Author Topic: How and where to promote your work?  (Read 2081 times)

Heather

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How and where to promote your work?
« on: July 07, 2009, 12:47:02 PM »
I've finally sold out. In a theoretical sense since no one has bought my prints yet *sniff*
I have an Etsy shop. I've been trying everything I can on Etsy to promote myself but I don't think my market really is crafters so I'm preaching to the wrong group there (though I've had positive responses). 

So where can I reach out to some Fine Art photography collectors that really like the colour blue / cyanotypes?  ???

I have a website, I made a fan page on Facebook (though after Susan's banning, I'm careful as to how to promote that. strictly only through the page's invite page etc) so, where do I go now? Please don't say Twitter :P

and obviously if any of you know of anyone who might be interested in my work, I can hand out my web addresses to you (just don't want to do it in this post as it'd be spammy).
Heather
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Francois

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Re: How and where to promote your work?
« Reply #1 on: July 07, 2009, 02:58:40 PM »
check out http://www.AlternativePhotography.com
They have galleries and I think they also handle sales... and they only do alt.process so no competing with knitted slippers  ;D
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Heather

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Re: How and where to promote your work?
« Reply #2 on: July 07, 2009, 03:27:45 PM »
Oh, I knew about their galleries, I thought they only sold some books, though... via amazon?
Heather
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Heather

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Re: How and where to promote your work?
« Reply #3 on: July 07, 2009, 03:31:37 PM »
hrm and they cost $35 a year membership...
Heather
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Re: How and where to promote your work?
« Reply #4 on: July 07, 2009, 03:35:32 PM »
Have you thought about selling them to local business's packaged as ready to go art to onsell to shop clients - obviously the local off license might not be your target audience.

I have only seen a little bit of your work so am not too sure what you have and how you want to place yourself in the market.
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Heather

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Re: How and where to promote your work?
« Reply #5 on: July 07, 2009, 03:46:17 PM »
Have you thought about selling them to local business's packaged as ready to go art to onsell to shop clients - obviously the local off license might not be your target audience.

I have only seen a little bit of your work so am not too sure what you have and how you want to place yourself in the market.
Not really into the local market here. I took a look at the Barnet Guild of Artists and it's all twee-watercolours and paintings only. And the last time I looked into space at the local theatre/arts depot in Finchley it's ?100/month which is a rather lot to risk when I realise my work is pretty niche and most likely not to local tastes which are largely philistine in nature.  Plus the costs of framing on top of that too.
Heather
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synj00

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Re: How and where to promote your work?
« Reply #6 on: July 07, 2009, 04:20:47 PM »
Who is your target audience? I think all of our work is kind of niche in a way isnt it? I've sold a few prints through a local (60 miles from me haha) photography gallery. I think also word of mouth is especially important. The internet is a global audience and to yell loud enough to attract buyers is not an easy thing. You have the community here which spreads the word to friends and family and making it REALLY easy to show off your work makes that word of mouth spread faster.

Also I appreciate your posting this as I need to get my butt in gear too!

gregor

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Re: How and where to promote your work?
« Reply #7 on: July 07, 2009, 04:29:21 PM »
I think that if you are focusing on fine art collectors specifically & web-based approaches to marketing the work you'll  limit your potential audience & ultimately limit getting your work onto peoples walls and into collections.  Do everything you can to get the work up in public places, whether that be galleries, pubs & cafes that show art & photography, etc.  

Here in Seattle, a number of artists and photographers bypass the gallery circuit entirely and rent available commercial space for anywhere from two weeks  to a month to hang their work.  A couple friends make their primary livelihood this way. In this economic recession, there's a lot of empty spaces in prime locations and building owners and relators are quite happy to have a space occupied.

Although the cafe/pub route doesn't seem like a likely place to sell art of any kind,  I can speak from my experience. I had not been showing my work for over 5 years (a choice) and to get back into the swing of showing again decided to show in a local pub that hangs art for 2 months per show. 50% of the pieces in the show sold which surprised me greatly.  So again, it may not seem the most likely place to show your work, it exposes your work to a lot of people who would not otherwise see it.

As far as online marketing is concerned, I don't see it as terribly effective by itself (although supported by exhibits & being published it has more potential) and would be curious to hear from others who may have had success with it (?).

