Sell art 

618 creative works found

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  Spring And Polkadots
  by Mariska

  Thank you everyone for your lovely comments !! Available as a matted print , laminated print, mounted print, canvas print framed print and card . Summer And Polkadots / / Patterns#2Red Hill All Origional art work can be purchased through the artist. —-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-——- Copyright notice: / All rights reserved. All images contained on these pages are © copyright protected by Mariska and any use of these images in any form without written permission will be considered an infringement of these copyrights.

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  In Style
  by Mariska

  Vector illustration / 2006 / POSTER / Please check out my Zazzle Store for more products here “In Style” stamps “In Style” mousepad “Only Hats” key chains / / “Only Hats” mousepad / “Only Hats” card “Only Hats” mug All Origional art work can be purchased through the artist. —-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-——- Copyright notice: / All rights reserved. All images contained on these pages are © copyright protected by Mariska and any use of these images in any form without written permission will be considered an infringement of these copyrights.

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  The Pinnacles
  by Anna Dillon

  The painting is based on a photo I took on Dartmoor a few years ago. The light was fantastic and I’ve expanded on that to create this vibrant landscape.

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  Radiance
  by Holly Kempe

  “Radiance” Photography & Artwork / by Holly Kempe © Soft and delicate, a monarch butterfly / basks in the morning sunlight. “Learning how to be still, to really be still / and let life happen – / that stillness becomes a radiance.” / ~ Morgan Freeman Competition: Winner of the Queensland groups – Flutterbies of Qld Radiance was featured in the: Prize Challenges Group

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  Against the W i n d
  by Holly Kempe

  “Against the Wind” Photography & Artwork / by Holly Kempe © A surreal depiction of birds flying into a gale force wind under a full moon partly covered by cloud. “When everything seems to be going against you, / remember that the airplane takes off against the / wind, not with it.” / ~ Henry Ford Against the Wind has been featured in the: Redbubble Homepage – September 08 Tree Group – July 08 Cards: Best of Your Best Group Shoot the Moon Group – February 09 Redbubble Homepage – June 09

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  New Growth New Hope
  by Holly Kempe

  “New Growth New Hope” Photography & Artwork / by Holly Kempe © A surreal depicition of two larger trees bending over a smaller one and protecting it whilst silhouetted against the rising of a full moon. “Young one you know how I’m older than thee?” / said the largest of the trees, / “Another is growing smaller than you / and we must tell it the best thing to do” / “I know, I know”, said the younger tree, / “To grow as tall as the moon. Will it be sibling to me?” / ‘Yes it shall, it will grow by and by.” / And the trees stood and watched / the new reach for the sky…....” Author: adgray / See the rest of adgray’s writing inspired by / New Growth New Hope here. New Growth New Hope was featured in the: Shoot the Moon Group – April 09

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  P r a i s e
  by Holly Kempe

  “Praise” Photography & Artwork / by Holly Kempe © An agapanthus beginning to bloom. “Praise the young and they will blossom.” / ~Irish Proverb

• Help for Redbubble members
  by Mel Brackstone

  Karin Taylor, Jo O’Brien, Stuart Chapman, Lance Jackson, Ragman, Mark German, Steven Lippis, Simone Byrne and myself have added some v…

  Karin Taylor, Jo O’Brien, Stuart Chapman, Lance Jackson, Ragman, Mark German, Steven Lippis, Simone Byrne and myself have added some very useful tutorials and links for those members who’d like some help in learning a few extra tricks to make their time on the bubble easier. I have this link in my profile, so it’s going to be easy to find. I’ll add to it as I learn of new helpful information. How to enhance your profile Text formatting Where to get help/critique/FAQ Help on how to sell your work How to TAG your work effectively Inserting image links easily with Stuart Add category lists How to make smoke photos Digital Infrared info Ragman’s excellent advice on all things arty farty Mark German’s fantastic photographic techniques Steven gives an explanation on how to utilise a flash modifier My experience with Neutral Density Filters My hints on shooting at the beach Explaning focal lengths for digital Polarisers – a visual experiment

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  Butterfly Beauty
  by Mariska

  Work featured on home page 06/01/2009 – Thank you very much dear Redbubble:0)) / First place of the Fabulous ts Gruop Challenge here One of my best sellers T-shirt on REDBUBBLE. / You can buy more products of this design in My Zazzle Store here / / / / / / / / / / Frozen In Time Thank you for buying ! :0) Another favorite:White Flowers All Origional art work can be purchased through the artist. —-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-——- Copyright notice: / All rights reserved. All images contained on these pages are © copyright protected by Mariska and any use of these images in any form without written permission will be considered an infringement of these copyrights.

