My New Strategy

"The Beginning" Digital Abstract Energy Art by Primal Painter

I'm going to start putting the new things that I've listed on Artfire here in my blog complete with links, blah blah blah, all that SEO stuff.  I've decided I really need to make a push to generate sales because I'm tired of treading water (oh and I'm broke).

For someone who's really laid back, I can be very competitive.  I seem to have lost that competitive oomph for the last few years, but there was a time when it was a driving force for me.  Of course, after achieving the goal, I would get bored and have to start from the bottom with something else.  Hopefully that won't happen this time, but yesterday, I was excited to feel  that little defiant surge of "if other people can make x amount of dollars per month, so can I" attitude.

There are two main things I'm going to do.  First, I'm developing new products. The funky art pendants which I'm making with mini wallet sized prints of my digital energy art are really cool and affordable.  Plus, I'm incorporating my prints into ready to hang wall art.  I'm not talking frames and mats, I'm talking airbrushed embellished wood "mats" to enhance the presentation of the print in an affordable way. 

I don't know about other people, but I'd be more inclined to buy prints that are ready to hang as opposed  to matting and framing them myself.   I'm thinking that presenting them differently from the other prints out there might set mine apart.

Second, I've decided I'm going to try Artfire's 45 Day Success Guide.  I'm not the most self-disciplined person in the world, so I thought maybe if I announce that I'm going to do it, I'll actually stick to it.  Gee, wouldn't that be novel! 

The first week is mostly getting your shop set up and a getting a few things listed, so I got to jump to day 8 which is about writing in the provided blog.  (Really?  Another blog? Oh maaannn.....) Actually, they say that if nothing else, just write an introduction post about yourself and your artwork,  plus include a link to your main blog, so I guess I can do that. 

Melinda, from Inspiration Earth did a feature on me a few weeks ago, and I was thinking (with her permission, of course) that I would use excerpts from that interview as my introductory post, providing links to her blog and  her Artfire shop  Inspiration-Earth.  Melinda's questions were so insightful and thought provoking for me, she really was the trigger for me pulling together my intentions into written form. Thanks Melinda!

Another important thing that was mentioned in this success guide, is how important it is to get as many products listed as soon as possible.  That way, your products will be indexed by google much faster and will show up in a google search.  This is different from the Etsy strategy of listing one thing here and one thing there in a futile effort to be seen at the top of the listings (for a whole, what? 5 minutes if that?)

Other important strategies, tweet your listing, post a link to your new listing on facebook, put a link on your blog, add it to stumbleupon, kaboodle, and something new called pinterest.  I haven't actually checked out pinterest yet, but I've started doing the other things.  Oh and post in the forums three times a day. I tried that yesterday and got Nuthin'...no views, no nuthin'!

So we'll see how it goes.  Such a beautiful day today, maybe I should wait to start everything tomorrow.....oh nooooo, get a grip, Laurie, remember the word "BROKE."

Have an awesome day!

Later,

Laurie