How can you protect your art while showing it on the internet. Let's start with the premise that the reason you have a website is to display your art and attract prospective customers to admire and buy your art. Given this premise, what are some things you can do to achieve this purpose and still protect your art. First let's consider the size of the image. Marketing research indicates that when a viewer lands on your site, you have 4-5 seconds to capture their interest before they move on. So the very first reason for them to leave your page is an image that is 3 MB (megabytes) large because that's the size of the image that came out of your digital camera. Even with more and more people accessing the internet via high speed links, it can take 35-55 seconds to download this image. Your prospective customer has long since departed your website. Another reason to keep your image sizes small relates to how the images are displayed on the viewer's screen or monitor. These devices are only capable of showing images with a resolution of 72 dpi (dots per inch). The images that are produced by your camera have a resolution of 300 dpi which are appropriate for sending to the printer. Therefore if you are loading large images to your site, you are providing a potential thief with all they need to extract your art, blow it up to a reasonable size and print it out. Opps. MyArtClub.Com recommends that you resize your images between 50 KB (kilobytes) and 140 KB before loading them to your site. We have found that in most cases, this size of image provides a clear representation of your art that can be loaded to most computers in a matter of seconds. As computer screens are replaced with larger sizes (19" and 21" screens), the available real estate to display your image gets larger. However, many of your prospective customers may still be using a smaller 15" or 17" screen size. Therefore to show your art to best effect, display your art so that it can be seen without having to scroll up and down the page to view the whole image. Most image editors have a mechanism for resizing your art. We recommend a couple of simple tools that are freely available to download off the web. They will either resize your art images one at a time or can resize an entire directory of images for you. They will also control the physical size of the saved image for .jpg files by controlling the compression or quality factor. The Microsoft editors save your images with a default quality of 80%. However you can vary the quality factor to set the physical size and improve the image at the same time. In our next blog we will discuss other recommendations about displaying your art on your website. read more ...

There are lots of easy ways to increase your traffic and build your customer base. Your own traffic building efforts will guarantee a huge difference to your site visits. Here are 6 top ways: Add more artwork. Most artists with more hits have more art on line. If you have unused art space on your website, fill it up, and enjoy more traffic. If you are not sure what to do, especially newer artists please don't hesitate to email the [email protected] for assistance. You can add more art at any time, and even add more art spaces as needed. Keep your art work current. Active artists change some of their images and information at least every couple months. It does not take long to keep your content up to date and the payoff is great. Visitors will return often to your site for more when they find it is changing! Invite your fans to see your work on line This is one of the key ways to increase your traffic, especially to easily keep in touch with your customers. After you load or reload an art work, use our "Notify Fans" feature to send an email with your personal comments and a direct link to the art image just loaded. Got some news you want to share? Let your network know! Update your mailing list. Your customer and network list is gold for you. If you send out emails (the fastest and least cost way to keep in touch) you need to keep your email list current. Load up your email list to your website by logging in to your site then click on "Market your artist site", then click on "Maintain your mailing list information." You can load up your email addresses either one at a time or in bulk. Contact us if you need any help. Use your web address. Three ideas for showing your website address (shown on your webpage, i.e. www.MyArtClub.Com/Joe.Smith): 1) at the bottom of all correspondence and email, 2) on all pamphlets or business cards and 3) on any listing of you as an artist, or art group. List your web page with search engines and directories. Listing your website and art work can increase your traffic especially for new customers. MyArtClub.Com has links on line to several free search engines and directories sources. Click on our "Links" page which is found from the main MyArtClub.Com page, on the right hand column under "Resources". This article first appeared in the My Art News Letter #12 read more ...

