So You Want to Be an Artist?

by Early To Rise (08/27/2007)

Issue #2131

  • WEALTHY: A common retirement dream that probably won’t turn out the way you’re hoping (Michael Masterson)
  • HEALTHY: Strengthen your entire body with 3 short workouts a week (Craig Ballantyne)
  • WISE: Pablo Picasso on art

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

  • Tips for creating eye-catching business cards (Suzanne Richardson)
  • 2 things that effective leaders know how to do
  • It’s Good to Know… about Google
  • Add "comport" to your vocabulary

== Highly Recommended ==

He’d Have Called Them Crazy - Or Worse!

With the Internet, it’s now possible to spend no more than a few dollars, write a couple of very basic ads, and have instant access to millions of potential customers all in a matter of minutes.

If anyone had told Jim Sheridan he could bank thousands in just 24 hours… without any product of his own… without spending a penny on getting it or promoting it, he’d have justifiably said they were  nuts.

But Jim made a decision that he would overcome his skeptical nature and give it a go. Boy, is he glad he did! That one deal alone banked him $187,296 in one day.

Take a look at how Jim brought in over $187,000 in a single day!

- Patrick Coffey

"Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life."

Pablo Picasso

So You Want to Be an Artist?

By Michael Masterson

I got a nice letter from LB, a 78-year-old man from Pacific Palisades, CA who spent most of his career working in film and video production, with many excellent credits. In more recent years, he took up digital still photography and has gotten positive comments about his work from "many high-level critics."

LB’s goal is to "get in front of the public" and sell some of his prints - and he is looking for advice on how to market them. He says that one of his "chief selling points" is that he’s willing to restrict the number of prints to no more than 50 of each. He says he will sign and number each photograph so that in the near future (considering his age and the fact that he doesn’t expect to be doing this much longer) "these pictures will have value as a collectible."

As he says, "Stranger things have happened."

LB’s interest in making a twilight career with art is a common one. So what I’m about to say is not directed specifically at LB (because his letter shows that he understands some of this) but to anyone who, like him, is thinking about making art (painting, drawing, sculpture, mixed media) work as a retirement profession.

Artwork is the kind of product that is valued subjectively. A limited-edition print from someone nobody’s ever heard of is worth very little. Almost nothing, in fact.

Think of it this way. You are a retailer of prints in a busy city or tourist town. (There are very few retail locations where prints can be profitably sold.) A photographer walks into your office and offers to sell his prints to you. He tells you he has been a professional photographer for 40 years and is willing to limit the editions of his photos to 50 each. He is 78, etc. And you like his photos. They have good eye appeal. How much do you offer to pay him?

The answer: probably nothing at all. Because yesterday, four people came by with reasonably good photos that they were happy to give away in exchange for a very small commission just so they could make a name for themselves. One of them, a wealthy woman for whom photography is a hobby, told you she would pay you to carry her photos. Her objective is to be able to say at cocktail parties that her photos can be seen in your shop.

You see the problem.

When it comes to retirement fantasies, Americans have two: Unimaginative but hardworking executives and entrepreneurs want to wile away their later years on the golf course. Less well-heeled and more creative sorts want to enjoy a second income by creating and selling art objects that display their experience and sensitivity.

Having recently taken up golf, I think I understand both instincts. I have twice retired, and twice tried to make a living as an artist. But I’ve given up on this aspiration now and have a different plan. Making money, if I want to, as a businessman… and making art, when I want to, simply because it gives me pleasure.

But that’s my plan. Let’s talk about LB’s situation.

The problem he’s facing is a problem of supply and demand. Because his dream is so common, he is competing against tens of thousands of capable and/or talented people who are doing the same thing. Not just inexperienced amateurs but people who, like LB, have years of experience.

I have no doubt that LB’s photography is better than most because it is technically sophisticated and reflects his great experience looking at life through a lens. Unfortunately, the number of people who can appreciate it are few. The "high-level critics" he mentioned are among them. But LB won’t make much money selling his photos to them. To accomplish that goal, he will have to sell to the public. And the typical art buyer is a boorish Philistine who buys pretty or cool things to hang on the wall - a person who makes purchases mostly when he is on vacation. He doesn’t know anything about signed limited editions and doesn’t care about them.

The bottom line: LB’s photography, however good it is, has little or no commercial value.

Commercial value for commodity art is created almost entirely by the art broker. Because he creates that value, and can recreate it over and over again, he feels - somewhat justifiably - that he should get the lion’s share of the profits.

LB says he’s willing to offer a "reasonable commission" to anyone who can sell his art. I’m guessing he means something in the neighborhood of 20 percent. But it is the broker of commodity art, not the artist, who deserves the 80 percent.

Could LB live with that? Could you? That’s the question.

When I was in the business of selling art, I’d drive an even harder bargain. I’d insist on 80 percent in the beginning - but I’d also insist on a 20-year contract. That’s because once the artist’s work became well known, its commercial value would no longer be entirely dependent on me. Once his name got around, there would be a secondary market for his work - i.e., he’d be able to sell it to other commercial brokers or through auctions - and I would feel cheated if I didn’t get my 80 percent of those transactions.

