FineArtViews Archives - Blog: Marketing

FineArtViews Newsletter
Straight Talk about Art, Marketing,
Inspiration and Fine Living

For Artists, Collectors and Galleries
(and anyone else who loves art)

Email Everyone You Know

TODAY:

FOR ARTISTS: The next step in focusing people on your artwork is to email everyone you know.

FOR COLLECTORS: We repeat from our daily edition, our popular commentary, What NOT to Buy Your Wife for Her Birthday.

IF YOU WISH TO UNSUBSCRIBE, CLICK THE LINK AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS NEWSLETTER

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

IN THIS ISSUE

* Email Everyone You Know
   Get started with marketing your art - start with who you know

* What NOT to Buy Your Wife for Her Birthday
   Never, Never, Ever Reveal her true age

* COLLECTOR'S DISCOVERY ZONE

   See the latest works by our artist members!

FOR ARTISTS: Email EVERYONE YOU KNOW

by Clint Watson

If you followed last week's advice, you made a list of everyone you know. Today, you take the first step in focusing the marketing lens upon your artwork. Today’s action is simple: email everyone you know.

Draft an email announcement. Take a bit of time to make it interesting. Make it enticing. PLEASE, whatever you do don’t send a “hey check out my site” email. Talk a bit about your work. Or perhaps something new that you have done. It is a bit of a balance as you don’t want the email to be too long or too short. It also needs to sound personal, not too commercial.

While this article is not exploring the finer points of email marketing, here are a few pointers to consider

1. Send the email in plain text. For this email, we want to maximize delivery to your network. Plain text minimizes the chance that your email will be caught in a spam filter.

2. The Subject Line is the most important line. Take some time to consider what you want to say and be SURE to include your name in the subject since this email is going to your friends and family.

3. Include a post script. All direct mail marketers know that the “PS” is usually the most read part of a message. Include the most important point you wish to make in your “PS.” (You can duplicate this point in the email body as well if you wish)

4. Include a link to your web site. Above the link, include a description of what the link is for. See my sample below for clarification. This two line method is necessary because the email will be sent in plain text and this provides the most reliable way to ensure that the link works (and that your web site URL can be read).

5. To make this email personal, send this email from your personal email account, NOT from an automated system. To accomplish this, put YOUR email address in the “TO” field and paste all your friends’ address into the BLIND CARBON COPY field. If you have more than 200 names, break the list up into chunks that are smaller than 200. If you have access to an email blast system that appears personal, feel free to use it, but what you DON’T want to do is automatically add everyone to your regular email newsletter list. They should choose to subscribe to that themselves. You can see how I encourage that in my sample.

To get your juices flowing, I have drafted a sample email below. Feel free to use any of the wording in your own effort:

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

SUBJECT LINE: A Special Announcement to Friends of JOHN Q ARTIST

Dear Friends and Family,

Thank you sincerely for your past and continued support of my artistic endeavors! I’m excited to announce that I’ve taken my art career to the proverbial “next level” with the launch of my new web site.

After months of experimenting in my studio and refining my style of painting, I am achieving intriguing new levels in my artwork.

I’m inviting you, my friends, family and patrons to enjoy my new direction. Please take just a moment to continue your generous support by stopping by my web site to provide feedback, sign up for my email list, leave a comment on my blog, or simply browse my artwork portfolio.

See John Q Artist’s Intriguing New Style of Art Work:
http://www.JohnQArtist.com

I thank you for your support and for your friendship.

Sincerely,

John Q. Artist

PS: I sent this email because I wanted my family and friends to be the first to see my new artistic direction. If you wish to receive continued announcements regarding my art work, please sign up for my email list on my web site.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

After you have drafted your email, proof it for spelling, grammar and send it out!

If you’re worried that this method is not personal enough for family and friends, don’t worry. We still have several steps in our Focus the Lens series to go and PERSONAL emails are coming soon enough….

This step is intended to be a “jump start” to get people looking at your work and your site. And a way to get you back in your supporters’ minds, which will be helpful in the next steps.

Sincerely,

Clint Watson
Software Craftsman and Art Fanatic

PS: I told you that people read the post script.

For our complete recommended email marketing method, visit my blog at:

http://www.clintwatson.net/dataviewer.asp?page=Blog&keyvalue=126&subkeyvalue=676

FOR COLLECTORS:

(Repeated from our Daily Edition)

What NOT to Get Your Wife for Her Birthday

by Clint Watson

Today we look at a man who made, in our opinion, the "mistake" of buying a birthday present for his wife that was "art" announcing her age. Since this newsletter discusses "art" and "fine living" we feel this article is appropriate. After all, the work in question poses as art and keeping your wife happy on her birthday would definitely contribute to fine living (or at least NOT keeping her happy would hinder fine living) . . .

