So This Marketing Yourself Thing... It's Really Hard!!

Oh man, I see now that Rita has posted basically the same thing as me. I guess it's just one of those days for artists getting frustrated/discouraged. I enjoyed everyones posts I just read on her thread, so please don't feel obligated to pst here. It felt good just to get my thoughts out and know that I have friends here who will read it :)

selling was never easy. look at big companies, look what they have to do and keep doing to keep your attention going... it's a lot of work. if your brand new you should establish yourself on one site only. then when you have a following, start another.

blogs aren't that important, while they help a little bit, its better to work on the art first and establish a nice pile of finished work. otherwise you'll rush on the work and the blog and have half hearted look to both. blogs are for people that have time.

i wouldn't do craft shows even if i was paid to be there. too much work, too much time out, and too much money out printing the things, and too hard to keep them safe between shows.

you can't integrate anything here. the best you can do is copy the blog and put that blog into the blogging function here.

its far more important to have a large body of work that has a consistent style, look and feel to them. after you have that, the work will advertise itself. most people don't jump right into the selling of art business, pod's made it much easier, but to start pushing on a dozen sites, that won't work unless you have a staff.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Gregory,
You are right.....marketing is hard work. And we're not all good at it. It is also time consuming. And not everyone has time for that, either. That is why companies hire other people to do their marketing and advertising for them!
But we're all trying to do the best we can with what we have. You have set some goals and that is the first step. Good job! I wish you the best of luck for success in 2015.
Kathy
Kathy K. McClellan
KeppenArt, LLC

I like this definition:

"Authentic marketing is not the art of selling what you make but knowing what to make. It is the art of identifying and understanding customer needs and creating solutions that deliver satisfaction to the customers..." (Philip Kotler)


It's finding what people are looking for and creating that product...

The other way is harder: create things and expect people to like and buy them.



All that brings the theory of finding a profitable niche .



Just my 10 cents... :)

Gregory,
If you're going to try the festivals, here's a website that might be helpful:
https://www.zapplication.org/

I agree that it's really hard work, but you should stick with it. Your photography is beautiful, and I like the fact that you write descriptions of your work. This one is especially nice:


-Julia Hamilton
Artist

One of the reasons I've quit marketing for the time being is I was pouring a lot of time into it with absolutely no return. Try finding followers who aren't other artists or people who just want you to follow them back - it's near impossible. Finding actual potential customers to follow your Twitter or Facebook feeds is a huge challenge.

I did pay for ads to get people to like my FB page but they are most likely just interested in viewing photos online and aren't really potential customers.

I will get back to marketing but this year I am going to focus far more on getting found in search by adding things that aren't on here yet, or creating niches.

I sell well on another site but it's much easier to get found in search over there.

super hard... kinda like raising children: it takes a village because in order to optimize your ranking in search engines, you need others to mention, comment, like, share and retweet posts about you and/or your work.

One thing to remember is that marketing your work does not always lead to immediate results. Just because your (and, well, my) marketing might not be leading to sales right here and right now, a lot of it is about keeping your name out there in the minds of folks who might at some later time and point want to buy work for a gift or to hang on their own wall.

The thing about marketing is that you have no idea how effective it is until much further down the road. That's why it's frustrating as a freelance graphic designer to work with a client that wants to change their tactic every other week when they don't see immediate results. The fact of the matter is, it all adds up. That post on your Facebook page or Twitter account may not reach the right person for months or even years, but when it does, it can ignite like wildfire. How many times have we heard about an image going viral only to learn that it had been sitting idle on Pinterest or Flickr for two years or more? I have to keep reminding myself of that when I start worrying about not doing enough to advertise and get the word out. As long as you are consistently posting to social media, you will gain a following. It may not be as quickly as you'd like, but it will happen. Hang in there, my friend, and don't sweat it. It's a marathon, not a sprint.

ETA: Joseph and I were typing at the same time, but see? Great minds think alike! Lol!

You see? This is why I love FAA... The community. Even if I don't sell a thing, I am a richer person for being a part of this with you all. (Okay, I promise that will be the last sappy remark from me in this thread, but it's true!)

Not as hard as raising kids, but definitely hard!

