Each week, Eric Rhoads answers two art marketing questions from listeners like you during the Marketing Minute Podcast. Browse the marketing minutes here to learn tips on how to sell more art.

Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 77

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 it okay to sell paintings at a higher price than other artists,” and “What are some ways I should be networking in my local community?”

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 77 >

 

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 answer your art marketing questions you can email them to me, I hope you’ll do that. Here’s one from Jen in Ohio who says I’ve recently decided to sell my art congratulations. And I’ve been doing research on pricing structures for my paintings. I know it’s important to research the market. But a lot of other paintings, I find her price fairly low, going between five and $800. I don’t understand how they can possibly make a living off their paintings. Even if they sold all of them the price point that I found in order to make reasonable salary seems to be in the two to $7,000 range for moderate sized paintings. Is it okay to sell paintings at a higher price than other artists? Well, there’s a whole lot of stuff in there, Jen. And let’s just kind of go through them one thing at a time. First off, every artist has to start somewhere now. You can. There’s a lot of stories. I remember asking George Carlson how he got his prices so high. So he said, Well, I don’t know, ask my wife. And I asked her and she said, Well, I just took the amount of time that he puts in how much we needed, and divided that by the number of paintings. And so that’s how they did it. But George was already famous as an artist as a sculptor. So he had a big brand, your brand matters, the more that people know, you respect you trust you, and understand who you are, the more your price goes up. I mean, think about Hollywood, right? There’s, you know, Brad Pitt, he’s probably getting top dollar or George Clooney top dollar. And then there’s, you know, some upstart, young and young upstart artist or, or what am I looking for actor who, you know, they’re just kind of getting internet, so they’re getting union scale. So you just have to understand that you’re gonna have to ratchet it up. Now, I do have some interesting feelings about that. And, and, you know, you know, that there are people out there who are selling too low. And you know, you’re you can’t help that you can’t worry about what other people are going to do. You know, people might compare or they might not, it depends on the environment. So environment is everything, if you’re in a really great gallery, a great gallery, that st, selling for fairly high prices, and then you’re likely to be able to get a higher price in a gallery like that. But that gallerist is going to give you advice, a gallery knows their market better than anybody. And they’ll say, well, maybe we’re going to start you out at this price. And then we’re going to ratchet you up over five years to this price, and this price, and so on. Now, you could just, you could say, Alright, I want to make a certain amount of money a year, but you got to be practical about that. And this may or may not work for you. Because again, it’s about advertising and building your brand and being known and so on. That stuff really matters. But let’s just say you took you said alright, I, I want to quit my job. And I’m making $50,000 a year, and I need to make $50,000 a year as an artist, well, then you got to ask yourself, right? How many paintings? Can I paint and be good quality? How many can I do per month? And if you say, Well, I can only do two per month, and you know that you’ve got to have $4,000 a month, then, you know, well, you got to have $2,000 a painting, right? Well, the problem with that is that you don’t really know that because if you’re if you’re selling a direct, then you get to keep both of those $1,000. Right? If you’re selling it through a gallery, then you only get to keep half of it. So that means you probably need four paintings. But I you know, I turn to my galleries for pricing, because I don’t know, I mean, I would love to get high prices. And I think high prices, send signals. And I’ve got a whole lot of stuff about that in my book. But the idea here is that they know their market. So if I I just recently sent a painting to my gallery, and I said, What should I charge for it? And he sent me a note, I sent a painting to my other gallery I said, What did you charge for that same painting size? Because I I had forgotten or didn’t know. And, and she sent me the exact same number. So when I heard two people say, well, that’s the number. Well, that’s pretty good. Now, I’m not the best artist in the gallery. And there are artists in the gallery that have the same size painting, and they’re getting, you know, twice, three, four times what I’m getting, because maybe I’m not as famous as they are, or not as accomplished as they are. So there’s a lot of factors into it. So you know, if you if a reasonable salary seems to me a two to $7,000 range for moderate sized paintings, you know, if you’re taking a nine by 12, and saying you want $7,000 for that painting, it might be difficult, especially when you’re starting up. But if you get established, it might be a too low. So take it easy, take it slow. Now if you have a job, I have a video out that talks about how to I don’t even remember what its title is we’ll have to look that up. But it’s an art marketing bootcamp series. And it’s how to quit your job and become a successful full time artist. And and it basically talks about a system for ratcheting up and getting you know, you don’t want to just go cold turkey, you want to get some experience and you want to get out there and try selling some things before you just quit your job right because you want to get to the point where you’re making enough money with your art that you can quit your job. Anyway, I hope that helps.

The next question comes from Aryana Husselink in Indianapolis, Indiana. I’m from Indiana. And hustling sounds like a good German Name, that’s a good Indiana thing. Aryana says, I know it’s important to be online. But what are some ways that I should be networking in my local community? I think that’s a great question. The first thing to understand, and I think everybody needs to understand this. And that is that if all of your marketing is dependent on a single thing, and that single thing no longer works, then you’re in trouble, right? So a single thing might be if you’re selling all your paintings through one gallery, and that gallery closes down, you’re in trouble. So you got to have two or three galleries, ideally, to have some balance, but what if all the gallery business dries up? You know, and so alright, so you’re doing some social media strategy. And by the way, there’s a whole lot of misunderstanding about that. I talked a lot about that in my book. And so you want to have other things like, you know, you’re networking, you can sell a lot of paintings through networking, and networking in your local community is really a good thing to do. So what what are some of the ways? Well, I have in I think, in my book, I, somewhere I wrote, I think it’s in there a whole chapter on this kind of thing, and networking and taking charity work to the next level, and so on. I like to do things like I like to donate paintings to charities, for silent auctions, I will do that from time to time, I don’t have very many paintings anymore, because I don’t have a lot of time, but I have done it. But when I do it, I say look, I’m going to give you I’m not just going to give you a small painting, I’m going to give you a big one, that’s worth a lot of money, so you can advertise it. And so let’s say I’ll get my painting worth $10,000. And they can put, I’ll say, Look, I’ll give you this painting on the condition that you put me as a highlighted, you put my painting on the postcards, you send out the top of your website, you put my name on it, you introduce me at the event, and maybe even have me say something for five minutes, because I want to get something out of that. Because if I say something, all of a sudden, I’m a magnet in the room. And I have all these people that will talk to me otherwise, you know, it’s harder to do that. But I you know, I think charity events are good. There’s all kinds of events, there’s school events. What you want to do, though, is you want to stand in the river where the money is flowing as my saying and and I think the idea is that the river where the money is flowing is where people have money to spend, right? So if you’re doing a silent auction in, in something that’s just, you know, let’s say it’s to raise $300, for the kindergarten, you’re not going to make any money on that. Now that’s okay, you might get visible if it’s a, if it’s a school where there’s a lot of high end people, and it can’t hurt and it’s good experience to try. But you know, I want to go if you know there are charities trying to raise big money. They’re trying to get all the wealthy people in town together, I want to be in that auction because I want those people to get to know my name. And I want to do 10 or 20 or 30 of those auctions, you know, some cities like Palm Beach, for instance, big auction town, they have lots of lots of events going on in the wintertime. So people go to an event every night. So if you had if they saw your name at event after event after event after event and at high prices, all of a sudden you’ve packaged yourself as a high price person and then that affects your pricing to the previous question that that might help. Anyway, I hope that kind of gives you an indication but yes, absolutely. Look for different ways you can network in your community and remember to stand in the river where the money is flowing.