A few months ago we wrote about the young artist, Sala, who has created 1,000 paintings depicting the numbers “1” through “1000”, and has apparently found enough gullible buyers via the Internet to make some serious money with his project (see Dubious Art, Great Marketing - People Really WILL Buy Anything).

One Thousand Paintings:
http://www.onethousandpaintings.com/

Quite a few of our readers replied. Several wondered if we had lost our marbles...our at least our eye for art, obviously thinking that we admired Sala's art. Let us assure you, we do not. Whether we've lost our eye for art or not, we cannot say, but, it seems our point was missed. Our agenda that day was one of giggling and poking fun...As we said, Sala's "art" is ridiculous. Sala’s marketing is not too shabby.

Since writing about Sala, we’ve had the opportunity to read more about him in Wired magazine. Columnist Daniel H. Pink apparently could think of nothing clever to buy his wife for her 41st birthday. We would have suggested some real fine art or at least diamonds. But Mr. Pink instead contacted Sala and bought his wife number “41” for her birthday.

Paint by Numbers by Daniel H. Pink:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.12/posts.html?pg=3

In our humble opinion, he broke two cardinal rules of marriage and manhood. First, a wife’s birthday demands a more thoughtful gift than a number. And second, we all know that you never, never EVER reveal your wife’s true age . . . perhaps he should have acquired number 29.

The most telling line of Mr. Pink’s article is the last, regarding Sala’s customs declaration, “For a work whose worth was $959 and that cost $575, Sala estimated the value of 41 at $40.”

Sincerely,

Clint Watson
Software Craftsman and Art Fanatic

PS: Since posting this piece on our blog, we've garned a lot of traffic from people searching for "What to get your wife for her birthday"....apparently that stumps quite a few poor souls.

COLLECTOR'S DISCOVERY ZONE:

See the latest artwork by artist members of our sister site, FineArtStudioOnline:

http://www.fineartviews.com/works.asp

FineArtViews Past Issues with Reader Comments!

The True Value of an Artist Blog

http://archives.fineartviewes.com/dataviewer.asp?page=Blog&keyvalue=5131&subkeyvalue=869

What NOT to Get Your Wife for Her Birthday

http://archives.fineartviewes.com/dataviewer.asp?page=Blog&keyvalue=5131&subkeyvalue=864

The Only Way You'll EVER Sell Art:

http://archives.fineartviewes.com/dataviewer.asp?page=Blog&keyvalue=5131&subkeyvalue=853

The Single Most Important Question in Marketing:

http://archives.fineartviewes.com/dataviewer.asp?page=Blog&keyvalue=5131&subkeyvalue=851

Do you have Stendhal Syndrome? I Do!

http://archives.fineartviewes.com/dataviewer.asp?page=Blog&keyvalue=5131&subkeyvalue=850

Make a List of Everyone You Know

http://archives.fineartviewes.com/dataviewer.asp?page=Blog&keyvalue=5131&subkeyvalue=850

All Past Issues:

http://archives.fineartviews.com

If you're not receiving daily Fine Art Views, click the following link to update your profile:

http://data.fineartstudioonline.com/aspwpadmin/profile.asp?email=

--Advertisement --

Do Your Website Visitors
Make the Following Comments?

"Your site left me speechless. I'm so impressed. No words can describe how incredible and exquisite your site and work is." And another......"Bravo! Bravo! Bravo! It is truly an elegant website." And another........"Great website! WOW, Wonderful, Spectacular. Way to go."

Visitors to our Clients' Websites Do!

Get more details and your Free 90-day trial:

Visit www.FineArtStudioOnline.com
Click “Create Your Site”, Use Promo Code FAV74A

FineArtStudioOnline
Easy Artist Websites with Marketing Help

Want to Work For Us?

Make Good Money...Flexible Hours....Work From Home....Work in an Exciting Field

If you know classic ASP programming, HTML Hand coding, and are good with people, we want to talk to you. A love of art and experience in the art industry (such as at a gallery), and experience with FineArtStudioOnline are plusses. Photoshop knowledge is also welcome. Also requires that you have a phone and broadband internet access. With ASP experience, part time pay starts at the $15-$20 per hour range.

For more info, click the following link or to apply:

http://phoenix.praxistechnology.com/306

ABOUT FINEARTVIEWS

DO WE SELL ART?

FineArtViews is a Free email newsletter. We do not sell art or have a commission structure with any of the artists discussed in this publication. If you wish to purchase art by any of the artists featured, we will assist you in contacting the artist or the artist's gallery representatives.

