How to Market your work that is the Question
I love receiving comments and am overjoyed when someone favours my work, but it does not generate sales.
Why is That?
My question to every RB’er , in particular those who are highly successful on RB, how does one increase sales. How do we get buyers from outside the RB empire interested enough to buy.
RB does not market itself or our work very well, as it expects us to do this for them
RB homepage* – does not look commercially attractive to potential non-member buyers. It does not target type of design, or art etc.. Search engine does not work very well. In fact there is no point directing anyone there, as they will never find you.
Ebay – forget it prices are to high by the time you add printing, shipping, margin costs. There are no reasonable discounts available to us from RB. RB’s cards are good quality, but the price is too high for us to have a reasonable margin
Personal website – this will cost money to look professional, with shopping cart direct to the merchandise. Additional costs include getting it on all the search engines as otherwise your website will remain a little atom in the sea of the www
Anyone, got any good ideas, maybe even good ideas we could put forward to RB (including a 10% discount on 10 cards+ etc. )
I would like to hear from you that have made some good sales here, if you dare tell us how many cards, pictures or tees you have sold over a given time period. even send me a bubblemail and I will do a follow up journal without names if you prefer to remain anonymous
I am not attacking RB, but it is no secret, that they expect either the members create sales for them within the community, or we market RB outside for them and ourselves.r
People will buy cards , laminated or matted prints if they are priced competitively, even in a recessionary market. At this point it is not possible given the basic price RB charges in particular for cards, as this would not even cove our marketing costs or give us a reasonable profit.
People love buying Limited Editions, well we can say that or prove that, so that is a no go. Maybe RB could devise / recommend something clever here.
SUGGESTIONS SO FAR
1. Red Addiction – Spread yourself widely within RB which could generate a sale
2. Alan Findlater -make up cards adn give to clients, friends , work colleagues .
3. Alan Findlater – promote on social networks such as You Tube, Facebook etc., your own site
4. Stephen Mitchell – Buy your artwork yourself. Sell it to friends, family and in local retail outlets.
(Alan Findlater suggested don’t buy on RB because cost to high,)
Skye Ryan-Evans
Hi CJ, I only began listing on Red Bubble this month (Oct) even though I joined in April, so I will watch this thread with interest. :o-) Sorry I have little to contribute where RB is concerned. Have had far more success with Zazzle and Cafepress but it’s early days for me here and I have had some modest sales in the Bubble which is something positive at least. It might pay to ask your questions in the group forums as well. Best wishes for a huge response to this thread! Namaste, Skye
C J Hummel - ...
Namaste many thanks for your valued contribution in particular for your advice of adding this to the various groups.
I will try to do this now, unless they Host boots me out…LOL
Lynda McDonald
Interesting write-up here CJ and i pretty well agree with the bulk of it too.
C J Hummel - ... replied
thanks for taking the time to read this Journal.
Lynda, it would be great if you could tell us the bits your agree and disagree. It is a learning curve for all of us.
How are you doing with the sales?
red addiction
I know, I cannot believe the amount of favs I get, but no sales with them and if I do, it’s rare and far between. You have to keep in touch with others here and spread yourself around too. I guess the more you communicate the more chances of sales.
C J Hummel - ... replied
Thank you Red for participating in this discussion.
Ok we have one suggestion – Spread yourself widely within RB and this may help boost a sale.
yes, I just received a Journal from someone who had 45000 hits! but very little sales – this person is popular yet nada, nothing, zilch sales
red addiction
I have been here for almost a year now and Ive only sold 24 items, that is it. Its sad but true. I finally made a couple of sales over at zazzle after waiting three long months. I wanted to give up at times but something inside me said not too because those who wait patiently and work hard will see great rewards. Have to have hope, but most of all, I love what I do and that is what keeps me going.
Alan Findlater
Hi CJ I have been hear for over a year now and have to say if you want to sell your work in amounts that 3 or 3 a month then you have too do the work yourself.
I have made 13 sales out side of the site and 14 on the site in the year, the one thing this place has done is encourage me to improve my work tenfold, its more a social networking site that also sells than it is the other way round, there are a couple of groups that try to encourage buying between members and you can get some sales there but not alway a lot or big sale the odd laminated print or card.
the amount of hits does not mean that much either, If you put up twenty works and have a hundred thousand hits thats great but if you put up 200-300 works and have 100,000 hits thats not so good, what really counts is being prepared to wait and work out side of the bubble.
C J Hummel - ... replied
Ok That is good advice to do the work yourself. i agree with you, there!
