#it’s much easier to build up small amounts and spend it all willy nilly

[luminarytex]

it’s crazy how i stopped playing wizard 101 for like 12 ish years and suddenly the urge to play it comes back full force and now i can’t go a few hours without thinking about it

anyways i’ve been playing wizard 101 lately

[tlbodine]

Things That Do (And Don’t) Sell Books (in my experience)

I’ve just finished reading this book:

I am both amused and a bit disheartened to have read the whole thing and discovered that I knew pretty much everything in it. Amused, because I guess I’ve picked up a lot of knowledge over the years. Disheartened, because it clearly has not led to me becoming the break-away success I always dreamed of. Ah well. Live and learn. 

I’m all about transparency in this business, so I wanted to talk honestly for a while about book marketing and what I’ve experienced in terms of what does and does not seem to work. I’d love to hear your thoughts, so chime in with your own experiences! 

Branding and Audience 

The first third of Burke’s book is dedicated to this aspect, and it’s an important marketing step that’s easy to overlook. The idea is basically that you can’t market a product unless it has a brand identity. To create your brand, you need to do the following: 

Identify the audience who you are trying to reach with your work, or who would be most receptive to what you’re writing

Identify your dreams and goals so you have a clear picture in mind of what you want to accomplish 

Figure out how to position yourself in such a way that you a.) stand out from the competition but b.) people can still relate to and understand at a glance

Find a way to communicate your brand consistently in terms of the language used, your aesthetic, the way you act online, and so forth. 

When it comes to brand-building as an author, I think I’ve got a bit of a corner nailed down. I at least hope to be perceived as someone level-headed, thoughtful, generally positive/empathetic and humanist, but also critical and looking deeper into the meanings of things -- all of which are traits I personally possess and which are baked in to the work I do. In support of that branding, I curate my activity online as best I can: I post things that are of a certain horror aesthetic that I feel overlaps with my own interests/style; I give writing advice and boost people in the community where I can; I wade into discourse selectively and thoughtfully; I give media reviews and analysis that I think would be interesting to like-minded people. 

The “identify the audience” part is much harder for me. I’m still honestly not sure who my ideal reader is, or where exactly to go to find my audience. At this point I’m kind of scattering crumbs of myself out into the wind and hoping it will attract people who will, in turn, be interested in the work that I do (and both willing and able to support it financially). 

Things I’ve Done With Varying Degrees of Success: 

Aforementioned blogging activities. I have slowly but steadily grown my following her on tumblr and other social media sites as well as my author newsletter on substack, but it’s not clear to what extent that following translates into book sales. My writing advice posts vastly out-perform all of my other content, but I haven’t seen compelling evidence that the people interested in my writing advice are especially interested in my fiction -- it seems to be two separate groups, with maybe a sliver of overlap. 

Content marketing with more short fiction. This seems like it should be the safest, surest way to find more readers, but it’s time-consuming and discouraging because of the discoverability cycle. My horror flash fiction posts don’t get nearly as many notes as my advice posts. My attempts to get into the big anthologies that pop up have so far amounted to little, although I do need to write more. It’s just that coming up with new ideas and writing them all the time is a lot of work, and if it’s not paying off maybe I’m still better off dedicating that work to my novels. 

Sending ARCs to book bloggers/reviewers/booktube etc. I sent out dozens, if not hundreds, of these and got next to no response. I do think part of the problem is that, at the time, I had no Twitter presence, and -- like it or not -- there seems to be a bit of cliqueishness to this aspect of the book world. Now that I’ve spent more time on Twitter ingratiating myself with the horror community, I suspect I’ll have a somewhat easier job securing blurbs and reviews at least from the people in my extended social circle. But I won’t know until I try it again. *I also know I would have greater success with this if I’d been sending paperback ARCs instead of digital. I didn’t, because the cost of buying more author copies + shipping was prohibitive. 

Author Newsletter. I maintain mine in conjunction with my Patreon account. I send a monthly news round-up, making a point of shouting out both industry news and the milestones/achievements of others in the community as well as providing what I hope to be value-added or interesting content (in the form of blog posts my patrons vote on). It does OK. I average a couple of new sign-ups per month this way and tend to hover around a 25% open rate, which isn’t terrible. But it’s not great, either, and I won’t know for sure whether any of those opens will actually yield sales at any point. 