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  Birds ,Girl & Flowers
  by Mariska

  Vector illustration / 2008 / Work featured on home page 28/01/2009 / Work featured on home page 06/01/2009 / Thank you dear RedBubble and thank you my dear friends for your lovely comments and fav.I am totally thrilled:0)))) / Best selling tee, / /

• 

  RED
  by Christian Zammit

  Telephone boxes in the snow in London / This was a unique event as it rarely snow so much in London. / This was shot on 2nd February 2009. It did not snow so much in the previous 19 years. Canon EOS 400D SOLD at REDBUBBLE / 1x Framed Print of RED / Print Size: Small / Frame Color: Black / Matte Color: Off White / Frame Style: Flat Frame (30mm wide x 20mm deep) / Bought by a mystery buyer. Canon EOS 400D This / work / has / been / produced / by / Christian / Zammit / Kindly / click / on / photo / below. / Visit my gallery Calendars 2010 /

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  Red Shoes
  by Christian Zammit

  Red shoes Canon EOS 400D Canon EOS 400D This / work / has / been / produced / by / Christian / Zammit / Kindly / click / on / photo / below. / Visit my gallery

• Using Twitter to Sell Your Art and Your Story
  by selling

  Twitter.com is mainstream due to exposure from Oprah Winfrey, Ashton Kutcher, and a number of other high-profile…

  Twitter.com is mainstream due to exposure from Oprah Winfrey, Ashton Kutcher, and a number of other high-profile players. The now debunked rumor (in the U.S.) was that a Twitter television show (that box people watched before the Internet) was in the works. A quick, boring background: Twitter is a self-described “service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?” (in 140 characters or less) The full story is on Wikipedia (where everything is true). While there are no rules for using Twitter effectively, there are strategies and tactics that work better for selling art online. To see Rule #1 for using Twitter for purely marketing and PR (public relations) purposes, click here now. Despite the above guidance, there are no shortage of opinions about how to use Twitter for marketing and PR … 629,000 at last count. So, if Twitter isn’t a marketing and PR tool, “What is it good for aside from announcing that awesome breakfast?” At its core, Twitter is a messaging system and relationship building tool. In aggregate, your Tweets should give people more information about you, your artwork, and your creative process. You can use Twitter to engage followers in a discussion about [your] art. Here is my shortlist of tips for using Twitter to further your artistic bone fides. Please feel free to add your tips and tricks in the comments area below. If you want to be effective using Twitter to promote and sell your art: DO / - Use search.twitter.com (also see Twitter Advanced Search) to find and follow people interested in art, t-shirts, design, interior design, office management (these folks buy office art), etc. Essentially anyone with an interest in creativity. - Use Twitter to alert followers about: + Your progress about a current project or series. Use a RedBubble Journal article, Twitpic.com or another service to post works in progress; people love to see work in a fluid state. You can engage and pre-sell people on the design, solicit feedback, etc. + Tell people the beginnings of “the story behind a work.” Continue the story on your RedBubble Profile Page or on the ‘Show Work’ or ‘Configure Page.’ Note: The one thing that most Twitterers are lacking is great content; content is the most expensive tool in a Twitter toolbox. The good news is that you already have this content in your RedBubble Profile and/or Bubblesite. + Link to relevant content such as a RedBubble Journal Post or an article by an industry thought leader. Use TinyURL.com, Bit.ly or another free service to shorten your links. + Announce the addition of new work to your RedBubble profile. + Announce a promotion, e.g., a short-term reduction of your royalty, or a RedBubble-sponsored promotion. Always announce the promotion with a deadline. You can send one reminder when you’re 24-36 hours away from the end. That’s all though; no Tweet spamming. + Live ‘tweet’ an event. For example, every gallery in my hometown opens its doors on the Second Saturday of each month. Restaurants, musicians and street vendors also use the event to gain exposure. Twitpic, post to a RedBubble journal article, or simply tweet the goings-on – show your work, other work, action, etc. Give context to your work and your story. DON’T, if you want to use Twitter effectively for selling art … - Don’t use Twitter to announce what you had for breakfast. - A lot of people are voyeurs, but you’re looking for action, so create a call to action. E.g., use verbs like “see, click, view, read, try …” - Be ultra-efficient with your words. Get the point across and add a link if needed. A preamble isn’t needed for a Tweet. - Don’t use Twitter as your soapbox for negativity. On Twitter, no one can see you; they just hear you. If your language is ugly, well … EXTRAS You can customize your Twitter background to include pictures of your art and design, as well as your RedBubble URLs, a personal website address, phone number, or some context about you and your work. Remember to keep it simple. Note that I didn’t tell you that it’s imperative to use Twitter. Twitter isn’t for everyone. It’s an exercise in dedication, efficient use of words, and restraint; verbal diarrhea is not recommended nor effective. Please add your commentary, ideas, etc. below. Regards, / Jason, aka Jersey2J and 50Champ

• Using Art Subjects to Target Shoppers
  by selling

  Let’s look at the subjects that people favor when purchasing art. By extension and personal experience, these are big buckets that are se…

