TET's Art Business Advice

Part 1: Creating Monthly Income from Your Art - Bread and Butter Art

2012-01-23T20:41:00.000+10:30

Unlike people who work for an employer, working as a full time artist doesn't bring in a regular pay cheque every week or month. Creating Bread and Butter art is one way to develop a regular stream of income whilst promoting your art to new buyers and having time to work on longer, more involved creations.

It's a way to give yourself a regular income that should keep you going whilst you're working on those larger artworks that take longer to complete and usually sell for higher prices.

The key features of Bread and Butter art are:

Art that you can create quickly.
Art that you are happy to sell at a low price (around $40.00-$50.00).
Usually of a standard and fairly small size.
Based on themes that you've successfully sold in the past or that you know there is a demand for in the market.

Preferably you'll sell your bread and butter art at a price somewhere between $40-$50 because research shows that people are still very likely to make impulse buys at this price point. That's good because, through impulse buys, more people may discover your art.

You can then add these people to your mailing list and promote your more expensive and more considered works to them as they, hopefully, become more interested in the art you create.

As well, people who have bought smaller artworks from you, are more likely to buy your larger works because they've already had a low risk buying experience with you and are now familiar with the quality of your art.

From your point of view the purpose of bread and butter art is to create a consistent monthly income stream that you can rely on to, at the very least, pay all your ongoing expenses such as the cost of materials. Hopefully, though, you will make enough of a profit to start paying for some of your ongoing living expenses as well.

Bare in mind that bread and butter art is not going to be your only source of money but at the very least it's going to become a consisent monthly income stream that you can rely on. Other sources of income may be the sale of larger artworks, commissioned art etc. In other words the kind of work that takes more time and therefore usually is longer between receiving payment.

To get started with your bread and butter art you need to set a goal for how many paintings a month you feel you can comfortably create whilst still having time to work on larger work and other income streams.

Using myself as an example, I set a target of four, 50cmx60cm paintings per month because I know I can complete one of these in 1-2 days. Often, I'll plan to paint on weekends, starting on the Saturday and finishing no later than Sunday evening. For me that works fairly well, leaving me the rest of the week to follow other creative pursuits and income streams.

If you work that out over a year, noting that I only paint 11 months of the year (I give myself a break in December), that works out to 44 paintings a year. In terms of income, if I sold all paintings at $49.95 each, my annual income would be $2178.00 or $198.00 per month. Obviously not enough to live on but it would certainly make some inroads into paying some of the bills.

44 paintings may seem like quite a lot to complete in a year. However in part 2 I'll give you some strategies for how you can come up with ideas for so many artworks.

To conclude this part, if you're looking for somewhere to sell you bread and butter art the price point is ideal for online sites like Ebay or Etsy. The small size of the art makes it manageable to post and you can get started selling right from your first artwork without needing to build up stock (if you were thinking about selling from something like an Art market stall).

Note: This article is based on part 1 of a two part video series that I created and uploaded to my Youtube Channel back in January of 2008. This article has been updated with additional information however if you would like to watch the original video just click the link: Art Business: Bread and Butter Art - Part 1 of 2.

Selling Art on Ebay part 4: Auction listings

2012-01-16T20:29:00.000+10:30

Mother's Bed by TET
Acrylic on Canvas, 60x50cm
Sold on Ebay.

In this article of my Selling Art on Ebay Series I'm going to talk about auction listings by using one of my own completed art auctions as an example to give you some idea of the traffic your auction is likely to get. I'm then going to talk about a few important techniques to ensure your auction at least gets some attention.

My artwork, Mother's Bed (pictured on the right) is an acrylic on canvas stretched over a wooden frame, measuring 60x50cm . I listed it on Ebay in a five day auction that started on a Tuesday evening and ended on a Sunday evening. My opening bid was $45.00 with a buy now price of $119.00.

In general it's good if you can get your auctions to end on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday evening because a lot of people bid at the last minute and those evenings are when they are most likely to be at their computers.

Over the five days my auction received 80 views and there was a total of ten people watching the auction.

Ten watchers is actually quite exceptional for one of my auctions. Usually I average between three and five watchers - and that's usually only on my cat artwork auctions. If I list something that isn't a cat painting I'm lucky if I get one or two people watching it.

Although I received a good number views and ten watchers no one actually bid on the auction until the last hour on Sunday night. Late bidding is pretty common with most auctions. Most people bid at the last minute because they know that the price isn't likely to climb too high from multiple bids or if they get into a bidding war due to the limited time remaining.

You might think with 10 watchers the bidding would be pretty competitive with several of the watchers competing to buy my artwork. However only two people actually bid on my art and, between them, there was only four bids. The artwork sold for $61.05 which is just over half of what I was hoping to get with my buy now price.

For one of my auctions that's pretty good. If I get half of the buy now price then I'm fairly happy. I certainly made a profit on the materials used to make the artwork. A lot of times with my auctions it's the first bid that wins so if you like my art, simply be the first bidder on my Ebay auctions and there's a good chance you'll be the proud owner of that artwork by the close of the auction.

Having said that, my cat artworks are getting more popular and getting more watchers so, maybe over time I'll start to see more competitive bidding and higher prices. That, generally, is the goal with selling your art on Ebay. Create an interest in your work among Ebay buyers and have them determine your prices through competitive bidding.

The buyer of the artwork was someone who had previously bought one of my artworks - so could now be considered a 'collector'. This is the ideal buyer. They've already experienced your after sale service, know you'll deliver the work and have seen with their own eyes your original art's quality. They have none of the usual buyer pre-sale reservations and are only interested in hopefully buying more of your work.

Previously I've written an article that gives you 15 tips on how to improve your art auction listings on Ebay so rather than cover the same ground again I'll highlight a few key points from that article that are worth reinforcing.

Categories

There are a lot of people who browse categories. They have favorite categories so you want to make sure you capture the people that do that.

First, be absolutely sure that you've listed your art in the right category because, if you list in the wrong category, then you're leaving yourself open to people who make a living from buying things listed in the wrong catergory for a bargain price, then relisting them in the correct category and making a profit.

Obviously you don't want someone else to make a profit on your artwork so list it in the right category from the outset. The right category is one which best describes what your artwork actually is.

For me I usually list my artwork in two categories which gives me two areas where buyers might discover my art. Note that listing in two categories does double your auction fees. If you're not too worried about that then I would recommend you list in two categories.

I usually list my work in; Art - Self Representing Artists under the appropriate sub category that describes my work. People who are looking for emerging artists are likely to look in this category.

The other category I list in is more general; Art - Paintings. Again under the most appropriate sub category that describes my work. This will capture people who are just looking for paintings and aren't worried if the artist is self representing or not.

Keywords

The next thing I wanted to talk about - and this is even more important than categories - is the use of keywords to help your auction get found in Ebay searches.

The majority of people find what they're looking for on ebay through searches. Obviously they search for keywords.

In order to make sure your artwork turns up in their searches - and idealy you want it to turn up in the first page of their search - you need to choose the correct keywords that best describe what your artwork is.

There are two types of keywords. Primary and Secondary.

Primary keywords are the most generic keywords you can think of that still describe what your artwork is.

For my artwork, the primary keywords I used to describe it were; art, cat, painting.

If you think about people searching for paintings of cats on Ebay. What is the first thing they're likely to type in a search box? I believe they're most likely to type 'Cat Art' probably followed by 'Painting' if they wanted to eliminate sculpture and other non painted works.

The majority of searches are done on title alone so make sure your generic keywords are in your auction listing's title.

Secondary keywords are, again, generic words that describe your art but they're slightly more specific to your actual artwork.

Going back to my cat artwork a secondary keyword for that would be kitten because the artwork features a kitten. If someone is doing a search for kitten paintings then my artwork should show up in their results.

Wording Your Auction Title

One thing you shouldn't do with your auction titles is include the name of your painting if it doesn't literally describe your artwork in any sort of general sense.

For example say the kitten's name in my artwork was Jack and the painting was titled 'Jack's mother'. No one looking for cat art is going to type the words Jack or mother in a search for cat art. Which would mean you've wasted a couple of words in your title that aren't doing anything to get people coming to your auction.

However, the other trap not to fall into, is having an auction title that doesn't make sense because all you've done is fill it with keywords.

When people see your auction in their search results, if all you've given them is a bunch of keywords, then you've missed an opportunity to get people curious enough about your work to want to click into your auction listing its self.

Try to form your keywords into a sentence that may get people interested in the work you have on sale. If you've included all your keywords it's okay to fill the remaining space with words that help your title make sense. For example, I might list my Cat painting's title as:

"Art: Very Cute Cat Mother and Kitten Painting"

Notice the title has all my Primary and Secondary keywords and includes a few extra words so it makes sense and hopefully captures people's attention. Think of writing an auction title as kind of like writing a headline for a newspaper. The more attention grabbing whilst still including your keywords the better.

Gallery Listing

The last thing to add is that you are selling artwork. The best way to sell art is by showing it rather than describing it. I would strongly recommend is including a gallery image of your painting in search results. It will cost a little extra but I would say it is an absolute essential cost when listing art.

Those are the major points I wanted to talk about with regard to auction listings. Being in the right category, and choosing good keywords for your auction title are probably the two most critical.

This is the last in my ebay series but if you do have any further questions please use the comments below or send me an email.

