You Can Sell Art Online

Why A Wordpress Blog Is Good For An Artist

2012-01-07T13:31:00.000-08:00

Artists using the internet to market your work, remember that publicity is just as important as advertising. Using the internet to make yourself known to potential collectors and the artworld movers and shakers can do wonders if you choose to network online with local and global artworld figures that you could not access before the rise of Social Network media.
This is another reason that artists should use blog posts and status updates, in a judicious manner, to offer insight into their work to the collectors and art officials they wish to attract and connect with. A blog is also very personal way to add an exciting sense of discovery to your message.
With the available widgets and creation of pages, you can give the blog the look and feel of a web site, so it's also an inexpensive solution for the you if you're trying to a create a website that showcases your work.

Artist Alex Schaefer Sells First Painting On Ebay For $25K

2011-09-13T12:02:00.000-07:00

This story has been all over the LA Times, local news and even NPR, and it's a great example of how eBay can be a game-changer for artists that have struggled to sell more of their work. Alex has been an artist on the L.A. scene for many years, but his new series of "burning bank" plein aire paintings earned him national press lately when his work was considered to be potentially an act of terrorism. Seizing the opportunity that this sudden exposure gave him, Alex listed the painting on eBay and got 70 bids and over $25K! Not bad for a relatively unknown artist and new eBayer.http://alexanderschaefer.blogspot.com/

How To Photograph Your Art, Pro Setup

2011-06-21T11:49:00.000-07:00

Previously in this blog, I have detailed the how and why of photographing your artwork, so you can sell it online. Indoor methods are recommended, but outdoor techniques are also described for those that don't want to buy a light kit. Recently, I have upgraded my methods by purchasing a Westcott lighting kit. Much more stable and effective than my previous kit, which didn't have soft boxes, a crucial element for high quality photographs of your paintings or sculpture. Here is my new setup, which can be purchased for around $150.

Where To Sell Your Art Online And Why

2011-04-26T11:14:00.000-07:00

In the last post, I shared Mat Gleason's video warning, "Never Pay To Sell Your Art" to call attention to the multitude of pay-to-show online galleries and the sneaky hybrid versions that seem like authentic opportunities. When self-marketing their work in the great online frontier, self-representing artists should expect to pay fees for their e-commerce engine and shopping cart, Paypal transactions and credit card processing, but should not have to pay any upfront fees for those sales that are done for the artist by an online gallery that represents the artist to the collector and processes the transaction. The online gallery pays a commission to the artist after the sale, usually after a reasonable grace period from 10-30 days.

How An Online Gallery Should Work: Zatista.com

This is the relationship that I have with online gallery, Zatista.com: I provide them images of my work, biographical information and anything I can that will help them make a sale, but never give them upfront fees. When they sell a painting, they take a 30% commission on the sale, a very reasonable fee for marketing and selling my art and processing the sale. They have spent resources on publicizing and marketing their web site to potential art buyers and have been featured in Elle Decor, Real Simple, on the Nate Berkus Show, CNBC, etc. They have developed a solid collector base and have sold a handful of my paintings in a handful of months. They are the real deal, because they are motivated to sell your art by being paid to do so. Everyone wins. Zatista Gallery

False Hopes Of Exposure To Interior Designers Or Entre Into The Art World
Online art galleries that charge a high monthly fee of $40 or more, usually promise access to interior designers or claim affiliation with a brick-and-mortar gallery that has a stable of collectors or the useless proposal that the artist will get exposure to another gallery that will pick them up and make them famous. The upfront fee online gallery makes money off of the artist, whether they sell the artworks or not. This business model is no problem for the gallery, but it is a big problem for 95% of the artists that join and pay the monthly fees. They simply receive little or no benefit from this relationship. The 5% that benefits from the membership are used as examples to lure in new marks. The artist's money would be far better spent paying for an e-commerce provider and a consultation with a Search Engine Optimization expert.

Other Sources Of Low-Cost Or No Cost Representation
Generally, the fee-based galleries that we are talking about charge a monthly fee of $45 or more for "membership". They offer much less traffic to your work than an eBay or Etsy store, and little more than you can generate on your own web site and/or blog. I do pay for some memberships; here's an example of one online gallery, if you can call it that, ImageKind.com, but the yearly $98 fee is a pittance, compared with paying upward of $50/month, and, even more importantly, there is a free option available to any artist that wants to limit their portfolio to 20 pieces. I usually sell 5X to 10X the yearly fee in prints through them each year, so there is definitely benefit here for me as an artist selling my work online.

I pay $20/monthly to maintain an eBay store, because they bring me significant traffic of potential collectors, and I make sales through them, every month, netting more than 1000x what I pay in fees. As of last year, I pay $29/month to maintain a ProStore, so I have a more tastefully done online store to which I can send potential collectors that I have met at brick-and-mortar exhibits. So, with all these sources of consistent self-represented online sales, I pay less than artists do to be members of one online gallery that will garner little or no sales, and, more importantly, I'm building a future that is both more expansive and secure.

Go With Your Gut When Choosing Online Art Representation
In a a lot of instances, there is some sort of deception or surprise during the pitch to join these online pay-to-show galleries. Here's a real life example: I was called for an interview at a very nice gallery in Laguna Beach and was asked to join the local gallery association's web site, so I could start showing in the gallery. The dealer told me that he could see that I understood how to use the internet to sell art, and the local gallery association was doing the same thing. He would call the board members over the weekend and fast track my approval because he wanted my work in his gallery. I didn't discover that I would have to pay any fees until I got home and tried to join the web site. If the conversation between the artist and the dealer about the arrangements seems vague and confusing, that can be a tip-off that everything is not in the artist's favor.

Unfortunately, increasing your presence in the online art world also increases your exposure to scams and digitally-veiled vanity galleries. If it seems too good to be true, it usually is. Watch blogs like mine and EmptyEasel.com for solid advice and useful reviews on online galleries that will work for you.
Warren Keating is an artist in Los Angeles, working out of a studio in Encino. For more info: WarrenKeating.com.

Never Pay To Sell Your Art

2011-03-18T09:03:00.000-07:00

This is my current rant to my fellow artists. You don't have to take my word for it, but please listen to noted art critic, Mat Gleason:

How To Get More Feedback On Your Art

2011-03-07T10:36:00.000-08:00

What if I have listed my art online, and I haven’t gotten any sales? How do I get noticed and sell some art?

It’s the emerging artist's biggest dilemma.

An artist's internet presence should include
a web site or blog, ecommerce gallery site,
Facebook, Flicker and YouTube pages

1. To create a following, publicize your name and your work through the online social mediums that I have mentioned in previous posts, Facebook, YouTube, your blog, Twitter, your web site. I don’t know what your story is, but, provided that you are serious about having a career as an artist, the sooner that you sow the seeds of your online presence, the better. The Internet and Social Media is still a big land grab, a digital version of the settling of the frontier. It’s best to stake your claim now, and get as much real estate as you can, by way of uploading content about yourself and your work on as many sites and social networks as you can.

Have at least five excellent photos of each painting
available for potential buyers

2. If you are not getting offers, make sure that your titles, descriptions and keywords are optimized. Try repackaging your art to fit different price ranges. Make sure that you have excellent pictures of your work in the listing. I usually have 5-10 images of each painting.

Also, take one of the fixed price listings and offer it as a low-reserve auction, starting at 33-66% of the original Fixed Price. Be judicious with this technique, but it can be quite effective. I have created a whole line of small paintings on inexpensive materials that start at $98. I’m just now working on a $2400 commission for a collector that had previously bought a $98 painting, so you never know. The trick is to use this techniques sparingly; don’t get swayed by a bunch of auction sales, then hugely discount all of your work available online; ultimately that will create less profits during a shortened career.

Four Places On The Internet To Sell Art, That Really Work!

2011-03-02T10:07:00.000-08:00

1. eBay
Higher-priced original art can be sold on eBay with a little marketing and patience. At $20-$50 month, it's a small investment in a much bigger long-term gain. My eBay store, now in it's fourth year, started running a profit after the third month and the business has doubled every year. With the proper pricing strategy and traffic driven by Google searches and Social Network marketing, an eBay store is no longer just a source of short-term profit, but also a solid platform from which the artist can market and sell their art.

Do not be overly influenced by some of the low-ball pricing of some of the art that is sold on eBay. Find sellers that sell both cheap and expensive art and copy their successful marketing techniques without sacrificing all of your art for a ridiculous price and devaluing your work. If you have a sales history, price 95% of your work on eBay, as you would in the real world with 1-5% of your work offered at auction for lower prices. On the 95% Buy It Now listings, give the potential collector the option to Make An Offer, so that a dialogue between self-representing artist and collector can begin. Art dealers in the real world do the same and negotiate prices and purchases with potential collectors.

2. Successful, High Visibility Online Galleries
Zatista and Ugalelry are a true online galleries. They take a percentage of sales. They market and publicize their artists, as well as the Zatista brand. They sell art.
I personally have tried other online gallery sites and haven't sold anything through them; this is the only one that has worked for me. You may find other web sites that are a good match for your work. Large, expensive original paintings don't seem to be quite the thing to sell on Etsy, but do well on Zatista. The self-representing online artist has to search out sites like these, test them, and find which ones actually contribute to the artist's bottom line.

3. ImageKind
For selling reproductions of original art and photography, ImageKind has proven to this writer to be a contributor to the artist's bottom line. A free membership is available to the seller to "test the waters". After a year or so of making a little money selling prints on Imagekind, I upgraded to the $100/year account, and my ImageKind galleries have paid for themselves many times over, and is a nice little income stream, not a river, but still an income stream that adds to the artist's bottom line.

4. Best No Budget Solution
Firstly, all of the solutions listed above represent a very small investment by the artist. To have your own online gallery from which to sell your art that has so much visibility on search engines like Google, is such a bargain for $20. My eBay bill has grown from $20/month in the beginning to several hundred, due to all the Final Value Fees for work that sold that month, but that is a very good thing. It verifies the old adage that one has to spend money to make ten times more. But, those artists that are still not convinced that their future, full-time art career is not worth $20/month, can implement ecommerce on their web site or blog using their PayPal account and the Buy It Now button. It's a no-budget solution that won't create as many sales as the above-mentioned sources, but, it's worth implementing if you're already spending time and energy marketing yourself on the internet and don't have a place for your hard-won audience to go and buy your art.

A year ago, I would have said that the only place to sell art was on eBay, the Wild West of online art sales, but the online landscape changes so quickly, that new venues for the self-representing artist to sell art are popping up all the time, and, occasionally, one arrives on the scene that actually works. Good luck in your art marketing endeavors both online and off. Leave us a comment and let us know how you're doing.

Warren Keating is an artist in Los Angeles working out of his studio in Encino. For more information, go to WarrenKeating.com.

