The Art of Self Promotion for Starving Artists

Down the road. - When you have some cash.

• Get credit card capabilities and accept them on-line. I use PayPal. I like PayPal and use it for all of my sales. I've personally never had a problem with them, but some people claim they've had a lot of headaches with them.
  
  PayPal allows your customers to use their credit card to make a purchase and even electronic check payment, without you needing to sign up with an expensive merchant account. There is only a 1.9% + $0.30 USD to 2.9% + $0.30 USD per payment received. You pay nothing upfront. This fee is charged per transaction.
  
  
• Place some paid advertisements in traditional magazines and newspapers. Choose a magazine that is into your genre. I place ads in fantasy and wildlife magazines because that's what I paint. Cost for advertisements can range from a $12.00 classified to thousands of dollars for a one or two page ad.
  
  
• Find a web site that is related to your artwork and gets LOTS of traffic. Ask them if they would accept your banner on their main page if you paid them a monthly fee. I got one site to do this for me by just giving them a print! I get tons of traffic this way.
  
  
• Use a great on-line promotion company called The Internet Marketing Center. I recommend the site highly! Lots of great tips and tricks!
  
  
• Start your own Affiliate Program! For a $130.00, I got this great program that allow others to do the selling for me. With a simple banner on their site they send me visitors. If those visitors buy something, they get 10% of the sale (you can set your own percentage). When a painting sells for $500.00, that quite a chunk of change! Most of those people were going to place a link on their site anyway, so they're more than happy to make some money off of it, too! I got my cool Affiliate Program at http://www.groundbreak.com/
  
  
• Buy attractive and professional business cards and brochures with your web site address printed on them.

My last piece of advice is stick with your promotions for a long time. Don't just give up if one thing doesn't work. Change your strategy and try again. Surfers see web pages come and go and they don't take someone seriously unless you've been around for a long time. Stick with it, even through periods of no sales and low traffic. You must decide now to be in it for the long haul or you will fail. There is no overnight success and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. You'll have to work hard and be thick skinned.

Please visit my web site, Becky's Wildlife and Fantasy Art for visual examples of the things I have outlined here. Be sure to check out my links pages for some great resources! If you have any further questions, please e-mail me!

For more indepth analysis on web site promotion, I have written an extensive articles on the following subjects:

Networking Article

Marketing Gimmicks Article

Watch out for SUPER SECRET TIPS! : )