Footnote: This article is based on part four of a series of Ebay videos that I created back in 2007 on my Youtube channel. The videos were ad-libbed and received much criticism for my slow delivery and monotone voice however, those that stuck with them, always commented that the information its-self was good. The above article updates the content of the video and hopefully better expresses what I was trying to say. (I've always said, at the time I had no enthusiasm for making the videos and wouldn't have made them at all if I'd actually done what I should have and scripted them properly). If you want you can watch the video here - don't say I didn't warn you and please refrain from leaving a comment... I already know!

Selling Art on Ebay: Marina Orlova (HotForWords), Case Study

2012-01-07T23:20:00.000+10:30

HotForWords

Marina Orlova, better known as HotForWords, recently branched out into creating and selling her art on Ebay, listing her first painting, Immortal Geisha, in November 2011 (and subsequently relisted it at the time I'm writing this due to a non paying bidder backing out over the US$1425.00 final bid in the first auction).

Thus far she's successfully sold her second listed painting, Golden Eye, for a very respectable price of US$660.00 to a very satisfied buyer (based on Marina's Ebay feedback).

What prompted me to write this article is that, as a new artist selling her work on Ebay, she does just about everything new artists shouldn't do when selling their art on Ebay. Thus making her a great example of why she can get away with it where as you and I can't.

Background

Briefly, Marina is a fully qualified philologist and a world wide YouTube celebrity, joining the site in 2007. Over the years she has built a steady fan base of subscribers with her regular HotForWords, short video clips exploring the origin of words in her own sexy style.

Presently her YouTube channel has 458,819 subscribers and has received more than 24,476,630 views. Her fame has enabled her to branch out and make regular appearances on TV shows and be written about (and photographed) in print media (as well as online). She's even written a book based on her Youtube show and has a comprehensive website that is regularly updated.

Although playing on her model looks for all it's worth, she's also a very good self promoter and has never lost sight of the educational and entertainment side of her show with her catch phrase 'Intelligence is Sexy'. She includes a lot of humor in her work and, whilst you might think her audience is mostly males, I suspect a good percentage of her audience is females, who are inspired by her success, and find her entertaining as well.

Marina's Vs You on Ebay

Unless you have a solid base of fans, subscribers or collectors that you've built up in another area of your career this is the key difference between you selling your art on Ebay and Marina. Marina introduced her subscribers to her art by filming videos of her making her art. Her first video is embeded below.

With 458,819 subscribers there's bound to be a few that would love to own an original piece of art created by their favorite teacher. There's also bound to be a few that would recognize Marina's art has some investment value due to her celebrity status.

So how many people do you think bid on her first artwork, Immortal Geisha? 1000? 500? 250? Would you be surprised to know it was just 13 bidders? (less than 0.003% of HotForWords subscribers).

Immortal Geisha - Ebay Bid History

Her second artwork, Golden Eye, listed on Ebay attracted 9 bidders.

That number of bidders on both auctions is pretty impressive for an artist who has never sold their art on Ebay before but, without a big subscriber base to draw upon, where is your 0.003% of bidders going to come from?

Apart from your own promotion of your auctions the answer is Ebay search.

Marina's First Auction on Ebay

Whilst Marina is probably always going to be relatively successful selling her art on Ebay because of her subscriber base and celebrity there's at least two things she could have done to improve her first auction listing that may have attracted more bidders through Ebay search.

There's also one risky choice she made that you're likely to regret if you did the same on your auction listings.

Below is a screen shot of Marina's original listing:

Immortal Geisha original auction listing screenshot.
Click to enlarge then continue reading.

Keyword Rich Titles

An Ebay search is largely done by searching for keywords in auction titles. Hence your auction title is how visitors using search first discover your art. So you need to fill your title with keywords people are likely to be using for your auction to show up in their results.

Marina gave her auction the title - "Immortal Geisha" painting by Marina Orlova

It seems like a logical title but imagine you're searching ebay. How many of the words in her title are ones you'd imagine people would be searching for? Geisha and Painting are both good keywords but how many people would be searching for Immortal Geisha?

Marina's name is good for people looking for her art on Ebay - if they know her real name - but what about those that only know her as HotForWords?

The artwork its self is quite abstract in style. It could be useful having the word abstract in the title to catch people who like abstract paintings.

A better title for Marina's auction might be - Abstract Geisha painting by Marina Orlova, HotForWords

Descriptions with Keywords and Detail

Secondary to titles people can also extend their Ebay searches to include descriptions. Notice on Marina's auction the whole bottom section - where you can completely describe what you're selling with as much detail, images and even video as you want - is virtually blank, except for the auction title being duplicated in larger print.

When writing a description for your art this is where you can include the artworks actual title but you should also try to include more keywords that describe the subject of your art in greater detail.

The description is also where you capture the heart and mind of your potential buyers. If your painting has an interesting back story you might include it as part of your description. If you've uploaded a video of the painting being created to YouTube you can actually embed the video into your description.

In Marina's case she has a great video of this artwork being made (as you may have watched above) that could have been embeded into her listing. Along with it she could have written a few words about her artwork and why she painted it and included some points about what viewing experience the art might give potential buyers.

Generally, buyers of art like to know as much about the art they are buying as possible. Especially if they are not able to see the actual physical work but are only looking at a photo.

A Big Risk

Marina's starting price on both of her auctions so far has been US$0.99 cents.

Marina's Start price of US$0.99 on Immortal Geisha.
(click to enlarge)

Such a starting price for a first time artist selling on Ebay is an incredible risk. What if she had only got one bid? I'm not sure if the US Ebay site still allows people to set reserve prices but on the Australian Ebay site you can't, unless you're selling a big item like a car or house.

I can tell you first hand how demoralizing selling one of your own original artworks for a ridiculously low price actually is. I've done the experiment and listed an original artwork with a start price of just AU$5.00.

The theory is, that a low start price will encourage more buyers to actually bid because your item is the 'bargain' they're looking for. I got one bid on my painting which cost the buyer more in postage than they paid for the actual artwork.

On top of that I received an irate email from another of my collectors, angry that I'd sold one of my artworks for such a bargain price.

Marina can get away with it because she has a large subscriber base. If you don't then your opening bid should be set to the lowest price you'll actually part with your artwork for - if it only receives one bid.

In Conclusion

There is actually a lot more Marina could do to make her auctions more professional and possibly increase the number of collectors of her art. Through Ebay she may even develop a fan base that knows her first for her art and is drawn to her YouTube channel as a result.

However the points raised above are the ones I felt any new artist listing their work on Ebay should take particular note of because you want people, likely to be interested in your work, finding your auctions but you don't want them buying at a price that's going to put you off selling your art on Ebay for good.

Selling Art on Ebay Part 3: What Sells on Ebay?

2011-12-26T16:11:00.003+10:30

In part 3 of this blog series, Selling Art on Ebay, I'll talk about what sells on Ebay and how you might use that information to sell your own art. If you haven't read my two previous posts then here are the links: Part 1, Selling Art on Ebay - Should You? Part 2, Selling Art on Ebay - Who Buys on Ebay? Pricing Considerations.

If you've read other posts in this series then you're probably wondering when we're going to get to the part of actually selling your art on Ebay? Well unfortunately this post isn't going to be about selling your own art on Ebay either because knowing what sells on Ebay could determine whether your art is a good match for the site and is likely to sell at a good price.

So what actually sells on Ebay? From my own experience, flowers as a theme, tend to sell well as do beach scenes and images of the sea side. If you're already painting these themes then there is a good chance there will be demand for your work on Ebay.

However tastes change and vary over time so one of the best ways to see what is popular on Ebay at any given time is you use Ebay's dedicated popularity tool Ebay Pulse and specifically the category of Art. There you will get an overview of popular searches, the largest Ebay shops and the most watched current items.

You can also use Ebay's Popular keywords tool and narrow this down to Art as well to get some indication of what searches are currently popular on Ebay.

Once you have this information you may like to see how it compares to your own art. For example do some of the popular searches relate to the kind of work you make? If so then maybe there is demand for your work on Ebay.

If not there is something you might consider trying. That is to look at what subjects people buy or what style of art they buy and then try to paint subjects and styles that match either or both of those things.

It's a perfectly valid technique as, if you're painting to what is popular on Ebay, it could attract buyers to your auctions and encourage a bidding war as your art will be something that is in high demand. Thus increasing the chance of your auction finishing with a high final bid.

That said my personal experience is, if you're just trying to paint to a market rather than painting something you actually enjoy then that will be reflected in your artwork and you'll end up painting artworks that are perhaps not the best examples of the kind of art you're actually capable of.

Note: people often think well, it's only Ebay. I don't want to sell my best work there since it's not going to get a good price anyway but, if you want a good price for your art then producing inferior work is not the way to get a higher price. You should be listing your best work so that people see the quality and, as your reputation grows, collectors will be prepared to pay more for your quality work.

If you're not someone who is already painting to popular themes and styles already then think hard before attempting to paint to popular themes and styles. Remember you will be competing with people who do enjoy those themes and are likely creating far better quality pieces than you.

Don't despair if your work doesn't relate at all to popular searches and keywords. It just means that your work is better suited to a niche market (which could potentially still be thousands of possible buyers) that isn't large enough to influence Ebay's statistics.

In general when it comes to answering the question of what kind of artworks sell on ebay I would say all kinds of art have the potential to sell on Ebay.

What will get your work sold and what will determine the kind of price you get is the amount of promoting and marketing you do for your auctions and, on top of that, it will also be the quality of the work you make.

Hopefully I've given you some more things to think about before making that final decision to sell on Ebay.

