Selling 

2411 creative works found

• 

  Myanmar lady
  by AnaBanana

  Burma!!

• Selling Art Through Galleries- My Advice
  by Jo O'Brien

  I recently received an email from a fellow RedBubbler and thought I should share my response… DISCLAIMER: this is just my opinion an…

  I recently received an email from a fellow RedBubbler and thought I should share my response… DISCLAIMER: this is just my opinion and advice so don’t take my word as gospel! ____________ Hi Jo, I ‘discovered ’ you on Red Bubble and love your work.. You mentioned you work for a gallery that takes work on consignment. I’m interested in getting some of my work into galleries but don’t know how to. My stuff is here… http://www.redbubble.com/URL So just wondering if you have some advice?? Cheers & thanks, ____________ Hey M First thing is you will notice that the footer of this email has all my phone numbers- please do not hesitate to call me and we can have a proper conversation about this. I have a lot of artists ask me about this and am only happy to help out. I have found that the best way to get your stuff into galleries is to do what you have just done- send an email with a link to your work. Your webiste is basically your CV in the art world – it doesn’t have to be flashy (and redbubble is totally appropriate) but having work that loads quickly is important. You will be lucky if a gallery spends more than 1-2 minutes looking at your site. The other thing you can do is to print out samples of 5-8 images of your work, a biography or artist’s statement and any quirky info that could be used to market you. Put this together into a CV or folio and make several copies. Then you do the door knock thing. If you take this option be aware of a few things- Gallery staff at some places (certainly not us though) can be quite snobby to artists who come off the street and try to sell their wares. I suggest being pleasant but do not try to take up too much of their time. I’m more receptive to a “here’s a copy of my folio, here’s my contact details, i’d love to have a chat some time but obviously now isn’t the best time for you- maybe give me a call if you’re interested?” than a lengthy rehearsed sales pitch. Each gallery will have a slightly different way of doing things. Some will ask for a tax invoice when you bring in art and they will just pay you when it sells. Other will ask for an invoice only once something has sold and they may or may not request a consignment note when you deliver your art. Other places do 90% of the paperwork for you but these are rare. We keep a running file of what work you bring in and if anything gets returned to you because it wasn’t selling. Then if something sells we call or email you the same While I’m on this I should mention that some galleries will not deal with you unless you have an ABN. GST normally doesn’t make a difference but I have heard of a couple of fussy places who have insisted on dealing with GST inclusive artists only- go figure? The other thing that changes between galleries is the mark up of your work. In some of the artist run galleries you can get a 30/70 split of the sale (with the artist being better off). Other places will rip you off majorly and mark up your work by more than 100% and therefore will get more money than you do when it sells. Don’t let people bargain with you for your cut and THEN try to add 10% on for GST- insist on bargaining on the final price inclusive of GST. I make this bargaining process sound difficult but the truth is most places have a policy about how they split things and you either take it or leave it- my advice is more to show you the difference between money grabbing and artist appreciating! Which brings me to my next point- look at the attitude of the gallery. Some places are really picky about what you give them to sell which can mean that they either have no idea OR it could mean that they know their clientelle really well. You just have to be good at reading people to wrok that one out. The places that I would steer clear of are the ones who don’t seem to fussed by what you give them or don’t really care about having a biography or any information about you. They should be interested is selling ‘you’ as a product as well as your stuff. You have to balance out the financial side of things with the personal side. At our galleries we go 50/50 on sales which is considered a bit high. The upside however is that you get a mini cheering squad who will rave about your amazing talents to anyone who glances at your work sideways. We don’t have artists complaining about the higher mark up because we make up for it in branding and promotion you. This is a call each artist has to make for themself. If you’re stuff is considered sellable (which is decided on a case by case basis) we will give it a decent chance of selling- normally I put new stuff on display straight away or in the shop window. Then we see hwat the reaction is. Sometimes we find out very quickly that there is no interest, or everyone loves the image but thinks it is too small, or red, or badly framed or whatever. We aim to have open lines of communcation with our artists so that they don’t keep sending us stuff that no one wants! But in the end if after 4-6 weeks things are not going so well I send things back and invite the artist to try again if they begin experiementing with a different syle or medium. I certainly invite you and any other RedBubble artists to contact me about selling work through our galleries. We are always very keen to see what people have got to offer. Jo O’Brien Work: +61 3 9349 4333 (Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday) Work: +61 3 9827 3338 (Monday)