Use the heck out of your blog posts, Gregory! FB them, Tweet them, link them on LinkedIn, StumbleUpon. Share, share, share! As my blog and YouTube will be taking center stage in this year's marketing efforts, I've been doing some blog research -- mostly reminding myself of things I already know but will inspire me to get back up to speed. Here are a few things I've bookmarked, recently:

http://rightbrainrockstar.com/art-marketing/make-your-art-blog-matter/
http://www.molly-greene.com/sharing-is-critical-to-your-blogs-success/
http://socialmedia.biz/2012/10/18/how-to-increase-traffic-to-your-blog/

And one of my fave, all-around, 'how to get off your butt and get busy!' sites -

http://skinnyartist.com/

As for the idea that blogs are not that important . . . maybe they aren't, to some artists. But, in 2013 and 2014, I sold more art through my blog than I did through FAA -- and I wasn't even posting to it regularly. Of course, it takes time to build a blog, and get it distributed -- mine's been floating around for years. It stands to reason, though, that the sooner you start . . . :-)

Don't give in to paralysis! Do one thing per day, then build on that as your comfort level increases. Today, I've already uploaded my FAA pic, will spend about 30+ minutes on social media, then will work on a non-FAA site, uploading some new content and doing housekeeping.

Tomorrow, I have a different schedule.

If I had two boys to care for (I'm exhausted just thinking about it!), I'd probably just send some stuff out to social media, which can be done in chunks of a few minutes, here and there, throughout the day and evening. Every little bit helps!

Good luck, and I hope you find the links useful. :-)

EDIT to add -- #SapIsAwesome

Good advice here. I will be following this thread.

Wendy--I especially appreciate your links on blogging. I used to blog every day, but have gotten lax about it the past year or two. I need to get focused on it again. It used to be my biggest source of traffic.

Same here, Nancy!

I've scheduled my first 2015 post for tonight. (Ooops, I'm already 24 hours behind schedule!). I plan to start with 2 or 3 posts per week, and quickly work my way up to Monday through Friday (5 per week). It's not like I can really afford to slack off on something that contributed so greatly to my online business. I think I've recovered from my 'blogger's burnout', and am anxious to get going again.

C'mon, Nancy -- we can do it! :-)

http://art166.info

~ Wendy
http://www.art166.net/artist-sos.html

Wendy--You've inspired me. I've been posting about once a week for the past two years. I've felt like a slacker when I think about how I used to post almost every day. New goal: Twice a week to start!

http://small-impressions.blogspot.com/

Nancy

Wendy and Nancy, I have a question for you about blogging. Is it better to use the blog associated with my AW or on a separate site? If I post to the blog part of my AW does it automatically show up on the blog part of my FAA page? I have a website for our portrait photography studio www.allensphotographic.com and it has a WP blog section. Would that be better than the blogs here? Or should I copy and paste to all of the above. Or do I need to reword each one so that they are not copies in case Google doesn't like copies.
I'm not a natural word person but I want to kick myself into doing this. Most of the time I feel like I'm writing to myself as I don't think I have any followers!

One very big mistake that people/artists make here (and on POD sites) is thinking that sales (and attention) will come in a "certain period of time". You may have a timetable... but that doesn't mean your art has that same timetable. Your potential buyer may have breezed through what you have to offer many times over by now... but it hasn't clicked in to them that what you have to offer is what they really like. I hated Van Gogh... until I liked him.

The art of getting folks to stop, look, and absorb, is a real thing. Understanding how to draw attention (the right kind) is paramount. I hear all the time here on FAA about how important it is to get out there to others aside from your fellow travelers. I agree it is important... very. But it only takes one "right share" from one of your peers to get you into the vein that may last for years. So when you get the advice that you need to get outside your peers... take it with a grain of salt... just like you do any other advice. If Van Gogh had known the power of his peers he would have made a better living and had acceptance while he was alive! They also lead you to potential prospects, if you are generous with your support too.

'At the end of the day, the Golden Rule is called the Golden Rule for a reason - do unto others as you would have done to you. In terms of commandments you could probably just do that one and you would be well off. If everybody could adhere to that one, we'd be OK, as long as a masochist wasn't in charge of people.' ~Chad Kroeger

@Nancy -- I'm with you! :-)

@Mary Jo -- I was blogging long before joining FAA, so it never occurred to me to switch. I only use the FAA blog to hold links to my 'real' blog, in case anyone ever drops by. My Google 'Blogger' blog has always seemed to have a wide reach, where as I understood the FAA blog to be pretty insular. Someone correct me if I'm wrong about that!