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!
By |2021-07-22T15:27:12-04:00July 19th, 2021|Art Marketing Minute Podcast|0 Comments
Read More

Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 76

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: “How can those of us who are shy about our work overcome it when painting in public?” and “Looking back and forward, do you think there’s anything we can take away from the pandemic in regards to making a living as an artist?”

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 76 >

 

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:

So thanks again, Jim. In the art marketing minute I try. Sometimes I Well, I always answer your questions whether or not I do a good job. That’s another story. But I try to answer your questions you can email your questions, [email protected] I love questions. And what I do is I just kind of read these as we go and I make up the answers off the top of my head. I don’t have any prepared answers. Because I think I work best that way. This is coming from Derrick Jones in Syracuse, New York who says I’m new to painting outdoors. I’m very shy. When people come up and watch while I’m trying to paint I get nervous because they don’t like my I don’t feel like my work is good enough for others to see yet. How do you overcome that? Well, you know, that is a huge topic, Derrick. First off, it’s a self esteem thing, right? We don’t feel worthy, because, you know, we maybe are not painting as well as quite aspa vague, you know, the great, the great client aspect, and or maybe not even as well as some of our friends. But every painter goes through that that is a process. And we all have to knock out a lot of bad paintings before we start knocking out some good paintings. And even those who have been doing it a lot of years will still knock out bad paintings from time to time. And by the way, there’s not a bad painting because every painting is a lesson. So here’s how I dealt with that particular issue. First off, I first off, when I first started painting, I just kind of went and painted places where there were not people because I just didn’t want to be around people who were critical. The next thing I did is I as I was painting around people, I took some earbuds, some iPod earbuds or whatever. And I stuck them in my pocket, you know, put them my ear stuck in my pocket as if there was a player in there. And surprisingly, not very many people would bother me when I’m doing that. But you know, there are always going to be somebody who is going to some somebody is going to come up and talk to you about it. And I used to make excuses. I remember I was standing up, I was painting notre Dom Cathedral in Paris, and I was on the corner. And this is before it burned down. And there were a bunch of teenagers and they’re all gathered around watching me there are 10 or 12 of them. They’re all speaking French and laughing and making fun of me and stuff. It was a little uncomfortable. But they were nice kids, they weren’t going to beat me or anything. And one of the kids came up and and said in English. He said you should give up painting, you’re not very good. And I said, Well, thank you for that encouragement, but I’m, you know, I’m doing what I call a study, I will take this information and then I’ll go and do a more in depth painting at home. And you know, I just you know, what can you say? I mean, some people aren’t going to like it, some people are going to be critical. Sometimes I would say well, you know, I’m, I’m just getting started, you know, come back in a couple hours and see how I do. But you know, you just have to you just have to live for yourself. You can’t live about how others think. And so, I will tell you this that your self talk makes a huge difference. If you constantly are telling yourself you’re not doing a good job, guess what will happen. You won’t be doing a good job. If you constantly tell yourself you’re doing a good job, you’re learning you’re growing, you don’t care what happens you just are going to make it the best you feel you can make it today. You know I have I’m looking around my studio here I have dozens and dozens of paintings on the walls and their studies that I’ve done in each one as a memory. Some of them are good paintings, and some of them are not so good paintings, but each one is a memory. Each one gave me a lesson and so there was value in every single one of them. So just embrace it for what it is, it’s not really a big deal. So you’re not unlike others. The best way to overcome it, though, I’ll tell you that I had a guy by the name of Michael ringer. He’s a great artist, or great watercolor artist, but does many other mediums as well. He came to visit me and I’m kind of walking him through the house. And every time we’d encounter a painting, he’d asked about it, and I would make some excuse. And then we went for a boat ride. And then he came back and I put him to a tech took him to his car. And before he got in his car, he said, Eric, I want to talk to you about something. I said, Yes. And he said, Listen, you did a lot of apologizing for your work. You don’t need to apologize, you’re a good painter, you have a lot of potential. And yes, there are some growth that you need to go through. He said, but you know, you’re doing better than I was at this stage of your career. So just Quit complaining about it and quit apologizing if it’s gonna impact your head. And you know, when the fact that he cared enough to stand out and say something like that really meant it. And so I’ve been very careful to try and stop making excuses. And just let let it be what it’s going to be. But if you want to avoid the crowds, in the beginning, I understand that, you know, there are people who who have said to me, Well, I don’t want to come to the plein air convention, because I’m not good enough. But you know, everybody there has been through it. Everybody there has made bad paintings, including many, many of us, all of us, actually. And so you know, we’re all we understand that you’re with family there, you’re not with consumers who are going to give you a hard time you’re with people who are going to give you love and say, hey, you’re you’re you’re okay, you know, you’re you’re doing a great job. And you know, just tweak this do this but a little more dark in the foreground or bigger shapes or something, you know, a lot of those things will make a big difference.

Here’s the next question comes from Hunter Smith in Los Angeles, California. Hunter says, looking back and forward, do you think there’s anything we can take away from the pandemic in regards to making a living as an artist? Man, tough question. Hunter, I think that the pandemic is the best thing to ever happen to me. And thankfully, I’ve lived through it so far, and hopefully will continue to. But the I think the idea here is that I learned a lot about myself, I learned about my priorities, what I want to do what I don’t want to do what I want to spend my time on, I want to spend more time with my family, I actually have enjoyed the time at home, I’ve been working harder. And but I had to kind of you know, rebound and come up with some new ways to make a living like my 12 noon Daily Show and on Facebook and YouTube. And, and so I think that a lot of artists have said, you know, this is has been really good for them, because they’ve, they’ve gotten off the circuit off the merry go round, and they’re not traveling around as much. And they’re, they’re focusing on their painting. And so a lot of them have said, You know, I learned a lot as a painter, I grew a lot as a painter, because I was painting more I was painting in on erupted, I wasn’t tempted to you know, get in the car and go get stimulation by you know, going and getting, you know, some shopping or something in and so I think you know, from that standpoint, we’re all better. I think in terms of making a living as an artist. First off, a lot of artists are telling me they’re selling more art than ever, because other people are starting to appreciate more art more and also look at their walls and say, Hey, I need something there. I think in terms of making money as an artist, you what you’ve got to do, and maybe what the pandemic will do for you is it will set your priorities. Ask yourself, what am I willing to do? What am I not willing to do? Am I painting for myself? Am I painting for others? Am I doing both? Am I in a position to kind of focus on what I want to do? You know, life’s too short, I had friends pass away, you probably did too. And life’s too short, you know, suddenly, people who thought they’re going to be around forever are not going to be around forever. And so ask yourself, if I always do this in my seminars I did this way before the pandemic, I do this on my videos and stuff and and ask yourself, if you only had you know, you went to the doctor, and you only had one year left? What would you do with that one year, because that’ll help you crystallize your thinking. And then the other thing I do in some in my book and some other things, I asked you to write your own obituary, and write what you’ve done, and then write what you want to get done as if you’ve done it. And then that’ll help you crystallize what it is you really need to do. You know, it might be about selling paintings, it might be about giving away paintings, it might be about getting recognition, you have to determine what is it that’s important to you, is it is it a living you need to make is it recognition you need is it helping others you want to do so I think think in those terms. And then now that you’ve crystallized your thinking, then you have to say Okay, how do I get there? And whatever it is you decide how do I get there, everything starts with a goal. And then a goal leads to a plan a goal sets your strategy. And then a plan sets your tactics, a strategy is the overarching thing that you’re trying to accomplish. The tactics are how you accomplish them tactics are things like advertising or social media or doing shows etc. And, and then you have to ask yourself, you know, how busy do I want to be? how, you know, how much money do I need to make? If you start with the questions, you always come up with the answers and and, you know, you got to spend a lot of time thinking, but thinking is where all the answers come from, right. It’s just don’t do it routinely, you know, I sometimes will spend 10 1215 hours thinking about a particular topic. You know, when I went on vacation, I had 60 pages of notes of my thinking, I read four books, three or four, four books. And I took one online course, in a particular area of marketing that I wanted to learn more about. And so and then my thinking really started happening as a result of that. So I think that you’ve got to just kind of figure out where you want to go and then how to get there. I mean, that’s, that’s the bottom line.