Interpersonal relationships/community building. Hands down the most successful “marketing” thing I’ve ever done is make friends with people. My writing discord group is small but very close-knit and interacting with them is one of the genuine highlights of my day. I didn’t really make it with mercenary intentions of selling books, but it has directly resulted in sales. Similarly, there are a handful of authors from Twitter and Wattpad that I’ve developed genuine friendships with, and we buy each other’s books and support one another. This whole community aspect is extremely rewarding and I’d do it whether or not it sold books, but it’s also not exactly easy to scale. I can only maintain genuine friendships with so many people. 

Posting in reading groups. The books that allow self-promo are so saturated with it that nobody pays any attention. The good groups do not allow self-promo, unless it’s in the form of getting down in the comments and recommending a book on a per-person basis to people looking for a specific thing, and only then if you’re not being spammy. Again, this is time-consuming. You could spend your entire life in these groups, hand-selling books to these people, and maybe picking up a few sales. They do seem like a good place to identify trends, though, so they’re good for market research if not direct selling. 

Things I Have Not Done, But Which I Suspect Would Sell Books 

Paid promotions. The golden ticket for book sales still seems to be landing a BookBub promo. If you’re unfamiliar, this is where you price your book at 99 cents or free and then pay bookbub to include it in their deals newsletter. Bookbub is very popular and moves a lot of copies. Ideally, you want to set it up so that your cheap book is the first in a series, and people snap that up and then come back to read the rest. This requires you to have written a series. Also bookbub is expensive because these are premium ads. We’re talking hundreds of dollars for one ad. There are other book promos that are cheaper but don’t have the same buy-through rate. 

Ads on facebook/amazon. I’m only dimly familiar with the ins and outs of these ads. They can be relatively cheap, but the amount of visibility they have is tied to your budget -- so the more you can spend on a campaign, the better your performance will be. 

Calling bookstores/libraries and asking them to order. I should do this. I have not done this purely because I am a coward. 

I am not certain what more I can do to promote my books without spending money. 

I understand the “spend money to make money” concept, but I also understand the “I have a limited budget and cannot spend it willy nilly on things that still might not actually pay off, especially considering how expensive self-publishing is when you want to do it right.” 

...This post ended up in a much more bitter place than I meant for it to. Sorry. I’ll check in if I remember additional points that could be successful strategies. 

[constructionfirm]

Best Ecommerce Product Videos: 16 Tips/Examples

If you have an ecommerce store and you’re looking to increase conversions, build your brand, or attract new customers, I have one word for you: videos. But you can’t just film your product willy-nilly, post the video, and expect big results. You need to build a marketing strategy for your ecommerce videos.

So let’s discuss why you should be using video, how to use it, and ways to improve the videos themselves.

Why Product Videos? The effectiveness and popularity of video really come down to just one thing. It’s easy. Watching a video is easier than reading a detailed product description. If you study trends, you’ll see that video use continues to increase every year. According to a study by emarketer.com, most adults watch about 5.5 hours of video a day.

It’s also usually faster to watch a video because a 30-second video conveys far more information than 30 seconds of reading. Remember the old saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words?” Well, a video is more like ten-thousand.

Search Engine Results There’s another very practical reason to use videos on your store site: Google plays favorites. Pages tend to rank higher in search results if they are a video or include video. Search Engine Watch reported that after Google updated its algorithm Panda, “YouTube was the biggest winner, according to Searchmetrics, as were a number of big brand video sites – Hulu, MTV, NBC, CBS, HBO and a number of others that contain a large amount of video content.”

So if you’re hoping ecommerce customers can search for you and find you, product videos are a must.

Product Videos Mean Higher Conversion Rates Here’s another statistic to consider: customers are 64-85% more likely to buy a product after watching a video (kissmetrics.com). That means you’ll see fewer abandoned carts if you utilize video on your product page.

To understand why video helps more customers pull the trigger, get into the mindset of your customer. Online shoppers have three main concerns according to a 2017 study by “big 4” audit firm KPMG. The first concern is that 56% of customers want to see or feel the product before purchasing. The second concern is that 55% want to try on the item. And the final most common concern is the product will look different in real life than in the online images (41%).

