How to Market and Sell Your Art, Music, Photographs, & Handmade Crafts Online: Turn Your Hobby into a Cash Machine

By Lee Rowley

You are creative, you are an artist or a photographer, you have a hobby or craft, something you absolutely love to do, and you are good at it. But you may be asking yourself, How do I market my work? How do I turn this into a real money making business?

The answer lies between the covers of this new book. You will learn the steps you need to take to successfully sell your artwork or crafts even if you have no experience with marketing and even if you hate to sell. As with many other business segments, the Internet and technology have opened up the world and made it your marketplace. You and I, working from the comfort of home, are now on an even playing field with the largest retailers.

This groundbreaking and exhaustively researched new book will provide everything you need to know to get your marketing message into the hands of your customers. You will learn about online galleries, designing your Web site cyber stores, arts and crafts search engines, publicity sources, online forums, auction sites, online marketing, e-mail marketing, and search engine marketing. You also will learn of over 300 Web sites on which you can sell your artwork, music, or crafts.

This specialized book will demonstrate, step by step, how to inexpensively market and promote your artwork easily and, most important, profitably. You will learn how to quickly find new customers and keep existing ones buying more by using technology and low cost marketing devices that take little or no time on your part. You will learn to develop a marketing plan using hundreds of practical marketing ideas that will help you disseminate your artwork all over the world.

Atlantic Publishing is a small, independent publishing company based in Ocala, Florida. Founded over twenty years ago in the company president’s garage, Atlantic Publishing has grown to become a renowned resource for non-fiction books. Today, over 450 titles are in print covering subjects such as small business, healthy living, management, finance, careers, and real estate. Atlantic Publishing prides itself on producing award winning, high-quality manuals that give readers up-to-date, pertinent information, real-world examples, and case studies with expert advice. Every book has resources, contact information, and web sites of the products or companies discussed.

This Atlantic Publishing eBook was professionally written, edited, fact checked, proofed and designed. The print version of this book is 288 pages and you receive exactly the same content. Over the years our books have won dozens of book awards for content, cover design and interior design including the prestigious Benjamin Franklin award for excellence in publishing. We are proud of the high quality of our books and hope you will enjoy this eBook version.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Atlantic Publishing Group Inc.
• Release date: Apr 20, 2008
• ISBN: 9781601381545

Book preview

How to Market and Sell Your Art, Music, Photographs, and Handmade Crafts Online

Turn Your Hobby Into a Cash machine

By Lee Rowley

This Atlantic Publishing eBook was professionally written, edited, fact checked, proofed and designed. Over the years our books have won dozens of book awards for content, cover design and interior design including the prestigious Benjamin Franklin award for excellence in publishing. We are proud of the high quality of our books and hope you will enjoy this eBook version, which is the same content as the print version.

How to Market and Sell Your Art, Music, Photographs, and Handmade Crafts Online: Turn Your Hobby Into a Cash Machine

Copyright © 2007 by Atlantic Publishing Group, Inc.

1210 SW 23rd Place • Ocala, Florida 34471 • 800-814-1132 • 352-622-1875—Fax

Web site: www.atlantic-pub.com • E-mail: [e-mail]

SAN Number: 268-1250

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be sent to Atlantic Publishing Group, Inc., 1210 SW 23rd Place, Ocala, Florida 34471.

ISBN-13: 978-1-60138-146-0

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Shepherd, Heather Lee.

101 businesses you can start with less than one thousand dollars : for stay-at-home moms and dads / by Heather Lee Shepherd.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN-10: 0-910627-88-6 (alk. paper)

ISBN-13: 978-0-910627-88-7 (alk. paper)

1. New business enterprises. 2. Small business--Management. 3. Stay-at-home mothers--Employment. 4. Stay-at-home fathers--Employment. 5. Self-employed. 6. Careers. I. Title. II. Title: One hundred one businesses you can start with less than one thousand dollars. III. Title: One hundred and one businesses you can start with less than one thousand dollars.

HD62.5.S5335 2007

658.1’1--dc22

2007029409

LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. The fact that an organization or Web site is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or Web site may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet Web sites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read.

