Many artists find themselves caught in a quagmire of hope as they thrash about the internet trying to post images of their art to the larget audiance imaginable…often with little or no success. Some might not like the idea and we hear from artists all the time who don’t seem to appreciate that they are creators AND business people. In shourt; YOUR ART CAN BE A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS IF YOU WANT IT TO BE.
We also have folk telling us that when uploading work to our marketplace, they see words like ‘product’ or ‘discount’, ‘vendor’ or ‘customer’. The idea that we have intentionally designed these words into our platform is like an anathema to them that this could be an extention of our philosophy; but it is.
Business and Art are an inseperable reality if you are a professional artist. Most artists can’t afford to be precious about symantics, so neither should we…and really, neither should you.
After trying again and again to build, Likes, Shares, comments and spending hours and hours building rubbish websites with the free ‘sparklepony offer’ the mistaken conclusion is; most artists sell artwork in the realworld and most often with face to face interactons, therefore any effort spent peddling work online is wasted. You could not be further from the truth, both approaches work hand in hand.
The late British fine artist, Brett Neal advised all of his studio assistants with his concept which we call ‘The Model’. Of course Brett did not use highfaluting terms or cliche soundbites but his concept was based on maximising income from the hours laboured and taking the time to enjoy the fruits of the labour, knowing that there were sufficient willing buyers waiting to purchase the next thing off his easel, either as an original or more often than not as Limited Edition print.
The concept Brett would instill chimes with the words of the author Kevin Kelly.
Kevin Kelly wrote a book: “1000 True Fans: Use Kevin Kelly’s Simple Idea to Earn A Living Doing What You Love” (kindle link) which espowses the idea that in order for you to succeed, you don’t need millions of dollars or millions of fans, only a tiny portion of the overall market: 1,000 true fans.
In essense he says that in order for you to succeed, you only need a relatively small number of true fans who are willing to buy anything you do.
This idea chimes with Kelly’s approach where in his book “The Triving Artist”, Ylane Duparc reiterates the concept and beautifully applies it to artists and creators, in partuicular.
At ArtMarketDirect, we talk about ‘Real Collectors’ and the principle is similar. It’s simple as a notion and as time goes on we will continue to try and show you how you too can achieve success as a professional artist, marketing to your Real Collectors.
When we talk about Real Collectors, we apply it to ‘The Model’. When we say ‘The Model’ we mean the actions you need to take to meet your goals and be successful as a professional artist.
Your approach to The Model needs to be systematic, consistant and goal driven. You will need to use baby-steps at first. As a first step, try to get 5 Real Collectors, then 20, then 50…and so on.
Keep checking back to The Blog on ArtMarketDirect and we will:
- Explain more on how to estimate the size of the target market you need.
- How to work out price points, so price is never an obsticle to a sale.
- How to maximise the return you get from the work you do.
- How to trickle-feed your new creations to your Real Collectors.
- How to use social marketing to share links which result in action.
- How to advertise on social channels in a way which builds your Real Collectors and result in real-world leads.
- Mistakes and how you can avoid them.
- How to maintain your relationship with your Real Collectors.
- How to build your Brand as an artist.
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With ArtMarketDirect.com artists are able to take control of their own careers, list their own pieces for sale to collectors and undertake their own fulfillment of orders.
The only stipulation on ArtMarketDirect.com is that the work you list is your own and is original. Where prints are for sale, we ask that all image copyrights belong to you and that you are legally disposed to sell the pieces you have on offer.
The site is FREE to use with only 10% sales commission OR for those willing to bet on themselves with only a nominal subscription (from less than £1/month) to upload unlimited artwork and very low 3% commission on sales. If you are a creative ArtMarketDirect.com is the best option you have.
Header Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay
