The Artist as a Brand

Winter Morning Canvas Print

What I've learned about investing in an online art presence, building my brand, selling my art:

• Art is fun
• Art marketing in multiple venues is not fun
• Selling art is fun
• Pricing, billing, collecting and shipping art are not fun
• Self-representing myself in online galleries is fun
• Working half a day on artist's websites, editing to assorted formats, then uploading art is not fun

• Note to Self: Don't worry be happy, paint, hire an intern!

Island Butterfly Series -3/6

Well, perhaps only extraordinarily successful painters hire interns or other assistants who help with everything but the painting. But we can dream. We paint because we enjoy painting and perform as best we can in all the work that supports our brand--our service of delivering our best product.

I've worked hard for six months setting-up my websites and painting a little over 100 small acrylic paintings and studies and 3 medium-sized oils. With the children's gallery that I've started, I'll begin with maybe 30 images and then move on to larger works for the GailKentStudio.com domain site.

Before taking the domain gallery live,  a consultant will get all the websites performing the social networking plan functions I began with. A few major kinks with Google's Plus changes have to be smoothed out.

I've used PayPal with my Etsy shop, and been pleased with performance there. Easy for the buyer to know they will get the product they paid for, easy for me to ship out my art knowing I'm being paid.

With my Fine Art America site, I have nothing to do but upload the art. They format, print, ship, and collect and pay me through PayPal. Wonderful!

The brand is established and now must be maintained. I've met interesting artists through my online presence and we've supported one another with concerns, endeavors, and pats-on-the-back. Contacts, customers and potential customers also contribute to the brand when they comment or share information and links about an artist's work. It's a sense of accomplishment. 

All in all, online art marketing has been a learning experience and will continue to present challenges, growth, and rewards as I expand my art activities. It was a decision without regrets because I started with a plan. I posted about that in this link Set up Online Gallery

Now, to get on with a promotions plan and creating lots of little canvases to fill the children's gallery.



Comments are always encouraged.
If you're following interesting blogs, feel free to comment or post those links here, too.

All the best,

Gail Kent
Gail Kent Studio

Find me or my work at the following addresses:

Gail-Kent.artistwebsites.com  my Fine Art America gallery
Twitter.com/@Gail_Kent
www.facebook.com/GailKentStudio
Gail Kent Studio Notes  my Tumblr blog site
www.etsy.com/people/gailkentstudio
https://sites.google.com/site/gailkentstudios 

Fine Art America Gallery Page Sponsor
minimalism prints

Etsy Birds Bopping and Bees Buzzing

It's Springtime at Etsy! 


So many talented artists and artisans now being featured everywhere! Yesterday the latest West Elm arrived, Etsy art on their walls--fantastic!

After a period of focusing on other things, I created a new Treasury this morning to showcase a few of these artists. Spring at Etsy  There are hundreds of new Spring-themed beautiful treasuries putting a song in the hearts of all these shop owners and their shoppers. Quality handcrafts at affordable prices.

My own Etsy shop images need to see a little updating with the twelve photos and paintings offered. I've tended to upload and forget about it. Etsy has not been the best of venues for fine arts offerings, but it would appear changes are in works. It's past time to check out the new art groups and put more marketing efforts into being an Etsy shop owner.

Marketing on Etsy does require a time investment. Shop owners are social marketers par excellence, with a long time presence on Facebook and Twitter.

Etsy gives us one of our best marketing tools--Etsy circles we join. These offer a tremendous opportunity to build community with fellow etsians, and to build web presence through connections we make. I've posted about this at Etsy Marketing

Another Etsy marketing tool I use is the Etsy Mini to showcase a few of my paintings on my blog.

I like the appearance of my Etsy shop paintings on the blog layout. However, they aren't carrying over to my Digg posting to Twitter, and when I surface in Google searches, they don't show in the blog posts that I open.

This mini link isn't carrying over when linking, I suppose you could say.

This curious problem can be worked out later. For now I'm glad it's on the blog home.

