by Rebecca Sciullo | Mar 21, 2020 | Learning, Productivity, Resources
So, today I picked up a lot of sticks. It was brush that fell on our property over the winter. It was very cathartic to be outside, keeping busy. My husband and I are both self-employed. His business is dependent upon people being able to visit him in person. We have a lot on our minds. There is a lot to think about as we consider how to maintain an income without leaving home Many of you can relate. Millions can relate.
Figuring it Out
At this point, our primary goal is to keep ourselves and our family healthy. After that, we are figuring out the best ways to adapt our business. Mine is easier, yet some tweaks need to be made. His situation requires more work, so I’m helping with that. We feel like me have to move fast in this regard, yet we are standing still.
As I make adjustments to Artisan Advantage, I will post them here, so that you can see what I’m doing. Maybe it will help you with something in your business.
Here’s a Tweak to Help Somebody
When we are not picking up sticks, tending to household tasks or of course the business dilemma, we are doing the same things that you are – reading, watching movies and playing games to name a few. These last parts are nice. We are reading a lot, so when I read this article, it clicked.
Stay Well!
Stay tuned for more updates including the next post in Artist Blogging 101 as well as how you can get in on some free consulting hours.
by Rebecca Sciullo | Mar 17, 2020 | Learning
This is not the message I was hoping to post on St. Patrick’s Day….
A week ago, I was going about my usual routine – working on projects, planning for meetings, going to the gym, thinking about what we were having for dinner and what we were going to do for St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. It’s crazy how much can change in a week.
It’s completely normal to be fearful during this time. We should all be focusing on taking the mandated and worthwhile precautions to slow the spread of the virus. Our first priority is to make sure everyone close to us is safe. I do believe we’ll get through this and be stronger because of it, but it has been a struggle to maintain that mindset. While I’ve been having my ups and downs, I’m attempting to keep life on track as much as possible. It’s the only way I can manage through this.
There Are Still Changes and Challenges to Face
In addition to the stress of the virus and life basically shutting down, economic disruption is also a point of concern. Disposable spending is dropping, and original art and other creative products are often not a priority purchase for most people item in times like these. Please don’t give up your business goals. You may have to table some things right now, or put your focus on something else, but stick with some aspect of your work and business. Maybe it’s just creating the work – and that’s okay!
Here Are Some Ideas on How To Manage Through This Time
Create! You probably have more time in the studio now. Embrace it.
Take advantage of this time to cross items off of your to-do list or focus on a project like improving your website. I plan on continuing to offer free tips on blogging for your art business.
Take time to enjoy some hobbies that you don’t get to enjoy as often as you would like. In the past two days, I’ve read more than I’ve read in the prior two weeks. Also, I’m picking my knitting back up.
Spend time with loved ones. You may not be able to visit in person, but how about a nice long phone call or some Facetime? If you can be in the same space, enjoy that as well. Today I did some meditative coloring with my daughter. I can’t remember the last time we did that.
Here is What Artisan Advantage is Doing During this Time
Posting will continue here and on my social media channels as much as possible. I hope to finish some new resources that I’ve been working on. Any meetings that I had scheduled in person will take place via a video call.
If you’re looking for some help with your blog, I’m going to open up some free consulting hours during this time. I’ll be sending out a calendar where you can sign up in the next day or two.
If you want to send me a question about something you’re working on, please do! You can reach me at becky@artisan-advantage.com.
Let’s stay connected as much as possible!
by Rebecca Sciullo | Mar 11, 2020 | Learning
This is the last post in a four-part series of How Artisan Advantage Started. If it hadn’t been for The Bluegrass Painter blog, I’m not sure Artisan Advantage would have come to be. If you missed the first few posts in this series, start here.
After that initial launch, we tried all sorts of other things to promote his work, such as exhibit at fairs and festivals and entering group exhibitions. We sent handwritten thank you notes on his art print cards. We sent targeted direct mailers to people we thought would be interested in his work. We’ve tried making prints and we’ve used print-on-demand services. Some things worked better than others. Through it all, we maintained a blog. Whatever we were doing at the time, it was announced on the blog, which ended up serving as the focal point for all of his marketing efforts.
Through these activities, I started meeting other artists who were interested in what I was doing with my father. That is when I came up with the idea of an Artist Boot Camp. Artist Boot Camp was my one day seminar helping artists with getting an art business up and running.
Artist Boot Camp was well received. I attempted to cover all of the topics in that workshop on this blog and through individual consulting efforts. Eventually, I realized that my strength was helping artists to use a blog as the basis of their marketing system.
And that is how I got to be here at Artisan Advantage, encouraging you to blog about your art.