The Secret for Artists The following blog is the first in a series of articles from a guest, Ruth Payne. For many of you in the Vancouver area, Ruth Payne will need no introduction. Ruth is the curator at the Ferry Building Gallery and the Visual Arts Coordinator of West Vancouver Cultural Services. The Secret for Artists The Secret for artists is first knowing what you want to have happen in your art career. The film THE SECRET (if you haven't watched it, DO!) spells it out in simple terms. The Law of Attractions is always at work and you create what you think about. You must have a clear dream so why not make it big as well as real for you? As Somerset Maugham quipped, "it's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it." Dream from your heart while keeping your feet firmly on the ground. This will give you your heart's desire and a vision that you can articulate. Before you delve into the specifics necessary to present yourself to a gallery with the intention of having them represent you, it is necessary to do some in-depth self examination. This authentic, reflective and investigative journey is worthwhile for all artists…and it makes the journey simpler. Art-making and art marketing is a heartfelt journey; to keep that connection is essential. I believe it is in the heart-space that one knows what the dream is. Do you really want to exhibit in New York City in a world-class museum? Or do you want to be a weekend painter, giving your art as gifts to your family and friends and occasionally exhibiting in a local community gallery? Do you prefer the art festival and outdoor market type of venue? Do you want to sell your art as a sideline business which you run as a sole proprietorship? Does the idea of exhibiting in a group show appeal to you more than showing solo? Do you prefer to show people your work in your home or studio and not exhibit in galleries? Are you an Internet buff who would rather spend more time promoting yourself on-line? These are just a few of the questions you want to ask yourself…now you know where to start. Spend at least a month on this, journaling your thoughts and inspirations on what success is going to look like to you. Draw pictures, use lots of colour, cut out images and sayings in magazines. Make a Personal Success collage of your art business. Set aside a special sketchbook to make notes, jot down ideas, successes, tips, doodles, goals, dreams and entitle it: My Successful Art Career. Visit galleries and look at as many other artists' work as possible (advice from painter Gordon Smith). This will give you an idea of where you fit in the art world. Also think about where you fit in art history. What is your style, influences, mentors? Then share your findings with a fellow artist, trusted family member or friend. The next step is to Begin with the End in Mind by imagining yourself at the end of your life. This is a very useful visualization, one of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People from the book by Stephen Covey. What did you do with your art that you are so thrilled with? What did you accomplish that was just right for you? Now you can work backwards to present time and make plans, goals and commit to making your dream happen. Next, write it all down. As long as the idea is just in your head it is a slogan. I believe to make it a goal and make it manifest, you have to write it down. Now you can begin the path to successfully exhibiting and marketing your art. Stay tuned for more in April on the specifics of organizing your art business for success. Ruth Payne, Visual Arts Coordinator, West Vancouver Cultural Services, Ferry Building Gallery About Ruth Payne Ruth brings 25 years of experience as a gallery curator, visual artist, stress management consultant and teacher and runs the popular Arts Connection Networking Salon for visual artists. This article first appeared in the My Art News Letter #12 read more ...

Some artists feel just getting the images on line is all they need to do, and the more the images on line, the better. Artists often want to show a wide variety of work, to make the point they possess well rounded talents. Perhaps one style of art will grab a galleries attention, so it must be better they would argue to make sure a wide variety of art styles are sampled. Right? Wrong! As well meaning as loading up all kinds of art may sound, the way the art is organized and presented is crucial. Think of your own experience in galleries or museums. How nice it is to see art work well lit and set up in an uncluttered and spacious gallery. How much lower in value does art seem when crammed willy-nilly in every nook and cranny of a frame-shop wall? Think of your customer's experience when they visit your website. Customers can only take in so much at once, especially in today's busy times. If they want to see landscapes, let them focus on that form of your art. Badly organized multiple styles of art or too many art images at once can actually confuse and 'turn off' customers. Well presented sites have a much higher level of visitor satisfaction, organized presentations can make all the difference. But how can this be done on websites?Simple! Divide your art into logical sets of images, using the MyArtClub.Com "studios" feature. Each studio is a separate page on your site featuring your collection of similar works. Studios and be grouped as you choose perhaps by style, or by inspiration, by materials, any logical grouping that interests you and your visitor. The studio feature has a text section for introduction and description of each studio's body of work. Tell your visitor why you were intrigued with these works and they're sure to want more. Use specific terminology so the search engines will link to your studio. Within the MyArtClub.Com studio visitors can tour the art of that studio in large image format, uncluttered by images from other studios. So how many studios should you create? I recommend starting with 2 or 3, and define more as you feel the need. Generally try to keep each studio down to 10 or 20 images. To start building studios, just log in, select "Build or maintain your Artist Site" then select "Activate your Studio Pages option". After you have defined a studio you don't need to reload the art, just assign each image to a studio. This part is easy but necessary to keep your art showing. Just visit the "Add or Maintain your Art Pages" and next to each art image enter the studio number on the left column box, marked "Display in Studio" Create studios for your visitor, and you'll get the pay-off! read more ...

