Art Print Issues by Barney Davey

Using Press Releases to Gain Publicity for Visual Artists (Part Three)

I trust you have had a chance to read Part One and Part Two of this series on press releases for artists. I'll go further and assume some of you are sufficiently motivated by them to get started using press releases in your art marketing efforts. I've said many times dollar-for-dollar and for time spent, nothing will give your art business a bigger boost than well placed publicity.

There are many things I'm pretty good at, including writing my own press releases. Here are a couple that have I've published on PRWEB.com:

How to Profit from the Art Print Market: Practical Advice for Visual Artists

Chinese Assembly Line Oil Paintings Create Concerns

Five Decades of Passionate Vision Exhibit Extended - this one I dusted up for my good friend Joella Jean Mahoney. It's not something I would normally do. but given her accomplishments and this honor, I had to lend a hand. It came out pretty good for an amateur.

Speaking of being an amateur; I have no intention of trying to tell you how to write a press release when there are so many very talented professionals who can run rings around any efforts I might put forth in that arena. Here are some helpful links to useful information I've collected:

Press Releases as Marketing Tools

PRWEB.com - the anatomy of a press release

The Publicity Hound - free articles from PR expert Joan Stewart

PRWEB Review - insight and great advice from on this service from Internet & SEO marketing guru Rae Hoffman.

How to Write a Great Press Release: A Sample Press Release Template - from publicityinsider.com

10 Essential Tips to Ensure Your Press Release Makes the News

Okay, now that you are convinced regular use of publicity should be integrated into marketing program, you are wondering how you get a press worthy release written. That is you are a lover not a fighter. Just kidding, you are an artist not a promotional writer. I can heartily recommend a great editing service for you to use. It is www.Gramlee.com. You buy words on the site. It's $9.95 for 500 words. That is about the average size for a typical press release. Its professional editors will polish your copy and turn it around in 24 hours or less. You get to bank any unused words for future editing needs.

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.

Change Your Life Links for Visual Artists #1

Success in art marketing requires being informed. Not just about the art business and how to sell art. It requires general business knowledge and personal insight. You'll find some help on all those fronts in this post. My Google Reader has more than 1000 blog posts begging to be read.

Of course, who has the time to read them all? Not me. But I do have the time to scan the headlines for irresistible topics, (This points out the importance of writing blog titles that arrest attention.) Admittedly, the title of this piece was written to illustrate the point. I've set aside some of the more interesting and helpful topics to put into this post for yo.

I scan those articles because I have an insatiable curiosity that compels me to learn about new things. As my reader, you gain the benefit of my inquisitiveness. You will find below an eclectic collection of posts gleaned from my Google reader with subject matter, (Titles notwithstanding), sure to garner your interest and help you in your life and business. Enjoy!

Lifehacker - Getting Things Done with Google NotebookThis blog is a continuing cool compendium of the best ways to manage your life better, especially, but not exclusively, online.

Pick the Brain - Ten Ways to Instantly Build Self-Confidence Pick the Brain is a site with a wonderful collection of articles and help on motivation, productivity, self-improvement and much more.

Health Care Fine Art - Interview with Diane Spellman If you have not yet considered how health care and art intersect and what that could mean to you as visual artist, this article is must reading.

Fine Art Views - Generating Creative Business Ideas It's really good to see Clint Watson back at full strength blogging. The addition of regular contributing writers as with Lori Woodward Simons, who penned this insightful piece. By the way, Clint had a succint poignant comment on the previous post about the death of Blog Rush.

Ancient Artist: Developing an art career after 50 - The Value in Mini Marketing Sue Smith has emerged as a terrific artist and savvy marketer. I'm north of her in age and as such greatly respect her chutzpah, wisdom and all she brings to the art marketing conversation.

In a brazen bit of bragging digression, I recently completed an arduous three-week training program with a high tech marketing firm here in Arizona. (Had to get an RJ (Real Job) to bring my health care costs under control.) Despite having nearly 20 years on all but one of my 14 classmates, I was the sales leader at the end of the training which in the last week was nearly all sales calls. I smoked 'em all by an embarrassing amount.