If you have an existing website, with traffic, I'd blog there. The hardest thing about starting a blog, is building traffic; being part of an already-existing website might help with that. Of course, building significant traffic, like marketing, is a hard thing; it usually involves visiting and commenting on other blogs, and sharing your own blog posts via all the Usual Suspects of social media.

I don't know about copying site-to-site, as I've never done or researched that. I just leave links (and sometimes, summaries) in various places, instead. I'm putting that on my 'To Do -- Research' list.

I'm naturally wordy (too wordy, some would say). But if you're not, just be sure to weave good keywords and search terms into the text of your posts, so the search engines have something to index. Once upon a time, the theory was that Google pretty much ignored anything less than 300 words, but that's no longer the case. Now, it's more of matter of making your words count for SEO (search engine optimization).

There are some great, detailed blog threads, somewhere in this forum. If you can find a few (Search isn't always helpful') you'll find a lot more really useful information!

Hope this helps!

@Gregory -- Ooops! Didn't mean to hijack your thread! I'm pushing it back on-course, right now! :-)

"The art of getting folks to stop, look, and absorb, is a real thing."

You're right, Glenn. That's one reason I'm re-focusing on the slower pace of blogging and video, over the hit-and-miss of FB and Twitter posts. Getting someone to spend that few extra minutes with your words and your work, can go a long way toward building a connection.

There is a lot of information on this site about marketing and most of it helps to a degree and we should be involved in doing some of it. However, for me I have found that the very best marketing involves getting my art where people can view actual pieces. What may work for one artist may not work for the next depending on the type of art and the individual artist. I enjoy doing art fairs and sell very well in most of them. Art fairs also generate sales long after the shows so long as you make it easy for those potential customers to find you after the shows. I also like to find small venues with galleries, they are easy to get into and often have commissions that are much lower than other galleries. For example I have pieces in three restaurant galleries right now and make on average one sale a month from each. Thursday, I am delivering art work for three hospital galleries and a week from Monday to a city activity center.

Gregory, I find for me spending time on these other venues is much more profitable and a better use of time than the online promotions. If you have an angle to give a good story about your art, or you as an artist you can use that to get articles about you and your art in local papers. One year I had seven articles printed one was a front page position and several were full page inside.

One of the best things I did was join a local art club. As a result I get many opportunities to display my work, it is surprizing how many artist just pass up the opportunities that come up in those clubs.

Wendy, not at all!! I am so thankful to come back to this thread and see such helpful insights to blogging! Thank you for the links! I have just posted my third blog post ever in just as many days, and your posts here have me fired up!! Thank you!!

Here is my blogpost, where I tie my personal story and beliefs in with my photography. I am trying to build a niche following with faith-based and spiritual people.

http://241creations.wordpress.com

My biggest problem I have to guard against is not being patient. I am a hyperactive person who is always "doing" something... But one of the biggest aspects I am getting in this thread to marketing is to "keep at it", and be patient, it takes time." So I guess for me, the hardest part about marketing is how slow it is to see results. But alas, I shall stand strong with all of you and we shall persevere and celebrate our successes together!

Gregory, another thing you may look into if you are good at writing verses for cards, there are other sites designed for selling greeting cards. It is a lot of work getting started but for some it is a good way to sell, just in the time I wrote earlier I sold fourteen cards. Granted you do not make a lot per card but it is surprising how fast it can add up.

Thats a really cool idea Michael! I will definitely look into that, thank you!

Wendy! Wow!!! Where do I even start with your blog? It's everything any artist could hope for with their blog... The images are amazing, the stories that tie it in are incredible, and you make it so easy for people to know how to buy your work. I am really gad you are going to get back into it agin, I love it! The only problem is... How do I follow you on there? It seems that the button "so who is with me?" is for google bloggers or yahoo users only? I use Wordpress... How do I sign up to follow you?

ETA: And Julia, thank you for the complement on my photo!

