Art Print Issues by Barney Davey

Keep It Small - Keep It All - Sage Advice from a Smart Art Marketer

Back in the day, as the well-worn phrase goes, I repped Decor magazine. At its peak, it was a huge success with a fully paid circulation and producing monthly issues with tons of advertising. In many ways, its success mirrored what can easily be considered the Golden Years of the art print market. The business boomed along with so many others that fed off the Baby Boomers coming of age who appreciated art and wanted to decorate their homes with it.

One of my advertising clients was Edward Weston. No, not the famous photographer, but another person who shared the same name. He was an entrepreneur, art aficionado, art publisher and secondary art market broker and dealer. He published works by famous people, including actress Elke Sommer, one of the most stunning blondes to ever grace the big screen. Ed was perhaps best known as having one of the best collections of Marilyn Monroe photography. Sadly, he passed away last year. I miss him still. But, he lived a good life and to the hilt as well.                     

He ran the smallest size ad, a 1/8th page unit, every month in Decor for decades. With his budget and income, he could have gone bigger. He could have done a lot of things bigger. I once asked him why he didn't publish more and have a larger staff. He looked at me and said, "Barney, I keep it small and I keep it all."

There is great wisdom in that little rhyme. It is something to consider when you are trying to decide what direction you want to take your art business, especially your art print business. In the current unsure economic client we are in today, it makes a lot of sense to heed Ed's sage advice. That is, the more you control the distribution of your work, the fewer hands it passes through, the more you will keep. It would be a good exercise to work out different scenarios so you can understand how the power of Ed's suggestion can work for you.

If you sell direct, you keep 100% less the cost of production and marketing. Any other intermediary in the chain has to be compensated. These would be galleries, online sites, publishers, dealers and art reps. I decided to self-publish my book, How to Profit from the Art Print Market, because it looked like the best deal for me. The spread between my net wholesale self-publishing and what I would get from net wholesale from a publisher was a ratio of more than 16:1.

I was confident no publisher could sell that many more books than I could on my own. Plus, I get paid much quicker than if I were with a publisher. This is assuming I would have been successful in finding one who wanted to take on the book. I believe I would have, but for me it just didn't seem to make sense to do the work of seeking representation and then get paid less as a result. So, in my own way, I've followed the advice I give artists, which is to self-publish if you have the means and marketing know-how. And, I've followed Edward Weston's advice too; both with no regrets.

Art Marketing Today - Making Sense of the Bits

Artists are seekers. I've never known one that wasn't seeking something with his or her art. Once bitten by the potent urge to create and make something of the talent, it's hard, if not impossible, to put the quest down. Put it off for expediency and steady currency yes, but forget about it -- never.

Here are a collection of disparate bits (links) I found to be interesting and compelling on their own. And, I also find a common thread running through them. Let me see if I can thread the needle for you.

Meet the boss

We'll start with the boss. That would be the formidable Katherine Tyrrell, the unparalleled blogger of Making a Mark. I call her the boss because she has put together a authoritative world class series of artist information Squidoo lenses to go along with her widely read blog. How she finds time for it all and manages to paint marvels me. It rivals the likes of the creative informative output of Robert Genn with his famous Twice-weekly Letter.

Katherine's post today is about something on every artist's mind, or ought to be. That would be how can I learn more about and get better at selling art online? She has decided it is enough of a big subject itself she is breaking if from her information rich Art Business - Resources for Artist Squidoo Lens. She is calling for your help. If you know of other sites where artists can sell their work not listed on her Art Business lens, please forward them to her.

High-end art market tanking...duh!

Bloomberg News had this headline today: Art Market May Take 3-5 Years to Recover, Survey Company Says. Go figure. Who would have known? I surmise it woud be just about every lucid person on the planet. But, somebody paid to prove the obvious. The article was based on research by an outfit called Art Tactic, Ltd. Granted, the article is what is happening at the top-tier "art as investment" fine art auction scene. However, what happens at the top trickles down. That is, it's hard for lower priced work to take big leaps up when prices of the most highly valued pieces are being depressed. The lesson here is it is another reason to be figuring out how to sell your art online, or any where else where willing buyers can be found for that matter. Perhaps the message is to work in a style that suits your local area in a way that will help insulate you from the larger push down on art prices.

Would have Picasso sold giclees?

This brings us to an article published by artist Henry Bateman. He's made a living as an artist for a long time and is an astute observer of the market from both a personal perspective and from a more macro look over time and circumstances. He published this online article, Are Giclee Prints Collectible? In it, he makes the case that Picasso would have embraced the giclee medium. He concludes that those prints that are remarqued with a bit of "graffiti" as he calls on it are the ones that will be collectible. He could be right. Another way to look at it would be sequentially numbered, but open edition pieces, might see the lower numbers become more collectible than higher numbers.

