In the Art Marketing Minute Podcast, you’ll learn how to sell your art, how to market your paintings, and everything else you need to know in order to have a successful art career. Each episode answers questions from artists by host Eric Rhoads, author of “Make More Money Selling Your Art,” publisher of several art magazines and newsletters, and author of ArtMarketing.com.

Is there a way to use a conferencing program to sell your art? And when do you know it’s time to copyright your art? Eric Rhoads answers in this week’s Art Marketing Minute Podcast. Listen now!

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 68 >

Submit Your Art Marketing Question:

What questions do you have about selling your art? Email Eric today at [email protected] (include your name and where you’re from) to hear your question answered on an upcoming Art Marketing Minute Podcast.

FULL TRANSCRIPT of the Art Marketing Minute:
DISCLAIMER: The following is the output of a transcription from an audio recording of the Art Marketing Minute. Although the transcription is mostly correct, in some cases it is slightly inaccurate due to the recording and/or software transcription.

Announcer:
This is the Art Marketing Minute with Eric Rhoads, author of the Amazon best selling book, “Make More Money Selling Your Art.” In the marketing minute we answer your questions to help your art career brought to you by artmarketing.com, the place to go to learn more about marketing. Now, here’s your host, arts magazine publisher, Eric Rhoads.

Eric Rhoads:

Okay, well in the marketing minute I answer your art marketing questions. At least I try. I usually have seen them cold. I read these before I started recording. So I actually read them but I haven’t thought about them yet. And email your questions to me [email protected], also go to artmarketing.com is a great resource for ideas on marketing. It’s free. Here’s a question from Al Harris in Wichita, Kansas, who asks, Is there a way to use a conferencing program like zoom or Google Hangouts to help sell my art? I think they closed down Google Hangouts they not they came up with a new name or they changed into something a platform like zoom. Well, anything is possible. And if you come up with something, let me know. I think the problem that I would see with this is that, first off, I’m not sure there’s a compelling reason that you can get a bunch of collectors together. If you’re thinking about collectors together. Now. You could send out an email blast or something you could say Listen, I’m going to hold a special sale on zoom. Try to try to raise a little money for this time of year or you know, you’re going to just get a hold a special sale and I’m inviting you guys to come and I’m going to review some of my works and maybe we’ll do a little bit of an auction or something you could try that I you know, I don’t know if I would attended or not I might but anything is possible. And the one thing I’ve learned over these massive amounts of decades that are piling up on my back, is that just when I think there’s an idea that won’t work, somebody comes up and does it. So I’d like to see you innovate that owl. And I don’t know the answer for you. But you know, zoom is a wonderful platform, I hold cocktail parties on zoom. Once every month or two, we paint along together, you know, it’s a great opportunity to communicate with people and just talk to people. And maybe, you know, if nothing else, you could just say, hey, I want to get together with some of my collectors and have you get to know each other. And you know, you don’t have to try to sell something, you know, they’re gonna appreciate you out of the goodness of your heart. So you try something like that. So you got to have a list of people that you’re going to invite, though. And that’s all about trying to build up your list. And I think that’s an important thing to be doing. List Building is probably the number one exercise that I recommend for every artist because it’s free. It doesn’t take any effort, it takes a little effort. And you know, if you get 10 or 20 names a month, you’re golden. I mean, if these are people who really are potential buyers, 10 or 20. I mean, he might not sell 10 or 20 paintings a year. So that’s a pretty cool, cool thing. So I would recommend starting with list building, and then once you’ve got a list, you know, you start getting to know your list, get them to know you and then maybe you invite them to something like this.

Here’s a question from Tom Florence in Atlanta. Would it be cool if it was Tom Florence in Florence? Anyway, I digress. Tom Florence in Atlanta, Georgia asks, When do you know it’s time to copyright your art? Well, you know, there’s, I am not a lawyer. And if you scroll back, and I can’t remember the name, but if you scroll back a year or so, maybe two years ago, there’s a copyright attorney that I interviewed on the podcast, and it says that it’s about copyright. And that would be a good thing to do. I don’t, I don’t want to give legal advice. But I will tell you this that most of the artists that I know, will put a copyright signal on the front of their paintings, not all of them. But at least if not there on the back of the painting. I have a rubber stamp, if you will, that basically. I don’t know if I could pull it out of the drawer doubt but yeah, I’ll try. Where is it? I got it right here. Okay, so I have this rubber stamp, I gotta get it updated, because it says 2020 but it says B. Eric Rhoads, artists, copyright 2020, all rights reserved by EricRhoads.com. Now, the reason I do that is I stamped the back. And I kind of want to put people on notice that all rights are reserved. In other words, they can’t just because they own my painting doesn’t mean they can reproduce it. And if I have that on there, that’s a really good starting point. Now you can go through a process of copyrighting each individual painting. And you can do that online. And there’s a fee associated with it. A lot of people do it. A lot of people don’t do it. The question is, what are you trying to prevent? And I think what you’re trying to prevent is somebody lifting your image and making money on it by selling it on calendars or other such things. Now, the reality is that protecting a copyright can be expensive. You getting a copyright, a good copyright attorney can be expensive, and but it can pay volumes in protecting you down the road. Now I had a buddy, we were walking through this mall, and there’s an art gallery there that he used to be in, I walked by, and I said, Hey, stone, that art gallery says no. I said, Well, they still get your work on the wall. He said, No, they don’t have any of my work. And I said, well, let’s go in and see. So there were like, 30 of his paintings on the wall. And I and he just was crying. I said, Tell me about the artists. They said, Oh, that’s so and so they mentioned his name. And I said, Well, this is this is the artist right here. I introduced him, oh, it’s nice to meet you. Blah, blah, blah. They didn’t have any idea. They were doing anything wrong. They had bought them out of a catalogue. They had been copied somebody had. Somebody had seen him online, they copied the paintings from the pictures online. They signed his name to them, but they sell them in a catalog. So you can buy any of these paintings in their quote unquote, originals. Well, he had no idea that of course, so he was kind of stuck in. And so that becomes a problem when there are countries that are not upholding copyrights. And that’s a whole nother issue. You know, some people have been successful in fighting that some people have not. I think the question is, what’s the likelihood of somebody copying one of your images, and you have to decide from there but I do put a copyright on every one of my paintings. I sometimes I signed the front and put, you know, see, and the year and my signature, but a lot of galleries don’t want the year on the front of the painting visit the painting doesn’t sell they don’t want it to appear old. So you’re gonna have to make that decision. Anyway, that’s my thoughts on copyrights.

Well, this has been the art marketing minute with me. Eric Rhoads. My goal in life is to eliminate the idea of starving artists to help your dreams actually come true. So if you want to submit questions, simply email [email protected]. And to learn more about marketing ideas, you can visit Artmarketing.com. Thanks for listening.

How to Submit Your Art Marketing Questions: What questions do you have about selling your art? Email Eric today at [email protected] (include your name and where you’re from) to hear your question answered on an upcoming Art Marketing Minute Podcast.