In general pictures you take can be used as a basis for art. However with celebrities, getting permission is a good idea. Otherwise you may be unwittingly exploiting their rights to control their publicity. On the US website from CafePress.com, an extensive discussion on this topic is posted. Cafepress.com reproduces items that are based on images posted by artists for commercial purposes. You might find it useful. Here is the link. http://www.cafepress.com/cp/info/help/law.aspx and on that page you will see this Q & A: (True and false format) Assumption: I took the photo, so I can use it however I want. FALSE. Simply taking a photo of a person, company, brand, logo or the like does not afford you the right to sell merchandise featuring that photograph. There are two distinct intellectual property rights in a photograph: the rights in the photograph itself and the rights in the subject of the picture, such as the product or person shown in it. For example, if you take a photo of a celebrity, you only own the rights to the photo, but not the right to use the photo of a celebrity for merchandise sale. In order to sell merchandise with the image, you will need to obtain explicit permission from the celebrity. From the Canadian perspective, there is a good link from the Federal Government as a legal guideline for Museums. http://www.chin.gc.ca/English/Intellectual_Property/Licensing_Images/publicity.html From that link it says: "In Canadian law, some legal protection is available in situations where there is an exploitation. In the case of living persons, written releases should be obtained from persons whose images are used commercially." If the photos are yours, there should not be any issue in basing an art image on the photo. If not, then you would need the photographer's permission. If the photos were taken at a concert or other venue where cameras were not permitted, then do not use those photos. This article first appeared in the My Art News Letter #22 read more ...

The following blog is the second in a series of articles from our guest, Ruth Payne. For many of you in the Vancouver area, Ruth Payne will need no introduction. Ruth is the curator at the Ferry Building Gallery and the Visual Arts Coordinator of West Vancouver Cultural Services. Art Fairs, Outdoor Shows, Tradeshows, One-Of-A-Kind Shows, Festivals, Markets In exhibiting your art, you certainly are not limited to commercial and public galleries. There are endless opportunities and venues for both selling and showing art if you become creative about researching prospects. Many artists despair when turned down by a jury or when they get a 'sorry' letter from a commercial gallery. They then go into hiding, so to speak, wondering if the world of art lovers and buyers will ever find them. If you look, you will usually find an opportunity for exhibiting in your own neighbourhood. First of all, consider home studio/gallery exhibitions. Host your own show and reception, or team up with fellow artists. Buyers love to visit the working space and creative homes of artists and this is often where the most sales will occur. Don't forget to display a painting on the outside of your home or studio. Why not? Hang a piece that you will delegate as a promotional piece and don't mind if it gets beaten up by the weather, right on your front door. It is very appealing to see art on the exterior of a home and it immediately brands what you do. If you work is 3-D, I suggest the same thing. You can display art in the garden, in an outdoor entrance alcove, in the apartment building foyer…there are many more possibilities. Alternative Venues An array of alternative commercial venues exist for marketing art, and many buyers prefer the demystified and relaxed atmosphere of these for purchasing art. The following are some options, and you can add your own to this list: Shopping mall exhibits, merchant windows Offices: doctors, dentists, law offices, accountants, SPCA, veterinarians, investment firms. Real estate offices, movie sets, homes for sale (staging) Wine shops (often will display your art; then host a reception to celebrate both your art and their wine- -a winning combo!) Cafes, restaurants Hospitals, airports, banks, retail clothing stores, design shops, textile stores, shoe stores City halls, hotels, public facilities, day cares, schools, universities. In the next part of the article, Ruth discusses further exhibition venues. Best of success with your summer art sales! Artfully yours, Ruth Payne, Visual Arts Coordinator, West Vancouver Cultural Services, Ferry Building Gallery Email: [email protected] About Ruth Payne Ruth brings 25 years of experience as a gallery curator, visual artist, stress management consultant and teacher and runs the popular Arts Connection Networking Salon for visual artists. This article first appeared in the My Art News Letter #22 read more ...