Enough talking about Etsy, time to start doing Etsy. I hope you enjoy visiting some of the shops, and Treasuries are a wonderful shortcut to do that.

We have a new "gift" and home decor shop in my neighborhood. Don't know them well enough yet to put a link in, but I have to say ten minutes in that store was like a day of browsing Etsy shops. Many of the wares in the store seemed to have been sourced from Etsy vendors. I'll write about it after I've built a relationship with them. It was wonderful being totally surrounded by whimsical artworks.

Comments are always encouraged.
If you're following interesting blogs, feel free to comment or post those links here, too. 

All the best,

Gail Kent
Gail Kent Studio

Find me or my work at the following addresses:
Gail-Kent.artistwebsites.com 
 Twitter -  Twitter.com/@Gail_Kent,  and Facebook -  www.facebook.com/GailKentStudio
www.etsy.com/people/gailkentstudio
https://sites.google.com/site/gailkentstudios

Internet Is Not Free, Users Get No Free Lunch

Pundits and blog techies are jumping all over Google's latest apologies for snooping. With scare tactic headlines designed to capture our attention, they will increase their own revenue. One blogger labels it an arms race: Internet Privacy

Yep, Google is out to make a buck. Surprise! As is Twitter. Facebook, Apple and everyone else in the game. Their entrepreneurial founders may have been young, but they were far from stupid. These companies will generate revenue through marketing their products and their services--information provided by users.

You and I give providers all the information they need

Free Flowers?

We're tied to our internet which we consider "free." Sorry, there is no free lunch. I snapped this photo at my neighborhood hardware big box store. It was free. Well, not exactly. Every time I shop there, I feed them bits of data on my housing, decor publications, and income profile. Before I shop there, I surf the web (free) for the one item I intend to purchase--more data shared!




Imagine the Information Visual Artists Share in Searches and Shopping

Next-to-Free Frame

Recently, I met with my banker to question a medical charge on my bank card.  He cast a sideways glance my way as he searched, questioning assorted thrift shop charges. "Why, yes, those are valid, I'm an artist," I said, as though that explained everything. The "medical" charge was actually a hospice thrift store, one of a half dozen I frequent for "arts and antiques" fixes. All of my picture frames are recycled thrift purchases along with most subject vases and props. A lovely hardwood black frame for this small study cost me forty cents. That's in my profile!

We Thought Internet was Free Because They Said it was Free

Remember when AOL sent out all those free disks to every mailing address in the county? It was free. Other than wonderful academic sites, there was little on the internet then. That was pre "monitizing" marketing moguls.

Remember when you signed on for a free artist site or to research materials for your works? Wasn't long before you were paying to get the full monty.

Similarly, when I bought my auto some years ago with pricey extended warranty they said all my service, car washes, tire rotations, etc. etc. were "free." I just discovered that service 1 is about $300 and service 2 roughly $500 now that the warranty is out and Nothing is Free--that's for an oil change and if nothing is broken. My luxury auto is in my profiles along with my thrift store picture frames. How funny is that--"I'm an artist."

Build the Profile You Want and Bury the Old Stuff You Don't Want

For decades I did everything possible to stay invisible because I'm a private person. Change was necessitated by my online art studio presence. Old bits and pieces of my personal life crept into the web over the years and is now way old in internet profiles. As I built sites and posted, I made sure it was business-focused data with a little commentary that surfaced in searches. And I kept the data flowing-mountains of data. Many artists post daily just for this reason.       Keeping your imagery and data flowing will gradually build your chosen profile. When you search the web, use privacy settings and remember you are never alone on the web. Every click, every stroke of your data is being targeted for sales to marketers. Have fun with it, build a really interesting profile!

User Fees for Services and Information Are the New Norm

Nothing is Free. Not the internet, banking, news, my car washes, your airline baggage, Nothing. We have the freedom to search the web because we have already paid the price of admittance. Artists who want to put their works online must also pay the price to reach all those eyes out there. Protect your privacy and protect yourself from unscrupulous thieves who will download your images--web search a how-to site for free!



