Saturday, January 07, 2006

Marketing/Selling My Artwork

Can someone point me to the best resources for learning how to market my art?
I seem to be inept at using ebay, websites, google etc. I've tried everything and I'm so frustrated I could scream LOL!   The long of the short... I feel as if every place I see on the internet is out to take your money, for a service they know won't work eventually you quit after that they take the next guys buck. I've tried click services, general submissions, paid submissions, I've tried ebay who takes so much when you list and then afterward they take from your profit and they own paypal that also grabs a chunk. I feel used and abused, tired and frustrated I love my artwork, I do many types I am unfortunately a bit of a recluse and I don't have a networking ...my own folly I fear. But how do I go about building a clientel? Target market? I'm kind of crippled at knowing which way to go...also terribly unfocused...I make jewelry, paint watercolors, do poetry, cards, LOL I even tried to add products from places like SMC, crystal manufacturers to round out my own...they just d!
rove me nuts with low inventory, poor turn times etc. I want to crawl back into my cave and just paint LOL...help!! any suggestions?  I made a website/store but it's not "turned on" to shop at...you can't click a basket and buy anything...but it shows the kind of work I do...should I give up online and hit the street with a suitcase full of my work and hope some gallery likes it? I am such a ninny.,..LOL I am NOT a sales person, I'm an artist and need some real guidance ...check out my work and tell me who /how  I should approach to guide me at selling ...there's a fraction on this site...I have so many things LOL... anyway remember, you can't buy any of it, most of it I either gave away by now or it's packed away, but it is good to at least see what I mean by artist...


Well you seem to be quite unfocused.  The first thing that you should do is sit down and determine EXACTLY what it is you want!  AND you should make this the first page of your business plan which is something that you should have and is something that is always advised as having.  Your post is the perfect example of why one should have a business plan.  You're quite unfocused and going every which-a-way!

It just seems that you are in the middle of this big cloud with ideas and words swirling around you.  You're not the first person that has wanted to sell their art online (and you won't be the last).  You should also know too that there are people who are selling their own art online - you need to look no further than the "Artist" Message boards here on AOL.  And you know if there are AOL'ers selling their art online then there are those artists that aren't on AOL who are selling their art as well.

I can see that you're very frustrated and the simple solution to that is just that - MAKE IT SIMPLE!  Even though the Internet gives you a lot of options its easy to want and explore every new thing that comes along - which is all fine and well but have your simple plan and do that while you explore the other things!

What you need is one basic plan to follow.  You can explore other things but have a BASIC plan!  Then while you are carrying that out you can explore other things.

There are so many things in your post  - all of which can be analyzed and should be and then turned around to make them an advantage as opposed to a disadvantage.

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