The following blog is the second in a series of articles from our guest, Ruth Payne. For many of you in the Vancouver area, Ruth Payne will need no introduction. Ruth is the curator at the Ferry Building Gallery and the Visual Arts Coordinator of West Vancouver Cultural Services. Art Fairs, Outdoor Shows, Tradeshows, One-Of-A-Kind Shows, Festivals, Markets In the second part of the article, Ruth discusses further exhibition venues. Be willing to do the installation yourself and always sign the art, place a label next to it on the wall with your name, title of piece, medium, price and your contact info. Sign the art on the back with a Sharpee felt pen and put the date and a © for copyright. Offering a commission of the sale to the hosting venue is an incentive for them to talk up your art. Write it all down, make sure you keep a copy, and keep in touch with the store, etc, every two weeks. * Never display your art in a place where there are toxic substances, extreme light or temperature, moisture, fumes or chemicals that will damage it (i.e. drycleaners). Tradeshows and outdoor art fairs can be great venues in which to sell to a large amount of buyers and reach an international market. This is generally very hard work and requires a finely rehearsed system to make it happen smoothly. However, it is an effective way to pay the mortgage! Art Fairs are usually juried and you can do this by mail or email. There will be a fee and you will have to set up your own booth with displays, lighting, and furniture. You can rent equipment from companies specializing in display equipment. (i.e. Eddie's Hang-Ups, Vancouver). The Yellow Pages is a good source for renting racks and lighting. I do know of a number of artists who sell extremely well at fairs in the larger cities and they have developed an efficient system to the way they pack, ship, setup and sell their art. One artist paints oil on canvas pinned to the wall. She then rolls the painting, places it into a mailing tube and ships it to the city where the fair is. Sometimes she takes them on the plane with her. When she gets to the fair, she has them put on stretchers. This cuts down on the hassles and costs of shipping. Go online to find information for large city outdoor shows and fairs. Locally, your Arts Councils and Craft Associations can give/sell a resource guide. Don't overlook the idea of local farmer's markets, fairs, and art festivals. Art can be sold at the most unlikely time, in the most unlikely way, at the most unlikely venue. This is guerilla marketing and the opportunities are endless. You could sell a $2000 painting in the Whistler weekend Farmer's Market, to a woman who is browsing and shopping for organic potatoes while her husband is playing a round of golf. Art in the Park: Stanley Park in Vancouver is a bustling art market. Check out these options in your hometown, or create your own group to sell art in park areas. Plein air painting is very inviting to viewers, Europe is famous for it and it is a wonderful opportunity to sell your work. Cruise ships and tourist locations. Special events and occasions: political events, 2010 Olympics, sports and cultural events. Guerilla marketing = unconventional marketing intended to get maximum results from minimal resources (it is worthwhile to search Guerilla Marketing on the internet. There are a host of worthwhile manuals, books and tips). Best of success with your summer art sales! Artfully yours, Ruth Payne, Visual Arts Coordinator, West Vancouver Cultural Services, Ferry Building Gallery Email: [email protected] About Ruth Payne Ruth brings 25 years of experience as a gallery curator, visual artist, stress management consultant and teacher and runs the popular Arts Connection Networking Salon for visual artists. This article first appeared in the My Art News Letter #22 read more ...

