Since I started selling my art on Zazzle and Spoonflower, I have realized that being social is a necessity to get my work seen and perhaps make one sale. And since then I’ve been on steep learning curve as to what marketing means to an artist.
Many think that selling your photography or artwork on a POD site (print on demand website) is a simple and quick way to make money from your creative efforts. But it’s anything but quick, simple and by no means easy.
Starting out I expected to spend majority of my time creating the art, followed by creating designs for POD sites from said art and finally promoting. But the reality has been in fact the reverse. I have at times spend majority of my time networking or socializing, followed by designing for the POD sites, and then some artwork. Which may not sound like a big deal, except for me it matters as my time in the to create is already short. But I still do it anyway. I do it because because without networking and socializing nobody would see my art, or my blog. Let alone my art of the POD sites. Often I do it religiously, sometimes I take a break for a couple of days, or more. I follow advice I have been given. And I try all the social media networking/marketing advice I find. Post regularly and I try to not go a huge amount of time between blog posts (which is hard because I don’t like posting till I’ve completed a project which may be more than one piece in my mind when I start out. But through all of that I sometimes…….Actually quite often find myself looking at the screen like this.
And wondering Do you see me?
You see for the most part, the only time I can see someone has read my blog, or liked my work, and designs is if they tell me. Be it through a simple like or comment, even an email, or a simple mention, share on their profiles and pages, or re-tweet. Without those I can’t tell what you think or if you have even read what I have written. Yes I have statistics for this website…but they are very vague. It doesn’t say if you liked something….sometimes it’s hard to distinguish between the visits from genuine folks and the bots or spammers with their dubious shoe sales. So often when I publish new posts and network on all the different social sites, I sometimes wonder if anyone sees me? Sometimes it feels like I am talking into the massive abyss that is the world wide web. The proverbial tree in an internet forest. If I post something and no-one is there to read it, does it make an impact of any kind?
I create to be creative as it is what I love. And I also wish to show S that you can still try to do something that makes you happy even if its not a nine to five that’s guaranteed to make a living. So I wont stop doing so, because I cannot see who’s listening to me. And I wont stop sharing in case someone is.
So I shall just have to continue to be inspired and create. And I shall continue to share.
And I shall probably also still often find myself staring at the computer screen,
still like this looking for that spec of encouragement.
Still wondering are you out there? Can you see me?
Multi-color Barn Owls Print Bath Set by InspiredMeStudio
Look at more Barn owl Toothbrush Holder and Soap Dispenser Set at zazzle