What is just as interesting about this article is where he published it. That is, the Home Improvements Directory.com. A very good place to be promoting himself as a knowledgeable art insider who just happens to be an artist himself. Nice bit of self-promoting to a targeted audience. Kudos to Henry. He's thinking outside the box on how to up his visibility online and potentially with some of his best prospects.

How to hook new customers and great publcity

Joan Ambrose-Bibbo is a multi-talented artist with a unique story. One that begs for publicity that practically writes itself. Son of a gun if that isn't exactly what happened. She was recently covered in a hometown paper, The Mercury, which serves Pottsdown, PA and surrounding counties. The story is titled, Hooked on Art. It details her career as a graphic artist (A familiar tale about paying the bills.) 

Her real passion is making hooked rugs. With her artistic talents, she has come up with great designs and an in-demand product. So much so, she's turned to making giclee prints of the work and has a new source of revenue with the pieces selling in local galleries. She obviously has a look that ties in to the design themes and interests of her regional locale. Finding more and new ways to stretch your talent and reach a willing market is more crucial now than any previous time. There is lots to be learned here. Follow your passion, be creative about how to make your work, be unique and look for opportunities to let the media blow your horn with stellar priceless publicity.

Living your dream in the 2000s

Lastly, we'll look at Katie Davis. Like Henry Bateman, she has taken up pen to write articles online. This format gives her a boost in awareness while promoting a point of view and a subtle, but nonetheless obvious, agenda to help her sell her art. And, she has a great message for artists, or anyone else for that matter. In her article, How to Live Your Dream, she narrates navigating an interesting and changing career and life path that I'm sure many reading this can relate to in some fashion.

The path has taken her from starting out with a fine art degree and gravitating painting sets for movies and television. The tour takes her through creating greeting and notecards sold in local galleries. Where it gets interesting is how she has morphed that interest and talent into her own online e-card company at www.KatiesCards.com. The business allows her to unleash her creativity, learn new skills and enjoy a growing business where she works from home allowing her to be there for her kids. Nicely done Katie.

Seek and ye shall find

If you see a pattern of entrepreneurship, of not following the beaten path, of using the Internet in unique ways, then you have followed the thread. The artists mentioned here all are finding the time to do things to help themselves, to promote themselves, away from the easel. They have each embraced the Internet in their own way. Let them be an inspiration to you to try new things and to not convince yourself there is not enough time. If it's important, there is always time. Nurturing your career is as crucial as building your body of work and growing as an artist and as a seeker.

Basic Link Building Tactics and Resolutions for 2009

The terrific informative article below is republished from Website Magazine's blog. I used the Share This link to post it, but something went awry and only a link appeared.

Even in the age of hyper-personalization and geo-location in search, the number of inbound links pointing to your site is still the most important aspect of developing and securing top search engine positions. That's right, it's not about internal linking structure, keyword density or the presence or absence of title tags - it's about getting websites to link to yours. So how do you do that in 2009?

Link building hasn't really changed much over the years and it probably won't in 2009 either. Link building involves getting other Web sites to link to your site. The creativity we apply to link building however is what separate the high-rankers from the non-rankers. Think of link-building as a word of mouth recommendation; the more dramatic, compelling and interesting the recommendation, the more believable and attractive the proposition of visiting becomes for the user.

In the eyes of search engines, it's both the quality and quantity of recommendations that matter. It's not about making sure your site is worth a link (it is expected that our sites satisfies even the most critical user), it's about going out and getting them. That concept understood, let's look at few basic link building tactics you can (and perhaps should) employ in 2009. We'll push the envelope in an article next week about "Genuine Advanced Link Building" - look for that article early next week.


Attention Website Magazine readers - share your link building tactics and resolutions with other readers by commenting below!

Write and Distribute Press Releases Frequently: You very well might have the next great idea or that next amazing product that everyone needs to have, but if no one knows about it then you're pretty much spinning your wheels. One way to spread the word is through the use of press releases. Website Magazine has written extensively on how to use press releases to secure publicity and it has remained one of the best, yet most basic, ways to get links (and to do it quickly). Follow the guidance on press releaseswe've outlined previously, build a working list of established media outlets and bloggers and pursue their attention (politely) through every means possible (including on social networks). In 2009, resolve to send out press releases to your list directly via email or using services such as PRWeb, BusinessWire or PRleap.com.