The following blog is the third in a series of articles from our guest, Ruth Payne. For many of you in the Vancouver area, Ruth Payne will need no introduction. Ruth is the curator at the Ferry Building Gallery and the Visual Arts Coordinator of West Vancouver Cultural Services. "Sacred space and sacred time and something joyous to do is all we need. Almost anything then becomes a continuous and increasing joy." – Joseph Campbell The Four Basics for building your art business are People, Space, Time and Money People to advise, encourage and help you Space to do your art and business Time to do your art and business Money to keep the wolf away from the door PEOPLE The people in your life who support your art business are your pit crew. They are the ones that spin your tires! They beam you up, dust you off and say…get back on the horse! Know who these people are. Let go of the naysayers, who may be envious or are just Negative Nellies. You don't have time for anyone who does not have positive and encouraging energy in regards to your art and business. Life is wondrous, the world is waiting for your art, and it is full of creative art marketing opportunities for you to grab. Let no one hold you back. Most people, if you explain heartfully to them, will understand and have great respect for the time you need to do your art, the path you are pursuing and the goals you have for your art sales and exhibitions. STUDIO You need a space that is yours to create art in. This may also be the space that you have your art business office in, where you do your marketing from. It is not the kitchen table. It is also not your bedroom or dining room. It is separate from the activities of daily life, and it is your designated art sanctuary. This space can be carved out in an unused garage, garden shed, empty room, space borrowed from a neighbour, artist's warehouse studios as in 1000 Parker Street, Vancouver, communal artist's spaces, rented apartment space, and the outdoor studio if you are a plein air painter. One very successful Vancouver artist has his studio in a converted garage off the alley. He rolls up the doors and it is called the Alley Gallery. Voila! Good lighting is essential, from either a skylight, natural and preferably northern light, or incandescent, but not fluorescent. Fluorescent light distorts colours. Your tools of the trade are a professional sturdy working easel, firm armless chair, preferably the twirling type with a flexible back, your paint and palette table, a filing cabinet for your business and art inventory keeping, and a worktable for your journal and sketchbook. Now add a chair or two for visitors, as well as a small table by the entrance where you have a photo of yourself at work, business cards, portfolio, invitations to exhibitions you may be in, and a vase of fresh flowers. Of course your art speaks for itself, and also the essence of who you are shines through in your studio space. Potential art purchasers are intrigued to meet the artist in his studio, see work-in-progress and generally feel a part of the process. It's all integral to your 'artist's magic' and every bit of your presentation is important. Visiting other artist's studios can be a great way to get creative ideas for your setup, renovation or to make your studio suit your personal style better. It is also a wonderful opportunity to network with other artists in their art-making space. I think it is useful to have a small shrine in the studio. This can be a table, a corner area, a small shelf, whatever works for you. On this you will put inspirational mementos, photographs of your children and mate, the seashell you brought home from your painting trip in Mexico, your little statue of Buddha or whatever has spiritual significance for you, and a candle. It is meant to centre you and bring you to the present moment of appreciation for your artist's life. Note: your business and tax set-up will take into account the space in which you work. Your costs and rental or mortgage agreement i.e. a percentage of your income, if used for work, may be deducted from your taxes. Please read your self-employed/ small business tax form available from Revenue Canada to learn about maximum workable deductions. For detailed information on The Business Of Finding A Workspace, a discussion of zoning requirements, leases, etc., please see Art, the Art Community, and the Law, Self- Counsel Press. In the next part of the article, Ruth discusses the other two basics: time and money. Artfully yours, Ruth Payne, Visual Arts Coordinator, West Vancouver Cultural Services, Ferry Building Gallery Email: [email protected] About Ruth Payne Ruth brings 25 years of experience as a gallery curator, visual artist, stress management consultant and teacher and runs the popular Arts Connection Networking Salon for visual artists. This article first appeared in the My Art News Letter #23 read more ...

