Diane Clancy's Art Blog

Every week Illustration Friday has a challenge for a specific word. It is a great way to showcase your work and a wonderful opportunity to meet lots of wonderful people! Anyone can join in with their entry to Illustration Friday. I so much enjoy doing this challenge. This week is Idle. This vibrant, colorful painting of Idle shows this bubble being Idle – a good idea in this season in the northern hemisphere …  I encourage you to check Illustration Friday out! Lots of fun people and paintings!  Thank you for stopping by!!

Idle, Digital  © Diane Clancy

Hopefully soon we can go back to talking about the overview of Art Marketing.  It has been pretty rough with Susan’s recovery – but making progress … sorry I have had to disappear … How are you doing? Thank you for stopping by!

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: Illustration Friday, Diane Clancy, vibrant colorful painting, Idle

Given that Susan has just been in surgery, I am going to take this day to create a lighter post to relax a little … tomorrow should be back to the Art Marketing.  I am delighted and amazed to receive the Premio MeMe Award from Carole of Art Plus Blog (readingsully2) and Pam of Always Artistic: The Blog – both who have very lovely artwork! Carole has a lovely blog Art Plus Blog and here is the post with all the details that go with this award – along with what she has shared.  Pam has a lovely blog Always Artistic: The Blog and here is her post with the details and her sharing. I am thrilled!! Thank you! An additional benefit – both of these wonderful blogs are involved in a blog giveaway – check them out to see the details!! What you need to do is very manageable!

Premio MeMe Award

The rules associated with this award are that I am to write seven little-known facts about myself, and then pass this award to seven of my fellow bloggers:

Ok, first 7 things about me:

1. I went cross county (the US and Canada) in a car in 1974 and it was one of the very best times of my life.

2. Taking off what Carole wrote – I truly enjoy watching Survivor and Amazing Race – they are the 2 shows I watch in real time – don’t call me then!

3. Again, taking off on what Carole wrote – I used to sing with Amandla (a singing group) and we sang in Boston when Nelson Mandala came to speak – he passed about 20 feet away from me!

4. I got mad about the treatment of women in the Last Tango in Paris (a movie) and I didn’t watch any movies for about 10 years.  Now I love watching movies – especially on video and DVD.

5. My daughter has been Mickey Mouse – in the real costume.

6. When I have the physical energy, I love dancing – being in the flow with unstructured movement.

7. I have a music box (a wooden carved squirrel) that my grandfather gave me when I was about a year old.

Here are my nominees … all very fine and hard to choose with so many great blogs!! Know that I considered YOU!! Thank you!

1. Jean Hood of Jean Levert Hood – Texas Hill Country Painter and my co-moderator of VAST and a delightful person

1. Sue O’Kieffee of Sacred Circle Mandalas – a very gifted mandala artist & good friend

3. Irene of The Green Stone Woman – courageous, strong, insightful and enjoyable woman and my most faithful commenter

4. Karen Faulkner of Karen Faulkner Art – creates colorful, delicate watercolors and you might remember I won her lovely painting

5. ZudaGay of Clay in the Hands – creates incredible clay mini-sculptures – they are incredible (I have one) and a lovely person

6. Brenda Thour of Brenda Thour – Wildlife & Landscape Artist – creates lovely art from nature and is a lovely person

7. Kara of 1000 Faces 0f Mother Henna – creates vibrant, fun art and speaks deeply from her heart and soul

This was fun to honor all these lovely artistic, creative people! Thanks for coming by!

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: Premio MeMe Award, Art Plus Blog, readingsully2, Always Artistic: The Blog, Diane Clancy, vibrant color painting, Jean Hood, The Green Stone Woman, Sacred Circle Mandalas, Sue O’Kieffee, Texas Hill Country Painter, Kara, 1000 Faces 0f Mother Henna, Brenda Thour, Brenda Thour – Wildlife & Landscape Artist, ZudaGay, Clay in the Hands, Karen Faulkner, Karen Faulkner Art

Every week Illustration Friday has a challenge for a specific word. It is a great way to showcase your work and a wonderful opportunity to meet lots of wonderful people! Anyone can join in with their entry to Illustration Friday. I so much enjoy doing this challenge. This week is Shaky. This vibrant, colorful painting of Shaky shows this bubble feeling very Shaky.  Getting old? sick? getting a hip replacement tomorrow? having a partner getting a hip replacement …..  Shaky seems a good word for the moment!  I encourage you to check Illustration Friday out! Lots of fun people and paintings!  Thank you for stopping by!!