Sell More Art Online With New Pricing Strategies

2011-01-17T14:19:00.000-08:00

How to price your art to sell successfully on the internet can be a controversial quandary, to say the least. For example, most articles in art business magazines and web sites say that the only way to sell art on eBay is by auctioning it with a shamefully low reserve to attract a lot of bidders. In the four years that I have been selling art online, quite successfully, that particular method has never worked for me, and I have tried it many times, sacrificing some nice little paintings that sold for barely more than the minimum bid. In my lectures, I used to say that eBay was the only way to consistently sell art online; that is no longer true. The strategies for selling art on the internet are changing as rapidly as the online landscape, so check out this update for the latest ways to sell your art online.

Retail Is Retail Is Retail
(You may want to back up from the screen a bit; I get pretty passionate about this one.) Just like the age old conflict between the art dealer and the artist selling work directly from the studio at a discount, artists must demand the same price for their work whether selling at a top gallery, from their eBay store, or directly from the studio. There may be negotiations behind closed doors in both venues. The gallery representing you may discount the artwork 20% to close the deal; you may do the same thing from your online gallery or on eBay, or when selling from the studio or art fair, but basically, paintings, photography, or sculpture should be priced the same for online and brick-and-mortar exhibits.

When Pricing Your Art, Don't Devalue, Repackage
If the only collectors that you can attract in the beginning can't afford your large multi-thousand dollar pieces; don't make the mistake of lowering your prices to cater to th market. When pricing your art, avoid devaluing it. Instead of lowering the price, create new smaller works or reproductions for lower-priced markets.

Remember, you can always raise your prices without jeopardizing your collectors, but lowering them can be harmful to the artist's reputation. I bought a Nintendo Wii for $199 a year ago, and now a newer one which includes more games, is only $179. That has negatively affected my opinion of Nintendo and the Wii, and has greatly reduced my brand loyalty.

If you haven't sold a lot of work, start your prices at a realistic level. If you have a sales history, consider that, on eBay, your “bottom line” is always lower than the listed price on Buy It Now Or Make Offer listings. Often there are offers made back and forth between buyer and seller, before a price is reached. Although, in some cases, a new collector will just press the “Buy It Now” button, and the artist will get full retail price for the work and not have to go through the negotiations of the Make Offer process.

These days, I rarely use the auction format that is mentioned in so many of these “copy and paste” art business articles, 95% of my eBay listings are Buy It Now or Buy It Now/Make Offer format. In my ProStore, it's retail pricing all the way, the browser has the option to “Add To Cart” for full price. In the third party gallery sites like Zatista.com, again, it's full retail pricing.

When starting or reorganizing your online art selling business, consider your pricing strategy realistically, but with courage and conviction. The worst mistake you can have is an inconsistent pricing structure that will shake buyer confidence. Check out my last post, New Sites That Actually Sell Art Online.

Warren Keating is an artist in Los Angeles. His work can be purchased from galleries and exhibits throughout Southern California, from his Encino studio or online at WarrenKeating.com.

New Sites That Actually Sell Your Art Online

2011-01-10T10:49:00.000-08:00

Until the last year, I would tell you that eBay was the only effective way to sell art online. Having had personal experience with dozens of online art galleries and years of offering my work directly from my web site, I had made very few, if any, sales from those avenues while my eBay store moves at least a half dozen pieces of art per month. Finally, after years of joining art-selling sites that don’t make any sales, I have found some that work.

Best Online Gallery Site: Zatista.com
When I first joined Zatista, I only uploaded a half dozen examples of my work and didn’t expect much. After a couple of months, four pieces sold to two new collectors. This is much better performance than experienced at other art-selling sites that I have. What’s the difference? Zatista has gotten editorial coverage in publications like Elle Décor. They’ve built an extensive art education section into their web site for new and emerging collectors and enlisted interior designers as contributors and special feature jury members. Last, but certainly not least, they’ve created a secure retail environment which is the key to buyer confidence.

Finally An Ecommerce Solution That Sells Art
Signing up for a ProStore was a long-considered step for me. According to their web site: “ProStores is the complete, affordable online store solution backed by eBay.” For years there were not any sales directly from my web site, so there was no point in paying a monthly fee to have any additional ecommerce engine than a standard eBay store. But, analysis of eBay traffic over the past 3 years has shown a lot of searches for my name lately, something that never happened before. I think the 3 to 4 years of creating an Internet presence, participating in brick-and-mortar exhibits and selling a lot of paintings to different collectors online have finally paid off, and I am cultivating a following.
A couple weeks after signing up, I sold a piece for full price from the new ProStore. The final value fees for ProStore sales (fee eBay charges when one sells something) are significantly lower than the final value fee on an eBay sale, so the profit on that sale was much higher than I was used to.

Additionally, the ProStore is a tasteful way to sell art to collectors that have found or are given the address to the artist’s home page. The ProStore has a cleaner, better designed look more suited to selling a luxury item like art. With a ProStore in place, the tackier standard eBay store is “hidden” from collectors, galleries and fans that visit the artist’s home page. The eBay store can still serve it’s purpose, to attract buyers from Google searches and the eBay community, while the ProStore is a an online destination for collectors and interested parties that have met the artist at a brick-and-mortar exhibit or art event.
And, finally, again, the ProStore is a secure retail environment. The software automatically creates a return policy and shipping calculator, based on the seller’s eBay listings. It creates an About page and adds other details that increase buyer confidence. You will want to go back later and edit the text on these pages to fit your online gallery, but, out of the box, you will have a professional online gallery with all of the trimmings to give potential collectors the information and security to help them become buyers.

Now, I have to spend the first weeks of the new year uploading more of my artwork to my Zatista gallery and refining my Pro Store pages. In next week’s post, I will discuss pricing strategies.
Warren Keating is an artist in Los Angeles. For more information, go to WarrenKeating.com.

How Good Artist's Statements Sell More Art

2010-09-28T21:27:00.001-07:00

In The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, Mike Michalowicz cites eight things you have to do to attract customers and keep them. #6 is "Help Them Defend Themselves". To avoid buyer's remorse, he advises sellers to help buyers defend themselves for buying your product when friends or relatives (or the subconscious mind) question the decision. Give buyers the ammunition to defend their purchase by detailing advantages the product has over alternatives.

The artist statement, bio and other support material gives your new collector ammunition that they can use to brag about why they bought your art, and how interesting and special the art is. It puts your art in a class by itself. Most artists produce work that is incredibly individual, so it should be very easy to describe to potential buyers how they will be purchasing a one of a kind item like none other in existence. Even if an artist doesn't have 30 years of painting and exhibiting under their belt, their lifelong journey that led them to create the individual piece gives value to the work, because it tells the buyer that there is a lifetime of effort and knowledge in every painting.

Another advantage to buying art that I make clear to new collectors is that the art is made to last generation, so it will be in their family for centuries. I even go so far as to tell the potential purchaser that they will have greater pleasure buying directly from the artist than from some gallery or other institution. These statements are not fabrications, they are things that we all know, but we need to learn to communicate them to the buyer, because they are incredibly powerful ideas that will not only serve to make the buyer pleased with their purchase and return to buy more, but will also help them broadcast to their friends and family how great it is to buy art from you.

I use my Artist Statement and Bio to persuade potential buyers to become collectors of my artwork

Here is my bio. Notice how some information that may be found in an Artist Statement is interweaved into the biography:

Biography
Somewhere on a bridge at The Getty Center or on a hotel balcony in Paris, you'll find Warren Keating with his video camera, capturing footage of unsuspecting figures walking below. Later, In a studio in Encino, you can find him pouring through frame after frame of video footage to digitize a still frame that shows the perfect moment of weight shift, swing of the arm or tilt of the head that tells volumes about each subject, which he feverishly paints, covering large canvases with thick swashes of paint depicting an overhead view of a person in transit.
     A native of New Orleans and graduate of Otis Parsons, his work now reflects the culmination of 25 years of painting both the figure and the landscape. His first solo show at the Desmond Gallery in Los Angeles in 1995 was followed by numerous solo shows of his paintings in the U.S. and Mexico, including a special exhibit sponsored by the governor. Now, his work is sold directly to a variety of collectors in the U.S., Canada and Europe.
     Keating’s latest series, Overview, which combines video and paint, was selected as an LA Times Calendar pick and won awards at juried exhibits at Long Beach Arts and recently at the Visual Arts Society of Texas, Dallas. An interview with Keating about this series was featured on CNN. The paintings are currently available from JoAnne Artman Gallery, Laguna Beach.

And, here is my Artist Statement

Statement
My latest paintings from the Overview series are the result of collecting video of unwitting subjects from balconies, rooftops and bridges, digitizing them on computer and painting them on canvas in a style that can be best described as Pixelated Impressionism. Merging elements that artists have explored throughout the 20th Century: abstract naturalism, expressive realism, narrative painting, with 21st Century technology; digitized video, satellite surveillance and internet voyeurism, these paintings depict organic shapes of foreshortened figures forming dynamic relationships with their urban environments. Drawing from my childhood experience with a disease that left me unable to walk for several years, I obsessively combine video and paint to create overhead views of walking people captured on canvas, stop-action, mid-step in thick paint. I painstakingly select the exact frame of video that tells the story of each character and render the digital nature of each image in a painterly style depicting a privileged view of a private moment.
The motion of these subjects is realized in thick paint as video scan lines and pixel artifacts creating a style of mark making that has never been seen before.

Don't underestimate the importance of defining your art for yourself and others. It will not only improve your art by making you a more focused artist, but will serve as a powerful marketing tool to make you a better-selling artist as well.

For more information on my figurative paintings, go to WarrenKeating.com. My original oil paintings are for sale at KeatingArt.com

Market Your Art: Monkey Around With Mail Chimp

2010-09-15T11:12:00.000-07:00

While I have Social Media Network Marketing wired with accounts on all the major sites and posting and update managers that save me time, I have been weak in the email marketing area, I admit, until now. Recently, I discovered MailChimp.com and it has changed everything about email marketing for me, so now I am sending newsletters to my collectors every couple of months.

I try to offer valuable information that guide my viewers to the wealth of hopefully interesting internet content about my art that I have developed over the past 5 years. I also use it to update my local collectors on upcoming exhibits, and, of course, lastly, is the sales pitch to visit my eBay store or buy a print from Imagekind.

Powerful Tools To Create And Manage Email Promotions
There are very sophisticated design tools to make really upscale html email, which is key when you're selling Fine Art. Mail Chimp tracks who opened the email; how many times they opened it; and where they clicked. Even though I make these emails a "soft sell", 80% of the clicks were at the bottom right on the "buy my prints from ImageKind" ad. And, yes, sales followed, after the emailed was released, but, more importantly, I kept my name and artwork in the minds of my previous collectors, while offering them something that had some entertainment and information value. I'm analyzing the click data to make my next email promotion even more effective.

How A Blog Post Got Me On T.V.

2010-08-02T14:58:00.000-07:00

I never expected that a self-authored post about my upcoming painting exhibit could garner such publicity! Both CNN Headline News: SoCal News and The Daily News newspaper found my post on the Valley News web site, independent from each other, and conducted further interviews with me about my newest painting series, Overview.
This is what I posted:

A crew from TimeWarner cable's SoCal News, spent two hours here last week shooting a 2-minute segment. A couple of days later, I got a call from The Daily News about running a story on me this Sunday. While the gallery sent out most of the publicity to the art pubs and the L.A. Times, I sure am glad that I put that post up on the Valley News site.