DO YOU OWN A GALLERY? WANT YOUR EXHBIT FEATURED HERE?

If you're a gallery and would like us to mention an upcomming exhibit or to consider a particular artist, please email us. We don't guarantee inclusion but we are all about sharing with the art industry so would like to know about it.

Republish FineArtViews Insightful Content on
your own website, blog or enewsletter free of charge!

You may republish your favorite articles from FineArtViews without charge. Use of this material without adhereing to ALL of the following instructions is a violation of copyright laws:

Republishing our articles is simple. You must include attribution of the author(s) and the following short paragraphs (everything between the dashed lines), in the same font size and visibility as the article:

----------------------------------------------
This article appears courtesy of FineArtViews.com by Clint Watson, a free email newsletter about art, marketing, inspiration and fine living for artists, collectors and galleries (and anyone else who loves art) .

For a complimentary subscription, visit: http://www.fineartviews.com

-----------------------------------------------

Suggest FineArtViews to a Friend:

If you would like to suggest FineArtViews to a friend, please point them to:

http://www.fineartviews.com

Tell them to click the "Join" link.

Have a Question for Clint?

FineArtViews welcomes your questions, thoughts and comments. Send them to:

clint@fineartviews.com

The Fine Print:

This copyrighted material is published here by permission of its sole author, Clinton B. Watson, except as noted otherwise.

As law-abiding citizens who wish to comply with our anti-spam laws (unlike actual spammers), we our postal address below.

FineArtViews.com

PO Box 700534

San Antonio, TX 78270

Thanks for your friendship.

If you liked today's newsletter, please forward it to a friend, if you didn't like it, feel free to forward it to your enemies ;-)

TO UNSUBSCRIBE, CHANGE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS, or Change any other preferences regarding your subscription to Fine Art Views, visit the following link:

Unsubscribe or Change Your FineArtviews Preferences:
http://data.fineartstudioonline.com/aspwpadmin/profile.asp?email=

4/23/2007 6:10:39 AMSubject: Fine Art Views: The True Value of An Artist Blog

Fine Art Views by Clint Watson
ISSUE #5 - Daily Edition - (Sponsored by FineArtStudioOnline)

FineArtViews Newsletter
Straight Talk about Art, Marketing,
Inspiration and Fine Living

For Artists, Collectors and Galleries
(and anyone else who loves art)

The True Value of an Artist Blog

TODAY: There has been a lot of hype about blogs in the last year and, in many cases, too much hype. However, for an artist who is willing to commit to blogging, there is value to be garnered....and that value is called traffic....

IF YOU WISH TO UNSUBSCRIBE, CLICK THE LINK AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS NEWSLETTER

Monday, April 23, 2007

IN THIS ISSUE

* THE TRUE VALUE OF AN ARTIST BLOG
The primary value of a blog is getting traffic to your site

* COLLECTOR'S DISCOVERY ZONE

See the latest works by our artist members!

The True Value of an Artist Blog

by Clint Watson

There has been a lot of hype about blogs in the last year and, in many cases, too much hype. In fact, last summer I wrote a piece that was fairly critical of blogs.

See Blogs and Success, Separating the Wheat from the Chaff:
http://data.fineartstudioonline.com/dataviewer.asp?page=Blog&keyvalue=126&subkeyvalue=379

Since my service, FineArtStudioOnline, has since introduced an integrated blogging platform, today my goal is to focus on the specific, real benefits that one can achieve from blogging.

As an artist, one major reason you want to blog is to bring traffic to your website in hopes that at least some of those visitors will be interested in your art work. How does this work in practice? Well, it is important to generate, over time, a lot of content for the search engines to pick up. Each blog post might only garner you 2 or 3 page views a month, but the blog posts stay on your web site forever, so the effect becomes cumulative. This means you need to be committed to post on a regular basis and you need to expect results in the long-term . . . NOT immediately. For example, I have been blogging for over a year now and have something like 120 posts in my blog. At the end of this article, I have provided a list of the keywords that brought traffic to my site from 1/1/2007 to 1/26/2007.

A couple of thoughts about the list below. I'm getting traffic from people who are searching for other artists. These people found my blog because I have blog posts that discuss other artists. This reveals an important "secret" - you can garner traffic to your artist web site by writing about other artists whom you admire. This might be more effective if you write about artists whose works appeal to the same clientèle as your work. I also notice that I'm generating a fair amount of traffic due to keywords referenced in blog posts by guests - other writers whose work I "reprinted" with permission. Another "secret" revealed - if your not a prolific writer, make a deal with a few of your friends to "share" content. You can let them post your stuff on their blogs and you should definitely post their stuff on your blog...just make sure you exchange links in those posts too, this way you can benefit from garnering more inbound links (See A Look at Links) Lastly, I notice that a lot of guys must be desperate to find out what to buy their wives for their birthdays since there seem to be a bunch of variations on that theme (all no doubt due to my blog post "What NOT to Get your Wife on her Birthday").