Become a Guest Blogger: One of the easiest ways to get attention on the Web (regardless of the industry you are in) is to work for free. Now I know that this idea might go against every fiber of your business-savvy being, but the value of doing something (which in itself is extremely valuable) for someone else works and it works well. Guest bloggers have a captive audience and an unmatched opportunity to build a viable relationship with an audience that is not their own. Resolve in this new year to be a guest blogger a few times, if only to test the waters. Identify blogs or email newsletters which you think your message would be valuable to and offer to share your expertise (for free of course) in exchange for a link or even some advertising. Take the idea of guest blogging further by recruiting your own guest bloggers - you'll be shocked at what kind of promotional effort people will put in on your behalf! 

Share Your Insights Through Commenting:One of my favorite down-time activities is writing comments on blogs that I find using the StumbleUpon toolbar. While the traffic that StumbleUpon itself sends is of the lowest quality imaginable in terms of providing conversions, the service is excellent at helping users discover sites that they might find interesting or valuable. Search the service using individual keywords and couple that effort with comment tracking services such as CoComment for the purpose of measurement. The benefit of course is that you are identified as a participant in the conversation, which positively impacts your future link building prospects. If by chance the weblog you leave a comment on uses "follow" links instead of "no-follow" links, all the better for your link building efforts.

Do Something Nice:  If you've got an advertising budget, consider shifting a portion of those funds to secure natural (or at least semi-natural) links. Say for instance that you use an open-source software that requests donations. Why not make a donation and ask for a link from the developers site? Or say for example that you write a weblog on music like WM's Senior Editor Mike Phillips; why not consider writing a post on how to give back to music charities - someone will notice and grant you a link! Resolve to reap what you sow in 2009 and you'll be that much closer to Web success at the start of 2010.

Create Authority Documents and Share Socially:An authority document is one that people look to for guidance on a) how to do something, or b) how to do something better. Content does not exist in a vacuum however - it won't pull people on to your site on its own merit. You must share that information through an active network of Web friends and colleagues to make it stick in the Web's sphere of influence. That's why Website Magazine and others spend so much time discussing social news/bookmarking sites like Digg and Delicious, micro-blogging communities like Twitter and social networks like Facebook. These are opportunities where one can share their ideas and their content. Remember, authority does not happen overnight - it happens gradually with sudden increases (bursts) of influence. Resolve in 2009 to develop one well-thought out authority document each month of 2009 and, build out your social profile and share your content on as many social networks as possible, encouraging you friends to do the same.

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Posted Jan 02 2009, 02:32 PM by Peter A. Prestipino

Posted using ShareThis

The Art of the Big Offer

Here is a simple yet powerful truism, "You can't get it if you don't ask for it."

Just like many artists reading this post, I toil away at a day job. All in all, it's a pretty good gig. The pay is decent, incentives are excellent with benefits as good as you'll find these days. Short of blogging for a living, I don't mind strapping it on and going to work. It is challenging and puts me on a constant learning curve absorbing all manner of things that are both interesting to me now and certain to be helpful to me later. 

My only resentment is the time I put into the job because I have many other goals. For example, here is an expanded view of my Personal Brain that I use to help me keep ideas and add new ones. I look at it and it helps me keep on track to stay focused on the most important tasks rather than the most urgent that are not so important. Obviously, I recommend using it. For anyone who learns visually, it is a wonderful free tool.

However, the primary point today is to pass along advice easy to forget and harder to do for many of us. I am a seasoned sales and marketing guy and I found relearning this lesson helped my sales and confidence grow in my day job in ways that surprised me. Actually, there are two valuable lessons for you in this post:

1. OFFER BIG

2. Never sell thinking about what is in your wallet

As an artist, you are also an independent business person. Your business success depends on not only your creative ability to render art the public wants to buy, it also depends on how you operate your business. A constant factor in your business is negotiation. The better you negotiate, the more money you get to keep. Arguably, handling sales is the most important negotiation you routinely make.

Consistently asking for the big sale works!

I'm lucky. Each day I get reminded in numerous ways to make sure I offer the biggest possible package to my customers. You will need to find ways to remind yourself. It is my job to make offers to my customers and choose to make them big offers. It is their job to decide if the offer is valid and worth considering. If they say no, I say okay and move on. I admit it took a some time for me to convert to consistently offer the premium package in every situation. I had to work at getting myself out of the way. Sometimes it just didn't feel right. But, when I overcame my reluctance to ask and put aside my personal feelings and what I thought was insight, I began to find people often responded favorably to being offered big.