Here is the article that ran in the Daily News:

and here is a video of my CNN segmant on YouTube:

This media coverage not only gives me validity to online customers, but also potential brick-and-mortar galleries. I've had online customers buy my paintings after viewing one of the elements above, so it's not a waste of time to use blogging as a way to market your works.

Warren Keating is an artist living in Los Angeles. For more information, go to WarrenKeating.com.

Pricing Art On eBay: Recent Changes To Fixed Price Affects Art Sales Strategy

2010-07-03T13:23:00.000-07:00

In my own pursuit of learning hot to sell art online, I've read the same thing repeatedly concerning pricing art on eBay. Use a low-reserve auction to compel plenty of traffic and bids and slowly raise your prices over time. I've read that in Art Calendar; I've read it on ArtBusiness.com. I've read it so much, that it seemed copied and pasted into all of these articles. Unfortunately, that technique has not been successful for me. I have stalked, I mean tracked, more successful artists than I on eBay, and have found that, while the low-reserve method may fuel sales like crazy for an artist, eventually, it dies down and the artist that was formally selling work for $500-$1000 is now selling the same work for less than $100. I wonder how this devaluation of the artists' work affects the value of work purchased by their collectors in the past, when the price was higher. Since the low-reserve auctions used by these artists affect the pricing of all paintings, including mine, I am compelled to write this post.

One of the reasons that it is so difficult to get accurate up to date info on pricing strategies for selling paintings on eBay is that the listing structures and search exposure is changing constantly. For better or for worse, eBay is changing and eliminating how you can get better exposure for your listings, so in a few months this post about pricing on eBay may be useless.

The major recent change is that 30-day Fixed Price Listings have full search exposure. Previously the lower priced (10-20 cent fee) fixed price listing did not come up in the main section on a search for a particular piece of art. Since the two listings have become equal, in terms of exposure, a Fixed Price listing with the "Make An Offer" option becomes much more effective and likely to find a buyer. The eBay selling strategy for artists that want to sell art online has to include the Fixed Price listing as a key player, combining it with the longtime auction strategy to create tiers of artwork from which both bargain-hunting and well-funded collectors can find something to purchase.

How To Sell Art Online Course Introduction, Excerpt

2010-06-30T11:14:00.000-07:00

How You Can Sell Art Online from Warren Keating on Vimeo.
This is an excerpt from the introduction at last weekend's workshop for a group of artists from Women Painters West. If you’ve ever wanted to market your art on the internet, my new seminar, You Can Sell Art Online, will give you all the techniques, tips and secrets that you need to be successful. For more tips, go to http://www.YouCanSellArtOnline.com/

My New Step-By-Step Course To Selling Art On The Internet

2010-05-11T08:38:00.000-07:00

If you’ve ever wanted to market your art on the internet, my new seminar, You Can Sell Art Online, will give you all the techniques, tips and secrets that you need to be successful.

Two hour-long sessions with a 30-minute break and extensive question and answer session afterward, everything that you need to know to start successfully selling art online, including:

What you need before you get started marketing on the Internet
Artists' Web Site and Blog Basics and how I connect them
Marketing your work, using Social Network Media and other online sources
How and Why to Draw content from your work that you can publish on the Internet
Spend less time on the computer and more in the studio, using update managers.
Online Galleries and Ebay: What works and what doesn't
--- Lunch Break (brown bag) ---
Ebay Primer: Keywords, Descriptions, Listing types
Google Rankings and Search Engine Optimization
How brick-and-mortar exhibits support your online sales
How online connections can help you get brick-and-mortar exhibits
Why you still need brochures and business cards
Other Ecommerce Solutions
Closing sales, giving good customer service & creating more sales from existing collectors
Processing payment and shipping paintings internationally
--- Questions And Answers---

Only $49 and the package also includes my takeaway ebook. I don’t want you to be distracted during my seminar. Rather, I want you to absorb the material fully, so I have included a CD Rom containing all of the crucial information, resources and instructions that you will receive in the seminar. Courses are already filled up until mid June, email me at info@warrenkeating.com to get on my mailing list and receive information about future You Can Sell Online Seminar locations and dates, or use the handy button in the right column of this blog.

Speaker Warren Keating has been an artist exhibiting in Los Angeles for over 20 years. He has been creating online marketing programs, web sites and internet content for over a decade and has been wildly successful selling his work directly to collectors all over the world via the internet for the last five. During that time, he has experimented with all of the different Social Media Network outlets and has develped a simple method specifically tailored to the needs of Fine Artists to market their art, create a following and sell their work on the Internet. If you’ve ever wanted to market your art on the internet, this seminar will reveal to you all the techniques and secrets that you need to be successful.

Letter To A Potential Collector

2010-04-27T09:44:00.001-07:00

Due to the nature of selling on Ebay, I am frequently finding myself negotiating price with new collectors. With the economy still recovering and the art world suffering from it, it is tempting to reduce your prices, but that would be a mistake for an artist trying to forge a successful career.

One can develop lower priced versions of the work, smaller pieces, prints etc. to adapt to the economy, but one should never reduce the price to increase sales. Although I plainly state that I accept offers on my Ebay listings, I have a lowest price in mind on each painting, based on previous sales, that I will not reduce.

36" X 36" oil on canvas, Sensei Vs. Sensei, received an offer that was lower than I can accept for this size/quality of painting.

In a recent incident, I responded to an offer that was too low with the following email, that, I think, sums up why an artist must stick to his price. Incidentally, although the buyer expressed that he had made his best offer, he decided to meet my price, after I sent my response to his email (I've changed the collectors name to ensure privacy):

The initial offer:
Mr. Keating, I have sent you an offer for $600 on your painting. I absolutley love it and would gladly pay the $1800 for it, however, I simply do not have it at this time. I do not mean any disrespect towards your work with a low offer, but I am just concerned that I will miss out on this piece. I have been watching your work for ahwile, and I would like to purchase an original painting for my home for my 40th birthday coming soon in June. If I happen to miss this one do you forsee doing another one just like this piece? Thank you for your time, and beautiful work. Regards, John Doe

My response:
John, Thank you for your kind words. I appreciate it very much; correspondence like yours fuels my fire to create. I have sent you a counteroffer that is the best I can do on this painting. It's the kind of deal that I would only offer my brother or a very good friend, but your email touched me very much. As it stands, I will have to wrestle this piece from the Dojo of a previous collector who has borrowed it for display. Like I mentioned in my offer, if I let this painting go for less than $1000, all of the collectors in the last couple of years that paid over a $1000 for the same thing would instantly see their work devalued. Rest assured that if you purchase one of my paintings, I won't devalue the work by selling it short during hard times like we are in presently.

As to whether I will be doing another one like this. Look at the leg of the guy who is upside down, at the motion blur on the edge of his pants. I would be lucky to ever make another painting like this.
Kind regards, Warren Keating

I know it can be difficult, but if you have an established track record of selling paintings, it's imperative that you stick to your guns; you owe it to everyone who bought your work in the past. I'm working out a payment plan with this collector. He will receive the painting after the last payment. -W

What Makes Art Original?

2010-01-22T14:34:00.000-08:00

I strive for originality in my work, and it's extremely important to me. However, any work that arises from a personal painting style, individual viewpoint, inventive use of media or a combination of the three is very original, in my opinion. In my grasp of visual language, "subject matter" means the form, mark-making, structure and elemental dominance of the piece of art. The model, pose and environment from which the artist is using to abstract or depict from is the "object matter", which, in my opinion, really doesn't come into play when judging originality.

I feel that I have invented a type of mark-making that I have come to call "Pixel Impressionism" These marks took 20+ years to come about, but I was not searching for them, I was not seeking originality. Rather, my intention has always been to paint honestly, directly and with purpose. I use the word "Honesty" to mean that the mark-making arises from my reaction to the "object matter" that I am abstracting from; I'm NOT trying to make paintings that look like contemporary art. Specifically, I use video reference of people in mostion, so the "honest and true path" eventually led me to create a new mark that uses scan lines and pixels as subject matter.

"Directly" means to me that every mark that I put on the canvas is conscious; there's no "coloring in" or rendering; the marks are there to work with each other in an abstract patter, even though my art is representational. "With Purpose" means that my thoughts are converted into marks with 0% distortion; each mark conveys my emotional and intellectual reaction to the object that I am painting. This requires focus during the painting process and the development of the ability to "stop" a painting at its peak of visual dynamism.

To check out examples of my work, please go to WarrenKeating.blogspot.com.

5 tips For The Emerging Artist on How To Get Gallery Representation

2010-01-14T13:06:00.000-08:00

If I were talking to a particular artist, I could assess in more detail how that painter should go about finding a gallery to show his or her work, but I will attempt to give you a quick guide to how I found, and tips for how I continually find representation. Please see more of my art marketing tips at YouCanSellArtOnline.com.

A piece from a painting series that I made more than 10 years ago won a spot in a show at the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art.

To start, please don’t set out with the notion that you are searching for the Holy Grail of artists’ accomplishments, that a show in a renowned gallery is a silver bullet that will cure all of your art career difficulties. While I wouldn’t rule out that possibility, it is not a useful goal for the emerging artist. Rather, your goal should be to become aware of and involved in your art community, cultivate relationships with collectors, dealers, and, hopefully, museums, and become a salesman of your own work. You will need to learn to think like an art dealer. In my 20 years’ experience, when I’m busy with self-generated exhibits and don’t have time for much else, that’s when the galleries finally start calling.

1. Get The Picture.

Good photography is a must when submitting, publicizing or selling your work. An inexpensive ($100) light kit with 2 fixtures containing 500 watt, color-balanced bulbs is the best light source for photographing paintings, and now you can get a really decent digital SLR camera for under a thousand dollars. If you are on a bare bones budget or in a hurry, you can use sunlight, but there will be more image-deteriorating reflection on paintings that have any sheen whatsoever. A polarizing lens is a must, to help minimize any glare from your light kit, and is absolutely necessary if you try to photography your work outside.

After I have color-adjusted and sharpened the images of my paintings, I keep copies of hi-res files of my larger paintings ready to make a print a for a presentation or a .jpg for upload to my web site.

Always properly document your work. This painting sold long ago on Ebay, but since I took a well-lit, hi res. photo of the original before I shipped it to the buyer, I've sold a lot of giclee prints of this one through a company called Imagekind.

But, it’s also crucial to get the picture in a more allegorical sense. It’s important to make your best impression with the most appealing and accurate images of your work, a resume that says that you are a committed artist and an attitude that lets the dealer know that working with you will be a pleasurable and lucrative experience.

2. Research the Gallery.

Before the rise in popularity of the Internet, the emerging artist had to drive around his or her city, or state, to visit galleries to see what kind of work was displayed within before considering whether to approach that dealer or not. Now, it’s easy to get a good feel for the dozens of galleries in an urban area within an hour without leaving your home office.

