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. 

In this Art Marketing Minute, Eric Rhoads explains how to prepare early and make your upcoming exhibition a success; and insights on finding solutions if your sales have slowed down, and sell more art.

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 106 >

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:

In the marketing minute I try to answer your art marketing questions. And of course they’ve been submitted by you. Email your questions, [email protected] Try to tell me where you’re from. I don’t use last names, usually. But I like to say where you’re from. This one’s from Bernie, in New Jersey. So Bernie says I’m working on a show that is coming up in about a year from now. It’s my first solo show. Congratulations, Bernie. That’s cool. And I want it to be a success. But I’m wondering what I can do now to make sure it’s a success. Any ideas? Birdie, sometimes the best things come from the best questions and you’re asking the right question, What can I do now you don’t want this to be a last minute thought to try to fix something that’s not happening at the last minute. It’s like holding a wedding. And then not sending out the invitations, right? I mean, you’re having an event, but if you build it, they won’t come you have to make sure they come you have to make sure that you really make people aware of it and talk about it all the time. And make sure that you’re repeating it all the time because people forget. And otherwise, if you don’t do that, it’s a waste of time and energy to do a show at all. So I would suggest a few things. First, you want to plant seeds early, I’d get some little cards, made up business cards about the show, have your information, hand them out, have a big thing that says Save the date, use one image from the show, and then hand them out all year a year in advance. You know, I’ve got a show coming up in a year and then every time you see somebody bring it up, it’s okay. They’ll think you’re a little bit annoying, but that’s okay. Now, you know, the other thing is you need impressions, you need several impressions, you see everything needs impressions, you’re planting seeds over and over and over again. So you know, email out have saved the date notice and maybe a graphic about the show in advance to your list. If you haven’t got a list, start building a list now and get collect business cards from people who might want to come and that way you can have continuous notices in front of them, talk about it in your newsletter talk about it and everything you do. Tell them to get it in their calendar. And then one thing you can do is you can automate the calendar so all they have to do is click on a link and it’ll drop it in their calendar forum. And that way it’s there, they’ve saved the date. Next, I’d hit up social media to talk about it at least twice a month for a year and more mentions 30 days before you want to really amplify before the event. And of course you can post teaser images but don’t show the whole thing you know Joshua rock recently did a show and he showed little pieces of images not the whole thing that way you wanted to come and see the show and see what they look like. I’d start by an ads a year in advance Now I wouldn’t necessarily play some a year in advance but get them bought you know you can buy ads on newsletters and sometimes you have to get those ads way in advance to get the dates you want. Also same thing with ads and magazines. Hit places that have art buying collectors you need like fine art connoisseur or even plein air that reaches the plein air collectors. And then remember that frequency sells people want things when they see it more repetition helps do it two to three times at least in issues before a show most people just buy one ad and they don’t get the results they want but if you buy an ad and then people go oh yeah, I should pay attention to that and then they buy another one and then you’re getting their notice and more likely to get them and you want the people who have the money which are the collectors typically more times they see it the more important they think it is. I’d also recommend, this is something nobody does but I would try to get a star guest you know if you know somebody or happened to you know when to be cool to say I’m going to have Brad Pitt from or who Jennifer Aniston or something like that for my ribbon cutting, everybody will come everybody will come they want to see him they want to get their picture taken with them. You know whatever you can do to draw people and if you have somebody that you know that would help you out or maybe you meet somebody or sometimes you can reach out I have friends who have actually purchased celebrities for events. You know they sometimes there are people who do it for five or $6,000 That’s a lot of money but you know it’s not a lot of money for some events and you know they’ll come to a charity event and you know that might be be Lister stars that aren’t famous anymore but were once famous and that’s okay you know get people to a show to help. You also want to get critical acclaim before a show that means you want to try to get reviews, get articles before the show so that people are talking about it people go in and see it beforehand and they see the work and you want them talking about it. The bottom line is talking about for your increased dimensions in the last 30 days as reminders mentioned in everywhere, your newsletter everything you do bring attention to it the last 30 days and then send out reminders the week of the day of the the day before even the evening of because people tend to have intend to come but they sometimes forget, get those reminders out to them. And it’s okay to say hey, do you mind if I send you some reminders? Most people say yes.

Next question comes from a meal or amo, I’m not sure what it is in Maine. Eric, one of my friends is a pretty famous artist who has always made a great living selling art, yet his sales have come to a stop last couple of years. He’s had a really rough couple of years. And he thinks it’s over. He thinks nobody’s buying art anymore. Is it over? Well, Emil, I don’t think it’s over at all. I as a matter of fact, I had dinner with an artist recently. And he told me the same thing happened to him. He racked his brain. And he was thinking, Well, you know, art just must not be selling because I’ve consistently sold art. And he started deciding that maybe he’s the problem, you know, he wanted to blame everybody else. You wanted to blame the galleries. He wanted to blame the art business, he wanted to blame the economy, while the economy’s good, he wanted to blame the presidential elections, you know, he wanted to blame everything. And then he realized, well, he needs to stop blaming everybody and just find a solution himself. And the conclusion he came to was that he’s been painting the same way in the same subjects forever. So he started playing and experimenting more, and he really made his paintings different. And he started having more fun, he was less bored, he was more energized. And it showed in his work. You see if you’re bored, it shows in your work. And if you’re doing the same thing you’ve always done, everybody’s like, well, he or she hasn’t done anything lately, that’s new and interesting. So out of the blue, he started selling everything, again, everything was selling because he was energizing his work. So don’t blame others don’t blame the economy, don’t blame the election, don’t blame the galleries. Now, I know people who this past year sold more art than they have in the history of their careers. And I know more gallery, I know galleries have done the same thing. I have others who told me they’re struggling, they haven’t sold anything and they think everything’s over. It’s not over, you have to take personal responsibility, you have to tell yourself, I’m going to do whatever it takes, as long as it’s ethical and legal. I’m going to do everything that it takes to make sure that I sell the amount of art that I need to sell, take personal responsibility. You know, if you have to fire a gallery, fire a gallery, get a new one, if you have to reinvent yourself, if you have to try new things, try new advertising, try different approaches. You got to have fun, you got to be out there, you got to be doing marketing, you got to message things. You know, a lot of artists are kind of stuck in the past, and they want to do things the way things have always been done yet. This is a new world, things are done differently today than they were five years ago, even 10 years or even one year ago in some ways. So get unstuck, get unstuck, shake everything up, and have some fun, and you’ll find it’ll make a big difference. Also, we forget that some of the things that we worked really hard on when we were starting our careers. You know we were doing lots more shows, we’re doing lots more energy, lots more promotion, we were talking to more people were out there, you know, banging on doors, and then we get money we get comfortable. We stopped doing all that stuff. Go back to the basics. What have you forgotten to do that you should be doing? You know, when when we’re marketing things, we get so close to it. Sometimes we forget to tell people things they need to know because we assume they know don’t assume anybody knows who you are. If you haven’t been selling work for a couple years, there’s a whole bunch of new collectors in the market who don’t know you exist even though you may have been famous.

