A Smile in the Making

Last year a call was put out from Philly.com for citizen bloggers. I took a chance and was chosen. Started out with three of us. Justin was preparing for the Philadelphia marathon. Kris was turning 21 and finishing college. I dont know if they reached their goals, but they have stopped blogging awhile ago.

I DEFINITELY have spent way too much time on the computer. While I have increased my presence on the world wide web, I may have not used my time there efficiently. The Etsy shop has taken alot of time. Promoting and creating product. It can be addicting to be on the computer and watch for activity. I have seen success on that site for other sellers and an Etsy shop is very portable. Not knowing how long we will stay in this area, I think that is even more important to create something I can take anywhere.

Tried out Cafepress and Zazzle. But with the slim profit margins, it seems to be alot of work to promote without immediate reward. Also on Imagekind. Another site I need to promote.

Decided to upgrade on Trunkt which allows me to upload unlimited amounts of images. They do go through an approval process, which I think is a good thing as it at least ups the quality of the items on the site. They also advertise on several design blogs and have Martha Stewart as a sponsor.

InLiquid has been a valuable resource for information and opportunities in this area. I wish it wasnt way off in the Northern Liberties, but I do plan to submit my portfolio for the next deadline for membership. I have gotten alot of traffic to my website as a result of participating in their Pillow fundraiser and Art For the Cash Poor.

Modish shop has giveaways as an inexpensive way to promote your product. It was fun to watch the comments -- as that was part of the enter to win requirements. Cant say that it has resulted in any sales. Exposure I suppose -- for the price of making some notecards.

The Du Pont Country Club art & craft show was in October. I have been around the block and my first clue should have been the word craft. Not that there werent some fine art/artisan items there. But in those type of shows particularly, location is probably key. Not location of where the show is held, but booth location. Along exterior walls and at entry ways -- to the right side of either entering or the exit flow of traffic are probably the best spots.

Found Original Art for 99 on Craigslist. It is a new site and as always, success to being on line is being able to direct traffic to your site.

HGTV had a call for Delaware artists for That's Clever this spring. I applied thinking I am so close to Delaware and it is a small state. They filmed the episode the end of May. It should air sometime next year. Seems like a long time to wait. I should be able to find out my episode number soon. It will be up to me to watch for when it is scheduled. I think that this in conjuction with some local press releases may prove to be worthwhile.

Getting into galleries here in the east is not as easy as one would think. I did submit some images to a gallery or two and to a couple of art competitions. While I think there are more opportunities out here, there also are more artists competing for those same opportunities. Thanks to Linda Dubin Garfield forwarding some info, I am in a group exhibit at the Redding Gallery in the City Building in Wilmington.

Illustration Friday has been alot of fun to participate in. I think with more time, efforts will pay off. But they are enjoyable efforts. Definitely has brought visitors to this blog. Hopefully the powers that be like that.

Opened a website on Artspan. It is an easy to use site. I need to maintain it more. Did get an inquiry a while back regarding use of one of my images. Someone wanted to use it for the cover of their cookbook which they were self publishing and giving as Christmas gifts. I was quite surprised at the request -- mainly cause it was a painting I had been thinking about painting over! My "fee" was credit and a couple of the books -- which I am looking forward to giving to my kids for Christmas.

Next year I plan to work on generating traffic to my Etsy shop. I feel like they could be on the edge of the tipping point. Sales have jumped 30% on that site over last year. And just this weekend the NY Times had a nice long article on Etsy.

There have been more things like joining some art related social networking sites and getting together with other artists I have met on internet art sites. Indiepublic, Curbly, StumbleUpon, the Switchboards, Muralsplus and Wetcanvas are a few of these sites.

Did not figure it would be this much work to accomplish my resolution goals. I do know that being chosen a citizen blogger did provide the motivation in many instances and has definitely played a part in how far I have gotten, which looking back, does surprise me. I have a greater presence on the web than I did at this time last year. And looking back over the year, next year is definitely one that will need to focus on promotion. I am there, I just need to get the word out now.