A Better Shopping Experience Those three concerns all center around what makes an ecommerce experience different than shopping in a physical store–the customer cannot see, hold, touch, or try the product before purchase. Product videos are the way customers do those things vicariously. For instance, instead of a still image of shorts against a white background, a video lets the customer see the shorts on a model from all angles–just like a shopper would do in a dressing room mirror. Retailer Old Navy uses video to bridge the gap between online shopping and brick and mortar shopping.

http://www.ccr-mag.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Old-Navy-Video-042418.mp4

And if you’ve noticed Old Navy ads, they are full of action–so the customer can see the product in motion. This lets customers imagine how the clothing would function on their bodies as they sit, work, walk, and even dance.

As ecommerce becomes more prevalent, the websites that will stand out from the rest are the ones that give customers the most thorough shopping experience. Think about shopping online ten years ago versus today. Ten years ago, some shopping sites didn’t even show the backs of products. Just one or two images were all a shopper saw. Today, customers expect to see all angles of a product, any color options (on the product–not just tiny swatches), and be able to zoom in on the picture to see details.

In the future, ecommerce customers will demand more product videos, and they will become as commonplace as still images are now.

Other Eccomerce Benefits of Video Hoping to reduce the number of product returns? Because product videos tell a more complete product story, customers know what to expect when the product arrives at their doorstep. You’ll have fewer returns and complaints as a result.

And speaking of having fewer complaints, a customer whose purchase is “as expected” is a happy customer. Those customers will trust you because they know you represent your products truthfully and they’ll buy from you again. That brand loyalty will lead to big gains in the future.

Creating A 30 Second Video Marketing Plan Now that I’ve revealed why video is so important to ecommerce, let’s discuss the ways you can use 30 seconds of video to attract new customers, build your brand, and nurture customer relationships.

Attract New Customers The first use of video is to attract new customers. With a limited budget, you’ll typically place videos on Facebook and Instagram. (With an unlimited budget, you can branch out into television).

Facebook and Instagram are both visual platforms, so video ads are especially successful there. Social media users are already programmed to click and watch the videos their friends share and post, so watching your video is a natural continuation of that same behavior. If your video is amazing, it may even get shared organically or go viral.

Blendtec hit product video gold with its “Will It Blend?” video series. When the company started up, its marketing budget was minimal. But as the story goes, one day Blendtec’s marketer saw the Blendtec inventor, Tom Dickson, chopping up various items in the blender to test its power. As soon as the marketer saw it, he knew he had his marketing strategy.

Sure enough, the videos went viral, and Blendtec became synonymous with power and durability in the minds of consumers. Here’s an example of Blendtec grinding 50 marbles into dust:

Ecommerce Videos and Social Media Even without going viral, videos on social media can attract many new customers to your product and store. Facebook uses pixel technology to gather information about your customers, following them from the first view to click through to purchase. The pixel then utilizes that data to better target potential customers. In other words, as you run ads, Facebook will narrow the target audience and show the video to the customers most likely to purchase–which means you’ll see a much better ROAS (return on ad spend).

But it’s important to know that it takes time for the Facebook pixel to optimize. There will be highs and lows before the pixel gets to know your ideal prospect and shows them your ads. Also, remember never to delete an ad account, or you’ll lose the pixel you spent time and money building up. Instead, pause any video ad campaigns that aren’t performing well.

Facebook offers a few tips for creating popular videos. Optimize your video for mobile viewing. As you can see from this graph, the number of Facebook subscribers who only access the platform from a mobile device is rapidly increasing.

Keep it short. Facebook suggests 15 seconds or less. I’ll discuss this in more detail in the tips section.

Add audio whenever possible but a Facebook video needs to work with the sound on or off because many viewers will see the video while in a location where the sound has to be muted. For instance, a prospect may watch your video ad while waiting in line at the bank, so if words are necessary, add captions.

All Facebook and Instagram ads must go through a review process before they are approved. To expedite the process, use the recommended size, design, and targeting requirements from the get-go. You can find specific information on Facebook’s and Instagram’s requirements here.

