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Roger Swezey

8 Years Ago

What[s This Worth To You?

For the last 40 years I spend thousands each year (including this year) to have enough receptive parties pass by my display...Resulting in a rather successful living selling my "art".

Photography Prints

Just wondering

How much would you be willing to pay, if you could be guaranteed a sufficient number of receptive parties to your work on-line , to make your venture worthwhile ?

Edit:

Let me clarify the intent of this thread and the question I asked.

Similar to Art Shows where the promoters more or less guarantee the number of people seeing your work, what if there was a site ON-LINE that would guarantee an agreed upon number of visitors to your work....In essence, this would imply that that site would do all the necessary marketing.

Whether you are selling originals, prints of originals, photographs, or digital art...

Do you think this site like this, could have enough value to justify a substantial fee?

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Abbie Shores

8 Years Ago

I think that really depends on how much I could reasonably expect to make from the outlay.

 

Roger Swezey

8 Years Ago

Abbie,

What would you consider reasonable?

 

Maggie Terlecki

8 Years Ago

Roger,

I wouldn't pay ahead of time - I'm poor (:sigh:) but if you brought me someone that bought my art, I'd be more than happy to give you 30% of the profit. Exactly the arrangement I have with my local gallery. If my work is different enough from yours, then that would be added income for you without me taking away any of your clients.

 

Mary Bedy

8 Years Ago

I'm willing to do many, many hours of work, but I'm not willing to spend thousands (i.e. art shows) on anything other than equipment.

Your work is unique, Roger, and unique sells. Some of us - the photographers in particular - are fighting to be seen in a sea of millions of images. I'm just trying to be better than the next guy. I have had a little success at that in some areas, not so much in others.

Besides, I'm too old and tired to start the art fair scene. People who have no experience with it (and I don't personally) think you just put up a tent, present your work and you make a mint. They don't consider the cost of the booth, the entry fees, the framing of the samples, all the mats (including pricey large mats), finding a vehicle large enough to transport the work, the physical labor, being tied to a booth for a two or three day event rain, shine or hurricane. Although some people do well with it. I say blessings on those who do.

I can see where your stuff would sell very well. As I said, it's unique.

 

Maggie Terlecki

8 Years Ago

@Mary
I believe it was for your work online and not at an art fair

 

Abbie Shores

8 Years Ago

I have other commitments so it would not be much.

I think probably £500 ($748) for a stall, for a year, would be my max, (that's one stall per week).

That would be around £2000 ($2,992) for a four day week, perhaps a little under.

I absolutely would not pay more than that and I would have to sell a LOT of work (prints) to pay for it but, if I could get a few sales of originals then it would be well worth my while

 

Maggie Terlecki

8 Years Ago

okay, maybe I misinterpreted and it is for an art stall. Sorry for the hijack. :-P

 

Mary Bedy

8 Years Ago

That's one advantage, Abbie, you have wonderful originals.

I only have prints (that's not a complaint), and without getting into an argument about who does more work to create a piece of art (I was an oil painter - I know what goes into it), you deserve to get much, much more for a single original, than I do for a photographic print. That said, as a photographer, I can "crank out" more work, even though I do a lot of work to get that work, I still have many opportunities to get three or four good images at each location, all in the span of a couple of hours.

I think the art fair scene is probably (I'm just guessing) more profitable for the painters and sculptors and potters and people who do other physical types of art than for (most) photographers.

But, yeah, I'm just guessing.

@ Maggie - I read it as "what would you be willing to spend to drive your customers to your online presence" - examples being art fairs. Maybe I read it wrong(?)

 

Mark Papke

8 Years Ago

If I had the money I would probably do some art shows, I already have a tent that my dad used for his shows. I would start out doing one or two shows. if they did well I might do a couple more, and even consider travelling to other state for them if money allowed. Kind of hard to put a number on how much I would spend, other than whatever it took to get the job done. Not sure if I would do galleries or not. However, I don't have the money to spend on product, which you need for shows and galleries. So my online presence will have to be enough for now. If I knew spending money on advertising would help, and had the money to do so, I would but there is no guarantee that would help either. So FB, G+, Twiiter and other social sites are it for now and they aren't helping much either. But at least they are free, for now anyways.