The following blog is the third in a series of articles from our guest, Ruth Payne. For many of you in the Vancouver area, Ruth Payne will need no introduction. Ruth is the curator at the Ferry Building Gallery and the Visual Arts Coordinator of West Vancouver Cultural Services. The Four Basics for building your art business are People, Space, Time and Money People to advise, encourage and help you Space to do your art and business Time to do your art and business Money to keep the wolf away from the door TIME "Until you value yourself, you will not value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it." -Scott Peck Knowing how to set healthy boundaries with others is to know how to really say YES and NO and this in turn saying YES TO YOURSELF. Give yourself what you need in time, for both creating your art and for the marketing of your art. By the way, plan on spending 50% of your time on marketing. (unless you have a gallery to represent you full-time and exclusively) Do you trade your time for easy cash? Don't undersell yourself. Your time is meant for art-making and marketing your work. If you volunteer your time, do it because you want to, consider this tithing your time to help others, mentor students, or talk to a networking group of artists. This time is freely given, even though you may receive a small honorarium as a thank you. I believe that what you give freely and from your authentic self comes back to you at least 10 times. Work from the 80/20 rule that made Walmart so successful. "Nothing can add more power to your life than concentrating all your energies on a limited set of targets." - Nido Qubein The 80/20 rule says that on a list of 10 tasks, only 2 of those tasks will return 80% of the value of the entire list. Look at your art marketing 'to do' list. Which tasks are directly related to what you want to happen. Find the 2 high- value items on your list and tackle them first. These tasks, contacts, exhibitions, potential buyers are the ones that will really move your career forward. Many of us actively avoid the top 2 priorities because they are more challenging than the rest. If they are to lead us to worthy goals, they are undoubtedly asking us to move into new territory in thinking and acting, and this can be scary. But this is also REWARDING. Focussing on your Centre of Influence, as Stephen R. Covey speaks of, in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, with First Things First, is another way to do this. It takes you out of your Circle of Concern, where you tend to water down your time without concentration on your own needs. This is only a conscious choice away! "Don't kid yourself: it's because you're doing all those C's (low priorities) and NOT because you haven't any time, that you don't get to do you're A's." - Alan Lakein Make yourself a sign: ARTIST AT WORK: Please do not disturb. The flip side will say: ARTIST in STUDIO 2- 5pm: Please come in. One side is for your sacred art-making time and the other side is for open studio time for visitors and buyers. MONEY Don't quit your day job! This may sound trite, but there is nothing attractive about the artist who is really struggling to pay the rent and keep the chicken on the table. This angst comes across in the art you want to sell and it actually pushes the buyer away. It speaks of neediness and lack of security and it is not attractive. Balance in all aspects of your life will allow you to pursue your art business with ease and confidence. If your partner is willing to support you, you have an inheritance, or you are retiring, then great. Just make sure you have enough money for your basic living expenses, and to be able to invest in your art business. You will need to spend money on a website, invitations, business cards, as well as art-making supplies and framing. Extra cash is a necessity for this. I encourage you to add to this list, then post it in your studio as a reminder of what you will give to yourself! Artfully yours, Ruth Payne, Visual Arts Coordinator, West Vancouver Cultural Services, Ferry Building Gallery Email: [email protected] About Ruth Payne Ruth brings 25 years of experience as a gallery curator, visual artist, stress management consultant and teacher and runs the popular Arts Connection Networking Salon for visual artists. This article first appeared in the My Art News Letter #23 read more ...