The more educated you are about the art world around you, the more quickly you can navigate it to find the venues where you fit in. Often, while an established gallery has as stable of artists, the emerging artist can find exhibit opportunities from within the up-and-coming venues. It behooves the artist to keep track of the local art scene to become aware of these new exhibit opportunities as they come into being.

When submitting, I use my very best work, and, while my paintings are all basically depicting people from overhead, I also show a variety of sizes, colors, crops, etc.

Smaller paintings with a different crop than the first group from this series provide the past collector with the opportunity to make a second or third purchase.

3. While You’re Waiting, Find Other Ways To Exhibit

Emerging artists that hit a brick wall and complain that. after approaching all of the galleries in the area, there is simply no way for them to get an exhibit. Harnessing some of that frustration, the successful artist will find a juried exhibition, country club, art fair, co-operative gallery, etc. Be wary of vanity galleries that charge hundreds or thousands for a show. Personally, I don’t think that’s the way to go, but I may opt to do that as an investment at a future date.

While I was waiting for galleries to call, I wrote a blog post about my work on a local new site which got me interviewed by CNN.

This year, in addition to gallery shows, I’ve participated in two major charity events in the Los Angeles area, an internationally-juried competition in Dallas, several online competitions, a couple of the Beverly Hills and Pasadena Art Fairs and I’ve painted a mural at my daughter’s elementary school. Hey, many of my neighbors are a lot richer than I am and can easily afford my work.

As life often goes, once you’re busy with all of these other exhibits and are feeling overwhelmed with alternative exhibit opportunities to which you’ve said, “yes”, the galleries will start to return your calls. So, my advice to the artist that is having difficulty getting into galleries is to sell and exhibit so much that you don’t need them, and then they’ll come calling.

4. You Had Better Be Ready

Right after you read this, spend some time, hopefully in your studio, thinking about your art, where you want to be and what your next step is. Don’t be in a rush in this moment to enact your marketing plan or crank out even more alluring work in your studio. Take some time to think about why your art is important, why someone should buy it, why it should be in a museum or history book, if that is your goal, and write it all down. You can edit it later, but, after reviewing what you come up with, update your Artist’s Statement and Bio. I’m pretty much going to sell a couple of paintings on Ebay and a print or two on ImageKind no matter what I do, so it’s easy to stay busy, but I make it a point to take time out, sit in my studio, look at my paintings, analyze where I’m at and imagine where I can go.

Be honest about yourself and your art and seriously commit to whatever plan you come up with. If after you do all this, you’re in a meeting with a gallery, and something about you, or your work kills the deal and you don’t get the gig, then, consider this: A relationship with a gallery is a big, time and energy-consuming commitment. Often the dealer is saving the artist a lot of time, headache and heartache, because the dealer knows that the work will not sell to her audience.

5. Use Social Media Networking To Brand Your Name

Instead of sitting in your studio and waiting for that big opportunity, create a following without enlisting the P.R. machine of the biggest galleries. As you create work, post it into a half dozen Social Network outlets. I take video of myself painting, and have a YouTube following. You’ll quickly find that the prolific artist that creates interesting art has more posts to share with a better audience, so you’ll become more prolific and your work, more interesting. There are experts that can explain viral marketing much better than I can, but I can tell you that a good idea (creative vision or process), wrapped in media (images, video) properly disseminated (blog post, video/image upload, link, email, comment) will most likely go viral to some degree. People can’t help share what is cool, and there’s something cool about every artist. One just has to figure out what it is, how to capture it and how to disseminate it.

Well, for those of you that are sitting around, frustrated with the rejection that you’ve received from galleries, now you have plenty of things that you can do to advance your career as an artist while you’re waiting for that big break. Good luck. For more tips on how to market and sell your art online, check out my blog, YouCanSellArtOnline.com.

Warren Keating is an artist in Los Angeles. For more information, go to http://www.WarrenKeating.com. His original work is sold at KeatingArt.com and prints of his most popular paintings can be purchased from http://KeatingArt.imagekind.com.

Why I'm Painting A Mural At The Library For Free!

2009-12-07T10:17:00.000-08:00

My daughter's public elementary school, Encino Elementary, recently got a new Library. There was a big dedication with the Mayor and a couple of Disney stars. The librarian had the idea of putting a mural in the hallway leading up to the library that would depict kids walking to the library with books. She mentioned it to my wife after the dedication ceremony. As many of you know, I'm obsessed with painting people walking, so I was excited to take on this project immediately. Like one of my internet marketing mentors, Timothy Ferriss says, "Only do it, if it's fun." This was a fun project.

With the current state of the art world, I'm all too happy to donate my services in lieu of the usual cash contribution that we make each year. (Although, this mural will be worth considerably more that I usually donate.) Plus, lately, I've noticed a resurgence in some of the practices of the last Depression, and I'd like to revive the prolific creation of public art that occurred in the 30's and early 40's. What can I say? I aspire to be a one-man, 21st Century WPA! Not to toot my own horn, but this is the kind of community service that our government is calling for, so I encourage other artists to follow suit. You know you're going to paint, anyway; might as well improve your neighborhood in the process.

Additionally, I'm sure that I will spin this into some great publicity for my art. The librarian and principal have decided to make a plaque for the mural, so I'm hoping to have some kind of dedication ceremony that will further get my name and my brand out into the community. While it's kind of tacky to advertise my web site URL in this situation, since I have branded my self well, it easy to find me by typing "Warren Keating" or "W. Keating, Artist", etc., opening the possibility of gaining future sales from this donation of my time and efforts. Bottom line, I wanted, needed, to do this mural for my own satisfaction and to give thanks to the school for providing such a great environment for my daughter to grow and learn, but having a marketing machine in place also makes it a sales and marketing tool that will ultimately help pay the mortgage.

Warren Keating is an artist living in Los Angeles. His work can be viewed and purchased at KeatingArt.com. Fine Art Prints of his work can be found at KeatingArt.imagekind.com. For more information, go to WarrenKeating.com.

How I Suddenly Created an Art Festival Booth For Under $300

2009-11-16T08:56:00.000-08:00

Although I have never chosen to participate in an art festival before, I decided to give the one in Ventura a try in an effort to "leave no stone unturned" in my pursuit of ways to market art. Many of you reading this post may ask, "What the heck does selling art at a festival have to do with selling art online?" Well, a heck of a lot. Even though this is my first art festival, I would expect that it would attract some serious collectors that will be exposed to my work for the first time. Armed with the proper brochures, cards, and promotional material that point to my Ebay store, I can generate sales leads at the show that will result in future internet sales. And that's exactly what it did. While the show, which incidentally was poorly attended, did not generate any immediate sales for most of the artists involved, using my brochures and Ebay store, I made contact with a dozen new potential collectors, a percentage of which will buy paintings online within the next month or so.

Here’s a photo of my the booth that I created for the show:

And here is the brochure that I distributed to interested collectors:

I will also be enclosing this brochure in shipments going out to customers.

Blogging Advice with Guru Timothy Ferris

2009-10-16T21:44:00.000-07:00

Blog and lifestyle guru Timothy Ferris gives excellent advice on blogging, a crucial part of your internet art marketing plan:

How To Get Gallery Representation (Expanded)

2009-10-08T11:19:00.000-07:00

Many emerging artists subscribe to the myth that once they get in a decent gallery, they will have achieved success and future sales will be guaranteed. Often times, the artist is disappointed at the lack of sales from his or her first show, or worse even, sells a lot of work and then doesn’t get paid the entire commission from the gallery. Both of these scenarios have happened to me over the years, so I don’t live or die by the gallery show. A more realistic scenario is that the career of an artist is a lifelong engagement in relationships with galleries, collectors, publications, educational institutions, the community, and, hopefully, museums and foundations.

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For me, gallery shows are often a way to show my past and future collectors that I am active in the art scene and my work is increasing in popularity and value. Most successful artists that make a good living have a diverse portfolio of income sources: gallery shows, direct sales to collectors, online sales, print licensing, grants, competition and awards, commissions, etc. That said, this post is supposed to be about getting that all too elusive gallery representation, so here we go.

I "cold-call" a lot of Los Angeles-area galleries by e-mail with one to three attached image(s) of my work (smallish, 700 pixels wide, around 300k file size), a link to my personal site, www.warrenkeating.com and to my blog, warrenkeating.blogspot.com. Before cold-calling, visit the gallery's web site to make sure it represents the genre of work that you are selling. I am only promoting my overhead figures to galleries; landscapes I am selling exclusively online. It’s important for your collection of work to show some focus on a particular subject matter and style, but at the same time have enough variety so that the collector will buy more than one piece.

Before you approach the better commercial galleries, make sure that you have something on your resumé. If you don’t, spend some time pursuing “smaller” opportunities, community art shows, competitions, online exhibits, open calls for galleries of local colleges. Check out the Imagekind blog and ArtCalendar.com for career advice and exhibit opportunities. Over the years, I’ve built my career from winning a spot in juried smaller group exhibitions to having solo shows in downtown Los Angeles. The only opportunities I pass up or those that might harm my paintings or reputation. I tend to avoid showing in cafés, restaurants and vanity galleries, but I embrace non-profit spaces, donate paintings to several charity fundraisers each year and next month, I’m painting a mural at my daughter’s school as our families contribution.

For your first commercial gallery show, approach some of the newer galleries. Often the established galleries have a full stable of artists and are reluctant to take on new ones. If you find that’s the problem in the art community in which you’re trying to show, establish yourself with the newer galleries that are looking for artists to build your exhibition history.

It’s practically forbidden to show up at a gallery unannounced to show a portfolio. Rather, the accepted procedure is to send images of your art on CD to the gallery with a cover letter, resumé and any press about your work. For me, I always include a DVD of an interview that CNN did about my latest painting series.

Make sure that you have quality photography of your work. If you can't afford to/don't have the space to set up photo lights indoors, you can always shoot the paintings outdoors, around 10 am or 2pm. Rotate the easel holding the painting to eliminate glare, but still have direct light on the piece (a polarizing filter on your camera will help even more to get rid of glare), and use a tripod to ensure a good, steady exposure that is exactly perpendicular to the surface of the painting. There are books on how to photograph artwork.

This is a numbers game, you have to send out a decent quantity of promos before you will get a response. In the meantime, get a feel for the local art scene, so your direct mail efforts will get more targeted.

The cover letter should open with a favorable comment about the gallery, conveying to the director/curator that you have researched the gallery’s aesthetic and you feel that it’s appropriate for your work. Get quickly to the point that you are looking for an exhibit venue, possible representation and be polite and complimentary in tone. Thank the recipient for their time and attention. A week or so later, you may call the gallery and ask to speak to the director about the package. If the director is not available, just ask the receptionist politely to confirm that the gallery received the package. Keep in mind that the receptionist and other gallery employees can be your best allies. Showing an interest in them and treating them kindly can only help you get the show.

Once you get your foot in the door, you had better be ready with an inventory of consistently good work, ready to hang, plenty of support material, artist's statement, bio, resume and any press clippings. At the initial meeting, you should come prepared with a lot to say about why your art is important and marketable.

