The best way to get your art online quickly and free these days is to create a professional PAGE on Facebook — a.k.a. a Fan Page.

Facebook pages are public and are indexed by Google. Think of them as another website.

“I don’t have time to mess with another website!” you might say. Of course you don’t. No one has time. You make time.

You make time because you know that Facebook has over 400 million users. You make time because many of those 400 million people using Facebook prefer it as their primary online connection.

I love Tim Bradford's short description about his art.

All artists’ fan pages on Facebook should have three critical elements.

1. A short descriptive sentence or two about your art. This isn’t your bio or about your family. This is about your work. Remember that it’s a fan page for fans of your art.

Try out different words from time to time. Be creative!

2. Images of your art under Photos. If we go to an artist’s fan page, we expect to see art. Don’t make us search, click off of Facebook, or scroll for it.

Facebook has nice-sized thumbnails, so we can get a good overview of your work by looking at Photos.

3. Credit lines!
The main problem with the main photos page on Facebook is that there are no titles under the images. Scroll down and you lose the artist’s name.

For this reason, it’s critical to have a complete credit line below each image. Enter this information in the description for every piece of artwork you post on Facebook.

I looked at 10+ artist pages that I thought would have this information before finding it on Lisa Call’s fan page.

When you have a complete credit line as Lisa does here (as you should whenever you post any image anywhere online!), your name is with the image whether the reader scrolls or not.

Lisa Call uses a complete credit line under her images in her Facebook photo album.

Note that a credit line isn’t just a title, but also includes the dimensions (HxWxD), media, and your copyright. Savvy artists will also use the copyright date.

But Lisa goes a step further and also includes the credit line when she features images on her wall.

Lisa Call also adds a complete credit line next to any image she posts on her wall.

Too many of you are uploading images with no information next to the art. Sure, it may be in the image description in your photo album, but that doesn’t show up in thumbnails or on your wall.

Want credit for your art? Post it, yes! But finish the job by adding the complete credit line. Just as you wouldn’t hang your art without a label, you shouldn’t post it anywhere without this information.

SlideShare is a presentation tool that can you help you promote your art to a whole new audience at no cost.

If you have images and access to Microsoft PowerPoint or Apple Keynote, you can make a SlideShare presentation.

Harriete Estel Berman of the Ask Harriete blog says SlideShare is her favorite method for promoting her art online. Her SlideShare site includes a number of presentations of her artwork. I recommend Obverse Obession, a 2-minute look at Harriete’s chocolate pot with the same name. It’s very entertaining!

Harriete Estel Berman's channel on SlideShare

There are six steps involved in creating a SlideShare presentation.

Create Your Profile on SlideShare under "Personal Information"

1. Create an account on SlideShare.
To add your profile after creating your account, look under your name in the upper right corner of the page. It’s under “Personal Information” rather than “Public Profile.” The best general art category is strangely titled “Photography/Arts.”

2. Write a script for your presentation.
What is the story behind your presentation? What’s the focus? Will you use audio? Will you add text to your slides, or will you just have images of yourself and your art? Any way you look at it, you need to map out the order and content of your slides.

3. Create your presentation in PowerPoint or Keynote.

4. Record any audio.
This requires some technology know how. While audio is optional, it adds a whole new dimension to your presentation.

5. Upload your file to your SlideShare site.
Be patient because it can take time for a large file to upload.

6. Tell people about it!
You can add your SlideShare presentations to your website and social media accounts—including YouTube.

While you want to share your work with those who know you, don’t forget the added benefit of having a SlideShare site. Harriete says ” . . . most of the people watching my SlideShare presentations are not watching the presentation on my website but discovering my work on SlideShare itself or some other social networking site.”

Get ready to welcome a new audience!

Listen to the audio version of this post.

Tune in to this week’s Art Marketing Action podcast–an audio version of the newsletter/post of the same title. Read the newsletter here.

Make sure you don’t miss an episode: Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.

Or subscribe to the RSS feed.

Are you a fan of the podcast?

If you are a fan of the podcast, would you take 5 minutes to give it a nice review on iTunes? You must have an Apple or iTunes account to do so. Just go to the iTunes store and search for Art Marketing Action podcast and click on Reviews or Write a Review.

You can leave a 5-star rating (!) and add just a sentence or two that would help browsers decide whether or not it’s worth their time.

Thank you for your help with this.

If you’re just starting your art career, you’ve come to the right place.

Today begins a regular Monday Art Biz Blog feature for those of you taking the first steps toward selling your art.

Q: How far along do I need to be in my skill development to sell work?

You can start selling art at any time that feels comfortable for you. If someone wants to buy a piece and you believe in the quality of the work, sell it.

But there’s a difference between selling art and marketing it. (More on marketing in a minute.)

A selling scenario might include a friend coming to a private dinner party at your home and falling in love with your most recent piece. You agree to sell it to him at a certain price.

Cheryl Brooks Designs courtesy of Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen.

Go ahead and sell the art, as long as:

1. You’re confident in your materials.
You don’t want a piece to fall apart in a year because you didn’t know that two different media didn’t play nicely together.

2. Your work is your own.
If your art looks too much like your instructor’s, you probably need to work in the studio a bit longer. You need your own ideas. It’s uncool to sell class projects that are based on the instructor’s work.

3. You’re proud of the work.
If the new owner tells everyone you made the piece, you’ll be thrilled.

4. You’re okay with the price.
Most artists don’t get big bucks for their first pieces. That’s okay. You’re getting your feet wet. Years down the road, you may regret the low prices of your early work, but you’ll be happy that you took those first steps.

Marketing is much bigger than selling.

Marketing requires a conscious effort to promote your art to a targeted audience. Marketing asks that you are registered as an official business, that you know how to collect sales taxes, that you have a system in place to keep inventory and contact names.

Above all, marketing requires that you have a solid body of work and the discipline to make more.

Stick around and check out other posts here for lots more on marketing.

The Twitter Tweekly is back! These are the best of my Twitter tweets for the past week or so — cleaned up for easier blog reading.

ART MARKETING STUFF

Count the number of personal pronouns in your artist statement? Sane? Or a crazy number?

Is your artist statement older than your art? Time to get a new one.

#1 Rule for your artist statement: It should compel people to look at your art. I’d Rather Be in the Studio! p. 51

Don’t forget to provide a call to action in your emails/newsletters. What is reader to do next?

Artist marketing rule #1: Fonts, colors & logos shouldn’t overshadow your art (I’d Rather Be in the Studio! pp 77-79)

Don’t give up on your mailing list! Some artists are on my list for 3+ yrs before they ever buy from me.

More fun business card designs (blog)

Make a biz card for each piece of art from @johntunger

Have you added your social media accts to your business cards?

Have a pre-sale of your art. Make a private page on a website or blog for your best peeps

“human actions, generosity and sacrifice are more important than they ever were before” @ThisIsSethsBlog

TO THINK ABOUT

RT @copyblogger The only way to avoid offending someone is to be obscure.

And that’s just a fraction of it. Follow me on Twitter to catch it all.

I couldn’t wait to share this email that I got from Kirsty Hall. With her permission . . .

This email shows that Kirsty is human (she messed up, she admits it, and she’s embarrassed). The title line “Er, I think I messed up” is catchy and humble.

Kirsty also apologized.

Then she explains that you’re going to have to do some work to stay on her list:

I love the line “I’m not going to promise that I’ll never email you again because hey, I might know you in real life and need to invite you to my birthday party or something.”

Then she concludes with:

Terrific letter.

If anyone were to ask me how to make this a stronger letter, I might have put an offer to resubscribe even before the apology — at the very top — in bold. And added bold text to key areas to make them stand out more — especially the part about just having 1 week to act.

The subject line was “Do you actually want to be on my email list?” is okay, but “Er, I think I messed up” might have been even stronger. Or “Would you like to keep hearing from me?” Or “3 Sept deadline for staying on my email list.” I think it’s the word “actually” that got in my way. Thoughts on this? (I just finished an article on subject lines, so I’m tuned in to how difficult they are to get right.)

Regardless of these minor suggestions, Kirsty had my attention from the get-go. I certainly subscribed right away!

If you’d like to join Kirsty’s list, you can do so here.

Marketing is a combination of everything you do to sell or gain recognition for your art.