GailKentStudio.com Update: This new site is not yet live as I need to see what Google is doing with Plus to see SEO implications, and I'll have a larger space this summer to paint much larger works. Meanwhile, I have many works on my Fine Art America site at FAA Website

Comments are always encouraged. 
If you're following interesting blogs, feel free to comment or post those links here, too. 


All the best,

Gail Kent
Gail Kent Studio

Find me or my work at the following addresses:
Gail-Kent.artistwebsites.com 
 Twitter -  Twitter.com/@Gail_Kent,  and Facebook -  www.facebook.com/GailKentStudio
www.etsy.com/people/gailkentstudio
https://sites.google.com/site/gailkentstudios

How's Your Google+ Experience Working Out?

Do we really need another Social Network account?

Today, I joined the Google+ club by creating my page.  Gail Kent Google+ Page
I resisted until I began having exchanges with other artists who are using Google+ and expect me to return a plus if they plus me. We're already Facebook-trained with "favorite or like me and I'll return the favor and like you, too." Not that I have anything against Google, my source for everything. My hesitancy had to do with time.

Does this sound like your online presence? 

In addition to all the general reading, e-mailing, shopping that I do online, I have the five websites I use daily: Google Sites art website, an FAA hosted art website, Facebook Artist page, Twitter for news feeds, and this blog on Google's Blogger.

Then there's my new domain gallery site under construction using Word Press on my domain host iPage, and an Etsy store account. And, I have Digg and Flickr accounts for art posts, all my financial accounts that I post to and comment on, and several e-mail accounts to separate all the personal, artist, and commentary stuff.  YouTube is in the future for tutorials, as well.

Picnic Island, Tampa

I'm a painter. I'm not in any technical field and I don't have any staff or consultants to help me with these things. I'm guessing most artists managing their own web profile are also one-man shows trying to make the best decisions to show and sell their art. It's sink or swim time in the Google+ stream in South Tampa.




The Google+ stream is easy to use, growing a circle is easy, but somehow they re-named my page and then I could no longer manage the site. I setup my page as Gail Kent Art Studio with my photo, 17 pictures - looked good. Then after a few searches, I returned to find my page was re-named Gail Kent and all the photos were no longer visible and an album of 47 of my blog photos was listed but not accessible. Re-loading the profile photo wasn't allowed. Trying to upload any picture is now a problem in this blog - they don't show on the upload screen. Headache!  I sent a feedback to Google about the plus issue, which stated they don't answer feedbacks, but try to implement any general changes for the benefit of all users. Huh?

I'm not sure where this is going and hoping Google will fix all the problems that I've experienced in creating my page. I believe I used a pseudonym (business name) which shouldn't have caused a problem. Google+ Pseudonyms. I'll hold off installing +1 buttons for now.

Port Tampa

If all glitches can't get worked out, BIG problem
having Gail Kent Art Studio as Gail Kent on Google+:

I don't do personal as public on-line, just business goes on-line, which brings up another new issue. This link 'splains a lot: Google Policies. Everything is now so integrated that I'm getting a little nervous about all the +1 buttons I'm pressing building some sort of Google generated profile that isn't at all me. When online, unlike corporations,  I am not a person! I am a professional website. Decisions, decisions.


Please post your Google+ experience comments, good and not so good, will be helpful to everyone facing this decision.
Comments are always encouraged. If you're following interesting blogs, feel free to comment or post your links here, too.

All the best,

Gail Kent
Gail Kent Studio

Find me or my work at the following addresses:
Gail-Kent.artistwebsites.com 
 Twitter -  Twitter.com/@Gail_Kent,  and Facebook -  www.facebook.com/GailKentStudio
www.etsy.com/people/gailkentstudio
https://sites.google.com/site/gailkentstudios

Arrrrrrgh! Pirates Landing, Beads in the Streets

Arrrrrrgh!!!

