This past year I have made more of a transition to  our Facebook page …and that’s to help me out. I pretty much work all the blogs, newsletters, etc.  single handed. So if there are far fewer posts that is the reason! Of course all of you are all welcome to add your comments, recommendations, etc here and on our FB page!

The other reason I have not posted as much is, yes, you guessed it, work!. As artists whose every bill is paid solely from the sales of our art, our priority is creating and selling our art.

So I have about 20 minutes this morning, here in front of the fire with hot coffee on a cold rainy (and not sure why it’s not snowing!) 37 degree morning here in NC. We plan to leave to see family in Pennsylvania tomorrow where I KNOW there is snow and return just after New Years.

We worked our tails off this month! Steve painted enough to need ice on his shoulder each night a week before Christmas and I kept just as busy with the portraits, the deliveries , the art classes and the displays. We both were zapped with some creeping crud around Thanksgiving and hacked our way through the studio for two weeks…but hey, we got through it!  There is an old saying “Make hay while the sun shines” and for every month where the sales are overwhelming, there are two months where they are so so and 1, sometimes  2 during the year where I wonder what a regular paycheck would feel like! Then I remember the days where I did not want to work and drove through the countryside at random, walked wooded trails or took out a kayak or spent the day working in my herb and flower garden or just messed about with random art for the fun of it….and I think “Nah-h-h!”

So we’ll be sending out Jan newsletter when we return and I will share just HOW we are able to “live the life of an artist”.  SO if that doesn’t keep you on pins and needles, nothing will
To see that Steve and I are real people, below is a list of our FB pages. Don’t like or use FB? You should…many of our collectors respond quicker to our messaging through FB than even the phone!

Happy NEW Year!

Theresa    www.facebook.com/MTheresaBrown
Steve         http://www.facebook.com/stephen.filarsky

www.facebook.com/artcareerexperts

…..Consumer demands are changing. Customers want more immediate access to the best relevant deals and are using the Internet as the primary way to redeem coupons. Now, one in five smartphone users use mobile coupons and the demographics of coupon users are shifting……..

The Rise of couponing in small Business

Greg Voakes

This week, couponing and consumer savings site Coupons.org launched an infographic called “The Coupon’s Comeback.” The graphic argues that couponing, a phenomenon largely dormant for the last 20 years, has found a resurrection in the form of online media, social couponing sites, and more traditional dashboard sites. “The Coupon’s Comeback” explores the rise in coupon offers and redemption since pre-recession times, the surprising demographics of coupon use, and the evolution of online couponing.

According to the graphic, Americans have been engaged in a “long-term affair with the coupon,” which is not entirely surprising, since the coupon has been around for over 100 years. Recently however, there has been a huge surge in coupon use and as a result, spending and savings are up. More and more small businesses are offering coupons, and the number of online coupons increased 360 percent since 2009. As more retailers get online, that number will continue to multiply. By 2014, the number of mobile coupon users is projected to grow a staggering thirteen-fold.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-voakes/the-rise-of-couponing-in-_b_1291453.html

OK. It’s been a tough couple of years. We all admit it. Everyone and every business has felt it to some degree.   As working artists, whose total income comes from the sales of our art,  we have had to improvise, expand,tweak, adjust, invent, add and scramble to live a comfortable lifestyle and pay our bills!  To us, making a business plan has always been a call to action and we have done it successfully for over twenty years but never so much as the past two years!
So, IF you have heard enough of all the artist whining that has been going on about the economy and how no one is buying art  and how no artist should have to sell or market and where is the guaranteed way and place to sell one’s art, then this article is for you.   The economy is what it is and to achieve your goals in your plan of action, you simply have to make a few adjustments in your thinking and decide to work within the framework of what is here and now.
And as you can tell, at Art Career Experts, when it comes to selling your art,  we have always felt that there is WAY  too much emphasis on “making the artist feel good” talk and not enough on action. In a world where people feel it is their right and duty to  “feel good” about everything,  the fantasy world of expectations of what being an artist is all about has led to many thousands not realizing a dream. The reality is that all successful artists have had to work hard.  Developing a strong work ethic has never stunted any artist’s creativity.  And whoever thinks that is simply looking for an easy out!

