[Marketing Musings on Art 1.7] Feedback from friends

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Marketing Musings on Art

1998

Year 1

No. 7

Sep 10

See also the other journals:

Daily Drawing 1.34

Art Journal 1.7

Creative Journal 1.7

Pablo Journal 1.5

565, big mama

Rembrandt: Bathsheba
Picasso' Bathsheba

Wild and insolent

Rubens / Cranach
Most beautiful women

Dear Partners:

Murphy

keeps making trouble. I never heard of my lost mail again. Too bad. Just another story for my free report on mistakes I made on the net (free report). The autoresponder company MyReply.com shut down for 10 days due to improvement measures (success keeps pouring in), but they redirect inquiries to me. I found a workaround not bothering me too much.

Finally the list server for my ezines (FindMail) went havoc. Kept me busy sending error reports with senseless autoreply, finally I asked: "Does anybody care?" Someone said: "I do." Sent some more, but never heard of him again. (Presumably drowned in success).

Can't send html mail any more. Send text only announcements instead as a workaround.

The other server (OneList) is up again, improved, asks for comments. Told them the story. I set up with them first, but they got an awkward subscription routine...

Well, I almost forgot about that move ... I still got something to do, but I was better off than hoped for. I had to cancel one issue, dropped Daily Drawing for more than a week now.

Artists revisited

I'm negotiating with .. 5 new artists. Things go slowly, I have to get used to that pace. 2 of them would fit in a new gallery for naive art. 2 others are photographers adding interesting shades to our spectrum. One is a painter.

I'm advertising Tina these days after having had Robert for a long time. I like the ads very much.

Free report

Need a host?
Want to hear about my mistakes?
Eager about learning how to market successfully on the net?

Here you find all sorts of resources, tips and tricks to profit from.

Help from friends

After having been on LE Digest for long, I-Sales and lots of others, I'm glad I found the [biz] list of Paul Myers. John Gerits set up a new list named MarkeThink developing greatly, and [eZines] from Otis Gospodnetic is fine, too. I put my question to these three, and I got plenty of advice. I'll need weeks to work these out alone.

Swapping ads

Nancy K. Belle wrote a very nice introduction to my ad, but the response was low. She thinks reason is August and will redo it mid September. Suggested an article to be printed in her biz magazine, which I will do ASAP.

Eduardo Peirano wants to swap ads, too, has an educational service, and good advice, too. He suggest lowering the frequency to once a month to free up time for promotion. I was 99% convinced immediately.

What do you think about that ... new artist ...

Cybercity

Upcoming New York artist
Jochen Brennecke
for Gallery Daguerre

Some ideas to discuss

John Gerits:
Further, you may want to examine your *copy" Not too long. And make the reader WANT to subscribe. Thus, create greeting cards from your paintings. Sell them on the Net and also giveaway 10 boxes of greeting cards per month to those that register at your site or for your ezines, as a drawing. Use them in a contest for membership drives. And you could further extend with t-shirts, lithos-posters- prints, mousepads, even mugs (right Walter <g>) Again, all can be sold as products and also used for promo.

Nancy K. Belle:
Also, why don't you do an article on fine art and business? How it can help from an aesthetic enhancement to businesses; how learning about art and collecting art can be a wonderful investment, give pleasure, etc. Or anything in this vein. Make it about 3 paragraphs. I will put it on our Trade Secrets online ezine at our gracefield site.

Allan Gardyne:
You can list your affiliate program free in the Associate Programs Directory. See the submission guidelines at http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/directory-rules.html. I did. So we got 2 buttons on the main page.

Expired

Upcoming New York artist
Jochen Brennecke
for Gallery Daguerre

Eduardo Peirano:
Each topic and newsletter must have its own separate page. There is too much content in your homepage. Have you submitted your web pages to the search engines?

One page would be about art. You must include "art" in your title, keywords, description and heading. You must include "art" also several times in the text of your page. In this way this page will be more visible to people searching for "art" in the search engines. This page will include a link to your homepage Another page will be about "drawing"....

Note that you included at the very beginning of your homepage some words like "serious", "rewarding" and "ambitious" that will be listed by the search engines but no person will search for. The first words of your text are the most important for a good listing with search engines.

Do you have a web tracker or log files to learn from what sites do your visitors come from? Can you include a page with an art tutorial or lessons so as to get listed also in education directories?