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!
By |2021-06-09T15:18:15-04:00July 12th, 2021|Art Marketing Minute Podcast|0 Comments
Read More

Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 75

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: “What are your top ‘don’ts’ for selling art?” and “What should I include in my artist bio?”

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 75 >

 

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:

Thank you and the marketing minute I answer your marketing questions you can email yours to me [email protected] I need a jingle Artmarketing.com What a great way to drive listeners away. Okay, here’s a question from Kevin Palmieri in Dover, Delaware, who asked what are your top don’ts for selling art? Well, it’s Kevin, I don’t like to thrive on negatives. I don’t I you know, I never really thought about that. But let me see if I could come up with a couple. I think a lot of us suffer from what’s called imposter syndrome. So don’t get imposter syndrome that imposter syndrome is when you don’t feel worthy. I went through that my first time at a gallery. It was in this gallery in Santa Fe and the first time I was there. I was like, Why? Why are they putting me in the gallery. I mean, I don’t really deserve this. I took my paintings. It was really nervous. We hung up and we I just was nervous. Totally nervous. I didn’t feel deserving. And you got to get past that. So don’t have imposter syndrome. You got to overcome these kinds of things in your head. I think another thing, just just a personal thing. Don’t paint too small. You know, the painters Bakkies the plein air painters Bakkies paint bigger than the plein air painters on the other side of the country. I don’t know why it is it probably has to do with Redfield or one of those artists but you know, they use these great big ticket easel ease easels, these great big, you know, 230 by 40 is on location, and they’ll do them within about the same amount of time. And one painter back he said, You know, I don’t know how these painters make any money, you know, because you know, selling all these nine by 12 paintings when you sell 30 by 40, you know, for a couple hours work, you make some really big money. So I don’t know, I think that’s just something to consider. Don’t have mindset issues. mindset is the big killer of everything. You know, it’s not just imposter syndrome, but it’s, you know, telling yourself that you’re not worth the money. And that kind of goes to pricing. Don’t underprice artists tend to kind of be a little shy? Well, I wouldn’t pay that much money for it. So why would somebody else, you got to keep yourself in perspective, you know, somebody who can I have friends who could walk into an art gallery, and drop $250,000. And it would hurt them about as much as if we pulled a 20 out of our wallet. And so there are people out there that think differently than you and if they see something and it’s underpriced. It has a negative impact. So let me give you an example. I had I was doing my art marketing bootcamp at the convention one year, this guy raised his hand and he said, Listen, I got a story for you since I was at an art show. A woman walked in. She said, I love that painting, how much is it? And he said, it’s $4,000. She said, I’ll take it, she writes him a cheque hands him a check for $40,000. And he said, Oh, ma’am, you added one too many zeros. It’s not $40,000. It’s $4,000. And she said, Oh, it must not be very good. And she wrapped up the check. True story. You see, price is equal to value in some people’s minds. You know, if somebody is a fluent, super fluent, they don’t want a $4,000 painting, they want a $40,000 painting, you would think you know, wow, it’s a great painting, I can get it for four instead of 40 that would be the mindset. That’s not how some people think so just I’m not saying you should price your stuff. You’ve got to work with your gallery owner if you’ve got one and work with them on pricing, and they’re going to tell you, here’s the price I want to get and then we’re going to establish your pricing we’re going to get higher and higher and higher over time and listen to them they know what they’re doing typically but I you know, other than other than that, I don’t know what what not to do. I you know, read my book, my book will probably tell you all the things to do and that’s where we want to focus our attention is the the the positives.

Our next question comes from Joshua Moran in Santa Fe, New Mexico, who asked What’s best to include in my bio, my biography? And what should I leave out? Well, first off, what’s the purpose of a biography? You got to ask yourself that, why have a biography? Well, the biography is to set the tone about the artist. Now, I don’t ever recommend lying to anybody. Lying is not fruitful. It’s going to catch up to. But I do think what you can do is you can create a sense of, of brand or something that feels exotic, you know, people who buy art oftentimes are living vicariously through people like us, you know, i, you and i both know, artists who do some pretty crazy things, they climb mountains, and they go, they fly in places and helicopters, and they, you know, they they adventure in on mutual pack trips, and things like that. That stuff is what sells. And so if you’re boring, and you don’t have any of that stuff, then just be boring. But if you have any of that stuff, you know, I don’t, I don’t know if anybody really cares much about anything but your painting career, you know, you could say, you know, Eric is a, you know, Eric is a former heart surgeon, who was, you know, did heart surgery for 30 years, but his big passion was learning to paint and he learned to paint and he went out plein air painting. And now he does, you know, helicopter trips into the high Sierras and tries to capture places that no one gets to go in person. You know, stuff like that is what really matters. And the other thing that people want, especially galleries is they want things that show what I call social proof. Social proof is something that says that you’re good, right? So social proof might be that you won the plein air salon landscape category in March of 2021. And they might want to say you were featured in a magazine article or you’re featured in a book, or you won this award of that award, a blue ribbon at this event, etc, list all that stuff, because that gives you credibility. It’s social proof. And social proof says the reason you want it is because people want to know that they’re buying somebody who’s good. And because people are insecure about paintings, and even though this is not necessarily quote unquote, investment, because some people think that way. Most people don’t. They, you know, they are asking themselves is this person in a good you know, I’m writing a check for $4,000 or 2000, or 500, or whatever the number is, it’s all relative to different people. So just make sure that you’re doing things that create social proof credibility. If you have quotes from famous people, you know, who are collectors or famous curators or something put those in there. You know, Jean Stern, former director of the Irvine museum says this about you and that kind of thing can be golden.

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!
By |2021-06-09T15:11:57-04:00July 5th, 2021|Art Marketing Minute Podcast|0 Comments
Read More

Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 74

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, “Does my art website and newsletter need a catchy title?” and “Are there any traps that artists can be aware of and avoid?”