Making the Most of Social Media One of the most popular uses of social media is asking for recommendations. Subscribers want to know and understand the experiences others have had with a product or service–it’s more personal than a generic rating of 3.5 stars. So consider adding testimonials and customer reviews to your video ad campaigns on social platforms like Facebook.

One final note about videos on social media: even the best video is a wasted effort if you don’t include a call to action button. Call to action buttons are the small buttons that viewers can click to take action. The most common ones you’ll use are “Shop Now,” “Learn More,” or “Sign up.” You want your prospects to take action while your product is on their minds, so give them an easy way to do it with a one-click button. Even videos that are solely for nurturing the customer-company relationship (which we’ll examine next) should include a “Learn More” button.

Email Marketing and Videos Attracting new customers isn’t the only purpose of videos. They can also be used to nurture the relationship you have with your customers. So instead of product videos, these types of videos are more content based. For instance, if your product is a camping stove, you could send out a content video through email, with tips for making meals on the stove. You might even include recipes. However, in each video, you still get the opportunity to showcase the camping stove product.

A great example of this comes from the monthly subscription company Kiwi Co. This company sends out a box once a month to children. Inside the box is an activity for the child to do. In this example, the activity was to build a hydraulic claw. Although the activity instructions come included, users can find optional activity ideas by following a video link. Here’s the video tutorial subscribers see:

With a quick video, Kiwi Co has given additional value to subscribers by doubling the activities included in one box. This relationship nurturing leads to increased customer loyalty–an important aspect of your ecommerce marketing strategy. So remember that selling products isn’t the only purpose behind videos.

Another successful video strategy is to send a series of welcome videos through email. Take a look at this welcome email from subscription service ipsy:

The first thing you may notice is that the welcome video is much longer than the video length recommended by Facebook. That’s OK. Remember the purpose of your videos and how the viewers sees them, will help you determine the ideal length. With a welcome video sent through email–it would be strange to have a 15 second video. This video has quite a bit to cover, so the video comes in at three minutes.

In ipsy’s welcome, subscribers learn how to contact the company, what to expect in their first product bag, how to rate products, and how they can make more purchases at a discount.

With an ecommerce product, you can do the same thing. If the product is complicated, explain the product the customer. This type of video can dramatically reduce the number of customer service calls you receive.

Welcome videos can thank the customer for purchasing from you. You can even include a promo discount code for the next time the customer shops with you. This will help get the customer back into your ecommerce store faster.

You can even use video in your abandoned cart emails. If the customer got distracted from completing their purchase, a video reminding the customer of the benefits of the product could be just what he or she needs to return to your store and make the purchase. You may also consider sending a product video showing the product being used or worn. This can help the customer feel more comfortable about purchasing the product without handling it first.

Brand Building Videos The last way to use video is for brand building. Think about what your brand represents. If you aren’t clear on your ecommerce brand yet, you can find more information in this earlier post.

Brand building videos aren’t so much about selling a product as they are about selling your brand. Are you offering convenience? Value? A social conscience? Expertise? Whatever it is, a video can help you to get your message to the masses much better than a company mission statement buried on your website.

The clothing company Patagonia is very passionate about taking care of the earth–and those values line up perfectly with the values of their prospects. This video that explains their activism is a powerful call out to like-minded people to support their efforts. And it conveys the Patagonia brand forcefully.

16 Tips to Improve Your Ecommerce Videos Now that you have decided on the purpose of your video, or in other words, the role the video will play in your marketing strategy, it’s time to make the best darn video possible. The tips I’m going to reveal are for videos in general. But of course, there will be exceptions to every tip and some work better for certain types of videos than others. Use your wisdom and experience when considering what will be successful in your ecommerce business.

Lands’ End The first example I’ll use comes from clothing company Lands’ End. This video successfully incorporates five tips into 62 seconds of video.

Evoke Emotion A good video will make viewers feel something. And if you’re smart, there are three main emotions to go for: awe, laughter, and amusement. Why are these the most important emotions to focus on? Because according to a study by BuzzSumo, those three emotions were linked to the articles most frequently shared online. The number breakdown looks like this: awe (25%) laughter (17%) and amusement (15%) The Lands’ End video uses an amusing approach to demonstrate the benefits of its product. If you don’t feel like one of those three emotions could work for your product, here are the other emotions BuzzSumo linked to sharing and how they fared.

