I confess to not being much into psychiatrists  and further confess that I think half of them are full of BS. (my apologies to those who think otherwise) but I think this guy has a good handle on reality and so many artists need a bit of positive reinforcement that they may not be getting elsewhere!

Furthermore, many artists are NOT doing well in this current economy judging from my emails, so branching out and adding new elements to what you already do involves a commitment (There’s that word) of a new type!

<This (following) is not a popular concept, just a true one:

Anything worth doing (e.g., living a mentally healthy life) takes commitment.

When I refer to work I mean a real commitment — not just involvement. You may be wondering about how these are different. This was explained to me once by a salesman I met years ago — I’ll try to get his accent just right for full effect:

“Sunn [sic], the difference ‘tween involvement and commitment is the same as the difference ‘tween eggs and bacon. The chicken is involved. The pig is committed.” It’s hard to argue with that.

Commitment is key for making and sustaining real change in your emotional life. I don’t expect you to go ahead and turn yourself into bacon, but what’s needed is not just a wish to change in five sessions or less, or to have a therapist “fix” you, but an actual commitment to do something different — to push through when the going gets tough, because unfortunately it does.

A true commitment to personal change requires three things:

1. Vision
2. Promise
3. Energy

Let’s look at each of these things in turn.

Vision: It’s wonderful if you know exactly what you’d like the New You to look like, but it’s not necessary. All that that you need is to be open to imagining yourself and your life as different than they are now. You can explore the particulars along the way.

Promise: When you commit to change you implicitly make a promise. The promise is not to your husband, your sister, your kids, or even your Labradoodle. The promise you make is to yourself. It’s like writing a check with your mind. The way you cash that check is with work.

Work: Yes, work is a four-letter word, blah, blah, blah… But when you truly believe in something, when you are moving with purpose, work is not just not bad — it’s good. Work means throwing your energy at something you believe in to make a change — to make it the way you want it to be.

Commitment is the recipe for change. When you commit with your vision, promise, and work, it pays off in something better than bacon (if there is such a thing)… real change.>

The new thinking is that the word “committee” is no longer in vogue and perhaps it conjures up Congress or the PTA.  Whereas TEAM conjure up teamwork, or the “go get ‘em” mentality. Corporate worlds have replaced the old words with the new for awhile now. But the question is : Has anything changed? Or is it still just one or two people looking for their little moment of authority?

We found it interesting when our county art council, funded by the state and memberships, began to shift towards the team mentality. Oddly enough that mentality was already there in the form of common good as a group of hardworking, unpaid volunteer Board members gave up many a Saturday to bring an obselete building and dying membership back into  the light. There was that “just roll up your shirtsleeves and get it done” mentality and comraderie that did not need to be enhanced or clarified  by a “committee” or “Team” tagline. The work got done in amazing time with amazing results.

Fast forward to a few new members fresh from corporate America (oh my we know how that works), with a Napoleon syndrome, and all of a sudden we are looking at charts and graphs that look like a family ancestry page and new papers to sign, rights squelched and TEAMS.   And now, nothing is getting done but a lot of talk.

What just happened? How could someone take a good idea, a working grass roots plan and  indoctrinate it with corporate laws, bylaws, adendums, control intellectual rights, muzzle  ideas and smother creativity-all in the name of “TEAM growth?” Worse of all, only we saw and spoke up about the “emperor’s clothes.” How could sane people not see this for what it was….and is?  There is always a danger in removing the checks and balances in a democratic art environment….

Oh wait, we’re taking about Art right?

Keep this whole thing in perspective. There is no need for an artist to “justify” her expenses to anyone.(and I use “her” as this seems to be a predominantly female trait!) Not to her friends, not to her spouse, not to her relatives. Art is no more expensive than golf, video games, gardening, fishing, scrapbooking or any other hobby that someone chooses to have.  Only in art does one’s hubby (and I see this with women ALL the time) say “you can sell this, Honey and make some money”.  Well why doesn’t he take his fish to market and pay for the boat? Or his golf score last week to sell and amaze on Ebay? You see my point.

So relax. Only when you find your sales REGULAR and “real” should you even consider going the business route. Regardless of all the “easy” ways to sell your art that “experts” all over the Internet are selling or advising, use plain old common sense. There is no such thing as an easy business .