You must create a web page for each issue of each of your newsletters. You must submit each of these pages, with different content, title and keywords to search engines. As your site grows it will be more visible in the listings of the search engines.

One of these keywords can bring a lot of visitors to your site while others may prove useless. You have to try different keywords in different pages. It is useless to include all your keywords in the same page. Webmasters and search engine submission are very competitive now.

Motel Six

Upcoming New York artist
Jochen Brennecke
for Gallery Daguerre

Jan Crowell:
Here is my take on Internet sales. Those who *position* themselves as experts sell, and those who don't, mostly don't. I'm sure that in some instances this isn't necessarily the case, but for most of us I think it will be. There are ways to position one's self as an expert, and the newsletter surely is one of those.

Another might be an art appreciation class of some sort, delivered online keeping the cost low. You might even have free classes, but sell the booklet-type texts inexpensively as e-texts. Offer a certificate of completion of some kind for a nominal fee.

You might even offer a children's art appreciation class in that manner. Americans at any rate are needing ways to make up for some of the education that the schools, and the taxes, are not doing.

Some sort of association that you start and head up is also a good way of positioning yourself as THE expert. Just understand that most of this positioning is a matter of building yourself up. You can be an instant expert, if you present yourself that way.

One thing you might consider is posting a regular short article about art, something that relates to your particular knowledge, skill, expertise, as an article in certain business newsletters, and on specific usenet groups.

Art as an investment has got to be a hot topic. If you can advise people on that, you can have a special niche.

Calm at Sea

Upcoming New York artist
Jochen Brennecke
for Gallery Daguerre

John Gerits again:
I first want to touch on your web site, Werner. Took a quick look. I would suggest you shorten the index page; too much vertical scrolling, further delay by being graphic intense, which of course you need.

I also maybe the only one not surfing with "java on" (I hate it), so I couldn't access further in.

> I don't think the typical art buyer is on the net.

Well, what is the typical art buyer? The typical art buyer is very much on the Net as is the typical clothes buyer; Consumers, no? I buy my button down shirts from the Net, but not my suits, er robes. I'd buy known posters; New Yorker, or artist posters; Warhol, Max, Dali without needing to see in person. But for actual paintings, of unknown, I'd want to see in person, just as non-staple clothing. I

consider myself a typical art buyer. I buy art for my office and home because it goes with the decor, or because I like it. I also have bought for giving as gifts. Maybe someday, I'll buy art for the purpose of investing, but then I wouldn't be the typical art buyer anymore, would I? At least this is what I believe is a typical art buyer. Mind you, I haven't had an artist as a client so I don't know who the "typical" art buyer is.

> Art lovers are on the net, of course. ... That's why they crowd
> the museums, too. You don't buy there, though. These probably
> aren't buyers at all. Well, they buy posters, cards, postcards...at the museums.
> So maybe it is a new kind of art
> customer on the net that needs to be developed.

Hmmm. Don't think so. They're not gallery goers for the most part, but plain old consumers that love art for various reasons.

> They rather buy posters, This I have taken care for.

On another list, I suggested expanding the product line. Besides adding posters, to add greeting cards, postcards, and even look at mousepads, mugs. The point; as additional revenue streams, but also to get the "work" in whatever other form than the actual painting in front, in the hands of the prospective customers. Further, using the lower price products as promotional items.

However, like I said in the "welcome", it's about online, it's about offline. AND where the twain meet. You need to use both offline and online, integrating the two. Too focused on the Net. I sense you are very serious to make this a success and in the process work hard for it. Further, you are willing to spend some money to do it.

Here follows a lengthy discussion of a full fledged offline promotion. Marilyn Strong outlined one she is doing for a Canadian Wildlife artist. I don't think I could manage that. I asked for costs if they'd do it.

Network

Upcoming New York artist
Jochen Brennecke
for Gallery Daguerre

Looks like I have to revamp my entry page at least. I'm kind of disappointed. I kept the visible part mostly text with very few and small gifs. While the visitor read on, I imagined, the larger pictures could load. If s/he would scroll down, all would be set. With a jump you could get the information you wanted instead of having to wait for anther page to load.

I got a new text mail signature <g>:

> Clinton, Rubens, Cranach And The Sex Revolution <
** see http://art-quarter.com/beck/joe/pablo/1/5 **

How do you like it?

Sincerely,
Werner Stürenburg

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