Olivia Alexander, Ocean Dance 4. Mixed media on Belgian linen, 20 x 20 cm. ©The Artist

Artists frequently think of marketing in these terms:

• Keeping up a mailing list (and using it!)
• Printing postcards, brochures, and flyers
• Maintaining websites and blogs
• Interacting through social media sites
• Writing newsletters and articles
• Sending media releases
• Exhibiting your art
• Entering competitions
• Networking
• Speaking to audiences

But excellent marketing also consists of the following:

• Making the best art you can
• Pricing your art appropriately
• Speaking kindly to others in your festival booth or co-op space
• Handling business phone calls and emails in a professional manner
• Being a valuable source for students in your classes and workshops
• Meeting deadlines
• Exceeding expectations
• Following up with leads
• Budgeting

Where is your marketing falling short?

Guest Blogger: Kesha Bruce

Every artist I know, no matter what medium they work in, is always looking for good opportunities to exhibit their art and introduce it to broader audiences.

Over the years I had casually considered what it would be like to run my own gallery space, so when an opportunity to share a gallery space practically fell into my lap, I jumped on it. Three years ago I opened a gallery–a space where I could show and sell my work.

Although I could easily label this a list of ‘what went wrong’, it’s also a list of lessons I learned in the process of running a gallery space.

©2010 Kesha Bruce, Big Dancing Spirit #1. India Ink and graphite powder on paper, 24x 17 inches.

1. Know your true expenses
Having a gallery space doesn’t mean more sales, but it certainly means more overhead. Even though the rent on a space itself maybe completely affordable, other expenses quickly come into play. Never mind the heating bill, I soon found myself spending more than a handful of nickels and dimes on small minor expenditures such as light bulbs, extension cords, and cleaning supplies.

2.  Know how to budget your time
As much as I enjoyed talking about my work with new people, chatting for hours on end with the people that strolled in off the street soon became exhausting. Within a few months I began to resent spending my weekend afternoons gallery-sitting. This problem might have been avoided had I done some real thinking in advance about how much time I realistically wanted to spend interacting with the public on a regular basis.

3. Know your collectors
Besides the once-in-awhile “love at first sight” buyer, most likely a collector will have seen your work and gotten to know you a bit before they decide to make a purchase. One-hundred percent of the sales I made while I was showing my work in my gallery came from collectors I had already formed relationships with long before I decided to set up shop outside my studio.

4.  Know what you really want
In the end it all comes down to choosing opportunities that fit who you are as a person and the direction you want your career to move in. As exciting as it is to meet new people and sell work in a new venue, you probably don’t need to open a gallery space to meet new collectors or to engage with the fans that you already have.

Aside from having the opportunity to temporarily see the art market from a new perspective, the most important lesson I learned was that having a gallery is not a substitute for using your contact list and taking care of your biggest supporters.

Opening a gallery taught me a ton about the value of connecting with people and growing long-term relationships with collectors. It also made me appreciate the hard work of gallerists on behalf of artists.

In the end I closed the doors of my initial idea of running a traditional gallery space, but I took what I’d learned from the experience and used it to create a new model for promoting and selling my work. Stay tuned!

Kesha Bruce received her MFA from Hunter College and is a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship recipient. She lives and works in the US and France.

Last week I showed you how to ask for testimonials for your art business. But sometimes you don’t have to wait to ask. Are you listening to what people are saying?

When you get a compliment, do you have a way to record it? This is easy when it comes through an email or letter, but more difficult if it’s spoken.

Here’s what I do when I receive a compliment.

Tim Smith, Sarah Series: Chapter Two. Oil, 47 x 31 x 3 inches. ©The Artist

Scenario 1: The words in an email are perfect as is.
I write back immediately with a “Thank you so much for taking the time . . . I love hearing this” message. Then I say: “Personal testimonials are really helpful for my business. Would you mind if I used your name with your words at some point?”

Scenario 2: The words in an email are terrific, but I need to edit for space.
I write back immediately with a “Thank you so much for taking the time . . . I love hearing this” message. Then I say: “Personal testimonials are really helpful for my business. Would you mind if I used your name with a testimonial? I was thinking of these words: ‘. . .’ Does that sound okay to you?”

I give them a truncated version of what they wrote previously that gets to the heart of their testimonial. All they have to do is approve it. It makes it easy on them.

