Art Blog - ArtId

The volume of email scams targeting artists has become an epidemic. Know the signs and don't get caught up in their scheme. Here are tell tale signs that an inquiry is a scam. 1. The person contacting you is usually using poor grammar, punctuation and sentence structure. 2. The person is "away" somewhere, in Haiti, the forest, out to sea, a sailor or an oceanographer... the latest one says he is on an asteroid.(really) 3. The person insists on paying through PayPal. They make a fraudulent payment for more than the amount of the piece and ask you to send someone, presumably the fake shipping company the extra. Do not give them your PayPal email address.… Continue reading… 8 comments

Whether you are an artist or shopping for someone who is, one thing is certain, you can never have too many art supplies . Our retail partner, Rex Art, has put together for your convenience a blog about holiday gift buying. If you really don't need another salad spinner or scarf and hat set, you can forward this link to your friends and relatives who are looking to buy you a gift. Nudge, nudge, hint, hint. Our retail partner, Rex Art is running a lot of specials on gifts . (all of which are GORGEOUS !) - You can see their front page rotating banner for those.… Continue reading… 1 comment

Eight Reasons Why Small Art Makes A Big Gift The Holidays aren't coming, they're here! We're barely through the Thanksgiving leftovers and already the giving and receiving of gifts has spiraled out of control. We feel pressure to buy something, anything, whether the receiver wants it or not. Don't get frantic, take a deep breath, think it through. "Doesn't art, especially small art, make the perfect gift?" Here are eight reasons why... 1. Art fits everyone 2. There is a good chance they don't have another one like it. 3. Art doesn't spoil. 4. There is no such thing as too much art. 5. You can take it on a plane. 6. Art (often) does not require batteries. 7. There is no assembly.… Continue reading… 1 comment

Many of our ArtId members have gotten the same email from stanley.jackson326@gmail.com , Sheila Wedegis wrote about this in her blog November 2, http://artid.com/members/swedegis/blog/post/4824-scam-going-around. Shame on these people for scamming artists, of all people. All our members at one time or another get a bogus email from some scam person wanting to "buy" their work for a new residence or some such thing. These emails are always littered with bad spelling and grammar. Who is bogus and who is real?… Continue reading… 16 comments

It's easy to get overlooked among the millions of other artists and their work on the Internet. Search Engines like Google work with words, not pictures, so describing your work accurately will give you an edge. Here are five tips to get found faster: 1. Describe your work as though there were no picture with it: If someone is searching for a "horizontal oil painting+yellow roses+vase and your description is "a recent painting of my garden" then the search engines have nothing to match. Example: Ellen Sullivan Farley described her gorgeous painting of lilies this way: "These are beautiful Casablanca Lilies that I grow in my garden. I love the gestural lines in these flowers and the interesting negative shapes generated between them… Continue reading… 2 comments

There is information everywhere, on line and in art publications, about the gallery, artist relationship. Still, it never hurts to remind artists about a few key points that can make a big difference when trying to get gallery representation. Do your homework: Check out the gallery on their web site or even better in person, to see what kind of art they carry. If you paint impressionist, oil landscapes and they have a big selection of pop art, chances are good that you should move on to the next gallery on your list.… Continue reading… 2 comments

There are some very persuasive statistics and reasons to get out there and blog. The comment I get the most is "I have nothing to blog about." followed directly with "I don't have time to blog." The actual keyboard time involved in blogging is minimal, it's the subject matter we blank out on. Imagine...you are exhibiting in a gallery or Art Show, what are the most FAQ from viewers? Inquiring minds really do what to know. It makes them feel like they know you or have an inside track on you and your work. Buyers are much more likely to purchase original art if it has a story attached to it. Every time you upload a new piece on your artid site, there is a button that says "blog about this art". Here are 10 "Starter" tips to get any artist blogging... 1… Continue reading… 3 comments

Something in me sank as I read this article in the UK papers. Apple actually thinks that artists will joyfully abandon their traditional paints and brushes, ink and pens, pencils and pastels to create original works of art on an iPad.… Continue reading… 16 comments

How To Respond To Criticism In Person and Online. "Everybody's an art critic." (Judith Martin) Consider the source: "The lot of critics is to be remembered for what they failed to understand." (George Moore). While it is true that everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion, an opinion is not a critique. A critique is backed by education, insight and objectivity. If someone's remarks about your work are not based in these then the remark has little value. A critique opens up an opportunity for response. An opinion is a dead end. Is it really worth it to exchange caustic remarks and insults with someone whose opinion is baseless? Try, "Thanks for taking the time to comment."… Continue reading… 5 comments