Well, this has been the art marketing minute with me. Eric Rhoads. My goal in life is to eliminate the idea of the 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.

> Visit EricRhoads.com (Publisher of ArtMarketing.com) to learn about opportunities for artists and art collectors, including:

• Art retreats
• International art trips
• Art conventions
• Art workshops (in person and online)
• And more!

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. 

In this Art Marketing Minute, Eric Rhoads shares how to create an improvement plan and the best investments to consider; and suggestions for pricing a portrait commission and why it’s different for a landscape artist. (originally aired in early 2020)

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 104 >

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54P2wKhDKD8&feature=youtu.be

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:

In the marketing method, I try to answer your art marketing questions and you can email me, [email protected] or you can send me a note on Facebook or whatever Instagram. Here’s a question from Sue in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, which is right outside of West Palm Beach. And I only know that Sue because I used to live there in Palm Beach Gardens over in the Hunt Club. She says I’ve just begun participating in a few local plein air events and quick draws and my paintings have been been sold occasionally. Since improving the quality of artwork is an important part of marketing. Which of the following do you believe would be the most helpful part of an improvement plan for 2020? Even though I’d like to do all of them, number one is traveled to attend a highly regarded workshop number two is to attend pace in Denver, the plein air convention number three is to use the funds to purchase top quality art instruction videos. Number four, something else? Well, Sue, I got to tell you, it’s a loaded question. I can’t honestly answer objectively because I produce the plein air convention. And I produce hundreds of art instruction videos. So of course, I’m going to tell you, that’s what you should do. But that may not be what you should do. Let me just give you a lowdown on that convention makes you part of a bigger community. It’s a great way to meet folks. But it’s also a chance to sample lots of instructors so that you know how good their workshops are going to be, you get to watch them do demos. So you can kind of go from room to room to room and watch all these different demos and then choose who you want to go study with, whether it’s at a workshop or something more extensive if they happen to be in your area. Regarding the videos, most of our videos are really pretty long, you know, some of them are eight 910 1215 hours and we we really get every brushstroke. And that’s kind of what you would get in a workshop in a you know, workshop demo over two or three days, you might not get that much. So that’s a good way because you can rewind and rewatch and practice alongside and that’s, you know, that’s a good thing too. Plus, for the price of a convention or workshop, you can get a lot of videos. So that’s an option for you. I think there’s no substitute for being live. You know, getting personal attention is always good having people help you. At the plein air convention. For instance, we have all these mentors who are walking around when you’re painting and helping you out. And of course, if you’re new to plein air painting, we’ve got the basics course, which starts a day before the convention kind of gives you the whole lowdown on everything. So that’s good. But you know the other option for as soon as you might want to try, like the Armory Arts Center there in West Palm Beach, they’ve got a lot of really good painters who teach also, the lighthouse Center has a lot of great painters. And there’s probably a lot of other stuff around there now since I lived there. But that’s a good way to you know, study locally, it’s not going to necessarily be as expensive, you can do it week after week. And I think there’s a lot of value in that because you know, you’re working with somebody, and you’re learning, practicing during the week and going back after a week or so. And I did that for many, many years. And I think that’s a really great way to learn too. So there’s lots of options for you. So I hope that’s been helpful. Remember, don’t overthink everything. Sometimes you’re ready to get out there and start marketing yourself. Sometimes you’re not you need to get a pro to give you an opinion, maybe get a couple they’ll tell you the truth if you ask him to tell you the truth. And remember that we all tend to overthink making things perfect when you know sometimes you’re good enough to get out there or you’re ready to get out there and you should just get out there. Action wins every time over thought both are important. But action is where the money is made. If you’re all about making money you got to get out there.

The next question comes from someone we don’t know because they didn’t leave their name. I’m not sure how but it comes from social media says I paint portraits occasionally and I am primary primarily for juried exhibitions can’t read today. Recently I was offered a commission 36 by 24 with the subjects being three portraits in one composition, a question is not one of execution. But how much do I charge for this commission Commission’s I typically receiver for still I for landscape paintings, portraits or whole different matter. I’m welcome to all suggestions and I thank you well anonymous it’s kind of an impossible question for me to answer because I don’t know your normal price range and I don’t know your market and I don’t know what people are used to paying for you, et cetera. But typically portraits take a lot more time. You know, if you do a landscape and you move a tree or the tree is not perfect, nobody winds but if the eyes are wrong or they’re out of alignment, everybody’s gonna whine because the process of a portrait commission is usually involves sketching something something out getting that approved, maybe doing preliminary sketching that out getting that approved, getting different pieces of money at different times, portraiture takes a lot more time in that respect on top of actually having to, to make. So in. And also in this particular case, you have three portraits, not just one portrait, so you’ve got a lot more work involved. And so I would think, you know, you would have a standardized price for a portrait. And then for every, for every additional person, you’re going to add a certain amount of money for it, there’s remember the saying, that’ll cost you an arm and a leg? Well, that came from the portrait business. In the portrait business, it was, if you want to just a head and shoulders, that was one price, if you wanted one arm and a hand in it, that was another price. If you wanted two arms and hand in it, if you wanted a leg in it, you wanted a full body, that was another price. So that’s where that will cost you an arm and a leg came from. So you can kind of set up, you know what, what you would charge you know, because, quite frankly, if you’re painting a whole body, it’s a whole different than painting a face, etc. So keep keep that in mind. So the thing about pricing your work, I think that pricing, your work really boils down to this. You know it, it really kind of works out to how much do you need every year? And how much can you sell a year like so if you need 100k A year, and you can sell 10 paintings a year, then in reality, you need to sell them for 10 grand a painting, right. And of course, that’s easier said than done. Because you kind of build up your reputation, you got to get known and so on build a collector base. But that’s kind of how it works. And remember, your prices will never go up. As long as you have too much for sale. I got this advice from a an art gallery recently who said, you know, if I go to a website, and this this artist has got 50 paintings on their website for sale, it’s there’s no scarcity, I don’t feel like they’re important. But if they have three for sale, or for for sale, then I feel like maybe it’s a little bit more scarce and a little bit more important. And he suggested that you never have a lot of paintings out there. And he also suggested you take all the sold paintings off your website, because they can’t get them anyway, it’ll just frustrate people. I don’t know if I agree with that. But that was his his thought and he might be right. But scarcity is an important principle of all marketing. And prices rarely go up without scarcity. You know, scarcity is like something that nobody can have. Everybody wants what nobody can have, you know, the reason a Rolls Royce, or may back it costs so much more money is because very few people can afford them. And of course, they’re very specialized. They take a lot of extra effort. And so, you know, they’re scarce. The reason that, you know, Howard terpening paintings sell for over a million dollars, because he probably only does one or two of them a year, maybe one a year. I don’t know how many he’s doing anymore. But the idea is that you want to be scarce. You want to have people who are clamoring to get what you’ve got, you know, I’ve got a friend out west, I won’t use names. He sells four paintings a year, and he gets about $250,000 A painting. So he’s making a million bucks, he doesn’t even have a gallery involved. And everybody knows his stuff is so good and so rare and so special, that they’ll pay that kind of money, the people who collect that kind of art, which happens in this case to be Western art. So anyway, I hope that gives you a feel for things. I’m not so sure I answered your question, but I’m trying to help.