As I write, fireworks fill the skies over Tampa Bay and Jose Gasparilla pirates are again claiming the city and paying with beads. Those silly boys will be boys! Streets are filled with children this weekend and next weekend we get the full invasion, with the adult parade down Bayshore Boulevard and booze and beads everywhere! Everything goes remarkably well and clean up will be done by daybreak after each event. Invading Pirates

Island Winter Series high Noon

Today I planned to work for a short while on getting my website art descriptions cleaned up, actually writing more than 1 short sentence about my works on the Fine Arts America site. See my prior blog from January 11th Importance of your descriptions. It took all afternoon for me to do only a page and a half of the three pages of listings. It is such a tremendous improvement. I worked on standardizing my tags, as well,  while I was at it, so that my coastal and mountain works are each defined with the attention they deserve. Still a long way to go.

Island Winter Series Low Tide

I uploaded 5 new Winter beach field studies today, and will have 1or 2 more uploads from this series.

This painting of the low tide on a winter morning doesn't fully capture the breathtaking beauty of that low white line across the horizon. We do have color changes with each season, and Winter is gorgeous!
This low tide, low horizon scene makes you feel as though you are but a grain of sand in this expansive universe - beautiful!

Winter Morning

This painting depicts a clear crisp January morning on the bay last week. The colors are the deepest I've seen this year. The water was actually a much deeper diplomat blue, it was cold. It's high tide, and no boat traffic because the winds are too high.





Enough of my works for 1 post. Hard to write with the party 2 blocks away and sirens and canons blasting.

Looks like Etsy has lost my Aspens painting that should be in the sidebar widget. It's not on the site anywhere - oops! Guess I'll have to shell out twenty cents to re-list it and write one of my verbose descriptions so it will sell!

Comments always encouraged. Or, if you're following interesting blogs, feel free to comment or post your links here.

All the best,

Gail Kent
Gail Kent Studio

Find me or my work at the following addresses:
Gail-Kent.artistwebsites.com 
 Twitter -  Twitter.com/@Gail_Kent,  and Facebook -  www.facebook.com/GailKentStudio
www.etsy.com/people/gailkentstudio
https://sites.google.com/site/gailkentstudios

Hot Artists, New Artists and Gail Kent on the Horizon

(This post edited on 01.27.2012 to replace photos lost in creating Google+ Page)

For 2012, we can expect to see record prices for several contemporary artists, most notably Gerhard Richter. Painters understand (or envy!) the values in fine art auctions, sometimes, but how does an investor select the objets d'art and fine paintings to lust after to make their lives complete?

Investing in art is a combination of knowledge, emotion, acquisition means and skills, and of great advisers who will scour the markets for just the pieces to add to or complete a collection. With any investment, there are good years and bad years, and perhaps a lifetime to enjoy these special acquisitions and then pass them on. For many investors, it's strictly business and the numbers are the game they're playing. Odds are, they'll win.
 

Richter's Kerze

This is one of Richter's kerze (candle) images with the link to the website where I found it:  Richter Kerze image

This is truly timeless imagery touching us on many levels. It's about as minimalist as great art comes, though I'll admit to admiring much less in imagery. It's tranquility is atypical of Richter's "more German" abstract high energy, even disturbing, works of photography and painting.

How much would you pay for this image? Christie's sold a kerze work in October for  US$16.6-million. And investors eagerly wait to buy more.



“Richter is going to play a huge role in the market for years to come,” Jonathan Binstock, a New York-based senior contemporary-art adviser at Citibank NA, said in an interview. “Collectors are going for artists with proven reputations.” Bloomberg - 2011 New Buyer Sales at $1.7-Billion



Back to the real world where the rest of us live.

Maybe luck has a little to do with sales, or maybe not.

     - Are you working on your masterpiece?
     - Are you painting because art, painting, is your raison d'être?       
     - Are you shouting "Hey, World, look at me, my work is great, too!"?
 
 Keep painting, every day if you can, and promote, promote, promote. Success is built on hard work and comes on many different levels. As painters, most of us would like to sell our art, not pocket a chunk of the global economy.

