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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 that made your collectors feel special. You held private studio shows so people could see what your latest work.  You might have even taken groups of art directly to your customers' homes for one-on-one shows.

• You spent lots of time creating art and absolutely zero time on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest.

A New Hope - the Internet

Now that, in your mind's eye, imagine you're back in the dark ages of 1994.  And then, I show you the Internet.  Suddenly, you are filled with wonderful ideas on how this technology could make your life better.  

No more overnighting photos!  Now you can email your best customers photos of art and they will receive them instantly.  You can even create your very own space online called a web site, and you can show that web site to your best customers, fans and friends so they can see your latest work any time they want.  Better yet, you can find other web sites that appeal to your fans and customers and share those sites with them, making their lives better.  Some of those other sites will be so happy for your recommendation that they'll link back to your web site and send prospective customers to you!

Most artists back then had dozens of ideas of how to use the internet, and were excited to start using this new medium to connect with their fans.  But, that was before the dark times, before the Empire....before the Facebook Death Star began sucking up everything on the free, open web for its own gain [1].

The Empire Rises - Corruption of the Geeks

Somewhere along the way, we geeks corrupted the internet and filled your mind with terms and activities that you mistakenly think are real marketing, like "Search Engine Optimization", "Engagement", "Eyeballs", "Social Media Strategy" and "Stickyness."  Beware of the geeks.  Like Lord Vader, we've taken our precious technologies and twisted them for our own evil purposes...which are to suck up your time and money for our enrichment. [2]

But back in 1994, you realized that the technology isn't magic:   it's simply a tool to that you can use to speed up the pace of business and allow your customer relationships to be even deeper and richer.  

Get Back to 1994 Basics

So what I'm proposing, if you want to go one circle in, is to pretend it's 1994.  That means, when marketing your art, pretend there's no Google, no Facebook, no Twitter and no Pinterest. [3]   Those sites are for consumers, you're a producer.  Think like one.

You've got an art website, email, hyperlinks and your wits - and that's more than enough to make this thing work...if you're willing to work hard, apply yourself, be creative, and put your focus squarely where it belongs - on your art.

Spend more time building relationships and sharing your art directly with people, and less time playing on all the toys us geeks have created and your bottom line will thank you for it.

Remember, Sharing Art Enriches Life.

Sincerely,

Clint Watson

FASO Founder, Software Craftsman, and Art Fanatic

PS - May the Force be With You.

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Footnotes:

[1]  "For over a thousand generations the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic. Before the dark times. Before the Empire." ―Obi-Wan Kenobi

[2]  I say "we geeks" since I am one, but obviously, I'm one of the good guys :-)

[3]  After you've mastered "real" marketing, it's fine to add Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest into the mix (or if you're extremely disciplined).  Once you've maximized everything else, you can think about SEO, although if you've maximized everything else you'll never need to even think about SEO and will probably already be ranking well anyway.  And yes, there are always exceptions.  You're probably not one of them.