  Let’s look at the subjects that people favor when purchasing art. By extension and personal experience, these are big buckets that are searched for often, but are hard to win through search engine optimization and expensive to buy through pay-per-click advertising. In a survey of 2,000-plus art buyers ages 18 to 65 (selected based on their previous purchase of art), shoppers aged 45 and above favored landscapes, flowers and gardens, and country traditional themes more than those who are younger. Shoppers aged 35 years of age or younger favored photography, abstract/surrealism, European subjects, and movies or celebrities (pop culture) more than the older [in age, perhaps not in spirit] consumers. Here are the art themes that had the strongest appeal to shoppers (in ascending rank). One caveat: keywords that are a direct hit, e.g., Star Wars, Barack Obama, etc. don’t apply below; it’s a given that brand names are targeted by their very nature. 1. Landscape / 2. Photography / 3. Flowers, Gardens / 4. Wildlife, Animals / 5. Abstract, Surrealism / 6. Impressionism / 7. Tuscany, Paris, Cafes (scenes of Europe) / 8. Still Life / 9. Country Traditional / 10. Pets (dogs, cats) / 11. Sports (baseball, cricket, football, futbol, soccer …) / 12. Religious / 13. Pop Culture / 14. African-American / 15. Brand Icons / 16. Hispanic Art / 17. Other What can we do with this information? We can use the above keywords for tagging, artwork/group descriptions, and Bubblesite text, as well as integrate them into titles, description copy, and hyperlinks in from external blogs, personal websites, and other credible referral sources (e.g., press, social shopping websites such as StyleHive, Kaboodle, etc.) when linking back to your RedBubble pages. In no way should these tags be applied to unrelated work; you’ll drive page views, but not sales. Plus, it’s poor form. There are many excellent categories missing above, e.g., nude art, self-portrait, dance, etc. The recommendation is to think about how you search online. Use common terms and keep it simple. If this article bores you to tears, we suggest that you take a bit from the above and then go with your gut. You know your artwork best, and by thinking like a regular art shopper you might find that fewer tags in a simplified structure will help categorize your work – both in your own mind and for the shopper and buyer. Bringing it all back home. All this sales talk is great; thanks for listening. However, I don’t want to lose sight of the fact that the outcome is to provide an amazingly great work of art and design to someone that appreciates it… that we artists made something that someone loves or gave to someone they care about. In many cases, the shopper will come to think of you as a contact or friend; or at the very least, someone that they feel they know a bit about. Regards, / Jason

• Working with Press to Promote Your Art
  by RedBubble

  We recently read two great articles that feature RedBubble artists. Mindy McGregor Mindy McGregor is an artist and stay at home m…

  We recently read two great articles that feature RedBubble artists. Mindy McGregor Mindy McGregor is an artist and stay at home mom. An art curator found her work on RedBubble. Since that connection, Mindy has displayed her work offline several times in Melbourne, and she now has a new solo show in Sydney, Australia. As part of the Sydney show, local and regional newspapers were sent information about Mindy and her upcoming show. Periodicals were also offered an interview with Mindy about her artwork. From the article: “Soon after joining RedBubble, an online artist group (www.redbubble.com), she was contacted by Andrew May, an art curator.” “The 30 photographs in the Sydney exhibit are mainly images from southern Saskatchewan, because McGregor loves to capture bits and pieces of province’s history.” More information: Mindy McGregor | The Leader-Post article Tom Baumker Tom Baumker is a respected US wildlife photographer who was recruited by an existing member to join RedBubble. Tom’s work was recently shown on his local CBS television affiliate as part of a story about the US holiday, Memorial Day. Tom also hands out “at least 20 business cards each day” in order to drive traffic to his RedBubble profile page. The local TV spot led to an article about Tom’s work in the TC Palm, a periodical focused on the coastal area of Florida, USA. From the article: “Baumker starting taking photos when he was 7 years old. His education in photography came mostly from the school of hard knocks and by reading as many books and magazines as he could get his hands on. Since then, he has taken thousands of wildlife photographs. Many of them end are on his Web site – redbubble.com.” More information: Tom Baumker’s RedBubble profile | The TCPalm.com article How can you secure press about you and your artwork? David Watts Barton, a 25-year veteran of The Sacramento Bee and well-known music and arts writer who’s currently the managing editor of SacramentoPress.com – a local online daily periodical that is mixing professional and citizen journalism, stated: “Start with the four Ws – who, why, what, and where. Beyond that, be sure to pique the writer’s curiosity. Most local publications want to write stories about local people. Just give them the hook and the basic information – don’t sell the subject. Just tell the story. If it’s interesting to the writer, they’ll bite. If not, no amount of hype will sell it.” Other tips include: 1. Make the information newsworthy by capitalizing on a trend, e.g., working from home, secondary income streams, networking online, etc. are hot topics right now. 2. Leverage events such as artwalks and current events such as holidays – tying them back to your work. 3. Provide thought leadership if possible. If your work documents a specific topic in which you have expertise, note that in your pitch. Offer an interview and be on time. 4. Build a relationship with newspaper and press staff. One isolated email won’t do most of the time. Send editors commentary, leads, feedback on past articles, etc. It’s easier to sell your artwork to a friend; the same goes for securing press. 5. Be consistent in both your tone and the frequency in which you write editors. Become familiar and there will be less hesitation on the editor’s part to engage. 6. And lastly, don’t send attachments without prior approval. Link to images whenever possible. Let’s conclude In Tom’s case above, you have a dedicated photographer whose subject matter matched the upcoming US holiday. With Mindy, you have an aspiring photographer who was “found” and whose work captures and space and place in the form of a collection. See how you go and let us know how you do. Also, if you were featured in a periodical or publication, please feel free to post the link and details below. If you already create articles about selling art, please point us to them below. More information about selling your art can be found under the Selling member name. Thanks. Regards, / Jason

• Using Email Marketing to Sell Your Art
  by selling

  Email marketing is a powerful tool that should leverage your existing relationships with family, friends, previous customers, clients, an…