Guess what? My sales went up and have stayed up as a result. I have no qualms about this because my company will give a 100% of unused product refund without question. So a buyer is never stuck with something they don't need. How does that translate to your business? Easy. You need to think about packages you could offer someone. If you are in a retail situation, such as at a show or in your studio, you already know you have an interested buyer. Instead of getting excited about selling one piece of art, why not offer a suite of images?

Artists Can Make the Art of the Big Offer Work for Them

How about my best package deal? Many of my other collectors love it! Take two 30" x 40" and two 16" x 20" giclees and I'll make you a sweet suite deal. Alternatively, would you prefer to have one large and three smaller images in a package? 

Help Your Collector Visualize What They Are Getting. Big Offers Get Big Results

Paint a picture for them here. Mentally put the pieces in their home or office "These images in a grouping, complementing each other in a room or several rooms will look spectacular in your home or office. They will give it a fresh inspired sense of beauty. Something you are certain to enjoy for years to come" The point is to allow them to think about how hanging a suite of your images will brighten their home and bring them joy.

If you figure out your offer and practice it until you can make the offer with conviction and confidence, I assure you that you will see a dramatic change in your results if you offer big consistently.

You may be struggling to make the rent, or just working hard to make your second career art business profitable. Either way, it's no sin to be modest and conservative with your own money. That said, you have to park your own sense of financial well being and not project what is happening in your life onto your collectors. If they are looking for art, they have discretionary income.

Never Pre-judge What You Think Someone Can Afford to Spend

It is not your job to decide how much they of your art they can afford. It is your job as a smart business person to ask for the order and offer big. If you have a problem with doing this because your are shy, uncomfortable or what have you, here is a bit of tough love: Get over it! Your attitude is costing you money. You have to realize you are dealing with rational adults who are fully capable of telling you no thank you they don't want any, or just the one. However, if you never present the offer, you are guaranteed to never make the big sale. Most people are not that creative in thinking big for themselves. They often want you to tell them what they want and will respond to creative offers, even big ones.

HINT: After you make the offer, SHUT UP. I don't care how much time passes. Just smile, be relaxed, casual and wait. If you start talking before they respond, you have effectively taken them off the offer. If they change the subject, answer the question and ask if they liked the offer. Get back on track.

So as the immortal Shakespeare adroitly put it, "Screw your courage to the sticking point, and we'll not fail." In these times especially, you have to leverage all you have. Practice these simple concepts and watch your sales and confidence grow.

Hot Trends in 2009 Forecast from Trend Hunter

Let's face it. We are all affected by the world around us. None of us create in a vacuum. How hard is it to instantly recognize art from the '60s or music from the '70s? Trends push experimentation and help drive collective interests. Trends are part of the fabric of our lives. Certainly, they influence artists. Without them there would be no Impressionism or Cubism and so forth.

Recently, you could have read a post here on the Color Marketing Group's Color Trends for 2009. In concert with that, I offer you today a You Tube video from Trendhunter.com. Here is a description from its Web site explaining how the items were chosen:

The 2009 forecast summarizes the 20 trend clusters from our 2009 Trend Reports.  In total, the trend reports feature more than 300 clusters, each with half a dozen examples. 

Crowd Filtered Insight - We’ve created the 2009 trend forecast by crowd filtering our database of nearly 30,000 published micro-trends, collected by our global network of more than 20,000 Trend Hunters.

As I watched this video, I noted at least a number of trends that will be influencing consumers in ways that visual artists can tap into. No doubt, you may disagree or find others:

• DIY Cottage Industry Fashion Crafts
• Geek Pride
• Ageless Inspiration
• Physical customization
• Style over tradition
• Prefabulous
• Brag materialism
• Smallchitecture
• Remaking history - retro revival remade

There is always the argument for being the go-it-alone iconoclast. If that is you, then these trend predictions may not be of interest. However, if you are an artist whose mission is to make your art and business perform equally well, then having at least a passing awareness of things to come cannot hurt your vision for either. The trends offered are so diverse and provide much food for thought, discussion and inspiration. 

Art Marketing Ideas & Resources for the New Year

Welcome to 2009...Congratulations for getting through the crazy challenging tumultuous events of the past 12 months. Whether you have completed your plans for the year, or haven't gotten around to them, it is a good time to cover or revisit the basics.

Art Marketing 101, now in its 3rd Edition remains a treasure trove of valuable ideas and suggestions. As its title suggests, it is a basic primer. But do not be fooled, because it provides lots of information and inspiration artists at any level can put to good use.