 

Mary Armstrong

8 Years Ago

You said you have had a successful living selling your art, thus you must have been doing something right already so WHY the question now? You want to make more $$$$$$$?? :) Many of us have some online art galleries,(as free websites or for pay ones, but there is no guarantee of any sales via those resources. If we had guarantees of sales, then might mean we would pay a higher fee. But does anyone have...guarantees of sales? Have done the art/tent shows, not my thing, a lot of work, often high upfront costs and too much travel. Been there done that. I've done better entering art exhibits which do have entry fees.....often approx. $45 for from one entry to 3, depending on the type of Exhibition. I sell at those, so the entry fee is worth it!

 

Sarah Kersey

8 Years Ago

I explored the possibility of doing art festivals/shows a few years ago, and just couldn't make it work for me. Once you find and select the festival/art show of interest, you must apply anywhere from six months to a year beforehand. You must submit digitals and a shot of your booth setup for review and pay a jury fee. If chosen, there is typically a booth or space fee. There would be the cost of framing the originals. Usually, there is a percentage due from the sales. For me, I would need to rent a truck/van/u-haul to carry everything. I would need to buy the booth setup. I'd have to put my two dogs in a kennel for at least two nights and pay overnight lodging for at least two nights for myself. And, because I work M-F, it would be impossible to get to the venue and be setup before the weekend show. So, it's not about the fees, etc., it's about the out-of-pocket expenses and stretch of free time to make it happen. There are variables, of course, depending upon whether it's an open-air show or indoors.

There are some people that I know of who do the shows on a regular basis, but they have the time, financial means, family/friend assistance, etc. I know of one guy who did back-to-back shows for an entire summer. From what I gleaned, he had an RV and his family with him. However, it worked out nicely because he was pulling in approx $20-25K a weekend selling small original oils for $700 to $1000 each (that's about 10 pieces for each of Saturday and Sunday). Keep in mind the venues were in cities where the patrons/buyers have lots of discretionary income: Sarasota, Naples, Boca, Palm Beach, etc.

For those who do plein air paintings, I've heard great stories of the artists (strategically located to attract onlookers) selling the originals on the spot. No added expense.

Roger, congrats on your success.

 

J L Meadows

8 Years Ago

.

 

Mary Bedy

8 Years Ago

Well, I'm going to join the local art association here - there is an art fair right in town once a year - and if you join the association, you can have some work in the store (that's open year round). I have spent about 40 bucks on mats and bags and maybe 100 on printer ink and it will be another 25.00 to join the art association for a year. So that's about 200 bucks to get my art in a store. I know that's WAAAY cheaper than going on the road.

 

Abbie Shores

8 Years Ago

Aw thanks Mary. I consider myself a wannabe but it's always nice to have a lovely comment :D

Good luck!

 

Roger Swezey

8 Years Ago

Maggie,

You were initially right as to my intention for this thread .

I was using my art fair experience only as an example to compare with on-line selling

I apologize for not making it clear.
.
.What I want to know is, if there was an on-line site with a proven record, that would guarantee a sufficient number of visitors to your work, providing a good probability of making sales, would you be willing to pay, beyond a nominal fee, for it?.....And , how much.?

In essence a site that would do the necessary marketing...So, you would be free to create Art.

In otherwords, Does the old adage, "It takes Money to Make Money" apply to ART?....Art on-line in particular?

 

Abbie Shores

8 Years Ago

Online? Not a lot to be honest as I would have to do more leg work myself in addition

 

Roger Swezey

8 Years Ago

Abbie,

Leg work?

What I'm suggesting is an on-line site, that many think this site is when they first joined.....A site, where you post your work and sit back and wait, while a multitude of surfers glide by your stuff, with enough getting off their boards to check it out and eventually buy

I'm sure a site like that would deserve a hefty fee for that service

 

Marlene Burns

8 Years Ago

The most I paid for a weekend booth was $1500...I sold all the paintings I brought and that booth fee plus my traveling expenses, motel ,etc., represented about 10% of my take.
I don't do shows anymore.

 

David King

8 Years Ago

I'd love to do shows like that....if they worked. The word I've heard around here is that they don't. You seem to be the exception to the rule Roger from all the stories I've read online and heard from locals, but then again maybe only the disgruntled share their stories.

 

Abbie Shores

8 Years Ago

You are discussing a competitor to FAA?

 

Roger Swezey

8 Years Ago

Abbie,

For fear of having this thread closed.

Not a competitor,..... for this imaginary site would provide a different service...Marketing

 

Maggie Terlecki

8 Years Ago

Abbie, I also don't see it as a competitor - the sales could be shifted here for POD but the part we hate doing - the marketing - would be done by someone else.

