Lesson Five: Biz Cards, Websites, and Products

By now you are probably thinking:

What about business cards?

Don't I need a website?

What about reproductions? And things like mugs and cards?

Business cards

If you are excited about connecting with people and making art sales, then "Yes", it's time to get a business card. 
You can design one online.

The first time, there's a little learning curve, after that you'll be as whiz designing your postcards, business cards and other promotional material.

There are a number of online design companies.
Overnightprints.com
Vistaprint.com
Moo


Put an good image of your artwork on the front of your card and your contact info on the back. 

Consider how you want people to contact you.

• Do you want them to have your phone number? 
• Do you want them to have your email?
• Your studio address? 

There has to be some way they can contact you, but you don't have to give them all your personal info.

If you have a website, make sure your web address is on the card. 

Your social media contacts can also be on your card.

Let's talk about websites.

Quick Question, if you are using Square.com to process credit cards, have you set up your online store?  That's the first thing you should do, then start thinking about a website.

There are a number of free website builders.

Free is always a good place to start.  You get the feel of maintaining a website before you make a financial commitment.

The two most popular are;
Weebly
Wix

Keep your site simple.  You need a "home" page, an "about" page, a "portfolio" or "gallery" page, and a "contact" page.

Each page can be simple. Make it easy to read.

Look at other artists website to see what you like.  When you find one you like, scroll down to the bottom and see if you can see who designed or is hosting it.

There are a lot of companies that host websites designed for artists.  Some of them have free trials and then there is a charge.

I suggest you Google "websites for artists" and do some research.

Here's a great article, How to create an artist website.

If you want to sell originals and prints of your artwork from your website, Artspan is an art marketplace and website builder for artists.  Customers can order prints from your site and Artspan will print and ship the prints for you.

Reproductions and other products:

There are lots of ways your artwork can be made into products. 

Such as

• Prints and cards
• T-shirts and wearables
• mugs and plates
• calendars and notebooks
• home décor 
• and the list goes on

There are things to consider before you start to create reproductions and products.

• how and where are you going to sell them?
• who do you see buying them?
• are you ready to take the steps it takes to promote them?

And one final caution.

In the introduction I said not to worry about your artwork being "good enough" because somewhere there would be someone who would like it?

Well, that's not exactly true if you're selling multiples of your work.  Your artwork will have to appeal to way more (seriously, WAY MORE) than one person to make it worth your time and money.

However, if you have images that appeal to the masses than you should consider mass producing them.

Product creation

There are companies that create the products and ship them to you for you to sell. 

Zazzle and Snapfish are two of many. 

There are also companies that create the products and sell them. You upload your images and select the products you want them to be on. 

You receive a percentage of the sales amount.

Society 6 will put your artwork on almost anything.

Imagekind will create, sell and ship prints for you.

In order for you to get the most out of these services you will have to put your art sales strategies to work on a consistent basis.

You will need a plan to let  people know what products you have, and how and where they can purchase. You will need to continually promote them.

Always do your research before you choose any service such as the above.

Read the articles below for more info

General information about making prints

Two artists talk about creating products