Diane’s vibrant, colorful painting for Wordless Wednesday. You can see more Wordless Wednesday here #WW from all around the world! You can find lots of lovely items with Emerging Galaxies here.  At last I have gone and started working on CafePress again. I hope your holidays have been going well!! Sorry to have been so absent … but here I am!!  Thank you! ~ Diane Clancy!

Emerging Galaxies, Digital © Diane Clancy

Artisans of Western Mass: Quality Products from Western Mass
Design Style Guide: Best in Handmade Decor
Visual Arts Street Team: VAST Blog

Facebook Artist Page: DianeClancyArt
Blog: dianeclancy.com/blog
Website: dianeclancy.com
Twitter: dianeclancy

Etsy Shop: dianeclancy
RedBubble: dianeclancy
Imagekind: dianeclancy
Bonanza: dianeclancy
Zibbet: dianeclancy
On Merchandise
CafePress: dianeclancy
Zazzle
Fractals: DianeClancyFractals*
Goddess: DianeClancyGoddess*
Animals: DianeClancyAnimals*
Holidays: DianeClancyHolidays*
Bubbles: DianeClancyBubbles*
Art: DianeClancyArt*

Technorati Tags: Diane Clancy, vibrant colorful painting, Wordless Wednesday, Emerging Galaxies

There is a lovely Spotlight that I hope you will check out – I am one of the featured artists.  Here is the Spotlight. These are similar to Etsy treasuries.  The main site is Made By Hand. By ME.

Yesterday I wrote a post asking Which Mug Do You Prefer? I showed two mugs that I created – one at CafePress and one at Zazzle and asked which people preferred.  More questions also came up from this post .. so I thought I would do another show and tell.  Further down are the links to the earlier parts of this ongoing series about marketing.

Freckles in Flowers II, Digital © Diane Clancy

This is the original image that I have started with – one of my vibrant, colorful paintings.  It is a photograph of my best kitty that then I have digitally enhanced. Felicia Kramer asked “Question: did you do anything different when you submitted your artwork to the sites or was it basically identical?”   This is a fantastic question, Felicia, because I did do something very different.

Freckles in Flowers II CafePress Mug Template, Digital © Diane Clancy

CafePress and Zazzle each have templates that you can download so you can make sure you are prepping your files correctly to make your work come out great!  The first picture above is the template for the mug at CafePress … so you can see that I have put 2 sets of images there to be placed on the mug.  Most people only put one image so I thought putting 2 images was very creative!

Freckles in Flowers II Zazzle Mug Template, Digital © Diane Clancy

When I started at Zazzle – quite a bit later – I realized that I wanted people to be able to see my lovely kitty, Freckles, even more clearly – so I can up with using the image 3 times.  So this is one big difference.  I want to emphasize that the templates to begin with are not identical.

But there are a couple of other differences also.  The size of the 2 mugs are different …. I forget which is larger … but the image sits on the mug in various ways …you can see that from the pictures from yesterday’s post – there are links there to the actual mugs.  It looks like there is a lid to the Zazzle mug – I am not sure.  And obviously, Zazzle markets their mugs in an unusual way …  CafePress has the photo of the mug straight on – but Zazzle is at an angle and I think it is a very creative way to show a mug.

Awhile ago were Part I,  Part II, Part III, Part IVraman amplifier, Part V, Part VI,  Part VII and Part VIII 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.  There are a lot of details in all theses other posts too.

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, Freckles in Flowers II, Sacred Circle Mandalas, Sue O’Kieffe, marketing, CafePress, Zazzle, Felicia Kramer, merchandise, print on demand

This is the Freckles in Flowers II Mug from my Zazzle shop – I am thrilled that 2 people have bought it in the last month …  from my Zazzle shop (http://zazzle.com/dianeclancyart).  At the bottom of this post is another hint of selling and buying from CafePress vs Zazzle.

Freckles in Flowers II Mug at Zazzle © Diane Clancy

You can see that it is different from my Freckles in Flowers II Mug from my CafePress shop (http://cafepress.com/dianeclancy).

Freckles in Flowers II Mug at CafePress © Diane Clancy

It is so interesting to me to have such different looking mugs – yet both starting with the same image …  To make things even more fun, at Zazzle you can choose lots of other styles of mugs before you check out – all with the same image … go check it out.