The Partnership Continues
As for my father, he is still painting and selling work, both online and in person. He and I are in different parts of the country geographically now, so most everything I do for him is online. One exception is his annual open studio weekend in the summer, which has proven to be a consistent success.
I look forward to sharing more of our story with you. Thank you for reading this series and I hope that you will continue to follow me on this journey.
I love to connect outside of the blog. Here are some ways we can do that:
Follow me on Facebook.
Connect with me on LinkedIn.
Connect with me on Twitter
Connect with me on Pinterest.
Pittsburgh artists, join my Create! Sell! Meet up Group.
by Rebecca Sciullo | Mar 5, 2020 | Artist Blogging 101, Blogging, Learning
It’s time to expand on last week’s post The What and Why of Blogging for your art business. I often compare this system of using a blog in your art marketing efforts to a wheel.
Think of your art marketing system as a wheel.
Your blog is the hub of the wheel – the central location for your art marketing and promotion. It contains all of the content about your art business. Every message that you want to share about your work is documented and stored on your blog. This content can include everything from the story behind a piece of art, information about your process, or details for an upcoming event. There is no limit to what you can share on your blog. You control the message, and this is the best place to craft and present all of your content. This is your home base.
The outside of the wheel, or rim, is your audience. These are all of the people that you want to reach with your message about your art.
The spokes are all of the different channels you use to get your message to the world. These channels are not limited to but can include things like social media, press releases, and direct mail. You write your message first on your blog, and then send it out to your audience through the spokes or channels.
These channels, in turn, direct people back to the your blog.
This back and forth activity gets the wheel into motion and moves your business forward.
Why this strategy?
But why worry about a blog, why not just pick some channels and post your work? Here are three good reasons why.
First, every spoke has its limits. You can only post so much text on Facebook before people tune out. You can send a press release out to your media contacts, but there is no guarantee that they will print or share the entire message. In both of these instances, you can share a link to your blog. On Facebook, you control the link. For a press release, most outlets will share our When people are interested, they will follow the link. Then, you have your opportunity to share the whole story. Every channel has a limit. Your blog is limitless. You can put any message you want there.
Second, you will be more organized.
Do you ever feel scattered when it comes to marketing your work? Where should you post what? I know I did until I implemented this system. Use your blog as your home base for your messages. Then, you can then systematically share information with your audience through whichever channels you want. Implementing this system for your art marketing efforts should reduce that overwhelmed feeling.
Last, but not least – Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a topic that warrants more discussion, but let’s start with the basics. SEO means that you optimize a website so that more people find it through organic or unpaid traffic when they use search engines such as Google. There are many things that you can do to optimize SEO. One thing that helps is to have a site with higher quality and frequently updated information. We will delve more into SEO later, but for now understand that If you are posting regularly on a blog, then you will naturally achieve this first benefit of providing high quality and fresh content
How do I get my wheel in motion?
Hopefully, you’re starting to see the importance of placing your blog based website at the center of your marketing efforts. Next up, we’ll cover some things to consider as you prepare to set up your blog.
Want to get into motion quickly? Consider my Artist Blogging Services.
by Rebecca Sciullo | Mar 2, 2020 | Blogging, Learning
Recently I started a series of blog posts about how Artisan Advantage got started. If you missed the first two posts, please start here.
Part Three: The Experiment
Next, we wrote a press release that announced his new series of bluegrass themed artwork. In the release we included links to both his website and blog. In the announcement, we explained that he was a bluegrass musician himself. It outlined how the work in the series was inspired by the time he spent picking with friends. We had no idea if anyone would be interested, but figured it was worth a shot.
I emailed the press release to the leading blogs in the bluegrass music industry – Cybergrass, The Bluegrass Blog and Mandolin Cafe. The publishers of each blog quickly posted the information. Within a day, we had over 1,000 hits to his website and blog. From that moment on, we started selling and shipping original art and prints to customers all over the world.
That was pretty exciting. Then, something even more exciting happened. I received a call from a representative of the International Bluegrass Music Association. They noticed his work thanks to the blog coverage and wanted to know if they could commission him to do artwork for the World of Bluegrass. We quickly worked out a deal for him to provide the art and plunged headfirst into marketing his work in this industry.
Nashville!
This relationship resulted in us attending and exhibiting at the World of Bluegrass trade show and awards event in Nashville for two consecutive years. Other commission work followed for both organizations in the industry, such as DelFest, Red White and Bluegrass festival and other private commissions.
The Wall Street Journal then wrote about our success using this strategy in an article about blogging.
Again, to reiterate, this was an experiment. I had no idea what would happen if anything. Thankfully, it did happen and it allowed me to see the power of using this tool to promote your work.
Since that time, we have used the blog a variety of ways to gain exposure for his work and grow his audience.
Next Up: Where we are now.
Snapshot from our trip to Nashville.
