Audio, about 20 minutes. Click to listen in a new browser tab, or right click and save to your desktop to listen from your hard drive or mp3 player.
This is a copy of an a group coaching session that I did where I talked about how to develop your target art collector market, how to position your work to that market, and how to begin developing a business plan. There’s a ton of information, so you’ll want to listen to it a couple of times.
The end is clipped to protect the privacy of the people on the call.
ACTION PLAN WORKSHEETS
Ideal Client Brainstorming Worksheet – A downloadable Word document to give you some ideas on how to think about your ideal collector.
Business-Plans-for-Artists – This file is a pdf document that will give you an example of how to write out a business plan.
Your mp3 file says to take a week for the task. It is one week since my first listen. I have accomplished:
- researching 14 artist websites
- using your template, creating my business plan
- now have 30 and 60 day plans.
I had a business (non-artist) review the plan, and he liked it! Just wanted to post a comment.
For those of you hesitating: stop it. Do something. Take an action. At least listen to his mp3 a few times. Take one step. Oh, and comment here!
That’s awesome Angeline! So gratifying to hear about artists taking action. I’d love to see your business plan. Can you email it to me? cory@theabundantartist.com
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Cory got me started even prior to signing up as Lifetime Member in that I went through the “who’s my client” exercise and have started my business planning. His Adwords tips on one of posts and tips on social media have made a difference to me, mentally, and I believe tangibly by the incorporation of certain words in my website launch.
BTW – I launched my site yesterday with a “soft announcement” to family, spreading out the word more the first of next week through FB. Also, definitely recommending The Abundant Artist to a couple of artist pals whose sites aren’t really moving much art for them.
Thanks Cory. I look forward to lots of input and nice discussion on the forum!
http://mindsievestudio.com
Glad to help Dianna. Congratulations on the site launch!
Just joined the Abundant Artist Forum, listened to the first lesson, great information, I started getting serious about my art last December, and have stumbled through setting up my website, having my first gallery show, ect…but I felt so unorganized, flying by the seat of my pants! After listening to the first lesson, I can see why, and know this is going to be valuable information, I’m really looking forward to brainstorming my business plan. I did do research on different artist website, and still do after launching my website in December, it has been so helpful, and I’ve gotten great ideas doing so. Thanks Cory for all the information, I ‘m excited to start.
My USP is that I make (mixed media) art about women. I also do portraits and (mixed media) art about my home town. But I guess I should choose the thing that I like doing best and that stands out most. The art with women’s lives as subjects is also what I plan to be doing for a long time.
Is that what you mean indeed?
So – I chose ‘mixed media art about women’ and made that my site title in the wordpress general settings (I read in Steff Metal’s very useful ebook on blogging you should do that).
To my amazement if you type in mixed media I now show up 6th in a Google search. (Not that anyone is going to look for ‘mixed media art’ to buy but just to show how powerful a tool the site title is).
Kitty – this is a great start. I would suggest you go a layer or two deeper. What is the purpose or intended purpose of your work? Do you do it for social change? Justice? Humor? For example, one artist that I worked with did a lot of portraits, so I asked her these questions, and eventually it came out that she was most interested in helping people discover their smile. That was her artistic goal, it’s what made her tick, and it’s what her audience responds to as well, so she calls her work “The Art of Smiles.” I think there’s a tag line in there somewhere about portrait work.
There are lots of people doing mixed media work, and I would venture that there are even a fair number of people doing mixed media work about women. The thing that makes it unique is the element that you add.
“To my amazement if you type in mixed media I now show up 6th in a Google search. (Not that anyone is going to look for ‘mixed media art’ to buy but just to show how powerful a tool the site title is).” – sorry to burst your bubble there, Kitty, but this is a personalized result. Google is showing you what you have told it you want to see. Google tracks your behavior, your social sharing behavior on Twitter, G+, and other sites, as well as a host of other factors and then gives you a personalized search result. To see a clearer picture of where you rank, you’ll want to use a tool like the SEOBook toolbar Rank Checker.
I should probably write up a blog post about Google’s personalized search results. It’s pretty fascinating stuff, and it might help artists get a better idea of how social media and social sharing can influence who finds them online.
Ah.. well thank you for bursting that bubble. I was very amazed but now I see. The same thing happens with the front page of Etsy, that also gets personalized at times and if you don’t know about it you think you’re in heaven and put it on twitter etc and feel very silly afterwards.
I have thought about a better tagline. I use text as well – actually my work illustrates my own lines or quotes – and the quotes sometimes change the meaning of the image – and I do that in a different way from anything I have seen so far. You could say my work is therefore literary artwork. But that does not sound very appealing. And the text angle in itself is not very appealing either. You have to see it to get it.
My intention is to make people smile as I believe humor is a healing thing. But there is some melancholy involved too and it is probably irony more than humor straight out. And compassion.
So.. yes.. I will think some more. Thanks.
Hi Cory, I have asked my online and RL friends to think along on my website because like everyone we get so blinded to our own qualities and flaws. And that even though I teach writing etc – annoying! But there you are. Anyhow, it is very useful to think about a tagline because it has helped me think about what I do and focus more.
Here are my current thoughts:
If I really disconnect myself from my own work/website.. I think what I really want to achieve and what most of you have also hinted at.. is make art that makes us (women, people) smile about ourselves. Or feel a bit better, because really deep down we are all the same and our thoughts and lives resemble those of many others.
But it sounds so pompous to state it that way.
‘Art that makes women smile about themselves.’
And may be smile is not close enough either.. There is some friction and provocation and edginess. But I want for viewers to be consoled and I know they feel the compassion.
My problem is that it seems so generic as a tagline.
Ultimately, it comes down to what makes your heart sing. When you say, “I make art that makes women smile about themselves” is should make you smile and feel happy. If it doesn’t then you need to keep tweaking.
You might look at going just a bit deeper. Why do they smile about themselves? Is it because you show who they really are? Do you show their power, their grace, their sexiness? Do you make art that shows the inner woman?
One of my online friends just came up with a great tagline. “100 % cynicism free art.” I had to laugh so hard I know this is perfect. Not too sweet, I love it.
I mean laughing so loudly (my Dutch creeping up)
nice. If you like it, run with it.