Shaky, Digital  © Diane Clancy

Hopefully tomorrow we can go back to talking about Art Marketing – Imagekind and Redbubble will the topic.  How are you doing? Thank you for stopping by!

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: Illustration Friday, Diane Clancy, vibrant colorful painting, Shaky

Recently were Part I,  Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V and Part VI in this art marketing series – this is all in response to Sue O’Kieffe of Sacred Circle Mandalas (http://sacred-circle-mandalas.blogspot.com) who recently wrote me “i am curious to know out of all the ways you sell your art, which is the most profitable for you and which is the most enjoyable?” I have been getting some good feedback from various people that this is being helpful to them.

What a great question, Sue!!  I know some other artists sometimes read my blog – I hope everyone will chime in – this could be very helpful to us all!  I am really looking forward to hearing from others too!  We have already done an overview of offline selling (much more to be said about that!), online selling from a shop where you the seller ship directly to your customer, online selling from a shop where the site produces the merchandise and ships directly to the customer and an overviews of Etsy, 1000 Markets and CafePress.

Today we will focus on one online shop (Zazzle) where you the artist upload your images onto the shop site and then put those images onto merchandise that you choose. Then the shop itself (not you the artist) is the one who prints the item up and ships it directly to the customer.  Check back in Part III to refresh your memory of some of the pluses and minuses of this method of online selling if you like. I have 4 online shops currently where I put my paintings onto merchandise and then sell it right there from that site.  I will give you details about my 2 current favorites and tell you why I like them.  They are CafePress and Zazzle.  These are links directly to my shops – it is easy to go to the main pages from there. Some artists have other favorites and I hope you (they) will post about them in the comments!  Today we look at Zazzle.

This postage (YES, real actual US postage!!) from my Zazzle Shop showcases my vibrant, colorful painting of Evening Stroll.   You can see that they also have room for the description to capture interest, details of what one is selling, and also the various views of your item. (Refer to earlier posts if you want more on this.)

Evening Stroll Postage © Diane Clancy

I like Zazzle a whole lot!!  You can probably tell that I think their offering real US postage is amazing to me – I love it!! This process is similar to working in CafePress – but also different … so bear with me.  You can open a shop.   See Susan Elkin’s shop as an example of another shop. You can use one image on all items or a different one on each. A great thing about Zazzle is that it is free – you can have as many items as you like for free – unlike CafePress.  Also you get to set your own price markup.  As far as I know, Zazzle doesn’t mark down your items like CafePress does if you find an item through the main site instead of going directly to someone’s shop.

I started with CafePress – and have listed tons on items … just lots and lots – so the process is very familar to me.  It was what I started with.  Most people think Zazzle is easier to work with – in some ways it is.  There are fewer screens one needs to work through to get to finalizing one’s product. The last post focused on CafePress.  Since we have already talked about CafePress and since I know it better, I will sometimes use them as a reference point.

Zazzle works well and faster than CafePress – in some ways.  To be clear about the process (to prepare for writing this) I just listed 2 new products.  The first one took forever – it got locked into not being able to go to the next step – this happens to me quite frequently – which is why I am not fonder of Zazzle than I am.  The second item I was able to create quite quickly.  Another problem that I have with Zazzle is – the last time I checked, one also could not change the text on an item once it was created – I think this is a real mistake.