A few years back we lost our beloved pet dog Bear, who was not only our best and dearest friend but also the Vice President of Sunshine here at Atlantic Publishing. He did not receive a salary but worked tirelessly 24 hours a day to please his parents.

Bear was a rescue dog who turned around and showered myself, my wife, Sherri, his grandparents Jean, Bob, and Nancy, and every person and animal he met (well, maybe not rabbits) with friendship and love. He made a lot of people smile every day.

We wanted you to know a portion of the profits of this book will be donated in Bear’s memory to local animal shelters, parks, conservation organizations, and other individuals and nonprofit organizations in need of assistance.

– Douglas and Sherri Brown

PS: We have since adopted two more rescue dogs: first Scout, and the following year, Ginger. They were both mixed golden retrievers who needed a home.

Want to help animals and the world? Here are a dozen easy suggestions you and your family can implement today:

•  Adopt and rescue a pet from a local shelter.

•  Support local and no-kill animal shelters.

•  Plant a tree to honor someone you love.

•  Be a developer — put up some birdhouses.

•  Buy live, potted Christmas trees and replant them.

•  Make sure you spend time with your animals each day.

•  Save natural resources by recycling and buying recycled products.

•  Drink tap water, or filter your own water at home.

•  Whenever possible, limit your use of or do not use pesticides.

•  If you eat seafood, make sustainable choices.

•  Support your local farmers market.

•  Get outside. Visit a park, volunteer, walk your dog, or ride your bike.

Five years ago, Atlantic Publishing signed the Green Press Initiative. These guidelines promote environmentally friendly practices, such as using recycled stock and vegetable-based inks, avoiding waste, choosing energy-efficient resources, and promoting a no-pulping policy. We now use 100-percent recycled stock on all our books. The results: in one year, switching to post-consumer recycled stock saved 24 mature trees, 5,000 gallons of water, the equivalent of the total energy used for one home in a year, and the equivalent of the greenhouse gases from one car driven for a year.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: Why Sell Online?

Chapter 2: The Basics: What You Will Need to Sell Your Products Online

Chapter 3: Creating a Web Site: Establishing Your Presence in the Virtual World

Chapter 4: Content, Content, Content: Attracting Visitors to Your Web Site

Chapter 5: Link Building

Chapter 6: Outsourcing: What To Do If You Are Not A Writer

Chapter 7: Getting Your Web Site Into Search Engines & Directories

Chapter 8: Software & Web Services for Running Your Business: The Tools of Success

Chapter 9: Using Online Social Marketing to Build Your Clientele

Chapter 10: E-mail & Newsletter Marketing

Chapter 11: Using eBay Auctions to Promote & Sell Your Art

Chapter 12: Selling Your Art Online: Your Own Virtual Gallery

Chapter 13: Selling Your Handmade Crafts Online: Marketing Your Unique Creations

Chapter 14: Selling Your Music Online: Bringing Your Music to the Masses

Chapter 15: Selling Your Photographs Online: Meeting the Demand for Unique Images

Chapter 16: Payment, Packaging, & Shipping Considerations

Conclusion

Appendix A: Resources

Appendix B: Case Studies

Author Dedication & Biography

Glossary

More Books

Introduction

Starving artist is a cliché that reminds us of society’s opinion of people in the creative fields or, more accurately, of their ability to make a decent living from pursuing their arts. As a creative person, you have probably been told by well-intentioned but misguided friends, family members, career counselors, and teachers that, while creative pursuits are nice as hobbies, they are no way to make a living.

This is precisely the reason so many talented artists, crafters, photographers, and musicians spend their days working at jobs they do not like and in environments that do not inspire them or feed their creative natures. We are taught that art and music are not real jobs, so we settle for something that bores us, stifles us, and relegates our creative endeavors to hobby status.

Fortunately, there are now more opportunities than ever for artistic people to realize their dreams of making a living from their creative works. The Internet has opened up a whole new world for artists and craftspeople alike — a world in which creative people have endless opportunities to be seen and heard, no matter where they live or to whom they are connected. Artists no longer have to live in one of the world’s major metropolitan areas to have a chance at artistic success, neither do they have to be represented by a well-known agent. A musician in rural Idaho can run a successful Internet business just as effectively as a musician living in Los Angeles, and an artist in Copenhagen can sell as many paintings online as an artist in New York City.