Show the Product in Use Another thing the Lands’ End video does well is showing the product in use. Show your customers why they should buy the product by demonstrating what it can do for them. In this example, a customer would wear the Land’s End jacket to stay dry–which the video demonstrates dramatically by dumping a bucket of water on the hood of the jacket. Make It Work With or Without Sound

The Lands’ End video uses a silly, light-hearted music track to convey the emotion of the video. The music accentuates the action and improves the video. However, the video’s main message comes across just as well when the video is silent.

This is a must. Sound can take your video to the next level, but it also has to work without any sound at all. Remember the customers who will be watching your videos on mute and strive to give them the best video experience they can have without any sound at all.

Show Don’t Tell

Without saying a word, viewers of the Lands’ End video know the jacket is designed to keep them (and their valuable electronics!) dry. It’s a design choice to keep the video simple and clutter-free from specs, like material and sizing.

In marketing, there’s a saying, “Don’t sell the steak–sell the sizzle,” (Elmer Wheeler). So when selling a product, you are selling the benefits of the product, not the products specifications. Typically, product specifications won’t have a place in your marketing videos, because the focus is demonstrating the benefits of the product. Most customers just want to know if the Lands’ End jacket will keep them dry. Place the specifications on the product page where customers can easily find them if they want to know more. The exception to this marketing rule is if your specifications make your product unique. For instance, if you sell a chair made from a sustainable wood that no one else is using, you may want to highlight that.

Show How You’re Better Product videos are the perfect way to show your product is better than your competitor’s product. This could be showing what makes you unique–like using a material or process no one else is using–or it could be showing how you are better. In the Lands’ End example, the test subject first puts on a regular jacket and gets soaked. The message is clear–if you were caught in a rain storm, which jacket would you rather be wearing?

BlenderBottle Let’s take a look at another video that’s done well. This video features the blender bottle, and its target audience is the health conscience.

Tell a Story Humans love stories, but the stories don’t need to be complicated, so don’t be intimidated. It can be as simple as a test subject trying out coats in a lab experiment, as in the Lands’ End example. Or in the BlenderBottle example, the story is about the work athletes put in to reach peak performance. The themes of working hard, the solo effort, and overcoming failure will resonate with most athletes.

Keep It Short Facebook says to top videos out at 15 seconds. But up to 30 seconds is a good rule of thumb. This BlenderBottle video is only 17 seconds. A video can be just as powerful and sometimes more so if it’s short. Trying to create a short video will also help you hone your message.

But if you look around, you’ll find plenty of successful exceptions to this rule. This is why you need to know the purpose of your video and your audience. Especially how-to videos and explainer videos often need to go over the 30-second mark. In those types of videos, viewers are looking for content and want more, not less.

Humanize The Video Yes, you are selling a product–but you’re selling your product to humans, so using them in your video is a good idea. We respond to other people having a good time. Plus, watching others use the product lets customers imagine using the product in their own lives. The BlenderBottle shows a man using the bottle as he practices his sport. This helps the viewer see how he or she could use BlenderBottle better than a video that shows the bottle alone–even with directions or specs.

Add a Beat Another thing the BlenderBottle video does well is playing upbeat music. Especially if your product will be used actively, like sports equipment or training gear, music with a good beat inspires people. Music and action go hand in hand.

Night Cable Here’s another product video with lots going for it.

Put the Product Front and Center Yes, you need to have a story, keep it short, and add music. But all of those things should add to the product–not distract from it. Always keep the product front and center in the viewer’s mind. If it’s not clear what you’re selling, you’ve wasted a significant amount of time and money.

Illustrate the Pain Customers have pain in their lives. In marketing, a pain is anything that causes a prospect unhappiness, worry, or discomfort. The pains could be small, like socks that are too slippery on hard surfaces. Or they could be more significant like the need for carbon monoxide detectors that save lives.

Most products are created because of prospect pain. And a smart marketer will emphasize the pain that their product reduces or eliminates.

