Tips To Becoming A Successful Artist & Craftperson

The world and the Internet are filled with artists. Artists are everywhere! Because of the competition, only a few get noticed and make money at it.

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Take these for instance, on the Internet, www.wwar.com, www.yessy.com and www.fine-art.com. Sure they receive an immense amount of visitors per month, www.wwar.com, has almost 16,000 artists and over 100,000 pieces of art, www.yessy.com has at least 10,000 artists and over 90,000 pieces of art and www.fine-art.com has 8,000 artists and 62,000 pieces of art!

It takes numerous traits to be an artist and businessperson! Some can be taught and some can not.

The Tips Are Not In Any Particular Order, Each One Is Important

You Will Find Out, The More Tips You Initiate,

The More Successful You Will Become!

* Choose a medium that you have a passion for.

* Do your homework. Study that medium; study the style of all the artists in the world in that medium that you can.

* Do what 99% of people won’t do.

* Give yourself a business name, example: {First Name Last Name Acrylic Painting Artist} and open a completely separate bank account for the business.

* Create your own style! Be different and stand out from the crowd. TV show producers and magazine editors look for this and it also eliminates most of the competition.

* Offer your art in a wide price range. Have something for all wallet sizes.

* Always give the customer more than they expected to get.

* People love to deal with professionals. Present a class act. Always present yourself, art and business in a professional matter. That includes having a logo, letterhead, business card and the merchandising that accompanies your art.

* Sell your artwork merchandised with a certificate, folder and a brief biography/profile, especially if it is a one of a kind piece. People appreciate this and it also documents the piece for future reference. Tell a little about the piece in a description such as the title of the piece, what type of medias were used in creating it, the style of art it is, its size, the year it was created and always sign it.

* No matter where you are selling, if you give the majority of people too many choices, they get confused, overwhelmed and can’t make a decision on what to buy. Depending on the size of artworks you create, Exhibiting 25-50 should give enough of a selection without being overwhelming.

Keep an album portfolio handy and if people wish to see more, you can let them browse through it. Better yet, you can leave it close to you and people will look through it. Just keep a close eye on it. Make sure that all the photos are marked with the artwork name, medium and price. They have albums with room above the photo so you can place 1″ x 3″ white or transparent labels. You can even write sold on the ones, you have sold.

You can also direct and help people decide which will create more sales by for example if you sell limited edition prints, marking the prints that sell best. Actually with the above, people will go one of two ways, they will either decide to go with something that is marked that they like or decide not to follow the crowd and purchase something that isn’t marked. All artists have favorites of their artworks, just mark your favorite ones. If you have a lot, alternate them with each show or exhibition.

* Get a Merchant account so you can accept credit cards. A lot of people like using them to make purchases. 75% of my sales are paid with a credit card and 9 out of 10 of my credit card sales, people use either Visa or MasterCard. It is rare that anyone gets denied a Merchant account, the reason being you are not applying for any type of credit. The credit card companies will get 1%-3% commission on every one of your sales.

* From years of experience, the best way to sell your artworks is retail, you selling them directly to customers. Selling wholesale, to retail stores and galleries, you are only going to get approximately 50% of the retail selling price. Artist agents {managers} usually receive 10%-25% in commission fees of each sale they make. If they get a gallery to sell your artworks, their commission comes out of your net profit. With the extra money you are receiving, you can do a lot of self advertising and promotional stunts. Besides, unless you have a lot places and they are vastly spread out or they are in tourist traps that are selling your artworks, you are only promoting your artworks and name to a minute percentage of people in a very small area.