Chris Anderson, Editor of Wired magazine calls this phenomenon the "Long Tail." You've probably heard of the 80/20 rule - 80% of your sales come from 20% of your customers...or, in our case, 80% of your traffic comes from the top 20% of your keywords. With a traditional web site, you had to focus on getting your site to come up on a search engine in those to 20% keywords. With MOST artists, I would argue that what you really need to focus on is your own NAME, because most people looking for an artist, search for the artist by name. The 80/20 rule is fine, but by definition it means your ignoring the 80% (80% of your customers, 80% of your keywords, etc).

What blogging allows you to do, over time, is slowly build content that captures the "long tail" or the remaining "80%". This analogy is not perfect since there are essentially an infinite number of keywords, but you get the idea.

One other thought - you could create a lot of the benefits of blogging that I have outlined by being sure to post new artwork often, and to write a paragraph to display with each piece...remember: search engines can only "see" text. In fact, I recommend you do both - post paintings often with text AND blog.

OK Without further ado, here is the list:

Search Engine Keywords for ClintWatson.net 1/1/2007 - 1/26/2007:
clint watson" on Google (We would expect this to be number one)
"paul oxborough" on Google
"malcolm liepke nudes" on Google
"jeff watts art" on Google
"internet art scams" on Google
"review liepke" on Google
"sylvia white art advice any good" on Google
"'miles mathis' gravity" on Google
"van gogh, ears of wheat, blotch" on Google
"red frog paintings" on Google
"developing your own style" on Google
"san antonio spurs little general" on Google
"artist and gallery relationships" on Google
"art pricing guidelines" on Google
"art variation " on Google
"clint watson utah" on Google
"marketing art using ebay painting
small paintings" on Google
"'kelly crow' and 'wall street journal'" on Google
"paul oxborough arc" on Google
"hui han liu " on Google
"paintings from bravo" on Google
"'more than eight' usability" on Google
"claudio bravo easel" on Google
"'how to become a fine artist'" on Google
"clint watson art" on Google
"what to get my wife for her birthday" on Google
"'pricing art" on Google
"brian kliewer price" on Google
"robert spooner" on Google
"allusion painting" on Google
"art evaluation worksheet" on Google
"art christmas ghost of present" on Google
"good names for painting jobs" on Google
"edvard munch aspergers" on Google
"barbara henning loomis" on Google
"the invitation, morgan weistling" on Google
"dreams about zebras,what do they mean?" on MSN
"dateline nigerian internet scam cashier check" on Google
"abstract pantings" on Google
"glorious paintings" on Google
"art florence syndrome" on Google
"artists to collect" on Google
"oxborough paintings" on Google
"rosann munger" on Google
"thomas mcknight, artist, lawsuit" on Google
"drama through paintings" on Google
"robert coombs paintings" on Google
"fineartstudioonline.com" on Google
"marketing complimentary idea" on Google
"getting round the right click disabler" on Google
"clint, modern art" on Google
"da vinci type of perspective" on Google
"bravo, claudio kitten" on Google
"$140 million pollack painting picture" on Google
"varnish technique" on Google
"malcolm liepke decline" on Google
"what to buy my wife for her birthday" on Google
"quote leonardo learning skills fade away" on Google
"bank one incoming wire transfer warren, ohio" on Google
"kelly crow wall street journal" on Google
"joe wojdakowski" on Google
"artists to collect for the future" on Google
"1920's media hype " on Google
"steve huston nudes" on Google
"artist gallery relationship" on Google
"wired magazine what kind of genius are you" on Google
"who buys art and why do they buy" on Google
"'robert coombs' art" on Google
"sue becque" on Google
"the good, thebad, the ugly art gallery" on Google
"how does kinkaid market his art>" on Google
"aron weisenfeld" on Google
"gallery/artist relationship" on Google
"what to buy your wife for birthday" on Google
"what to get you wife for her birthday" on Google
"unused links" on Google
"what percentage an artist agent" on Google
"what does an artist's agent do" on Google
"renoirs for sale" on Google
"yahoo checking inbound links" on Google
"framed prints of stone city by grant wood" on Google
"we are free indeed" on Google
"jim wodark" on Google
"classic 'art fanatic'" on Google
"galleries and how an artist should approach" on Google
"stendhal artist" on Google
"don sahli" on Google
"arts and gallery relationships" on Google
"etching hopper" on Google
"anders ericcson" on Google
"artist and gallery relationship" on Google
"push yourself past your comfort zone" on Google
"art variation" on Google
"nigerian scam art test" on Google
"critics of bill bonner" on Google
"artists who collect" on Google
"what to get your wife for her birthday" on Google
"relationship artists" on Google
"claudio bravo last sales" on Google