Although the Internet has been instrumental in leveling the playing field for artists, selling creative works online is no longer as simple as it once was. In the early days of the Internet, an artist could simply put together a basic Web site and upload a few pictures, and visitors would come, browse, and buy. Now that the Internet has surpassed magazines, newspapers, and even television as our primary source of information, competition for online sales among artists, crafters, and musicians has increased exponentially. As a result, it has become more difficult for individual artists to establish a visible presence online.

To illustrate this point, let us look at one of the most common ways Internet users find Web sites that contain the items they are looking for — search engine queries. Using a search engine, such as those found on Google, MSN, or Yahoo!, is simple. Internet users type in a few words that capture the essence of what they are looking for, and the search engine returns a list of Web sites that, according to the Web site’s content, contain relevant items.

With that in mind, here are some search terms and the number of relevant items taken from Google that people use to search for creative works:

• Abstract art — 10,200,000

• Art photography — 23,100,000

• Country music — 66,600,000

• Cubist painting — 273,000

• Handmade crafts — 1,110,000

• Independent music — 15,700,000

• Landscape art — 58,600,000

• Rock music — 55,100,000

• Stock photography — 28,700,000

These numbers may seem a little surprising, but they are real numbers that reflect the sheer volume of Web sites trying to attract the same visitors and turn them into customers. This intense competition shows that more artists than ever have discovered the power of the Internet as a marketing and sales vehicle.

Do not let these numbers scare you away from setting up your art business online, though. The good news (for you, anyway) is the vast majority of these creative souls do not know how to use the Internet to its fullest potential. For each search term, there are only a handful of Web sites that are able to effectively attract a steady stream of visitors. These are the ones that appear on the first few pages of the search results and especially those that appear on the first page.

Getting a Web site into one these top positions is no accident. It requires careful planning, a bit of research, and a specific goal that carries through all aspects of building your business online.

To be successful selling creative works on the Internet today, a crafter, photographer, or musician cannot simply rely on the fact that he or she is adept at creating art that is pleasing to the senses. An artist must also be a skilled businessperson and must understand the nuances of attracting visitors and converting them into paying customers. Without approaching online sales with this sort of keen focus, you are unlikely to operate a successful art business on the Internet.

This is why this book was created. It would take an artist years to learn how to properly use the Internet as a marketing vehicle and discover all the resources necessary to make an online art business profitable. Working artists do not have the time to endure the trial-and-error process while they are trying to make money online with their creative works. They need a resource to provide them with a blueprint to success so they can spend more time creating and less time analyzing marketing errors. That blueprint is contained within these pages.

This book is a guide to understanding how to use the Internet to market and sell art, music, photographs, and crafts. It is not a collection of vague theory, nor does it presuppose a reader already possesses a certain level of knowledge about Internet marketing. Instead, it starts at the beginning and provides specific, step-by-step instructions to create, maintain, and expand a successful online business.

Within these pages you will learn:

• How to select the right computer and other hardware

• How to use software programs to help you build your clientele

• How to create a Web site that showcases your creative works, has a professional look and feel, and makes visitors comfortable with the idea of buying from you

• How to use low cost and free advertising to drive visitors to your Web site

• How to use online auctions to gain rapid sales

• How to use other Web sites to promote your artworks, crafts, photographs, and music

You will also learn how to accept payments online so you do not have to go through the tedious task of matching up mailed checks with orders for artworks and many other tips that will help you build a successful online business.

You hold in your hands the key to becoming successful online as a creative businessperson. It will take hard work and a fair amount of patience to accomplish this, but, if you follow the steps, tips, and techniques described in this book, you will have a tremendous advantage that you can use to make art not only your hobby, but also your career.

Let us begin with the first question that an artist must pose when embarking on a career of selling creative works on the Internet: Why sell online?

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Why Sell Online?

