How to sell art

[rayno247]

How Often Do You Wonder...*************** "Will I Ever Make a Living With My Art?"***

"This Affordable Course Gives You All the ToolsYou Need to Immediately Start MakingGood Money Selling Your Artwork,No Matter What Type of Artist You Are"

***

My name is Steve Popkin and I’m a glass artist. I have been working with glass for many years. More than likely you've never heard of me nor seen any of my work and that's OK. Probably much like you,*** I have***always***loved creating art. My dream as a child was to create great new "masterpieces" in drawings, paintings, jewelry, photography, clay, etc.Well I don't think my work will ever end up in any museums nor in any history books :)

 

But...none-the-less, the artist in me still exists and yearns to create.

 

Today, I consider my art to be above average, some even consider it to be pretty good, but I know there arelots***of glass artists better than I am. Unfortunately, many of them struggle to make a living with their art no matter how beautiful it is.*** I happen to make good money selling my work...not***because I’m the greatest glass artist that ever lived***nor***because I enjoy "selling"...***

 

It's because I***learned***the secrets on how to make my art***Desirable***and***Profitable...and***YOU CAN TOO!

 

• Do you want to sell more of your art or craftwork at higher prices so you can spend
  
• your time creating quality work rather than feeling you have to "mass" produce your
  
• art in order to make a living... but don't know how?
  
• Do you need a proven easy to use plan to get your art or craft business going... but you feel intimidated and don't know where to start?
  
• Would you like to have name recognition and have customers calling you... but don't
  
• know where to begin?
  
• Do you want to turn your passion for art into a very profitable part-time or
• full-time business... but don't know how to do it?
  
• Do you want to have all of the above without a huge amount of effort or becoming a "pushy salesperson" or an expert in marketing... but don't have a clue how to?
  
• Want to know how to get started in an easy step-by-step manner... but didn't know where to find this information?
  

 

 

 

 

If your answers were***"YES!"***and***of course I know they were***;), then you've come to the right place!

 

Click HERE to see more details![/url]

[theprotester]

Spam link deleted, but I'm holding back on deleting the thread.

[theprotester]

The first thing that pops into my mind is; "Those that can't do, teach"

[CILONE/SK]

I am going though the selling thing right now.

 

There is no tricks to sell something. You just have to hustle.

[theprotester]

I hear it's worth more if you're dead.

[CILONE/SK]

Not always. Actually very rarely.

 

There are a million pieces (actually many more) of art that dead people made before they died, and you might have heard of .0000001% of them.

 

I think of all the garage sales I go to and see old paintings from some one who no one knows. Kind of depressing.

[theprotester]

I was just suggesting the spammer kill themselves, but I agree with you.

[N0W0N]

Thanks for not deading the thread.

Someone I know just posted this up and I find it relavent.

 

So you are charging a per hour rate (while you are working on a piece) that you feel would be a fair wage if you had a "normal" job?

 

If you want to make a real living at jewelry (or any other independent endeavor) you need to consider that there is a lot of other stuff that goes into your craft as well.

 

Are you billing for time spent on Facebook? (Advertising) Billing for time spent talking to the client and designing the piece? (A genuine part of the time spent to "make" it!)

 

Do you bill for time spent doing accounting? (You have to do accounting if you are going to be legal and pay taxes and also have some clue if you are actually making money or not.)

 

Are you charging for the time it takes to talk to all the people who don't buy anything? For answering all those emails? Charging for time spent receiving packages, packing up merchandise, filling out paperwork, going to the post office and shipping it?

 

Of course you can't charge directly for most of these things, but the reality is you need to charge AT LEAST 3 times what you need to be making per hour when you are actually doing something you can charge for.

 

If you don't do this in the long run you won't be able to survive. In reality you should probably charge anywhere from 4-5 times a "fair wage" because at most 1/3rd of your time is going to be billable. It will probably be far less than that.

 

If you did have a "normal" job your employer would have to pay you for every hour spent at work no matter what you were doing. (Even going to the bathroom!) Since your employers are now your customers what you charge them needs to reflect all that you do, not just the small part that is working on their piece of jewelry. No one else is going to pay you for doing the other things...

 

A number of years ago I heard that an independent contractor (in any trade) needed to charge a minimum of $35/hour to survive (because of all of the costs and non billable hours that they spend on work related things). This was so long ago that no doubt inflation has this at around $50-$45/hour now.

 

Sure your overhead might be low, but you have to make a living or you aren't doing anyone any good in the long run because you won't be able to keep doing what you love and providing people with the jewelry they want.

 

A clue that you either don't manage money well or that you don't charge enough is if you never have money to buy any inventory for stock or the new tools you need.

 

Charge a fair price and accept that numerous people will always think things should be cheaper. They just don't have a clue all the work, sweat and tears that go into it.

 

John Dyer

[CILONE/SK]

I disagree. Not because it doesn't make sense, but with the reality of it. If you charge a hourly rate fog something you make, you are going to fail from the start, because you just priced yourself out of what the market currently pays for that product.

 

I know this first hand.

 

I have made bookcases before. They go anywhere from $150 to $300. If I did an hourly rate, I would need $500 to $800 depending upon the options. 99.9% of people would never pay the higher amount and I would never sell anything. But I do sell a few at the lower amounts.

 

It is sad, but the truth. I wish they pay the higher amount for my time, but it will never happen. My competitors are walmart, ikea, places like that. I can never compete. They come to me for custom and better quaity, but I am still competing against CNC machines. Hourly rate is just not an option.

 

This relates to art, because they are competing against reputations. The paint art world has zero concern about costs. They want paintings with a "name" attached to it. To a certain extent, quality doesn't really matter. What someone gets for their paintings is not tied to how much it cost them to make it.

[N0W0N]

" My competitors are walmart, ikea, places like that. I can never compete."

I disagree with this. These hegemonies will never be our competition. You are a craftsman. I like your work. You make quality pieces. They make shit work from shit materials. Any discerning buyer can spot the difference from across the street.