Getting it in front of people and not on computer screens is really important! Good luck getting the work out !
« Last Edit: July 07, 2009, 04:52:54 PM by gregor »

Diane Peterson

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Re: How and where to promote your work?
« Reply #8 on: July 07, 2009, 04:49:18 PM »
Just a thought but have you tried Redbubble.com?  I have actually sold a few pieces here..

Heather

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Re: How and where to promote your work?
« Reply #9 on: July 07, 2009, 05:40:09 PM »
Just a thought but have you tried Redbubble.com?  I have actually sold a few pieces here..

Does that have a place to sell original works and not just whatever stuff they can print out that is digital? I don't want to sell digital repro, i want to sell my actual cyanotypes, hence my need for a slightly higher end market.
Heather
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HolgaJen

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Re: How and where to promote your work?
« Reply #10 on: July 10, 2009, 02:58:38 PM »
Hi Heather!

I can totally relate to what you're saying.  I also just recently started up an Etsy shop and its ALOT of work to get yourself seen on there.  I have only had it up for about 3 weeks now, no sales yet.  Views are slowly trickling in...

Please PM me your etsy address  - or post it here (I dont think anyone would mind) so I can check it out :)

I am new to this whole marketing thing as well, so I don't really have any grand suggestions... I'm on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr (finding groups/communities on there and getting involved might help?), Blogging, apparently posting on the Etsy forums and joining a team or two is helpful (so I've heard).

Anyways just wanted to say hi and commiserate :)

Heather

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Re: How and where to promote your work?
« Reply #11 on: July 11, 2009, 09:00:38 AM »
Hi Heather!

I can totally relate to what you're saying.  I also just recently started up an Etsy shop and its ALOT of work to get yourself seen on there.  I have only had it up for about 3 weeks now, no sales yet.  Views are slowly trickling in...

Please PM me your etsy address  - or post it here (I dont think anyone would mind) so I can check it out :)

I am new to this whole marketing thing as well, so I don't really have any grand suggestions... I'm on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr (finding groups/communities on there and getting involved might help?), Blogging, apparently posting on the Etsy forums and joining a team or two is helpful (so I've heard).

Anyways just wanted to say hi and commiserate :)

You have to be quite careful of what you do on flickr as flickr do not want you promoting yourself as a business opportunity apparently and they have deleted accounts with no warning if you have links to your etsy shop all over the place.  Posting on the forums I don't think helps so much, at least not for my work. What gets views tends to be sitting in the etsy chatroom but even then I don't think that's my target market.
Mine's only been up for 6 days now (since Monday) so I don't know if I'm fretting too much. I quietly posted a link to my website over on APUG which has a link to my shop...
I should find some uberblogger to promote my work, that'd help :)

Shop address is http://stargazy.etsy.com/  (and i'll take the link down if the moderators complain)
Heather
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gothamtomato

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Re: How and where to promote your work?
« Reply #12 on: July 12, 2009, 10:55:34 AM »
Lovely work!

I think that Etsy is great as a portal, but you're right that the fellow etsyans are not your target audience. I think that what you need to do is promote your work outside of Etsy and direct people to your Etsy shop.

You can do this in the same ways you'd promote your work for any other reason: Put together a good press package for yourself and get write ups in art magazines, local newspapers, decorating magazines, blogs, etc.

I think you need to add more pieces to what you have on sale there too, because once you get that press, and people start showing up to look, they will want to see more than six pictures.

Heather

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Re: How and where to promote your work?
« Reply #13 on: July 12, 2009, 01:36:34 PM »
Lovely work!

I think that Etsy is great as a portal, but you're right that the fellow etsyans are not your target audience. I think that what you need to do is promote your work outside of Etsy and direct people to your Etsy shop.

You can do this in the same ways you'd promote your work for any other reason: Put together a good press package for yourself and get write ups in art magazines, local newspapers, decorating magazines, blogs, etc.

I think you need to add more pieces to what you have on sale there too, because once you get that press, and people start showing up to look, they will want to see more than six pictures.

Yeah I'm working on more stuff to put up. It's a bit slower than I thought.
Heather
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