How To Make Money By Teaching Art Online
* Updated December 2024
You Already Have The Skills, Now Make More Money And Diversify Your Revenue Stream By Teaching Art Classes Online!
Finding new ways to connect with art lovers is an important skill to have in your art business toolbox – which is why many artists have chosen to teach art classes online.
Just like your roster of collectors, art lovers who follow you or are on your mailing list love what you do and want to be a part of the action. Inviting them to create with you is an intimate, personal way to pass along some of your knowledge and grant insight into what and how you create. Art is all about sharing knowledge, after all – and you are the authority of your craft!
Of course, we’d be remiss not to note that hosting online art classes is another great way to diversify your income as an artist. In addition to selling your art online, offering tickets to online art classes makes a wonderful addition to your inventory. Plus, it makes great content for you to market yourself and your work!
Why You Should Teach Online Art Classes:
It’s important to diversify your income.
You already have the skills!
Build meaningful connections with others.
Get more qualified eyes on your art.
Generate passive revenue through selling pre-recorded classes.
Great marketing – create content to promote yourself and your art business!
What If You’ve Never Taught An Online Class Before?
Stuck wondering how to create an online art class?
What if you’ve never taught an art class, let alone an online art class before? There’s no need to be shy about trying new things (especially these days where the options are virtually limitless for online creation) that will in the long run benefit your art practice and business. So, how do you create an online art class?
Support a fellow artist by taking a class yourself. One of the best ways to learn about what works and what doesn’t is to experience classes from the user’s perspective. How long is the class? How did the instructor interact with class participants? Think of this as field research for your next big project, and make sure to take notes! You’ll walk away with a wealth of knowledge on how you’d like your online art class to go.
Talk with other artists who are teaching or have taught online art classes before. Almost as good as first hand experience, speaking with someone who has taught an online art class before is a great way to gather information on the do’s, don’ts, and everything else in between.
Before you meet with them, create a list of questions like:
How long was the class?
How did you promote your class?
How many people attended your class?
How much did you charge per ticket?
Did you get any new collectors or form any great relationships from the class?
Don’t skip out on creating a class syllabus. Come up with a plan and decide what you’d like to teach. Mapping the class out step-by-step is a great way to start! Most likely you’ll start out with an introduction for yourself and your art, talk about the art or technique you’ll be teaching, go through the supplies you’ve asked participants to bring, and more. You’ll get a lot of insight on how you’d like your classes to be structured from taking classes yourself!
Once you have your initial class outline created, invite a group of friends to help you test-drive your idea. Use this opportunity to gather feedback and try out how you’d like to teach! Carve out time at the end of this practice class to ask your friends what they thought of the class, what they would have liked to have seen or what they think may have been missing from the class. Incorporate that feedback into creating the class.
What’s Your Teaching Style? Live Vs. Pre-Recorded Art Classes
Whether you’re teaching Bob Ross style, hosting a lecture with a colleague, or leading a wine and paint night for some friends, there are many ways to go about teaching art online.
There are two main ways to teach an art class online: through live streaming, or by selling pre-recorded digital content.
From a business perspective, it’s generally a good idea to offer both options to people. That way, classes are always available to purchase on your site, but every now and then you host an exclusive, limited ticket live workshop. This creates a sense of urgency while creating community!
What are the pros and cons of each arrangement, and what are the differences in how you pull them off?
Teaching live workshops gives you the opportunity to connect more directly with people in an interactive format. Depending on the size of the class, you can give individual feedback to students while class is in session, and you also have the option to leave room at the end of the class for questions and feedback. Participants will also get to speak and interact with each other if you structure the class to give them the opportunity to, which some may appreciate!
Pre-recorded classes allow you to have a source of passive income available on your website at all times. The benefit of this option is that you can record your class, upload it onto your website or e-commerce site, and people can purchase it at will! It’s a great way to introduce shorter classes, workshops and skills to your students. You can even post previews of the classes on sites like YouTube to promote the full class, which viewers can purchase off of your website.
Another great option is selling art kits with either written or video instructions. Whether it’s a paint by numbers style kit, a more crafting focused package with a pattern (such as with weaving, sewing, or other textile arts) or free-form exercise with materials like clay, there are loads of kits out there for you to draw inspiration from. Just type in “art kits” into the search bar on Etsy for some incredible inspiration!
What Do You Need To Start Teaching Classes Online?
Contrary to popular belief, you don’t actually need the latest digital gear or super professional camera equipment to start teaching online classes. Production quality, which we’ll tell you a little more about below, is important – but when you’re first starting out, the quality of class is paramount.
What You’ll Need To Teach An Online Art Class:
A good camera. If you have the latest Android or iPhone, you can probably get away with simply using your phone to live stream or record your class. Otherwise, we suggest looking into a good web camera that can be easily mounted on your computer, a tripod, or anywhere else that’s convenient!
Good lighting. Never underestimate the importance of good lighting! Class attendees need to be able to see what you’re doing clearly and effectively!
A microphone. Likewise with good lighting, students need to be able to hear you clearly. Test out your volume and built-in microphone to see if the audio quality is up to par for teaching purposes. If not, try purchasing one that will plug in to your device.
A live streaming platform. Zoom and Google Hangouts are the most popular, but you can also check out sites like CrowdCast as well. We love this list from Planoly of the best live streaming platforms for every creator.
A ticket-selling platform. Many artists opt to use the e-commerce function that's built into their website (SquareSpace, WordPress and Shopify are all great sites for this) but you may also want to consider EventBrite, which not only is a great ticket selling platform but a site where users can search for events to attend based on category.
How Do You Spread The Word About Your Online Class?
Ok, so you’ve created an online class and you’re ready to start selling tickets. What do you do next?!
Luckily, helping artists market themselves is one of our strong suits at Superfine. Here are just a few ways to start promoting your new online class:
Post on social media. Create a graphic in Photoshop or Canva, or another design program, that is effective and eye-catching. Social media provides a huge pool of potential students and clients for your online classes. Use hashtags, ask friends to promote your workshop, and keep on posting for maximum exposure.
Find local message boards in physical locations to post your advertisement on. Try coffee shops, neighborhood shops, or co-working spaces.
Likewise, there are many virtual community boards to post about your online art classes. Check out Facebook for common interest groups and link to your website or ticket-selling platform there.
Send out an email newsletter to your subscribers. By reaching out to the people who are most invested in you and your artwork, you are tapping into a base of people who are more likely to spend money on you and your work. They love what you do, and are excited for new opportunities to interact with you! If you don’t have an email newsletter yet, let us tell you all the ways in which it’s one of the best things an artist can do to promote themselves online.