I'd mention the name of this company, but then I'd have to put in all kinds of disclaimers which I'm not inclined to do. Suffice it to say it felt mighty good to put all the young hot shots in my rear view. You just can't replace life experience in many situations. It's been fun to be part of a dynamic fast growing company that is recognized as one of the best places to work in Arizona. Enjoying success straightaway makes it all the more fun

Copy Blogger - Free Link Bait Report Brian Clark's blog is one of the most popular marketing blogs on the Internet. If you are blogging, you should be thinking about how to incorporate Link Baiting as part of your efforts and his free report will help you understand how to do that. If you don't know what link baiting is, you really need to read his report.

Art Licensing Info - Directory of Illustration - Advertising Opportunity Tara Reed generously provides insights into art licensing from the artist's perspective. Her link to this directory could be invaluable to many readers of her blog and this one.

Mashable - Reasons to Start CoworkingThis blog is an ambitious collection of all that's new on the Web. It updates multiple times each day, so it's really difficult to keep current with all it offers. The life, career and work of a visual artist can be a solitary and lonely way to make a living. Coworking offers a unique way to break out of that mode for artists and others who work solo. It is described as a global movement of localized mobile/remote worker communities coming together to share their otherwise independent work experiences.

The Death of Blog Rush - Is It the Tip of the Iceberg? Why It Matters

The blog syndication network known as Blog Rush abruptly shut down a couple of days ago. There were as many as 50 readers who signed on to use them after reading about it here, or seeing the widget for it in the sidebar of this blog. If you are a Blog Rush publisher, you are advised to remove it as it is no longer serving the widget.

I liked the idea of Blog Rush because it was novel and appeared to be something that would be beneficial. Also, I liked it because it was the brain child of John Reese. who is a pretty savvy Internet marketer. He has made a fortune for himself and others, including enough to invest $400k of his own money in Blog Rush.

What has happened to Blog Rush, despite being a unique approach personally backed by a successful and experienced Internet marketer, is indicative of what can happen with nearly any Web 2.0 venture. Seeing Blog Rush collapse is a foretelling sign for some other Web 2.0 darlings. To wit, Rafe Needleman, editor of the Webware: Cool Web Apps for Everyone column for CNET News, ran a piece on October 10 titled, 11 troubled Web companies: The next Kozmos? Here is part of it:

"We are going to lose some good companies." That's the warning cry from investors in tech these days.

Some we won't miss, of course: the lame, me-too, or single-featured "products" masquerading as businesses. But be prepared. Some Web 2.0 start-ups that are well-loved by many are in serious danger of falling off the cliff.

The problem is that being loved is no guarantee for success. Even being used isn't enough. Remember Kozmo, the munchie messenger service from the last bubble? Not a person who used it didn't love it. In the interest of building a user base, the company was OK with losing money on every transaction in its early days. But when the time came for it to become a real business, it was too late. It couldn't transition to a viable company, and it folded. It was a tragedy.

Needleman's list includes companies that will be shocking to some, especially devoted users. It includes: Twitter, Skype, Pandora, Meebo, TripIt, Second Life, Zillow, Ask, Daily Motion, MySpace and NetVibes.Wow! Several of those are companies whose services I really like. I can't imagine losing MySpace, Zillow, Pandora or Skype. I'm sure many regular users of other names on the list will be just as chagrined and disbelieving as I am about my faves on it.

Why does this matter and how does it affect visual artists?

I often cover items of interest regarding Internet marketing here for a reason. I've repeatedly stated in this economic climate and with distribution methods continuing to evolve, it is imperative for visual artists to take control of their own distribution as much as possible. While I'm not advocating revolting from the gallery or publisher systems, I am saying success for visual artists today requires they take more responsibility for getting their work to market than any previous time. Not that it is hasn't always been crucial, just more so now.

Get the real moral of this story here

Obviously, the Internet and other technological advances are the main causes of disruption in changing and altering distribution channels. At the same time, these same forces also offer artists more choices and opportunities to be in charge of building their reputation and making direct sales. It is important to have an awareness that some services or companies you might use and take for granted or not as rock solid as you might think. As such, I will continue to report on progress surrounding Internet marketing and Web 2.0 and apropos Web 3.0 developments.