ETA: Nancy, awesome blog! Your art is gorgeous! I just signed up!

ETA: Michael, I just saw you post on the fairs and galleris, I missed that somehow, thank you for the information! I definitely think that since I am very outgoing, that I very suited to showing my work in person, and then tying that in with further online sales.

ETA: Glenn McCarthy, I am still, do this day, shocked that Van Gogh wasn't recognized for his genus while he was still alive.

Wendy, I too am focusing more on my blog and I am aiming at the video area as well. I have found that my views go up (with real towns, not just bots) when I post regular tweets and keep up the blog work. I'm moving ahead, and I have this feeling things are going to get better!

Rebecca

Well I totally got derailed this year as lost two family members, and accomplished nothing but just staying sane. I'm very old school. Formal business plans, market analysis, etc.Lot's of experience doing this but like you I was overwhelmed at all this marketing. It has taken me a year just to start figuring out what I can figure out. There all all kinds of unique issues selling on FAA or online because you're not in direct contact with customers. So it creates some real issues in that figuring out what buyers are wanting or thinking.

I'm at least half scientist as well as artists so I've gone with the theory that I have to figure out a way to know what works and what doesn't work. I don't have the youth or time to try and out marathon everyone. So I've really investigated the view counters, and stats that are are available to us on all these sites and concentrated on seeing what my different marketing effort correlates in these stats. So my marketing is much more a scientific investigation at this point and not a method I'm using to promote myself.

I don't just blog, tweet, and post to my maximum efforts, I'm just trying to understand what effort does.

I think many people assume a mighty effort solution to marketing and put themselves everywhere and on everything. They just accept unknown as unobtainable. But this is like trying to cook everyday for a group where you never know what they liked or think. I've eventually got to be able to get repeatable wins. I can accept that I might make a hundred things before I do something someone liked but before I do the 101 I want to know which one it was. There is no ability to improve meeting marketing demand if you can't know their likes.

So as anxious as we are all for sales. I don't think you can ever win at marketing with the scatter gun approach. Figure out how to listen before you start doing sales pitches. Marketing is hard intellectually not physically hard. The only way you're ever going to have enough energy and time be successful is figuring out what works and why. That's makes your wins repeatable. Up until then sales are accidents.

Ask yourself if you've made headway in understanding your marketing sites reach, not just headway in max effort using the site. This is the critical part of a marketing plan.
-- mary ellen anderson

Gregory! I get it, totally with you....I spend more time marketing my art than I do making it!!!

Yup its a pain in the butt and I'd rather being doing almost anything other than that lol. But as mentioned above, its a long term effort. What you do today may not bear fruit for weeks, months or longer.

Dave Gordon
http://dgportfolio.net

Mary Jo--I don't know if anyone actually reads the FAA Blogs. I just copied and pasted a couple of my blogspot blogs into my FAA blog. I haven't used the FAA feature before. My concern is the duplication. I've heard that Google doesn't like duplication. I'd hate to derail my blogspot blog. It's had good traffic over the years. If anyone else can speak to this I'd love to hear from them.

Gregory--Thanks for signing up for my blog. I will be visiting yours.

I am getting juried at a gallery co-op as I type this.

While i will make some on the gallery, hopefully, it is really more about feeding the online sales. Conversely, someone wanting to see my work in person will have some place to see my art. I was on the waiting list for a year before they called.

Wow, I will be rooting for you to make it to the gallery JC! Please share with us the selections they make when they do elect you to be on it!

Mary Ellen, I am sincerely sorry for your losses. I hope you are finding healing and that your art is still able to bring you pleasure. I am very interested, now that you brought it up, to stet quantifying the results of my marketing efforts. That is a great idea. Which one(s) have you found are getting the best results for yourself?

Sheena! I saw your youtube spots in a thread last night - they are outstanding! How is that marketing tactic going for you?

Don't do the duplication, just paste a couple of sentences and then a 'Read more..." prompt with a link to your blog.

I believe in future proofing, so keep everything, including my blog on my own domain that I manage. My blog is the best thing I have ever done for advertising and bringing in traffic for my work...and I am not a very good blogger (one of my goals for this year is to remedy that because I believe - based on my stats - that it is *that* important!).

Michelle--that sounds like good advice. Thanks.