Also, it’s great to have a variety of sizes and price points. In the past, I have mistakenly made my shows too consistent, all large overhead paintings. Now, I have introduced some smaller sizes and lower prices, and it has spurned new sales. For solo shows, I usually have a large Fine Art Print made by Imagekind.com and get them to frame it in a beefy, modern frame. I can’t tell you how many times someone falls in love with my work at an opening, but can’t afford $2000. With a print example on hand and a price list, that art lover can get a relatively inexpensive Keating print of his favorite painting and become a collector.

If allowed by the commercial gallery and certainly possible at a nonprofit space, publicize your Imagekind URL at the show, again, for those lovers of your work with a smaller budget to buy them directly online. If a commercial gallery is selling your original art, print business shouldn’t be a conflict, so they may not have a problem with your selling prints directly. If they won’t allow it, split the net profit on all print sales with the gallery; you’re still getting your work and your name out there to new collectors.

In this economic climate, it’s important for artist’s to offer a lower price point item. Lowering the price of your art to create sales is not an option; it’s a death blow to future income and a slap in the face to your past collectors. You should research and consider your price point carefully from the beginning and not waiver. Using Imagekind Fine Art Prints as a discounted item for your followers is a great solution that allows you to avoid devaluing your original artwork.

Warren Keating is an award-winning, internationally-collected artist in Los Angeles. His original figurative oil paintings can be purchased at http://www.KeatingArt.com. For more information, go to http://www.WarrenKeating.com.

To Sell Art, You Have To Be Active In The Art Community

2009-10-02T10:35:00.001-07:00

This week, I'm going to re-post an entry from one of my other blogs. Why? To make the point that you have to support your online store by being active in the art community - exhibiting, entering juried contest, showing in nonprofit spaces, whatever you can do to keep your work "happening", so that you have something to blog about and feature on the home page of your web site. Additionally, you owe it to your collectors to fulfill your potential as a notable artist. Many of my paintings were sold with descriptions which told of my representation at brick-and-mortar galleries, awards that I've won, etc. I have to keep that machine of achievement running and hopefully improve, so that my work not only retains it's current value, but increases in value at a respectable pace. I usually don't think of online competitions as being noteworthy of publication, but ArtSlant is a very reputable site, so I think it has validity enough to justify some horn-tooting:

One of my latest pieces, “Bellman, Hotel Lutetia, Paris” won the ArtSlant Showcase for October. The original figurative oil will join the other works in the Painting section for the year. Each Showcase winner will go before the Gallery Panel for review and judging and the top Juried Winners will be selected for the Golden Frame competition, which will be held in March 2010. I’ll definitely let you know how it goes, either way; it’s an honor just to be chosen for this group. There are some great paintings in the Showcase this year. If you’re interested, here’s my ArtSlant profile. Thanks for reading this post, helping me celebrate.

Warren Keating is an artist living in Los Angeles. His work can be viewed and purchased at KeatingArt.com. Fine Art Prints of his work can be found at KeatingArt.imagekind.com. For more information, go to WarrenKeating.com.

Using Viral and Permission Marketing to Create Buzz

2009-09-18T09:58:00.000-07:00

Today my mind is swimming with new ideas about how to market art on the internet. I've discovered Seth Godin's blog and have been reading everything he's written. There's no reason for me to regurgitate his knowledge on the next wave of marketing techniques, but I will say that he proclaims that "Interruption Marketing", (television commercials, magazine advertising, email marketing, direct mail, billboards, etc.) is dead, and it's being replaced with Permission Marketing and the Ideavirus. Anyone serious about marketing should go to Seth's blog. He offers e-versions of some of his books online, and Squidoo has most of his books available to view. I know this isn't an exciting post with cool images and step-by-step instructions, but I can't stress enough how crucial Seth's work is to any artist or other entrepreneur that is trying to market on the internet.

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In artist's terms, a great example of an Ideavirus is Duane Keiser's "Painting-A-Day" blog. The original artist to do the P.A.D. thing, Duane's idea caught on like fire, and everyone that discovered his site sent links to 10 friends and so on, so every painting he did sold almost instantly, and, now, he's at the point where the demand is so hi the collector has to prepay for a future painting. Like any good marketer, Duane has fed his virus and updated the "Painting-A-Day" concept into his new "Oddments: A Thousand Small Painting" blog. Check it out.

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To Sell Your Own Art, Learn From An Art Dealer

2009-09-10T14:56:00.001-07:00

I just had my first meeting with a an art career coach, Yoram Gil. It was very productive, and, although a session is not cheap, it’s well worth the money. At our first meeting, Mr. Gil assessed that, since I was already entrenched in selling work online, and, quite frankly, am dependent on the income, that we should pursue that avenue, improving my sales techniques to increase my numbers and make sure that the value of my work continues to increase.

Based on some advice from my coach, Yoram Gil, I have been making different size and other variations to give my collectors a new one to buy. Pixel Man II (11" X 14") is the smallest painting that I've done in years

Yoram is a nurturing teacher that has already given me an in-depth look into the art market and has inspired me, both as a creative and as a business man. I’ll keep you posted as we progress. Artists interested in Yoram Gil’s coaching services may check out his web site at http://yoramgil.com.

Two Things You Can Do To Sell More Paintings Online

2009-09-03T11:47:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy week, so this post is a little late. Two things I'm completing this week: 1) adding PayPal "Buy It Now" buttons to all of my blog entries for paintings that are for sale, and 2) opening a Twitter account.

While I do most of my business through Ebay, I will occasionally sell directly from my web site or blog to people that have discovered me due to my Social Media Network marketing. Instead of linking them to my Ebay store as I've done in the past, I have decided to experiment with direct selling from my web site. My PayPal account enables me to easily make buttons that will allow collectors to buy my item, and the account will also process credit card transactions.

I add the code generated by the PayPal web site for the purchase button into my blog and customize the button picture to make it go better with the design of my site:

I've been avoiding Twitter for a while. I just wasn't sure how it would work for me. Who cares what an artist does every minute, but, when you think about it, there's always stuff going on int he studio or new reference being shot, etc. that may be interesting to the art lover. I just started yesterday and have 14 followers, so maybe it's a viable place to market my paintings.

If you want to follow me, go to http://twitter.com/KeatingArt.

Support Online Marketing Of Your Art With A Printed Brochure

2009-08-20T11:43:00.000-07:00

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Getting Ready For The Holidays

I just got back from summer vacation, and I realized that I have to get my inventory, ebay listings and marketing materials ready for the holidays. I’m working on a brochure that shows my work and drives buyers to my online store.

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I’ll distribute this bit of marketing materials by mail drop to some of the wealthier streets in my neighborhood (multi-million dollar homes); there's a lot of new construction and turnover in ownership right now, so it's a good time for people to be filling blank wall space or buying painting s as gifts. I also be enclosing this brochure in shipments going out to customers.

Warren Keating’s internationally-collected, award-winning work is currently available from Orlando Gallery, Tarzana and JoAnne Artman, Laguna Beach. It can also be purchased from my ebay store, KeatingArt.com. For more information, go to warrenkeating.com.

How Can My Family Vacation Market My Art?

2009-08-13T10:45:00.000-07:00

Anything that gets your face in front of a few or a lot of people will eventually lead to sales. That’s why this week I’m doing a daily blog about my family’s adventures on Route 66. I’ve already received an email from one art lover that has discovered my work though this blog entry.

Here are some examples of what I am doing to make my blog entry stand out from the rest:

Decent quality video:

Interesting Still Photography:

Informative, appealing graphics:

And writing that is both entertaining and full of useful facts:

Meteor Crater
Come on, this is the quintessential “world’s largest ball of twine” roadside attraction, isn’t it? Or is it? To keep the peace with my nostalgic wife and antsy daughter, I pulled our hybrid SUV off the I-40 at exit 233 in Arizona and drove the 10 or so miles to Meteor Crater. A museum, theater and gift shop flank the ripped edge of this massive, almost perfectly preserved crater, you know, like the kind you see on the moon in the Nasa photographs. I did relent to the awesome sight. The privately-funded facility surrounding the site left me amply impressed and informed.

All put together in a multimedia package of blog posts and YouTube uploads, which I, in turn, add to my Facebook and other Social Media Networks. Hey, I like doing this creative stuff, anyway. It might as well serve my marketing program as well.

Sell More Paintings By Getting Interactive With Your Audiience

2009-07-23T09:21:00.000-07:00

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You have to get interactive with your audience, if you want to create a following and increase the traffic to your online gallery. Encourage questions, and respond to them; comment on your fellow artists and give advice to new artists when prompted. Here’s an example of a response that I gave to a less experienced artist about technique which I later turned into a fairly popular blog post on one of my Social Network sites, Gather. I then “copy & pasted” the post to my other sites and blogs:

Here are some tips for a beginning artists a to help them improve their technique, and ultimately their paintings. Recently a new artist (with one year's experience) e-mailed me for a critique. As I composed my instructions to her, I realized that a lot of beginning artists may benefit from hearing the same ideas. At this point in your development as a beginning artist (less than 5 years painting), you should be working from four sources as you learn: photos, nature, old masters paintings and from your imagination. Be more conscious of the "negative space", the shape around the objects, the shape of the "background". I encourage you to get some charcoal and newsprint and practice drawing the "negative space" around everyday objects in your home as they relate to the border of the paper that you're drawing on. When you're working on a painting, don't be afraid to invade and move the contour or outline of your objects, figures, etc., repainting the background edge and the object edge as you go. No one will have your reference to look at when "judging" your painting, so feel free to improve the shapes and color of your objects as you paint them, to make them more designed, aesthetically pleasing, fit the shape of the canvas, etc. Remember, you can't make a tree or a bird with paint; you can only paint shapes, lines and textures that remind people of a tree or a bird, so make those pictorial elements beautiful. You should be working the whole painting at once, moving around the painting, a stroke on the sky, a stroke on the bird, a stroke on the foliage, instead of finishing the background, then starting the bird, etc. Before starting a painting, make small sketches on newsprint of how you want to arrange the elements. The first step to improving your skills when you first start out, is mileage. If you painted 20 paintings last year, paint 100 this year, and 200 next year. A lot of these can be small and on paper. Painting is about developing your process; finished paintings are a byproduct of the process, not an end. Don't be afraid to make mistakes and throw away paintings as you start your journey to becoming a great artist. I hope my advice helps. -Warren Keating

I really try to respond to every comment that I get on my posts with a “thank you”, and I answer every question or email that I receive. I also have a handful of favorite contacts that I make sure to comment on their posts from time to time. I know for a fact that several members of my Social Networks have converted from art lovers to collectors of my work, and I’ve gotten valuable feedback on each painting that have helped make my marketing efforts more effective.

In the next post, I'll start a tour of the various outlets I use to market my paintings on the Internet.

When Should I Post My Blog Entry Or List My Ebay Item?