  Email marketing is a powerful tool that should leverage your existing relationships with family, friends, previous customers, clients, and acquaintances to create awareness and sales. You can also purchase email lists that are targeted to people that are apt to buy art or apparel (corporate art buyers, retail shop owners), however, the fastest way to lose credibility is to send a bulk email to strangers without providing context, purpose, and pointing out an immediate benefit to the recipient. Always ask yourself what job the email is doing for the recipient. What’s the benefit? OK, you’ve decided to send a mass (aka bulk) email. Now what? 1. Identify your mailing list / Your list can be your webmail contact list, an export of your computer’s address book, Apple or Outlook Address Book, Palm Contacts, etc. Members interested in buying lists should ping me via Bubblemail. Don’t be dissuaded by a small list of just a few people; email marketing works based on list quality and not the total size of the list. Email marketing can be as simple as sending an email to previous customers from your Gmail account. 2. Segment your list / Divide your list in order to test several groups. You can segment the list by sales potential, e.g., purchased from you in the past six months, inactive for six-plus months, new prospects (new to your list and never purchased art from you), etc. You could add a second qualifier if you have the patience, e.g., purchased a t-shirt from you in the past six months… or you could just go the full monty. 3. How will you mail? / This is the juncture at which you will decide if you’re going to send the email from your webmail, personal mail, or if you’ll send email using a bulk email tool. There are many free and pay-per-use bulk email tools online. A few names include Constant Contact, Campaign Monitor, Campaign Master, SubscriberMail, ExactTarget, etc. Look for a service that does not charge an up-front fee, little or no monthly fee, and that charges less than a cent/penny/pence per email sent. Why use a third-party email tool? a. You preserve your personal email address’ white label status (favorable view) with Internet Service Providers – making it unlikely that your address will be blocked due to an email blast. b. These tools provide templates that make email creation very easy. Some tools make adding content to an email as simple as “drag-and-drop.” c. The third-party will manage your unsubscribe and spam lists, so you won’t need to remember who wanted off the distribution list. Similarly, some services allow you and interested parties to add subscribers using a form; you won’t need to manually add subscribers. d. Third-party tools often include reports that will show you how many people opened your email, how many clicked through (and on which links), as well as unsubscribe and “spam” rates. 4. What to write? / Perhaps you dislike the “hard sell” and choose to send an editorial email that targets everyone in your list. The content of this newsletter could focus on: a. New work / b. Artwork in process – a behind the scenes peek at upcoming work / c. News about you and your work, e.g., recent shows, groups, charity work / d. Photos of you and your studio – or other personal images / e. A short, witty anecdote, etc. lead-in If you’re interested in creating a merchandised (sales-y) email, consider: a. Keeping the copy short and the calls to action obvious. Don’t make clicking through to your RedBubble page hard for the reader. / b. Capitalize on seasonal trends or life cycle events. Holidays are a great reason to talk about your work. / c. Readers love of collections, e.g., art for shared spaces, pop culture t-shirts, landscapes, etc. / d. Show lots of pictures, but keep the file sizes small. If you use Photoshop, use the “Save for Web” function and tweak the JPG quality so that images are small yet attractive. / e. Make any incentives obvious and put them in both the Subject line and at the top of the email newsletter. E.g., if you’re having a sale, offering a free item with purchase (free digital downloads are nice; e.g., wallpaper, printout), etc. 5. Subject line time / Subject lines make or break the number of people opening your email. You can get crazy and send the same email content – using different subject lines – to similar audiences and then measure the different open rates (the number of people that opened each email). My best advice is to include an offer in the subject line (if an offer exists). Otherwise, keep the subject line short and to the point. Humor and personality helps if it’s not obscure. Want to know if your email subject line is too obscure? Send a test to a few friends in the target audience and ask for their opinion. 6. Prepare and test / You’ve got your list, created your email message, and chose a distribution method. Next, paste your message into your email client. If you’re using a third-party tool, load your content into the template you’ve chosen. The only other note I have here is to send a test email to multiple email clients. For example, open a Gmail account, employ Apple Mail, Outlook, Yahoo Mail, etc. if possible. Send your test email to make sure that you like the way it looks in each email client. Some third-party tools will show you a preview of your email in multiple email clients (for a small fee). Here are the email clients used by RedBubble members: 25.0% use Yahoo! Mail / 15.0% use Outlook 2000, 2003, Express / 13.0% use Apple Mail 3 / 10.9% use Hotmail / 9.6% use Gmail / 5.8% use iPhone 2.0 / 3.1% use Apple Mail 2 / 17.5% use All others combined 7. Time to send / Good luck. Spell check, recheck, and check your copy again. Then push that send button and be sure to record the results. Basic stats include: / a. Emails sent / b. Emails opened / c. Clicks from the email to your artwork / d. Number of sales – both transactions and total dollars A next step would be to monitor the lifetime value of the customer, e.g., how many sales, dollars, etc. started with that one email. I’ve probably rambled on far too much, but I hope that this article got you started and provided a few new thoughts, tips, and tricks that you’ll test in the near future. If you use email marketing to sell your art, please Bubblemail me or add your anecdotes or pointers below. Oh, one last thing. If you have blog, you might want to look at FeedBurner.com as way to automatically email people each time you post a new blog entry. Feedburner provides the opt-in (sign up) form and automatically distributes the email for you. I can see that many members also use Feedburner through Blogger.com, and feature a link to these feeds and newsletters on their RedBubble Profile Pages and personal blogs, e.g., Jordan Clarke / thickblackoutline / and Stephen Mitchell among others. If you already create articles about selling art, please point us to them below. More information about selling your art can be found under the Selling member name. Regards, / Jason