I blog on Wordpress and link to FAA via the online shopping cart. I've used Wordpress for over 7 years. You can see my site set up here http://nickyjameson.com .
I have to say that over the past five months offline sales from my gallery in a local Arts Market has been working very well for me. In 2015 I will be building on this and doing more in-person artist events to bring people to see my art at my physical gallery (actually it's a gallery wall but I have all my framed prints and canvas art photography - which I mat and frame myself - up on this wall and it's fun to re-fill the holes in the walls. I have also had people find me through my website - and purchase a very large canvas (not from FAA but through my other POD) - I ordered it for them as it was a gift - and I also delivered it to them in person and learned why they bought it. That was a truly amazing experience.

I look at marketing as things I do to make people aware of who I am and what I offer.... and so that means doing lots of little things consistently. My key goal this year is to triple sales of my work. I do use share on social media but I use it as an extension of my blog. This year I will be focusing less on social media (I feel it's a time sink with little return) and much more on offline and in person networking with potential buyers in my local community. My email newsletter is also central to building my relationships and I also have a few pieces of my artwork in a local health centre and will be getting some publicity out of that.
I don't use the FAA email list as it doesn't comply with CASL... (Canada Anti Spam Legislation) I use Mail Chimp which is great and gives me great analytics. I also don't use the FAA blog, I use my own at my own website. In terms of marketing I have tried different things and tossed what doesn't work for me. Offline is more effort, however is reaping me better rewards, so I ensure I drive local people to my physical art in my gallery. It makes it a lot easier to talk to people about my work when I can say they can pop in.

In the past year I've been blogging more and more. Just this year, 2015.. I've decided to do a 365 Day Photo Challenge. I've decided to blog my pictures everyday. I blog on my site via wordpress. When I remember, I also post the same blog on FAA. I do what Michelle mention... copy a couple sentences, then add Read More...

If anyone comes across my FAA blog, and wants to read more, it would direct them to my blog, my website, where they can get to know more about me.
I am doing a theme this week for the 365 Photo Challenge. Self Portraits, to celebrate my birthday later this week. Taking self portraits is a challenge within itself, because I don't being in front of the camera. You can check out today's self portrait.. http://crystalwightman.com/photo-challenge-day-6/

Nicky, great insights, thank you, and your website and blog are gorgeous! Do thou let people know they can purchase your photos directly in each blog post? I am trying to figure out the right technique for my log... Should I let them know every time they can buy my photos, just once in a while, or another way?

Hi Gregory... as luck would have it my website is going through some maintenance at the moment, but thank you, happy you saw it first! In answer to your question I usually do this
1.I link the photo I am blogging about directly to the photo in my FAA gallery which show the print options
2. I use anchor text within the blog post as a call to action to purchase a print (e.g art print, art photograph).
3. Sometimes I end the post with an additional call to action - e.g. purchase print
If you link your e-commerce shop there's no need (in my opinion) to say every single time that they can purchase... have it somewhere front and centre that they can purchase prints from your site. On the other hand you can add a call to action with "buy print" at the end. If you decide to do that be consistent.

So for example if you post a photo and write about it, have the url link to where you have posted it on FAA....the page with all the sizes. That does mean you have to upload your image on FAA and also to your blog... but that just takes a bit of organization. People always click on the images. In addition you should also make the images seo friendly by using alt text and titles. And of course upload images of 300kb or small if possible.
I try different things to see what works but I try and keep it simple.

Congratulations JC - I hope everything works out for you!

Tooting my one horn, I have been invited to show my art at a local gallery with an impressive attendance & sales record. The owner promotes non-stop and hosts a lot events in the gallery. She liked my work, told me she really didn't have anything to compare with my style, and I go in, in February, with a 3 month contract. The sales percentage is very reasonable and basically it is 100% different than the other gallery I was considering! I am thrilled! I'm excited! I'm nervous! But I'm worth it! She asked me if I was represented by any other gallery, to which I said no and I think this is going to work wonderfully.

Big smiles here!! Yay for 2015!!

Rebecca

It seems to me you are trying to do it all and you simply can not make it work that way. You can't do Facebook, Twitter, blog, G+, Pintrest, Linkedin, and all the the rest of them. There simply is not enough hours in a day to do them all and get any kind of market penetration.