• Selling Photography
  by Jo O'Brien

  This is based on my experience working at markets and in “painting and sculpture” galleries. I have heard of exclusively photographic gal…

  This is based on my experience working at markets and in “painting and sculpture” galleries. I have heard of exclusively photographic galleries (collaborative- not just for a single photographer) which are an easier market but I am yet to find one in Melbourne. DISCLAIMER: The opinions presented in this journal are not a substitute for professional advice and are based on analogical evidence Things that I have found help to sell photography are: / 1) Taking a strikingly lucky, creative and one off image that others would struggle to replicate / 2) Presenting your photos in an original way / 3) Providing support material to the seller about the image and yourself / 4) Signing the image and providing info on the back / 5) Having a variety of photos available for sale / 6) Only having one copy of each image on display Things I have found detract from selling photography / 1) Inferior or unsuitable framing or packaging / 2) You are selling a whole bunch of your images and most of them look similar- or more so, look like you took them all on the same day / 3) No information about the image is available / 4) No image about the photographer is available / 5) I hate to say it but photographers with birthdates in the 1980s should consider omitting this information from their biography because youth = inexperience in the minds of some buyers. The exception seems to be works using a lot of photomanipulation. / 6) Damaged prints or packaging / 7) And it might have seemed the most obvious point but images that are not interesting, or that do not fufil a decorative need There are many ways of presentaion your images including: / 1) Loose prints or posters / 2) Matted prints (and whether to sign the image or the mat) / 3) Canvas Prints / 4) Framed Prints / 5) Putting your images on other products (tastefully) Generally speaking, bad presentation will doom the sale of even the most amazing photograph and that the more creative and unusual your presentation, the more attention you and your work will recieve. Who has some other tips?

• Selling Art At Markets
  by Jo O'Brien

  Selling Art At Markets Without repeating the points I made in my Selling Greeting Cards Through Stores...