My problem is this – they seem to assume you know how to work with their templates … and they seem pretty obvious – but I am never sure if the process is just very buggy (that means things don’t work like they are supposed to) or if I am doing something wrong.  Whenever I have asked, and when it goes smoothly, it does seem like I am using the templates correctly.  But, for instance, I have been able to choose the font type maybe once out of every 5 items I make.  The rest of the time I end up using the default because I can’t get the font thing to work – even though I choose it and press close to show I accept it.  I do the same thing on the times it works and doesn’t work.  Remember I am a graphic designer used to using programs and I am sort of geeky – so it is not that I am computer-phobic!  I waste a lot of time trying to get from one step to another because it doesn’t seem to function correctly.

Zazzle also has templates for the items you want to put your images on – you can download them and work with the templates directly.  They also have the sizing info right there as are you are choosing an image for a new product.  This is fantastic – because it makes things potentially simpler – one can then bypass the templates.  One does still need to prep the image different ways for different items.  It can get a bit challenging – but doable.  Choose an item – put it in your shop – then upload the image you want to put on this item. Go ahead and put the image onto the merchandise …. after you put the image, you can write a description (as in Etsy, 1000 Markets and CafePress) and also put in tags.

Tags are important – tags are what allow someone to find your work out of all the 100,000′s of pieces that are there.  You can name this particular item – I use the name of the painting with the name of the type of merchandise.  They also have you choose which category your item goes into.  CafePress also has you do this – even though I didn’t mention it before.

Then you can set your price.  These kinds of PRINT ON DEMAND shops generally have a base price that you would pay if you bought your own work.  Then you set a price increase (by percentage) to add to the price so that you make something when someone buys your work.   This is where you make your money from this type of online selling.  Of course, you will want to strike a balance … more profit per item vs more affordable so PERHAPS more people will buy it.

You can add a banner to your shop and do some editing of how you present your online store.  My own way of marketing is that I strive to give some consistency and a similar feel to all my online marketing – it is not identical at all … but hopefully someone would recognize that it is me!

The variety of merchandise is great and they keep adding more.  I love seeing my work on all the various items!  I am not sure if there is a way to have sections to your shop or not.  But it is easy to choose to see all the mugs at once – but their links on the side.  It is also wonderful that there are fan clubs and you can join someone’s fan club. (I hope you will join mine – my Zazzle is here).  It is also a fantastic thing that people can leave comments for your shop and for individual items.  This makes it much more interactive with the collectors than at CafePress.  There is a community where you can interact with other people – I have not explored this at all.  I am sure (as everywhere else) that the more you connect with others, the more sales you make.

Sales – this brings us to a part some people don’t like.  When you sell your work at Etsy or 1000 Markets, you get paid directly, right away (usually), by the buyer.  Besides developing a relationship, you also get the money.  When selling from Zazzle (or other on demand shops) you get paid either once a year or when a certain amount of money accumulates.  So you don’t see the money quickly unless you are a very high volume seller.  This doesn’t bother me because I feel like it is money in the bank – but some people do not like this.  It is part of the package though.

Many people think Zazzle is the best online shop to put one’s images onto merchandise.  I have heard many people promote it over CafePress.  One still needs to pay attention to sizing images to some degree.  I like Zazzle and hopefully I can figure out how not to get so slowed down by the problems of setting up new merchandise – I do not know why that happens so consistenly for me.  But I love my shop and will continue with it.

As with ALL these different types of shops … one needs to market your own shop – and I need to do a lot more of that!

I have a shop at Imagekind – they sell prints of my paintings, framed and unframed, and also cards.  They are a very good, respected shop with an extensive selection of papers, canvas and frames.  I also have a shop at Redbubble – Redbubble sells paintings on paper, canvas and posters with different finishing for the prints.  They also sell t-shirts. Many people love both of there shops.

So I recommend both CafePress and Zazzle as the best for me so far.  I welcome hearing from others what your experiences and thoughts are!!  We may differ for sure!  I hope that we can help each other know the strengths of each shop.  Please feel free to ask questions to get more information – I am glad to share what I can and so are others! … thanks for coming by!!