So with that in mind, if you need your ego stroked and your hand held, and my “get ‘er done” directness offends you, there are plenty of other bloggers making big money soft peddling the “artist life fantasy!”  So I won’t apologize for skipping the feel good stuff because if you are serious about making a living with your art, you will be more interested, and won’t mind, getting down to brass tacks and making a  Plan of Action for the year.   Your mindset needs to be on getting it done and turning it into your reality. The one guarantee is that once a plan is written out and put into effect, it is a record of each quarter and each year of your art business and shows you exactly where your ideas are or are not working.
1. Start with what you accomplished last year. It does not matter how you felt your year should have been-  look at all the positive events and accomplishments.
2.  Look at how these accomplishments helped you realize or move toward your goals. Look at what you planned to do and didn’t get done. Did that hinder you or did you end up taking another path toward your goals?   Everyone has a goal whether they wrote it down or not.  Let’s assume for the sake of this article, that you are a visual artist and that your goal is to make  $50,000 in art sales income this year.
Let me digress as I am going to assume that you have the ACE  marketing book  or audio or workbook or even the basic business plan. To have and have read or listened to them indicates your decision to get serious. Because the basics are in them all and you will already know the over 75 places online and offline to sell your art! To not have any of our marketing tools means you’re not  ready to  commit to ANY plan as you are still seaching for the one that suits your needs.  Be truthful and know yourself
Now, what you want to do is look at how what you did or didn’t do last year moved you towards or away from this goal. This is what you need to know to be able to make this year’s Plan of Action and make it work.
The Goal: Earn $50,000 this year in art sales. That is approximately $4200.00 monthly. It is a figure that needs to stay in the back of your mind.
The Action Plan: So how are you going to do that?
1. List every place or way that you sold a piece of art last year or recently and decide that you will improve on it!
2. Look at every place on the ACE list of where YOU can sell your art in public.
a. Narrow the list to 2 places that you can actively pursue
3. Commit to either Etsy or Ebay for your online store.
a. Set up the store
b. Monitor it daily
4. Look at WHO else can help you sell your art.
a. local Gallery
1. contact them with portfolio of work
2. see what they do that will help you
b. Friends, co-workers, family
c. art groups, co-ops, businesses
5. Art Shows
a. which ones will support your kind of art?
b. use common sense and decide if local or distance is the way to go
6. Newsletters-monthly
7. postcards/snail mail-quarterly
8. emails, phone calls, follow ups
9. What else can you do with your art? Multiple “streams of art income” WORK!
a. classes/workshops
1. online and/or offline
b. new products
1. online/offline and where
c. reproductions in all forms-same thing
d. etc.
10. Social Media
a. commit to Facebook and develop your page or your friends
1. Hint: stay away from controversy on your business page!
b. Linked or Twitter-you can survive fine without them-work them if you want
11. Website-
a. This is all in the ACE books -you need one
b. Blogs-yes and keep it up
c. Youtubecan be a good thing for traffic-no experience required-simple
12. Cut your losses-eliminate or cut back your time and effort on anything that is not giving you some return for your investment in time and money!
13. ALWAYS know where you are financially! And which one of your streams of income is falling behind or not working!
14. Plan your marketing using all the free outlets-be very selective with paid advertising.
15.  The five words that will stop you from being successful are “I don’t feel like it.” Decide to change the way you are working and stop complaining! It’s too negative.

Remember the 80/20 rule. Twenty percent of your effort leads to eighty percent of your results. Look at what worked last year. Build on that. Look at what MIGHT work this year. Build on that.  Nothing works if you don’t try.
We want to work smarter not harder. It’s hard enough already. If you didn’t love doing it, you probably wouldn’t.  Keep you eye on the ultimate goal. Think of it as a destination. Your action plan is your ACTION PLAN.  It is way past time dreaming that past artists had it easier or that an artist should not have to market or that marketing is a “necessary evil.”
Does it really matter if you get to your destination by a different route than you planned?  No. What matters is your attitude. Stop blaming others.  Then add your determination to roll up your shirtsleeve, work with what you have and start making your goal a reality.
“Even a kick in the rear is a step forward.”