Footnote: This article is based on part three of a series of Ebay videos that I created back in 2007 on my Youtube channel. The videos were ad-libbed and received much criticism for my slow delivery and monotone voice however, those that stuck with them, always commented that the information its-self was good. The above article updates the content of the video and hopefully better expresses what I was trying to say. (I've always said, at the time I had no enthusiasm for making the videos and wouldn't have made them at all if I'd actually done what I should have and scripted them properly). If you want you can watch the video here - don't say I didn't warn you and please refrain from leaving a comment... I already know!

Selling Art on Ebay Part 2: Who Buys on Ebay? Pricing Considerations

2011-12-19T13:16:00.000+10:30

In part 2 of this blog series, Selling Art on Ebay, I'll talk about the Ebay market and what you can expect when pricing your art to sell on Ebay. If you haven't read part1: Selling Art on Ebay: Should You?

Many first time Ebay artists think they'll be able to list their art on Ebay at the same prices that they would sell their work for in a gallery. Unfortunately this is unlikely to be the case.

Unless you're already an established artist with collectors that value your work as an investment then it's very rare for a new, unknown artist on Ebay will command gallery prices.

Who Buys on Ebay?

People who shop on Ebay are generally looking for bargains. Whilst most shoppers know original art has value, they wouldn't be looking on Ebay if they wanted to pay gallery prices. Hence this is why selling your art on Ebay has the perception of devaluing the investment value of your artwork.

To sell your art on Ebay at gallery prices you're going to have to do alot of work convincing people that your art is worth the prices you are asking and you're going to have to attract buyers to your auctions that aren't so much looking for a bargain but looking for art that may become a great investment piece as your reputation as an artist grows (not easy to do if Ebay is your primary sales outlet).

It's more likely you are going to have to accept that starting out you are never going to sell your work on Ebay for gallery prices so you will need to set prices that are much more in tune with the average Ebay shopper's bargain hunting mindset.

This is an idea that many artists struggle with because all artists like to think their work is as valuable as any other similar artists that command high prices (even those that get higher prices on Ebay). What is often overlooked is those artists have spent many years promoting their work, building their reputation and gradually raising their prices as demand for their work grows.

Realistically, as an unknown artist on ebay, people aren't buying your work as an investment. As I said in part 1, they are buying your work because they like your subject, style or because they have an ideal place where your work on display would finish off the decor of a room.

Pricing Considerations

Knowing that people shopping on Ebay are looking for bargains, you will need to take a close look at your pricing and seriously ask yourself;

What is the least amount of money that you would accept for each individual artwork that you list for sale?
Would that price look attractive to someone searching for original art at a bargain price?

In setting your prices there is one pricing strategy that you should definitely avoid - and I can't stress this enough. Ebay from time to time will reduce their listing fee or give free listings to people who place a starting bid on their items of $1.00 or less. When you're setting your prices, never, ever have your opening bid for $1.00 or less.

I guarantee you that, if someone bids and buys your work for $1.00, it will definitely leave a bad taste in your mouth, you will believe your experience with Ebay to have been a bad one and, it will be really disheartening when you realize that the cost of posting your artwork is actually more than the price the person paid for your original art.

So take the question of what is the minimum price you would sell each individual piece of your artwork very seriously. Compare it to what other similar artists are listing their works at. If that looks like a price that is acceptable to you and looks like a price that is likely to find a buyer on Ebay then by all means go ahead and list your work with your minimum price as the opening bid on your Ebay auction.

Even if your price looks reasonable it doesn't mean that selling your art will be easy but certainly it is worth giving it a go. As I said in part 1, even though Ebay its self gets millions of visitors per day, your actual listing may only get 10 to 20 visitors for the whole time your auction is live.

If you really want to sell your art at the prices you want rather than the lowest price you would accept you're going to have to spend a lot of time promoting and marketing your auction listings, getting them seen, establishing a collector base for your art and gradually raising prices as the demand and competition in bidding for your work increases (which can take months or even years of regularly selling work on Ebay).

Hopefully this post has given you some idea of what kind of market you're selling to, got you thinking about pricing and whether you'd be willing to sell your art at prices considerably less than what you might expect to sell them for in a gallery - particularly in your early months and possibly years selling on Ebay.

Just like selling your work through gallery representation, getting higher prices on Ebay is something you have to work towards because bargain hunters usually aren't looking to spend a lot of money the first time they see your art.

Like this article? Then why not read part 3: Selling Art on Ebay - What Sells on Ebay?

Footnote: This article is based on part two of a series of Ebay videos that I created back in 2007 on my Youtube channel. The videos were ad-libbed and received much criticism for my slow delivery and monotone voice however, those that stuck with them, always commented that the information its-self was good. The above article updates the content of the video and hopefully better expresses what I was trying to say. (I've always said, at the time I had no enthusiasm for making the videos and wouldn't have made them at all if I'd actually done what I should have and scripted them properly). If you want you can watch the video here - don't say I didn't warn you and please refrain from leaving a comment... I already know!

Selling Art on Ebay Part 1: Should You?

2011-12-12T15:08:00.001+10:30

If you're thinking of selling your original art on Ebay and you're an unknown artist then there are a few things you'll need to consider before deciding if Ebay is the right place for you.

Your Long Term Goals

Most importantly, what is your long term goal for your art? Are you just looking to make a small profit on each artwork you create so you can continue or are you looking to create a body of work that appreciates over time to become a commodity for art investors.

If the latter is your goal and you're looking to be represented by a credible gallery then you need to be aware that selling art on Ebay is not highly regarded by most galleries and may actually be a set back for getting your career up and running.

When you are represented by a gallery it is usually the gallery that sets the value of your work. Built into this price is some of the costs they incur as a result of promoting and selling your work on your behalf i.e. their overheads. By selling on Ebay you run the risk of undercutting your galleries sales as you don't have the same overheads to consider. You also make it harder for the gallery to raise the value of your work over time simply because of the perception that Ebay has of being a place to find items at a bargain price.

If you are looking to be represented by galleries and have a long term investment strategy for your art. then my advice is to steer clear of Ebay and any other similar websites. Focus your energy on getting gallery representation rather than sales.

Not all artists are concerned about whether their art will appreciate over time. If your long term goal is to:

Sell your art as you make it.
Making enough money to keep you stocked up in art materials.
Have an alternative long term sales avenue to gallery representation.

Then Ebay may be a great fit for you. Typically, in all these cases, you are in total control of the prices you sell your art for and therefore only have your bottom line and overheads to worry about.

Ebay - What to be Aware of.

As an unknown artist on Ebay you should understand that people buying your work will be doing so because of one or more of the following reasons.

They like the subject matter.
They like your style.
Your art suits their decor (It's very common for people to buy art to suit a room or space rather than because an artwork has any real meaning to them. It's a perfectly valid reason to buy art).

There are other reasons too, of course, however the main point here is that you aren't likely to see many buyers looking for your work specifically when you're first starting out.

If you're happy to sell your art with these points in mind then Ebay is a great way to get your work out into the market. Note though that Ebay is not an easy place to get your artwork seen and it's an even harder place to get your artwork sold for a good price.

The reason being that, whilst Ebay is getting millions upon millions of visitors each day, it's not millions upon millions of people visiting each category and your auction or Ebay store. The particular category you list your art in may not get very much traffic at all. In fact your auction listing may only get between 10-20 visitors in total during time the listing is active.

Millions upon millions of visitors to Ebay does not translate into easy sales. The reality is there is still a lot of work in the way of promoting your Ebay listings. Much of what you would need to do if you were selling in a gallery or any other more traditional market also applies to getting your Ebay listing seen. Be prepared for some hard work and probably many unsold listings - particularly in the early stages. (Don't forget to read my 15 tips for Self Represented Artists on Ebay)

Hopefully I've given you something to think about. If your long term goals lie in creating a body of investment art then Ebay my not be a good match for selling your work. On the other hand if you want to be in complete control of your bottom line and/or just want to earn enough money to cover your own overheads then Ebay may well be a great option.

Like this article? Then why not read part 2: Selling Art on Ebay: Who buys on Ebay? Pricing Considerations.

Footnote: This article is based on part one of a series of Ebay videos that I created back in 2007 on my Youtube channel. The videos were ad-libbed and received much criticism for my slow delivery and monotone voice however, those that stuck with them, always commented that the information its-self was good. The above article updates the content of the video and hopefully better expresses what I was trying to say. (I've always said, at the time I had no enthusiasm for making the videos and wouldn't have made them at all if I'd actually done what I should have and scripted them properly). If you want you can watch the video here - don't say I didn't warn you and please refrain from leaving a comment... I already know!

Time and Project Management for One

2011-12-05T14:36:00.001+10:30

Over the years I've tried various methods to keep my productivity on track. From diaries, to monthly planners to just making lists of things I need to do. What they all have in common is that they all, invariably, fail me... or perhaps, more correctly, I fail them.

I'm not talking about time management and productivity on paid work. The one thing that I'm very consistent about, no matter what, is that paid work takes precedent over all other projects, and should be done in a timely fashion, ensuring I meet any client deadlines.

However, as the only person who works on my personal, creative projects, I'm often overwhelmed by the number of projects I start. Many never make it to completion or, in the case of ongoing tasks like writing for my three blogs, it can be weeks before I 'get around' to writing a new article.

Invariably I end up with a big list of projects and tasks, some of which I work on, and others that never seem to get a look in but, I'll get around to them... some day. Ultimately I end up doing what most people do, slack off, procrastinate or just be plain lazy and not work on anything. That's what happens when you have a big list of stuff to do and nothing you can be bothered to start.

Diaries are good for planning dates, meetings and marking birthdays etc. but they're not much of a time or productivity management tool when you're working on something that doesn't really have a deadline (and you don't want to add the pressure of having a deadline).

