Thursday, August 2, 2012

Sold!

© 2012, Cathy Savage, Austin Art Boards Submission, 6 x 24"
Everyone loves inquires on their work. I posted this pic on Facebook yesterday and a college friend from Atlanta asked about it. I texted her the price and it now has SOLD as its status. Love that!

Ugh, another Marketing Tool
If you're not into Facebook, it might be worth considering. There are other, much better blogs out there listing the reasons why and what one should post to Facebook, but for me I have two accounts and I occasionally cross post, as I did with the image above. I started using my Facebook account more when an established artist I met asked me why I wasn't using the biggest and best marketing tool out there. I have to admit, over the last year as I've gained confidence about using FB for marketing, I've now sold 4 pieces.

  • I have a regular Facebook account--family, friends, mostly. And I post comments and pictures on random stuff (kids, garden, amount of laundry I'm working through). I will post pictures of new work with a Look What I Did kind of comment. My aim is to tell my peeps what I'm doing and any inquires I get off of that are gravy. I love the attaboys that trickle in. Especially if I was at all under confident in the new work (like I am with the collage, mentioned below).
  • I have an art Facebook account, where I link these blog posts mostly, but put other art-related stuff up too.

Speaking of Under Confidence
My collage is coming along. I'm actually almost done, for better or for worse, and will post a picture tomorrow. I've been feeling a bit pinned in by it's lack of progress. I needed to do some graphic design work yesterday (I freelance here and there) and was discouraged after I tallied the bill. The billing part was great, I just wish the amount I make creating art was valued at the same rate. That part was discouraging.

2 comments:

Laura said...

That pricing thing is rough... I think it's important for artists to recognize that they're not going to make what their art is really worth in just selling the one original. People won't pay that kind of money, as you know. But when you iterate that same work, suddenly you're able to make a lot more money for the one piece. So I encourage you to find a website like Society6 where you can add digital versions of your work and then allow others to purchase that piece printed on various objects (mugs, wall posters, mouse pads, etc etc). With most of these sites, you don't have to do anything when you make a sale. The company prints it and ships it for you. Of course, they take a cut, but it's worth it for the extra money you can be making without extra work.

Point? Find ways to make money off the same piece over and over again.

Cathy Savage said...

Laura,

Thanks for the tip! I will check out Society6. It's nice to have advice coming from all over with all kinds of suggestions. I haven't come across Society6 before. Have you used them for your work?