  Selling Art At Markets Without repeating the points I made in my Selling Greeting Cards Through Stores post, here are some of my pointers for selling artwork at markets. It’s going to be another long one so I’ll use headings and give you some pretty pictures to look at on the way :) / Pin-Up Strip Collection – Cards : Freedom by Helen McLean Know The Market You are Attending / Visit the market first! This step is often overlooked and yet it will help you a lot. Some markets can be described as ‘glorified garage sales’ (nothing wrong with that) and others are almost outdoor shopping centres with every convenience. Make a special trip with your stall in mind and ask yourself some questions: What is already being sold? How would you categorise the shoppers? How many people are buying things vs. having a look? How much do things cost there? Is there an entry fee for customers? Have a talk to the current stallholders who will give you the gossip on which spots are the best and how much you can charge for your stuff. Find out about how to get a stall/space. Some markets will ask you to pay an stallholder fee and rock up on the day, others will require a formal proposal in writing and an interview. So find out how to go about it and get advice from current stallholders. By the way, if you’re freaking out about approaching store holders for advice, get over it. Market folk are the nicest people and love a good yarn, just make sure you don’t keep them from their customers. Know Your Target Customer / In an ideal world you would look at your art and work out whom it is best targeted at. Then you would strive to get their attention by stocking your art in places that they go. In the market circuit, things are backwards. You find the market with its existing crowd of shoppers and find a way to sell them what you have. Or you could even make artwork especially to appeal to them. (This is known to some as “selling your soul” – I prefer to call it “paying my bills”) / Since you have visited the market, you have some idea of who goes there. Think about what they are likely to buy and aim to supply it. So take your lovely florals to the nursing home charity fair, your brightly coloured clown shots to the school fete and your super chic city shots to the tourist market. Always have some variety but you can often work out what will be popular before you pay for a heap of printing. / Matilda and Scarlet by Lisadee Displays Are Important / Displays are important. Displays are important. Displays are important. I can’t stress this enough! Most people who sell at markets will at some point learn (usually the hard way) how true that statement is. Think about it before you get there. How do you want it all to look- even if you are artistically challenged like me, draw a picture of how you are going to set everything up. Do you have any space restrictions you need to consider? Are you allowed to hang things? Put them on the floor? Allow people to walk around your allocated space? Are their any other restrictions such as number of displays or tables? All markets have their own (seemingly random) rules so find out before you spend money getting your display units. If you can, do a mock up at home first and see what it’s like from the customers’ side. Some pointers from me on this topic are: / 1) Make sure people can ‘try before they buy’ i.e. can they touch your products to see what the quality is like? / 2) Display things at an appropriate height. Putting your work on the ground degrades its value. If it’s a children’s item, keep it lower, if its wall décor hang it at eye height. / 3) Protect your stock from children, accidents and the weather Packaging / Just a brief note here that in addition to packaging you items to look great, in a market situation they have to withstand the weather. It is also a good idea to have shopping bags so that people can easily carry their purchases around with them. Charge the Right Amount / If you are at a busy tourist market, you can usually set higher prices. As a general rule, I charged 50% more than my ‘shop’ price at tourist markets. Yet at less commercially driven markets you may find the price point has to be a lot lower. You simply have to suss out what is reasonable before you get there by checking out other stalls. The other thing to be aware of is that a lot of market shoppers are out for a bargain. So be prepared for hagglers and decide before you get there how flexible, if at all, you are going to be. You can try and nip it in the bud by having special deals planned ahead of time. It’s also a good point to drop here that human psychology is a wonderful thing and in terms of prices and deals- something displayed in writing will be treated with more respect than information giving verbally. So use price tags and signs. / So Pedestrian by Melody Let People Give You Money / You’re thinking, “Jo, of course I’ll let them give me money- that’s why I’m sitting at this cold, wet market to start with.” But are you really? Are you really letting them give it to you? Do this little task right now, while you’re sitting there at the computer. Pull out your wallet or purse and count how much cash you have. Now think about how much lunch would cost you and deduct that amount, now deduct half a tank of petrol or train fare, which you used to get to this hypothetical market and see what is left. Do you have enough money there to buy heaps of fabulous art? Most people will say “no.” Some will be lucky to break even. What is my point? If you were your own customer, you wouldn’t be buying much- if anything. I can hear you saying “But if I was going to a market I’d get cash out first.” Maybe you would, but, and I mean this in the nicest way, most people will forget. So idiot-proof yourself as much as possible. This might mean knowing where the nearest ATM is to direct people, it might mean having credit card facilities, it might mean having business cards with your online store URL for customers without cash. It seems ridiculous but I have encountered so many customers at markets that simply don’t have cash and therefore can’t buy anything. So have a way around it. / Jo’s little tip: bring a calculator with you. Like They Say in The Scouts: Be Prepared / Make a list of what you need to bring and check it twice. It’s laughable but I’ve seen stallholders forget their trestle table, which is basically the most important part of their stall. So don’t think it won’t happen to you. I know it sounds pessimistic but it’s important to think about what can go wrong. At markets the most common problems are… / 1) The toilet paper runs out in the one and only unisex toilet which is a 5 minute hike across town / 2) You run out of change to give customers- and then you realised none of the stall holders have enough change so you can’t even beg for it, and because it’s a Sunday you can’t get any from the bank… / 3) You are bored stupid waiting for people to start arriving / 4) The weather lets you down. We often prepare for rain but the real killer is the wind and in summer intense sun / 5) You can’t find anything decent to eat for lunch / 6) You need to go to the toilet or eat something but because your ‘help’ is late or didn’t make it, you are literally tied to your stall all day, and the stallholder beside you is too busy to keep an eye on it for you, and you wouldn’t trust them anyway. / 7) You forgot your big warm coat on a freezing cold day or your sunnies on a really bright day. / 8) People keep shoplifting your stuff or even steal your money tin/bag (much more common at markets than in shopping centres with video surveillance) So ask yourself how you will prepare for some of these situations and have a plan. Bring extras of everything and generally don’t feel bad when you can’t even move in your car because of all the stuff you’ve piled in there. When I was doing markets, I prayed for the day I could afford a van. Logistics / Think about all the stuff you need to take and work out how you are going to get it there, set it up and keep it supervised. Can you park your car behind your stall or do you have to move it? Are there strict set up and pack up times you need to consider? If you need to park away from the stall, can you do it securely and do you need to pay for parking? Can your stall be covered if you need to leave it unattended for a bathroom run or are you happy to ask a fellow stallholder to keep an eye on it? And this is a big one guys- What are you going to do with your rubbish at the end of the day? Expect to take it home because the public bins will be overflowing by lunchtime and littering is just not on. / CLOWNS by Mugsy Budgeting / It’s really the first thing you need to do but it scares people so I thought I’d hide it down here at the bottom. When you set up a market stall, you are essentially running your own business and like all small businesses, money, is important. You need to think about what it’s all going to cost you and decide if you are going to make a profit. Let me keep this very simple, the three things you need to think about are… / 1) Things that you buy once to get set up / 2) Things that will keep costing you money as you go / 3) Things that make you money I could write about making budgets all day but I’m trying to keep this post relevant to art. Basically, you want to make enough time to pay yourself back for any major set ups costs like buying new display stands, as well as any ongoing costs, and on top of that you want to make a profit. And please don’t forget to factor in your time. Decide if you are worth $20 per hour or $10 and hour or whatever and include “paying yourself” in your calculations. Keep Financial Records / Another scary one but important one. Keep a list of what stock you bring with you and what you sell. That way when you get home you can determine if anything was stolen or if any money went missing or the wrong change was given. It’s also good to keep a more general record of how much money you are making and what you are spending for each market so that you can see if your business is growing or struggling. It will also show you patterns; for example, an outdoor market would most likely have a quiet period during colder months. I will have to create a separate post about budgeting and financial records because they are both huge areas and very important. For now, my best advice is to get some advice! Oh the irony! I hope that is useful to a few people. And if I made it sound like hard work, well it is. But it’s also good fun. / Nurses by Samantha Thompson