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 74 >

 

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:

And in the marketing minute I answer your art marketing questions yours can become part of the broadcast if you email me, [email protected] We also have our own art Marketing Podcast. It’s the same content that we just push out as a separate podcast. And so if you don’t want to listen to plein air podcast, which you want the marketing, you can just go there. Now here’s a question from John O’Neill in Albany, New York who says I’m finally ready to start a website and a newsletter. My question is, does it need a catchy title or something that’s more direct? Like my name? Well, John, I think you know, in my book, make more money selling your art or whole a whole thing on websites. And that’s something you want to check out. But first off, everybody says, Well, I have to have a website, well, the web is changing, and things are changing a lot. Now, the question is, before you even create a website, you have to ask yourself, what’s my strategy? Why am I creating a website? What do I have? What do I hope to have happen with that website? Is my website, a branding tool, a way to show my artwork? Is it a way to sell my artwork? Is it all of the above? What is the 80%? Or what is the one thing that you really want to focus on and try to figure that out before you decide if you’re going to start a website, because, quite frankly, nowadays, you can kind of do almost the same thing with Facebook and Instagram. And there’s also a lot of other things that are trending. So you may want to ask yourself, Is this really necessary anymore? Now, there’s a lot of people out there that make great websites, and you know, you can kind of make your own through them. And some of them are art specific, and some of them are not, you’re going to have to decide what works for you. But do you need a catchy title or something that’s more direct? Well, catchy titles can be risky. You know, if you were, remember Thomas Kincade, the painter of light I mean, that was a catchy title. And but yeah, and then for a long time, everybody was the you know, the painter of this and the painter of that, but I’m not so sure it really meant anything. You know, what you what you’ve got to do is figure out what is the focus on what do I really want to spend my time doing? The big mistake that I think artists make when they’re trying to market themselves, they try to be too many things to too many people, they try to do too many styles or they try to do too many subject matter. Figure out first what it is you want. So if you are going to be a catchy title, or if you’re maybe it doesn’t even have to be catchy. It might just be you know, John O’Neill, landscape painter, it might be john O’Neill, ocean painter, seaside painter, or whatever it is, you’re good at, you know something because we can’t all be good at everything and you want to kind of get known for something. So first thing I think is, put your name up there, John O’Neill and then then if you want to say I have a subhead, that is kind of an explainer, you know, a subhead explainer is like Coca Cola and then it’s is the real thing, right? So I don’t know if that means anything anymore. But it did it maybe at one time. So you got to think about that. But no, your name is fine. And people are going to Google your name and you want them to find you. And this is an opportunity to brand yourself. Now one mistake I think a lot of people make is they love they fall in love with their signature, and they put this big, unreadable signature at the top of their website. Now, that’s okay. That’s okay. If you also put your name on top of it in text that somebody can read. But a lot of people can’t read that stuff. Everybody thinks they can. And you know, there’s nothing worse than a signature that nobody could read, at least put your name on the back of the painting, too. We’ll have a whole nother thing on the back of the painting sometime. Anyway. Hope that helps.

Here’s a question from Jeffrey Skelton in Nashville, Tennessee, who says I’m always hearing about new scams. Are there any traps that artists can be aware of and avoid? Well, Jeffrey, I’m not the guy. You know, this is a marketing podcast. But let me just tell you what I know. And I don’t know much. But I have been approached many times. from someone, it’s always a different name. It’s always a different email. But the email goes something like this. I was looking at your website, I’m trying to find something really special for my wife for her birthday, or anniversary, you know, some some particular thing. And I found a particular painting, I’d like to buy it from you. Can we make arrangements? And so here’s how the scam I’m told works. And that is that, you know, they they say they want to send you a check. And then you send them the painting, and then the check doesn’t clear. So first off, if they’re saying those words, chances are it’s a scam. But secondly, you know, you can hammer the cheque, you can go to the bank, and you can say, I’m not going to send this until the check clears. Now one of the other things they do is they, they overpay. So let’s say your painting is $1,000 they send you a 15 $100. And then they sent you know, they send the check and then they overpay and then there’s some way that they cancel the check and they manipulate it or something. And as a result, they’re getting $500 cash out of that transaction when they had no intent of paying. If you want to read up on art scams, I would probably check out I think the FBI has a an art scamming division. You might want to check that out. But you know, something sounds too good to be true. It is it always is. So just keep that in mind.

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!
By |2021-05-12T14:19:17-04:00June 28th, 2021|Art Marketing Minute Podcast|0 Comments
Read More

Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 73

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: “I’ve heard you talk about strategy versus tactic when it comes to selling art. Is one better than the other?” and, “Is it okay to approach multiple galleries for representation?”

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 73 >

 

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:

Thank you and in the marketing minute I answer your art marketing questions you can email yours to me [email protected] By the way, that’s a great resource with lots of marketing content. just go to artmarketing.com. But you can find me there if you want to send in a question. This is a question from Grant Handkola. of Little Rock, Arkansas, who says I’ve heard you talk about strategy versus tactic. Can you speak to that in regards to selling my art? Is it better to have a strategy or a tactic? If I’m a beginner? Well, Grant, it’s both. Everybody needs both. You see, let me see if I can explain this for you. A strategy is how you present yourself and what your meaning is. Now let me use a different brand something it’s not our Walmart, what is Walmart’s strategy, Walmart’s strategy is you know behind the scenes, their strategy is probably selling a lot of volume meaning selling tons and tons of stuff because their strategy says they are always the lowest price as always right. So we know that the Walmart strategy is lowest prices. The tactic is something you do to reinforce what your strategy is like advertising. So you need to know how you’re going to present yourself What is the meaning of grant Hank law as an artist, right. So it might be let’s think about some painters that we know. Joseph, Miguel is one of you know, does some of the most incredible landscape paintings on earth or, or john Snowbird is known as a historic sailboat painter, or Chris blossom is known as a sailboat painter. That’s kind of what you want to be known as now, you could be known as a portrait painter, or you could be known as a mural painter or something else. And you might even have a, something you attach to it, you know, like, I’m known as a expensive portrait painter, you know, like Nelson Shanks, dressed in peace. You know, you knew that if you went to Nelson Shanks, you’re going to pay 80, or 100, or $150,000, for a portrait. So that’s part of your, your strategy. And now how you make your strategy happen as you need tactics, and the tactics are things like promotions, and advertising and newsletters, email blasts, those are tactics. So we all need both tactics, without strategy is not sending a consistent message. But when you have those tactics employed, then you need to always reinforce the strategy. So every time you see a Walmart ad, what do they say? lowest prices, always, always lowest prices always. Right? They every ad they do that reinforces that tactic. And so what you really have to do you know, you have to kind of, especially when you’re first starting yourself out, you kind of want to get branded as something. If you don’t get branded as something, then it’s going to confuse the audience. Yeah, I have a lot of painters who say, Well, you know, I do portraits, I do this, I do that. And that’s okay. But the problem is, you’re going to confuse people, so kind of get known for something. You know, Howard Terpening is known for doing paintings of Native Americans and cowboys. And, but if he started doing flower paintings, and early on in his career, you’d be confusing people. So he’s known for that. Now he can do anything he wants now, because he’s big and you can do anything you want when you’re big. But in the beginning, you want to get known for something. So we need those tactics and we need the strategy. You need to decide who you are, what you stand for what your brand stands for.