At CafePress, you can also get the same vibrant colorful painting on different mugs – but I have to prepare those other mugs for you – you yourself can’t just chose the other variations for yourself … this is one of the things in favor of Zazzle.  Which of these 2 mugs do you prefer?  Thank you for being in my life!!

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: Diane Clancy, vibrant colorful paintings, Zazzle, CafePress

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

Sue O’Kieffe of Sacred Circle Mandalas (http://sacred-circle-mandalas.blogspot.com) 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?”

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!  There is a handful of sites that I use regularly and really enjoy.  I am really looking forward to hearing from others too!  This is mug from CafePress showcases my vibrant, colorful bubblescape painting of Violet Mist.

Violet Mist Mug © Diane Clancy

Today I am going to give an overview of the ways I sell my work offline – and what works about these ways and what doesn’t.  Tomorrow I will give an overview of the online ways I sell my art. The next day I will talk about specific sites and venues and what I like. (This post was getting too long and I know I prefer to read shortish posts). But I will probably write them all today so they hang together.

There are 4 basic ways I sell – 2 offline and 2 online.  Locally I sell to stores or have items on consignment.  This is great because there is no running to the post office to send things off.  Consignment doesn’t work as well as an outright sale of course because there is no money paid to me upfront and I may get my merchandise back with stickers and such or other damage, which gives me more work to deal with.  I love selling my work locally and having people come up to me saying they have seen my work in a specific place and they like it.  I am a big supporter of the local economy.

Of course in a rural area, there are only so many appropriate stores to sell to … and the local market is smallish – our whole county is only 70,000 people.  I have gone to a bigger distance (I have sold in 3 states) but then the mileage eats up that much more profit.  So it is a wonderful piece of the mix – but not enough to sustain my business.

The other local, offline way I sell is at art or craft fairs.  I have not found my stride in this venue yet.  My work hasn’t sold all that well at the local, inexpensive craft fairs.  Art hasn’t tended to sell as well as functional items there.  People don’t seem to be too much in the market for art at these things.  The ones that are inexpensive represent low risk financially – yet they are also the ones that I am less likely to sell art at.

The expensive ones that cost a substantial amount (hundreds of dollars and up), I am leery of for me – I have never tried them.  Some people have made these kinds of fairs a cornerstone of their art or craft business.  I am concerned about such a big investment of time, energy and money. Also, many people say that market has changed substantially … yet I am sure that many artisans are still doing quite well.

For me personally, part of what doesn’t work well at art and craft fairs is the carrying things to the fair and the needing to be there to sell.  As many of you know, I have substantial health issues, and this type of event wipes me out for a good week.  That doesn’t seem like a good trade-off.

Yet last holiday season the Artists of Franklin County put on an Art Fair and it worked quite well for us.  There was no entrance fee and we were competing with other artists.  The networking was fabulous and we made more sales than we usually have.  Part of what I think needs to happen is figuring out how to get more repeat buyers … they love my work and buy something to support me – but sometimes I think then that is that.

So it is great to potentially know my customers locally and to support the local economy.  It is wonderful to meet the store owners and customers face to face and have that personal relationship potentially.  Delivery is local.  Those are big pluses.  Tomorrow I will give an overview on online selling. Thank you for stopping by!!

Technorati Tags: Diane Clancy, vibrant colorful painting, mug, bubblescape, CafePress, Artists of Franklin County, Sacred Circle Mandalas, Sue O’Kieffe

The local artists’ group, Artists of Franklin County, had our monthly meeting this month.  It was a pleasure that someone else chaired, prepared the agenda, sent out the reminder notice, set up the next date and will write the minutes.  This is great news for the viability of the group!

Your suggestions were very helpful!!  Susan Elkin helped me pull together the paintings, prints and merchandise – to have a good selection but not too many.  I wrote all your suggestions on a piece of paper and went through and looked at them to see how to include them.  Then I wrote a brief outline, starting as a child, and going through “where from here.”  Susan let me practice twice on her … both times it was different.  Today was yet another version of course – but still using the same (very brief) outline.

It was a small group but they said they really enjoyed it.  They let me talk for quite awhile and then started throwing lots of questions at me.  It was interesting – most of the people stayed for close to an hour after the meeting ended and kept talking about ourselves.  I think that was a good indication that it was helpful to the group.

For me it was useful to see I have a story and that it is interesting to hear. I could do it again with a lot more ease.  I can also see that places that I can work on to clarify what I might want to say.  Whew!  So now I feel more prepared to go talk … I think I need to think more about how to talk about my work in greater detail … the process and what it means to me.