• 

  Gemini
  by Mariska

  This was created for my birthday on 13/June,lol / Gemini / The Twins / May 22 to June 21 / Third sign of the zodiac, mutable, air sign. ruled by / mercury….possible start of a series Traditional / Gemini traits Adaptable and versatile / Communicative and witty / Intellectual and eloquent / Youthful and lively On the dark side…. Nervous and tense / Superficial and inconsistent / Cunning and inquisitive Correspondences for Gemini : / Element – Air; Symbol – Twins; Metal – Quicksilver; Color – yellow/grey; Ruler – Mercury; Stones – Diamond, Agate, Topaz. / I hope all you Gemini’s enjoy. And all you others too of course. / / / Big thank you AnnaMarie for this truly awesome poem / Gemini by Anaisnais / With a fondness of life, / jest and pleasure / You’re a lover / of unmeasurable attention as ever / In the third sign of the zodiac / known for storytellers / Of elements Fire and Air, / masculine considered / Diurnal or day orientated, / Physically or mentally related / Primarily focusing / on spirituality and activity / Being adaptable, eloquent, / versatile and lively / Youthful, witty, logical, / spontaneous, communicative; / All thes bing positive traits / are held back by the negative / For you’re changeable, inconsisatent, / cunning, nervous and inquisitive / Restless, superficial,tense / and gossip – well you’re talkative / You hate to be stuck in a rut, / or being left alone / Love novelty, variety, / anything unusual or unknown / Working multiple projects at a time / you’re addicted / Disliking mental action, conventional learning,m / being restricted / Gemini’s inclined to direct energies / into the world around them / Anatomy – rules arms, shoulders, / lungs and nervous system / A strive to learn persevearance / and culture depth / Subjects are lovers of language, / poets, bard, or wordsmiths Thank you Anna-Marie for let to share this beautiful poem here. All Origional art work can be purchased through the artist. —-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-——- Copyright notice: / All rights reserved. All images contained on these pages are © copyright protected by Mariska and any use of these images in any form without written permission will be considered an infringement of these copyrights.

• Yes, You Can Sell Your Art
  by selling

  The Selling articles detail tactics and marketing channels that you can use to sell your art an…

  The Selling articles detail tactics and marketing channels that you can use to sell your art and design. And while we’ve received great feedback about these practical tips and tricks, this is a good juncture to step back and discuss the mindset and culture of selling art. As a photographer and printmaker, I wish that people would simply see and buy my work. And sometimes this happens. However, an impulse purchase is counter to how many art sales happen. Most enthusiasts and collectors want the same emotion from the art buying experience that they get from from the viewing experience—a connection, a feeling, a memory, an aspiration, etc. After all, relationships sell art. So, what does it take to sell your art? A sampling of RedBubble members that have demonstrated a dedication to this pursuit shared these thoughts. 1. Have confidence and a hint of modesty. You created the artwork or the design and that’s amazing—embrace it. A simple “thank you” can address a compliment. Janis Zroback publishes some very good journal articles about art and selling theory. 2. Talk the talk. Buyers are interested in your background and the story behind the artwork. Feel confident in chatting about your work. Also, ask the viewer questions; get them invested in the work in order to further their interest. If you’re uncomfortable at first, practice your 10-second pitch with a friend or family member. It also helps to have supportive ‘agents.’ Karin Taylor has friends and family members that act as her representatives. Says Karen, “My family members are my biggest advocates. They run out of my business cards all the time and ask for replenishment. They have the guts to go where I am afraid to go and put my case forward, and they do it in a great way, very conversational, without all the nerves.” Karin does a great job herself here on RedBubble, and offers a live chat link from her profile page. This reminded me of a comment last week by Tom Baumker. Tom hands out dozens of business cards per day. Tom meets many sales leads where he photographs “on location.” 3. Join customers on common ground. It’s worthwhile to “join your audience.” Scott Robinson recommends, “I’m a member of a lot of different sites based around things I love. Namely skateboarding and comics – two things that a lot of my work consists of and revolves around. I don’t use these places as somewhere to promote myself, but as an active part of those communities, I do build up relationships there and can make posts of my art (and links back to RB) wherever appropriate. Using discretion of course—no-one likes spam. You have to respect the communities you’re a part of.” 4. Walk the walk. Scott Robinson and Diesel Laws wear their work constantly. For print artists, use greeting cards or printouts to advertise your work. You can print your work on ink jet sticker, label, perforated business card, or photo paper. Pass along these samples at parties or other public events. Marketing doesn’t need to be expensive. Or, simply hang the work on your wall. Bruce Watson noted, “I have actually sold it – Cell Phone – as an RB framed print also, but not on RedBubble. A visitor to my home liked it so much they bought it off the wall!” And finally, 5. Challenge yourself. Entering challenges not only improves your exposure on RedBubble – which encourages feedback and interaction with others – but it also says that you believe in your work. Winning a challenge would be nice, but entering is the first step. As I stated before, selling is a marathon and not a sprint—just like the creative process. Matt Simner captured this best when he said, “Self-promotion is a constant voyage of discovery. I believe a fair percentage of exposure I’ve got (which has overall increased views, etc.) has been a by-product of me just doing what I do naturally (sharing information, giving encouragement, trying to help), rather than explicitly ‘trying’ to get more exposure. Of course when you realise that’s the result, it gives you more ideas…” Please add your thoughts on selling below. Selling isn’t easy for everyone (for most people really), so I hope that this article makes you feel in good company and gives you some inspiration to keep going with it. And one last thing. Thanks to the members that contributed above. I reached out to many other artists whose feedback I’ll note in future posts. I welcome any other thoughts, case studies, tips, tricks – anything you want to share as related to selling. Thank you. Regards, / Jason p.s. If you’ve lost your mojo and need some encouragement, click for my Frustration and Anxiety Release Tool for Artists.

