February 22nd, 2008 — All Posts, Featured Artist Friday
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I am impressed with Paulette’s work and website for many reasons. When I first discovered her blog and spent time looking at all of her work, I had an emotional reaction that I couldn’t place until just now. Growing up I was a big fan of Ursula K. Le Guin’s “Earthsea” series, a series that worked its way inside of me in a way that I could only feel. I get that same sort of a wistful, magical feeling when I look at Paulette’s art. “Sing” is one of my favorites and I was writing this I went to her Etsy store and bought it!
I am also very impressed with Paulette’s marketing and her many ways of reaching out to her audience. She has a Twitter feed, a Facebook page (which did not appear to be available), a YouTube channel, a MySpace page, a Flickr channel, and, of course, her blog. She also conducts teaching online and just started an Online Mixed Media Class. Her setup for the class in ingenious and takes advantage of a private blog, pdf files, a Flickr group, live chat, and, of course, high quality video. I just have to say, this is one of the smartest and coolest things I have seen and since her March class is also already filled up, it is also very successful.
So please go visit Paulette’s many online venues and learn from her. I’m sure you will enjoy her work as much as I have.
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Chris O’Byrne
www.OnlineArtsMarketing.com
www.YourArtMarketing.com
February 18th, 2008 — All Posts, Marketing, Marketing Monday
This post is a result of a conversation that I had with a good friend of mine that lives in Arivaca, AZ. We have been discussing how to market her art for several months and have had some great conversations. I wish I had recorded all of them!
You know, at some point I’ll figure this whole art marketing thing out! I would like to be able to give people a general formula and say, “Here, do this. If you do these things for this long and stick with it, in one year you will make enough money to make it worthwhile.”
I HAVE heard from some artists that their blog and other online promotion has paid off and they sometimes make a few hundred dollars from it. But if you want that to happen, you have to have put the time in online creating and building your community.
I think a general blog will have a tougher time selling than a specialized blog. Okay, artist blogs are specialized, but not when compared to all the other artist blogs out there… and there are TONS of them!
Think in terms of what kind of blog and blog content would really grab people and make them want to come back week after week. I think anything “story” related, if the story is told well, would accomplish that. One idea is to have a blog that is place and story related. For instance, writing a weekly post about things that are going on in and around Arivaca. A lot of people would be fascinated by what goes on in a place that is so remote and wild. With elements of Border Patrol, illegal activities, beautiful scenery, a strong community… there is so much to write about. Combine that with pictures using your cool new camera and then get the word out that your blog exists. People will come back week after week for the story and because you make it personal and use the first person perspective, a certain number of people will want to buy your art because they have connected with you and know your story.
What I would like to do is open this up for discussion. What are YOUR thoughts about how to build a blog that helps you sell your work?
Chris O’Byrne
www.OnlineArtsMarketing.com
www.YourArtMarketing.com
February 15th, 2008 — All Posts, Featured Artist Friday
Brenda Boylan is one of the best pastel artists that I have seen. A couple of mornings ago, Sara and I sat drinking our coffee and just going through her blog, Dusty Fingers, looking at each of the pieces and marveling at their beauty.
We especially loved looking at the posts where she showed several images of the work as it progressed. One of her latest posts, Cafe’ Seating 8.5″ x 13″, takes you through the progress of painting a scene from a cafe in Portland. Her use of the blue and orange under-coating was brilliant and helped create a work that was full of vibrant energy and color.
Shown here is her “Bathing Yellow Irises”, an 18″ x 24″ painting that was selected as one of the most popular on EBSQ. I can see why because this one really grabbed me, also.
You can find Brenda’s work at the following places:
Go take a look, subscribe to her blog, let her know how much you love her work… and buy something!
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Chris O’Byrne
www.OnlineArtsMarketing.com
www.YourArtMarketing.com
February 13th, 2008 — All Posts
1. A New Theme
I went with the Copyblogger theme that comes with all WordPress installations. I chose this one because it allowed a lot of flexibility, was widget-ready, and looked clean and professional. Chris Pearson is a great designer. I’ve already had a few people comment that they liked the change and none that did not like it.
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2. A New Way to Purchase My Book
After discussing my experience with Lulu.com over on the forum, I decided to switch to my regular provider of digital download services, E-Junkie. E-Junkie has really been delightful to work with and they provide everything you need to start selling online. Their shopping cart setup is as easy as adding products and then adding buttons to your site. You can also use them for non-digital products (aka… art) and use more than just PayPal for payments. I’ve used them for a couple of years and have been very satisfied.
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3. Support This Blog support page.
I talk about this more on the support page, but the ideas was this: keep the main content area free of annoying ads and yet still provide a way for my readers to help support this blog. None of the ads require you to purchase anything, you just fill out some information and then I get paid each time. The first ad, for example, pays me $25 for each lead, so you are really helping me when you do these offers!
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So there are the 3 big changes to the blog, I hope you like them.