2009-07-16T09:22:00.000-07:00

When is the best time to list your ebay listings, post your blog entries and upload video for maximum exposure? In this post, I’ll impart the wisdom that I have garnered over the last several years.

click the image to enlarge it

Ebay When I first started selling on Ebay, I read “Ebay For Dummies”, and, basically, it advised that Thursday night at 8pm was the best time to start your listings, but I have discovered that it’s not that simple. First, consider what type of listing that you are going to create, whether it be Auction, Buy It Now, or Store Inventory. You want auction listings to start early enough in the day to be seen by a lot of people and get plenty of exposure when it’s a new listing, but you want it late enough, so people who are watching have a chance to bid. At the same time, you don’t want to end it too late when all your potential bidders are asleep. Bottom line, I experiment. Art is a high-dollar, niche item. It’s not like we’re selling iPods, competing against 1000 other vendors selling exactly the same thing. Yes, there are a lot of artists on Ebay, but hopefully your work is unique and will capture a niche market. It’s equally important to use Ebay’s online software to track sales and arrive at informed conclusions about when to start/end your listings.

Auction listings can be 3,5,7 or 10 days, so you’ll have to use all of your fingers to figure when they end. Conventional wisdom advises to avoid having your listing end on a Sunday or a Holiday. I maintain that I saved a couple thousand when I bought my Lexus on Ebay, because the auction ended on July 4th. Deciding when to start a listing gets easier with experience watching the listings perform and analyzing sales and traffic data, using Ebay’s online software, much of which is free to members.

Buy It Now listings can be 5,7, 10 or 30 days for 35¢. A bit more expensive than the Store Inventory listings and much less expensive than the typical 10-day auction, BIN’s are good to experiment with, as well. If you’re work is very unique, people will find you anytime of the day by searching on Ebay or Google if your titles and descriptions are right. If you are selling landscapes for example, timing and even spending extra money to promote the listing become more important, since the work may fall into a category with a lot of listings.

(click to enlarge) Writing a good title and description is an equally important aspect of creating a listing.

Store Inventory. At 10¢/month, this is the least expensive, but also the listing garnering the least impressions. Inventory listings are a great way to capture the sale after exhibiting in a public space, winning a competition, or participating in an art festival. It’s also a great way to have your listings ready to send to higher profile listings or auctions. Giving the artist an exponentially higher search engine ranking than other art vending web sites, an Ebay Store is a great value at $16/month, plus 10¢ per listing. (If you won’t spend that to sell your art, please see my web site, YouCannotSellArtOnline.com.) At least 60% of my sales come from Ebay or off-Ebay searches. My Social Network Media Marketing accounts for less than half my sales, so at less than $20/month, the store is worth it for me. When your Ebay bill gets up to a couple hundred a month, it’s usually because of final value fees charged after the sale, so that means you’re making a lot more money than you were before you started selling on Ebay.

Blogs. Conventional wisdom says 11am – 2pm Pacific Time. After 2:30 PST, the internet traffic has died down considerably. Keep this in mind when you’re doing your YouTube and Flickr uploads as well. With this blog that you’re reading, I try to post every Thursday around 11am PST. With YouTube and other blogs that I use, I post any weekday 11am-2pm. Also, remember, to “stretch your posts out”. If you have 10 photos that you want to upload, do one every week, or, if they’re in a group (example: new exhibit photos), do one every hour or every day to give yourself maximum exposure to new art lovers and collectors.

(click to enlarge) Consistently posting to my blog and uploading to YouTube is crucial to my marketing program

Of course, all of this, leads me to the question, “If everyone avoids listing their Ebay item on Sunday, doesn’t that make it the best day to do it” Again, the answer is experimentation and analysis. Try different start and end times and track your traffic and analyze sales. With your blogs, remember not to shoot your wad all at once, if you have several posts or uploads already prepared, and, most important, stay active, posting fairly consistently. In the next post, we’ll discuss why you have to get interactive with your audience. Encourage questions, and respond to them; comment on your fellow artists and give advice to new artists when prompted.

Warren Keating’s internationally-collected, award-winning work is currently available from Orlando Gallery, Tarzana and JoAnne Artman, Laguna Beach. It can also be purchased from my ebay store, KeatingArt.com. For more information, go to warrenkeating.com.

How To Get Gallery Representation

2009-07-09T09:48:00.000-07:00

As promised, back to covering the full spectrum of marketing avenues when selling art online. One of which is showing in brick-and-mortar galleries. I don't have the magic answer to gallery representation. Goodness knows that I've gone long periods without representation; things have only really picked up in the last couple of years. Here is some advice, based on my experience.

I "cold-call" a lot of Los Angeles-area galleries by e-mail with one attached image of my work (smallish, 700 pixels wide, around 300k file size), a link to my personal site, www.warrenkeating.com and to my blog, warrenkeating.blogspot.com. Before cold-calling, visit the gallery's web site to make sure it represents the genre of work that you are selling. Once you get your foot in the door, one had better be ready with an inventory of consistently good work, ready to hang, plenty of support material, artist's statement, bio, resume and any press clippings. At the initial meeting, you should come prepared with a lot to say about why your art is important and marketable.

click images to enlarge

Make sure that you have quality photography of your work. If you can't afford to/don't have the space to set up photo lights indoors, you can always shoot the paintings outdoors, around 10 am or 2pm. Rotate the easel holding the painting to eliminate glare, but still have direct light on the piece (a polarizing filter on your camera will help even more to get rid of glare), and use a tripod to ensure a good, steady exposure that is exactly perpedicular to the surface of the painting. There are books on how to photograph artwork. See one of my earlier posts for more info.

Another great strategy is to enter competitions like the ones listed at artcalendar.com, or artdeadlineslist.gather.com. I also approach college art galleries for exhibits when I am not doing anything. I have found Ebay to be a great source of painting sales. While I have not sold that many paintings off of my personal web site or other art sites (I use them mostly to promote my work to galleries), Ebay has been very good for me, and I feel that it will only get better as I create a following and Ebay gets more popular.

Sample biography:
Somewhere on a bridge at The Getty Center or on a hotel balcony in Paris, you'll find Warren Keating with his video camera, capturing footage of unsuspecting figures walking below. Later, In a studio in Encino, you can find him pouring through frame after frame of video footage to digitize a still frame that shows the perfect moment of weight shift, swing of the arm or tilt of the head that tells volumes about each subject, which he feverishly paints, covering large canvases with thick swashes of paint depicting an overhead view of a person in transit.
A native of New Orleans and graduate of Otis Parsons, his work now reflects the culmination of 25 years of painting both the figure and the landscape. His first solo show at the Desmond Gallery in Los Angeles in 1995 was followed by numerous solo shows of his paintings in the U.S. and Mexico, including a special exhibit sponsored by the governor. Now, his work is sold directly to a variety of collectors in the U.S., Canada and Europe.
Keating’s latest series, Overview, which combines video and paint, was selected as an LA Times Calendar pick and won awards at juried exhibits at Long Beach Arts and recently at the Visual Arts Society of Texas, Dallas. An interview with Keating about this series was featured on CNN. The paintings are currently available at Orlando Gallery in Tarzana, and JoAnne Artman Gallery, Laguna Beach.

Warren Keating’s internationally-collected, award-winning work is currently available from Orlando Gallery, Tarzana and JoAnne Artman, Laguna Beach. It can also be purchased from my ebay store, KeatingArt.com. For more information, go to warrenkeating.com.

How I Learned To Sell Art On Ebay

2009-07-02T09:34:00.000-07:00

One more post focusing on Ebay (see last week’s “4 Tips” article), and I’m back to covering the whole spectrum of what it takes to sell art online. Ebay is my main portal for making sales, but I am involved in many other web communities, sites, blogs, networks and media that drive customers to that portal. I also participate in "brick and mortar" exhibits and competitions that also drive traffic to my site, but this post is about my personal history with Ebay.

This painting recently sold from my Ebay store for $1800. I've learned to inventory at least one painting of a bicycle rider; they always sell quickly. Now that the original has found a home, I offer prints of this piece, because I know it's a popular one.

I had an Ebay account for several years, before I used it to sell art. I established it to help my dad buy and sell classic cars; I even bought my Lexus off of it 5 years ago, but it wasn't until the end of 2006, that I decided to start selling my paintings there and subsequently got immersed in the Ebay community and Social Network Media. When I started this enterprise, I was committed to investing some money, although it's very inexpensive to start an ebay store - $16/month + 10 cents per item, per month. To bring potential buyers to your store, you have to put some of your items on auction and fixed price so that they will show up in searches and during browsing. Since paintings have a high price point, $500-$2000, it costs me about $5 per item to do a 10-day auction, lower priced items are much less. Fixed Price listings cost 35¢. I do several 10-day auctions per month, some of them I pay the extra $20 to make them "featured plus", that is, show up at the top of the page in searches or browsing, and I do a whole lot of fixed price listings, so I'm averaging $100/month in ebay fees. I would say that I sell one painting for every dozen listings that expire before the painting sells. That may seem harsh, but we’re talking about investing around $50 to sell a painting for $1000, quite a profit margin. For lower priced paintings, you’re going to see a higher success rate, so it’s still very profitable. Even in the beginning, before I had a following or a high Google ranking, I still managed to be in the black on Ebay. Very few startup business can say that they were profitable in the first 6 months! If you can’t invest $50/month to sell art online, then please see my other blog “You Cannot Sell Art Online.”

One also has to take into account that there is an additional fee when the item sells, but it's a small percentage, 3 or 4%, and you'll probably be paying a PayPal transaction fee to accept credit cards or PayPal, 2 or 3%. For me, as an artist, it's still a huge bargain, compared to the 50% that galleries take. I didn't expect to make a profit the first year, but, surprisingly, I made quite a respectable income, and it has literally doubled every year, since.

Unfortunately, my very first painting sale on Ebay was disastrous (it was a weird buyer with 98% feedback, borderline), but since then, it has been wonderful. My new collectors from all over the world have sent me some wonderful emails, and it has been a great experience - it has really changed my life. Ironically, It seems as though the more I sell on Ebay, the more work I sell at brick-and-mortar galleries. I've learned a lot about shipping, promotion, customer service and how to avoid email and purchase scams that target sellers (although Ebay has all but eliminated the possibility of scamming lately). So, the more I get into it, the securer and more enjoyable it becomes.

The phenomenal thing about Ebay, for me, is the incredible seller accountability that is created by the seller (and buyer) feedback rating. Ebay sellers that want to stay in business are scrutinized much more strictly than in the brick-and-mortar world. Most that I've come across are really honest and deliver 100% customer satisfaction. Tip: I usually only work with sellers that have 99% feedback or above. I can understand running across a "crazy" buyer that will give you negative feedback every once in a while, but if the seller has more than 1 bad feedback out of 100, I won't buy from them.

As I’ve mentioned before, if you're interested in getting started on Ebay, pick up a copy of "Ebay for Dummies". It's a great reference for the new Ebayer. And, don't be discouraged the first few months; it seemed like it took forever to make a sale, but things have picked up dramatically since them. I had to sacrifice the first few paintings for a very low price to get the ball rolling, and now I have the price slightly discounted from what my "brick and mortar" galleries charge. This helps avoid conflicts with the galleries. When building a business, Ebay sellers are more concerned with establishing customer base than selling at a huge profit. Another tip for the beginner is to buy 10 things that you would any way, just to get a 10 feedback rating, before you become a seller. I buy pool filters and camera equipment, stuff I would purchase anyway, but get them cheaper through Ebay. Please feel free to email me, if you have any questions.