Scenario 3: The words in an email are very nice, but there’s no meat there.
A student might write and say “Your Blast Off class was just what I needed at this point. Thank you!” That’s great and all, but it’s not specific enough.

I write back: “I’m so glad to hear that you loved the Blast Off class. Can you tell me what you found most helpful?”

If they return with more details, I can then ask to use the words as a testimonial.

Scenario 4: The words are spoken to me at a live workshop or book signing.
This happens all of the time! Next time, I’m going to be ready. I plan to ask for permission to use their testimonial on video. I’ll pull out my trusty pocket camera and record their words right then and there.

Remember: It never hurts to ask.

“Ask” is one of the lessons in my Blast Off class that starts Wednesday, August 25, 2010. If you need this kind of motivation and practical how-to information, join us! The Blast Off class is my most popular class for a reason: It’s stuff you use every day. Read more about the class.

On October 16-17, 2010, I’ll be in beautiful Northeast Florida to give a 2-day workshop to about 50 amazing (I’m clairvoyant) artists. Will you be one of them? Early registration ends September 15.

Amelia Island Artists Workshop is organizing this 2-day event. Their unique business model is something I thought you might be interested in hearing about, so I asked them for a short interview.

What is Amelia Island Artists Workshop?

We (Sandra Baker-Hinton and Mikolean Longacre) met through mutual art friends and decided to take advantage of your free materials at Art Biz Connection. We ran the Amelia Island Artists Salon in 2007-2008. We founded Amelia Island Artists Workshop in 2009 to bring nationally known and recognized artists from around the country to teach artists their particular art techniques. Through the workshops, we could supplement our income, take classes with artists we loved and, and publicize our artwork.

Mikolean Longacre and Sandra Baker-Hinton

We knew Northeast Florida would be a good place for workshops because of the beautiful location, fantastic wildlife, quaint downtown, pristine beaches and proximity proximity to the Jacksonville Airport. [Alyson notes: My October workshop is less than 45 minutes from Jacksonville and 2.5 hours from Savannah, GA!]

Why did you want to throw an art-marketing workshop in with the mix?

We found that your Art Biz Coach website and information was one of the most useful to us as professionals. As artists working on making a living, being organized, having shows or just setting goals is essential to growing as an artist. For Mikolean this is a second career and she found that amazing growth–in sales, shows and recognition—after using your art salon information. We have proof it works, so we wanted to add a business workshop for serious artists.

How many workshops do you organize each year?

We have 13 this year and we are working on 24 for 2011 and 50 for 2012. Our goal is 100 courses in five years.  We want to create a local school of traveling and local instructors–along the line of the Scottsdale Artists’ School in Arizona. At this point we are focusing only on booking nationally recognized artists or instructors in order to develop the reputation of our company.

How many artists attend the workshops?

We limit classes in most cases to 15 people. (Your upcoming art-marketing workshop is an exception. We expect to have 50 people there.) We have taken classes where there were too many people. We think that when you pay good money, you should expect individual instruction and critique. So far this year we have had a little under a 100 artists take courses and we still have seven more courses that will take place in the fall. Pretty good for the first year!

Tell me about your partnership and business arrangements.

We are a for-profit Limited Liability Corporation (LLC). Sandra is our local publicity person, blogger, registrar, accountant and cheerleader. Mikolean is the webmaster (novice), arranges the workshops with the instructors and facilities, runs the individual workshops, answers telephone calls about the workshops, and develops the schedule.  We both come up with unique ideas and ways to get publicity for the workshops and we divide up the implementation depending on who is the least busy or the most enthusiastic.

The proceeds are split equally, but we are putting most of the proceeds back into the business and expect to keep doing so for a year.

Any advice for other artists who want to follow your workshop model?

We advise artists who wish to organize workshops to first know how to organize your own art career first. This is the same discipline that is required to organize workshops. When you are in charge of workshops, you are responsible for other people and their hard earned money and you have an obligation to be organized. You must also love making art so that you can know what teachers will be best for your group.  Practically speaking, you must be prepared to do whatever you can to get publicity for the workshop and to find students. Lots of hard work and discipline are involved. We do our happy dance when everything comes together just right!