Gursky Photo

Some time ago I posted an image/link on my studio Facebook page about another contemporary art piece that sold for a record price Awesome Photo - $4.3-Million worth of Awesome. 

This photo is in essence a minimalist expression similar to the Kerze piece.






 

Dark Waters

 If you know my abstract field study low horizon beach pieces, such as Dark Waters,  Dark Waters-Gail Kent Canvas Print, you'll see similarities in imagery and a sense of tranquility in each that convey peaceful feelings found in these two recently auctioned famous works.  In essence, mine are great paintings, too. But that's where the similarity ends, I'm still painting every day. 


What great images are you working on and how are you promoting your works?



All the best,

Gail Kent
Gail Kent Studio

Find me or my work at the following addresses:
Gail-Kent.artistwebsites.com 
 Twitter -  Twitter.com/@Gail_Kent,  and Facebook -  www.facebook.com/GailKentStudio
www.etsy.com/people/gailkentstudio
https://sites.google.com/site/gailkentstudios

Painters Creating Great Art Blogs

(This post edited on 01.27.12 to replace photos lost in creating Google+ Page)

A Great Art Blog I'm exploring as I surf around other artists' sites is Artists Helping Artists.

The AHA blog was linked to me by another painter when I started my blog and I knew right away it was a keeper. Two painters, Leslie Saeta and Dreama Tolle Perry, have done a marvelous job of getting their art out there and in helping the rest of us achieve success in selling our art, too.

Today I listened to one of their older radio blogs on creating a popular blog which reiterated in artist-speak what I've learned from Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett's book, ProBlogger, ( Problogger Book Link ). I'll enjoy more of AHA's posts and broadcasts after I get my domain site up in the next week or so.

The holidays have been a productive period for me as I paint larger oil works to put on the new gallery site. After listening to this broadcast on blogging, I've decided to sell the original small acrylic field studies, as well as sell them as prints currently offered at Gail Kent at Fine Art America. Though these studies are abstract and the new works are traditional, they complement one another and each has a market.

There were a lot of great ideas in this AHA broadcast, with participants also discussing favorite artist blogs and the reasons they visit these popular blogs: 
     - great instruction
     - informative tips 
     - consistent artwork
     - and voice the bloggers use in their writing--they are themselves. 


I'm looking forward to developing my blog into a helpful favorite resource, too, as I learn from pros like Leslie and Dreama. I'm gathering a list of blogs that I'll share and Artists Helping Artists will be at the top of the list.

Old Crows

Meanwhile, this was my audience yesterday as I waited for the fog to lift so I could get in a few hours of painting. I'm not sure where these old crows (or buzzards) came from or where they're headed, but this roof is definitely not their home and they're not in my painting.

Fortunately, the fog burned off around lunch time and it was a beautiful winter day.
 

Rocky Raccoon

This little guy stopped by last week. Picnic Island is his home and I am his guest. I've named the little mischief-maker Rocky, and taught him that he has to look elsewhere for his breakfast each morning that I'm painting.

Other guests last week were "snowbirds" from Michigan who found it curious that I was painting mountains not the beach before me. They complimented my work and moved on laughing about the 30's back home.




If you're following great blogs, feel free to comment or post your links here. Comments always welcomed.

All the best,

Gail Kent
Gail Kent Studio

Find me or my work at the following addresses:
Gail-Kent.artistwebsites.com 
 Twitter -  Twitter.com/@Gail_Kent,  and Facebook -  www.facebook.com/GailKentStudio
www.etsy.com/people/gailkentstudio
https://sites.google.com/site/gailkentstudios

Black Friday? No thanks, I like blue

It's "Black Friday" throughout the United States and everyone is out shopping till they drop. Today, the day after Thanksgiving, is the big day retailers eagerly await all year. Today red ink turns to black as retailers will begin to show the year's real profit.

Yesterday my neighborhood stores were opening (on Thanksgiving day!) as the big bird was still in the oven. Big box stores and little boxes, too, decided to get a jump start on the masses looking for bargains. I'm not sure what this says about our culture. Is bargain-hunting taking priority over this most special of traditional family days?