The real lesson is your business model has to be predicated upon being profitable. If you are sheepish about your pricing and not taking a fair markup on your work, it will come back to haunt you. Better to lose sales than to give it away. The well worn adage, "You can't lose money on every sale and make it up on volume", is as true for artists as it is for Blog Rush, MySpace orTwitter.

The Last Lap Closes the Gap

I recently had a long engaging conversation with one of my three sisters. In the past few years, she has faced major changes in her life, including having lost a husband to cancer too early and seeing both her daughters move out and get on with their lives.

When one starts over after building a life around a family for 40 years, it can be disconcerting to just get enough traction to overcome inevitable inertia, much less get done with all the tasks facing a person in this position. For her, there were additional complications to deal with during this time. The dissolution of a complex estate and business, and the successive deaths of her in-laws whose estates also became her responsibility.

She dutifully managed and muddled through the most urgent items, (you can't keep the tax man waiting), but dithered on many other projects as they were just too overwhelming on personal, physical, psychic and emotional levels to crank on until done. I can't say I, or anyone else I know, would have been able to do more or better in her place.

When she had had enough time and had enough of living with too many unstarted or unfinished projects, she hired a professional organizer to help her get a grasp on what needed to be done and how to efficiently go about it. The decision was one of the best she's made when it comes to getting her life back under her control and giving her time to not just reflect but to react on the reflections.

She admits without the help she would still be quagmired in too much to do and not enough direction to begin to crawl out of it. To watch the metamorphosis has been enlightening and encouraging. I'm happy for her seeing a renewed interest in projects too long dormant. (She is a gifted musician, vocalist and composer and is now moving towards fulfilling some deferred goals with her muse and music.)

Seeing how an organizer has helped her confirms my belief that professional coaches, such as Art Biz Coach, Alyson Stanfield, profiled in the previous post here, can make a distinct difference on your career. The point is, whether you use Alyson or find your own adviser, if you hook up with one who works well with you, it is highly likely to pay impactful dividends on your career and business.

In the conversation with my sister, she mentioned marveling at her organizer's ability to continuously make what she adroitly calls The Last Lap. That is, work steadily on a project to completion. And, for her to see the projects finalized was very freeing for her. As they toiled away, the malaise of too much to do washed away and a brighter outlook came on her horizon.

What my sister found was to see projects either worked on steadily to completion, or if stopped before done to have the time taken to button up work in progress so as not to distract and demoralize, and to also take time to prepare before leaving an agenda for what actions were necessary to accomplish the next items on the list. These things are simple in reading, but too many tasks can be difficult and paralyzing in real life.

If you suffer from your own malaise bogged down by minutiae and too many things to do without enough time, you are a good candidate for some outside assistance. If you worry the cost will be too great, I argue the cost in not accomplishing the urgent important items in your life and career is far more costly.

A couplet came to mind as I wrote this:

The last lap
Closes the gap.

With due respect to Leonardo da Vinci's quote "Art is never finished only abandoned." I will intrepidly say finding a way to move more of your important urgent projects to completion will produce results you will enjoy. Stephen Covey's maxim, "Keep the main thing the main thing" is apropos here. Organize, prioritize and act on the main things in your life and reap the inherent benefits from your focused actions.

Discover How to Boost Your Career with the Art Biz Coach

Oh, put me in, Coach - I'm ready to play today;
Put me in, Coach - I'm ready to play today -John Fogerty lyrics to Centerfield

As a serious visual artist you need to surround yourself with people who can assist your career. They don't all have to be in your immediate circle of influence. Some of your best help will likely come from people with whom you may have no personal relationship, at least initially.

The Art Biz Coach is a standout in her field

Obviously, when it comes to a gallerist, dealer or curator, a close relationship is ideal. When it comes to someone who can help you get your career in gear, the help can come from a distance and be just as good as if the person were on your staff. In my humble opinion, the best most singular example of such a person is Alyson B. Stanfield, aka the Art Biz Coach.

In all probability, you already know of her, perhaps you subscribe to her excellent free Art Biz Blog, or have ordered and read her book, I'd Rather Be in the Studio. Or, maybe you've seen her speak or participated in one of her always insightful teleseminars. Whether you have partaken of her offerings, or not, it's in your interest to be aware of all she has to offer you as a visual artist.

