what’s solid.
So go check out DailyOriginal.com and see what you think. And if your artwork looks like it might belong, ask to join! There’s really no reason not to.
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