• Using Facebook to Sell Your Art
  by selling

  For all of their pluses, there are plenty of confusing aspects of Facebook and Twitter. The biggest positive…

  For all of their pluses, there are plenty of confusing aspects of Facebook and Twitter. The biggest positive is that Facebook and Twitter leverage your relationships with contacts. And we all know that relationships help sell art. Additionally, Twitter allows you to “follow” people that broadcast information and links that can broaden your understanding of topics, industries, etc. For example, I follow 100+ t-shirt designers via my Twitter account, and have found that the their tweets keep me “in the know” about seasonal and pop-culture merchandising trends. RedBubble has both a Facebook page and Twitter account. Back to Facebook. As an artist and designer, Facebook can be a great awareness builder and sales driver. Here are three easy ways to promote your art and design on Facebook. 1. Friends, and friends of friends, buy art / You may already have a growing list of contacts that Facebook defines as friends. Tell friends about your art and design via: Link to your RedBubble profile page or Bubblesite from your Facebook profile. Post new artwork in your Facebook status. This broadcasts an image, a link, and associated text to your friends. Create a collection (or collections) of artwork as a photo album. Be sure to note the artwork URL in the image description. Note: You might want to watermark your images or overlay your RedBubble URL on the image. While Facebook down-samples files to 72 dpi, expressing copyright is never a bad idea in digital public spaces… though one would hope that your Facebook friends would give credit where it’s due. Use Facebook Notes to tell the story behind the creation of your artwork. If you’re a writer, you can tease your work in the Notes section and link to your writing portfolio on RedBubble. You can also install the RedBubble Facebook slideshow found in the Promote area of MyBubble. Status update of an artwork and link. / Addition of a photograph / B. Groups contain focused, interested buyers / Join Facebook Groups where members share common interests related to your artwork content. By being active in Facebook Groups, you can subtlety migrate interested parties to your RedBubble profile and/or Bubblesite. It’s helpful if you can use your art and design to educate others and gather feedback, e.g., post “New images of Yosemite National Park. I’m interested in feedback about which images I should place on RedBubble.” You can obviously use this same technique on RedBubble. / / C. Use Pages to create fan clubs / Facebook Pages are separate from your personal Facebook profile and are also free to create. Think of your Facebook Page as a business page where you can give people a view of your studio, news of a recent exhibition, show work in development, etc. It’s also good to use RedBubble journal posts to do the same for those watching your RB profile. The distribution power of Facebook Pages comes from their ability to update “fans” whenever you post something new to your Page (like your status update, but for your business). However, note that your friends need to become a “fan” of your Facebook Page in order to receive updates. The Pages updates won’t duplicate nor conflict with your personal Facebook profile. You can also announce promotions on your Page. Here is a contest example created by Diesel Laws. Contest created by Diesel Laws / Advertising is easy, but demands attention / Facebook advertising is easy to set up, but not a “set it and forget it” exercise. You’re dedicating funds to this exercise, so consider the following when creating your ads: What images will capture the viewer’s eye best amongst all of the other Facebook page clutter? What designs sold best for you previously? What art or design is at a price point that will attract a first time buyer? What outcome would you consider a success – exposure and sales, simply sales, etc.? FB ads work on a pay-per-click basis, which means that you’re only paying for the clicks that you receive. You can cap the cost per day, so if you want to test ads at $5 per day it’s simple to do so. FB ads also feature demographic (age, location …) targeting, as well as psychographic targeting (interests, hobbies, career …). This allows you to show ads to people you know or estimate to be very good targets. You were once only allowed to create ads for businesses with websites outside of Facebook, but now you can create ads for Pages and Events too. Start simple / My advice is to try the free options first – especially if you already have a large Facebook friends list. Personal referrals will often convert (create a sale) better than a paid ad. That’s not to say that a targeted ad can’t work well if you present the right image, copy and URL. Let’s close / If you’ve found success with Facebook personal, business pages, events or paid ads, please add your comments below. We’re always looking for success stories or warnings about sales and marketing programs as they relate to selling your art and design. And finally, if you want to help other members sell, you can join our “You Can Sell Art and T-shirts” Group (by invitation). Bubblemail me with the topics you feel confident sharing. Thank you. Regards, / Jason BTW, click here for our Twitter tips and tricks. It’s also worth noting that Twitter integrates with Facebook; your tweets can be broadcast as your Facebook status. Janis also pointed out a great Twitter guide on Mashable.