Monthly planners have kind of worked for me but it doesn't take much to throw them out of whack. I find my life becomes too planned with them. Then, if some paid work comes in, it throws the whole schedule out and I find it very hard to get back on track.

Making lists also works for a while but inevitably I get out of the habit of list making very quickly. Lists are very fleeting things that you don't need all the time because you don't need to make a list for only one or two items that you want to get done in a day.

To solve my problem I spent quite a bit of time researching free online project management tools. Out of the ones I found, I finally settled on Freedcamp - Free Project Management. I chose it because it was free (if I can find what I need for free then I'll always go for that first), it was online (so I can be on any device to view my projects) and because it looked like it wasn't going to be too hard to use.

The trouble is, project management tools rely heavily on projects having start and end dates. They also seem to be more appropriate for teams rather than single person projects. Especially not personal projects. I don't need to log hours and fill in time sheets for my projects. I don't need to set deadlines either. These are things I'm doing for my own personal interest. There's no executive, sitting in an office somewhere, angry because I'm still painting a picture or making an animation that I initiated for myself.

After realizing that project management software wasn't really what I needed I thought maybe a weekly planner is what I needed. So I started searching for free online Weekly Planners. I found two that I liked. Weekly Planner - Weekplan and TeuxDeux: Minimalist Web-Based To-Do List Tool.

Both are very good for people who like the idea of making lists (and crossing off tasks as they're done) but want to make lists for as many days into the future as they need - rather than just for the day they are about to embark upon. Both also allow you to make a list of tasks you want to begin 'Someday' - so you can keep them in mind and slot them into your daily lists as space opens up.

Weekly Planner has an extra section (or list) for Roles (and Goals within those roles). For example you might have goals that you want to achieve in your personal life (e.g. spend 1 hour a day with kids), then you might have goals that you want to achieve as a creative person (e.g. write 10 pages of my book per day/week etc.)

The good thing about the layout of both is that each are simple and ideal for individual time/project management, where the goal is to complete tasks. They also allow you to mark in deadlines, meeting dates and more if you want to because you can plan ahead and write those things into your daily lists as needed.

Of the two I've been using Weekly Planner (into my second week of using it at the time of writing this). Weekly planner was inspired by the book "Seven Habits of Highly-Effective People" by S. Covey. It has extra sections for keeping track of your vision, mission statement and achievements. However I mostly prefer it for the Roles and Goals list which I use to keep track of my ongoing tasks from week to week.

Weekly Planner also has a 'Growth Journal' - if you're into that sort of self assessment. In it you list what you've learned about your productivity and list what you could do better. Could be useful I suppose.

The use of Weekly Planner made me more productive last week. I've written one article for all my blogs, applied for a job on oDesk on every day of last week, completed a painting and completed a GoAnimation.

This week I spent ten minutes planning my week, first thing Monday morning, and I'm off to a good start with this article.

I think what I like is the flexibility of the weekly plan. I just list the things I want to get done this week and then try to stick to the schedule. My life isn't planned right down to the minute or a month in advance.

If you've read through this article and can relate to my situation then maybe one of these weekly planning sites is something you should look into as well. It's early days for me but I'm hoping this is something I can really incorporate into the way I get things done.

oDesk - Earn Money Doing Freelance Art and Design Work.

2011-11-28T17:12:00.001+10:30

Art and Design work hasn't been flowing in all that fast of late so in an effort to drum up some work I joined oDesk.com. You can see my oDesk profile link widget below.

Note that my hourly rate is slightly higher (usually AU$33.00/hr) because it's in US$ and it includes the additional 10% that oDesk rakes off the top of hourly rates or fixed price jobs to make money. Just note too that I've been charging the same hourly rate since 1995. Keep that in mind for later.

I decided to sign up with oDesk because it has a few great features and it's free to join for both Employers and Contractors (with exception to the 10% fee on every job).

One of the main features is time tracking. oDesk's Team Application, will automatically log all your hours spent physically in front of your computer working. You can manually log hours worked away from your computer. The application will also take screen shots of your desktop. All this information can be seen and reviewed by the employer however the contractor has full control over what the employer can see.

All payments are made through oDesk and, with the Team Application, oDesk guarantees that an hour worked is an hour paid. Another nice feature is that money paid to contractors can be withdrawn from their oDesk account directly into a bank account (specified countries only) for one low fee that's cheaper than receiving money via PayPal (although you can withdraw funds via PayPal too).

oDesk seems to have a regular turnover of job postings from employers both large and small - some paying an hourly rate with others offering a fixed price for specific work. The competition among contractors is fierce with each job getting about 20 plus applicants in most categories (just based on my observations browsing for jobs).

To apply for a job requires a detailed, specific cover letter with references to your oDesk portfolio demonstrating similar or relevant work you may have already done. Employers and contractors are also given a rating. For Contractors it's based on work history and jobs completed. Some employers won't deal with contractors with low ratings (or in my case, as a newbie, none at all).

Overwhelmingly, browsing the jobs, I've noticed that the amount paid for specific work and the hourly rate of the majority of contractors is alarmingly low. So low in fact that my hourly rate looks like 'Platinum Rates'.

For example I charge a fixed AU$198.00 for a logo design (6 hours billed work. Includes up to 6 designs to choose from). Compared to other design agencies in my area this is ridiculously cheap. Employers on oDesk are paying as low as US$20.00 up to about US$150.00 for similar work with the majority seemingly on the lower end of that scale. Surprisingly they still get contractors applying.

For me it's a little soul destroying because, knowing how much work goes into what I do, with each job application I have to ask myself, am I prepared to do the same work for less money? Add to that my 16 years of charging the same hourly rate - which I should have been gradually raising over the years - the last thing I really want to do is charge less.

So far the answer has been 'no'. Though I suspect my resolve will wavier the more I need the money.

If you're a little less concerned about how much you charge for the work and a little more about it's money you didn't have before you did the work then oDesk could be a good avenue for you to earn a little extra on the side. Plenty of design and illustration jobs are posted on a daily basis. It's just a matter of being the best applicant for the job.

Pricing Digital Art For Sale

2010-06-16T13:18:00.001+09:30

If you're an artist that creates your work entirely on computer, for example a digital illustrator, digital painter etc. then pricing your art may seem a lot different to traditional artists when you don't have to factor in the cost of materials... or do you?

When pricing your digital artworks for sale here are some of the things you may want to factor into your final prices. Many of these still apply to traditional artists as well:

Cost of living, running your computer equipment etc.

All artists, no matter what medium, working full time need to consider the cost of living and running their studio (even if your studio is just a laptop computer and a Internet connection - it still costs to run it). If you can't cover these costs from the sale of your work then you'll be looking for alternative income sources really quickly.

You need to know how much it costs for you to live and run your studio per month then work out how many artworks you need to sell per month to cover that cost. For example - say you need $1200 per month to cover all your living expenses and to run your studio. To cover that cost you'll need to sell 12 artworks at $100 each or 6 artworks at $200 each etc. to break even. If you want to make a profit you'll need to charge more than that per artwork to have savings.

Time

You could factor in the time it takes to create your art. Determine an hourly rate for your time spent creating the work. Your hourly rate could be based on how many hours you need to work per month to cover your living expenses.

If we take the previous example of $1200 per month and say there are twenty 'working' or business days in a month where you intend to work 8 hours per day, your hourly rate would be:

$1200 / (8hrs x 20days) = $7.50 per hour

If you wanted to price all your artworks the same you could produce one painting every 5 days and price each one at $300 ($7.50 x 8hrs x 5days). Again that's a break even price. If you want to have some savings you'll need to charge more per artwork.

What format you intend to sell your digital work

Will you be selling the digital file or prints?

If you're selling your work as a digital file then really the only overheads you might have are any online hosting fees for the file or, if you're providing copies on CD's for example, then the cost of the CD's (and postage and packing perhaps?).

If you're selling prints then the cost of printing each one are factors. Are you going to use a print on demand service like Redbubble.com? Are you going to use a bricks and mortar printing house? Are you going to sell prints you've printed on your own printer?

Whatever you choose the cost of making each print needs to be factored in to your price. Again you'll need to charge more than the cost of printing per artwork if you wish to make a profit.

Limited edition versus Unlimited copies

Selling a limited number of prints will enable you to set a higher price than if you sell an unlimited number. By limiting the number of prints you make you're creating 'rarity'. For example you may only produce 10 prints of a particular artwork making it more valuable than if you sold prints to everyone who wanted one.

If you're only selling the digital file you could create rarity by only making it available for a short period of time or for a specific number of downloads/copies. It would be harder to keep control of since anyone who has the original file could make any number of copies. You'd have to trust in copyright law in the same way that software authors do. Many digital artists sell licenses to reproduce their work through stock photography and digital illustration sites like shutterstock.com thus giving the site responsibility for policing unlicensed use of their art.

Note that if you advertise your prints or digital files as limited then you must stick to that commitment. You'll get your buyers really upset if you say you're only printing 10 copies then print 2 more because you found 2 more buyers. It's a good idea to number and sign limited edition prints too. In some buyers minds owning print number 1 is more valuable than print number 20.

The same goes for digital files. If you're limiting the time or number of downloads the file will be available then rigidly stick to that commitment. Failure to do so will erode the value you can add to your work based on rarity.

Comparison to other Digital Artists

One way to determine prices (in any art form) is to look at other artists producing similar work, who have a similar reputation and career level as yourself, and seeing what they charge. Find out if they're selling at the prices they're charging and then price your work competitively with theirs.

