Mark McGuinness, a poet who provides coaching and training for innovative companies and creative freelancers, claims in his June 7, 2010 article that artists have an automatic advantage marketing online because people are looking for "original and remarkable media content" on the web. He uses a cartoonist who creates work and gives it away for free online as an example. McGuinness said it was the beginning of a cycle that works to market creative artists - the more people who get friends and family to look at the work via Facebook, Twitter or other social media sites, the more opportunity the artist has to add to a mailing list and make sales. The strategy employs "content marketing" - creating and giving away original content that is not presented as marketing but functions like it. McGuinness said it is a highly creative, smart business strategy to create something useful and make it easy for people to see, copy and share it, and virtually a business that markets itself.

There are a number of marketing strategies for artists based on this idea. Complete websites, such as Art Marketing Secrets, are solely dedicated to aiding artists trying to market their work on the net. While artists can do this for themselves with the right skills, dedication and time, there are also many websites such as Original Art Online that offer to market work via a network already in place. Similar websites cater to particular kinds of work. For example, if you are looking to sell prints, try Imagekind, or if you have artwork printed on paper, greeting cards, canvas, posters and t-shirts, try Redbubble.

There are a number of avenues that can be taken to market original artwork online, and the type of work and artist themselves will determine which is the best approach.