Now, the next question comes from Ray Adams in Chicago, Illinois. Ray says, I just got into my first gallery and I wonder if it’s okay to approach more galleries or if it’s better to stay loyal to just one Well, I have a lot of answers to that Ray. And let me start out by saying, I think that first off your gallery relationship is really Critical. And the goal of a good gallery relationship is for it to be one that is symbiotic. In other words, you want to be you in the gallery person need to be strategizing about your career. I just gave advice to a gallery to a person today. He’s in a very big, very well known gallery. And he’s only in that one gallery, and his entire income is based on that one gallery. And I said to him, you know, what happens if that go Art Gallery goes out of business. He said, Well, they’re big, they’re not going to go out of business. I said, Well, I’ve seen big galleries go out of business. So what happens? Well, I would have to get another gallery. And then well, it takes time to build up your career, it takes time to get you known to their collectors. So I said, you know, what I would do is I call your gallery and say, Listen, I don’t want all my eggs in one basket, I want to work with you. And I’d like to get into ideally about three galleries that way, I’ve got some balance in case somebody goes under it, I’ve got some, you know, I get spread out regionally, and so on. So call them up and have a discussion and say, Listen, I don’t want to compete with you. But I also want to be in some good galleries, can you recommend somebody that you feel is of the quality that is equal to your gallery, and then let’s work on that together. And then of course, they can make introductions and help you get in, which saves you a lot of time and trouble. But I think, you know, I like to have the idea of having things spread out among three galleries minimum, and you know, you might not be able to give them all a whole lot of work. And they may or may not like that. But ultimately, you’ve got to think about your career, and you got to think about what’s best for you. Because if somebody goes away suddenly, and we’ve watched that happen in bad economies, where I had artists friend who was in five galleries, three of them, three, I went bankrupt. And so what was he to do, you know, he had to get more galleries just in case the other two went under, because they weren’t selling much. So I think just the general thing, Ray is, you want to keep the quality, you want to be in the highest quality gallery you can be in and a lot of that has to do with your reputation, your strategy. It also has to do with how good you are. And sometimes we start out in a weaker gallery and move up to a stronger gallery certainly has been the case for me. So I think that it’s good. You don’t it’s not about being loyal. It’s about being loyal to yourself. And if you if you’re upfront about it, and you say you know listen, Charlie Charlie’s gallery, you know, how many paintings a year are you expecting to sell from me? And how many do you need? And Charlie says, okay, and the number is 12, or 15, or 20, whatever the number is, you say, Okay, I’m going to focus on giving you 12 really good paintings this year, or 20 or whatever. But I need to be able to also get some paintings in gallery be in Gallery See. And you know, maybe I’ll only give them five each or six each, but at least they’re establishing themselves for you. Getting you some collectors and then you’ve got a backup plan in the event something goes wrong. That’s my opinion on galleries.

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!
By |2021-05-12T14:08:03-04:00June 21st, 2021|Art Marketing Minute Podcast|0 Comments
Read More

Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 72

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, “What should I do when people unsubscribe from my newsletter?” and “How important is it to have a painting framed at a plein air competition event?”

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 72 >

 

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:

That’d be a good book for you to own. Just saying, okay, and the marketing minute I answer your art marketing questions, email yours to me at [email protected] Now here’s a question from Vicki Haley in Montgomery, Alabama, who asks, What should I do when people unsubscribe from my newsletter? Well, I think the first thing you have to do Vicki is you have to ask yourself, why do they unsubscribe? People don’t unsubscribe unless they don’t find the content valuable. And there’s a whole lot of things you can do to make content valuable, which we’ll talk about in a minute. Now you can have a way that you can ask people, if you get a rash of unsubscribes, you could take in theory, take those emails, write a little note and say, Hey, I noticed you unsubscribe, can you give me some feedback? I wouldn’t do it too many times. I wouldn’t repeat the same people. But maybe you can find out why they’re not reading it. But it always boils down to the same thing. They’re not reading it because they’re not interested. And they’re not interested because it’s not interesting. All right, sorry. You know, the problem is that most most artists in their newsletters, make their newsletter about them. Right? It’s the news of Vicki Haley in Montgomery, Alabama. Hey, I’ve got a new painting out, hey, I did an art show. Hey, I’m cool. The problem with that, Vicki is that that’s not very interesting to other people. It’s only interesting to you, maybe to me. So what do we do about that? Well, the first thing we do is we try to make content that people want now in my art marketing in a box program, I developed a whole bunch of content for people that they could kind of have content to do this on a regular basis. But the bottom line is you want to make it interesting. So what would make it interesting? Well, maybe you teach something about art now may or may not be teaching art itself unless the people getting your newsletter our students, but otherwise, you know, you maybe you you have an interesting story about art that you opened with each time and then you introduce other things about the stuff about you, you know, your paintings and the things that you’ve been doing and the trips that you’ve been taking, but you know, as a guy who gets three or 400 of those a month and you know, think about some collectors probably do you know, they go around, they sign up for websites and then you know, they start realizing well I opened it I read it I don’t get anything out of it or I don’t like the work or whatever and so they go away. Now if they don’t like the work that’s a whole different problem. And that’s always about getting better but look for ways to make it entertaining. Everybody wants to be entertained, everybody wants to be get to the point fast. If it’s really really super, super long and wordy are they going to read it you Do you have really great photos? Do you open with something strong? Make it really good. That’ll make a big difference. So ask yourself why? and ask them why and then make it better.

All right. Now, here’s a question from Carrie Moore in Cheyenne, Wyoming who asks, How important is it to have a painting framed at a plein air competition event? I think carry I think it’s critical, I think it’s the standard, right now, you know, first off, you got to have that way to hang the painting in the show. And usually, that means it’s in a frame. Now, if you’re a painter who paints on these kinds of can buy canvases, which have the big thick square edges, and you paint around the edges, you know, kind of a modern look, then maybe you don’t need a frame. And some people will like that. But, you know, a frame really is there to make the painting stand out, you know, a beautiful frame makes it kind of enhanced. And that’s why we put our things in frames, because you’re making better and, and you know, the goal is you want to stand out, you want your painting to look great. And now I believe investing in great frames really makes a difference, you know, we we have a tendency to go cheap on our frames. And sometimes you can find inexpensive frames that are not cheap looking. And that’s okay. But if you you know, if you’re going into Walmart and getting a bunch of frames and just trying to put them in frames, they’re not gonna look right, typically, no, nothing against Walmart, or Michaels. But the idea is you want a really good high quality frame, you want something that’s going to really make the painting standout. And then you also need to kind of understand what are the trends of the market you’re going into like, if you’re going into a market that’s very traditional, then gold frames are probably more appropriate than dark frames, but dark frames tend to do really well and markets that tend to lean a little bit contemporary and you know, people will put paintings up that are not contemporary, but if the frames are contemporary makes it feel better anyway. So that’s my, my feeling about frames. I think frames are really critically important.

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!
By |2021-05-12T14:01:37-04:00June 14th, 2021|Art Marketing Minute Podcast|0 Comments
Read More

Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 71

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: “Do frames add value when selling a painting?” and “What’s a good way to get into a coffee shop with your art?”