If you do not understand market penetration, horizontal and vertical reach then you need to read the link below. You should also read the Marketing on the Cheap series and all the rest of of the information on selling and advertising.

You have to focus your marketing efforts and not try to be everywhere. Not unless you have unlimited funds to pay for it.

Advertising Your FAA Artistwebsite

Selling Your Artwork on FineArtAmerica

Gregory,
I've done nothing but experiment since I decided to come back into art. At first I spent a lot of time just understanding how social media is used and generic info on who the buyers were in different markets. All this is more in conjunction with deciding what markets or business you're going to pursue; The business plan. You might be able to find the threads on business plans.

After you decide what market you're in than you need to figure out a feedback system, so you know what they like.

I have concentrated my research internet markets on keywords. I record every stat I can down to the image and associated keywords daily in conjunction with a log of my marketing activity (i.e. uploading, blog, tweet, etc). The number of bot hits are about the same per your basic activity, so you use that to eliminate their distortion. This then allows me to specifically experiment with different keywords, hash tags, blog topics, and evaluate which specific ones worked best. Coming up with a record keeping system is the hard part.

Unfortunately the right markets, keywords, etc are different for everyone. There's not going to be a cheat sheet of what works. Understanding who your specific markets are is the big challenge in marketing. Figuring out how to do marking duties like tweeting, blogs, etc is just the superficial beginning. You've got to refine and concentrate your markets. Marketing is one of those areas where you want to work smarter not harder.
-- mary ellen anderson

Does anyone here use pinterest to pin photos from their AW gallery, or for any other way to market themselves?

i pin it, i doubt it helps any. i personally hate the place due to the disorganization and heavy distractions. when found on google it's impossible to find yours because your section of the page hasn't loaded yet. but even off people were uploading it from their hard drive so now i just let them use it.

because of that there are a ton of Mike Savad boards there

http://www.pinterest.com/search/boards/?q=mike+savad

how it helps though is unknown.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

ike, i say this as sincerely as one possibly can in an online thread... But it seems you don't like many (most... all?) online social media, and you hate (your own words) doing public art shows. Yet you are a very successful artist with your sales. How do you do it? It is obvious that you are incredibly talented, but how to do get people to SEE your art in the first place? Thanks Mike in advance for your response.

i have FANTASTIC work. that's pretty much it.

i'm on the social sites, google cares about stuff like that. i'm not super into it, but i do push things on those lines.

if you create interesting and eye catching work, people will go and look at the rest. if you upload bad with the good (not saying your doing this but in general), then a buyer may look for a second and leave. if your have work that's good but not interesting, that's not good. if you have super fantastic work that is magazine ready, it might not be wall ready. making things the buyers want is the main thing. then finding those people.

dog people like dogs. cat people like cats. if you put dogs in front of cat people they will run up a tree shortly after hissing you. and if you put cats in front of dog people, be ready to be chased down the street.

if you have dogs find groomers, dog lovers and specific breed on twitter and friend them. next time you upload a #dog #ilovemydog #weinerdog etc, dog lovers will take notice, cat lovers will ignore until you put in #cat #ilovemycat #weinercat.



work is the most important factor, having lots to choose from, and always something new. and time, it takes a long time to get recognized. there will be a level where people will want to steal your work, this is the level where your going to sell as well. if your work isn't being stolen yet, then it may not be good or interesting enough to buy. i find that to be true more than not. always upload your best and always ask - how can i get this better? if you know its bad, don't post it, erase it etc.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Really, really helpful Mike! Thank you!! And yes, you do have FANTASTIC work!

Marketing in itself is not hard (digging ditches is hard), the hard part is trying to market yourself in 2015 among the bizzion other people who are doing the same thing. If you had a time machine can could go back 10 years you'd find it rather easy.

You have to offer something different, something unique, something that makes people stop and notice.

Oh I think people will love the familiar forever......good ole' apple pie will always be wanted. They may just want it offered to them in a slightly fresh way so it always seems new but really is not

Gregory I use Pinterest to pin from my AW as well as my blog http://www.pinterest.com/artistmichellew/

I havn't learnt how to maximise it use, but it does send more traffic to my website and AW than other social media. Like other social media, its not an overnight success (at least I have not figured out the trick to making it an overnight success, but I didn't use hashtags so that really dosn't help me at all).