So this article in the Associated Press caught my eye.  Are we really so different from other retailers?

J.C. Penney Says ‘No Sale’: Cuts All Prices, All the Time to Simplify Bargain Hunting

J.C. Penney (JCP) is permanently marking down all of its merchandise by at least 40% so shoppers will no longer have to wait for a sale to get the lowest prices in its stores.

The plan is similar to Walmart’s (WMT) iconic everyday low pricing strategy except that Penney’s goal isn’t to undercut competitors. Instead, Penney aims to take the guesswork out of shopping in its stores by offering customers fewer sales and more predictable pricing.

Penney’s plan comes at a time when stores are struggling to wean shoppers off the profit-busting bargains that they have come to expect in the weak economy. The move is risky because shoppers who love to bargain-hunt may be turned off by the absence of sales.

The Fast and Easy Shortcuts to Success?

by M.Theresa Brown

An interesting discussion began the other day when, on a yahoo group message board, a list of the 12 ways to be successful as an artist were published. The 12 steps were “OK advice” but pretty generic and from a popular Internet art marketing site  and I responded to the post with the following:

“Oh my, real world experience counts for a lot in these discussions.

It is telling that the most often asked question in our art marketing seminars is “How do I price my work?” The artists who ask, regardless of what they just heard from me in the seminar, are searching for an easy, magical formula for instant success. And top of their list is the thought ” skip the rest-just tell me how to price my art so I can sell”

Those artists are not understanding or accepting that there is no single answer. I tell them it is the “whole package” which is the key to pricing their art. But even putting the “correct price” on a piece of art will not sell it!
From what I have seen and heard, very few artists today are willing to work as hard as it takes to develop that package

They pop from one guru’s message to another looking for the yellow brick road and a way to the top with as little effort as possible:-) And along the way, they go nowhere because there is always the underlying voice telling them “but that’s a lot of work” or “I don’t know if I can do that” and off they go looking for a message that sounds more in keeping with what they’d like to do.”

Want to read the rest of this insightful article?  You can subscribe to our monthly newsletters and enjoy articles from us and our knowledgeable guest artists by signing up for our FREE newsletters at Art Career Experts.

BTW-did you notice the “teaser” form of writing? This seems to be the era of a new news form of  Internet writing. Gone are the days when the summary of the whole article was in the first paragraph. Now most headlines when you turn on your computer are questions. “Did the man jump from the building?”  “Did the war end?”   The old time newsmen would roll over in the grave.

All of Penny’s contact info is at the bottom of the article-just substitute “art” for “book” and you see that it’s all the same!

Theresa

Fifty Things Under $50 Bucks To Promote Your Book

These days it seems like everyone’s book marketing budget is a little tighter. If you’re feeling the pinch, or if you’re just looking for some great free stuff to do on your own, here are some tips that could help keep you on track.