Roger - I don't know how much I would be willing to pay simply because I've only just started to sell online, not only at FAA, but anywhere online. So I don't know what my potential would be. At this point, since I started here, I've been trying to market myself and getting lots of response by other photographers and artists but I have no idea where to go to market to people that actually want to buy art. I have not made any sales here (and I realize that is quite normal at the beginning) and my images are absolutely lost in a sea of others when you search so not likely any time soon.

I would really be interested if I knew my work would be marketed towards actual customers that might like the type of work I do. I don't know where I'd get the money to start with but I would try to scrounge up something as I find the marketing part of this difficult and am probably doing it all wrong to start with. :-P

Have you an idea about doing this and are you just trying to come up with a figure?

 

David King

8 Years Ago

I'm not sure how someone can market an artist except the artist himself. A marketing consultant can be useful and they already exist in abundance, but the artist still has to take charge. How can someone that doesn't make the art talk about the art? I guess that's the paradox. The artist has to do the marketing but also has to produce work to market and in a market that is flooded and where it takes more and more effort to reach an audience.

 

Maggie Terlecki

8 Years Ago

David, if that were true, no galleries would sell anything except when the artist was there to sell it himself. The gallery chooses to represent artists that he knows his clients would be interested in.

 

David King

8 Years Ago

I think galleries are different, the buyer is still having a personal connection with someone even if it's not the artist. However, even artists that sell primarily through galleries are doing lots of marketing to drive people to their galleries, much the same we that way do internet marketing trying to drive people to FAA. There are very few artists who make any money by leaving the marketing totally to a 3rd party. I really do wish it was possible, but all the study on the subject I've read says it simply is not.

 

Roger Swezey

8 Years Ago

I'm just trying to come up with something that will do what I am reluctant to spend time doing.. Marketing myself here on the internet.

I've had young computer whizzes initially eager to take on the task for a nice cut in resulting sales....That eagerness quickly wanes.

So, I started to wonder if there was a way to pay for that service on the internet.

Where I bring the art and the site brings the people.

Something like an art show on the internet.

Maybe like an art show with a limited number of exhibitors for a limited period of time.

Whether these internet "shows" are juried or a "first come first served" would be determined beforehand

I'm sure that a site offering this for a fee at the outset would appear to be a Scam.

But if promoters can command and get hefty fees for their existing art shows, I could imagine that bona-fide internet promoters can do the same.

I know in the actual world, if I get enough people to see my work I will make sales..And those first sales are to people who had absolutely NO plan to buy anything like my work beforehand.

I NEED PEOPLE .and willing to pay for them










 

Sarah Kersey

8 Years Ago

I don't know about photography, sculpture, etc., but there are a number of sites which are art specific (painting, drawings, etc.), one of which is $8-42/month, another is $12.95/month, some are free, but these sites do not offer prints... only originals. and the assumption is that a site visitor to these sites are looking to purchase original works. I may also join one or more of these down the road to "narrow the niche". I will never pay an art gallery 40%-60% commission.

I think it would be great if FAA had a sister site specifically for PAINTERS ONLY to sell prints (I would join in a heartbeat), as it appears the overwhelming majority of images on FAA are photographic. No matter what category of art you produce, FAA's annual fee of $30 is a phenomenal value for the exposure and product fulfillment. I have no complaints!!!!

 

Roger Swezey

8 Years Ago

Sarah,

Thanks for that info.

Could you e-mail me the names of some of these sites?



My cockamamie proposal I was about to spell out, included a link to a POD site of the exhibitor's choice..for those interested in buying a print...... I would choose Fine Art America

 

J L Meadows

8 Years Ago

What do you mean by "substantial fee"?

 

Jeffery Johnson

8 Years Ago

Roger wrote: "I NEED PEOPLE .and willing to pay for them "

Yeah hum no I best not type what I am thinking LOL

 

Roger Swezey

8 Years Ago

JL,

"Substantial Fee" is that amount as it was when I had to decide whether applying to a particular show was worth the fee they were charging.


Jeffery,

No, I'm not setting up a SOYLENT GREEN factory

 

Edward Fielding

8 Years Ago

50 percent of all sales proven to have been the result of marketing efforts.

This is not that different then choosing where to sell your work. A site or agent that actively promotes your work would expect a bigger piece.

Online its wise to pay for results not unqualified views.

 

Marlene Burns

8 Years Ago

no

 

This discussion is closed.