• 

  Sounds of the Sea
  by Holly Kempe

  “Sounds of the Sea” Photography & Artwork / by Holly Kempe © A sea shell on a background of sandstone. “I was like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and / diverting myself now and then finding a smoother / pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the / great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.” / ~Isaac Newton /

• 

  Carried Away by the Moment
  by Holly Kempe

  “Carried Away by the Moment” Photography & Artwork / by Holly Kempe © A lone man standing on the edge of a cliff watches the sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean at Port Campbell, Victoria. “One perfect moment / Can never be repeated / Only remembered.”

• 

  Seven Swallows Sitting
  by Holly Kempe

  “Seven Swallows Sitting” Photography & Artwork / by Holly Kempe © A family of Australian Woodswallows perched tightly together on a wire preening each other against a background of bright blue sky. Bowen, Queensland. “The swallow, bonny birdie, comes sharp / twittering o’er the sea, / And gladly is her carol heard for the sunny / days to be; / She shares not with us wintry glooms, / but yet, no faithless thing, / She hunts the summer o’er the earth with / wearied little wing.”

• 

  Pour Me a Rainbow
  by Holly Kempe

  “Pour Me a Rainbow” Photography & Artwork / by Holly Kempe © A row of old water syphons filled with colored water sitting on a window sill. “Couple of jiggers of moonlight and add a star, / Pour in the blue of a June night and one guitar, / Mix in a couple of dreamers and there you are: / Lovers hail the Moonlight Cocktail.” / ~Kim Gannon Pour Me a Rainbow was featured in the: Prize Challenges Group

• 

  Forgotten Fields
  by Holly Kempe

  “Forgotten Fields” Photography & Artwork / by Holly Kempe © An old moss covered timber gate at the corner of a field of grass. “Whenever my journey gets hard to bear / To fields I go to meet You there. / The Holy psalms I shall recount / My horse of courage I shall mount. / My journey through this land gets longer / My hunger for Your home gets stronger. / When hills to climb get only steeper / My love for You gets only deeper. / I shall not stray nor lose my course / With rein in hand, I’ll guide my horse / To fields of good and plenty be / These fields, the ones You promised me / Are void of enemies and grief. / These fields supply me with relief. / I mount my horse, I’m on my way / And in Your fields, My Lord, I’ll stay.” / ~Marie Paradise

• 

  Pears and Chinese Bell
  by BethBernier

• How To Sell Shirts (Hints and Tips)
  by Diesel Laws

  WRITTEN AUG 08 - Hi everyone, I am by no means an expert, but I do have some great, simple tips and hints that can help get you no…