Warren Keating is an artist living in Los Angeles. His work can be viewed and purchased at KeatingArt.com. Fine Art Prints of his work can be found at KeatingArt.imagekind.com. For more information, go to WarrenKeating.com.

Selling Art Online: A Virtual Art Opening and Exhibit in Second Life

2009-06-25T11:02:00.001-07:00

My "leave no stone unturned" approach to internet marketing of art has led me to explore the publicity and commerce potential of Second Life, a sort of Social Network on steroids. After a couple weeks of going to openings and meeting people, I have my first exhibit, planned. Last night, a gallery owner I had met a couple weeks ago, offered a solo show to me, opening this Monday! I guess things move pretty quickly in SL, no need for advance publicity, etc.

There will be live music, probably a very entertaining Blues player, but that is still to be finalized. The reception is from 6pm to 9pm SL time (Pacific); I will be inworld at the opening to meet and greet, answer questions about my work, etc. We hope to show the time-lapse videos of my painting process at the reception.

Any SL Residents that are out there are encouraged to come by and meet the artist, here is the address: Warren Keating At Shine Art Alliance.

Warren Keating is an artist living in Los Angeles. His work can be viewed and purchased at KeatingArt.com. Fine Art Prints of his work can be found at KeatingArt.imagekind.com. For more information, go to WarrenKeating.com.

Top 4 Tips for Selling Art On Ebay

2009-06-19T10:01:00.000-07:00

As promised,
here are four basics that I learned from my experiences:

1) Price your work high enough! Sometimes people don't buy stuff, because it seems too good to be true. I sell pretty large pieces, listing them for $1200, and then accept offers for $800 or $900. disagree with the theory that people are looking for garage sale art on ebay. I research the buying background of my customers and often find them buying art for several thousands of dollars, when I am happy to get $900 out of them! I also do No Reserve, low starting price auctions, but we'll get to that later.

2) Just opening a store will not garner much in the way of sales, you have to put stuff on auction to bring people to the store. Sometime my sales result from stuff I put on auction, not from the store. I occasionally run "Featured Plus" listings for the extra $20, which increases your exposure the number of potential bidders/buyers exponentially. The best practice is to do a variety of types of listings, Auction-Style, Buy It Now (with the option to Make An Offer) and Fixed Price while analyzing traffic and sales data to determine what works. You also have to interact in Social Media Network sites and garner publicity in the real world, as many of you have heard me go on and on about, but that post is for another day.

3) Your titles are crucial to sales so write them carefully, and avoid adjectives. Take the title, "Spectacular Art a naked lady painted in watercolour!". This paint is highly marketable; people like nudes; From my personal experience, since the Recession, figurative work has increased in popularity, but in this listing, "Nude" is not in the title! "ORIGINAL ART Watercolor NUDE Painting" is a better title. No one is going to search for the word "Spectacular". Also, use every single character available in the title, if possible; if you have characters remaining, use the work color or Huge (if that applies) or something. Notice in the example above, that I made some words CAPS, that breaks up the listing, and makes it easier to read when people are scanning. Stalk other successful artists on Ebay and look at their titles — no Restraining Orders yet! You might think "why should I put 'Art' or 'painting' in the title, when they will be in that section of Ebay? Because your items will also show up in the major search engines like Google, where people will be using the words "painting" and "art" (and "watercolor"). Always remember that you are also trying to attract buyers from outside of Ebay, and proper keywording is the way to do that.

4) Promotion and Advertising. I'm the last person to sell my paintings for $1; I don't want to devalue my work, but I have a big inventory of work, so I choose a "sacrificial lamb" from time to time and a collector scores a big time bargain. It’s a way to keep my store exciting. One more important detail, I spent the extra $20 and made it a "Featured Plus!" listing; to give it that extra exposure ensuring enough bids. Make sure that you’re updating your blog with photos of your latest works and a link to your Ebay item.

How Branding Sells Your Art

2009-06-12T09:55:00.000-07:00

In my opinion there are two types of advertising and marketing that I use:
1) Immediate, direct sale advertising
2) Branding

Branding is like an ad for Ford that tells you how great Fords and the people that make them are.

Immediate Sale Advertising is like an ad for the new Ford Mustang that tells you that it is available now and for a discount and where to get one.

How do you brand your art online?
I use my name, which starts with creating a web site, in my case, WarrenKeating.com. I use the html tags on the site to let search engines know that this is the site for the figurative and landscape art of Warren Keating. Every time, I generate content on the Internet, a video, post or picture, I put a clickable link to my web site, like the one at the end of this post. (click picture to enlarge)

However, branding goes beyond the virtual world. If I participate in a non-profit art show, or festival, and I meet a potential customer, I hand him a card with my web address on it, so they can always purchase from me at a later date, after the event is long over. Even if I don’t meet the potential customer, but they’ve seen my work at an exhibit and remember my name, they can still Google Warren Keating and arrive at my site quickly. I have exhibits all over the country, and often don’t make it to the opening, so I have branded my name to increase the likelihood of making sales.

I printed these business cards on my inkjet printer, using the "clean edge" cards from Avery

Not to confuse things, but I am actually working on two brands, WarrenKeating and KeatingArt. I have two distinctly different series of paintings: landscapes that are more over-the-couch, mainstream and figurative art that is more cutting-edge, “high art”. They both have different customer bases, so I brand them independently, KeatingArt for the mainstream landscapes and Warren Keating for the figurative work. You see, I’m more apt to meet someone in the real world showing the figurative work, so I use my name so they can find me quickly on the Internet. I’m not real crazy about those people knowing that I do this other, more mainstream art, so I keep that brand separated. The “KeatingArt paintings” are more likely found by someone that has read one of my posts on the Internet, or searched for those type of paintings and accidentally came across mine.

Why Else Is Branding Important?
When a collector has found my work online and is ready to purchase, it is likely that they will research me and my art to determine if it is worth it, before they spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on my paintings. If you click on the Google graphic above to enlarge it, you will see how much self-created publicity exists about me and my art. All of this "hype" increases buyer confidence and closes the sale. In fact, now I get more opportunities because this buzz surrounds my work; galleries and collectors know that I am a serious, committed, full-time artist.

Start out on the right foot with your brand, and everything you do, event you participate in or content that you upload to the web will work for you from the start. These things have a life, so that your presence will build over time.

In the next post, I’ll get back to talking about the Ebay store. If you have been following this blog from the beginning, you will already have gotten your feet wet on Ebay.

Warren Keating is an artist in Los Angeles. For more information, go to WarrenKeating.com.

How To Make Money Selling Art On Second Life

2009-06-09T10:00:00.000-07:00

I usually post on Thursdays, but I just couldn't contain myself about SL. On Thursday, I will continue with my regular series of posts.
I’ve recently embarked on a journey through an incredible virtual art community unlike anything I’ve experienced online. Pardon me for being behind on this trend. I am in my 40’s now! Thanks to some comprehensive articles in ArtCalendar Magazine about the virtual world Second Life, I’ve discovered one of the coolest things that I’ve seen in a while. For those unfamiliar with SL, it’s a virtual world with a micro economy where you can do just about anything with amazing realism. Residents use Linden dollars to buy and sell things ($L1000 = $4.16US).

Project Z Gallery - one of the best in Second Life

There are many artists and entertainers that are making some good real world dollars in Second Life, and a SL virtual real estate developer has been reported to have made over a million in real U.S. dollars selling real estate and buildings on second life.

Lisa and I playing music on the beach in Second Life

Originally, I was attracted to it for the publicity and marketing opportunities, but nowI am completely blown away by it, and have fallen in, definitely for the next couple of days. I’ve already built a portfolio book and have gotten commitments from four galleries to do a show in the near future, so I’m on my way. I just have to remember to refrain from spending too much time “inworld” flying around and having fun.

Creating a virtual assemblage of my paintings in Second Life

I have collectors all over the world: France, U.K., Luxembourg, Netherlands, and throughout the U.S. and Canada, many of which have never been to a show of my work at a gallery. SL presents a mind-boggling opportunity for them to come to a virtual show, see the latest work, chat with the artists and other collectors and have some great virtual cheese and wine. I’ll let you know when I’ve set the date for the next exhibit. If any of you are Residents of Second Life, please let me know your identity, so I can add you as a friend and make sure you’ll get an invite to my first truly virtual exhibit.
Warren Keating is an artist living in Los Angeles. His work can be viewed and purchased at KeatingArt.com. Fine Art Prints of his work can be found at KeatingArt.imagekind.com. For more information, go to WarrenKeating.com.

Use Alternative Exhibitions To Drive Sales To Your Online Store

2009-06-04T09:33:00.000-07:00

It’s so far, so good with the galleries that I work with. I price the painting the same for both online and brick-and-mortar galleries, except for special No-Reserve auctions and other special events. There is some room for price negotiation both in the real world and the virtual one. For the sake of good business, I have sent some online leads to the galleries that represent me, even though I lost some profit due to the gallery commission. As an entrepreneur, I appreciate their overhead costs and will do whatever I can to help them complete a sale of my work. My representation by several galleries contributes to the buyer confidence that makes my work sell online for a good price, so it’s mutual beneficial.

I always try to have a lot going on and publicize it well. I feel a responsibility to my collectors to participate in exhibits and win awards.

Juried Competitions
Sometimes exhibited to quite a large audience, juried exhibitions give your name exposure and add value to your work. When you have an Ebay store in place, and you publicize it correctly, you’ll get traffic and sales from these opportunities, and you can use the fact that your work has won awards to increase buyer confidence.

While we’re on the topic of sending real world traffic to the virtual world to make real cash, branding should become an important concern for the emerging artist. While the old days of the Internet were filled with names like webguy7888, in these days of using it to market your work, it’s imperative to reinforce your brand. I use my name as my brand and as my user name on most of the sites I participate in. (I use KeatingArt as my Ebay store to create a separate brand for online sales. I’ll discuss why I do that in a future post, but, for now, start aggressively branding your name using the techniques described in this blog.)

Charities
This week is the charity silent auction benefiting my daughter’s elementary school. I donated a signed print to the event, knowing that it would publicize my Ebay store. To help the cause, I printed business cards with the web address of my Ebay Store that will sit next to the painting. Thankfully, they included the web address of my online gallery in the program for the silent auction, further publicizing my store.

If you’re an artist that participates in festivals or other unique exhibition opportunities, having an Ebay store and providing cards and/or brochures with the web address of that store to potential customers is one of the most successful ways to generate frequent sales of your paintings. At $1000-$2000, my work is still in the “beginning collector” range, and this type of collector can be intimidated by the gallery setting when setting out to purchase art. After seeing my work at an exhibit and failing to make a purchase, an interested buyer can Google me and quickly find my online gallery. Browsing my work, negotiating price and purchasing can be easier for the new collector when done in the privacy and comfort of his or her own home. So, the idea is to gain exposure for your name at various events and exhibits that will increase traffic to your online store and, ultimately, increase profits.