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Chris O’Byrne
www.OnlineArtsMarketing.com
www.YourArtMarketing.com
February 11th, 2008 — All Posts, Marketing, Marketing Monday
How to Make Money from Your Blog
My head is literally spinning from all of the new information I have been learning in the last couple of weeks. I’ve been delving into the world of affiliate marketing and trying to get a grasp on the whole thing. You see, in the world of making money online, affiliate marketing is huge. All it really consists of is selling other people’s stuff, but when you put that model online you can do all sorts of new things with it. I mention this because some of what I’ve learned in this process can be used to help you make money on your blog.
First, here are some of the ways that you can make money from your blog:
- Google Adsense
- selling your stuff
- selling other people’s stuff
- placing ads
- selling ad space
- create a mailing list
I put Google Adsense first because that is what a lot of people first think about when they think about making money from their blog. I have also found that it is not a very good method. It is fairly easy to set up, but it provides a low return. I set up a blog for a friend that utilizes Google Adsense extensively. Last month she had almost 150,000 page views and almost 42,000 unique visitors. Even with that kind of traffic, Google Adsense only brought in about $100. Now that’s not bad, but for that kind of traffic you would think that the return would be much higher.
Selling your own stuff is what most artist do. Whether you sell directly from your site or you have links to online stores such as Etsy, eBay, or CafePress, you are probably doing some variation of this one.
Selling other people’s stuff is what is referred to as affiliate marketing. There are entire books, courses, blogs, and more written about this. A common way to do this is to write a post about a certain subject or product that you believe in and then include your affiliate link for people to click on and purchase. When I write about mailing lists, I will talk about Aweber and when you click on that link and then sign up, I get a small percentage of that sale. (Actually, I get 20% which is pretty good!)
Placing ads is what I have just started to do on this site. I will try to keep it minimal and will pay attention to the aesthetics of the site, but I do want to make a little bit of money to help support my habit (blogging). The ad at the bottom of this post helps people to find more information about particular education programs. Many of us like to take classes now and then and when you send for information using that ad, I make some money. The ad at the top of my sidebar is also something that some people will be interested in. Until you can make a living full-time from selling your art, it helps to have another way to make money at home.
Selling ad space is not something I have pursued yet, but may in the future. This is a more consistent source of income than placing ads, but may or may not pay as much. For example, a company may ask to place an ad on my site for a month and pay me anywhere from $50 to $500 for that. I have not pursued this because up until now, my readership has been rather low. Once I started posting a longer content-rich post once a week on Mondays and my featured artist post on Fridays, my readership has been steadily growing. Last month I averaged 36 unique visitors per day and the month before only 5. I am also up to 31 RSS subscribers.
The last thing to talk about is a mailing list and instead of rehashing what I have already written about on the forum at www.YourArtMarketing.com, I will instead point you to that post here.
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Chris O’Byrne
www.OnlineArtsMarketing.com
www.YourArtMarketing.com
February 8th, 2008 — All Posts, Featured Artist Friday
Heather Brown Truman, of Lexington, KY, is the talent behind BAD! Kitty Art Studio. Her work is awesome, inspiring, beautiful, and magical. She works in both oil and mixed media and the results are phenomenal. Here is her latest, “I danced all night” and if you go to her blog, you can read what she has to say about it.
In her profile, Heather has a quote from Sol Lewitt, American conceptual artist and minimalist. Part of that quote goes “Conceptual artists are mystics rather than rationalists.” Heather is definitely a mystic as her work reaches out and grabs you by the heart and soul, a much deeper place than mere rational mind.
For a broad look at Heather’s work, her online studio can be found at www.badkittyartstudio.com. Visit her blog or join her at www.YourArtMarketing.com.
Chris O’Byrne
www.OnlineArtsMarketing.com
www.YourArtMarketing.com
February 4th, 2008 — All Posts, Marketing, Marketing Monday
Today I am going to make a departure from my normal schedule and talk about a new way that Diane Clancy and I have found to help all of you artists learn about art marketing and share your own experiences. We have been working and planning for the past month and are finally ready to announce our new art marketing forum, YourArtMarketing.com.
We have both received a lot of questions about art marketing and were becoming frustrated that we did not have a way to quickly help you and also keep all of these great questions and answers for others to learn from. Additionally, many of you have a lot of your own knowledge and experience in art marketing and we wanted to be able to draw on your wisdom as well.
YourArtMarketing.com will be the place where all of us can come together to help each other out. Diane and I will spend a lot of time there, answering your questions and doing what we can. We are pretty excited about this and have come to think of all of you as part of our larger family. Building a sense of community is important to us and we know it is important to you, also.
I ask that all of you go to YourArtMarketing.com and register and then introduce yourself in the “Say Hello” section. If you are unfamiliar with forums, just click on “Say Hello” and then click on the “New Topic” button to add your own post. After you do that, please go to one of the other sections and ask a question… even if you already know the answer! We want to get the forum populated with questions so that new artists coming to the site can benefit from our knowledge and experience.
