How to Market and Sell Your Art, Music, Photographs, and Handmade Crafts Online: Turn Your Hobby into a Cash Machine
You are creative, you are an artist or a photographer, you have a hobby or craft, something you absolutely love to do, and you are good at it. But you may be asking yourself, “How do I market my work? How do I turn this into a real money making business?” The answer lies between the covers of this new book. You will learn the steps you need to take to successfully sell your artwork or crafts — even if you have no experience with marketing and even if you hate to sell.
As with many other business segments, the Internet and technology have opened up the world and made it your marketplace. You and I, working from the comfort of home, are now on an even playing field with the largest retailers. This groundbreaking and exhaustively researched new book will provide everything you need to know to get your marketing message into the hands of your customers. You will learn about online galleries, designing your Web site cyber stores, arts and crafts search engines, publicity sources, online forums, auction sites, online marketing, e-mail marketing, and search engine marketing. You also will learn of over 300 Web sites on which you can sell your artwork, music, or crafts.
This specialized book will demonstrate, step by step, how to inexpensively market and promote your artwork —easily and, most important, profitably. You will learn how to quickly find new customers and keep existing ones buying more by using technology and low cost marketing devices that take little or no time on your part. You will learn to develop a marketing plan using hundreds of practical marketing ideas that will help you disseminate your artwork all over the world.
Please visit our web site http://www.atlantic-pub.com/ .
ARTISTS, START THINKING LIKE ENTREPRENEURS
Many artists have the idea that while creative pursuits are nice as hobbies, they are no way to make a living. This is indeed true in many cases. However, there is another face of change. The digital revolution has made possible for easy and economical ways to sell anything, including your artworks, online. Using this opportunity, your ability to market your own arts online become something inevitable. Hence, Lee Rowley’s How to Market and Sell Your Arts, Music, Photographs, and Handmade Crafts Online could become the tool that all professional artist turn to when they want to make art not only their hobby but also their career.
In this book, the author has managed to put together an action-oriented how-to manual that will make any artists better entrepreneurs in organizing their own creative stuffs: displaying their artwork in a virtual gallery and doing the online marketing, as well as managing the selling and shipping. It’s a surprisingly compelling, readable volume with specific ideas and practical examples of how an artist can obtain better result in living professionally from their creativity.
Of course, it will take hard work and a fair amount of patience to accomplish this, but this book itself is a starting point, a seed that can generate action-oriented thinking – and most professional artist could easily use that kind of tool!
Comment by esther — May 15, 2008 @ 5:11 am
I read this book in two nights. It was written in an easy, conversational tone, and I found many of the tips within to contain great information for Internet entrepreneurs of all types. The tips on how to market and grow your own web site were great, and I’m sure they will come in handy for me in the very near future.
Lee Rowley should give himself a pat on the back for writing such an enthralling page-turner. I don’t think I’ve ever been that interested in a “how to’ book in a very long time.
Rating: 5 stars out of 5.
Comment by Michael Moore — May 28, 2008 @ 11:45 am
If you are looking for a book that takes you step by step through every aspect of setting up your online business, look no further. I thought this book would be a good resource to help me sell my photographs, but it is far more comprehensive than I had any idea. Every possible aspect is covered, from purchasing the right equipment through finding a web hosting service and right on into Internet marketing. Lots of links are provided, which is quite helpful. I can’t say I tried them all, but every single one I tried worked, and all contained useful information.
I am not new to the Internet, but if I were, I think this is the only book I would ever need. As it happens, I have a couple of web sites and an eBay store, but it took reading this book for me to learn why my sales have not done as well as they might have. I have learned some new marketing techniques that I am even now putting into place. There is an absolute treasure trove of information in this book for anyone looking to start out or to improve an Internet presence. I was very impressed and would recommend it to everyone.
I give this one 5 stars! *****
Comment by Cindy Nichols — June 3, 2008 @ 8:13 pm
How to Make and Sell Your Art, Music, Photographs, and Handmade Crafts was a very useful book. I would rate it a four. The book is very encouraging and makes you feel as though your hobby has the potential to be a “cash machine”. Although, there were times while reading the book that I felt that the book was a bit too elementary. That it was overly simplified. The extras in the appendixes are very helpful and informative. They will be a useful reference for anyone who owns the book.
Comment by Abigail Terry — June 11, 2008 @ 4:02 pm
In this day and age, anyone who produces products for sale needs to be aware of the possibilities of selling them online. This book is especially valuable for artists, musicians, craftsmen, and other creative people who could increase their volume of business by becoming Internet-savvy. The book’s premise is that artistic people are very good at producing wonderfully creative items, but most likely do not have the knowledge needed to be good internet marketers. It provides a wealth of information without assuming that the reader has any understanding of how to sell on the World Wide Web. It begins by enumerating the reasons that an Internet business is a good choice for an artist or musician, and goes on to give a step-by-step guide for how to begin such an enterprise.