As you may recall, last fall MyArtClub.Com conducted a market survey to assess the "5 Ws" about the art market, meaning the questions "Who", "What", "Where", "When" and "Why". We felt compelled to learn more about fine art clients for the large part because the answers for many important questions to help artists and art venues build solid business plans are not readily available. Our report, soon to be released, presents a concise set of findings to assist all participants in the art market. It brings together demographics and personal interests to focus on understanding client preferences to help you target your art markets most effectively. Key findings include reasons for optimism! A whopping 98.9% of participants purchase fine art an estimated 1.4 times per year. A huge 78.2% of these clients buy on impulse simply because they love the work. The highest customer preference at 71.2% is to buy directly from an artist to better know the artist and support the artist financially. The full report is to be out in Fall 2008. As a member of MyArtClub.Com you will have full access to the findings. An interesting summary presentation is also being prepared, with specific actions you and your art groups could take. We would welcome an invitation to present our findings to you and your group in future. This article first appeared in the My Art News Letter #24 read more ...

DIY (Do-It-Yourself) art marketing has never been so full of potential to help artists become successful. However artists need to realize results will be proportional to the amount of effort they put in. DIY artist websites offer artists the advantage of low start up costs; total control over content and display options; and powerful art marketing tools. With this in mind, artists need to consider how to make the best use of their time and money. We believe the key considerations are to determine: 1) your internet marketing goals and 2) your time commitment to execute your DIY effort. Goals: The first question to ask when considering your DIY web presence is: What are your expectations from having a website? Your answer might be some combination of: To show your art to others To connect with and build your audience To market and sell your art Time Commitment: The second question you need to ask yourself is: How much time are you willing to invest in achieving your DIY web presence objectives? You might reply with one of these typical answers: 1-2 hours / quarter – Time to build and maintain a web presence is time out of the studio! Save me from the computer! 1-2 hours / month- I just want to update occasionally when necessary. 1-2 hours / week – I am fairly committed – I see online presence as an important part of my marketing efforts. 1 hours / day – I am on the computer a lot and I really want to promote my art and art career for part of my day! An organized approach: With your answers to these 2 top considerations you will know where to focus your efforts. In upcoming blog entries, we will go into detail the web activities available to you to achieve your goals, reviewing the purpose of these activities along with their pros and cons. A summary of many typical artist website features or activities can be found here or a short commentary can be found here. Think of the three goals as if climbing a ladder. First build your site to show, then up a rung to connect, and further up to sell your art. Your time commitment should focus on the minimum required portion, the Basics of each rung, before advancing to the next rung on the ladder. Select anything from Optional section to enhance your artist website efforts. To Show Basics: Prepare suitable "jpeg" images of your art. Upload art images. Upload a picture of yourself. Choose your domain name. Optional: Upload a logo / signature header. Set site template colours and fonts. Group art by type in sub-pages (we call these "Studios"). Add your YouTube videos. Add a flash slideshow. Add music. To Connect Basics: Upload your Artist Statement, Resume and Contact info. Announce your website launch and subsequent updates. Link to sites you love. Add your domain name to your email signature. Add commentary, stories about each artwork. Optional: Set prices for gallery sales. Upload calendar events. Upload your email list. Email news of shows etc to your list. Blog about your target customers needs. Segment your contact list and email targeted messages. Use Facebook, Twitter to connect from and to your website. Create videos on YouTube and post to your blog or website. Add lots more links. Post comments on the blogs of others. Showcase your unique expertise or passion. To Sell (direct from the artist) Basics: Set up a payment provider account (e.g. PayPal, Visa etc). Set your pricing for direct sales. Add Order Forms, Price List and an Art Catalogue. Ask clients to buy from your site. Optional: Advertise on the internet. Offer specials – do some merchandizing. Prepare prints or lower price versions of your artwork. Give your customers specials / freebies. Use eBay and other online markets to meet new clients. Target your customer segment and converse via their community's blogs. How do you feel about our assessment? Your comments would help us understand your artist issues with managing an artist website. What have we got right or what have we missed? read more ...

