The "last step" in focusing the lens is to repeat the processOnce you have an established relationships with the “friends of your friends” go back to step 2 and send these people the "everyone you know email" and begin the process again.If you will make this process a part of your daily routine you will likely never run out of leads for your art work. [...]

This step is simple:Send each person whom your friends refer a personal email, again five or six emails a day at most.  Introduce yourself, tell the person that so and so (your friend) recommended you contact them (this is extremely important) and provide links to your site and your work.  Assure them that you will not harass them.  For greater response make this step a PHONE campaign. [...]

A client emailed me the following today:After having the email [on my site] for a while, I find that I receive too much junk mail and would like to close that account. I would like to return to getting email from my web site via FASO['s Contact Form].If you post your email address on your site, your email address will get picked up by spammers and your level of junk mail will steadily increase.  You can use a contact form (that does not have the email address embedded in the code), or provide a phone number, or simply understand that you'll [...]

I received the following email today.  I'm not sure if the sender has been following my "Focus the Lens" series or not, but I thought it was a great example of a personal feeling email which the sender obviously sent to people in her address book.  As I discussed in Focus the Lens: Email Everyone You Know.Here is the email:Greetings, Everyone!  Retirement is wonderful!   As many of you know, I began painting again during the winter of 2005-06 after more than 30 years.  I entered some local art shows during the year, had some success, and have decided to continue with this [...]

Robert Genn has a way of "cutting to the chase."  I've often looked at a boring piece of art and wondered "Why was this created?"  With a great work, you never ask "Why?"  You simply say "Wow!"Robert contends each piece should have a "climax."Here are some points he encourages artists to think about:To have climax, you need quietude.To have light, you need dark.To have focus, you need lack of focus.To have delicacy, you need roughness.To have surprises, you need plain facts. To have colour surprises, you need grays.To have activation, you need blandness.To have birth, you need death.For the entire essay [...]

About two weeks after you email each person personally, contact him/her again, PERSONALLY and ask specifically if there is anyone they feel you should follow-up with personally.  You’re shooting to get five or six names here (this is an average, some people will give you no names, some will volunteer more than five).  This could be people your friend thinks would be most interested in your work, most interested in art, or perhaps people who replied to their blanket request two weeks earlier but did not contact you directly. Assure your friend that you will treat the person referred with the [...]

In the last post, I encouraged you to send personal emails to your contacts and ask them to email THEIR contacts.If any of your contacts ask for a sample email to use, here is one I put together as an idea.  I would love it, if anyone who is doing this project would post a comment with samples of email that have worked for them.Dear ,John Q. Painter is an artist who is also a friend of mine.  I've enjoyed watching his work over the years and, in fact, own a couple of his pieces.I think you might enjoy his work [...]

If you’ve been “focusing the lens” with me, by now you’ve made a list of everyone you know and sent one email to each person on that list.  Congratulations, you’re off to a good start.Today, I want you to pick five people from your list of contacts and send each one of those people a personal email.  Yes, this means each one has to be individually written (although you can copy some of the main “guts” from one to the next)  That’s not so hard, right?  Just five emails.  If you’re really ambitions, do as many as ten, but no more.  [...]

Robert Genn Writes Today, you may read my reply to Mr. Genn at the bottom of his letter:Yesterday, Cherie Hanson of Kelowna, B.C., Canada, wrote, "My work explores several directions at once. For me it is not a linear path, not a clearly designated roundabout with branches shooting off at well defined distances to clearly marked destinations, it is a dance. Consistent work that is the same year to year is what galleries seem to need in order to sell. How do I sell my art and still stay true to my need to experiment and explore? Most artists do not [...]

If you’re following along this week, yesterday you made a list of everyone you know.  Today, you take the first step in focusing the marketing lens upon your artwork.  Today’s action is simple:  email everyone you know. Draft an email announcement.  Take a bit of time to make it interesting.  Make it enticing.  PLEASE, whatever you do don’t send a “hey check out my site” email.  Talk a bit about your work.  Or perhaps something new that you have done.  It is a bit of a balance as you don’t want the email to be too long or too short.  [...]

This week, I begin a series of articles on referral marketing.  I firmly believe that for most artists, the majority of their market will come from people they know and/or from those with whom they have a personal connection.  Seth Godin, marketing guru, writes about an interesting way to look at Internet marketing where a person become a "lens" to "focus" traffic upon a specific area of interest.  For example, my blog is a "lens" focusing people upon aspects of marketing art.For artists (and other marketers), I propose that the "lens" concept works in another way.  Think of your network as [...]

Robert Genn, ever innovating, posted these cool one minute painting videos to his web site today: Surf over lava at Hale Ke Kai Check out the rest of the videos at:http://clicks.robertgenn.com/big-small.phpI'm not sure what purpose they server but they are fun to watch.  Perhaps an artist selling demo DVD's could have a short "sped up" version for people to check out as a "teaser?" [...]

When it comes to marketing, I am asked about search engines more than just about anything else.  Don't let Search Engine Optimization companies fool you.  You don't need to spend hundreds of dollars on Search Engine Optimization or link exchanges, the principles are very simple, although, like everything worthwhile, take time and effort.  Here is what you need to do to be Search Engine Savvy. 1. Get Other Web Sites to Link To You This is the number-one thing you can do to increase your search engine results. Why?  Search Engines use the number and quality of links to your site to determine your site's popularity.  Ask your artist friends, your galleries, [...]

    Robert Genn writes:Just as the digital revolution has sped the learning of photography, painting "smalls" in series speeds creative progress. Because digital imagery need not be sent out for developing, the travelling photographer can test settings and see results on the spot. In the same way, learning on the go, the series painter sees each variation develop. In either a linear or in simultaneous (multi-tasking) process, a better way is often found. Like the digital photographer, she crops, tints, fills, glazes, sharpens, softens, revisits--and makes the ultimate decision to keep or delete. It's the time-honoured wisdom of the sketch.For More [...]

There has been a lot of hype about blogs in the last year and, in many cases, too much hype.  In fact, last summer I wrote a piece that was fairly critical of blogs. See Blogs and Success, Separating the Wheat from the Chaff: http://data.fineartstudioonline.com/dataviewer.asp?page=fineartviews&keyvalue=126&subkeyvalue=379 Since my service, FineArtStudioOnline, has since introduced an integrated blogging platform, today my goal is to focus on the specific, real benefits that one can achieve from blogging.  As an artist, one major reason you want to blog is to bring traffic to your website in hopes that at least some of those visitors will be interested in [...]