Technorati Tags: Diane Clancy, vibrant colorful painting,   Evening Stroll, Etsy, 1000 Markets, Sacred Circle Mandalas, Sue O’Kieffe, marketing, CafePress, Zazzle, Redbubble, Imagekind, merchandise, Susan Elkin

Recently were Part I,  Part II, Part III, Part IVraman amplifier, Part V, Part VI and Part VII in this art marketing series – this is all in response to Sue O’Kieffe of Sacred Circle Mandalas (http://sacred-circle-mandalas.blogspot.com) who recently wrote me “i am curious to know out of all the ways you sell your art, which is the most profitable for you and which is the most enjoyable?” I have been getting some good feedback from various people that this is being helpful to them.

What a great question, Sue!!  I know some other artists sometimes read my blog – I hope everyone will chime in – this could be very helpful to us all!  I am really looking forward to hearing from others too!  We have already done an overview of offline selling (much more to be said about that!), online selling from a shop where you the seller ship directly to your customer, online selling from a shop where the site produces the merchandise and ships directly to the customer and an overviews of Etsy, 1000 Markets, CafePress and Zazzle.

Today we will focus on two online shops (Redbubble and Imagekind) where you the artist upload your images onto the shop site and then you choose which of their prints you want to offer. Then the shop itself (not you the artist) is the one who makes the print and ships it directly to the customer.  Check back in Part III to refresh your memory of some of the pluses and minuses of this method of online selling if you like. I have 4 online shops currently where I put my paintings online and then sell it right there from that site.  I will give you details about these two shops today -  Redbubble and Imagekind.  These are links directly to my shops – it is easy to go to the main pages from there. Some artists have other opinions and I hope you (they) will post about them in the comments!

This laminated print from my Redbubble Shop showcases my vibrant, colorful painting of Ocean Dreams.   You can see that they also have room for the description to capture interest and details of what one is selling. (Refer to earlier posts if you want more on this.)

Ocean Dreams – Redbubble Print © Diane Clancy

This framed print from my Imagekind Shop showcases my vibrant, colorful painting of Reflections in Blue I.   Again they have room for the description to capture interest and details of what one is selling. This is just one example.

Reflections in Blue I Imagekind – Framed Print © Diane Clancy

Imagekind and Redbubble are very different in one way from CafePress and Zazzle.  With CafePress and Zazzle one can put one’s paintings on a large variety of merchandise.  With Redbubble and Imagekind one can sell a variety of prints (both also offer cards and Redbubble offers t-shirts).

With both Imagekind and Redbubble, the size file that you upload of your painting, determines what you can sell to your customers. This is very different from the other 2 shops.  Each shop gives the specifications for each of the sizes of their prints.  If one uploads the largest size. then all the variations are automatically available – IF you choose to let them be available.  This is a great ease compared to CafePress and Zazzle – it is lovely to load ONE variation for each painting, and then the sizes are automatically adjusted by the shop.  Also it makes the naming easy – all one needs to do is name each image one has uploaded.  So there is some real simplicity in these shops.

It is simpler in many ways – but also the choices are limited as to the type of item that is offered.  Imagekind has loads and loads of types of frames, mats and papers to customize your prints.  Redbubble gives choices of sizes from a greeting card up to a poster – with various finishings. Upload the image you want and then you can write a description (as in Etsy, 1000 Markets, CafePress and Zazzle) and also put in tags. Tags are important – tags are what allow someone to find your work out of all the 100,000′s of pieces that are there.

Then you can set your price.  These kinds of PRINT ON DEMAND shops generally have a base price that you would pay if you bought your own work.  Then you set a price increase to add to the price so that you make something when someone buys your work.   This is where you make your money from this type of online selling.  Of course, you will want to strike a balance … more profit per item vs more affordable so PERHAPS more people will buy it.

You have a shop and you can customize your shop – at least to some degree.  If you have a paid membership at Imagekind (I don’t), then you can have multiple galleries.  At Imagekind one can have fans and be a fan to other galleries.   At Redbubble you can have a watchlist and be on other people’s watchlists.

There is are communities where you can interact with other people – I have not explored this at all.  I am sure (as everywhere else) that the more you connect with others, the more sales you make.