This is one of my paintings on merchandise that I brought today to show as an example.  This vibrant, colorful painting of In the Garden is now on a tile in my CafePress Shop.   Here is the link for this lovely tile.  I think it is pretty cool – I hope you like it!   In the Garden is also available in many different sizes. Email me if you would like to get In the Garden as an Art Card, ACEO for $6.  Just ask!

In the Garden Tile © Diane Clancy

Thanks so much!!  Thank you for stopping by!

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: Diane Clancy, vibrant colorful painting, mug, bubblescape, CafePress, Art Cards – ACEOs, Etsy, Artists of Franklin County, AWE Project, presentation

Some of you know I have coordinated the local artists’ group, Artists of Franklin County, for 4 years.  I have been cheer leader, chair, coordinator, minutes taker of the group and coordinator of our AWE Project (Artists Window Exhibit).  The last meeting we had a great discussion about it being time to share the responsibility – at last there is a stable core group that is able and willing to step up and make the group run by ALL of us.

We had been taking turns making presentations of our work as artists and whatever we wanted.  One person in particular had never done this – ME.  Most other people had already.  Everyone in the group decided it was my turn to present.  Someone else is chairing the meeting and taking minutes.  Seemed reasonable to me.

But with the illness and death of my cousin … this totally dropped out of my mind.  The wonderful person who has volunteered to chair reminded me of the presentation.  I would just as soon postpone it .. but the meeting is built around it … so I think I should do it … but I sure am looking for suggestions!  Thanks!

This vibrant, colorful painting of Ocean Dreams is now on a mug in my CafePress Shop.   Here is the link for this lovely mug.  I think it is pretty cool – I hope you like it!  You can also get this at my Etsy Shop as a framed print or an Art Card, ACEO for $6.  Ocean Dreams is also available in many different sizes.  Just ask!

Ocean Dreams Mug © Diane Clancy

Any ideas are appreciated!!  Thanks so much!!  Thank you for stopping by!

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: Diane Clancy, vibrant colorful painting, mug, bubblescape, CafePress, Art Cards – ACEOs, Etsy, Artists of Franklin County, AWE Project, presentation

This vibrant, colorful painting of Emma in Flowers I is now on a framed tile in my CafePress Shop.   Here is the link for Emma.  I think it is pretty cool – I hope you like it!  You can also get this at my Etsy Shop as a Fine Art Card for $4.  Emma is also available in butterflies and in many different sizes.  Just ask!

Emma in Flowers I Framed Tile © Diane Clancy

Since people are still buying functional items, I realized I can use some of my energy to create items in shops that you can use besides look at.  I think I might tackle shirts soon.  Any ideas?  Thank you for stopping by!

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: Diane Clancy, vibrant colorful painting, digital, framed tile, Fanciful Animal Images, CafePress, Etsy

The vibrant, colorful painting of In the Zone is now on a journal in my CafePress Shop. Gratefully today I realized that I could make a new journal and feel productive – so here it is.  Here is the link for this journal.  I think it is pretty cool – I hope you like it!  You can also get this at my Etsy Shop as an ACEO for $6.

In the Zone Journal © Diane Clancy

Since people are still buying functional items, I realized I can use some of my energy to create items in shops that you can use besides look at.  I think I might tackle shirts soon.  Any ideas?  Thank you for stopping by!

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: Diane Clancy, vibrant colorful painting, digital, journal, CafePress, Etsy

Blue Cosmos is in tribute to the outer reaches of space.  Allow this vibrant, colorful painting to take you into the deepest reaches of the Universe … where you can find your heart’s desire, see great beauty everywhere around and where and when things become crystal clear. We can each use some time like this to ease our souls and bring ourselves into alignment with our true purpose.

Blue Cosmos, Digital © Diane Clancy

You can see another Out Space painting at CafePress … Diane’s Shop (http://cafepress.com/dianeclancy) – actually several more – as mugs, totes and tiles.  Here you can see a framed tile of Outer Space III.  Some of these are early bubblescape versions and some of the other ones that are more recent you will probably recognize too.

Outer Flow III-Framed Tile, CafePress © Diane Clancy

Tomorrow I am hoping that things will slow down and I can gracefully get back to working on my art and business more.  I would love to hear about you!!   Thank you for stopping by!

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: Diane Clancy, vibrant colorful painting, CafePress, online marketing