I look forward to seeing all of you over there!!!
Peace,
Chris O’Byrne
www.OnlineArtsMarketing.com
www.YourArtMarketing.com
February 1st, 2008 — All Posts, Featured Artist Friday
papiers collés is the blogsite of Neda Doany, an artist formerly of Beirut, now living in Austin, TX. Multi-talented and with a Doctorate in Speech Communication, it appears that it is through her art that she makes her strongest statements and influence in this world.
Neda’s collage masterpieces are “unique handmade pieces made with paper, glue, scissors, and passion.” For me, an appreciation of collages did not come right away. I grew up on a small farm in rural Minnesota and thought “real” art had to be realistic. Fortunately that state did not last and I learned how to experience art both intellectually and emotionally/spiritually. Neda’s art definitely connects with me emotionally.
In addition to her blogsite, you can view Neda’s work at her online gallery at www.MarayaGalleries.com. Please visit Neda’s online world and experience her art for yourself!
Chris O’Byrne
www.OnlineArtsMarketing.com
January 28th, 2008 — All Posts, Marketing
My target market is the person who wants to make some money from creating art. They may want to make a full-time living or they may want to merely supplement their day job or they may be a stay-at-home parent that needs to create art and wants to make some money from it.
Who is their target market?
A large percentage of the people in this country are NOT their target market. They are the people that work all day and come home to watch tv and go to bed. They live for the weekend and vacation and for buying more toys. If they read, it is only magazines or books that are primarily fluff and are for entertainment and escape only. If they buy art, it is to make their houses look better for company and is very standard.
Their target market is the person who is educated, reads, travels, identifies themselves as spiritual, has had a few different “jobs”, thinks a lot, is a creative themselves, and is concerned about the enviroment and politics (to some extent). With so few people falling into this category, you would think that it would be more difficult to present your art to these people. In fact, the opposite is true. If you were to try and appeal to the masses, you would have to pay thousands of dollars for television commercials, billboards, and radio ads just to reach that broad audience. With a narrower market, it is much easier to “meet them” where they go. If you are thinking about advertising, you can now focus on the magazines or newspapers or websites that this sort of person would read or visit. You can speak to them on their level with their interests in mind.
It is very helpful to imagine a specific person that fits your idea of the ideal customer. Create an actual person in your mind that has those characteristics and give them a name. Think of this specific person whenever you are doing anything to market your art. If you are creating an ad, write copy that would appeal to that one person. If you are writing a blog post, address it to them in your mind while you are writing. Believe me, how you are feeling and what you are consciously and subconsciously thinking will come through in your writing.
So far we have identified the very general market that would be interested in your art and created a specific person to address that fits the ideal, but we still need to talk about need. In a very general sense, here is how it works. There are two very broad ways to get somebody’s interest. One way is through their curiosity and this can be addressed through telling your story. This is not a very strong method, however, because satisfying their curiosity is fairly low on their list of needs. A stronger and more effective method is to make them aware of a specific problem that creates a need for them that your art can satisfy.
You know that your art has value and that it will satisfy some specific need or needs that certain people will have but what need is that? This is the hard part, the crux of the whole matter, and only you can come up with just the right answer. As an example, you might show your potential customer that art brings depth and layers to their life. It opens windows to deeper spaces within and its daily influence brings joy and lasting satisfaction. Remember, you don’t want to appeal to the general masses, you want to appeal to your ideal customer.
As I have said, this is the key step in the whole process, identifying what problem or need that your art solves or fills and then letting your market know about it.
Next week we’ll take this further and show how this ties into the past two posts about surviving as an artist. If there is a particular direction you would like me to take with this or a specific topic you want me to make sure I talk about, please let me know in the comments.
Chris O’Byrne
www.OnlineArtsMarketing.com
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Here is some information about art education:
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January 25th, 2008 — All Posts, Featured Artist Friday
Sue O’Kieffe is an artist living on the North Coast of California and has been creating mandalas since 1995. (If you are unfamiliar with mandalas, here is a Wikipedia article that will give you an introduction to mandalas.) Sue’s website, Sacred Circle Mandalas, is her blogsite that gives you a glimpse into the life and work of this amazing artist.
I have always been fascinated by mandalas and have created several at various points in my life. When I was studying for my Masters of Earth Literacy at St. Mary-of-the-Woods College, we spent one afternoon just studying and creating mandalas and they have a true spiritual influence. Sue combines this with nature and digital photography (two more favorites of mine) for an incredible triple affect of arty goodness.
If you are wondering how she goes about creating her masterpieces, here is a recent article where she gives a tutorial on pattern-making that helps explain the process. Like any true art, technique is only one piece of the whole puzzle.
Sue has another website here where you can also see her portfolio, greeting cards, and more. Please check out her sites and let her know what you think of her work.
Chris O’Byrne
www.OnlineArtsMarketing.com