That’s what the creator of NIght Cable has done with their video. What are some of the pain points of traditional charging cables? They slip, they’re hard to find, they’re too short, etc. So this video reminds the viewer of all of those problems, as well as demonstrating how their product solves them.

Use Different Locations Show the product being used in different locations, again so the viewer can imagine the product in his or her life more easily. The Night Cable is shown in bed, on a sofa, on a nightstand, and even outside.

5 Final Tips for the Best Product Launch Videos A few final tips to round out the others I provided. Google owns Y

[caveartfair]

Financial Advice for Artists from Four Experts

Photo by NeONBRAND.

When artist Christina Empedocles decided to pursue an MFA at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco, she signed up for expensive tuition payments and an uncertain financial future in one fell swoop. With that in mind, she began asking professors, advisors, and visiting artists what she thought was a straightforward question: “How did you make an art career work financially?”

To her surprise, satisfactory responses were in short supply.

“Nobody really wanted to answer [the question], period,” Empedocles said. “I thought, Why is this subject such a taboo?”

Empedocles, now based in San Francisco, graduated in 2008 in the midst of the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression, still without a good idea of how to support herself, and her art practice. She knew chances of selling work right out of school were slim. How could she make money without sacrificing her practice? What jobs would allow her enough flexibility and time to make art? And when she did begin to sell work, how should she spend that income?

With her informal survey unanswered, she took matters into her own hands. “I decided that I was going to learn everything I could about money,” she recalled. “Pretty much right after I graduated, I started taking classes about personal finance.”

Today, Empedocles splits her time between making art and working as a certified financial planner, with a focus on guiding people in creative industries. She is one of a number of arts professionals and advisors across the country who have devoted their careers to helping artists better manage their careers and finances, with an eye toward sustaining their art practices.

Artsy spoke to four of them about their strategies for how artists should budget and spend; temper the volatility of multiple and inconsistent income streams; navigate student loan debt; and invest in their practices and career goals.

Be mindful of your expenses

Successfully managing an artist’s finances (or anyone’s) begins with outlining living and working expenses: How much money do you need to live and make your art?

Adding up monthly costs—apartment and, if applicable, studio rent, utilities, credit card and student loan payments, as well as food, art supplies, and other additional necessities or activities (insurance, entertainment, travel, etc.)—allows artists to understand how much money they need to amass in order to fund their basic needs and, simultaneously, their practice. It also helps prioritize payments, identify unnecessary expenses, and free up more money to devote to materials and studio costs.

“The artists who I know who’ve been able to maintain financial stability are mindful of their needs, their costs, and understand what their budget has to be as far as laying out their expenses,” said Sharon Louden, an artist, educator, and author of Living and Sustaining a Creative Life.

Create a budget

With these elements down on paper, design a budget. Don’t be daunted by the term—it’s simply a way of strategically organizing the spending you already do, allowing you to spend smarter.

“Budgets help you identify all the things you need to do with your money,” said Empedocles. “When your money doesn’t have a job and you’re just spending willy nilly on the things that come up on a day-to-day basis, you might find at the end of the month that you didn’t pay that credit card off or you didn’t get your electric bill paid.”

Empedocles also emphasized the importance of a budget for navigating an artist’s fluctuating income, and planning for periods when money isn’t coming in. “It’s very easy to pay all of your bills on that one month out of six when you make a big chunk of money,” she said. “And it’s also super easy to spend the rest and forget that there will be months in the future that aren’t as lucrative.” To temper this inconsistency, Empedocles recommends immediately setting aside living expenses for the next several months, before spending on extras.

For recurring expenses that aren’t going away, like rent, utilities, student loans, and the like, total them up (so you know what you have to have set aside) and set them up on recurring and automatic payments through your bank or credit card. That way you’re budgeting without even thinking about it.

McLean Emenegger, founder of McLean Art Projects, a company offering professional practice guidance to artists, recommends a series of tools that can make budgeting easier, and less time consuming for artists. She advises to begin early and simply: “Start with an Excel spreadsheet. On it, account for what you spend, how much you’re selling work for.” There are also a wealth of free apps that advertise easy budgeting set up and spending tracking, such as BillGuard, Dollarbird, Fudget, and more. Mint illustrates how close you are to overspending with gorgeous infographics that aesthetes will appreciate.