Email Contacts - What's Real? Occasionally on ArtId, we get a person or company that contacts a number of our members through the contact page in their ArtId galleries offering artists anything from representation to licensing deals. Sometimes these offers are legitimate and, unfortunately, sometimes they are not. Because your contact page is open for anyone to use, these emails cannot be dealt with as spam. An email received through your ArtId contact does not mean that we have endorsed the company or person. So, we'd like to give you some tips on how to discriminate between truly interested business people and those whose real goal is to get you to pay them a lot of money for nothing. How to Compare… Continue reading… 9 comments

It's easy to get caught up measuring "hits" to your website when you are selling artwork online, and then wondering, "Why so many hits and no sales?" Remember, hits are people, too. Not just faceless numbers on a statistic sheet. January is a great time to go back to your ArtId gallery and look at it from a buyer's perspective. Ask yourself some questions and see how you might improve your gallery according to your answers… Continue reading… 13 comments

I know dozens of artists who simply will not: have an online gallery, a blog, join any online groups, or use the Internet to their advantage in any way. Period. Statistics don't sway them, other Internet artists making sales while they aren't, doesn't prove anything to them. Well the facts are in, artists who use their website and social media to their advantage, sell. Period. The marketplace has changed and the way we do business has changed. "I don't have time, I don't like computers, it's too hard to learn, I don't have anything to blog about, it costs too much". If this sounds like you or someone you know, read on.… Continue reading… 18 comments

For ourselves as business persons we try to keep up with "what's going on" especially in the areas that are of interest to us, like art marketing. For you, as artists selling your work on the internet, we follow blogs that help us keep up with "what's going on" in Art Opportunities, Art Marketing and Social Media. There is so much information out there to digest and some of it not all that worthy. In addition to our own ArtId Blog We have compiled a list of six blogs that we have found, among the millions, to be great for artists in the business of selling art. … Continue reading… 2 comments

Email Signature as a Marketing Tool This is such a simple but powerful way to get the word out about your art. Put your ArtId gallery link at the end of all your emails. Every time you send an email will be an opportunity to remind people that you are an artist. You'll be amazed at how many people will check out your gallery. How Do I Add a Signature to my Email? Go to the "Settings" tab in your email server and type your ArtId www address into the "Signature" space under your name. Go! Go do it now! … Continue reading… 3 comments

It almost goes without saying that people love stories _ we root for the athlete with the story that affects us the most, we watch the same news report over and over because the story compels us, we even eat at a certain restaurant more often if we appreciate the chef's personal story. The same is true with art buyers. Imagine you are at an art fair and you are selling your landscapes. There are 5 other artists selling landscapes at the same fair. If a buyer is out there looking for a landscape painting, chances are that buyer will buy a painting from the artist whom he/she feels a sense of camaraderie with personally. How do you create camaraderie? Tell your buyers your story… Continue reading… 3 comments

Did you know that artists who write in their ArtId blogs enjoy more popularity on the site than those who don't? It's true. Every time you post a blog entry from your gallery, it not only appears in your ArtId pages and the Artists Blog homepage where visitors can read your blog and then click in to your gallery, but it also is indexed by the search engines, posted on the ArtId Facebook page (where we currently have over 400 fans) and shared with anyone on Digg, Stumbleupon and the many other content sharing networks available using the "Share" button. So it just makes sense to get yourself out there and blog to get more people to see your art. … Continue reading… 1 comment

Describing art for the internet requires artists to shift gears and think much differently about the word "description". In gallery speak, a "description" is "watercolor painting of my grandmothers garden where I loved to play as a child." In internet speak the same painting has to read "original watercolor painting, of garden in summer with purple and yellow flowers and a white chair." Then, you add "painting of my grandmothers garden where I loved to play as a child." … Continue reading… 0 comments

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Elizabeth Davison, President Company: ArtId Phone: 413-739-1494 Email: betsy@artid.com Website: www.artid.com Video Contest for Artists Targets the Moving Picture as a Marketing Tool MARCH, 2009 -- ArtId.com , the Internet's fastest growing social and business website for artists is hosting an Art Video Contest for artists who want to gain more exposure for themselves and their artwork. The video contest is free and open to visual artists of all mediums and career levels. Because the videos will be hosted on our website, all participants must open a free ArtId account to upload their videos for the contest. … Continue reading… 3 comments

This is a sample reel that features www.artid.com members, Robert Hicks and Loretta Petraitis , and will appear on the Independent Coffee Network. The ICN is an Out of Home Network that will be in coffee shops throughout the United States… Continue reading… 11 comments

Very soon you will be seeing Free Memberships on artists web sites disappearing. Actually, all manner of web sites. In order for a site to generate revenue, they must do one of two things, host paid advertisements or charge a membership fee. Advertising support is shrinking for a number of reasons leaving all websites looking for alternate revenue streams. Before too long you will be paying a subscription for online news as the newspapers scale back their print runs. Magazines are dropping their printed material and going completely online. Even with all their heavy-duty advertising, the printed magazines and newspapers weren't free and their sites won't be either.… Continue reading… 2 comments