Volume Pricing

Ultimately digital artists have an advantage over traditional artists in terms of materials. Once you have a computer you can start producing an unlimited number of artworks and sell digital copies for just a few cents each (like songs on itunes - $0.99 per song) and go for volume sales. This is actually how many digital artists and photographers make money from stock photo sites like shutterstock.com.

Stock photo sites usually let you choose exactly how much you want to sell each image for minus their standard fees for hosting your image on their site. Often their fees are very small since they're going for volume sales too.

If you think your artwork has mainstream appeal or an extremely large niche market then volume pricing through a stock photo site may be for you. It can be an extremely lucrative option given the online demand for images to illustrate blogs, news articles, web sites etc.

As you can see pricing your digital art for sale does have many factors to consider. Some are just as relevant to traditional artists whilst others are unique to the digital medium. As with traditional art pricing there is no one 'right' way. How you determine your final prices will be based upon your situation and your goals for earning income with your art.

Image: renjith krishnan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Where to Sell Your Art Online

2009-07-20T21:08:00.004+09:30

Recently I've been receiving emails asking me to help people sell their art online or asking what sites can you sell your art online from? Whilst I primarily sell my own art through ebay auctions (I don't have an ebay shop) I have been asked about alternative sites.

Reality First

Before we get onto that, a reality check. Selling your art online can be as simple as deciding on a price for each piece and listing it somewhere for sale. (You may want to put some thought into how you'll send your art through the mail so it doesn't get damaged - and don't forget that the customer pays for postage not you!).

However it's not easy. If I could tell you how to sit back and watch the money roll in I would. You have to do all the marketing and promotion yourself. You may get some sales simply by listing your work on a popular art site but in general you'll need to tell people that you're selling your art. Hence, tell everyone you know, use your social networks, talk to people on forums that might be interested in the subjects that your art covers. Print flyers, advertise in newspapers, have a business card. All of it can help.

Persevere and read everything you can about how to sell your art online. A good site for art business articles (after you've read everything here) is Empty Easel (you may even find one or two written by me).

Receiving Payments

Although not essential it will make your life much easier if you open a PayPal business account. These are free to open and, if you intend to have your own site, will allow you to embed things like Buy Now buttons and accept Credit Card Payments. Even without your own site many art sites pay your earnings into a PayPal account.

Don't believe all of PayPal's bad press. If you treat it like any other financial site, guard your login details with your life and double check you're not falling for phishing scams by clicking on links sent to you in emails you should be fine. I've had a PayPal account for almost ten years and had no trouble yet. (I also use it to send invoices on commissioned art too).

Options for Selling Your Art Online

Your Own Web Site

If you're really serious, get your own web site with a domain name address like www.yourname.com

These days you don't even need to know much about web site design and you can host your own domain name on many free web hosts like 50webs, Webs and Webnode. Just choose a template and start adding your content. The free sites aren't always ideal but if you're just starting out it's good to have as few set up costs as possible. Personally I use 50webs and I bet you never even knew my homepage is hosted on a free web host site until I told you.

Note that your own domain name will cost you an annual fee. It's not usually expensive and is worth every cent. I've yet to find anyone that will just give you a top level domain name for free.

Portfolio Sites and Market Places

If ebay is not for you then the most common site that artists refer me to as an alternative is www.etsy.com. Etsy is a site for selling all things 'hand made' including art, usually through an Etsy Shop. I've never used this site personally but in terms of traffic to their site it should get your work seen.

Other sites I would recommend (in no particular order) are:

www.artwanted.com
www.zibbet.com
www.artid.com
www.deviantart.com (very popular amongst artists)

These kind of sites usually have their own market places for getting your work seen but really what they offer is a place to create a portfolio that you can then refer potential buyers to.

Digital Prints and Print On Demand

An alternative to selling your actual physical artworks is to scan or photograph them and sell digital prints on Print On Demand sites. This can be a much easier way to go as all you have to worry about is promotion and marketing - the sites themselves handle printing postage etc.

Sites in this area include:

www.redbubble.com
www.imagekind.com
www.cafepress.com
www.zazzle.com

And, if you're interested in self publishing books of your art you might like to try

www.lulu.com

Stock Art and Photography Libraries

Another options is posting digital copies of your art to stock photography and art sites. These kind of sites license images for use by various publishers in all manner of publications from web sites to actual printed books. You earn money each time your images are used by a publisher. It can be quite a good avenue for income if the kind of work you create could be used in many different situations.

Sites include:

www.graphicleftovers.com
www.istockphoto.com
www.shutterstock.com

Summing Up

In conclusion you'll notice I haven't described each site in any great detail. I'll leave it up to you to visit them all, find out what they're about and to find out if they're right for you.

These sites are not the only ones out there. There are thousands of sites where you can sell your art. My only advice would be to stay away from sites that have no free account and require you to pay an annual or monthly subscription. These kind of sites are better for artists who know how to sell their work and are likely to be able to cover these costs from their sales.

The best sites, generally, only take a commission from sales.

Hopefully this article has given you some pointers for where to start in the quest to sell your work over the internet. There are plenty of opportunities for artists. Just be aware that you do have to work at it and treat selling your art as an important part of your business rather than a sideline.

How to Earn Big Money Selling Your Art Online

2009-01-21T17:01:00.004+10:30

Artists, just starting out, are often disappointed to learn that their work probably won't sell for the high prices of artworks they see by other, mostly unknown, artists selling in galleries or online.

They tend to think of their artwork in terms of 'well my work is just as good, if not better so I should be able to at least price my work the same'.

At the same time new artists are told that if they price their work too low people will not buy it yet they know if they price too high people won't buy their work either.

Thankfully I've taken out all the guess work and come up with five easy steps to earning the big money selling your art. They are:

Become a famous artist.
Create art that everyone wants to own.
Never make enough art to meet the demand.
Set reserve prices high and always sell at online auction.
Sit back and watch people aggressively trying to outbid each other in order to own your art.

It's right about this point that you're probably starting to suspect that this article isn't going to tell you anything about how to earn big money selling your art however, is my five step plan so unrealistic? Let's break it down.

1. Become a famous artist.

There's probably a bit more to this than waking up one morning and deciding to be a famous artist. Let's assume you have actually done some art that you want to sell. (If you haven't why are you even reading this?)

Fame is a relative thing. In order to sell art people have to know about you and your work. If you aren't out there telling people on your social networks that you are an artist and that you sell your art then how are you ever going to get famous?

Online, you can take away all the face to face embarrassment artists sometimes feel when it comes to self promotion. Build a web site for you and your art, post your art on your facebook and other social network profiles along with descriptions that specifically say if an artwork is for sale.

Most importantly start talking to those 10,000 plus friends you've collected on myspace. Let them know about your art. If you can get less than one percent of your 10,000 plus friends buying your art regularly you'll be on your way to earning a living.

Talking to people about your art is how you get famous. Expect to be doing this for the rest of your career.

2. Create Art that everybody wants to own.

This is a broad statement but, to give yourself the best possible chance of selling, you need to create art that has broad appeal.

That doesn't mean creating the same thing over and over but it does mean keeping an eye on trends. Look at what artistic themes/subjects are popular and see if you can create art that would appeal to those same people. Bring your own creativity and ideas to whatever is selling for other artists and reinvent it in an original way.

Whatever you do don't copy another artists ideas or work. Your goal is to bring your own style and ideas to an existing theme or subject.

3. Never Make enough art to meet the demand.

If you're painting to a specific theme that is popular then you shouldn't just keep creating art until no one buys anymore. Set yourself a limit - say until you get bored of a theme - and stick to it.

One of the reasons art has value is because of its rarity. Don't fall into a production line mentality. If people know they can just get you to create another artwork in that theme for the same price then your previous works will be less likely to increase in value. This will also make it difficult to raise the prices on your current works as you become more well known.

That's not to say you can't accept commissions for more artwork on a theme you've already covered but be sure to charge a premium. Make sure people know it will cost more to commission a work than it will to buy something that you've already created as part of your ongoing work.

4. Set Reserve Prices high and always sell at online auctions.

Even I'm skeptical that this is a good strategy however, if you've been doing your networking and got people interested in buying your art then, in theory, people will be fighting to buy your work thus pushing up the auction prices.

Your goal with networking is to encourage people into visiting your auctions. Get them excited about owning your art. You don't want just one buyer at your auctions you want many.

If your online auction site allows you to set reserves then a high reserve tells people that they can't just walk away with your work at bargain basement prices. You're telling people that your work has value. You're not just trying to off load it.

At the same time you don't want your reserve so high that people won't bid. It takes a bit of trial and error. If a work sells easily then maybe next time you raise the reserve or if it doesn't sell at all try lowering it.

5. Sit back and watch people aggressively trying to outbid each other in order to own your art.

If you've done all the promotion then this is the pay off. You shouldn't be looking at single bid auctions ever again. You should be selling your work at higher and higher prices because you've done all the work getting people interested in and aware of your art.

Now all you have to do is keep repeating these five steps for as long as you're trying to sell your art.

The purpose of this article is to emphasise that even in the simplest business plans, for selling your art anywhere, there is a lot of work to be done that has little to do with actually creating art.

You can't just sit back and wait for customers to come to you. If you want to earn the big money selling your art you have to be actively promoting what you do at every opportunity.

Promote Your Art with Video - Three Methods

2009-01-13T13:41:00.006+10:30

Short format video has become increasingly popular with internet users. YouTube, arguably the most well known video site, is also the third most visited site online according to Alexa's Top 500 Sites. With that kind of audience, video is a great way to show people your art and get them interested in what you do.