  WRITTEN AUG 08 - Hi everyone, I am by no means an expert, but I do have some great, simple tips and hints that can help get you noticed and on your way to selling your shirts. These may have been covered on the forums, but I wanted to streamline it a bit and put it all in one tight package. First, I recommend that you get familiar with copying images and links on Redbubble.com by reading the information on the forums to get a basic idea of it all. Take note of these ideas, and if you have any success since reading this article, drop the thumbnail of your of your sold shirt here with an embedded link to that shirt so we can congratulate you! —-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-— So here we go, starting with the most obvious thing first - 1. ONLY POST THE BEST DESIGNS IN YOUR PROFILE / I can’t stress this enough, if your design is not as good as it could be, it will bring down your entire portfolio – so go through your portfolio and be harsh in culling anything that doesn’t receive much attention or look as good as the rest. It is much better to have 5 amazing pieces than 30 half decent ones! 2.SHOWING A HIGHER QUALITY PREVIEW IN THE SIDE BAR / You may be aware that you can show a larger preview of your work in the right hand side bar, but this can often be the low quality image that we copy directly off the website. I would recommend for those tech-savvy people, to use a high quality preview file, showing the whole image or using only a zoomed in section of your image. This will give your customers a much better understanding of the quality they will get from the lines/detail of your work. You will notice on most of my works, like this / one, I have included a higher quality preview image in the right hand side bar, in this case it even has a custom watermark – ooh snazzy! There is a simple way to do this – first, after you have uploaded your shirt, go back into the program you used to make the design. Open that design and make it smaller – Width 500px and save it as a jpg. You can make it much larger than this, but I find it to be the best size. Then, upload the jpg to a website like Flickr, Facebook, Myspace or anywhere you can upload a picture. Then copy the link for where that picture is saved – _this can usually be done by right clicking on the image, going to Properties and copying the entire Address (URL). Once you have that link copied, Edit your recently uploaded shirt, and in the description box, after your words, put in an exclamation mark , followed by the link, http://example.com/image.jpg and then follow that with another exclamation point. Redbubble.com uses the exclamation marks as brackets to display images, much like the inverted commas are used to display someone speaking. 3. USING LINKED THUMBNAILS AROUND REDBUBBLE / Example: / Linked Thumbnails are a visual tease, advertising your work. Displayed in the right place they can be very effective. I would recommend going that one step further and displaying your best designs on your home page, shirt previews and in the forums (when appropriate). This is a great example of using linked thumbnails to display your other work – Here , and if you click through to his home page you will see rudeboyskunk has displayed his best work again, in linked thumbnail form. It is actually quite simple to display linked thumbnails around your site. First, go to your home page (by clicking on your name at the top right of the page). In the Clothing section, click on the View All Clothing link. This will display all your clothing works in thumbnail format. For this example (I’m using Internet Explorer), right click on the thumbnail you want to use. Go to Properties and copy the full Address (URL). It is best to open up Notepad, or Microsoft Word and paste the link into there. / Then, under the thumbnail you just clicked on, right click on the Name of the thumbnail, go to Properties and copy the full Address (URL). Paste this under the thumbnail link in Notepad or Microsoft Word. You should have something like this - / http://images-1.redbubble.net/img/clothing/bodycolor:black/cropped/ / size:small/style:mens/view:main/151516 EXAMPLE SHIRT.jpg (IMAGE LINK) http://www.redbubble.com/people/diesellaws/clothing/1572613 EXAMPLE SHIRT (PAGE LINK) Now all you need is to put them together (the end result will look something like this): !IMAGE LINK!:PAGE LINK Then next thing to do is copy that whole lot of text and paste it into your profile section, description, emails and forums. Do the same thing for every thumbnail you want to display. It may be a bit time consuming, but it looks professional and if and you are willing to put in the effort, it will pay off. 4. REPLYING TO COMMENTS/LEAVING COMMENTS/THANKING PEOPLE / No matter how many things are taking up your time in this busy world, there is never an excuse for not replying to, commenting on and Watchlist-ing another artist. This simple (but often forgotten) gesture will start discussions, and more often than not, increase the views of your work. Every now and then, I head to the Clothing page and view the recent works – then I pick out a few I like and comment them, and in most cases, favourite them. If their portfolio is really good, I will even add the artist to my Watchlist. When someone leaves a comment on your work, make a point to reply back to them straight away, thanking them for their comment. They have taken the time to go through the mass of submissions, to end up on your work and gone even further to leave you a comment! You should always thank them for that! Also, if you like an artist, send them a Bubblemail. It takes two seconds to do and it is great for getting tips and building a friendship. When I first started on RB I was really impressed with thickblackoutline , so, I sent her a Bubblemail (and added her to my Watchlist. It wasn’t long before I received some very useful tips and inspiration, and we are now in the process of co-hosting a group. If an artist inspires you, or you have a question, do not be afraid to ask! You never know what kind of tips they will pass on and, they may even like your work! 5. PROMOTING ON OTHER WEBSITES / I’m sure you are all aware of how advertising on other websites can increase sales. But most of you aren’t aware that the best advertising is right in front of you! Most people have a Facebook, Myspace and or Bebo etc. On Facebook, you can post pictures of your artwork in your Photos section – and put a link to the shirt in the description! This will get sent to all your friends on their homepage letting them know that you have just uploaded a new picture – think of how many friends may be interested to know you have just uploaded a Darth Vader Rocks” T-shirt!. —-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—— I really hope these tips help you and I would love to know how you went since implementing some of these hints. If you like, you can send me a Bubblemail! Good luck, Diesel Laws —-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—- / LINK TO THIS PAGE – http://www.redbubble.com/people/diesellaws/journal/1574934-how-to-sell-shirts-hints-and-tips / —-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-