Well, this has been the art marketing minute with me. Eric Rhoads. My goal in life is to eliminate the idea of the 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.

> Visit EricRhoads.com (Publisher of ArtMarketing.com) to learn about opportunities for artists and art collectors, including:

• Art retreats
• International art trips
• Art conventions
• Art workshops (in person and online)
• And more!

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. 

In this Art Marketing Minute, Eric Rhoads shares reflections on how artists can plan for retirement; and options for putting your painting behind glass, and when you should (or shouldn’t).

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 103 >

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:

In the marketing minute I try to answer your marketing questions from well from your emails. Just email me [email protected] Here’s a question from Laura in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, who says I’m close to the age when most people start thinking of retirement. But what does retirement look like for an artist? Do I have time to build a retirement fund from selling art? Well, look, Laura, I am very much a believer that age is a state of mind now obviously ages a physical thing. But I know people like my dad, you know, 93 years old, working 15 hour days, happy, making money, doing great things socially active, and I know people in their 50s who can’t get out of bed, and some of its physical and some of its metal. Alright, so I can’t predict what you personally can do. And of course, I don’t give financial advice. I’m not qualified. And I don’t know what your needs are. But let’s kind of approach this from a generic standpoint. First, I think obviously, all of us should be looking to do the best we can to save, put money away invest some money, overtime, before we get to retirement age, because you never know what’s going to happen. You never know if you’re going to have a health problem and not be able to work. I encounter people all the time about the idea of making a little extra money in what they refer to as retirement, a lot of people who’ve worked in other jobs, a lot of doctors and psychologists and architects and professionals of all kinds, who become artists, and a lot of them who were you know, never had those kind of jobs but had some kind of job. And so some of them want to do it just because they want to be part of the lifestyle, they want to be part of the shows, some of them don’t need the money, some of them want to just make an extra 500 or 1000 bucks a month, you know, to supplement their social security, or their investments. And some of them, you know, they want to make a full Fallout living. So what you got to do is build a plan, you got to figure out what is it that you need? How do you get there. But I think you know, being an artist is a beautiful thing for a retired person. And of course, you can’t really look at yourself as retired, if you’re becoming if you’re taking on a job as an artist to make an income, you’re not retired, you’ve just changed jobs, right? Your job is to be an artist who makes money. And if you don’t have to be an artist to make money, if you want to be an artist who doesn’t make money, then your job is to be an artist. And then you can be kind of more casual about it. But you got to be disciplined. Anytime that you have to make a certain amount of money, you have to follow a discipline, a marketing discipline, a management discipline, and so on. And that’s just kind of part of the deal. When you’re anything you’re trying to do to make money. It’s just like you got to manage your money when you have a job, right. So I did a couple of couple years ago, I did a marketing session that was designed for people who want to quit their job and start painting full time it was called How to Quit your dirty, rotten stinking job and become a full time successful artist or something like that. Anyway, it’s and there’s a video floating out there somewhere, I think it’s streamline art video. And the concept is that you can do it, it’s best to start your career and gradually ramp up your income before you leave or before you retire. And that way you’ve ramped up your income before you quit. And that way, you’ve kind of proven that you can do it, then you don’t have to kind of scramble all the time. I think that’s a good way to do it. But there’s lots of other strategies too. And the idea is, you have to understand that if you’re going to sell your work, depending on the level of sales you’re looking for, you have to brand yourself, you have to build a reputation you have to market yourself. Branding is all about building trust and awareness. Right? So people will if it’s down to two paintings, and they’re both equally beautiful, and they can’t decide they’re gonna go they’re gonna default to the brand. That’s I was in the shoe store today. And I was kind of down to two pair of shoes. I liked that they liked them both. I didn’t need them both. And finally I said, Well, I’m going to take this one because I know the brand a little better. It was actually a little bit more expensive, but I felt more confident with that brand. So that’s kind of how it works. I hope this helps anyway, nothing good is easy. I’d be lying to if I said it wasn’t easy, or was easy, but you’ve just got it you know, you could take it on. And you know you may have different levels of energy than you did when you were 12 or 30. But I have the same energy quite frankly. So I’m just crushing it. And you can do it to it. But you know, you got to work at it, you got to there’s a lot of stuff you have to do physically and mentally and everything else. So anyway, hope this helps you.

