In other posts, we have mentioned Real Collectors and in this post, we will attempt to outline the principle on Real Collectors in simple terms and you will see how easy it is to understand.
As we have outlined before, the principle is based on ‘The Model’ espoused by the late British fine artist, Brett Neal and the writings of authors Kevin Kelly and Ylane Duparc respectively.
Let’s say that you define your success with an income from your sales of £4,000 per month, you are talking about £48,000 per year. For most folk, that is a comfortable amount to live on, even after taxes.
Using the Real Collector model, you would need to find:
48 Real Collectors who give you £1,000 per year.
2000 Real Collectors who pay you £24 per year.
1000 Real Collectors who pay you £48 per year.
500 Real Collectors who pay you £96 per year.
You can change the numbers to work out what works best for you.
Using the same premise, the maths also work by having:
48 Real Collectors who give you a little less than £84 per month
2000 Real Collectors who pay you £2 per month.
1000 Real Collectors who pay you £4 per month.
500 Real Collectors who pay you £8 per month.
Of course, some mediums lend themselves to this idea much easier than others, but you begin to see how big your target market is when trying to share a call to action; getting folk to buy your work online.
Just writing the numbers like above might seem a far stretch in terms of applying it to your practice but let’s take a moment to use some artwork related examples:
If you paint a beautiful picture which is 90cm x 60cm (approx 36″ x 24″) and depending on your quote, let’s assume you can sell it for £1,000, that would bring you an income of £1,000 less the cost of your painting it including canvas, paints etc and taxes.
Lets then look at the idea of offering that same painting as Limited Edition, signed numbered and certified prints. You can maybe sell 10 prints for £150 which might bring you another £1,500 less the nominal cost of printing and posting, (typically referred to as ‘fulfilment’) and taxes.
You might decide to have a larger run and reduce the cost of the prints to 100 prints in the edition and you might instead to sell those for £50 each. Now your same painting is bringing in a gross income of £5,000 on top of the gross £1,000 from selling the original.
Modern print methods mean that you don’t need to print the whole edition all at once, rather you print on demand as sales are made. It does mean that you will probably pay more per print, but you will reduce the risk of ending up with hundreds of unsold prints in your studio.
What is essential is that you collect the contact details of everyone who buys a print from you so you can build a relationship with them. The value of what has sold does not matter at this stage since you are simply trying to identify your Real Collectors. Those same people who bought one MIGHT want at a later date to buy something else form you. Every time you have something new, a finished original for sale, or a new Limited Edition launch, you mail them. Never mail them more than once a month.
You can update your social media channels a couple of times a week, but only with good news, lifestyle updates or calls to action (asking folk to buy something).
The world is a big place and the number of people who appreciate creativity increases daily with the new market opening up in the tiger economies every day. You have the power to reach the people you want, thanks to the internet tools at your disposal.
Check back with us and we will show you:
- What applying ‘The Model’ means in terms of your practice.
- How to create a mailing list for FREE using MailChimp or their equivelents.
- How to create a subscription model.
- How to use different providers (PayWhirl and PayPal) to create subscriptions.
End.
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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 fulfilment 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.
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