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 71 >

 

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:

And in the marketing minute I answer your art marketing questions you can email your questions to me [email protected] Here’s a question from David Bailey in Richmond, Kentucky who asked do frames add value. When selling a painting? Well, let me give you a story. I won’t mention names. But I was on the phone with a dealer. And this dealer told me the story about how he had this painting that had been sitting in the gallery for a year and it just hadn’t sold. He said it was a really good painting, I moved it around a lot. It still didn’t sell. And I was getting ready to I took it off the wall, I was getting ready to send it back to the artist. And I thought you know, it’s really too good of a painting. So he, he took it to his framer, he’s got a really high end framer, he said, I think the problem is the frame. So they put a really high quality frame on it. And he put it up on the wall, and he raised the price by triple, triple now it was an expensive frame, but he raised the price higher. And he said that painting sold in the first week now, do frames help. I mean, you know, when you’re driving down the road, and you see somebody at a Porsche 911 or a Bentley, you know, if they send a signal about that person, you know, maybe. So I think that, you know, you look at it at the environment frames do make a huge difference. We have a lot of great framers who advertise in plein air magazine, you can look in there for frame ideas. And you know, frames don’t necessarily have to be really expensive, some really expensive frames exist. And they’re, you know, they’re almost always worth it. But there are also some really beautiful frames that are not super expensive, but frames make a difference. And I like the idea of the artists controlling the framing, because you want to make sure that you are setting the experience properly. I mean, you spend all this time on a beautiful painting, and then you send it out to somebody and they slap it in a frame now if they want to change it later, but to help sell it, I think, you know, the frame matters. I have a beautiful framed painting from David Lafell. And he made the frame himself and it just is a perfect fit any other frame would have not fit. So I think framing is critical. David, I would put a lot of value into that. And a friend of mine was having an art show and he was kind of new at this and and he was struggling with the idea of expensive frames. And I said to him, Look, I you know, go for it, spend the money, you’ll never regret it. And I said and you’ll be able to get a higher price. And he said, you know, it’s really hard to do because I don’t have the money. And I said I get that. Well, he he did it. And he didn’t do it completely. But he did it. And the ones that had the better frames outsold the ones that didn’t have the better frames and he got a higher price for him. So just saying I think frames make a huge difference.

Now here’s a question from Mary Ann Carnes who asked I don’t know where she’s from. Make sure you tell us when you send in your email tell us where you’re from. Mary Ann says what’s a good way to get into a coffee shop with your art? And what’s a fair percentage split? Well, I think the question Maryann is, why do you want to be in a coffee shop? I mean, you know, we all go into coffee shops, and it’s not unusual to see art hanging in coffee shops, and art for sale hanging in coffee shops, and is that really the best place for you to be? Now, I like the idea of getting some experience. I like the idea of getting out there and trying something. But you know, a coffee shop, you’re battling a lot of other distractions. And you know, it’s kind of embarrassing, if there’s a painting the like you’re walking by it, but it’s over somebody’s booth, you’re not gonna walk up and get the information on it. And so, you know, it’s a tough environment. now. I’ll go ahead and answer that question. But I think you should also be considering, is there a better environment for my work? Maybe, maybe there is. And I would think, you know, as John Coleman was talking about, you know, being the best you can be and having the mindset of maybe you’re telling yourself a coffee shop is all you can get when in fact, you can get into a gallery that’s worth considering, ask yourself that question. But Maryann, if you want to get into a coffee shop, I just take a portfolio of your work and one or two originals. And what I would do, this is not what everybody would do. But I’d take a nice small painting and I’d, I’d call it I say I have a call the owner, I say have a gift for you. And I want to discuss your business proposition. And so you take a gift in and you give them a nice painting a small one, I wouldn’t give them a very expensive one. But just give them a small painting and say, Listen, I would love here’s a gift for me, thanks for taking the meeting. Here’s a you know, this is I’m a painter, here’s what I do, here’s some of my work and show them some of your work. And I would love to have a show in in your coffee shop or your restaurant because I think your people would like it. And it might help me a little bit. And of course, it’ll help you to please accept this gift. And you know, they’ll probably put you in, they’ll probably give you a show, instead of a coffee shop, what I would do is I would go for a high end restaurant, depending on the quality of your work. But I frame it up really nicely, I’d make sure by the lobby area, there’s kind of a listing of paintings. And there’s a way to get a brochure or something, but also a couple paintings right by the lobby area. And ask the owner if you can rotate them once a week or something because people go back to restaurants, if they’re in a high end restaurant, and they’re spending a couple 100 bucks for a meal, and they’ve had a couple of bottles of wine, you’ve got a really nice likelihood that they’re going to fall in love with your work. And then it just got to make you got to figure out a way to make it easy for them to buy. So one of the things you can do is you can put one of these little scan codes on each one and say scan this and it’ll tell you to bring up the painting. The other thing is to make an arrangement with the owner so that they can actually sell it right then and there. Because if people leave, and then they’re, you know, their enthusiasm wanes, you know, they might not call you they might not go to your website. So make it easy to say to the owner, look, I’m going to give you a percentage. And, you know, so what’s a fair percentage split, you know, in a typical gallery relationship, it’s about 50/50. Some artists, it’s 40/60. Because the galleries you know, if you’re a better more well known artists, galleries won’t take as much of a percentage. You know, what you’re trying to do here is to get some experience or trying to get good at this, I think 50/50 is very fair. And you know, the if it’s got to be worthwhile for the for the business owner, because if they say, Hey, I’m gonna make 500 extra bucks, you know, somebody’s painting, sell, you know, then make it easy for them. And it’s just but you’ve got to make sure they know how they know how to do this and how to how to make the paintings available. And you know, they can take them right there with them. And you know, that all that kind of stuff. So you just have to go through that with them.

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!
By |2021-05-12T13:55:40-04:00June 7th, 2021|Art Marketing Minute Podcast|0 Comments
Read More

Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 70

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, “How do I get full mileage out of a social media campaign?” and “What are some ways I can start teaching art to a specific demographic?”

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 70 >

 