The next question is from Carolyn in Houston, who says, How do I know if I should put my artwork under glass? I’m ready to sell a piece. Does the type of glass matter? Kind of an interesting question, Carolyn, I’m not sure how to answer it exactly. But most artwork that’s under glass is art that has a chance of fading. Or maybe getting damaged, like pastels oftentimes are under glass so that the, the, you know, your hands don’t get on him. Of course, you can spray fixatives on them. But watercolors are oftentimes under glass too. So some of the newer watercolor pigments don’t fade. But the reason they put them under glass originally is to protect them, but also so that they didn’t fade or so that the cleaning lady didn’t come along and spray it with some kind of a substance that made it run that would be a disaster, I’ve seen it happen. Anyway, the type of glass matters, most people suggest what they call museum glass, it’s more expensive. It’s non glare. And of course it has UV filtering to keep the fading from happening. But you know, glass complicates everything. Plus complicate shipping, you got to be more careful, you got to pack it better. If you’re somebody like me, who’s out you’re doing shows you got to carry glass with you, you got to frames and you know, it’s a lot of hassle. So that’s why a lot of people paid in other mediums when they’re plein air, especially if they’re doing shows just because they don’t have to carry glass, quite frankly. But that’s up to you. Back in the late 1800s 1800s. There were they put oils under glass. Matter of fact, I have a beautiful old Dutch 19th century painting maybe 18th century painting in front of me that’s framed under glass, the whole frame is under glass, and there’s a built a box built around it. And I asked the art dealer about this. And he said well they did that because at the time there were a lot of coal stoves, people were smoking cigarettes and cigars, and there were you know, fireplaces and in these things would get covered with soot. So all they had to do is clean the glass instead of clean the painting. But as I stare at that painting, I’m seeing reflections of myself in my paperwork. And it’s not as beautiful as it could be because it’s not non glare glass because it’s well over 100 years old, but you get the drift anyway. So I think you just kind of decide what you want to put up with and whether it’s worth it. You know, a lot of people will put things hang things with glass in their homes all the time. You know, they have pictures under glass and documents under glass glass is very common. I wouldn’t worry about that. I hope that answers your question. And I don’t think glass is a deterrent.

Well, this has been the art marketing minute with me. Eric Rhoads. My goal in life is to eliminate the idea of the 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.

> Visit EricRhoads.com (Publisher of ArtMarketing.com) to learn about opportunities for artists and art collectors, including:

• Art retreats
• International art trips
• Art conventions
• Art workshops (in person and online)
• And more!

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. 

In this Art Marketing Minute, Eric Rhoads answers the questions: Is direct mail still an effective way to reach buyers? And, how do you transition from a day job to being a full-time artist?

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 102 >

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:

In the marketing minute I try to answer your questions you can of course send them to me anytime, [email protected] Here’s a question from Christopher, in Avalon, California. Wow, that’s a beautiful place. Christopher says is direct mail still a good way to reach potential buyers, and if so what’s the best way to get started? Christopher, you’re onto something, you’re using your dog. And I appreciate that. Listen, everybody’s addicted to social media right now. And there’s good reason social media advertising is effective. But it’s not the only thing that’s effective. And one thing that happens is the prices are going up and up and up and up. And the cost of reaching people on social media, if you do it properly, is really getting expensive now, and the cost of direct mail is really hasn’t changed. The direct mail was one of those things that years ago, before the internet kind of took hold. Everybody sent everything by direct mail. And one thing nice about direct mail is you don’t have the open rate problem. You know, if you have a compelling envelope or compelling postcard, they’re gonna see it, you’re going to get some message across to them, chances are you’ve got a pretty likelihood of good likelihood of getting seen. So I you know, I think direct mail is very effective, I still do it. I don’t do it all the time. It’s not cheap, like email, you got to print and you got to mail. But you know, the cost of a customer, a good customer can be high. And you got to be willing to spend to get a customer now I created this program called Art marketing in a box. And there’s a whole section in there on direct mail and a whole series of campaigns on direct mail, I have a lady who told me I don’t know, a few months ago, maybe a year ago that she just did the direct mail portion didn’t do any of the emails didn’t do any of the newsletters didn’t do the other stuff. And she doubled her business. And she already had a pretty good business, direct mail campaigns work, but everything in all marketing, all marketing, same principles apply. It’s about media and message. What media are you using? What message are you sending? And how much frequency are you repeating that when I do a direct mail, I typically repeat it. I learned something a long time ago from one of my mentors, he said, take the same thing that you mail, wait three weeks, and mail it again, don’t change a word. And he said, see what happens. And he was right about as many people bought the first time, it’s the second time. So what that sometimes means is you know, you didn’t catch them at the right time, or maybe they were going to buy and then they forgot, this comes as a reminder. And then they buy. And also when you’re selling art, it’s not necessarily about buy this painting, you know, you’re you’re branding yourself, you’re getting them familiar with you, you’re inviting them to your studio to your open studio to your open house or whatever. And then over time, you know, as they’re thinking about, gee, I need a birthday, Christmas, Thanksgiving, whatever gift, then they might be thinking about you of course, you can put those ideas in their head with direct mail or email or anything else. So I think it’s powerful. I talked a lot about it in my book, too. And so you can have great success. But remember, everything boils down to you know, how strong is your copy? How strong is your message? How good are your graphics? You know, are you getting attention? Are you going to blend in a thing that I did in art marketing box, definitely doesn’t blend in. It’s designed to stand out. Some people don’t like that. And they kind of kind of come up with something a little bit more bland. And guess what? Bland results?

Next question comes from Cory in Phoenix, Arizona who says the what’s the best way to transition from my day job to becoming a full time artist? And how will I know when I’m ready? Well, Cory, it’s an easy answer. The best way to transition from your day job is to start your art job. And when you get your art job to the point where it’s equaling the income of your day job, then it’s time to start thinking about maybe quitting your day job. I wouldn’t do it right away, though, you want to make sure that you’ve got consistency, what I would do is I do it over three years, build it, take your time, be patient, and over three years, see if you can get to a higher income level or a matching income level as fast as possible. And that’s through marketing. And then make sure that you have a machine in place so that you’re continuing to get that kind of a level. Because if you can prove to yourself that you can get to maybe three years of income, not only will you have more income now because you’ve got your job and that but you also will have the confidence that okay, maybe it’s time to do Now a friend of mine did this. And what he did is he started his art business got his level of income up as high as he could get it, where he felt confident, then he said, Okay, I’m going to part time. And then he went part time for a year. And then he got his income higher. And then he went to even less part time and consulting. And then eventually, he just bailed out completely on them, he gave them plenty of notice, which is the right thing to do. And in the meantime, he built his career. So you know, you want to have the income crossing that is that income goes away, the other income is replacing it. That makes sense. I think that’s the best way to do it in terms of how will you know, when you’re ready. When you’re making money, quite frankly, I don’t recommend pull the plug on your job and you know, jump in the pool and just hope that it works. It takes time to learn these things. It takes practice and you know, you’ve got somebody else who’s funding the startup of your art business, by giving you a paycheck. Now, you’re going to work harder than you’ve ever worked in your life because you’re going to be working eight hours or 10 hours a day at your regular job and then six or eight hours a day at your art job for a while, maybe a couple three years. But then you know, once you’ve proven that income, you’re gonna have a lot more confidence, and then that’ll make you a lot happier because you know, you’ve got that income anyway.