• 

  she sells, sea shells
  by Jess Andrews

  I love our bubblegum bathtub Part of a series

• 

  My Business
  by Steve Taylor

  Some of you know that I do shows during the summer. I also do Christmas shows. This is from the show in Eagle where I live. With all the talk of how bad the economy is going I was hoping for a least half of what we normally do. (This is our 4th yr.) After the show ended last night we added our invoices and found we had doubled our sales from our best show at this location.

• 

  Black Butterflies Tee
  by Mariska

  This work was featured by RedBubble on home page on 02/01/09, Thank you very much:0)))) / and thank you dear friends for your lovely comments and favorites ,very much appretiate it :0)))

• Articles of Interest
  by Stephen Mitchell

  There are so many tips’n’tricks, tutorials, enhancements and various other interesting articles listed around Redbubble. I’ve decided it …

  There are so many tips’n’tricks, tutorials, enhancements and various other interesting articles listed around Redbubble. I’ve decided it is time to revitalise the articles I have written. / Why? Because so many writers are long-winded, overly-descriptive and their instructions are near impossible to navigate. I believe my documents cover the many issues necessary to run a successful redbubble gallery, allowing artists to successfully present their portfolio to all clientele. Linking Text and Images Advantage of Tagging your Uploads / ASCII Characters in your RedBubble Journal / Coding your RedBubble Journal / Embedding a Profile Banner / Linking Images in Series, Columns and Rows / Linking Photographs / Naming Your Art / Using Favicons in Your Profile Exhibitions, Marketing & Sales Add This To Your Cart / Making a Profit Because of Redbubble / Marketing and Sales / Running Sheet for Exhibitions / Sell, Give, Donate and Use Your Skills / Selling Your Art Successfully Photography DPI – Myth, Mania, or Massive? / DPI – Myth, Mania, or Massive? v.2 / Knowledge is Power / Two Crafty Ways to Become a High Profile Photographer Interesting Reading Consent for Photography Not Required in Australia / Correct Spelling on Mozilla Firefox / DPI Determines Resolution, Not Quality / Online Purchasing : Safe or Scary? / Playing the Popularity Game Without Caring if You Win or Lose / Tip for Answering Comments About Redbubble Advantage of Choosing RedBubble / My Redbubble Dictionary / Ode to Redbubble / Redbubble Breeds Winners This will be updated as I write more interesting articles and tutorials for your reading-pleasure.

• 

  Softness Of Fuschia
  by Deborah H. Benoit

  222 views

• Relationships Sell Art
  by selling

  Press mentions are hard to come by, but perform remarkably well in terms of exposure and sales. Recently, RedBubble artists have received…