Many thanks to the 187 artists who took the time to complete the survey. There is a lot of interesting information I am analyzing for this blog entry and likely several more blog reports to come. Individual requested comparative reports for those who signed up will be sent out in the coming 2-3 weeks. Charts to illustrate the findings presented below, with much more detail, are available to download here. Please open this Artist 2012 Sales Survey Report 1 (If you cannot open see the Adobe Reader download link below) First a caveat: Everything presented here is opinion. Do not base your marketing efforts solely on this. You must do your own planning in context of your own business. With a healthy sample size of 187, we do hope to provide you with some reasonable sense of how artists are seeing the art business, and what they plan to do. The findings are: Half the 187 responding artists spend 20 or more hours per week. Page 2 Half see their art business as somewhat or very important financially. Page 2 A segment called ">20h-$NB" is defined to be those 70 artists (37%) who reported that they spend 20 or more hours a week, and the income is somewhat or very important to them. (NB is taken from Nota Bene which is good old LATIN for note well, aka 'important'). What I am looking to do by showing results for ALL in comparison wth those artists in this segment, is to show how this particular segment of the responding artists think relative to how the whole group thinks. I picked those who are able to and do spend most of their working time - you might call them "full timers" - and married with that those who are somewhat or very dependent on the income from their art business. In other words these artists have some skin in the game from a business point of view from both time spent and money needed. You will see that sometimes this group shows some interesting differences when compared to the overall group. Page 3 Market outlook is positive for 2012 by all artist respondents, and is even more positive in outlook by the >20h-$NB art business operations. Page 4 Group art shows came out overall on top as best way to get income, but the >20h-$NB artists rank commissions first, and then galleries, solo shows and group shows. Page 5 Promotions that worked in 2011 were # 1 direct selling to clients, then dealing with galleries/agents and media promotions as the most productive avenues, especially for >20h-$NB segment. Page 6 Artist spent about 53% of time producing art (Page 7) and over 73% want to increase that time. Page 8 Original art works sales were 72% of all income, with instruction generating 11% and copies or prints of originals generating 9.4% for all respondents, totaling 92.4% of all income sources. Page 9 The implications are: You can see where you fit in for hours per week, and review how other artists see the market from that similar perspective. Prices and sales units are seen to be going up. Artists should not lower prices, rather should at least hold prices steady and increase if their pricing analysis permits. A review of pricing benchmarks would be a worthwhile effort. The >20h-$NB segment is even more positive about sales opportunities. Seeing is believing! Don't let this very positive opinion sway you too much. You can feel some heart warming positive thoughts to be cautiously optimistic about marketing efforts you undertake this year. Commissions may be the best way to earn income, be sure you are promoting this or considering how to build this part of your business, if applicable If direct selling is the most successful, what are your promotions to contact and engage with your clients? Draw up a plan To increase the amount of time creating art means either having assistance with other time consumers, or getting more time to spend. A way to off load or save time doing admin and set up looks desirable. Could increased learning be done in tandem with creating? Income sources from originals is already so high it is hard to imagine that increasing as a percentage of your art business. Copies on the other hand do represent a way to reach a lower cost market segment. Our Art Market survey indicated clients buy as many copies as originals. Instruction while logical and lucrative needs to be balanced in time commitment if you want to increase your time creating and learning. Offer instruction as a block of time – say a weekend retreat – vs several weeks of once a week classes - to retain your maximum time availability. Anyone who would like a spreadsheet (CSV) copy to examine the detailed survey submissions immediately is most welcome. Email your request for the "Report spreadsheet", to [email protected] We will continue to report on our findings in upcoming blogs, and hope you find this of help. Please comment below to indicate / pass along your thoughts, comments and suggestions! Download Adobe Reader software here read more ...