Set goals

Budgeting, according to both Empedocles and Emenegger, is made less arduous and more effective by setting goals. “A budget is not going to work at all without a set of clearly defined goals, because your goals will inspire you to do incredible things that you never thought you were able to accomplish,” says Empedocles. “Once you define your goals, or what you’re trying to save for, you want to put that money away—you want to rein in your spending on stuff that’s not as necessary.”

Emenegger noted that setting career and monetary goals will help define your budget, and funnel money towards the aspects of your life and art career that matter most to you. “Be specific about what your overhead is, what your goals are, and how you’re going to reach them,” she says. “Because if you say you want to make $5,000, well, that’s a nifty amount of money, but how are you going to do that? What will that money go towards? How will it help you reach your goals?” In other words, have a plan for your money so that when you make it, you’ll have a clear idea of how to spend it in a way that furthers your life and professional goals.

Pay down your debts

Wendi Norris, a gallerist with a background in business, works with a group of artists who often use her as a sounding board. If and when they ask her for advice on how to spend the money from art sales, she advises paying down student loans and credit card debt first. “The burden of student loans is so toxic that some people ignore it thinking it will go away, when in fact it won’t,” she said. America’s student debt tab is set to top a trillion dollars this year, and artists have it worse than most: A 2013 Wall Street Journal analysis found that the top three schools with the most student debt load, out of almost 4,000 institutions, were art, music, and design schools.

This past year, when Norris sold work by one of her artists, she immediately paid down that artist’s debt. “When I called her and told her she no longer had debt, she basically dropped her phone in her studio,” she said. “It was just eating away at her.”

Start saving—for both the near future, and the far

After an artist clears their debt, Norris encourages them to begin saving money in different ways. “If you can, you want to have a six-month minimum build-up of savings. That’s just personal finance 101,” she said. Empedocles added for artists, this is especially important, given the inevitable slow periods in an artist’s life between jobs, art sales, or exhibitions. The savings fund, she said, is “a barrier from you going into debt.”

Empedocles also emphasizes the value in saving for the future—whether for long-term goals, or for retirement. “A lot of artists think, ‘I don’t have any money. There’s no purpose in even trying to start saving,’” she explains. “But even small amounts saved on a regular basis, as a habit, can be very powerful over time.” In particular, she recommends establishing a Roth IRA, or a highly diversified retirement account, which invests your money—even amounts as small as $10—so that it will grow over time. On her blog, Empedocles describes the account as “one of the most powerful tools regular people have to get ahead.”

Norris recommends another security guarantee for an artist’s future and legacy: “When I see an amazing body of work come together, even if I know I have a great collector for it, I am insistent that my artists keep one work for themselves. That is their retirement plan.” Norris gleaned this advice from her work with the late Surrealist masters Dorothea Tanning and Leonora Carrington. Tanning, in particular, kept some of her best works for herself, selling some and earmarking others for specific foundations and museums. “It was brilliant, really, because it’s proving to preserve her legacy,” Norris said.

Jennifer Schwartz, Founder/Director of Crusade for Art, 2013. E. Brady Robinson Addison/Ripley Fine Art

An ancillary income or side job can provide stability—but choose wisely

Most artists aren’t able to support their lives on art sales alone, and even established artists have slow sales periods, or encounter moments when they need more money than art sales provide. Another way to counterbalance the volatility of an artist’s finances is to establish multiple income streams. “When your main source of income—say, your creative practice—has a natural cycle to it, perhaps your side gig has a different cycle,” Empedocles notes. “Those two things can balance each other out, so that you can smooth out the volatility a bit—even a lot.”

Alternate income streams can come in many shapes and sizes. Emenegger suggests pursuing a job that aligns with the world you want to be in—in this case, art. “There’s so much opportunity out there to learn about your practice, to learn about the art world, to seize a networking opportunity—and to simultaneously make money,” she said.

In her advisory sessions with artists, she’s recommended securing teaching positions (whether full-time or part-time) within an artist’s medium of choice, or becoming a studio assistant to a more well-known artist—“anything that can help develop the skills, the language, the networking and mentorship opportunities that can also help support their careers,” she continues.

