By Barney Davey, Guest Blogger – To Be An Artist Is A Gift!
It Is a Unique Thing to Be an Artist. Learn to Celebrate, Enjoy and Utilize the Blessings You Have!
While much of the world is plunged into darkness, we, by comparison, live with a nearly embarrassing, abundant and comfortable means.
No One Is Saying It’s Easy!
To become a successful artist-entrepreneur today is challenging. It requires mastering many skills, not the least of which the ability to create art that continuously sells well. It takes talent, dedication, and ability to make art, to learn how to find buyers and make sales on a steady basis. These hurdles have always been present, and they will never go away.
These Are the Good Old Days.
We are witness to an incredible moment in human history as we experience the greatest advancements in technology, communication, and product distribution ever seen. The pace and scope of significant developments in these fields are increasing at dizzying speeds.
Among these changes are tremendous opportunities for artists who are ready to take them.
15 Reasons Why Now Is the Best Time to Be An Artist
Great News! It Is Not All or Nothing.
As an artist, you don’t have to master or use all the items mentioned above to be successful. However, the more you use to help you get your work seen and sold, the more likely the success you dream about becomes reality. Start by mastering one or two and grow your expertise. The faster you learn, the quicker you can hand off many of those items to assistants.
You Don’t Need Anyone’s Blessing or Approval.
There’s a popular phrase going around, “Those are not my monkeys, and that’s not my circus.” When it comes to your career, it’s the exact opposite.
You are the ringmaster of your life and your career. If you don’t think you are, you need to change your thinking and take charge of your life. Sometimes when you turn the looking glass inward, you find you are the biggest bottleneck clogging the lanes to your success.
Clear Out the Clutter! Break Up the Bottleneck.
If you are feeling put out, put down or put upon, you have the power to stop those feelings. That’s all they are, feelings or perceptions you can change. You also are empowered to realign your thinking and start taking actions to bring about a massive change in your life.
You may have dire circumstances although most likely you don’t. It doesn’t matter. Whatever your situation is, you can change it. You can lift yourself up. You can beat the odds. You can take an already successful career and ramp it higher than you imagine right now.
Artists Leave Footprints!
There are mountains to climb, masterpieces to sell and legacies to leave. It’s mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter. Success is limited only by your imagination and your willingness to not let it matter how hard you will work to achieve it.
Art is many things. By its nature, art is ever-changing in how it is perceived as much as how it is made. You don’t know what impact your art will have in the future. No artist ever does, not really.
The one thing you can know for sure is that your art is a gift to the future. Construct it well with archival and conservation quality materials and it can last for centuries. That is an incredible feeling. I know the quality woodworking pieces I’ve made over the years will outlast me by decades and more. I’m proud something that came from my imagination that was crafted by my hands will endure. It gives me goosebumps when I think about it deeply.
Take care in how you make your art and how you brand yourself as an artist. Those are the two things you control. I can’t help you make your art. I wouldn’t try. You have your go-to sources for that.
Helping You Now and Then.
My job, my mission is helping artists. It’s been a passion for nearly 30 years. I’ve gotten quite good at it if I say so myself. I teach my artist followers one can’t expect others to toot their horn if they’re not willing to do it first and with pride. When you are centered, and sure about what you are doing, it’s not boastful to say what you do is excellent. If you’re not there yet to toot your horn, for internal reasons, for lack of skill, or other issues, just know nothing is impossible. And, nothing boosts confidence like excellence and success.
About Barney Davey
Barney Davey began his career advising artists in 1988 as a senior account executive with Decor magazine and the Decor Expo trade-shows. He helps artists and photographers find buyers, sell art and operate profitably. His mission is to provide artists with systems they can use to create successful, sustainable and rewarding careers. You will find numerous ways to grow your career through his books, blog posts, workshops, online training, consulting and more. http://barneydavey.com
By Guest Blogger, Barney Davey - There are only so many ways to get your art to market. Many of the traditional methods are expensive with the distribution and actual sales completely out of your control.
There Are Not Enough Galleries to Go Around
There never were even in the best of times. The remaining ones are being hurt by rising rents and competition from shows and direct patronage. Shows are great, but they are expensive, grueling, and inconsistent. You are at the mercy of the promoter’s ability to turn out a crowd and must hope mother nature is kind.
25 Years Helping Artists Find the Best Ways to Get to Market
Helping artists find the best way to get their work to market has been my mission for more than 25 years. Right now, the absolute best opportunity for artists to take control of their careers is by selling to patrons directly.
You have the tools and the ability to hone in on who are your best prospects now. Often, you can identify them by name before reaching out to them. If you do the proper research and perform your outreach with intelligence and respect, you can build a list of potential buyers your competitors will envy… and wonder how you did it.
You Don’t Have to Go It Alone
The How to Find and Connect with Art Buyers Workshop leads you through a systematic process to identify your top prospects. Then you learn how to use the best methods to do effective outreach and get your potential patrons on your list. A lot of it is work that can be outsourced to others.