Sales – this brings us to a part some people don’t like.  When you sell your work at Etsy or 1000 Markets, you get paid directly, right away (usually), by the buyer.  Besides developing a relationship, you also get the money.  When selling from Imagekind and Redbubble (or other on demand shops) you get paid either once a year or when a certain amount of money accumulates.  So you don’t see the money quickly unless you are a very high volume seller.  This doesn’t bother me because I feel like it is money in the bank – but some people do not like this.  It is part of the package though.  So far I have sold one print at Imagekind and nothing at Redbubble … but I have not marketed them as well as I could.

As with ALL these different types of shops … one needs to market your own shop – and I need to do a lot more of that!

I have a shop at CafePress where I sell tiles, mugs, journals, bags and more. I also have a shop at Zazzle where I sell postage, mugs, cards, postcards and more.  Many people love both of there shops. Imagekind is wonderful for creating prints on a great variety of papers and Redbubble has a great variety prints and t-shirts.

I am hoping Christopher will share about templates at Zazzle – I don’t know about them and he thinks they are great.  I would LOVE to know more about them!

I recommend both CafePress and Zazzle as the best for me so far.  I welcome hearing from others what your experiences and thoughts are!!  We may differ for sure!  I hope that we can help each other know the strengths of each shop.  Please feel free to ask questions to get more information – I am glad to share what I can and so are others! … thanks for coming by!!

Technorati Tags: Diane Clancy, vibrant colorful painting,   Reflections in Blue I, Ocean Dreams, Etsy, 1000 Markets, Sacred Circle Mandalas, Sue O’Kieffe, marketing, CafePress, Zazzle, Redbubble, Imagekind, merchandise, prints, print on demand

Recently were Part I,  Part II, Part III, Part IV and Part V in this art marketing series – this is all in response to Sue O’Kieffe of Sacred Circle Mandalas (http://sacred-circle-mandalas.blogspot.com) who recently wrote me “i am curious to know out of all the ways you sell your art, which is the most profitable for you and which is the most enjoyable?” I have been getting some good feedback from various people that this is being helpful to them.

What a great question, Sue!!  I know some other artists sometimes read my blog – I hope everyone will chime in – this could be very helpful to us all!  I am really looking forward to hearing from others too!  We have already done an overview of offline selling (much more to be said about that!), online selling from a shop where you the seller ship directly to your customer, online selling from a shop where the site produces the merchandise and ships directly to the customer and an overviews of Etsy and 1000 Markets.

Today we will focus on one online shop (CafePress) where you the artist upload your images onto the shop site and then put those images onto merchandise that you choose. Then the shop itself (not you the artist) is the one who prints the item up and ships it directly to the customer.  Check back in Part III to refresh your memory of some of the pluses and minuses of this method of online selling if you like. I have 4 online shops currently where I put my paintings onto merchandise and then sell it right there from that site.  I will give you details about my 2 current favorites and tell you why I like them.  They are CafePress and Zazzle.  These are links directly to my shops – it is easy to go to the main pages from there. Some artists have other favorites and I hope you (they) will post about them in the comments!  Today we look at CafePress and the next time at Zazzle.

This journal from my CafePress Shop showcases my vibrant, colorful painting of Underground.   You can see that they also have room for the description to capture interest, details of what one is selling, and also the various views of your item. (Refer to earlier posts if you want more on this.)

Underground Journal © Diane Clancy

I love CafePress – it is the first place that I put my paintings onto merchandise – and this has been a dream of mine for over a decade!  I can’t tell you how magical it was the first time I saw MY painting on a mug!! WOW!!  I was (and still am) thrilled!  So this idea really works for me.  I want to make my work accessible and affordable to a wide range of people – this has always been part of my plan to make this happen.

This is not a one step process though … so bear with me.  You can open a shop.  A free shop is where you can have one of each different item that CafePress has.  So that is quite a lot!  They have tons of different shirts and you can have one of each type.  Last I looked there were 3 different types of mugs and you can have one of each type.  See Susan Elkin’s shop as an example of a free (basic) shop. You can use one image on all items or a different one on each.  The limit of a free shop is only one item of each kind.