Artists Can Learn from Alyson and from Her Example

You can see links to her books and services in the right sidebar of this blog. They are there because I believe Alyson is best positioned and experienced to offer coaching to artists seeking to elevate their careers. Her temperament, background and experience make her ideal for the work she does. If you want more information from my perspective, check out this page.

If you have had the good fortune to spend time whether by phone or in person with Alyson, you know she is a spark plug of energy and enthusiasm. We should be grateful she has chosen to work in the art patch. Yes, it's fun, has its moments and more than a bit of glam to it, but when it comes to being lucrative, there are other fields that offer more bankable potential. With her talents, she could have easily been a hit in some other occupations and careers. But, fortunately for our little corner of the world, Alyson is in it.

The Art Biz Coach Can Help You Get in the Game

If you haven't bought her book, treat yourself to more ideas and great suggestions than you can imagine in one a book. You can start reading on any page and find yourself taken away with inspiration and solid suggestions on how to improve your art business. Check out her speaking schedule and teleseminar schedule. If you find something of interest and follow through, you will be glad you did.

For those of you ready play and tired of sitting on the bench, heed John Fogerty's lyrics and let the Art Biz Coach put you in game in a professional way. 

The Value of a Descriptive URL

I began publishing Art Print Issues in 2005. Initially, it came was delivered as an 8-page PDF newsletter and available in HTML at:  www.artprintissues.barneydavey.com, a subdomain of my www.barneydavey.com Web site. BarneyDavey.com serves to promote my book and consulting services. You can find links to those early newsletter archives here on Art Print Issues.

Choosing the right blogging platform is helpful

A couple of years ago, I converted to blogging using Typepad as my platform. At the time, I felt the free Blogger was not robust enough for my tastes and WordPress platform required too much tech ability. Although both alternatives have made great improvements, I have never regretted the choice.

Choosing and using the right URL is both smart and crucial

Until recently, despite owning the ArtPrintIssues.com URL since well before its newsletter inception in 2005, I forwarded the address to my BarneyDavey.blogs.com Typepad URL. That was partly due my domain registrar not allowing me to do domain mapping. With domain mapping, one can use a service such as Typepad and have their personal URL function as their blog address. This looks so much more professional than having a composite subdomain address.

I had a confessed complacency with my doing something about my Art Print Issues URL. Since the Typepad URL contained my name, I delayed the hassle of transferring my URL to another domain registrar. I was also unnecessarily concerned about losing traffic or causing confusion during the process.

Choosing the right domain registrar makes your life and marketing easier

If you pay close attention to goings on here, you may noticed I finally put in the request to transfer from Namesecure to GoDaddy for my Art Print Issues domain. Now I wish I had done it sooner. Namesecure.com, my former domain registrar, has no way to contact or communicate with it besides email. It takes 24 or more hours to get a response. If you have issues, you have to be patient. GoDaddy, by comparison, has 24/7 US-based live help for all its services. There is no comparison. I have found the GoDaddy service to be topnotch with professional, friendly and knowledgeable. It took about a week to get the URL transferred. ICANN rules state they have to be done in 5 business days.

Once I had Art Print Issues with GoDaddy, it only took a few minutes to make the well documented changes provided by Typepad to the CNAME records. A couple of hours or less later and my Art Print Issues began to appear to my blog readers in the address bar. If you have any posts saved or bookmarked to the former URL, don't worry. They still work and will point directly to what you wanted to keep.

A good domain name is worth thousands, even millions!

Domains have a commoditized value. A check at www.urlappraisal.net shows ArtPrintIssues.com has an auction value of $5,629 while BarneyDavey.com is $7,540. When you think about name value, it makes the effort to get a URL in your own name as opposed to borrowing one from one of the free services worthwhile. When you use www.yourname.blogger.com, you do not own the URL and it has no value to you. I cannot be too smug about the value of my URLs when compared to ArtBizCoach.com which comes in at $32,645, or Art.com only worth a whopping $17 million and change.

The marketing communication branding value of a good domain to an artist is priceless

More importantly than the commoditized value of your URL is the priceless value of your personal brand of which your URL should be an important part. It can be debated, but I believe using your name in your URL is the best thing you can do. It helps with keyword searches, with personal branding, with recognition and with memory. If someone knows how to spell my name, they can easily find my Web address. If I tell someone to find my blog just remember Art Print Issues, they can get there easily without having to write down or remember some long complicated multi-part (yourname.blogspot.com) nomenclature.