Well, this has been the art marketing minute with me. Eric Rhoads. My goal in life is to eliminate the idea of the 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.

> Visit EricRhoads.com (Publisher of ArtMarketing.com) to learn about opportunities for artists and art collectors, including:

• Art retreats
• International art trips
• Art conventions
• Art workshops (in person and online)
• And more!

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. 

In this Art Marketing Minute, Eric Rhoads explains how to find the right society or group to fit your style; and if artists should have any direct contact with collectors when working with an art gallery.

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 101 >

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:

In the marketing minute I try to answer your marketing questions. You can email me, [email protected] with your questions like this one from Dylan, in Homer Alaska, what if it’s getting cold up there yet? Dylan says, I feel like I should network with other artists more? How do I find the right society or the group for me and my style? Well, Dylan, you’re right, you should, that’s a good thing. There’s tremendous value in networking with others, no matter what you’re doing. But it’s fun, it’s nice to know others around you, it’s nice to know that they have the same challenges you have, they may paint differently than you do. But that’s okay, because you’re going to learn something from everybody you meet. And they will stimulate your ideas, they’ll give you critiques and instruction. And it’s just nice to be part of something bigger part of a community. Now, I’m not very active in the local community here in Austin, Texas. I know a lot of people here, but I just don’t have a lot of time because I travel so much. But I do have my own Paint group on Wednesday nights when I’m in town. And everybody comes over to the studio. And it’s my chance for local networking. And it’s great because I hear things that are going on, I feel like a part of the community. And then you know, if like, I’m struggling with something, I could say, what would you do here with this, with this year, usually I bring a model into the studio. So it’s my form of networking. So I learned a lot from them. And I kind of created that myself. So in Homer, Alaska, if you can’t find anybody, and I’m sure there’s lots of artists there. But if you can’t start digging around, find, you know, start your own thing, go to the local art supply place, if there is one, I assure there is and post something, you know, on a bulletin board, maybe you look for something on Google or meetup or something, you’re gonna find them. People tell me all the time that they didn’t know other painters were around their area, and then they found them that connect to go painting together. I have a lot of fun. So if you haven’t got one, just start your own. That’s what it goes gets to do.

The next question is from Paul in Los Angeles. Paul talks, Paul says, I’ve heard many people say that the artist should never have contact with collectors, because that’s the galleries job. Is that true? Well, the galleries job is to help you your job is to help them. Is it true? Well, I’ll probably get some arrows through my head for answering this one. But it depends on who you ask. Right? Some gallery people will tell you absolutely. We want artists engaged. Others will tell you no, they don’t. It depends on the individual gallery owners and they have their reasons. And usually the reason is because they’ve been burned with some kind of a problem in the past. And artists doing something inappropriate, saying something inappropriate going around them, etc. But let me tell you this, a gallery owner once said to me that she had an opening invited a bunch of artists that were in the show, and instead of mingling well with the collectors, and sometimes that’s why they come to meet the artists. They all got drunk and loud and didn’t engage with other people. And one actually got so loud and so drunk that she was embarrassed and later fired that artists from the gallery. Now, the artist told me about this. And he said, Well, that’s my persona. You know, I’m a creative an artist, he said, but it turned him off and I got fired. Yep, happens. I’ve been to hundreds of art openings. And I’ve seen every imaginable horror story of inappropriate behavior. Somebody saying telling a dirty joke to a mixed crowd and and you know, somebody who’s about to buy a painting and gets disgusted and turns away. I watched an artist come on to a beautiful woman. It turned out to be a collectors wife. Not a good idea, really bad stuff. So it’s no wonder they want them to stay away in some cases. Once an artist told her I heard about had the guts to undermine a gallery the artist told the collector that he met at the gallery opening that he’d give him a better price if the painting had not sold by the end of the week. Well, how foolish was that? The guy probably would have bought it but instead, he decided to wait nobody else bought it. He contacted the guy or the artist context of the guy tried to sell it the guy was ethical and said, I’m going to call the gallery owner and gallery owner fire the artist. You just can’t do stuff like that. gallery owners need to see you as a partner to help them sell, to create create publicity to make people feel good about your work and the work in the gallery. My gallery held a reception for me recently sold two paintings during the reception. They weren’t my paintings either, but I had pointed out to a collector a couple of paintings that I really like loved, and they bought those. How cool is that? You know, may I hope another artists would do that for me someday, your gallery can tell you how they want you to be, how they want you to act, what they want you to wear, how they want you to behave, you know, you have to decide if you want to participate in that. And if not, you should probably stay away. Now, some artists are really good at interacting with collectors. They know how to be engaging and appropriate how to be tasteful, others are not good at it. Jon Stewart said that, you know, he was good at buttering people up right. So some galleries keep artists far away because they hurt sales. The key is knowing having an open dialogue and being trustworthy having a discussion with a gallery. Be a trusted partner, you’re not there to party. You’re there in a professional capacity to help them sell, be professional. I hope that helps.

Well, this has been the art marketing minute with me. Eric Rhoads. My goal in life is to eliminate the idea of the 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.

> Visit EricRhoads.com (Publisher of ArtMarketing.com) to learn about opportunities for artists and art collectors, including:

• Art retreats
• International art trips
• Art conventions
• Art workshops (in person and online)
• And more!

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. 

In this Art Marketing Minute, Eric Rhoads explains what type of paintings you might want to include the next time you enter a work for an art show; and how to beat the odds when you launch an online advertising campaign to sell your art.