Gallery Representation
I don't have the magic answer to gallery representation. Goodness knows that I've gone long periods without representation; things have only really picked up in the last couple of years. Here is some advice, based on that experience:

I "cold-call" a lot of Los Angeles-area galleries by e-mail with one attached image of my work (smallish, 700 pixels wide, around 300k file size), a link to my personal site, www.warrenkeating.com and to my blog, warrenkeating.blogspot.com. Before cold-calling, visit the gallery's web site to make sure it represents the genre of work that you are selling. I am only promoting my overhead figures to galleries; the rest I am selling on Ebay.

Once you get your foot in the door, one had better be ready with an inventory of consistently good work, ready to hang, plenty of support material, artist's statement, bio, resume and any press clippings. At the initial meeting, you should come prepared with a lot to say about why your art is important and marketable.

Make sure that you have quality photography of your work. If you can't afford to/don't have the space to set up photo lights indoors, you can always shoot the paintings outdoors, around 10 am or 2pm. Rotate the easel holding the painting to eliminate glare, but still have direct light on the piece (a polarizing filter on your camera will help even more to get rid of glare), and use a tripod to ensure a good, steady exposure that is exactly perpedicular to the surface of the painting. There are books on how to photograph artwork.

Another great strategy is to enter competitions like the ones listed in http://artdeadlineslist.gather.com. I also approach college art galleries for exhibits when I am not doing anything.

I have found Ebay to be a great source of painting sales. While I have not sold that many paintings off of my personal web site or other art sites (I use them mostly to promote my work to galleries), Ebay has been very good for me, and I feel that it will only get better as I create a following and Ebay gets more popular.

In next week’s post, I’ll discuss branding, crucial to connecting potential collectors to a place where they can become buyers of your art.

How To Use Social Network Media To Sell Your Art

2009-05-28T10:59:00.000-07:00

If you’ve been following this blog, you now have an excellent photograph of your artwork that you can circulate all over the internet. While listing your art on Ebay properly will get you the most exposure on the web, there are many other venues that you should use to drive customers to your work. What is Social Media Marketing? It’s using your profile and posts on various Social Network sites like Facebook and YouTube to market your product or service for free. Completing a profile on LinkedIn and uploading a portfolio to sites like ArtScuttlebutt.com, and Flickr are a great start, but, to create a following, you have to create new content frequently. My weekly marketing efforts include uploading time-lapse videos of my process to YouTube, keeping my online portfolios current and consistently posting to my blogs. I am also a member of some online galleries that sell work directly to collectors. It’s all about expanding your presence; the more sources of information and images supporting your work, the better. In next week’s post, I’ll discuss how to drive traffic to your online gallery using alternative exhibit opportunities in the real world. For those artists having trouble finding gallery representation or exhibit opportunities, I’ll give you some tips on how to break into the gallery scene.

WarrenKeating.Gather.com is one of the blogging sites that I maintain. I have even converted several of my contacts on Gather into collectors, and, of course, browsers of my content can always follow the link at the end of each entry to my online gallery.

Warren Keating is an artist living in Los Angeles. For more information, go to Warren Keating.com.

My Top Picks

Social Network sites:
Facebook
LinkedIn
MeetUp

Blogging Sites:
Blogger.com
Gather.com
Yahoo360

Artist-oriented Social Network
ArtScuttlebutt
ArtSlant
MyArtPlot

Photo and Video Sites
Flickr
YouTube

Online Galleries
DiscoveredArtists
Fine Art Registry
Imagekind (prints)
Ebay Stores

Online Resources
ArtCalendar.com
ArtDeadlinesList

2009-05-21T09:26:00.000-07:00

Even thought I graduated from prestigious Otis Art Institute, I often cherish the knowledge I gained from my 3 years in the Fine Arts Dept. of the University of Southern Mississippi. Teacher Jim Meade often said, “We’re not going to teach you how to build canvases or mix paint; we’re going to teach you what to do with the paint”

That said, in this primer to selling art online, I’m not going to put any filler here about how to open an Ebay Store, etc. I will recommend that you buy Ebay For Dummies right now to find all of that instruction. A copy used to be by my couch so I’d have something to read when the television was boring until I gave it to another artist friend of mine after spending an afternoon bombarding her with why she should start selling her work on Ebay. I also will tell you what to do with the store, how to market and run the store, etc. in future posts. For now, I’ll tell you to open one immediately. It’ll probably cost you $30-$50/month to keep some paintings in the store and put others into fixed price and online auction to advertise the store. If you can’t invest that kind of money in your career, please see my blog YouCannotSellArtOnline.com. While your building your store, I want you to buy 10 things on Ebay if you don’t already have an account with 10 feedbacks (transactions). That way, you’ll start your business with at least more than a zero or one next to your name. Sure, people will see through to the fact that you don’t have any feedback as a seller, so you’ll still have to hustle to get your first few sales.

You'll also be using that great photo that you took of your artwork on your blog, on your social networking sites and other places on the internet that can gain your work exposure.

Don’t be focused on making sales in the beginning, you’re simply building and establishing your store (more on that in a future post), getting 10 feedbacks through buying necessities, etc. The first thing that you should focus on is marketing your work, that is, creating an online presence that will sell your work. In my next post, I will tell you how to distribute the image and description of your painting to various Social Media in order to create your following of collectors. While you wait for that, you have plenty to do photographing your paintings, establishing an Ebay account and opening a store, building the listings, etc.

Selling Art Online: Get The Picture

2009-05-14T12:41:00.001-07:00

Even though I have over 100 online transactions under my belt, I am still amazed when someone spends a couple of thousand dollars after only seeing a little image of my painting on their computer, but I’m glad they do! However, that image better be good so it sells the artwork and “true” to the actual painting so the customer will be pleased when he or she receives the actual painting.

This post will explain how relatively easy it is to photograph your own work professionally. Reflections on the painting and the proper white balance of the colors are the main problems that one will have to tackle. I suggest that you buy an inexpensive light kit and photograph the work indoors; hopefully you have enough room to set that up in your studio.

To effectively eliminate reflection, a polarizing filter is suggested. It can be rotated while looking through the viewfinder to optimize its effect. You should be using a digital SLR to get professional results. A good one will cost about $900. The Nikon D90 is a good choice as it also shoots video, which the artist can use to market his or herself on YouTube. The Nikon D5000 is a newer, economical version of the D90 for only $700.

Also, to prevent reflection and capture accurate color, a lighting kit is suggested. It is simply a pair of stands, lights and reflectors, using a 500-watt, daylight-balanced bulb. The lights should be set up at a 45º angle to the surface of the painting to minimize reflection and far enough away so the light spreads evenly. These bulbs only have a lifespan of a couple of hours, so turn them off when you’re setting up and focusing on the painting.

Before shooting, you’ll want to set a Custom White Balance. For most digital SLR’s, you’ll place a neutral white-colored piece of paper in the spot, and, with your light kit on and all other light off, shoot a picture of the white paper filling the entire viewfinder. You may have to turn off the auto focus temporarily, to take the picture of the white paper filling the frame. Then, in the menu, go to white balance->select white balance and choose the image of the white paper; press “set”.

With camera on a tripod and the painting framed correctly, you’re ready to shoot. You’ll want to be careful that all four edges of the painting are exactly parallel to the borders of the viewfinder. Watch for undesirable perspective, keystoning or warping of the image when looking through the camera.
There is a really great book that taught me everything I know about photographing my artwork, called “Photographing Your Artwork” by Russell Hart.

A good photo is necessary to sell your artwork. In this case, a small investment in time and money can result in more sales of your paintings for a higher price.

In the next post, I will introduce you to using that great photo of your painting to market the work.

CAMERA AND LIGHTING EQUIPMENT
Digital SLR, Entry level: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi or Nikon D40
Professional Grade: Canon 5D, Nikon D300
Standard Definition Camcorder: Canon ZR960
Lighting Kit: http://www.hoopercamera.com/product.aspx?pf_id=25962

Selling Art Online: What you need to get started.

2009-05-07T10:00:00.000-07:00

In subsequent posts, I will go into more detail on each area, but for now, here’s the Reader’s Digest version of what you’ll need to start selling art on the internet:

Computer with Broadband Connection.
This goes without saying, but to go into more detail, you will need some software to process photos of your artwork, and create text documents. In addition, it is suggested to have some software than can edit videos for upload to YouTube and some web page creation software.

Camera and Lighting
Selling art online, the photograph is your most powerful tool. Sure, you’ll want to write keyword-laden descriptions and use Social Network Media to promote your name, but the image of your painting closes the deal. It still amazes me that a 850-pixel wide .jpg can sell one of my paintings for a couple thousand dollars, but it happens all the time. A great photo of your art makes all the difference, so invest in a good quality digital SLR and an inexpensive lighting kit to take the best possible image of your work.

Administrative and Shipping
You’ll need some sort of dedicated shipping and office area, however small it may be. I use an area in my studio to pack and ship the work, and even have a huge roll of foam hanging from the ceiling in a corner. I use one of the bedrooms in my house as an office to spend time marketing my work on the internet and printing out labels, invoices and promotional materials. Just like I’m a believer that, if you want to be a successful full-time artist, you have to have a studio set up, ready for you when the inspiration comes, so I also believe that to have a thriving business, you have to have a functional area setup to accommodate the influx of orders.

In the next entry, I’ll talk about how to photography your work, the starting point to selling art online.

CAMERA AND LIGHTING EQUIPMENT
Digital SLR, Entry level: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi or Nikon D40
Professional Grade: Canon 5D, Nikon D300
Standard Definition Camcorder: Canon ZR960

Lighting Kit: http://www.hoopercamera.com/product.aspx?pf_id=25962

SOFTWARE LIST
Web Page, Html Creation: Adobe Dreamweaver • Photo Retouching: Adobe Photoshop

SOCIAL NETWORK MEDIA MARKETING
(general):
www.facebook.com
www.YouTube.com
www.gather.com
yahoo.360.com

for artists:
www.artscuttlebutt.com
www.artcalendar.com
www.myartplot.com

Blog Post Got Me On T.V. And In The Newspaper

2009-04-30T11:43:00.000-07:00

I never expected that a self-authored post about my upcoming painting exhibit could garner such publicity! Both CNN Headline News: SoCal News and The Daily News newspaper found my post on the Valley News web site, independent from each other, and conducted further interviews with me about my newest painting series, Overview.

This is what I posted:

A crew from TimeWarner cable's SoCal News, spent two hours here last week shooting a 2-minute segment. A couple of days later, I got a call from The Daily News about running a story on me this Sunday. While the gallery sent out most of the publicity to the art pubs and the L.A. Times, I sure am glad that I put that post up on the Valley News site.

Here is the article that ran in the Daily News:

and here is a video of my CNN segmant on YouTube:

This media coverage not only gives me validity to online customers, but also potential brick-and-mortar galleries. I've had online customers buy my paintings after viewing one of the elements above, so it's not a waste of time to use blogging as a way to market your works.

Warren Keating is an artist living in Los Angeles. For more information, go to WarrenKeating.com.