When it comes to promoting your art, you are the brand. I think tag lines like "Painter of Light" are nonsensical and pretty much useless. Every painter paints light, some might capture it better, but do they truly sell more work because they say something like that in a slogan? I doubt it. To my ears, such phrases sound like empty words of blah-blah bravado. If the slogan were descriptive, "Painter of Vintage Autos", it would at least have communication and marketing value. But, I digress.

It's not too late to start using a good domain to help market and promote your art business

If you don't own the URL that is your name, and it is available in any form, get it. If you need to make it: www.johnsmithartist.com,  or some other variation, then get the one that works best. I realize some names are long or difficult to pronounce and this is a special challenge. In such cases, you may to be creative in how you brand yourself. Whatever you decide, stick with it and promote it like there is no tomorrow. You may have a considerable investment in branding a URL without your name, you have to decide what the value is and what the future value of using your name would be to you. It could be a tough thing to change, but in many cases, especially for emerging artists, it's better to bite the bullet now than waiting until you feel you have no options.

If you have a blog or Website that uses a multi-part URL that you don't own, try to get it domain mapped using your new URL. GoDaddy arguably is the easiest and it provides an email account with your URL. Speaking of email, set yours up so you can use the URL as your email address even if it is forwarded to your gmail, Yahoo, or AOL email address. This is just another case of looking professional and extending your brand into cyberspace. The more searchable your name, the better off you are. The more professional you appear in the details, the more confidence you give to dealers and collectors. A lot of little things that are nearly intangible go into making your best presentation of yourself and your business.

Six Degrees of You

The parlor game, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, spawned all manner of conversational tidbits and even a humorous television commercial for the Visa check card. This entertaining YouTube clip explains how it works. I recommend you put the power of it to work for you!

I gave a talk to a packed house in Atlanta last week. The presentation was titled Making Art and Money in the Digital World. It was graciously promoted and hosted by Atlanta's premier giclée printing operation, Digital Arts Studio.  I'm guessing I could easily make blog posts of half the 70+ slides in my the PowerPoint presentation.

Those who can help you are closer to you than you think

One slide from my talk is the subject of today's missive. Six Degrees of You. It's been part of my presentation for this topic for more than a year. Essentially, I have been conjecturing you are only six contacts away from anyone in the world. I was using a form of Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking intuition to make that assumption. Just last week, it hit the news that Microsoft researchers had proven I was wrong... but not by much. The MS researchers found the average to be 6.6 degrees of separation.

My point has been there are people who can greatly help you, some just for the asking. Others may require some schmoozing to get what you want, and some will snub you and you will never know why. As a art marketer, one of your top priorities ought to be compiling a list of those people who are in the best position to help you advance your career. The second part of that task is to use Six Degrees of You to seek them out.

You Miss 100% of the shots you don't take. - hockey great, Wayne Gretzsky

The final part is to know exactly what you want from them, how to succinctly ask them for it, and to eloquently provide the Features, Advantages and Benefits of why they should help you. It's no different than making a pitch to a private investor. Just know what you want and why and what's in it for the ohter guy. In the case of those you ask, it might be nothing than noblesse oblige, or it could be to return a favor, or it might be a way to demonstrate and exercise their personal power. Their motivation only matters insofar as it  might help you how to best present your suggetion for help.

If this sounds like a lot of work and bother, you are right. But when it comes to ROI (Return on Investment), only well done publicity comes close to offering you a similar rich payoff as does using the personal power of influential people.

If you are focused, ambitious and believe in yourself, nothing can stop you

If I am anything, I am a realist. I know suggestions like this are much more complicated to put to use than to say or think about them. Still, when you think about how just one, two or three powerful people can make an enormous difference in your career, what reason do you have to not professionally pursue them? Compared to how much effort and expense you put into preparing for a consumer or trade show, or into an advertising campaign, it is really not that daunting. The hardest part for some may be convincing themselves they are worthy of the desired attention. If that rings true for you, try reading my previous post, The Power of Believing in Yourself.