The book is written by Constance Smith. She has helmed ArtNetwork in a career spanning three decades. Here is a description of the company from its Web site:

ArtNetwork has been helping artists empower themselves since 1986 through its books, artist directories, mailing lists and most recently through its online gallery. We continue to grow by bringing you new approaches to marketing your work and growing your art business.

In addition to publishing a great collection of useful business books for artists, ArtNetwork also provides some of the most unique mailing lists, built especially for visual artists, to be found anywhere. Here is a breakdown by category:

•  Architects 
•  Art Councils
•  Art Museum Gift Store Buyers 
•  Art Museums       
•  Art Organizations    
•  Art Publications    
•  Art Publishers  
•  Book Publishers 
• Calendar Publishers  
• College/Art School Art Departments
• Corporate Art Consultants  
• Corporations Collecting Art 
• Corporations Collecting Photography
• Galleries 
• Galleries Carrying Photography    
• Galleries, College    
• Greeting Card Publishers  
• Interior Designers   
• Licensing Companies    
• Photo-related contacts
• Representatives, Consultants, Dealers, Brokers

You can start with a simple postcard marketing program to them. Online printers such as PrintingforLess.com offer competitive prices and great service. I have personally used this company and been very pleased with the quality, care and pricing it provided me.  My recommendation would be to make it a campaign as opposed to a one-shot attempt.

Depending on your target and desired outcome, you might send several postcards. Or, you might follow a postcard with a letter and a brochure. If you select a list that is large enough, you can segment it and try sending test batches. Batch A might get 2 postcards, Batch B 3 postcards, Batch C 1 postcard and a letter with brochure. There is no set way that always works best, the more you test and evaluate, the better your long term results will be.

When you rent a list, you do not own the names and the use is for one time. You need to develop a means to capture your own mailing data. In our high tech world, it is easy to think of trying to use email and online marketing exclusively. This can be a mistake. I believe in using both old fashioned direct mail and email.

If you do not have a method of capturing both email and standard mailing addresses, it should be a priority for you this year. In addition to figuring out how to get people to give you names, you need a way to manage them. In another post coming soon, I will give you ideas for how to go about doing both.

Sun Sets on Howard Behrens' Gallery Shows

Capri Coast - Howard Behrens

Howard Behrens ranks among the most successful and accomplished of a generation of artists whose work drove the phenomenal growth of the art print market in the late 20^th Century. Last year, a news item announced his last gallery show. Like Terry Redlin, another giant of the print market who retired around the same time, he's reached a milestone in his career. One I'm remiss in waiting until now to cover.

While Redlin has retired, Behrens has simply announced he has done his last gallery show. After a remarkable professional art career spanning 25 years, at age 75, who can second guess his decision?

The Path to Professional Painter Is Well Trodden Through Graphics Arts Careers

Like so many of his contemporaries, he worked successfully at another career in graphic design until well into mid-life before turning to full-time as a career artist. According to his biography, he worked with many styles and techniques, but ultimately settled on the palette knife. The results he achieved were nothing short of stunning. His bold, colorful, compelling and romantic art was perfectly suited for modern serigraphy. A medium that in the popularity of the giclee revolution still represents the best and highest end of the commercial fine art print market.

To view an original Behrens or one of his serigraphs is like taking a mini-vacation to a beautiful exotic place. The kind of place most can only dream about going. The posters and open edition prints, while still gorgeous, lack some of the visual impact of his originals and serigraphs. Given the discrepancy in prices and printing methods, this is to be expected.

Success at Every Price Point

Behrens' art has sold well throughout his career at virtually every price point. One can purchase affordable posters from dealers and online at Art.com and other sites. His originals and serigraphs, continue to sell well on the secondary market at Art Brokerage and other dealers. And, it also can be found in the giclee format as well in galleries and online.

Given Behrens' talent, travels and success, he is a model for what many artists would like to do with their careers. For those reading this who despair of enjoying similar success, keep in mind it was not until he reached 50 years of age before he turned to painting full time.

Behrens Helped Define and Make the Print Market in His Era

Behrens did have the good fortune to peak just in what many will remember as the golden years of the art print business. That was before the advent of modern print-on-demand technology that allowed the successful development of the fine art digital print technique that came to be known as giclees. Looking back on his career, one could say rather than riding the wave of popularity of the fine art print market, as epitomized by the tremendously successful ArtExpo New York shows of the late '80s and 1990s, that the interest in his work helped define and drive the market.

As with every successful artist, he has spawned legions of other artists seeking to tap into the same look and style he popularized. While some have achieved their own success, there will always only be one Howard Behrens. We salute him for his magnificent contributions and wish him well for the future.