Given that I want you to be able to choose from lots of my mugs, I chose to do a premium (paid) shop.  You can easily start with a free shop and then upgrade if you like.  I did that myself. So get your shop and shop name and you are ready to start.  You can have unlimited basic (free) shops – but I like the idea of various paintings all together.

You need to download their templates for the items you want to put your images on.  This is one of the trickier parts of CafePress – one needs to prep the image different ways for different items.  It can get a bit challenging – but doable.  Choose an item – put it in your shop – then upload the image you want to put on this item. Go ahead and put the image onto the merchandise …. after you put the image, you can write a description (as in Etsy and 1000 Markets) and also put in tags.

Tags are important – tags are what allow someone to find your work out of all the 100,000′s of pieces that are there.  There is a limit on the amount of tags (as most shops have a limit) and a limit on the number of characters (including spaces) that you can put in your description.  You can name this particular item – I use the name of the painting with the name of the type of merchandise.

Then you can set your price.  These kinds of PRINT ON DEMAND shops generally have a base price that you would pay if you bought your own work.  Then you set a price increase (by percentage or dollar amount) to add to the price so that you make something when someone buys your work.   This is where you make your money from this type of online selling.  Of course, you will want to strike a balance … more profit per item vs more affordable so PERHAPS more people will buy it.  There is a new situation at CafePress that I do NOT like at all.  It is my understanding that they cap your price increase to 10% when people find your work by searching by tag.  I personally think this cheapens the work and makes it too cheap and is unfair to the artist.  I spend quite a lot of time preparing the work and then …. but as for now, those are the new rules.

When you have a premium (paid) shop, you can work on the shop template and make quite a few changes to make the shop look how you want.  My own way of marketing is that I strive to give some consistency and a similar feel to all my online marketing – it is not identical at all … but hopefully someone would recognize that it is me!

The variety of merchandise is fantastic and they keep adding more.  I love, love, love seeing my work on all the various items!  You can have sections of your (paid) shop so that I have one section with all mugs and another with tiles.  There is a community where you can interact with other people – I have not explored this at all.  I am sure (as everywhere else) that the more you connect with others, the more sales you make.

Sales – this brings us to a part some people don’t like.  When you sell your work at Etsy or 1000 Markets, you get paid directly, right away (usually), by the buyer.  Besides developing a relationship, you also get the money.  When selling from CafePress (or other on demand shops) you get paid either once a year or when a certain amount of money accumulates.  So you don’t see the money quickly unless you are a very high volume seller.  This doesn’t bother me because I feel like it is money in the bank – but some people do not like this.  It is part of the package though.

Needing to prepare the images so differently for the various items, is one reason many people are not thrilled with CafePress.  Given that I had a system set up before I know about other shops, means that it bothers me less than it bothers some people.  Also there are a lot of steps for uploading, putting the image on, adding a description, adding tags … there are some short cuts to make some changes … but some people find it a little complicated.  My main issue is that they have cut my profit arbitrarily if someone finds me through tags.  I think that is a bad decision and a wrong one.  But I love my shop and will continue with it.

As with ALL these different types of shops … one needs to market your own shop – and I need to do a lot more of that!

I have a shop at Imagekind – they sell prints of my paintings, framed and unframed, and also cards.  They are a very good, respected shop with an extensive selection of papers, canvas and frames.  I also have a shop at Redbubble – Redbubble sells paintings on paper, canvas and posters with different finishing for the prints.  They also sell t-shirts. Many people love both of there shops.

So I recommend both CafePress and Zazzle as the best for me so far.  I welcome hearing from others what your experiences and thoughts are!!  We may differ for sure!  I hope that we can help each other know the strengths of each shop.  Please feel free to ask questions to get more information – I am glad to share what I can and so are others! … thanks for coming by!!

Technorati Tags: Diane Clancy, vibrant colorful painting,   Underground, Etsy, 1000 Markets, Sacred Circle Mandalas, Sue O’Kieffe, marketing, CafePress, Zazzle, Redbubble, Imagekind, merchandise, Susan Elkin