Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Build-a-Blog and Sell your Art Online Course

My and Carol's good friend, and yes it is true, my ex-wife, Jennifer Marine is offering a hands-on, online course on how to set up your blog and use it to show and sell your art.

If things like "RSS Feed URL" or how to create a PayPal link leave your head spinning, then I highly recommend it.

The first one kicks off this weekend and you can read about it and sign up here: http://mymarketmessage.com/

- David

Monday, June 27, 2011

Welcome Back Karin Jurick!

Karin was one of the very first members of DPW. Unfortunately, back then we had a firm policy on frequency of posting. And, because she was, at the time, beginning to focus more on supplying her galleries and so was posting less frequently, she volunteered to fall on her sword, be true to the group's policy, and resigned.

It's a stupid policy that requires such a talented artist and wonderful person to leave. We have learned a lot since then!

Well, she has returned to DPW, and I am thrilled!

- David

Friday, June 24, 2011

Our first Facebook Ad

We are currently giving a Facebook ad a try. We are targeting people in the US, men and women over 30, that like art and art galleries. Facebook tells us this gives us a potential target audience of over 340,000.

We shall see how powerful this thing called Facebook is!

- David

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Advertising Starting Soon

Among the important things we learned during the first 4 years of DPW, was that expensive advertising in print magazines, such as American Art Collector, isn't productive.


First, we don't believe American Art Collector accurately represents the demographic of online buyers of small and affordable fine art. Second, we have found that print advertising just can't compete with the exponentially growing exposure that comes from offering a great site with a growing web of link-backs and social media word of mouth.


We believe the best place to advertise is online on heavily trafficked social websites. So, we will begin advertising on a couple very high traffic interior design blogs (one of which, http://www.designsponge.com/, gets 90,000 hits a day) in about a week or two.  These blogs have the same demographics as readers of Martha Stewart's and Oprah's magazines - older afluent buyers looking to decorate their homes. This is the perfect demographic for buying small affordable art online.


- David

Our Approach

In the world of online art communities and galleries, we are trying something new.


Many artists have told us if we don't limit and jury the DPW membership then we will become like all the rest: just another big website of low quality art.


Well first, I must say that Carol and I are both excited by the talent of our new members. Second, what we have seen, especially in the world of daily painting, is a proliferation of exclusive, high quality, small boutique websites and not big sites full of bad art.


With only 12 artists, this is what DPW was for over 4 years. The most important thing we learned during that time was, while artists love to belong to a small exclusive group, buyers want selection.


So, that is what we are going to give them. Our approach is to offer buyers a large and varied, ever changing selection of original fine art and - this is important - provide easy to use and powerful search tools so they can quickly find what they want, mark artists as favorites, and follow their work. This, is what will keep buyers coming back day after day.


Think of it this way: would you rather have many small NetFlix websites, each with a small limited selection? We wouldn't either.


Follow this link to read more about our approach: http://www.dailypaintworks.com/knowledgebase/article.php?id=25


- David

First Post - Welcome!

I want take a moment to welcome all of our new members - we are currently at 234 artists and growing!

So, welcome - we are very happy to have you all!

As our group has grown, I have realized that I need  a way to easily communicate with our members. Well, nothing is much better for that than a blog!

What you won't read here is me pontificating about art or art marketing. Instead, this is where I can tell you about what's new and what's coming on DPW.

If you are a member, please be sure to subscribe to this blog so you will be up to date with what is and what will be happening on Daily Paintworks!

- David