1. Buy your domain name as soon as you have a title for your book. You can get domain names for as little as $8.95. Tip: When buying a domain always try to get a .com and stay away from hyphens, i.e. penny-sansevieri.com – surfers rarely remember to insert hyphens.
2. Head on over to Blogger.com or WordPress.com and start your very own blog (you can add it to your Web site later).
3. Set up an event at your neighborhood bookstore. Do an event and not a signing, book signings are boring!
4. Write a few articles on your topic and submit them onto the Internet for syndication. You can submit them to sites like ezinearticles.com and articlecity.com.
5. Check out your competition online and see if you can do some networking.
6. Do some radio research and pitch yourself to at least five new stations this week.
7. Ready to get some business cards? Head on over to Vistaprint.com. The cards are free if you let them put their logo on the back, if you don’t they’re still really inexpensive.
8. Put together your marketing plan. Seriously, do this. If you don’t know where you’re going, any destination will do.
9. Plan a contest or giveaway. Contests are a great way to promote your book.
10. Google some topic-related online groups to see if you can network with them.
11. Send thank you notes to people who have been helpful to you.
12. Send your book out to at least ten book reviewers this week.
13. Do a quick Internet search for local writers’ conferences or book festivals you can attend.
14. Create an email signature for every email you send; email signatures are a great way to promote your book and message.
15. Put the contents of your Web site: book description, bio, Q&A, and interviews on CD to have on hand when the media comes calling!
16. Submit your Web site to the top five directories: Google, MSN, Alexa, Yahoo, and DMOZ.
17. Write a great press release and submit it to free online press release sites like: PR4 – http://www.prlog.org/ , http://www.1888pressrelease.com/, http://i-newswire.com/, http://www.prfocus.com/
18. Write your bio and have someone who can be objective critique it; you’ll need it when you start pitching yourself to the media.
19. Schedule your first book event!
20. Start your own email newsletter; it’s a great way to keep readers, friends and family updated and informed on your success.
21. Start a Twitter account and begin tweeting. If you don’t think Twitter is significant, think again; it’s been a major part of our marketing strategy for over 2 years now (before anyone even knew what Twitter was).
22. Develop a set of questions or discussion topics that book clubs can use for your book, and post them on your Web site for handy downloads.
23. Add your book info or URL to your answering machine message.
24. Start a Facebook Fan page. Fan Pages are much better than groups because they’re searchable in Google.
25. See if you can get your friends to host a “book party” in their home. You come in and discuss your book and voila, a captive audience!
26. Find some catalogs you think your book would be perfect for and then submit your packet to them for consideration. If you’re unsure of what catalogs might work for you, head on over to http://www.catalogs.com/ and peruse their list.
27. Go around to your local retailers and see if they’ll carry your book; even if it’s on consignment, it might be worth it!
28. Add your book to Google Book Search.
29. Research some authors with similar subjects and then offer to exchange links with them.
30. Start a Squidoo page and make sure it’s linked to your Twitter Account and Facebook Fan page.
31. Make sure your blog is connected to Amazon via their Amazon connect program (yes, it’s free).
32. Ask friends and family to email five people they know and tell them about your book.
33. Leave your business card, bookmark, or book flyer wherever you go.
34. Subscribe to Google Alerts and make sure that you are getting alerts under your name as well as your book title(s), brand, and keywords.
35. Pitch yourself to your local television stations.
36. Pitch yourself to your local print media.
37. Work on the Q&A for your press kit. You’ll need it when you start booking media interviews!
38. Pitch Oprah. Go ahead, you know you want to.
39. Is the topic of your book in the news? Check your local paper, and write a letter to the editor to share your expertise (and promote your book!).
40. Stop by your local library and see if you can set up an event. They love local authors.
41. Do you want to get your book into your local library system? Try dropping off a copy to your main library; if they stock it chances are the other branches will too.
42. Go to Chase’s Calendar of Events (www.Chases.com.) and find out how to create your own holiday!
43. Going on vacation? Use your away-from-home time to schedule a book event or two.
44. If your book is appropriate, go to local schools to see if you can do a reading.
45. Got a book that could be sold in bulk? Start with your local companies first and see if they’re interested in buying some promotional copies to give away at company events.
46. Don’t forget to add reviews to your Web site. Remember that what someone else has to say is one thousand times more effective than anything you could say!
47. Trying to meet the press? Search the Net for Press Clubs in your area, they meet once a month and are a great place to meet the media.
48. Want a celebrity endorsement? Find celebs in your market with an interest in your topic and then go for it. Remember all they can say is no. Check out the Actors Guild for a list of celeb representatives.
49. Ready to get some magazine exposure? Why not pitch some regional and national magazines with your topic or submit a freelance article for reprint consideration?
50. Work on your next book. Sometimes the best way to sell your first book is by promoting your second.

How would you like a free marketing evaluation of your book? Find out how by emailing me! penny@amarketingexpert.com

Wishing you publishing success,

Penny & Everyone at AME

Although I have shared my insights and successes about social networking before, (especially Facebook) , there is nothing I can improve upon in the following article from marketing book author, Penny Sansevieri!

I am constantly encouraged at how many artists, once they see their business as a business,  discover that ALL businesses operate in essentially the same fashion..and that their business is no different when it comes to the basics such as marketing, social networking, customer relations, etc.

Enjoy this nice, clearly written article from a writer’s perspective and see how it applies to you as an artist!

http://www.jerrysartarama.com/blog/post/2011/04/04/The-Power-of-Social-Networks-by-M-Theresa-Brown.aspx