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  The IT Crowd V2.0
  by lukeshirt

  I recently watched IT Crowd S3 and as a homage to this great show decided to create this design. This design was also a tribute to my other IT Crowd Shirt selling 80 copies. Thank-you everyone for your support. I made this design by taking screenshots of the intro of the IT Crowd and then printing them out. I then used photoshop to draw the design by glancing over at the printouts frequently. The text used is: http://www.dafont.com/ds-digital.font P.S A buyers booth pic would be rad :)

• Make Your Art and T-shirt Pages Buyer Friendly
  by selling

  The Optimize Your Profile Page for Sales a…

  The Optimize Your Profile Page for Sales article proved that customization is a popular topic. Today, let’s apply customization and optimization hints to the “show work” (your art and t-shirt) pages. First, let’s look at what a show work page should do. show work page example 1. Honor the art by displaying it in a clean, gallery-style environment 2. Enable the viewer to see the work at a distance and close up 3. Allow the visitor to learn about the work/have enough information to envision the art print or t-shirt in their space or on their body 4. Share the work with friends, family, others via email 5. Inspire/start the order process And for websites like RedBubble: allow the visitor to find other art and design that interests them; a next step rather than prompting an exit. Other ideas are welcomed. Simply list them below in the comments area. RedBubble addresses numbers 1, 2, 3 and 5. You can benefit greatly by sharing information about your work – #4. This helps you on two levels: 1. Relationships sell art – even a newly formed understanding about an artwork or design. 2. Search engines love to be right. Their job is to match a query (search) to a result (content), so any relevant information that you can supply on the show work page can help search engines find your page(s). E.g., if your browser title says that the image is of St. Kilda, and the title of the work is St. Kilda, and your show work page description is about St. Kilda, and the tags include St. Kilda … well, you have a pretty good shot at ranking in web search for St. Kilda. You could do even better by noting the medium (canvas, print, t-shirt) if possible. Here are a few “extras” that can help you merchandise your show work pages. Remember that you’ll need to use RedBubble formatting to make many of these items appear. You can show a detail of the artwork or t-shirt design. / Matt Simner placed a detail of his t-shirt design next to a full view of the design here. You’ll want to save the image for Web (making it lighter weight) with a width of no more than 335 pixels wide. How to? You can upload the detail image via MyBubble and choose not to publish it. After the image is uploaded, right-click (option+click on the Mac) and “copy the image location.” Paste the image location into the product description using the “!” mark at the beginning and end of the URL. See the RedBubble formatting cheatsheet here. Small images of the finished product. / We noted in the previous Selling article that examples of the real product help shoppers envision it in their places and spaces. Luxquarta also noted on their show work page that the image would look great as a “Laminated print, Mounted print or Canvas print.” And another example of the product in real life. Like this? You might also like … / RedBubble members can show small thumbnails of similar products on show work pages. Yanmos does this very thing here. The design for sale is also available as a free iPhone wallpaper too. With enough views of the iPhone image the shopper might just buy the shirt! You can also use the search category trick that we discussed in the previous post to provide visitors with category links that show a broader assortment of similar work. Small touches make visitors feel at home / It’s always the “little things” that make the difference – like RedBubble packaging, t-shirt inserts, swing tags, etc. Along these lines, Definatalie extends her design aesthetic to hand drawn headers and other visual touches that relate her Profile page to her show work pages. Added protection / Some members opt to manually place a copyright on their show work pages. While RedBubble adds a copyright to all pages, you can add a line reminding visitors about copyright. Rupydetequila added a softly-worded note, while boilerplate copy is available via Creative Commons or other reference websites., e.g., “This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia.” or “All rights reserved. Copyright Rupydetequila. Please do not use my images without permission. Feel free to convo me with any questions about this item. Thanks for checking out my work With love Rupydetequila.” Building your audience / RedBubble allows visitors to email a link to their friends. You can go a step further by asking visitors to: Subscribe to your newsletter Follow you on Twitter Become a Fan of your Facebook business page Matt Simner does this in his Stay in Touch section on each show work page. Building your network / We’ve all been beat over the head about Facebook and Twitter, so let’s just say that your profile and show work pages can include links to your Twitter profile page and Facebook Pages (fan pages or your personal profile). Go forth and personalize / I should reiterate that the goal is to show the work in the best light possible whilst not burdening the page load time with tons of heavy images. There are many other customizations that members have made to their show work pages. Feel free to share links to your ideas and pages below. Also, if you’re interested in helping all RedBubble members sell their work, hop on over to the Sell Art and T-shirts group here. Regards, / Jason

• Merchandise to Increase Your Art and T-shirt Sales
  by selling

  A merchandiser’s goal is to make shopping easier – often resulting in more sales. If you’ve bought an item from a store mannequin displ…