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 art marketing minute I try to answer your questions you can email yours to me [email protected] And I always love having your questions. As a matter of fact, that’s where I get my content. Here’s a question from Linda Finnstad of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, who says she has a series of sassy Angel drawings and has started a campaign where she posts an image a day on social media going for 365 days, 10 days into the project. She said she’s getting great feedback as well as sales on Amazon. So our question is, how do I get full mileage out of this campaign? Well, I think first you have First off, you have to Oh, she said, I would hate to look back and realize I missed a fabulous opportunity. Linda, it’s a good question. The first thing I always do is I try to define my goals. You know, what is? what is success to you? What do you want that to look like? Because it might be you know, maybe it’s about selling paintings, but maybe it’s about publicity, maybe it’s about branding, maybe it’s about something else. So try to define what is your 80% goal, what’s the one thing that if 80% of it happens, you’ve accomplished a goal, always start there with everything you do. I also would say that you really started a little prematurely in this in the sense that your planning should be done before you ever start. Because there are things you could do in your planning that will give you a better start, try to get your planning done in advance before you launch your program. But in this case, you can’t do that. So there’s a giant PR opportunity. First off, I would write a press release something as simple as that, write a press release about it, attach them images and put it on the internet through PR wire PR web, there are several services, you’re going to have to pay, you know, 50, probably 150 200 bucks, you’re gonna have to pay more if you show an image. But it’ll show up in Google search that way. And also, when you show up in Google search, you know, people will discover it by accident. And so you want to have your website and all that stuff in there. The other thing to do is to post it as a story on LinkedIn, because every story, unlike Facebook, and Instagram, and other social media, if you put a story on Instagram, it also shows up in search. And so oftentimes, you can find that story. And of course, that’ll link to you. I would also hand picked some dream stories that you want, for instance. So this is the kind of thing that people magazine would like. So I’d go on LinkedIn and get some names of some editors of People Magazine, I find you know, as many as you can find eight or 10 or 12 of them and send them all a personalized email with some photos and photos of you with the paintings and let them know that you have a high resolution images as well. And I would hire a professional because, you know, as an editor, we’re always looking for content. I have a friend who used to work at People Magazine. And you know, sometimes they would have dry spells where they just couldn’t come up with stories and they need filler. And they would grab filler, you know, somebody sends in a press release, and it’s got some great images, they don’t have time to send out a photographer. So they just grab that story, use the images. And so you want some fun images and some different images, I think that would be helpful. You want high res available to them. And so they know that because in printing if they have to print it up, and then of course, if you get a story, then you can tell everybody, you’ve got a story. And that kind of gets the momentum going one time, I went to a seminar and this lady said, you know, write your own press release, write your own story and send it off to magazines. And sometimes they’ll publish it. And I was on an airplane coming back from that seminar. So I wrote a story specifically for a magazine about myself. And I got home and I sent it in and they ended up running it and it was in a national magazine, and it was hardly changed at all. And they used my picture and everything else. So that was pretty cool. So you can do that too. I would send releases to 50 of your top dream story places you know People magazine or, or whatever magazine you think and of course these days it’s it’s about websites, it’s about magazines. The other thing you want to do is look for influencers right? So like there are Instagram influencers. And you could go to an Instagram and find somebody who’s got a million people or maybe Instagram or who does something on angels and say to them listen, I would love for you to do something on my thing and in exchange I’ll give you one of the drawings and next thing you know they put it up there for you and boom you know you’ve gotten seen by the potential of a million people however many so the other thing is I’d look for a chance to get a celebrity sale. Now influencers are a great way because then you can set Well, this influencer that influencer has my work. But what about a celebrity? You know, is there a celebrity that might have a fitting story about a guardian angel, you know, select, you know, Google the term celebrity, and guardian angel and see what comes up, maybe you’ll find a celebrity that has a guardian angel story. And then you say, Hey, I loved your story, I’m going to send you my painting, or my drawing, and then send it to them, get them to snap a picture and say, do you mind if I tell everybody about it, they want publicity. Everybody wants publicity, if you’re in celebrity world, and then you now have something else to talk about. So PR is a great way to go. Social media is great, but it’s limited to your presence. And so you’ve got to find ways to get others who have more presence to leverage you to get it, get it shared. Also, keeping something alive for a year is tough, you know, you want to ask yourself, is a year really appropriate? Or do I just really want what do I really want to accomplish? Can I accomplished that goal and, you know, in three months, so I would develop a plan and see if you can just jam it hard for three months, and then you know, maybe a year later, you can, you can get some more publicity. I also would say, try your local newspaper. Nobody thinks about local newspapers anymore. But there are demographics that read them, they’ll go to art gallery shows, and the best part about a local newspapers, they can get picked up and syndicated by other newspapers who are looking for content. I once had a story in 200 newspapers, because the Associated Press wrote a story about my book. And it they syndicated and I ended up in the LA Times, and the New York Times, and Chicago Tribune and a bunch of others. So that was pretty cool. So the other thing, ask yourself, who’s your target demo demographic? Who was it women, men? What age? What do they spend their time doing? You know, if they’re into gardening, then you know, figure out how to get a gardening publication to do a story how to do it, do a drawing of an angel in a garden and come up with a concept. The idea is to think outside of the I hate that term outside of the box, but interview your buyers, to the people who have bought something from you on Amazon, talk to them and find out what was it that appealed? And what is their story? And what does it mean to them, and maybe that’ll give you ideas, and you can learn things you had not anticipated. And maybe that’ll be helpful. Anyway, that’s, I hope that was helpful.

Linda Andrews from Concord, North Carolina says I would love to share my love of art and landscape painting with young people. What are some ways I can start teaching classes or workshops to this demographic? Well, I think it would be very welcome. Of course, COVID is going to be in the way right now. But it’ll be over one day. So I love I’ve got a goal of teaching a million people to paint and I’m really far along in that goal. But I, you know, I’ve got to hit that million. And then once I hit that million, I want to go to 2 million and 5 million and 10 million and so on. I love the idea of teaching people to paint because it gives them something more in their life, you know, people can be bored, I would first go to Plein Air Force calm. It’s website I put together. There’s a lot of ideas on there on how to speak to groups. I had high school assemblies. To make it easy. We have a documentary you can share. So the idea was that some people are not good speakers, but they could go to a school and say, Hey, I’m Eric. I’m a plein air painter. What does plein air painting Meanwhile, it’s about getting outdoors to paint, you know, and some of you don’t want to be an athlete. And some of you don’t want to be a musician. But some of you want to do something creative. And something that has a really fun potential career with it. Or maybe just a fun potential hobby. Well, plein air painting is getting outdoors, and painting what you see. And when you paint outdoors, you know, give them all the reasons you know, you’re, you’re meeting a lot of people you’re talking to people, you’re painting better color and shape and form and things like that. But then play the documentary, which goes about 20, 30 minutes. And then at the end of that documentary, you can say, hey, what questions do you have? So it makes it really easy to get them engaged. And then you could say, Well, listen, I’m I’m going to supply all the materials and I got a group setting up for plein air painting, and I have some, this is all free. But if you want to sign up for some lessons that’s available to you too, and and you’ll get you know, you’ll get two or three people and you might get 30 people you just never know. And I just start contacting the offices of all the different high schools and maybe even the middle schools and you know, get out there and talk to them and talk to the art teachers. They love somebody to come in and fill their day so they don’t have to teach sometimes, you know, and and get the kids excited, you know, so you can go in and talk to classes. They will welcome it. I would call the Laguna plein air painters association called call Rosemary Swimm. They’re asked for ideas. They bring in busloads of kids from the inner city and they teach them to paint. They have painters painting with them, they have materials, and they make it simple, and it’s really very successful so they can give you some clues. I would also consider right now maybe offering some zoom classes and invite students in for free, maybe, you know, call an art teacher and try it. Get some experience first and you know, just see what works. It’s going to be fine, you’re going to be great. You might want to come up with an incentive or something that makes it really fun for kids and do something to make it cool. Anyway, I think this is a great question. I think it helps. I hope that you can make that happen. I think all of us should be doing that. We should get everybody in every town doing this and we would change the world. Right? Well, anyway, that is this week’s art marketing minute.

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!
By |2021-04-29T07:24:12-04:00May 31st, 2021|Art Marketing Minute Podcast|0 Comments
Read More

Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 69

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: “How do you price a commissioned painting?” and “What do you do if your painting is stolen?”

