Art = Earning a Living

A New York Times article worth reading if you want to make a living with your art.

Learning from the Best - Video Link

Malcolm Gladwell, author of Blink, reveals what we can learn about marketing from spaghetti sauce in this entertaining 20 minute video. He's one talented dude.

I am a new fan of TED...host to this video.

Live Customer Service

Live customer service isn't something I see everyday online. But I was able to check the status of my order with postcardpress.com in a chat box. Very cool.

It shipped today...one week following approval of the proof.

SNAG and Harriete Estel Berman

Hariette Estel Berman wrote to me after reading the previous post. This is BIG on many levels.

Do read her letter for the generous information and updates she offers.

Then remembering points from the art marketing seminar and resources, read it again to absorb how Hariette put key ideas to work for her.

First thing - She discovered where, when, and what someone was saying that related to her. There are no secrets on the Internet. No doubt Harriete has a google alert (or similar) for SNAG, her own name, and other things of importance to her. That's how she knew of my little post.

Follow her example - It's important to know what others are saying about us and where. We can respond. We can follow up with related ideas as she has done by including a link to her marketing blog. Her blog is jam packed with the specifics you crave. I checked.

Thing 2 - Note her professional and personable email etiquette.

Big Thing - Look what she has packed into her signature along with alternative ways to contact her. She is marketing her art with every business email.

p.s. Her pencil project is way cool.

And now - Harriete's letter

Hello. My name is Harriete Estel Berman. I wrote the Professional Guidelines which you mention on your blog on Sept 2nd. Thanks for the mention. If you’re interested we can do an interview or conversation about a Professional Guidelines topic for your readers. I am sending you a one page handout that lists the current PG topics. I also have an “Ask Harriete” blog which answers Professional Development questions for artists and crafts people.

Read my blog or ASK Harriete your professional question at:

http://www.askharriete.typepad.com

I look forward to hearing from you.

Regards,

Harriete

Harriete Estel Berman

http://www.harriete-estel-berman.info

bermaid@harriete-estel-berman.info

home: 650 345-4078

studio: 650 571-7726

SHOP online at: http://www.harrieteestelberman.etsy.com

Listen to a half hour interview with Harriete Estel Berman and Alison Lee on "CraftCast":

http://www.craftcast.com/main/?p=134

View the Professional Guidelines: www.snagmetalsmith.org/Publications/Professional_Guidelines/

Participate in my artwork with the Pencil Project .

Send me your used, chewed up, orphan #2 pencils.

Find out about my Upcoming Exhibition, Publicity, and Lectures at:
Find out about my Upcoming Exhibitions, and Publicity at: www.harriete-estel-berman.info/upcomingevents.html

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Another Recommended Printer

Two artist friends just heartily recommended http://modernpostcard.com
While postcardpress of an earlier post included linen envelopes, this company includes design services if needed.

Another Must for the List

SNAG stands for Society of North American Goldsmiths, but the information is for all artists in business. http://www.snagmetalsmith.org/.doc/pg/10025
The home page lists what's available. All free. Tips, forms, contracts, model release, consignments, resources for legal advice, fundraising, checklists......the list goes on.

Ordered Greeting Cards

Here's the route to my greeting card order from postcardpress.com

After receiving an email for incredible pricing from overnightprints.com
I tried to design a greeting card. (I am thrilled with my business cards from them by the way.)

In the end, I let it go because there was no way to eliminate their logo from the back of the card. Deal breaker for me; maybe not for you.

I looked into some other recommendations which were very expensive.

Postcardpress is moderately priced. Their site is easy to navigate. They offer a design service which I did not use. Instead I opted to upload my own file. They accept many types of image files.

Worth noting...they want the files in rgb and convert to cmyk themselves. RGB is what we use for desktop printing and web images, so it is the default choice for most of us image amateurs.

What I did was design the card in Microsoft Publisher's free 90 day trial version. (There's an hour of your life in the download and installation process.)

Turns out the best thing to do...preferably not at 2 am... is to design on the page 2-3 spread of Publisher's a quarter fold card. Then you can save that double page as a jpg or png making sure to choose highest possible resolution for printing as you save. What you end up with is the outside front and back of your card in just one saved image.

Then you can upload your image.

This worked out better than saving the front and back of the card separately because any aligning and rotating is already done.

Fingers crossed. I'll keep you posted.

Tip: When deciding how many cards to order, check the shipping cost. Shipping was the same for 250 cards as for 100 cards. That made ordering 250 an even better deal.

p.s. Feel free to jump in with a better or different approach.

Adding Linda Blondheim

I compiled the original list for an art marketing seminar. There is soooo much info available now!
Here is Linda Blondheim's Art Notes. Sometimes she posts on painting, but the past few have been great on marketing.

10 Art Marketing Resources

10 Marketing Resources for Artists
Each of these will lead to many more resources for you

• Jack Canfield's (author of Chicken Soup for the.... series) his book -

The Success Principles http://www.thesuccessprinciples.com/store_the-success-principles-tsp.php *you can get a lot of free info just on amazon

• Seth Godin - marketing guru - anything he writes...

his blog http://sethgodin.typepad.com/...squidoo page http://www.squidoo.com/seth

• Bruce Baker - website http://www.bbakerinc.com/ - CDs geared for art festivals, but really anytime you interact with a customer - think yes!

• Clint Watson - builds and markets artist websites on his parent site
• his blog http://www.clintwatson.net/dataviewer.asp?keyvalue=126&page=Blog

• Emptyeasel.com - http://emptyeasel.com/ painting tips, selling art online, SEO

• Barney Davey - http://www.barneydavey.com/ art print issues

• Alyson Stanfield - free art marketing salon http://www.artbizconnection.com/

articles archive http://www.artbizcoach.com/dothis/archive.html teleconferences, classes, free marketing resource - specific how to

• from Katherine Tyrell http://www.squidoo.com/artbusiness

• http://prweb.com offers help (free) with writing a press release and a distribution service (not free)

• Blogger's Guide to Search Engine Optimization http://www.seobook.com/bloggers

Publish your own portfolio or book at http://www.blurb.com/ or at http://www.lulu.com/ Robin Maria Pedrero and Elizabeth St.Hilaire Nelson's book at http://www.lulu.com/browse/book_view.php?fCID=3351721 Duane's Keiser's book http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/101811 p.s. Google is your best friend

• http://www.google.com/webmasters/
• google analytics http://www.google.com/analytics/#utm_campaign=en&utm_source=en-webmaster_central&utm_medium=et
• Find out where your viewers come from, how many, which search words do they use
• Set up a google alert for your own name
• you tube videos about search engine optimization for your web site and blog http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEF9Ia1HmSk