  A merchandiser’s goal is to make shopping easier – often resulting in more sales. If you’ve bought an item from a store mannequin display or purchased an item that was featured on an aisle end (an “end cap”), you’ve experienced a merchandiser’s work. The same goes for those of you that have added a suggested item to your online shopping cart. Here are a few ways to merchandise the art and designs on your RedBubble profile page. The first thing a merchandiser does is to think like a customer / How do you search for art or other products online and what elements of the process guide your buying decision? E.g., which keywords would you use to search for an (you can insert a term here) image or a t-shirt? Jo has a good, quick example here. What information would help you bond with the image? What price point will help the customer decide to buy your art or t-shirt? Be unique / Your images and designs are yours alone, but your written voice has a lot of power in terms of making the shopping experience more fun, or educational, or simply pleasing to the spirit. If there’s a story behind a term or regional colloquialism, be sure to explain it. Show the shopper what else you have in store / Show a print next to a greeting card as a way of up-selling shoppers from a greeting card purchase to a print. Better yet, pair the print and the card and suggest that the shopper purchase both. Learn how to post an image in the description field here. “Approximately 30 percent of category buyers also made purchases in the past year of items where art and illustrations were a prominent feature of the item. The most frequently purchased other art item were calendars and stationery items, bought by just over half of those who made other art-related purchasers. T-shirts (44 percent) and mugs or glasses (40 percent) were the second and third most popular art-related items purchased.” / Source: UM Study, 2006 Rearrange the display case as you add new work / New artwork pushes down older work on your profile page. Carefully curate the first six designs on your profile page with a mix of best-selling and new designs. Press the selling designs and test the new ones. You can change the order of your images by clicking on the Art tab in your MyBubble; use the up and down arrows on the far right-hand side of the page. Tell the shopper why to buy / Where would your photograph look great? Is it a seasonal work? Is it reminiscent of a place or space? Much like a Realtor’s open house, shoppers want to envision themselves in your space and frame of mind. “Most art buyers are willing to spend more for a piece of art that really ‘speaks’ to them. They are highly value oriented and want the art they purchase to represent a good value for the money. At the same time, the majority of art buyers are not particularly motivated by owning an original or one-of-a-kind piece of art. In most cases a good quality reproduction works for them, as long as the buyer really likes the picture.” / Source: UM Study, 2006 Have a sale / Create your own promotion by lowering margins for a period of time. Tell your customer base, friends, and family – if only to have them spread the word. Use holidays as a reason to hold a sale and reach shoppers when they’re in a buying mode. See holiday calendars for Australia, the UK, and USA here. Use the Buyers’ Booth to expose testimonials – written, spoken, and pictorial – as endorsements of your work. / There is an odd psychology around both wanting to discover something new and wanting what others already have. If you can allot the time, create a buyers’ book or collection of your work in offline settings as a way of helping buyers to see your work in their space. Overall, tee artists have done a very good job at this. For print artists, you might find interest in this statistic: “In terms of the size of art bought, a majority (49 percent) reported that their most recent art item purchased was medium sized, or approximately 20-24 inches by 28-36 inches. The next most popular size was small, approximately 16 by 20 inches or smaller, bought by 27 percent of art buyers most recently. Large-sized art, approximately 30 by 40 inches or poster-sized, was bought by 20 percent of art buyers most recently with only 5 percent reporting their most recent art purchase was over-sized, or approximately 40 by 60 inches or larger.” / Source: UM Study, 2006 Tag accurately / Use the Google keyword tool to help identify tags (keywords) that are searched for often. Accurate tagging is the best way to ensure that your work shows up as part of both RedBubble and search engine query results. We can’t emphasize this enough and mention it frequently in the forums. Until next time / There’s your Merchandising 101 primer. Merchandising is both an art and a science. We could teach an entire course or curriculum about using metrics to guide merchandising decisions, but the idea above is to start small, keep the process personal, and to measure – albeit simply – the improvements that an extra bit of marketing polish can make. Have a success story to share or a question? Please comment below. Regards, / Jason Enjoyed what you read here? Join the Selling Group on RedBubble.

• Book Publishing and Art Selling Opportunity (faved by 34 people)
  by 3XEternity

  ...

  We Have a New Preview of The Book and Sign Up Options Here This book will be created in catelog form to encourage readers to decorate their homes by buying art from artists on redbubble. Also we are helping artists sell their T-Shirts and Calendars as well. We may create other books in the future but there is no time like the present. You now can be a part of the first one. - Name of the Book : “Life is Art” Poetry for the Soul - Book Size : 8×10 - Page Amount : 80 - Number of Artists needed : 40 - Advertising : We will be donating the book to Librarys. We also offer a code for artists to put in their social networking profiles (but that is optional). Our website will make it easy to order your art from once they see the book they’ll want to go online to order from your redbubble profiles. - What Artists Get : Their choice of poem and photo on a two page spread or 2 poems on 2 different images on each page, We help you get everything ready to promote your poetry and art to list it in the book. We Have a New Preview of The Book and Sign Up Options. Click Here Simply click the book here and on the website. /

• 

  A Rainy Day at The Airport
  by AlteredLens

  4 plans wait in the rain for their next trip. / I took this photo while we were waiting to board a plane for Vanuatu. It was about 6am, freezing cold, wet and somber, but when we arrived at Vanuatu it was hot, sunny and awesome. / Sydney Airport Domestic Terminal. 3 Exp HDR (+2, 2 -2) / Canon 350D / 18mm focal / 18-55mm EF-S / ISO 400 / Balanced on a table – no tripod / Photomatix Pro, PS CS4, Nik Software, Lightroom 2