Yesterday, we alerted you that we were seeing a new round of art scams, which really are just variations of the same old scam. In fact, most art scams are just a variation of the generic "cashier's check" scam.  We thought it might be helpful...and allow you to better protect yourself...if you knew how the scam worked. How art scams work: A counterfeit or fraudulent cashier's check or corporate check is utilized to pay for art. Often these checks are made out for a substantially larger amount than the purchase price. The artist  victim is instructed to deposit the check [...]

The scam can come from any email address, in the last several days several of our clients have received messages from the following addresses: tom.tailor001@yahoo.com fred.yuhariz001@yahoo.com brandon5079@yahoo.com The message generally looks something like the following: My name is..(FILL IN NAME) .i'm from colorado usa,I'm willing to purchase your In the (Painting Name) 24" x 36" $3,000 I want you to please get back to me with present condition your location and your last price offer I will be looking forward to reading from you asap. Thanks Best regard If you have received a message [...]

Yaro made $4,314.34 from one blog post. But the way he accomplished that amazing feat is telling: "The reason I made this much money is because of one thing - my email list. If you break that down further, my email list is a result of long term nurturing and only began in the first place because I blog. That's all there is to it. The money is in the list. It's been said over and over again and yes, it is true, the money is in the list, yet so many bloggers [...]

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is your mailing list. A mailing list that you have developed of people who know who you are....and who have given you permission to communicate with them. It can be an email list or a "snail" mail list....or both. Yes, your "in house" mailing list is your most important art marketing asset.....if you use it. [...]

Would you rather have...... 1 Person who loves your work or 100 who are "just looking?" 1 dedicated fan or 100 "page views" on your web site? 1 real friend or 100 "FaceBook Friends?" 1 fantastic painting or 100 mediochre ones? 1 selling gallery or 100 restaurant exhibits? 1 productive hour or 100 hours watching TV? 1 week in Maui or 100 weeks at work? 1 person who refers another buyer or 100 "maybes" who found you through Google? 1 phone call from a person whose life your art has changed or [...]

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We've run across some interesting tidbits in the "blogosphere" regarding social media sites (facebook, digg, myspace) and search engine optimization ....and why that stuff can really waste your time. From SEOBook: "Want to know the truth about most social media traffic? Its garbage. Some of my AdSense ad campaigns use an affiliate account to track ROI. Until I filtered them out for poor performance, MySpace and Digg were providing about 90% of my overall affiliate ad volume with 0 conversions . . . Most of the social media hype is hollow and without value." From SEOmoz:  Which do YOU need:  [...]

Barney's got a good post regarding the state of the economy the market and points to consider when planning your marketing strategy: http://barneydavey.blogs.com/printmarket/2008/01/ten-points-to-p.html [...]

One of the best strategies for online marketing is to become known as an authority in a particular area first and then market your specific products.  In fact, that's exactly what we do with this blog and our FineArtViews newsletter.  We have become known as authorities for art marketing, art websites and art blogs.....we occasionally do promote our own products which help artists with marketing, websites and blogs, but promotion is not the primary focus of these two websites. Dan's just posted on Empty Easel regarding the concept of building an "authority" website as an individual artist. He writes: ". . . an artist [...]

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Seth posted yesterday on Blogs and Self Promotion.  With his usual sage-like wisdom he distills out the core truth of the subject: "The truism of the web: people talking about you is far more effective than talking about yourself." How can you apply this principle to your art career?  We suggest you get together with some of your artist friends and write about each other's artwork.  You need to approach artists that you admire/respect and write a positive review of their artwork.  Post said review on your own blog and send it out to your own email list and, [...]