Now an old native American saying – “HOW”....lol do you go about it
Alan Findlater
I know thats a big problem i tend not to push myself forward and beleive it or not its my next door neighbour how pushes me into beleiving in my work. he also found some of my first clients, as for a web page your right there are a sea of them out there but they can help when you want to let a client see you are serious about the work. make up cards with the web address on them and your email paste links to your page every where you can ie facebook, you tube ect. the more links the better as the web automatically will find them and place them in searches.
Stephen Mitchell
CJ, I will answer this, but give me a day or two. I want to make sure what I say is relevant, exact and gives you the opportunity to make some serious money.
Stephen Mitchell
But I will give you one tip:
Buy your artwork yourself. Sell it to friends, family and in local retail outlets.
Why? Because the profit margin is higher!
C J Hummel - ... replied
That is a really good tip
Tina Hogg
I think a big problem is that potential buyers have to register with RB. It certainly seems to be geared up to only encourage RB artists to buy others’ work – and not many of us can afford to do that!
I think Stephen Mitchell’s suggestion is a good one, so I’ll watch this journal with interest!
Alan Findlater
Stephens idea is good however i would not buy from redbubble to sell on, the cost is too high, invest in a good printer and source good frames then do your own, if you can’t do that shop around for cheaper alternatives.
LudaNayvelt
Well, Let me add my opinion on the sale. Are we here really for sale? We spend so much money and time to prepare those wonderful images. The profit from the sale will not even buy me a dinner. I think most of us here because we love what we do , and we learn from each others.
C J Hummel - ... replied
Luda, firs thank you for particpating in this group.
I do agree to some degree with you regarding the exhibiting of ones work and the kudos we receive from our RB firends.
However, RB establsihed this site purely for the purpose of sales and not networking or to bpoost our ego.
There are many other photographic websites one can join to exchange views and learn techniques from each other, as well as meetings such as Ephotozine.
The majority of them do not give the opportunity for direct single item sell, that is where RB scores.
RB would not be my first choice if I am just looking to learn photography techniques or want to exhibit my work, there ae many other social networking sites especially for photographers that fill that niche. e.g JPGmagazine.com who also publish a quarterly magazine with members photographs
In any case RB did not establish this site for social networking, their primary objective are sales..
C J Hummel - ...
Surely we must have more than 4 suggestions? or does this mean they only on RB who slell is RB itself?
Well This means we need to think hard and fast to boost our own sales and profits.
We only make 1/3 profits of the total sales cost, as otherwise we price ourselves out of the market.
As Alan already stated buying the cards wholesale from RB is too expensive, and it is impossible to sell on for profit.
In my opinion what would be helpful if
RB lowers the cost of the cards by at least 20%
RB allows to raise or lower our profit margins on different items independently from each other.
Otherwise this will die with only RB walking away with a nice bank balance
Stephen Mitchell
CJ, I’m still compiling my answer, will put on my rb journal ASAP.
For the record, the base price of cards is $3 (when you buy them from your own gallery). I then sell mine to friends and family for $5 each. Nobody yet has said that is too much money.
I sold my first batch at cost-price (about 18months ago) ... and was informed by one buyer that I was under-valuing my art. I doubled the price … and they still bought my work.
Thus, if your work is worth buying yourself, you can sell it. IMHO.
C J Hummel - ...
Stephen that is really could advice about the cost-cut and therby you undersell your worth as an artist. I think the same applies to people giving away their art jsut to haev their name published or appear in some book with a by-line.
I do believe that RB’s prices are quite high in partiulcar the cards and the matted prints. It maybe OK to sell a card to a friend or work collogue, but if you are trying to market your work towards the retail trade, you need to up the final sell price in order to accomodate your margin and the retailers margin. Retailers are expecting a 40 to 45% margin, basically you need to double the cost price so that you maintain a reasonable margin for yourself.
Ideally I would like RB to offer realistic packages to the artist.
i will add your suggestion too.
Stephen Mitchell
You say: but if you are trying to market your work towards the retail trade, you need to up the final sell price in order to accommodate your margin and the retailers margin. Retailers are expecting a 40 to 45% margin, basically you need to double the cost price so that you maintain a reasonable margin for yourself. This relates to a side project I am working on. More about this later.
rain-dogs
you can keep your overheads down when buying cards if you order 50 or more this helps a bit and you will get a free postage voucher as a bonus i bought my cards and retail them at $6 each for a good quality card people will pay….