Whilst you could just start a video diary (known as a video blog or 'vlog') and talk about your work as you're creating it you may be better served with the following three methods that will allow you to be a little more focussed with how you promote your work.

The Video Slide Show

Probably the easiest method the video slide show allows you to collect together a body of works into a visual presentation which you could set to music or provide a spoken narrative about each piece.

From a marketing perspective you should collect similar style and themed works together in separate slide shows so that you can use each show to promote your work to people interested in that kind of work. This will give you a selection of slide shows that you can pick and choose from for different markets.

If you're not that experienced with video editing or would just like a slide show that really stands out from the crowd then try Animoto. This site will let you make an unlimited number of highly professional, short 30 second slide show videos set to music for free. If you're willing to pay a few dollars you can create longer shows. The site is very simple to use and the resulting videos can be uploaded to Youtube and many other video and social networking sites.

The video below, of my own cat artworks, was created with Animoto and is a sample of a paid video. The only difference from the free version is the length of the video. Once you have your video you can use it as much as you like for no extra cost.

Aside from the excellent and dynamic video presentation, all music used on the site has been cleared for public and commercial use so there's no fear of copyright infringements here.

The Video Demonstration

People really appreciate art even more when they can see how it was made. If you have access to a camera and some editing software then filming yourself as you work isn't as hard or pressured as it sounds.

Simply point a camera at your canvas, work space or wherever it is you're working and forget about it (check every now and then to make sure it's still filming). If you're using a digital camera I'd recommend stopping the camera every fifteen minutes and starting again just so you create a series of shorter clips rather than one big clip. Shorter clips are easier to edit together.

Once you have your footage you can either select key points from the footage, that show major changes/stages and edit those together or, you could speed up the footage and show the entire process from start to finish. Either way you'll want to edit together footage that runs for no longer than 10 minutes (which is about the maximum attention span of most video site viewers).

When you've edited your footage together use your editing software to add your own narration explaining what's happening in the vision. You don't have to explain every detail but perhaps highlight some of your choices or specific techniques used.

The video below is one of my own artworks being created from beginning to end using sped up footage with my narration over the top.

As you can see I never once talked to camera whilst creating my artwork. As well, the above video was shot with a cheap web camera - you really don't need to go to great expense to start with video.

The Artist Profile

If you're a little more confident with the camera and really know how to edit video reasonably well then creating a video profile about you and your work is a great option. A video profile is especially useful for embeding into an online biography page if you have one.

Also a video profile can be a great compliment to your other slide show and art demonstration videos. In fact once you have a good collection of videos you could compile them all into a DVD that you could give away free with each artwork sold.

A video profile is a little harder to put together. You need to plan what you want to include and think about what it is that you want people to know about you.

Whilst you may not have to go so far as a storyboard you will need to plan various shots and select a few of your best artworks to include. Again you want to limit the length of your video to about ten minutes.

Below is an example of a video profile I created for myself. As you can see there is a lot of information crammed into three minutes of video because I made this for an art site that had a three minute limit. However keeping things to three minutes or under is considered ideal in online video and you really can say quite a bit in such a short length of time.

If you're not used to speaking on camera then I'll let you in on a secret... neither am I and I've been speaking to camera for more than 150 videos. You feel silly but, if you can wrap your mind around the idea that the person your talking to is inside that camera and is a great listener, you can rattle on for hours with your usual conversational style. Just remember your plan for what it is you want to say and start talking about that. Edit it later. For the above video I left out a lot of me talking to camera - and used a lot of the audio for my voice over.

All of these three methods are a good way to get your art seen online without people feeling like they are being 'sold' to.

People who like art will love a dynamic slide show set to music. People who are interested in the creation of art will tell you they appreciate seeing the behind the scenes work. Finally those that don't know you will really find a video profile an easy and quick way to discover what you and your art are about.

Whichever method you decide upon be sure to include with the video a link back to your web site (if you have one). The point of using video is to try and attract visitors from highly popular video sites to your web site where people can learn more about what you do and, hopefully, sign up to your newsletter/mailing list (if you have one) or inquire about making a purchase of your art.

Promoting your art using video isn't as hard as you might think. Each of the above methods can be used for a specific purpose and all will make a great addition to the promotion of you and your art.

Are You Spamming Without Realizing It?

2008-10-12T21:42:00.003+10:30

As much as developing an email list is about creating a more personal relationship with your subscribers it's important to remember that not everyone on your list is a close personal friend. In fact you may never have contacted many of your subscribers on an individual basis for any reason ever. For the most part those people are just names on your list.

Whilst your actual real friends, the ones that do know you personally, may be fine with receiving an email daily from you, the rest of your email list may not be so appreciative of being informed of every new development in your business, blog or life as it happens.

Email may be an immediate form of communication but it's not Twitter. Most people don't expect to receive an email any more frequently than once a week when they subscribe to an email list. If you intend to email people more than this you really should let them know before they sign on.

Unless you're a breaking news site or you have some other time sensitive information to offer on a daily basis there's no good reason to be emailing your list every single day - or even every second or third day.

Sending messages to your mailing list virtually every day wears people down - even if they appreciate what it is you have to say. People are busy, they often have to pick and choose which emails they actually read.

If you email your list too often you become too familiar to your subscribers. They know what to expect from you. Eventually they'll skip your messages without having to look at them because they already have a pretty good idea what you're likely to be messaging them about.

Then when you actually have something really important to announce, many of your subscribers will miss that message because they'll think you're just sending them more of what they expect.

Once people start skipping your emails often enough they'll unsubscribe or worse, add your email address to their spam filter.

If you add updates to your web site, blog, business etc. on a daily basis then consider writing a weekly newsletter summarizing your updates rather than sending a daily email. Give people a selection of your best updates to review rather than thrusting every single little update in their face. It makes you look needy.

One site that gets this right is Empty Easel, an art advice site that I'm subscribed to. I look forward to opening and reading their email newsletter every Monday. Empty Easel adds a new article to their site every week day, not all of which I'm interested in. When I get their very brief newsletter I can quickly spot the articles I want to read.

Because I'm mainly interested in Art Business advice it would quickly become annoying if Empty Easel sent an email every time a new article was posted. I'm not interested in reading their articles on improving my watercolor technique or how to paint better landscapes.

No matter what it is you have to offer, most people on your mailing list aren't going to be interested in every single little thing. Email people too frequently and you'll end up in their spam folder.

Too much of anything isn't a good thing. Even too much of you.

Grow Your Creativity into a Laptop Empire

2008-09-09T11:43:00.005+09:30

Diversity, consistent branding and creativity across many web sites are key factors in starting and maintaining your laptop business empire. No money? No worries. This article will get you started for little or no start up capital depending on the path you follow.

If you're a person who creates art, can write articles, blogs or make short films (or can do all of these) then this article is for you. Many web sites are paying for content from their users. This is a golden opportunity for you to start your laptop empire. The best part is that most of these web sites are free to join and are a lot of fun to create content for.

Getting Paid

Before you start you'll need a PayPal account (check to see if there is a local paypal site for your country too). Paypal allows you to be paid no matter where you are in the world. Most web sites prefer to pay you either by cheque or by direct transfer to a PayPal account.

Next, you may wish to consider signing up for Google Adsense. Adsense is a program where you can earn money through relevant advertising placed along side the content you create. For example if you've written an article about cats, Google Adsense will show advertising, relevant to cat owners, such as 'cat breeders associations', 'cat posters' etc. You earn money from people clicking on the ads.

Google Adsense is useful because many sites will allow you to earn a percentage of the money from Google Ads placed on their pages if you provide your Adsense for Content code. If you start your own web site you can place your Google Ads there and earn 100% of the revenue.

Both Paypal and Google Adsense can be linked to a bank account so you can access payments you receive.

Diversity

Earning money online is a slow process that requires a lot of work. Although there are some web sites that, theoretically, you could earn all your income from it is better not to keep all your eggs in the one basket (or in this case web site).

Spreading yourself across a number of sites will give you access to many different markets of people and provide many opportunities for cross promotion. Be careful not to spam web sites as this will hurt your earning potential. Tell people about your various web site interests as they get to know you.

Deciding which sites to focus on is the fun part. Whilst you do want to be diverse, you can't be everywhere. Pick a range of sites that focus on different aspects of your creativity. This way you won't simply be repeating the same information on each site and you'll be constantly challenging yourself for new ideas.

Consistent Branding

Branding is how people get to know who you are and what you do. On the internet branding is most commonly the nicknames you use as a login name and/or your web site address (URL). For example, my own branding is The Extraordinary Tourist which I often truncate to etourist (as a login name) and TET being my nickname. My web site is www.extraordinarytourist.com

You can extend branding to include a logo (you may want to trademark this) or even a photo of yourself (use the same photo each time) however, the main point is that you, as much as possible, use the same nicknames/user name/login name across all the sites you earn income from. This way people looking for you on a web site (or in a search engine) will know exactly how to find you.

Creativity

If writing is your thing then a good starting point is Helium. Helium pays a percentage of Ad Revenue based on article views and also has a Marketplace where publishers will pay a set amount for the best articles on their subject.

There are other sites where you can publish your own writing and earn ad revenue including the Triond Network. Triond will let you publish any kind of content including photos and video too but generally articles seem to attract the most traffic.

The benefit of writing for someone elses site is that you don't have to work as hard when it comes to marketing. Most of these sites come with a built in community that will read your work. Though it never hurts to do a bit of self promotion too.