Empedocles adds that side jobs should pay their keep, while simultaneously allowing for time to pursue a practice. “If your side job doesn’t pay you enough to support yourself and your art practice, that side job is working against you,” she explains.

She’s seen artists successfully take on part-time gigs as virtual assistant, using skills they’ve developed to advance their own careers on behalf of others, such as designing Squarespace sites, managing social media strategy (particularly Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter), using Wordpress, or creating marketing assets using their design skills—and, what she calls “the secret sauce”: connecting these tools effectively. “For example, instead of just knowing how to send an email newsletter through Mailchimp, they’re able to put up a blog for their clients, help with image assets, share posts in targeted Facebook groups, which attracts a specific audience whose email addresses are collected into Mailchimp,” she said. She also noted that teaching online courses through established platforms like Skillshare, or courses outside of college or university degree programs, through Airbnb Experiences, for instance, can bolster an artist’s financial stability.

Norris has also observed her artists, who normally support themselves through art sales, also take on teaching gigs, collaborations with design studios, or public art commissions. She described them not just as side hustles but terrific opportunities for artists to get outside of the studio and into new, potentially inspiring contexts. “After a point of working in the studio day in and day out, the law of diminishing returns kicks in,” she said. “Many artists need to free their mind up, and doing other work can be a good way of accomplishing that.”

Advocate for yourself; i.e. don’t forget your artist’s fee

When you do take on a commission, or schedule a show with a gallery, don’t be afraid to advocate for yourself. “Number one, if you have a commission or public art project or something similar, make sure you put aside at least 10 percent for yourself in the budget,” said Louden. “So many artists forget to take care of themselves and put everything back into the work. Take at least a 10 percent artist fee—and make sure that’s clear in the budget.”

If you secure a gallery or representation, Louden also emphasizes the importance of having frank conversations about finances before sales are made. “Make sure you’re part of a conversation, tell them what you need, and don’t be shy about it,” she said. “The artists who I’ve discussed this with first ask the gallery what they can do as a team member—after all, it’s a business partnership. Then they lay out the things that they’d like to steer the sales towards.”

Apply for grants and awards—but be smart about it

Grants and awards can also help navigate slow sales periods, or fund an aspect of your practice or special project. But be aware of the time and effort it will take to apply, and the breadth of grants that are available. Don’t just apply to the most visible, competitive grants.

“There are actually a lot of other under-the-radar opportunities out there,” said Louden. “You’ll need to invest some time and research to find these more accessible opportunities, but it might save you from wasting time over many, many years to apply to the grants that everyone else is applying to.”

Emenegger said to find grants that match your career phase and type of work, such as a grant or residency aimed at supporting emerging artists, like the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s residency program, for newer artists. Grants and awards support a wide range of niches, from artistic medium to an artist’s cultural background or ethnicity, so find the one that’s right for you.

There are some resources that aggregate grant opportunities. Empedocles, for instance, has done much of the work for you by compiling a list of over 40 grants and awards on her blog. She’s also included sign-up list that delivers updates via email as new opportunities are added. Cranbrook Academy of Art has also compiled a comprehensive list, organized by niche and region, as has New Blood Art, with a focus on opportunities available to emerging artists.

You’re part of a community: Help and be helped

Louden advises artists to find their own opportunities, and suggests crowdsourcing amongst peers.  

“Other people have different experiences and information than you do, so use your community. It’s much harder when you’re operating on an island,” Louden said. “It can be as simple as getting a group of artists together once a week or month to share opportunities, like an inexpensive studio, a grant, or tactics for money saving.”

Artists can help each other “open doors that we don’t even know are even there,” said Empedocles. She administers a public Facebook group called “Artists Making Dollars and Sense,” as part of her financial advisory, Insight Personal Finance. The group doubles as an open forum for artists to ask questions and share opportunities related to their finances, on which Empedocles or other group members can weigh in.

“I always tell artists: Look at your resources, look at who you know, who can you trade with. There is no end of resources out there for you to support you, to answer your questions, to lend advice,”  Emenegger said. “You should never feel bereft, there’s plenty of support out there. It’s hard, but it’s not impossible. It just takes planning.”

—Alexxa Gotthardt

from Artsy News