Hoping you found this information useful,

Clint Watson
Software Craftsman and Art Fanatic

PS: My other web service, FineArtStudioOnline, sports a fully integrating blogging platform. For artists, this is a great tool because your blog and your web site are all in one place and provided by one service. If you're not a current FASO customer, give it a try at, use this special link only for FineArtViews Subscribers for a 90 day free trial:

FineArtStudioOnline: Easy Web Sites with Integrated Blogging:
http://www.FineArtStudioOnline.com?ref.asp?promo=FAV74A

COLLECTOR'S DISCOVERY ZONE:

See the latest artwork by artist members of our sister site, FineArtStudioOnline:

http://www.fineartviews.com/works.asp

FineArtViews Past Issues with Reader Comments!

What NOT to Get Your Wife for Her Birthday

http://archives.fineartviewes.com/dataviewer.asp?page=Blog&keyvalue=5131&subkeyvalue=864

The Only Way You'll EVER Sell Art:

http://archives.fineartviewes.com/dataviewer.asp?page=Blog&keyvalue=5131&subkeyvalue=853

The Single Most Important Question in Marketing:

http://archives.fineartviewes.com/dataviewer.asp?page=Blog&keyvalue=5131&subkeyvalue=851

Do you have Stendhal Syndrome? I Do!

http://archives.fineartviewes.com/dataviewer.asp?page=Blog&keyvalue=5131&subkeyvalue=850

Make a List of Everyone You Know

http://archives.fineartviewes.com/dataviewer.asp?page=Blog&keyvalue=5131&subkeyvalue=850

All Past Issues:

http://archives.fineartviews.com

--Advertisement --

Do Your Website Visitors
Make the Following Comments?

Visitors to our Clients' Websites Do!

Get more details and your Free 90-day trial:

Visit www.FineArtStudioOnline.com
Click “Create Your Site”, Use Promo Code FAV74A

FineArtStudioOnline
Easy Artist Websites with Marketing Help

Want to Work For Us?

Make Good Money...Flexible Hours....Work From Home....Work in an Exciting Field

For more info, click the following link or to apply:

http://phoenix.praxistechnology.com/306

ABOUT FINEARTVIEWS

DO WE SELL ART?

DO YOU OWN A GALLERY? WANT YOUR EXHBIT FEATURED HERE?

Republish FineArtViews Insightful Content on
your own website, blog or enewsletter free of charge!

You may republish your favorite articles from FineArtViews without charge. Use of this material without adhereing to ALL of the following instructions is a violation of copyright laws:

----------------------------------------------
This article appears courtesy of FineArtViews.com by Clint Watson, a free email newsletter about art, marketing, inspiration and fine living for artists, collectors and galleries (and anyone else who loves art) .

For a complimentary subscription, visit: http://www.fineartviews.com

-----------------------------------------------

Suggest FineArtViews to a Friend:

If you would like to suggest FineArtViews to a friend, please point them to:

http://www.fineartviews.com

Tell them to click the "Join" link.

Have a Question for Clint?

FineArtViews welcomes your questions, thoughts and comments. Send them to:

clint@fineartviews.com

The Fine Print:

This copyrighted material is published here by permission of its sole author, Clinton B. Watson, except as noted otherwise.

As law-abiding citizens who wish to comply with our anti-spam laws (unlike actual spammers), we our postal address below.

FineArtViews.com

PO Box 700534

San Antonio, TX 78270

Thanks for your friendship.

If you liked today's newsletter, please forward it to a friend, if you didn't like it, feel free to forward it to your enemies ;-)

TO UNSUBSCRIBE, CHANGE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS, or Change any other preferences regarding your subscription to Fine Art Views, visit the following link:

Unsubscribe or Change Your FineArtviews Preferences:
http://data.fineartstudioonline.com/aspwpadmin/profile.asp?email=

View Text Version

Issue #11 - How to Increase Search Engine Results

Issue #10: Increase Your Art Sales $6,000 with Email Campaigns

Issue #6: Email Everyone You Know

Issue #5: The True Value of an Artist Blog

Issue #3: The Only Way You'll Ever Sell Art

Issue #2: The Single Most Important Question in Marketing