To help you with the elevator speech you should have memorized so you can easily and glibly respond to, "What do you do?" and "What do you want?", try the 15 Second Pitch site. It's free! There is real value in being able to quickly pointedly tell others about yourself. You will need to be able to elaborate, but this is a good start.

If you haven't started using the Personal Brain mind mapping tool, the project of identifying and connecting those who can help you would be a great way to get started.

Now, you've got ideas and tools. Just add your own ambition and go for it! Don't forget to write me from the top!

Art Scammers Beware - You Will Be Exposed

To read this post go here

Indie Art Intersection

By virtue of reading this blog, you are likely part of or interested in the Indie Art movement. Indie Art primarily encompasses visual arts, music, films, fashion, design and crafts. It is an exciting time to be an independent artist.

Your Choices Drive Your Results

If you choose to, you could let all the economic troubles and related bad news we are faced with daily and the ongoing deconstruction of traditional art marketing venues get you down. Or, you could rejoice in being living in what perhaps is the most exciting time ever for independent artists. Your outlook and opinion are sure to shape your results. I don't believe you can wish your way to success, but I know for certain you can't create success unless you believe you can.

You have more options than artists from previous eras

You may not be able to change macro conditions rocking our world with climate, political and economic turmoil, but you can choose how you react to them and decide to use what is available to you to help you fashion your own success. The reality is you may have to adjust your thinking about what you are creating, or how it is produced or consumed to achieve success. But, that same reality gives you more options to get your work to market than artists in any previous era.

What is interesting now is as an artist, you have more opportunities to make your career happen. In the past, if you weren't working for "The Man", you weren't working. While that statement is not completely accurate, it is not totally off the mark either. What it means is that whether you were independent or with a publisher, you had to pass through a limited number of portals to get your work to market. Today those portals have erupted into an abundance of opportunities. The combined effect of the rise of the Internet, the development of print-on-demand technology coupled with a growing interest from consumers for authenticity and uniqueness in their purchases, gives you a means to market yourself in ways previous generations could not even conceive of, much less act upon.

On-line sites and social networking communities create new opportunities

Web sites such as EBSQ Art, Etsy, (which landed $27 million in funding in January 2008), ImageKind and Indie Public are just a few examples of how visual artists are using online venues to get their work to eager customers. Lightning Source International, my POD book printer, has made it possible for authors to get their books online everywhere. The independent music distributor CD Baby has to date sold more than 4.4 million CDs for nearly 250,000 independent recording artists paying them more than $79 million dollars. The SXSW Music, Film and Interactive Media Festival has become one the most important outlets for musicians, film makers and artists to get exposure for their new work. Something like 700 bands played there this year. The interactive media portion continues to grow in importance and stature.

Resources to help you figure out what will work best for you are out there

The sites listed above are not intended to be exhaustive. You will need to do more research to find others suitable for your work and marketing. And just as the Internet makes looking for unique art possible for consumers, it gives you plenty of sources to find places to suit your marketing.

Granted, it can be challenging to figure out which outlets are right for you to invest time and money. However, there has never been a time when it wasn't challenging to learn how to best allocate limited funds for marketing. At least now there are viable alternatives to exclusively working the traditional artist-gallery connection. A valuable source of independent research and advice on which sites are potentially best for you is Empty Easel. Its regularly updated features about online marketing sites are full of vauable information. Retail galleries remain an important distribution channel for artists. But, for most artists in today's evolving climate, galleries cannot be relied upon as the sole source of revenue as in the past.

Artists must be involved in making distribution channel choices

At one point not long ago, it would have been career suicide for artists to compete with galleries. In today's market, it may be career suicide not to. That is not to say artists should attempt to distribute the same prints they have in the gallery market through their own distribution channels. That would be ill-advised bad form. You have to use common sense and decency in making decisions about how your work will be distributed and where. If you act with integrity and ethically, no one can accuse you of doing them wrong. The litmus test of whether you would be happy if on the other side of the question can help steer your choices.

Make your choices and set your sights

• What do you want your career to look like?
• What kind of art do you want to make?
• What art can you happily make that will make you the most money?
• What are the best ways to get your art to market?

Once you are able to satisfactorily answer questions like these, you can begin to use them to formulate a marketing plan based on your available resources. I'll see you at the top!