If you're really good at self promotion then starting your own blog could be for you. Blogger is the easiest way to go as Blogger is owned by Google. This makes adding Google Adsense to your pages a breeze as it's included as part of your customizable template plug-ins.

The benefit of starting your own blog is that it is the easiest way to set up your own web site and gives you one central place to promote all your income earning activities from. For example you could post a 'teaser' entry for any new articles you've written on Helium then provide links to the full article.

The other good thing about a blog is search engines love them. I get so many visitors to my web site by people who had one of my blog posts come up on a search engines results page.

A final word on writing. Once you have a prolific collection of work online you could collect the best of it together and self publish your own book through POD book publisher LuLu.

If writing isn't quite your thing then what about selling original art and/or prints of your art? I sell much of my original art on Ebay and sell prints of my art through print on demand (POD) sites Cafepress and Redbubble. Other POD sites you might like to consider are Imagekind and Zazzle. There are many more.

Selling original art on ebay takes time to build a following of collectors but is a good way to make some money. I've written an article, Selling Art on Ebay: 15 Tips for Self Represented Artists, that will help you plan your auction listings.

Cafepress will allow you to set up a shop for free (that you could link to your blog or include the URL of in your email signature etc.). You can upload images of your art and place them on products however you don't need to be a great artist. Some of the best selling products on Cafepress are slogan designs, that is, designs that are words only - usually humorous.

There is some skepticism from users of Cafepress that free shops aren't successful and that a premium (or paid) shop is the way to go. Whilst I do run a premium Cafepress shop I paid for it, initially, with the earnings I made from a series of free shops. Hence you can make money from a free Cafepress shop.

A great way to market POD products is to talk about them in your blog. Which is not to say you should write buy my stuff posts but rather talk about the designs and how they came into being - write a brief story around each product.

If you're an amateur film maker then your time has come. There are quite a number of web sites that will pay for short format videos (videos under ten minutes long with a file size of less than 100MB).

Currently Revver and Metacafe are two of the most popular sites that will pay for content.

YouTube does have a Paid Partner Program which requires a certain level of success before being eligible. Given that YouTube is the third largest site on the Internet it's well worth uploading your videos to and trying to make it into their Partner Program.

Revver pays through people clicking on ads placed in your video. MetaCafe has a producer rewards program that begins to pay once your video reaches 20,000 views and has a rating of 3 or more. Revver is easier but slower (income-wise) whilst MetaCafe pays better but only if your video has wide appeal.

Both sites allow you to embed your videos into your own web site, blog or wherever you choose. Again you could post your videos to your own blog and add detailed descriptions for the benefit of search engines.

Revver has the added benefit of creating collections of other people's videos (or even your own) which can be embedded into a web site. This will allow you to earn money from other peoples videos as well. You could create a collection featuring Revver's most popular videos right on your own web site.

When making your videos be sure to include the URL to your web site (if you have one) right in the video as an end credit. Videos have a tendency to be posted all over the place by people whom you've never met. You want to make sure viewers know where your video came from (so they can view your other videos).

Marketing

Whilst all of the sites mentioned above attract people that will view your content, you can boost your earnings through your own marketing.

To do this you'll need to participate in online forums and communities. Look for communities that are interested in the type of creativity you specialize in. If you paint pictures of dogs then participate in an online forum for dog owners (chances are you already do).

However do not spam these communities. Check their rules about advertising first. Many forums will allow a link to your web site in a signature or may allow you to advertise for a small fee. If a discussion comes up about selling on Cafepress (for example) that is a good opportunity to share your experience and direct people to your shop without actually promoting directly.

Don't forget about promoting your sites/work in your email signature (again don't send spam emails).

You could start an email newsletter promoting what you do that people could subscribe to. You'll need a web site for your subscription form. One company that will manage up to 1000 subscribers and give you the tools to make a newsletter free is Your Mailing List Provider. The free version has some restrictions but is a great place to start.

Don't discount advertising in your real world local area. Business cards, fliers, posters newspaper ads and articles can all help your efforts depending on the kind of opportunities you've taken up to earn money. (Joining a local writers group for example).

To conclude

The list of web sites contained in this article is not exhaustive. You'll find many more sites that pay for content or allow you to set up all kinds of online shops (there's even one I know of that will let you set up your own online dating web site: www.free-banners.com). This article has mainly focused on earning money from your own creativity.

Most sites only pay small amounts in the vicinity of a few cents here and there however, if you work at it, providing more and more content, the more you are likely to earn in less time. Plus you're work keeps on earning for as long as it is online.

If you focus your efforts on two or three sites you'll be well on your way to starting your own laptop empire.

As a final footnote. I practice most of the suggestions above. Be sure to visit my web site to see my advice in action!

Note: This article was first published by me on Helium and appears under the title, How to start a financial empire from your laptop. It has been revised and updated by me for this blog.

Finding a Market for Your Art

2008-09-09T10:37:00.007+09:30

Finding your market is the key to making money as an artist. It doesn't matter how good your art is, if a person isn't interested in your subject matter they just won't buy.

The first question you may need to consider is do you consistently create art about the same theme or do you explore a wide range of unrelated themes? This is important because sticking to one theme will allow you to target your work to a niche market. If you explore a wide range of themes then you'll need to find a new niche market for each theme.

In general, you are more likely to sell if you appeal to a niche market (rather than trying to appeal to everyone) because you can focus your marketing on a smaller group of people.

So how do you find your market?

A good place to start, in finding out what kind of person would like your work, is to take a look at yourself. One can assume (I hope) that you like what you paint, therefore you're someone who may buy work like yours.

Next you need to ask where do people like you hang out? Where do they shop? Where do they socialize? If you're selling on-line, what sites do they frequent? These are all questions that can help you find people who may buy your work.

Take notice of people who say they love your work. These are clues as to who else might like your work. For example, if someone, old enough to be your grandmother, pays your art a big compliment then maybe other people in their age group would like your work also?

Another avenue you can try is to look for galleries that exhibit artworks similar in theme and style to your own. Galleries usually promote to a specific market. If your work is similar to the work they have on display then there is a good chance they are selling to your market. You'll need a portfolio of work to show and some courage to ask if the gallery would be interested in considering your work.

Galleries are very selective so don't be discouraged if they don't take you on. Remember they are businesses that must weigh the risk of taking on a new artist against being able to pay the bills and earn a profit.

Competitions can be a good avenue for selling your work (and you may even win something too). It's well worth researching these to find out what kind of work is usually entered. Again if it is similar to what you're doing there's a good chance this competition is being promoted to your market. Especially look for competitions that match your own themes e.g. Portraiture, Fantasy, Landscape, Religious etc.

There are many other avenues, including on-line galleries and even social networking web sites. The questions you need to ask about these are still the same i.e. what type of work sells on an online galleries site, what type of people should you try to 'friend' on a social network.

Selling your art has little to do with how good you are as an artist (which is subjective anyway). The key to earning money is finding where your market is and showing your work to those people.

Note: This article was first published by me on Helium and appears under the title, Marketing your artwork. It has been revised and updated by me for this blog.

Selling Art on Ebay: 15 Tips for Self Represented Artists

2008-08-23T21:29:00.006+09:30

As a self represented artist, who has sold original artworks on ebay since 2006, here are some tips that I have learned through trial and error. I don't promise to guarantee your work will sell using these tips but they may just increase your chances.

Before becoming a seller build up your Feedback rating as a buyer. People are more likely to purchase from someone with good feedback (even if all your feedback is as a buyer) than they are if you have no feedback at all. A rating of 10 is probably ideal but 5 is enough to show a bit of a track record. Whilst building up your feedback you'll also learn a lot about how other sellers operate and get a feel for what issues your potential buyers will face when making that final commitment to bid on your item.
Recognise that, unless you're an established artist with a following of collectors, most people will be buying your art because they like your work rather than as an investment.
Design your auction listing to be as professional as you can. You can't afford mistakes as these will discourage some potential buyers. At the very least use proper sentences, good grammar and upload at least one decent size, clear photo of your artwork (minimum of 400 pixels along the longest edge). Always pay the Gallery Listing fee for your artwork's photo to appear in buyer searches. It's your art that will grab people's attention and encourage them to look at your auction.
Create an auction title using general key words that describe the content/subject of your artwork. For example if you have created an artwork of your pet siamese cat called 'Minky', few people looking for cat art will enter the word 'Minky' as part of their search. Make sure the words 'Art', 'Siamese' and 'Cat' appear in your auction title. That way if someone does a search on Cat Art or Cat Siamese your auction will appear in their search results. Your auction title might be something like 'Original Art: Siamese Cat'
If your auction title is short try adding in some more general key words that describe your artwork. Using the last example you could extend it to 'Original Art: Siamese Cat, painting, oil, pets, feline'. Now you've caught people using search terms such as Cat Painting, Pets Feline, Feline Art etc. The trick is to get your work appearing in searches by people who are interested in your subject but may not have been thinking about buying your particular artwork until they saw it pop up in their search.
Try to put some keywords in your auction description that you haven't used in your title however fewer people search on title and description so don't stress too much on this.
When writing your description don't describe the artwork literally (you should have a photo so people can see for themselves what your art looks like). Instead describe what this artwork will bring to that person's life/experience/environment. In other words try to describe benefits rather than features (a key point for selling almost anything).

Going back to the Siamese cat example above, rather than describing it as 'This is a painting of my pet siamese cat, Minky, who is a real character', you might write 'Minky is a delightful cat who will bring a sense of fun to any home with his cheeky antics in this original artwork'.
There are some features that you MUST include in your description. These include anything that can't be discovered simply by looking at the photo. For example look at the image below:

What don't you know just by looking at it?