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 69 >

 

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 usually there are questions that kind of aren’t always aren’t marketing related, but sometimes they are. email your questions Eric at art marketing.com. Also check out Art marketing.com because it’s a really great place to get a lot of resources, a lot of articles there. I just wrote one on how to build email list in 2021. Go to artmarketing.com. for that. Here’s a question from Amanda Dodd in Montgomery, Alabama, who says, How do you come up with a price for commissioned painting? Well, pricing is the most confusing, often most misunderstood thing on earth for artists and probably pretty much everybody else. Picking prices, you know, if you were selling widgets, the way you would set your prices is you’d start out by saying okay, you know the cost of the metal is this much and the cost of the labor is this much. And the cost of the marketing is this much and the cost, you add up all of your costs. And let’s say your cost is $100. And then from that point forward, then you have to say okay, as somebody selling this for me, like if it’s if it were a retail store, then they’d say, Okay, well, then we got to add in that, that that amount of money, but you also have to add in your profit, you know, how much is it worth it to you? Now you have to be reasonable, you don’t want to be greedy. But let’s say you’ve got $100 in materials and you’d like to make it you know, some amount of money on it, you have to determine that it’s 10 bucks, 20 bucks, 50 bucks, 100 bucks, whatever. And then on top of that, you know, what is the market going to be able to bear? Well as painters, we’re not creating widgets, but there are some some clues that you can ask yourself first off, how much time do I have to spend on this and let’s just say that you had an average painting and your average painting took you five days and you could sell that average painting for $2,000. So okay, so you know, you know five days of your time is worth $2,000 and you’ve built in your materials and your frame and your canvas and all that stuff into it. Let’s say somebody says well I want you to do a commission and you start thinking about okay well Commission’s a little different, right, or it could be, let’s say they want you to paint their grandmother and their grandfather. Okay, now there’s two figures in it. And how much time is this going to take you? It’s going to take you potentially a lot more than what a typical landscape painting might take you, for instance, now if it’s a landscape painting commission, different story, but let’s say you said, right, alright, this guy is going to take me instead of 10 days is take me 20 days, well, if you know that, you’re normally going to get a couple $1,000 for that 10 days, and it’s going to take you $20,000, and maybe you charge a couple, it charged twice as much. I mean, that’s kind of how the thinking is, and, and I, I have done commissions and regretted them. I had a commission I did, it was double portrait, and I never realized how much extra time it was going to take me. And it was because I was less experienced in that area. But also, there was all this back and forth of gathering photos. And then I had to do sketches because the photos were no good. And so I had to do sketches, and then I had to kind of put my own light in and try to you know, try to make it right, you know, and then I’m touching base with the person all the time, I spent a lot of time on it. So when you when you start thinking about those things, first off, you got to try and anticipate how much time am I going to spend on how many iterations you know, if you’re doing a commission, usually there’s going to be a preliminary sketch, you know, I’m going to show you a sketch, you’re going to approve it at that point, you’re going to pay me a little bit more of the money you owe me, you’re going to start out by saying, Okay, what, you know, half upfront, and then I need another quarter, it’s a preliminary sketch, and then you got to pay the rest on the finished painting that kind of a thing. So, you know, figure out, you know, how much how much you need to create that piece. Now, on top of that, you’ve got what I call your brand value, you know, if you’re, let’s say, your Nelson Shanks, the late Nelson Shanks, who was getting, you know, 8090 $100,000 for a portrait, you know, he hits, you know, it’s not so much about his time as it is his reputation and the value that he brings, because, you know, it’s a status item to own a painting of his he did my portrait. And so I think the idea is, you got a base, you know, your time, the quality of your brand, you know, if people are highly aware of you, you’ve got a good brand you’re more sought after, then that’s going to increase your value. And you know, there are people out there who are getting that kind of money. But if if it were me, and I came out there, and I said, Hey, I want 80 or $100,000, for my portrait, people would laugh at me. Because I don’t have the reputation for doing that. And and so, I mean, you, you might be able to get it with the right person, but chances are, you know, you’re working through somebody else who knows the market, what the market will bear and so on. So, I know, I know, I didn’t really completely answer that. But that’s kind of how I would answer it if I were gonna go into that direction.

Now, here’s a question from Christopher sites in Phoenix, Arizona, whose question is, what do you do if your painting is stolen? Christopher, call the police. You know, there’s no more data in that question. I don’t know how it was stolen, what kind of painting it was, whether it was something he did, or something somebody else did, whether it was at an art show, you know, there’s a lot of different circumstances what to do. But, you know, you, you and and also, what’s that painting worth? You know? And is it going to be worth the time to pursue it? And and I can’t answer that question, only you can answer it. But, you know, I’ve heard stories of people going to art shows, you know, you’ve got a tent show where you’re, you’re showing things and people slip in and they steal something, and they run off, you know, you’re going to go call the police. And you’re going to go to the police at the Art Show. And you’re gonna say, hey, somebody ran off my painting, but you know, you’re not likely to have any video of it happening in big crowds, it’s gonna be hard to, to do much about it. And so, you know, you just have to, you have to build these things in you know, I have a friend that used to be in the software business. And he worked for one of the big software companies back when you know, software, you’d buy it in a box, and he said, you know, we built in theft into our pricing. So we, we knew that, you know, 10% or 20%, or whatever of our stuff was going to be stolen and copied. And, and so we just built that into our cost. And so that’s how they dealt with it, but you’re gonna you know, first thing called the police Now, also there is a thing called the art loss register. Now, that’s more about museum quality paintings that have been stolen from things like, you know, great museums and so on are collections. They and paintings always, almost always show up. And as a result when they show up, you know, a dealer, if it goes to art loss register, he says, You know, I got this painting for sale, I want to make sure it’s not stolen, you go through there and say, Oh, there it is. So I don’t know that they would do that for contemporary artists. And it would probably depend on the quality and the reputation of the artist and the value of the painting. You know, if it’s a big expensive painting, they might so I don’t know you probably We aren’t going to be able to make much progress on that unless you know more you have video or something like that. And then I think the other thing is, you know, it, it’s painful to have things stolen, I had a bunch of camera gear stolen at a, I was photographing at an event and I had all this stuff under the table when I wasn’t using it, and it disappeared, somebody saw me put it under there. Probably it was an inside job from the hotel or something. But anyway, you know it, you feel very violated, but not much at the end of the day, you might be able to turn it into your insurance company, if you have insurance on your paintings. And and I don’t really know anything about that, quite frankly. But I think that’s something to think about. Anyway, that this was kind of an unusual or not a bad question. Just an unusual question for our marketing minute. Oh, by the way, here’s something else I would do. I would say, Alright, I just lost a $2,000 painting because it was stolen. How can I get $2,000 worth of value out of that? I would turn it into a promotion, I would look for a way to you know, talk it up, put it on social media, you know, run ads, you know this, this painting was stolen. If you know anything about it, contact the artist Eric Rhoads in and you know, it’s just a roundabout way to get people to look at your work and to see something and to go to your website. And you know, it’s going to create some buzz and some talk and so, to turn everything into an opportunity. That’s that’s about the best you can do. Anyway, that is the marketing minute.

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!
By |2021-05-25T09:25:08-04:00May 24th, 2021|Art Marketing Minute Podcast|0 Comments
Read More

Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 68

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 there a way to use a conferencing program to sell you art,” and “When do you know it’s time to copyright your art?”

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 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!
By |2021-04-29T07:23:24-04:00May 17th, 2021|Art Marketing Minute Podcast|0 Comments
Read More
Font Resize
Accessibility by WAH
Go to Top