Blog
Play in Your Own Pond
Social Media = Cocktail PartyYour Blog = Your House/StudioYour Website = Your GalleryYour Emails and Newsletters = Personal Letters and Postcards from you You’ll sell a lot more art to people who receive your personal letters, who visit your gallery, or who visit your house/studio than you will to people at a cocktail party. Plan your art & marketing time accordingly. [1] ***** [1] Everyone needs to go to a good party now and then, so don't feel like I'm telling you to abandon social media. But if you're feeling overwhelmed with all the "experts" saying "Pinterest this", "Facebook That", "Twitter blah" etc. Don't worry [...]
Getting a "Whif" of Burgundy
In our previous adventure, your editor had just reunited with his companions, waiting in de bureau of our French B-and-B. I entered the office and met Phillipe and Anne-Marie who own the wonderful bed-and-breakfast where we stayed in Beaune. They've secured a perfect location just on the outskirts of the "old town" area. Their property boasts a huge private garden and picnic area and a fully stocked wine cellar. We had just arrived on the overnight train and had toted our luggage a mile across town (It turns out your editor's .7 mile estimate was incorrect). We were tired and hungry, but Phillipe [...]
My Definition of "Successful Artist"
A few weeks ago I tweeted this: Anecdote: With notable exceptions, the success of artists I know seems inversely proportional to the time they spend on social media [source] Every time I tweet something like this, somebody inevitably takes exception with the statement and says, "it depends on how you define success." And, that is absolutely true, you can and should define success however you want. So, to clarify, in my tweets, posts, etc, when I say "successful artist" I am defining it as follows: Successful artist = Professional artist who makes a very good or great full-time living from the sales of his or [...]
Oh, The things I do for a Glass of Burgundy
My wife and I were travelling from Florence to Paris via an overnight sleeper train. We had splurged on this journey. Since we had flown to Europe in coach, we decided to go first class on the Trentailia train. Your editor was imagining champagne and fine dining. What he got was a tiny, old, dirty private cabin. Given the pitiful state of our cabin, we imagined what "coach" on an overnight Trentaila train must mean....and decided some things just don't need to be thought about at all. A word to the wise: if you're travelling across Europe via train, try to [...]
Do What You Would Have Done in 1994
If you're old enough to remember what it was like before the ubiquitous internet do this: market your art as you would have in 1994, right after being shown the Internet for the first time. The Pre-1994 "Old Republic" Let me remind you what it was like back during the pre-1994 "old republic": • If you needed to communicate with a customer, you called him or her on the telephone, which led to rich, personal relationships. • If you needed to show someone your latest work, you mailed photographs. If the customer needed to see it urgently, you overnighted photos via Fedex. • You did things [...]
The Back Road
Imagine you're driving down a busy interstate highway. The congested roads demand your concentration and billboards shout at you from all directions, trying to entice you to exit and part with your money. This is mass marketing, and every exit promises a Chili's, a Home Depot, a McDonald's and a Starbucks. Now imagine you're driving down a secluded country back road. There are no billboards, no traffic, no Starbucks. occasionally, you might see other people...kindred spirits with whom you have something in common: a love of the road less travelled, and indeed a shared interest in this particular road. All of a sudden, you [...]
The Needs of the Few Outweigh the Needs of the Many
I'll let you in on a little secret. It takes a scary small number of the right people to make a substantial number of art sales. When I was in the gallery business, I remember sold out shows that were sold out to only a dozen or so people. 12 people could make or break an entire show. I was one of our gallery's 2 main salespeople. However, I'm also a computer programmer. So one day, I wrote a database query to calculate my total sales for the year. I noticed the same customer names appeared many times. So I re-phrased the query [...]
