Here’s a tip for artists who are looking for another marketing channel.
It’s courtesy of artist Susan Greaves, an oil painter in Redding, California.
About seven years ago, Susan was on eBay and noticed that someone had bought an expensive Persian rug without even seeing it up close. She found that difficult to believe because she’d never do anything so foolish, particularly when buying something worth several hundred dollars.
But that gave her an idea. If somebody would buy a Persian rug without actually being able to see it, why wouldn’t they buy her oil paintings?
She decided to experiment and started offering them for sale on eBay. She posted some of her artwork as “Buy Now” items, and sold several others at eBay auctions.
People started bidding and buying. In fact, a floral painting brought in a high bid of $800. The winning bidders? Senator and Mrs. John Edwards.
“With eBay, an artist can rope in all kinds of shoppers,” she told me.
eBay, it turns out, can be a phenomenal marketing tool for any type of artist, regardless of whether they’re selling pottery, jewelry, photos, art clothing or paintings.
Susan will be joining me and about 10 other art marketing experts at the smARTist Tele-summit in January, hosted by art marketing expert Ariane Goodwin. The entire program will be presented on the telephone. And it’s ideal for artists who feels their “business” is a glorfied hobby because it isn’t generating the kinds of sales they want.
The tele-summit will show artists how to become recognized online and offine, how to get their artwork into galleries, how to create an inexpensive website that sells their artwork for them, and the biggest mistakes artists make that prevent them from selliong their artwork for what it’s really worth.
If you’re an artist, or want to be, sign up for the event. Spaces are limited, and the tele-summit is filling up fast!
I’m speaking from 2 to 2:45 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday, Jan. 22, on how artists can position themselves as experts in a particular medium, then market themselves as experts online and offline.
Learn more about the event here.