I am only now getting more people re-pinning my artwork than the images I have re-pinned from others, but as soon as I get time I need to go back and see if I can add hashtags to already pinned images so that they can actually be found in searches.

The problem with Pinterest that really does not sit well with me is the sharing of copyright images. I personally have no problem with my work being shared on Pinterest if it is credited back to me and potential customers can easily find me and I only pin images that have artists/photographer acknowledgment for the same reason. There are a few artists/photographers who really object to their work being shared even with attribution. Its impossible how to know if the original artist is willing to have their work pinned unless they have pinned it themselves, so I am leaning towards deleting images I have re-pinned in the past. I havn't done this yet due to time constraints...

LOL I guess that is the long way of saying with any social media, do your research first and start it right so you don;t give yourself more work in th elong run.

Hi Gregory, It seems like I'm continually looking for the Holy Grail that will help me market online and I, like you am a bit overwhelmed. I really relate to your wordpress blog integration question, in fact I started a thread earlier in the day to as the very same question. I also have a wordpress blog that I have committed a lot of time to and I have been wondering how to "add value" to my presence on FAA using my blog. I tried to find your wordpress blog through your FAA sight and came up empty. What I just did to help with that issue is to make a post on the FAA blog with a link to my wordpress blog. You might want to give that a try. Also, when I click on the "visit my website" button on your page, it just takes me to your FAA "website", which I was already on. You might want to put your blog link in your profile. Then when the button is clicked the viewer will be re-directed to your blog.

My latest blog entry is http://artspiritvillage.com/2015/02/01/larger-than-life/ .

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Great discussion, Gregory, thank you for starting it, as I am still kind of a newbie here and have wondered the same things about marketing. Like, how do you get yourself up high on the search engine here.
And someone else mentioned something about pods...what is that?

Some really good advice here.....thank you to all who posted.

Michelle Wrighton, I just read your post about you posting your art on Pinterest and wondering about sharing your copy right work. Do you have your watermark on your work there so that nobody can copy it and use it? I believe that would stop people from stealing your work. I think....I myself, am still all new to this.

to get yourself high you have to sell a lot. or you have to have a really rare search term.

a pod is a print on demand site - like this one. but we can't mention those due to new rules.

your work is copyrighted as soon as you make it. a watermark won't stop anyone from taking it or using it. its usually rather ugly, and i avoid them because of that.

anyway, add more keywords, lots of them.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Thank you, Mike, for answering my questions! Key words....got it!

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Well, at some level it's not rocket science.
1. What you do on FAA/Pixels for marketing is just barely marketing. We are mostly your competitors, rarely your customers. The exception is great keywords, titles, and DESCRIPTIONS for the search engines to find you. Do not put out links to FAA or Pixels. I generally ONLY post links to GregScott.ArtistWebsites.Com, where people will only see MY portfolio.
2. What you do OFF of FAA/Pixels is much more important. Suppose, hypothetically, that you have a fantastic hummingbird photo...
}:-D
You need to identify places and people where that photo would be of particular interest.
A. Look for a hummingbird forum, where you can post a comment on how excited you are that you got the shot, and perhaps some info on what you had to do to get the shot.
B. Likewise in a general birding forum
C. Tweet to #hummingbird hashtag in twitter
D. Depending on how you feel about copyright and sharing, there are also facebook, stumbleupon, pinterest, etc.

3. Be excited about your work. Carry a tablet with you, and business cards, and show your photos to people and give them cards while you are waiting in line at the doctor's office, at that busy restaurant, that campground where you are camping to take bird photos. (There are a lot of birders there, too, you know!)
4. Knock on doors if you really want to expand. Meet people face to face where prints and art are the business. Interior Decorators, Framers, Galleries, and so on. This last item is theoretical to me. I've never bothered to take it to this level.

I consider that I do almost no marketing at all, but I love talking about my hummingbirds, and my landscape photography in the various scenic places I've visited. So I sell a few photos, plenty to pay for my membership here, but not enough to pay for my gasoline for a trip from Georgia to Arizona/California/Utah and back.