As part of your description include important, unseen features either by listing them:

Title: Happy Cat Jac
Artist: TET (e_tourist)
Medium: Acrylic and Chalk Pastel on Canvas, Framed.
Size: 40 x 50cm

Or by creatively including them into your description:

This acrylic and chalk pastel artwork titled 'Happy Cat Jac' will bring a sense of carefree fun to your home and will be a great conversation piece for family and friends. Created by Mixed Media Artist, TET, the work is 40 x 50cm in size, painted onto quality canvas and has been professionally framed.
Never set your opening bid too low (especially not under $1.00). It may cost you more in listing fees but I recommend only setting your opening bid to the lowest price you're prepared to part with your artwork for. I've tried setting low opening bids and it is very soul destroying seeing a work sell for less than the cost of postage to send it to its new owner. Sometimes it may take several listing attempts to sell an artwork but if you stick to your prices you should at least make a small profit (or big one if you've priced high).
Speaking of prices, understand that ebay buyers are looking for bargains. If you want to increase your chance of a sale through impulse buying then it is a proven fact that any item priced under $50.00 has a high chance of being impulse bought ($50.00 is not enough to break the bank for most people). Therefore a good opening bid to consider is $49.95.

This price point is a good way to nurture collectors too. By selling smaller (but still high quality works) at a lower price you can encourage repeat buying and begin directing these people to your more expensive artworks.
Be sure to list in the 'Self Representing Artists' Category to capture people looking for 'emerging artists' (artists that self represent usually are) or people who just like good, original art at a great price. You could also think about listing in a second category that suits the target market for the subject of your art.

Again using our Cat artwork example you might list your auction under 'Cat Supplies' (Under the 'Home & Lifestyle' Category). Technically your art isn't a 'Cat Supply' but people interested in cats will be browsing this category and may make an impulse bid on your art. Keep in mind, listing in a second category will cost you the same in fees again as your original first category listing. Only list in a second category if you feel your category selection will attract more interest.
Try to time your auctions to finish on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday evening....there's no science behind this tip I just seem to have better sales myself doing this. Seven day listings are good for art - gives you time to advertise your auctions. Most people don't seem to bid until the last minute so don't be discouraged if you get no bids on the first six days. You should at least pick up some watchers during this time.
Set a fixed price for postage (you may have to absorb some of the cost though in some cases the postage may even be less than your fixed price). You'll get paid quicker as your buyer won't be waiting for you to calculate postage. PayPal is a good payment option but using it will eat away a little more of your profit. However, in my experience people who use PayPal to buy pay the quickest.
Always be prompt sending your artworks to your buyers. Encourage them to leave feedback when they have received their purchase and guarantee that you will leave them feedback if they do. (Make that part of your auction terms).
Finally, as part of your terms, always offer a full refund if your buyer doesn't like the work when they receive it. (subject to the work being returned undamaged of course). This is due to the nature of art. You really don't get a feel for an artwork from a photo. The real artwork might be a whole different experience. Having said that the most common feedback I've had is that my work looks better than the photo...I've never had a work returned yet.

Selling art on ebay can be a rewarding experience. However just like selling art through your own web site you have to do everything possible to get your work seen.

As I said at the start, I don't guarantee these tips will work every time but if you implement some of them, you may just see an improvement in the number of watchers you get and even the number of bidders. There's nothing more exciting than seeing people bid against each other to own your original art!

Note: This article was first published by me as an Ebay Guide with the title, Selling Art - 14 Tips for Self Represented Artists. It was also re-edited for Helium and appears under the title, Selling art? How to get the best price. It has again been revised and updated by me for this blog.

How to price your Art: Things to Consider

2008-08-19T14:12:00.001+09:30

How do I price my art? It’s the single most often asked question from new and emerging artists. It's also one of the most discussed questions in online art forums with many and varied approaches of how artists arrive at a dollar figure on each piece of art they create.

There are many variables to consider, all quite valid, with no one 'correct' way to set your prices. In this article I will outline the various considerations and hopefully provide you with some direction when it comes to pricing your own artwork.

Things to consider:

Cost of materials.
Cost of your time.
Living/Working Expenses.
Size and complexity of the artwork.
Intended market.
Commission Fees.
Importance of the Artwork to your artistic development.
Your reputation as an artist.

Cost of Materials

This aspect of pricing is a 'no brainer'. If you aren't at least pricing your work to cover the cost of materials how are you going to fund your next artwork without getting a second job? No matter what method you ultimately use to price your art cost of materials should always be a factor.

Cost of Your Time

Many artists find this a stumbling point because they don't know how to put an hourly dollar value on their time. Rather than just picking a figure out of the air you could determine your hourly rate based upon research of:

Hourly rates of other similar artists (it never hurts to ask).
Hourly rates earned by commercial artists producing similar work
e.g. graphic artists, photographers, jewelers. Any similar profession that has an entry level base salary or wage.

You could base your hourly rate upon any previous entry level jobs you may have held. Even if the job wasn't in the arts, It's still your time that was being paid for.

Living/Working Expenses

Do you want to be a full time artist? If so you'll have to factor in the cost of your living and working expenses since now you're attempting to pay all of your bills.

To make these calculations you'll need to have an approximation of how many hours a month you intend to spend creating your art.

Living expenses are fairly self explanatory. You'll need to work out approximately how much you spend per month for things like rent, electricity, water, food, vehicle expenses, entertainment etc. Divide that total figure across the number of hours you intend to work a month and add that to your hourly rate.

Working Expenses are everything you spend money on not directly related to creating each individual artwork but related to the production and sale of all your art. For example, studio hire, advertising fees, letterhead, business cards, printing costs etc. Total these up over a month and divide that figure across the hours you intend to be working.

Note that if you’re factoring in living and working expenses, to some extent the hourly rate of these are absorbed into the cost of your time. Essentially you’re trading time for dollars to pay the bills. Like you do with any form of employment.

Size and complexity of the artwork

One approach is to calculate prices by the size of your artworks. A popular method is to charge by the square inch. Set a dollar figure for one square inch and simply multiply that by however many square inches each artwork is in size.

In order to do this you will need to know approximately the cost of your materials per square inch and your hourly rate per square inch. To calculate your square inch rate you’ll need to create an artwork of average size and complexity.

Decide upon an hourly rate for your time and determine the cost of the materials used. Calculate the total cost of that artwork once you’ve completed it i.e. Total cost of time + Cost of materials. Take this figure and divide it by the total number of square inches in the artworks surface. The final number is your cost per square inch that you will apply to all future artworks.

Pricing by size tends to fall apart if you work in several different mediums, styles and complexities. In this case you'll need multiple size scales for different types and complexities of artwork.

Intended market

After cost of materials this is the single most important consideration when it comes to pricing your art. Your intended market covers things like:

What type of person buys your art?
What kind of income does that person earn?
How much does this person spend on art per month/year?
Where will your art be exhibited after purchase?
Where does that person go to buy art?

Where a person goes to buy art is a big factor. People who buy from galleries expect much higher prices than people who buy from art fairs. Research is key here.

If you've never sold an artwork then you need to research the venue in which you intend to sell your art (whether that is ebay or a real world gallery). Look around for similar work that you know is selling and perhaps set your prices in line with that.

Knowing this kind of information will help shape the kind of art you produce and increase its chances of being sold.

Commission Fees

If you sell your work in a gallery or through an art show or some other venue that collects any kind of selling/commission/entry fee be sure to add that into your prices. If you don't it'll be eating into your profits. Not good if you only have a small profit margin. You’ve been warned!

Importance of the Artwork to your artistic development

As an artist you can't help but feel that some artworks have more importance than others and represent major leaps forward in your artistic development. What we're really talking about here is an emotional attachment to an artwork.

How important is that artwork to you and can you factor it into your pricing?

The short answer is you shouldn't consider importance because it will lead to inconsistent and difficult to understand pricing. How do you explain to your buyers why two artworks of similar size and complexity have such vastly different prices? How do you put a dollar value on 'importance'?

If you think a work is so important that you can only sell it for the right price then it’s better to exhibit it with Not For Sale notice on the tag. If someone really likes it they'll probably make you an offer. Then you can say, I couldn't sell this artwork for any less than... That way you won't mess up your pricing structure on works you are more than happy to sell at market value.

Your reputation as an artist

If you're an unknown artist you won't have any reputation outside of your family, friends and other people who know you. So this won't be much of a factor but it's something to keep in mind.

Once you start selling to people who are buying purely because they like your art (i.e. they have no other relationship to you) then your reputation will begin to grow. Reputation is a lot like importance, you can't really put a dollar value on it or logically factor it into your pricing.

Your work is worth what the market will pay. If you consistently sell at one price then test the waters with higher prices. If you still sell consistently then you know people value your work more than what they are currently paying.

Don't make massive price jumps though. People generally understand that your work will be worth more as your reputation grows but very few people will understand a massive price hike. At the very least you should be raising your prices annually, in line with inflation.

Conclusion

There are no hard and fast rules for pricing your art. The considerations I've listed are all points to think about when determining your own prices. You may not need to factor all of them into your pricing but in all cases, covering the cost of materials and understanding your market are the two most important.

After all you can't create art if you can't afford to buy materials and you'll have a harder time selling your art if you don't understand your market.

Note: This article was first published by me through the Triond Publishing Network and appears on Quazen as an article titled, How to Price Your Art.