“It’s five times more expensive to sell to a new customer than it is to sell to an existing one.” We’ve all heard the cliché hundreds of times, right? And yet, most entrepreneurs would rather spend time and money chasing after new customers. Getting us to focus on conversion and follow-up and selling to current […]
Is Your Art Business Goal Oriented?
March 8, 2015 by 1 Comment
What are your goals for your art business this year? Did you break them down into quarterly, monthly, weekly, even daily milestones? If not, why? How will you know you’re on track if you don’t have a way to measure your progress — even an informal method? I don’t bring this up to make you […]
Of Artists and Alchemy
July 24, 2014 by 3 Comments
Listen up, because I’m about to explain one of the most critical, most fundamentally misunderstood realities of economics. This simple truth could change the way you see everything. The essential reality is that making art and creating a successful art business is alchemy. Remember the alchemists from the middle ages? They sought a formula to […]
Artists and the Right Brain Connection
July 23, 2014 by Leave a Comment
I was consulting with a client, Michael, recently and he made this comment… “Gary, I’ve been applying the Smart Art Marketing Pro principles to my life and business for the last year or so, and now I have a very odd problem. I don’t know what to do with all of my free time. Tell […]
Starting a Successful Art Blog – You Only Get to Keep What You Give Away
February 4, 2013 by 11 Comments
Have you ever thought about what was at the heart of a successful art blog? Have you ever wondered about the real essence of an art blog, what are the guiding and underlying principles that will make it a true success? A lot of artists out there trying to start up their art blog and […]
Artists – Let Your Life Speak
October 19, 2012 by 4 Comments
“Preach the gospel at all times. If necessary, use words.” – Francis of Assisi There is an old story about Quaker relief workers in Europe after World War II. After receiving help from the workers, a refugee asked what Quakers believe. When a few of the Quakers explained that they believed helping people with their […]
Become a Happy Habit for Your Readers
August 20, 2012 by 2 Comments
Would you like to get and keep more art blog readers? Have you ever been too busy to do good follow-up? Ever had health problems, or family emergencies, or just times when you were too busy to keep everything going the way you wanted to? Has your project ever suffered because you were too busy […]
Why Some Artists Will Almost Certainly Prosper in the New Economy
August 13, 2012 by 38 Comments
“Come, my friends, ‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world.” – Tennyson There is revolution in the air. Unless you have spent the last few months or so on Mars you can’t have missed the restless loss of direction of the western world as it has struggled to make sense of the momentous […]
How Small Steady Actions Move Us Forward to Our Artistic Goals
August 1, 2012 by 4 Comments
“Do not be afraid of moving slowly. Be only afraid of standing still.” – Chinese Proverb Have you ever thought about the importance of the small, steady actions you take every day toward your artistic goals? You can’t imagine how important these really are. Most of us have a very distorted notion of how things […]
Going Through: Surviving the Swamplands of the Artistic Journey
July 23, 2012 by 10 Comments
“Truth is always on the side of the more difficult.” – Friedrich Nietzche Not too far from the small town where I grew up in northwest Louisiana, there is a long stretch of swamplands called, graphically enough, “Black Lake Swamp.” There is a paved highway with bridges that runs right through the heart of the […]