  Press mentions are hard to come by, but perform remarkably well in terms of exposure and sales. Recently, RedBubble artists have received press on these sites: - BoingBoing / - SlashFilm / - Topless Robot / - Toxel.com / - Gizmodo / - Fantastic Blognanza (Please feel free to send me other press mentions and I’ll post them here.) It’s no coincidence that these artists received press. Many artists work very hard to promote and secure exposure for their work. Sure, some get lucky, but they’re in the minority. So, how does PR (public relations) exposure happen, and how can I get some? Relationships sell art. If I approached you on the street and said “buy this shirt or art print” you would think me certifiably insane. If I came to you with a softer sell such as, “How does this photograph make you feel?” you might stop for a second and consider my question. And at that point a dialogue would begin. I would give you some background on the artwork, the story behind its creation, my inspiration, as well as ask how you feel about the image. You might buy the image – or not – but at the very least we started a conversation, a relationship. Press and PR is much the same. The writers have a relationship with their readers. The readers trust the writers. And so, when a writer posts about a t-shirt or artwork there’s some credibility already built in. These same types of relationships exist between the artist and the writer. The artists that received the above press exposure found out whom to write, and likely put the artwork within a context or story. (Full disclosure: I pitched the Toxel post with the idea that designers that read Toxel would resonate with a digital art tool – again, the story and history.) Where to begin? Start with family and friends. Ask them how they feel about your art and/or t-shirt designs. Take that information and extend it to writers, e.g., wouldn’t your exquisite photographs of flowers resonate nicely with a writer that is focused on gardening? Perhaps they would consider using your image in exchange for a link to your RedBubble profile. Selling art is a marathon and not a sprint. Some sales are easier than others, e.g., when the viewer or buyer has built-in context (as related to pop culture), but regardless of how you sell, a story or a relationship will win the day. What if garnering press seems impossible? The same techniques outlined above can be extended to an art fair, a gallery opening, a coffee shop conversation, your mission statement, your RedBubble profile, Bubblesite, an email, a Tweet, a Facebook status update, or any space or place where you can start a conversation that leads to a relationship. More to come. Regards, / Jason

• Using Tags to Attract Targeted Art Buyers
  by selling

  In the journal post titled Relationships Sell Art I reas…

  In the journal post titled Relationships Sell Art I reasoned that each artist is their best salesperson; that establishing a relationship with shoppers and buyers through context – a story about the artwork – can aid sales. Most buyers want details that can be shared when they’re asked about the print, t-shirt, calendar, etc. that they’ve proudly displayed in their home or office, on their body, etc. Now let’s step back and look at the factors that the typical consumer considers when buying art – aside from the ever-important context noted above. In a survey of 2,000-plus art buyers ages of 18 to 65 (qualified based on their previous purchase of art), the factors that influenced their purchase of “things to hang and display on walls” included: 60% just liked it / 43% said that it matched the style or design of their home / 39% said that color was a factor / 30% said favorite theme/subject / 29% said it fit their collection / 25% said size influence them / 19% were simply filling a space / 13% said investment was a factor / 9% purchased on impulse / 8% factored a designer/decorator recommendation How can you use this information on your RedBubble pages in order to sell your work? Although we artists can’t control subconscious attraction or a designer/decorator recommendation (unless we know the designer), we can tag our work with 5-7 very targeted terms that will drive visibility via RedBubble search and organic (non-paid) search results. Style, color, theme, and subject keywords are all in our control. In combination with context, smart tagging can help drive and make the sale. What won’t work? Tag cramming or spamming won’t do anything for your sales. It’s the equivalent of marketing a horse when you’re trying to sell a cow. Deception will drive viewers, but not sales. It’s important to note that the above information applies to shoppers and buyers that don’t know you personally. As we’ve discussed before, the easiest sales come from your personal network of family, friends, existing clients, and their extended network of contacts. In the next post we’ll look at genres and the keyword terms that are searched for most often by those looking to buy art. Regards, / Jason

• 

  Umbrella time
  by Bluesrose

• 

  Convenience
  by AlteredLens

  A shop owner stays warm inside his little hut of usefulness whilst another man stands in the rain. / This was an freezing cold day in Sydney, and the constant shower made it so much more miserable. I was walking around looking for something to photograph when I saw this man in the hut, he looked very cosy so I tried to get the shot to show the contrast between the outside and in. Sydney, NSW, Australia. See in Google Maps 3 Exp HDR (+2, 2 -2) / Canon 350D / 18-55mm EF-S / ISO 100 / Tripod Mounted / Photomatix Pro, Photoshop CS4, Lightroom 2