I think Thanksgiving Day is a great opportunity to give thanks in community service by helping out with meals in shelters, hospitals, and assisted living centers so everyone participates in Thanksgiving. Those residents and patients will not be out shopping.


A top news story today was about a Walmart shopper who used pepper spray injuring some twenty other shoppers last evening. Her reason, to get in front of everyone else to get an electronic game. Police are on her trail. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gnP4lNWq7GNim9MPpqvajINVGVZw?docId=1054bb0d4514486298f6d82bdcf18881

So what are you, as an online artist, doing about Black Friday? Are you making deep discounts for this day; for the entire holiday sales season on your sites? I noticed many promotions on the Etsy site for most shops, but not so much for art. I decided to offer some small paintings for this period, rather than reduce pricing. If a customer needs a discount to purchase art, they should ask for it and explain why the piece is worth less. If all art is discounted, your work is then worth less as well.

Black Friday? No thanks, I like blue.

I have opted out of the Black Friday madness for the most part. I may run down to Michael's with a 40% off coupon in-hand this afternoon, but I do that almost every week of the year. I don't join the department store crowds looking for a discount sweater or toy, and I don't discount my art.  

Today is a day to relax and enjoy the season. I spent my morning watching children playing on the beach and sailboats, and fishing boats in the channel. No black or red coloring my thoughts.

What are your thoughts?  Your comments are welcome.

All the best,

Gail Kent
Gail Kent Studios

Find me or my work at the following addresses:
Gail-Kent.artistwebsites.com 
 Twitter -  Twitter.com/@Gail_Kent,  and Facebook -  www.facebook.com/GailKentStudio
www.etsy.com/people/gailkentstudio
https://sites.google.com/site/gailkentstudios (in process)

Marketing to Your 69 Billion Facebook Friends

That's right, 69 Billion potential customers for your art! This post is about the Six Degrees of Separation which Facebook has now reduced to 4.7 degrees.

If you're not yet marketing your art using Facebook as a tool, you might want to give it some thought. It's one of my most powerful tools, yet some of my Etsy artist contacts are "scared" to give it a try. Someone might scam them. Someone might scam them at the local car wash, too, as happened to me several years ago when my bank card was swiped on an employee's personal scanner. I'm taking my chances with Facebook.

I held off using Facebook for the Studio because of software changes Facebook was making and I had no information on how to setup Gail Kent Studio, but it all worked out. I setup a personal page with 2 friends on it for several months, then made the transition to Artist Page Account. It was fairly seamless and I love having the Facebook Artist Page Account as a professional page.

Most of us have experienced psychologist Stanley Milgren's Six Degrees of Separation theory in which we meet people who know people we know, and we think "what a small world!" The world has indeed gotten smaller with worldwide internet usage. This morning I looked at the traffic on one of my artist sites to see, as usual, an international trail posted with visitors from Holland, England, India, South Africa, Kenya, and half a dozen American cities.



Here's a link to one article about the Facebook effect on the Six Degrees theory. http://gigaom.com/2011/11/22/six-degrees-what-does-it-mean-to-be-facebook-friends/. This reinforces my earlier post about marketing your art on Etsy and other sites and the importance of search engine optimization (SEO) as you choose your tags or keywords. http://gailkentpainter.blogspot.com/2011/11/marketing-your-fine-art-on-etsy-for.html.

With 10% of the world's population, 721 million sets of eyeballs my friends, as active users, Facebook has determined there are 69 billion friendships established according to the above article link. Whether weak connections, or strong, each one is a potential exposure of your artwork to someone who may be moved to actually connect with you to acquire your art. They may "trail" you for a while before buying in a way they couldn't before. They will know you; they will know your art. They will buy your art.

Before our US Thanksgiving holiday, I'll photograph and upload eight or ten new small works painted specifically for my reproduction site and put the small paintings on Etsy as affordable art for holiday gift-giving. They'll most definitely go onto Facebook, my number one marketing tool.