Theresa
Art Career Experts

The good news with the results of our art marketing from the trenches (so to speak) is that we were slammed this Christmas with orders for our art! As entrepreneurs, we are used to the ups and downs of self employment and so are not as quick to blame “the economy” for everything that  is “not” happening.  We just work harder. Still it was nice to see clients loosening their purse strings and enjoying spending some of it with us!

Keep in mind too that none of our success this quarter was by accident. We did not stumble upon clients, burn incense or randomly hope they would show up at our studio….we continued to promote our art via our usual tried and true channels: in person, on Facebook, our monthly newsletters, phone, postcards, email…the point is that we persevered. We earned tens of thousands of dollars these past few months because we “kept at it.”  We were prepared whe it hapened.  We were successful not because we are the greatest artists around. Not because we have secret weapons for marketing art. Not because we lucked out. We earned what we earned through sheer hard work and the constant promotion of what we create.

It all goes back to the”rule of seven”-that the average client needs to see you, your message, your art, etc approximately 7 times before committing to investing in your product. Sometimes it is 4 times. Sometimes it is 9. But 7 is the average. So what does that tell you?  Did you go to one show and quit?  Did you offer one art class and quit? Did you send out newsletters twice and then quit? Did you email that prospect once and then quit? If you gave up after only one or two tries, you will never be able to realize your dream!

So look at 2011 as a new beginning! Layout, Study, Complete and Implement your business plan! Have a destination in mind before you start that journey! Then you will see that “making money with your art” is NOT random. It is because you stuck with it

Happy New Year!

The following article is a good, basic article and worth reading mainly because many of the keys to success mentioned by this UK author ARE universal and worldwide.
http://www.auctiva.com/edu/entry.aspx?id=How-to-Grow-an-eBay-Business-Part-1

Personally, I have sold on Ebay for years. Not my originals. In portraits I cannot compete with Chinese  labor . I could give them away for free and it would not matter…. But I do sell prints. And honestly I have too many positive feedbacks to trash the site yet the store works well for me.
I have a few of Steve’ s prints on my site.  But he is an example of started out  selling his small oil paintings on Ebay which then became the catalyst for not only painting a lot of them BUT in heading in another direction into an area that has proved lucrative both financially and artistically http://www.1hundredpaintings.blogspot.com/

My most successful run on Ebay I confess, was when I decided to clean out my studio a few years back and sold $3,000 worth of “unused art stuff” in 2 months. It was a lot of work but hey, so is anything you list in auctions!

So, you ask, are there artists on Ebay making any money? What artists ARE selling successfully on Ebay?   I have posted this before but over the years I have discovered that the serious artists WILL do their research and seriously see who is selling and analyze WHY they are selling so well .   I can give you a list of names but th at defeats the research purpose. We all  know that browsing for one thing can lead to another and another and that lightbulb will go on in your brain…but it has to be YOUR lightbulb!  So how do you research this?

Go to Ebay.com and under categories click on  Art. Go to  “Direct from the Artist. Find the category that best suits what you create.
Once there, go to “Auctions ending soonest”.  Scan the many listings you will find. Anything in green has a bid. Which means it will sell. Any place other than “ending soonest” is a waste of time as there will be many thousands of pieces of art listed-we are only interested in what is selling.
Bookmark them and study everything about them. Eventually you will begin to recognize a pattern.   What you WILL discover is that the successful artists have stuck with it through hell and high water. They did not give up after a bad week or one bad run… .or several or many…..:-)

My soapbox on perseverance:
I have noticed a particular behavior among people in general (not just artists) when it comes to selling or trying to sell.  There is a temperament (behavior, attitude…)  that will try a direction(/idea/technique), once or maybe twice, briefly, and if it does not garner immediate results, quits or gives up. The odd thing about this behavior is that the giving up is done with a certain amount of relish….it’s almost as if they expected to fail or wanted to fail simply to have a reason not to be able to pursue that avenue. And are happy with it.   I am not sure if I am explaining this right but the unfortunate results of this behavior is  the negativity it promotes when those  artists/people tell everyone that “they tried” and “it” doesn’t work. So sure, they tried once, no results, and gave up….I have lost track of the number of artists who have shared such a story with me and am always puzzled by this “almost relieved” attitude or outlook on something that did not work.  In other words, there is a double message here!