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 100>

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:
In the marketing minute I try to answer your questions, your marketing questions, of course, you can email [email protected] with your questions, and tell me your name and where you’re from. This guy didn’t, but we’ll answer his question anyway. It’s a question from Ray Richardson. Ray says, When entering an event for the first time, what type of paintings? Should I include? Landscapes obviously, but what about things like still lifes or pet portraits? Should my work be solely geared toward what attendees expect? Or should I show a wide variety? Since my interest varies? From vehicles to animals to landscapes to still life? Great question Ray. The one thing I think you have to be thinking about is when you’re first branding yourself, and you’re first getting out there, you want to stand for something but don’t stand for everything. You can confuse people by doing showing too much variety. Also, I think the answer lies entirely on the show. Most shows have criteria landscape show typically will want you to show landscapes and nothing else, maybe a figure or a portrait or at least a figure in a in a landscape. But always whatever you do, show your best work, try to get a third party opinion from a pro who can be objective and tell you if something isn’t your best work. Only put your best stuff out there. No matter if it’s a show or it’s online or anywhere else. Editing is important. People don’t understand unfinished paintings unless they’re artists and even then sometimes don’t notice it. They’ll just go Oh, that was awful. So show your best work no matter what. Whether you’re showing in person or online, you only have one chance to make first impression.

Next question, Lisa did this right? She gave her town Lisa Cunningham of Waverly Township, Pennsylvania sounds beautiful. I’m sure it is. Maybe we’ll paint there sometime. Lisa, she asks, I’ve been giving serious thought to launching an aggressive ad campaign, knowing that it will take repeated exposure of my work to yield results. That’s smart. However, I can’t help but think no matter how appealing a work of art might be to a potential collector, it’s still an expectation that they actually see the work in person before making a sale. Galleries in Art Fair satisfy this concept. But as you know, both are very unpredictable and attracting the right buyer. Well, everything’s unpredictable and the right buyer, but you can kind of beat the odds a little bit, Lisa, by going after a concentrated area, you know, concentration is really important. For instance, there are places that have concentrated audiences of people who are known art buyers, and you want people who are known art buyers in the kind of art that you sell. There’s no doubt in my mind that seeing a piece of work in person is best. And I think people need to see artwork, you know, people are seeing a lot of things on Instagram or Facebook, and they’ve never been to a museum and they’re judging it based on what they see. And when they see it in person, it just kind of brings tears to your eyes sometimes. So I think that, you know that would be best. And we all ought to do our best to get people out to see original art, but that’s a sign of the times. And you have to get attention and sell in every way possible. And it’s very common always has been for collectors and others to buy from an image, whether it’s a web image, which is more recent, or a Facebook or Instagram image. You know, galleries have done this forever. You know, they’ve done it from photographs, even they used to send catalogs before the web, and some of them still send catalogs. It’s a very, very normal thing collectors and buyers are very used to it. Photos of paintings have been used. As a matter of fact, I was looking through some old magazines from the 1800s art magazines. They were advertising paintings with etchings, not even photographs. So you know it’s been going on, it’s just not possible for everybody to see it in person. And usually the gallery if they mail it out, and the person doesn’t really fall in love with it, they’ll they’ll take it back, so I wouldn’t be too concerned about. Now let’s address your other question about ad campaigns. Well, I really you kind of had it down, Lisa. But I need to disclose first that I own some magazines that sell ads, but I’ll try to be objective anyway. I learned this a long time ago and I learned it the wrong way because I used to think that you could buy an ad an ad a single ad in a magazine that had a big audience and it would sell something it’s just simply not usually true. It’s usually true for an event or something specific time like that, but not necessarily for selling paintings and building a brand first you have to have repeated exposure. You have to assume that you are unknown and have to become known now you may be known in your town or your region, but you may not be known everywhere. Does Matter of fact, we, we did a thing with a very famous artist. One time we launched one video, we assumed this artist was known worldwide. But in reality, he was only known around New York where he lived. So we had to build a lot of repetition and build his brand before the video would sell. So the other thing is that there are a lot of artists who were once known who have stopped advertising. I know, people who advertised 10 years ago who stopped advertising. And we assume that everything is attrition with 10% of any audience in a single year, in in a bad economy at more might be more than 10%. So for instance, if somebody advertised 10 years ago, assumes everybody knows who they are 100% of the people have never heard of them. So that’s something that they have to be thinking about. So the the best way to overcome all of these issues is to relentlessly repeat, if you’re unknown, or you want to get known. This applies to everything, whether it’s a magazine, email, social media, or otherwise, one of anything typically doesn’t work. Sometimes, you know, carpenters can’t hammer a nail with one slam, usually, maybe have a big muscle, but it takes repetition. advertisings like the law of physics, for instance, imagine a battering ram on a castle door, a giant tree with a big weight and force can break that door down with just a few taps. But the smaller the tree, the more taps it takes, you have to repeat and repeat and repeat because you have to create attention, then get interest, then desire, then purchase. And by the way, if somebody doesn’t happen to like the one particular painting, you got to build your brand so that they know who you are. And then maybe one day, they’ll like one of the paintings, so many of my you know, some people might not buy for years, but that presence over years, builds your brand. I’ve got lots of stories, I’ll tell you some time anyway, the average person needs to see something seven times before they buy it, that means see it. Now, if they don’t see everyone that runs, that’s not going to do you any good. And of course, the average person isn’t going to buy every painting they see. Not even every painting they like. So it depends on how often and it also depends on a certain amount of luck, right? So you lose momentum. If you just do it once, wait a few months and then do it again. You gain momentum. If you do it, for instance, three times in a single magazine or like what advertiser did for us, it was a new gallery, he wanted to get noticed fast, he wanted to look big and important. So they were like the battering ram. They bought 10 full pages and fine art connoisseur in plein air. They ran them, everybody noticed it got a lot of attention. It worked right away. They got a lot of massive action because of that, because they were a big battering ram. So there are ways to overcome things. But they also stayed visible over time, and stayed on people’s radar for several years so that people would know who they are interesting. Once they got to the point where they felt really confident that everybody knew who they were. They stopped advertising everywhere. Within two years. They were out of business. I don’t know if there’s a correlation. But just saying right, so my best advice. Don’t do ads if you can’t repeat them a lot.

Well, this has been the art marketing minute with me. Eric Rhoads. My goal in life is to eliminate the idea of the 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.

> Visit EricRhoads.com (Publisher of ArtMarketing.com) to learn about opportunities for artists and art collectors, including:

• Art retreats
• International art trips
• Art conventions
• Art workshops (in person and online)
• And more!

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. 