• 

  Pitt Street
  by AlteredLens

  Pitt Street looking south towards Park Street. A little bit of info: / Pitt Street is Australia’s second biggest street located in the central business district of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Pitt St is famous for being home to the Pitt St Mall district, which begins at the intersection of Pitt St and Market St. Pitt St Mall is the most expensive street in Australia and 7th most expensive street in the whole world. Australia’s biggest retailer, Westfields will begin construction of a shopping centre on Pitt St Mall, a first of its kind in an Australian CBD. The complex will be a large high rise tower with office use above the shopping levels. The street is one way (Northbound Only) from George Street to Pitt Street Mall and (Southbound Only) from Circular Quay to Pitt Street Mall. It runs through the entire city centre from Circular Quay in the north to Redfern south, although a substantial stretch of it was removed when the Sydney Central railway station was built. It has many different shops, especially along the Pitt Street Mall, as well as various residential and office buildings. (Wikipedia) 3 Exp HDR (+2, 2, -2) / Lens: 18-55mm EF-S / Focal length: 18mm / ISO: 100 / Tripod Mounted / Photomatix Pro, Photoshop CS4, Lightroom 2

• 

  Steps at the Lighthouse
  by AlteredLens

  Wollongong Breakwater Lighthouse, Wollongong, NSW, Australia. After traveling 3 1/2 hours to do some work at Wollongong, I noticed some storm clouds rolling in. I was down near the water having a look around at the scenery and lined the shot up to get the breakwater, the lighthouse and the clouds all together. 3 Exp HDR / 3 Image Panorama / Canon 350D / Lens: 18-55mm EF-S / Focal length: 18mm / ISO: 100 / Tripod Mounted / Photomatix Pro, Photoshop CS4, Lightroom 2 [info] / The Wollongong Breakwater Lighthouse or known affectionally as “Old Wollongong Lighthouse” by the locals was built in 1871 after an earlier request made by the Wollongong Borough Council in 1866 to help mariners safely nagvigate the port of Wollongong in the early days of the coal industry in the Illawarra region. It is situated in the Belmore Basin on the southern breakwater, within walking distance to its newer twin, the Wollongong Head Lighthouse. / Designed by Edward Moriarty, the Engineer-in-Chief of Harbours and Rivers Department, the tower is constructed of wrought iron on a ferro-concrete base to survive any gale force weather in the area. It is one of the two towers in New South Wales made from wrought iron plates—another identical one was built at Ulladulla Breakwater which later moved to Warden Head. Its construction was delayed by heavy seas which the tower did survive through. Until the lighthouse came into service, a temporary red light was fixed in a box at the end of the pier. Its lantern was installed in July 1871 but its light was not exhibited regularly until January 1872. / Due to poor maintenance of the wrought iron plates in later years, its support fixtures and foundation had deteriorated so much that the lighthouse was considered unsafe and slated for demolition in the 1970s. However, the Wollongong community called for its retention and local organisations subsequently contributed to its restoration then and again in 2002. The old lighthouse has become an icon of Wollongong for its part played in its history and is often depicted on its tourist brochures and even appears as an emblem on the pocket of a local high school uniform. / The new Wollongong Head Lighthouse was constructed on Flagstaff Point to the south of the Breakwater in 1937 and took over as the major light in the harbour in 1974. Though decommissioned now, it is still fully functional and its lights are only relit to mark special maritime occasion nowadays. (Wikipedia)

• 

  Daisy Blur
  by Deborah H. Benoit

  Love the colors of this flower and the soft blur that takes you into…......

• I Told Everyone I Would Make it Easy to Sell On Redbubble...Here Goes
  by 3XEternity

  The Art/T-Shirt Club! Want your art sold? We all feel your pain but in these harder times w…

  The Art/T-Shirt Club! Want your art sold? We all feel your pain but in these harder times we have to come together! So this is the best way we can do just that… / To join us in getting your art sold … You simply need to make a purchase, whether it’s a Card, T-Shirt or Wall-Art from anyone on Redbubble but after the first artist makes a purchase then all the following artists need to buy something from one of the artists who have made a purchase below! / You can also join by listing what you’ve bought in the past but for those / who haven’t bought anything please consider when you have the money to buy something from someone who has posted or buy something that they post. This way everyone will / get something sold! This is how I see it… / We shop in stores like Wal-Mart and the mall which are all run by millionaires and raise prices while under paying most of their workers. / So why always give your money to them when you can spend with the truly / creative people like on RB? You can post a comment to this but to join post something that you purchased from anyone on Redbubble but if someone’s posted already shop in their gallery and join our movement! Thanks to everyone who makes RB a great website to display and sell / on! Currently there are no purchases of someone who posted here, why not be the first? When you leave this message without favoriting it….Let the force be with you…because you’re on your own baby! :)