Ask the average person what he or she envisions when thinking of a successful artist, and he or she may tell you about paintings hanging in a gallery or sculptures placed on white block stands while the artist mills about, wearing black and drinking expensive lattes. Ask the same person about craftspeople, and the response may entail people selling handmade crafts at flea markets and county fairs. Ask about musicians, and his or her mind will conjure up images of professional recording studios and CDs lining the shelves of record stores.

What people do not think of is an artist running a Web site with frequent visitors and brisk sales or a musician with a large body of musical works available for download. The Internet is still on the periphery of segments of the public’s mind, especially among those who claim to take art seriously. However, as noted in the introduction, the Internet now plays a crucial part in the marketing, sales, and display of artistic works.

For the artist, musician, or crafter, there are several distinct advantages to establishing a presence in the online marketplace. You have the ability to reach a global marketplace; you can reach millions of people for a fraction of the advertising cost needed to reach an offline audience; and you can sell your works much more quickly than you could if you were selling art or music offline.

Reaching a Global Audience

Let us consider two artists: One artist, preferring the traditional method of selling his or her artworks, submits proposals to art gallery owners, enters works into local and regional art shows, and develops print advertising to reach potential customers. The other, understanding the power of the Internet to market and sell artworks, develops and implements a marketing plan based on a business Web site, online auctions, networking with other online artists, and regular e-mail promotions.

The traditional marketer will spend a considerable amount of time writing query letters to art galleries and filling out entry forms for upcoming art shows. He or she will also invest considerable time in developing print marketing — flyers, postcards, press releases, and business cards. For all this effort, the artist will be rewarded with the capacity to reach a relatively small audience. This audience consists of the people who are inclined to respond to advertisements for fine arts, crafts, and photography; the people who wander through the galleries where artworks hang; and the people who attend the art shows to which his or her paintings have been accepted.

The online marketer will also spend a substantial amount of time developing marketing materials — an attractive and easily navigable Web site, artwork photographs and descriptions, and promotional articles and Web log posts. Unlike the traditional marketing artist, though, he or she will have the opportunity to have his or her artworks seen by not just hundreds or even thousands of people, but literally millions of potential customers all over the world. People who would never think of setting foot in a brick-and-mortar art gallery or craft mall will happily go online to browse for a new painting for the home or office, handmade crafts to decorate a living room, or a framed photograph to hang in the library.

These are people who may not feel comfortable inside an art gallery but who still appreciate original, unique arts and crafts. They may not be the target market for high-end gallery owners, but they can certainly be your target market.

Aside from the ability to reach millions of potential buyers each day, having a global presence online gives a working artist several key advantages.

The Internet Never Closes

An artist marketing his or her creative works online does not have to deal with the constraints of typical gallery or studio hours. Artworks can be purchased online any time of the day or night, and the artist does not even have to be in front of the computer to complete the sale. This means that while you are sleeping, not only can night owls in your country see and purchase your artworks, but people halfway across the world who are going about their daily routine at that time can also buy your art.

People Have Different Tastes in Art

When an artist markets through a gallery in a local area, he or she is limited by the tastes, attitudes, and opinions of the local culture. For example, if you paint artworks that draw influence from surrealism but the local community is primarily interested in impressionism, you likely will not have much success marketing your artworks locally. You will need to either change the style and subject matter of your artwork or be content with enjoying your artwork in your own home.

When you market via the Internet, you are not constrained by the tastes and preferences of the local art-buying public. It does not matter if the style and subject matter of your artistic works are not in line with your local community’s tastes and preferences, because you will be able to reach people in other states and even other countries. Although your artwork may not appeal to people in your home town, it will appeal to someone, and that person may be in the next town over or several time zones away.

For example, one artist living in the Midwestern United States found that a series of his paintings, characterized by rich textures, abstract patterns, and bright colors, received a cool reception in his home state. By marketing online, however, he noticed a large percentage of works from this series found buyers in Mexico. Had he stuck with traditional offline marketing, he would have never found this pool of buyers for that series of paintings.

A global audience creates more opportunities to reach different types of buyers.

An artist in his or her hometown may be limited to a certain type of buyers for creative works, such as renters or homeowners looking for artworks or crafts to display in a residence or individual buyers seeking to purchase a CD for personal use. Although these certainly represent viable markets for