In this Art Marketing Minute, Eric Rhoads explains how to “visualize” your success and use this concept to make it a reality; and how to get past the habit of comparing yourself to other artists.

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 99 >

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:
In the marketing minute I try to answer your marketing questions from our audience. Well, that’s you right? Email your questions to me [email protected], where you can message me text me whatever you want to do. I write them down that I use them in here. Here’s a question from Dwayne in New York. I don’t know his last name, but Dwayne, thank you. Dwayne says, I’ve heard you mentioned visualizing your success. Can you speak more to that? I’m not really sure what that means or how to start? Well, Duane, it’s really nothing new. Certainly not new. It’s been going on for a long time. Let’s start with the basic premise. What is in your head controls? Everything you know, Is your stomach ever turned into knots from worrier stress? Well, that’s coming from your head, you know, you’re worrying, right? The premise is that you want to control what’s in your head, you want to control your thinking, you want to control the negative thoughts and push them out. And you also want to get the positive thoughts and the things that you believe could be happening in there and think about him a lot. So that’s why it’s a good idea to set goals, it’s a good idea to read those goals on a regular basis, and to believe that you can do it. So you have to believe something before it can happen. And I think you need to dream it or at least think about it a lot to manifest it. Now, most people think that’s kind of a silly idea. And quite frankly, I used to think so too. But when you think about it, most of the things that we have made happen one way or the other have been because we’ve been thinking about it. And you know, by the way, a lot of the bad things that we sit and ruminate about end up happening. Why does that happen? I’ll tell you a story. 30 years ago, maybe longer than that I was exposed to this concept. And somebody said, create a poster with pictures of what you want, you know, things you want houses and cars, but also pictures that stand for things you want, like family or love. It’s called a visualization board. The idea is to look at it every day and imagine yourself doing it. Well. I thought it was crazy. Hocus Pocus, woowoo stuff. But I thought, well, what the heck, everybody’s telling me it works. I’ll try it. And I really wanted a Porsche. Yep. But I couldn’t afford one. I didn’t have the money, I had no way to get the money. I had a small, relatively struggling business. And so I cut out a Porsche. I didn’t do the whole board. But I cut out a Porsche. And I stuck it on the mirror in the bathroom. So I’d see it morning and night. And before long, I was kind of imagining myself in it, you know, you want to you want these things to be vivid, you know, what color is it? What’s it like on the interior, you know, that kind of thing. And so, I finally told myself, you know, maybe the way to get it is I could sell my business. And I kind of wanted to do that in a way and I would reward myself if I got a certain price for my business. So anyway, I had no prospects sighs matter of fact, I wasn’t even considering it before that. But a year later, after looking at that picture every day, I sold my business, I put money in the bank, and I bought that exact Porsche. I mean, it was the same color, the same model, everything that I had looked at, and interesting. It kind of came to me. In other words, you know, I was kind of looking but all of a sudden, this guy contacted me said, I hear you’re looking for a Porsche. I’ve got one. I don’t know if it’s what you’re looking for or not. And he sends me a picture. It’s like that’s it. So I went over, drove over ended up buying it. It was a used one. I didn’t buy a new one. But it was pretty cool. And anyway, it’s something that I had visualized. So I’ve kind of learned that. That’s a cool thing to do. I visualized the plein air convention, I visualized plein air magazine, I people told me it wasn’t possible. But I just kind of pushed that out of my head got the negatives out and said, You know what it is past possible I visualize this big growing plein air movement that’s happening. And so there’s so many things that can be impacted. It’s like it sets the tone and makes you work towards it something that you kind of are doing without realizing it, because you start believing and maybe in the beginning, you don’t believe it. But you start looking at that picture, you start thinking about these things. Next thing you know, you’re starting to believe it. So for the last year, for instance, I’ve been imagining myself going to China on a painting trip, and imagining that maybe somebody would pay my way. Wouldn’t that be cool? Well, that’s not even I guess about a year. And I get a call today from this guy. And he says, We want to bring you to China. I thought how cool is that? So when I’m driving to a meeting, I imagine exactly how the conversation is going to go how things will work out positively. And it usually happens. And I even imagined myself getting a national TV show and I bought into it so big I could totally imagine myself doing it and get it Got a major network? And within two weeks, I accidentally kid you not met this man. I said, What do you do for a living? He says, Well, I, you know, I’m a guy with this network. I can’t tell you which one yet. But anyway, I said, Well, I’ve got this idea for a show. And I told him, the idea is, let’s have a meeting on Monday. And then the meeting happened with his executives. And guess what I got, I got a deal. So that’s how this stuff works. And I really strongly believe it works. It just sounds so illogical. And I don’t understand it, I have no idea. I don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes, and, you know, the brain waves or spiritual or otherwise, but it’s a pretty cool thing. So if you visualize bad things they happen to so I try to push bad out of my head, you know, we all have negative thoughts. And I’ll tell myself, you know, it’s not like me to think that and I’ll just push it away. So anyway, that’s what visualization means.

Now, the next question comes from Carol, from the Gulf shore of Alabama, with a banjo on her knee. I’m sorry, Carol had to do it. She says, when I see the work of amazing artists, I feel like I’ll never be that good. How does one get past the inevitable comparisons we make to other artists? Carol, stop it. Stop comparing yourselves to others, not just in your artwork, but in everything, focus on yourself, being the best you can be? Well, you were I ever be as good as John Singer Sargent, the great master. I mean, how many really great masters are there really, you know, we’re probably not going to be that good. I mean, he had something special that most of us don’t have. I don’t want to be the negative thinker about that. But I also am, am being practical. He was a rarity. But we can still be great painters, or good painters, and maybe one day great, great painters. So you might be comparing yourself to someone who’s been painting for 50 years and has lots of experience. But who started out just like you struggling, you don’t know. You don’t know what they went through their struggles, their frustrations, who was teaching them the 1000s of hours they put in, you just don’t want to compare, you don’t necessarily want to go through what they went through. My dad once told me, son, somebody’s always got a bigger boat. In other words, no matter how good, how successful, how rich, how famous, how talented, there’s always somebody who has done more, you simply can’t get caught up in the comparison game. All you can do is study, work hard, put in the time, believe in yourself, get great mentors, and be happy with your progress. And a great way to do that is to look in reverse. What I mean by that is, look how far you’ve come. Look at what you’re doing today, compared to what you were doing five years ago, or 10 years ago. You know, sometimes I think, well, I really wish I had a better house or a better car. And then I kind of look back and I say, wow, look at what I’ve got compared to what I had 20 3040 years ago. I mean, I had nothing. I lived in a crummy little apartment little tiny. What do they call that studio apartment. I just did not dig it at all. And I thought I’ll never get out of there. And now I you know, I live in a nice house. And you know, it’s not a big giant mansion or anything like that. But I look back and I go, wow, this is a big improvement. So don’t compare yourself to others. It just doesn’t do any good. Get that out of your head. Stop playing that game. Be grateful for where you are and what you’ve got, and just continue to work hard.