One artist (whose husband, she says,  has given her a hard time about all the time/money she devotes to her art and not starting) said to me very recently,  “I have spent almost 10 years studying under the top portrait artists around the US, and then, just as I am about to launch my career, the economy tanks!“    In reality, she did not sound  sorry or regretfuly btw It was more of:
“so there you go, I can’t help what life has done to disrupt my art career plans, but oh well” . But it is still an excuse
I have seen it over and over……By blaming causes beyond one’s control, as it were,  then “failure”  or even lack of action can be blamed on  extenuating circumstance.  There is no testing of one’s resolve or  dedication……in other words, nothing will work if you don’t try it….AND actions speak louder than words.

The reason for this long discord on human psychology is that NO avenue of sales will work if you secretly do not want it to!
Now think long and hard about this before you jump to conclusions in a reply   Success comes with perseverance, not just talent!  So if you REALLY want to be successful on Ebay or anywhere else, roll up those shirtsleeves, stop whining about the economy, your spouse, your kids, your job, your lack of space, etc…….and decide if you really have the right stuff!

Theresa

Watching the video on my early education experience at the hands of my educators I remember them all.  Of course they are frozen in time, and those who later came into the world of the Internet turned out to create the same art that they told US not to create!   I am not quite sure why they were so adamantly pro “cutting edge” art at the expense of all other forms and styles of art. But as I  look back with a bit more wisdom, my earlier annoyance at their closed minds softens a bit. I realize that  they too were products and victims of the times.

And maybe they did me a favor.  Convinced that portraiture was indeed” prostituting my art” , maybe the years that I spent not creating art and running small businesses was the catalyst for what I also do now! Maybe that’s why I have been successful where others have not. Maybe, just maybe, those years as a single mom raising four children also added to my experience by forcing me to rethink everything I had been taught or was implied in the art world.

As a visual person it is real easy to see my art marketing education in a visual manner. Let’s visit this visual and see where it applies to your life!

I can see the ship on the ocean’s horizon that I need to reach.  The  waves keep me in or near shore where I can only splash around in one place safely.   Besides, I am reminded that there are dangers out there! Sharks, jellyfish…all sorts of things designed to keep me in safe waters. There are even some weights around my ankles that keep me from really swimming. But one day an undertow catches me off guard and I am pulled into deeper waters. After a brief struggle I let the rip current take me out into deeper water and then, rather than returning to safe waters, I start swimming for that ship. I might have to pause and tread water. I might have to avoid the jellyfish and hope the sharks circle someone else or maybe swim right through them. But I am heading for that ship!

And that has been my art marketing journey. Funny, that’s kind of how life goes too isn’t it!  SOmetimes you have to stop treading water and swim for your ship!

Most artists have fallen victim to the 20th century adversion to “selling one’s art” .   But the  expansion of the Internet, ease of accessibility, moderate pricing and a new generation of users (who can use a computer from the cradle) has added a new dimension and opened endless possibilities to the 21st century artist!

So why is there still such a hesitancy among many artists in regards to the words “selling or marketing?” It takes as much effort to sell trash as it does treasure!

Below is an excerpt from another Board that I peruse and I loved it!

I read a brilliant quote / analogy to the artist vs salesman aspect of life.. And it is something that I see in websites every day..

That little bit brought a lot of life in to focus for me.. Many people say that Rachel Rae can’t cook, yet she can “sell” what she does.. Always strive to be the best you can be at what you do, for me it’s jewelry, but never forget that you still have to “sell” to be successful..

For some artists such as Thomas Kincaid, (an example of brilliant marketing to the masses), a professional marketer took the artist by the hand.  For other artists, it may be the use of an Art Gallery. For others still, a concentrated effort on word of mouth.

Regardless of HOW you decide to sell your art product, your website needs to be more than a brochure. It needs to have art that can be purchased online in some format.  Take the time to visit merchant accounts online and learn how to offer this to your clients.  We like to use Paypal and the merchant store format that goes along with it!