There is a complete chapter that describes the computer hardware, software and peripherals that will be necessary to get a web-based business up and running. I could see that this information would be of great value to anyone wondering how to get started marketing to a global customer base. Technical topics such as how to create a website are covered in a style that makes them accessible even to those with computer phobias. There are hints about how to present products in a clear and appealing manner, and describe them in a way that will encourage website visitors to make a purchase. There are many more chapters concerned with how to drive traffic to an online store, how to outsource certain aspects of your web business, and lots of other topics of interest.
This how-to book has a complete appendix, as well, so that the reader can easily find websites and other resources that will help him as he continues to develop his customer base. Any artist that would like to take advantage of technology to expand a business will find help for his enterprise in this guide.
Rating 4 1/2 stars
Comment by D Iverson — June 19, 2008 @ 10:15 am
Although the information in this book is very helpful and useful to those who wish sell their work, the title is too long and there is a lot of over kill and one finds themselves forcing him or her self to finish the book. There is a lot of information such as Google search terms that are not necessary in this type of book.
Rating 3
Comment by Kelly howe — June 24, 2008 @ 9:58 am
Way back in the 1980s, personal computers were touted as the perfect tools for dormant da Vincis and underground Tolstoys. The computer could make you a star. As it turned out, the ads were right in a way, and millions have found the technology an element of their precious muse, at least that portion that concerns lucre. Artist and writer Rowley is well aware that talent may or may not blossom digitally, but markets will, and gives craftspeople, musicians, photographers and artists step-by-step instructions on creating market identities for themselves and their products, building a web site, establishing a presence in the market, attracting visitors, building links, outsourcing writing, getting your web site into search engines and directories, using business software, marketing through email and newsletters, packing and using auction systems. He also describes marketing techniques specific to art, crafts, music, and photography.
Comment by Shannon Hendrickson — June 26, 2008 @ 9:53 am
Whether you’re just starting out or have years of experience, How to market and sell your art, music, photographs, and handmade crafts online: Turn your hobby into a cash machine, is the ideal “soup to nuts” book for the person who wants to sell online but doesn’t know where to begin. It thoroughly covers all the basics, with a particular focus on the essentials of effective website design and strategies about how to best incorporate your art or music into your site.
I’m a photographer and consider myself to be fairly well experienced in website design and marketing so I thought that the “basics” sections would bore me but I was wrong. I learned a lot of things that I didn’t know.
The book is detailed, well-written and interesting to read, unlike other “how to” books I’ve read. The sections about marketing online, the importance of content in attracting visitors, optimizing for search engines and using social marketing to build clientele are especially useful. Separate chapters for art, music, photography and crafts outline aspects unique to each medium.
This is the kind of book that I will refer to again and again and highly recommend it for any artist that wants to establish a web presence and market online and wants to really learn how to do it properly. Five of five stars.
Comment by Ron — June 26, 2008 @ 2:24 pm
As much as I love Ramen Noodles I don’t want to live on them. The idea that being a “starving artist” is romantic is for angst-ridden teens in the burbs. To a sane adult, the idea of doing what you love to do and making a living at it is, if not romantic, at least much more pleasant.
How to Market and Sell Your Art, Music, Photographs, and Handmade Crafts Online-Turn Your Hobby Into A Cash Machine is the book for any artist who would like to get their work in front of people and sell it. The internet is where to be if you want maximum exposure to potential buyers, but you need to know what you’re doing before you jump in.
As promised in the intro, this book tells you step by step how to stand out in the now very crowded online marketplace and to successfully market and sell your work. Simply putting your photos or music downloads on a website won’t cut it anymore. People need to find you first amid all the clutter and lesser talent! Then, as with any business, you need to earn a reputation and hopefully a following. Everything you need is covered here: Selecting the right computer and software, creating an impactful website, low and no-cost advertising and marketing, online auctions, etc. Along with providing incredibly useful tips and techniques on building a successful online business (“keywords” are one key!), there are tons of websites and sources listed that are invaluable- Many referrals to free software and online resources. (Note: I took so many notes I got writer’s cramp, and then realized there was a handy-dandy appendix at the end of the book that listed online resources, websites, etc.)
Even with zero online experience you can be up and running very quickly by using this book as your guide. I’d never heard of “Squidoo” or “CGI Forms”, but I now know what they are and how to use them. I found the information on marketing and “strategies infrequently used by creative people…” particularly helpful. The “Hows” and “Whys” are all explained in an organized and easy to understand way. It’s a great book that I’ll be referring back to often.
Rating: 5 Stars
Comment by Cindy Santagate — June 30, 2008 @ 4:16 pm