Well, this has been the art marketing minute with me. Eric Rhoads. My goal in life is to eliminate the idea of the 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.

> Visit EricRhoads.com (Publisher of ArtMarketing.com) to learn about opportunities for artists and art collectors, including:

• Art retreats
• International art trips
• Art conventions
• Art workshops (in person and online)
• And more!

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. 

In this Art Marketing Minute, Eric Rhoads explains what you can do now to prepare for a successful new year; guidelines for selling art during the holidays; and if it’s worth it for artists to have a LinkedIn account.

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 98 >

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:

While in the marketing minute I try to answer your art marketing questions, email them to me, [email protected] That’s a new email address. That way they go straight to the art marketing questions. Before I get to questions, a quick thought the majority of us go into the year without a plan. And if we make plans, we tend to make them after the year starts. It’s like New Year’s comes, it’s like, oops, I better do something. My 2020 plans have been done for months. I work on them in July. And you still have some time. And I think you really want to take time with your plans. Don’t just whip whip them together in 10 seconds. You know, take a day take a couple of days. really be thoughtful. I take five days to work on my plans. Yep, 555 days, and I bring all my folks in and we talk about things together. So now’s the time to lay out your plan for the year. What are your goals, pick no more than three goals for the year. three big goals, big, big goals, right, and then prioritize them which one is most important, which is second most important, and so on. Then you build a plan to accomplish each goal we use what are called KPIs key performance indicators. These are the steps towards a goal the things you need to accomplish to accomplish a goal. So every goal has multiple steps. And sometimes those steps might be 50 things that you have to do throughout the course of a year. And then sometimes those steps have steps that you have to get to. So what would be an example of Step four, let’s say your goal is to sell $50,000 worth of paintings that means KPI would be you have to say okay, well, I have to sell so many paintings a month. That means I have to sell so many paintings a week. That means I have to sell so many paintings a day. If you’re focused on those numbers all the time, and you just pay attention to him. It’s like Well, I haven’t sold a painting today, I better get on the phone and see what I can do. I know that sounds oversimplified, but the idea is that you take everything and break it out into many steps. So your goals have many steps. If you accomplish three big goals for the year, you’re you’re doing a pretty good job. And and I don’t always accomplish three goals. But I always try to accomplish the number one goal. And everything I do in my business and in my life related to that goal is to drive that goal home. And so other things. So the reason that’s important because you get all these distractions, and you can say to yourself, well, am I paying attention to my goal? Or am I doing something that has nothing to do with my goals? Sometimes you have things you have to do, like you know, you have to feed the kids. So anyway, that’s one way to think about this.

Now, here’s a question from Nick, in Tybee Island, Georgia who says, with the holidays coming up, I’m considering a seasonal sale. Are there any guidelines for selling art at a discount for the holidays? Thank you, Nick. First, why are you instantly assuming you need to offer a discount? This is not a good practice. discounts are usually held for times when things are tough and not selling the holidays. Are when people are spending money. Yes, they do like discounts, there’s no question about it. But they’re not necessarily looking for discounts all the time, especially something like a luxury item, like a painting discounts or something we do in our heads. They’re not necessarily required in retail, of course, they create the perception of discounts. If you walk into, let’s say the limited, they always have, you know, normal price $100 today’s price $50 50% off, but that’s actually their normal price. So I suppose you can do that. But you know, rather than doing a sale just to a show, you know, I go to open Studios here in Austin all the time. And I don’t see anybody discounting work. I mean, there’s a demand for work and that type of thing. So don’t worry about the price right now. worry about getting people in the door. The more people in the door, the more demand you create on your product, and price is less of an issue. The key point is to get him into the studio early. Get the word out, do a mailing duty mailing, tell all your friends hold him tell him several times. You know, don’t just tell him once, hold a reception at your studio or at your house, invite everybody and then have somebody there to act as your salesperson so that you can simply twinkle to the crowd tell them the stories of the paintings, just merge meld with them and and just spend time with them. Stories sell paintings. I teach that in my art marketing Bootcamp, I think the number one video anyway, it’s kind of late to be planning it but you can still pull it off for this year. We’re all desperate for last minute ideas, especially fluent people. Who need last minute ideas? So get moving on this fast.

Next question is from Dean in Fort Worth, Texas who says, I know that Instagram and Facebook are popular social media sites for artists. But do you think it’s good to have a presence on LinkedIn as well? Or is that just for corporate networking? Well think think of it this way, Dean. First off, you have to be everywhere. If you’re on social media, you’ve got to be on social media, where your customers are, where are your customers? Well, you might be surprised they might be on LinkedIn, I there are big networking groups on LinkedIn for art collectors, their gallery networks on LinkedIn, there’s a lot of things that you can do to penetrate that world and be seen in there. So LinkedIn, I think, is a valuable resource. But my rule is, if I can’t do a good job, I don’t do it at all. You know, I do, I do a good job on Facebook, I do a good job on Instagram, I don’t do a very good job on on Twitter. And I don’t do a very good job on LinkedIn. I posted something there the other time, I think, for the first time ever, and it’s because I only have so much time and only so many resources. So pick the one that’s going to be best for you. Now, there’s this common misperception, and everybody just continually tells themselves This is the way to do things. And that misperception is that everybody who’s on your friend list is going to see every post the reality is only about 2% that are going to see it. So don’t expect them to see it. Also keep in mind, your friends are usually your friends, your acquaintances, and so there are people who are not necessarily your customers, so focus on customers.

Well, this has been the art marketing minute with me. Eric Rhoads. My goal in life is to eliminate the idea of the 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.

> Visit EricRhoads.com (Publisher of ArtMarketing.com) to learn about opportunities for artists and art collectors, including:

• Art retreats
• International art trips
• Art conventions
• Art workshops (in person and online)
• And more!