All the best,

Gail Kent
Gail Kent Studios

Find me or my work at the following addresses:
Gail-Kent.artistwebsites.com 
 Twitter -  Twitter.com/@Gail_Kent,  and Facebook -  www.facebook.com/GailKentStudio
www.etsy.com/people/gailkentstudio
https://sites.google.com/site/gailkentstudios (in process)



.

 

Marketing Your Fine Art on Etsy for Profit

Marketing fine art on Etsy can be profitable if you do your homework. I've had several Etsy shops including one now active for marketing my paintings and photography. Etsy bills the site as "The World's Marketplace" and I have to agree that they are now a multinational business. They recently had a marketing blitz in Berlin (one great art city!) and there are French and German blogs that I've bookmarked so that I can see local items and read the local marketing. Links for these sites are for French  http://fr.etsy.com/blog/  and for German  http://de.etsy.com/blog/

Marketing for a flea market stall and selling in Etsy shops are two entirely different arenas and you have to remember that when listing your fine art on Etsy. I frequent thrift, consignment, antique shops, and indoor flea markets at home and when traveling. I have managed to score a few pieces of really good art on my outings, but there is some incredibly fine art to be found on Etsy, too,  and you don't have to leave home to get it.

It's smooth sailing on Etsy

How to begin your homework:

1. Research your work's fair market value
As artists, especially painters, we cannot price our work by the hour. It isn't piece work. Even if you are blessed with divine talent and can whip out a painting an hour, you must price it for the art that it is--unique and extraordinary. We cannot sell a $300 painting for $25 in an Etsy shop because we think we are competing with other $25 items for sale. We are not competing with a knitted cup wrap or a vintage moo-moo someone bought for fifty cents. Though some of those colorful moo-moos could be framed and hung on the wall.

2. Research other websites that offer fine art and compare
There are many artist's sites around with membership prices of "free" to $300 per year or more. Each is different and you just have to start where you're comfortable and get your feet wet. Pay close attention to the genre that is most popular on each site by looking at best sellers. You may want to plan  your own independent website rather than one hosted by Etsy or other sites, if you have sufficient contacts in your personal networks to promote a site.

3. "Convo me" it's how Etsy shop owners network with one another
When you get a shop set up with a few items listed, it's time to interact with other Etsians. It's so easy to do. Just visit other shops and favorite people and shops and then add them to your circle. There is an underlying reason you do this that we'll explore in another blog. For now, you just want to make contacts and have a few conversations with people who create interesting work. I've met established artists from around the world, and a few crafters in this way.


4. You can play roulette or you can sell art
Yesterday, I took a look at my "favorited' items list which brought up shop owner information. One shop had favorited over 50,000 items. Really?! Targeted favorites are what you want to collect. The Treasury list is an excellent way to connect with favorite item and shops. Just jump in and create one. You will be marketing 16 other artisans, but you are also marketing yourself, too. You are not competing with these artisans.  More in a future post.

5. Etsy shops generate web presence through search engines
After you've done all your Etsy shop homework, you need to learn about search engine optimization (SEO) marketing  in order to be successful in today's marketplace. You can very easily make the jump from one little shop to hundreds of your own images and articles available to the public through Google and other search engines.

Now you're ready to Promote, Promote, Promote! Etsy may be just your first piece in the puzzle of how to sell your art.

Here are the links to my shop: http://www.etsy.com/people/gailkentstudio
and to  Etsy USA site : http://www.etsy.com 

and here are sample Treasury lists for you to browse through so you get the idea.

http://www.etsy.com/people/gailkentstudio/treasury?ref=pr_treasury_more
I post these to my Twitter and my Facebook accounts.


All the best,

Gail Kent
Gail Kent Studios

Find me or my work at the following addresses:
Gail-Kent.artistwebsites.com
Twitter - @Gail_Kent, and Facebook -  www.facebook.com/GailKentStudio
www.etsy.com/people/gailkentstudio
https://sites.google.com/site/gailkentstudios/ (in process)