Direct Patronage Is Your Key to Success
Having a responsive list of loyal patrons, fans and followers is how you sell more art and make more money per sale. Equally important, this is the only means of selling your art that gives you control over your future. If you are trusting your livelihood as an artist to galleries, shows, or other third-party distribution systems, you are taking a huge unnecessary gamble with your career.
The Price of the Workshop Increases $50 on August 15th
Join now and save. Your first sales can give you a 10x or greater return on your minor investment into your future. It comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by joining now. Go to bdavey.co/buyers to get started today!
Barney Davey began his career advising artists in 1988 as a senior account executive with Decor magazine and the Decor Expo trade-shows. He helps artists and photographers find buyers, sell art and operate profitably. His mission is to provide artists with systems they can use to create successful, sustainable and rewarding careers. You will find numerous ways to grow your career through his books, blog posts, workshops, online training, consulting and more. http://barneydavey.com
By Barney Davey, Guest Blogger - The latest uproar in the online art marketing community is raging due to changes on Instagram. You no longer get follower updates presented chronologically. Instagram, following in its owner, Facebook’s path, is using algorithms determined by data points to display what you see.
Recently, there was angst over changes at Etsy. It’s a continual pattern of online marketing. More than ten years ago, anger at eBay employing new rules was the issue. Users of online sites that help artists promote and sell their work will always deal with inevitable, unpleasant changes.
The concept of digital sharecropping has been around for years. It implies the inherent danger of building your business on borrowed land. At any time, the owner can make changes that are not in the interest of artists using the site to grow their business, ala Instagram.
So What’s an Artist to Do?
I urge artists to take control of their businesses and their marketing. When I began in the art business in 1988, it was career suicide, at least for artists who sold through galleries, to market to buyers directly.
As the Internet became the most massive disruptive agent ever seen, it rolled over the traditional ways art was sold through dealers and galleries. Consumers responded to online retail, including buying high-end luxury items such as diamonds, jewelry, and fine art. Concurrently, new social media platforms created unique ways for artists to engage prospective buyers.
Suddenly, artists could connect with buyers and sell their art to them without going through third-party channels, such galleries. All kinds of simple-to-use, affordable tools make it possible for artists to build a database of interested prospects and customers.
Problems arise when artists choose quick, easy methods to build a following dependent on social media platforms. If they have no contacts and email addresses under their control, they are at square one when Instagram changes crush their marketing plans.
Carpe Diem Artists!
Artists who take control of their marketing position themselves to sell their art with few disruptions. The Art Marketing Mastery Workshop was developed with the idea of helping artists and photographers build their businesses around finding and selling to collectors. Think of it as being in the business of collecting collectors.
The online training offered through the Art Marketing Mastery Workshop is based on the content of the Guerrilla Marketing for Artists book. The information in the book is broken into the 8-Steps to Art Marketing Mastery.
The Art Marketing Mastery Workshop is built around the book’s concepts. I created it because I knew from experience, including my own, that people get a book and don’t finish reading it. Or, they don’t follow much of the advice in it.
Constant Improvement Is the Only Way
I wanted something better for artists so they could get more from the knowledge I packed into the book. The result was to create the Art Marketing Mastery Workshop. I wanted to go deeper, to inspire action and to give artists a more fruitful and sustaining outcome from the information I have for them.
The first version of the workshop is webinar-based. I soon realized while the material is helpful in that there are better ways for artists to learn it. So, I’ve found myself in the adult education business. That means researching, buying and studying all kinds of new learning management system tools so I can present this information in a better way.
Now, artists will have new and exciting ways to learn the concepts of Art Marketing Mastery. I’ve broken the content into 40+ learning modules. Each with videos, worksheets, resources, and quizzes. These changes make the content easier to access and allow me to go much deeper on the topic.
I am improving the learning so artists get more useful, easily accessible knowledge. The new program goes deeper to instill wisdom, inspire action and to provide artists with fruitful and sustaining results.
Because the upgrades to the learning system and attention to ongoing updates and additions are costly, I can no longer offer lifetime access at a one-time low price. After March 19, the workshop will close for an indefinite period. It will reopen as a monthly membership site. Take advantage of the best price and best offer ever on the Art Marketing Mastery Workshop.
About the Art Marketing Mastery Workshop
The workshop is the culmination of the advice, wisdom, and experience Barney Davey has attained in serving artists for nearly 30 years. He calls it his masterpiece. Artists using the workshop learn art marketing about the best tools and techniques suited to them. It is a lifetime system meaning once learned artists can continue to use the systems to find buyers, sell art, market efficiently and operate profitably throughout their careers. The program is set to undergo a major overhaul and upgrade in how the information is delivered. Artists who join by March 19 are grandfathered into the program with lifetime access for a low one-time fee. Go to http://bdavey.co/career to join or for more details.
Barney Davey began his career advising artists in 1988 as a senior account executive with Decor magazine and the Decor Expo trade-shows. He helps artists and photographers find buyers, sell art and operate profitably. His mission is to provide artists with systems they can use to create successful, sustainable and rewarding careers. You will find numerous ways to grow your career through his books, blog posts, workshops, online training, consulting and more. http://barneydavey.com