I realize I sound like a greedy sonofabitch. Nevertheless, I’m telling you what is fair with this kind of transaction. If you are thinking about becoming an artist and having other people sell your art, you must be willing to pay what they, not you, think is a reasonable commission.

If LB agrees with me and decides, "Okay, I’ll take 20 percent and be happy," he still would have a big problem. His expectations would be reasonable, but he’d have a hard time finding someone to sell his prints because there is such an imbalance in the market between supply and demand.

For every photo that is commercially sold, there must be at least ten thousand sitting around waiting to be bought. I don’t think I’m exaggerating.

So what can LB do?

He has a choice. He can visit every retail vendor of photography and try to make a 20 percent deal - a very expensive and very unlikely path - or he can become his own broker and market his photos locally and/or through the Internet.

Locally, he can sell them at flea markets and traveling art shows. He won’t make a lot of money doing that at first, but he’ll make some - and he’ll develop a mailing list of customers who should be happy to buy from him on an ongoing basis. If he keeps at it for four or five years and garners a few thousand first-time buyers, he could easily be making $50,000 a year by intelligently marketing to them.

I’ve always been amazed at how ignorant flea-market and art-show vendors are about business. They go to so much trouble and invest so much money into getting their products to the market - and then when they do get customers, they sell them one time and then forget about them.

Selling someone at a flea market or art show is a considerable accomplishment. It takes personal interaction and a pretty high level of interest on the customer’s part. Turning that kind of a buyer into a productive, long-term customer would be relatively easy. (You can find out exactly how to do it by buying a copy of my new book Ready, Fire, Aim when John Wiley publishes it in January and reading what I say about back-end marketing.)

Besides direct selling, LB could get into direct-response marketing by setting up an Internet business to sell his art. Again, this is a subject that is way too big to talk about in detail here - but these are the highlights:

  • He should set up a website, but he should keep it simple and not spend too much time and money on it.
  • He should invest the majority of his marketing time in going out to other websites and e-mail lists and promoting his name and his artwork.
  • He should promote his name first by teaching people about photography - how to appreciate it, what separates good photos from bad, etc. There are plenty of places where he can plant his advice for free. He should encourage people to respond to his articles, and then add their names to his mailing list.
  • He should create two e-mail services - one that teaches people how to appreciate photo art, using his own photos as illustrations, and another that goes directly to people who have purchased or expressed interest in his work. In this second service, he would talk about his art, the projects he is working on, and his next limited editions.

LB might not want to do this kind of work. He might see it as boring or arduous or too commercial. Lots of artists I know feel that way. They place great value on the work they do (creating the art) and little value on the work brokers do (creating commercial value for it).

In truth, the broker is as much an artist as is the producer of the artwork. His art is just as much about transformation and magic and imagination. The only real difference between the two is the end object. The artist’s aim is to create a material object that has little or no commercial value until it becomes a brand. The broker’s aim is to take something that has little or no commercial value and transform it into something that does.

Today, in the age of scientific direct marketing and the Internet, you have the unprecedented opportunity to become twice the artist you are. First by producing your art… and then by selling it.

[Ed. Note: Get Michael Masterson's insights into becoming successful in your business and personal life, achieving financial independence, and accomplishing all your goals on his brand-new website. You'll find updates on all of Michael's books, news on upcoming ETR events, Michael's blog, and room to send in your comments and questions. Check it out today.]

== Highly Recommended ==

Wanted: Investors Who Want to Grow Rich the "Lazy" Way

It doesn’t take a lot of time. You don’t need a lot of money to get started. It doesn’t require a lot of work. Best of all, the returns you’ll pocket will shock you (how does 724% sound?).

Get all the facts right now here.

If You Must Have Business Cards…

By Suzanne Richardson

As an ETR reader, you probably already know how Michael Masterson feels about business cards: They’re usually unnecessary. "At least half of the top businesspeople I know never have business cards with them," Michael says. "They exchange numbers on the back of cocktail napkins."

Michael suggests that you buy business cards only if and when you actually need them. And that time may never come. "I run and/or own at least a half-dozen multimillion-dollar businesses and have neither a card nor stationery for any of them," he says.

If you feel the need to print up business cards - if, for example, you’re going to a lot of networking events and/or industry conferences and you’re uncomfortable being there empty-handed - here are some guidelines to help you design the best ones possible:

  • Less is more. Make the card as simple as possible: Your name in caps, top and center. And below that, in upper/lower-case letters, your contact information.
  • The card stock should be white or beige on moderate-to-excellent stock, depending on the image you want to project for your business. (It should be consistent. High quality isn’t always better.)
  • The card should look appropriate to your trade. "If you are a rock star, you can choose an ornate type," says Michael. "But if you’re a graphic artist, choose something dignified."

[Ed. Note: Michael Masterson and his team of business-building and marketing experts will be revealing their strategies for getting a brand-new business off the ground... and making an existing business grow like crazy. Reserve your spot at this fall's Info Marketing Bootcamp- Making a Fast Fortune on the "Other Side" of the Internet - today.]

Circuit Training for Your Heart

By Craig Ballantyne

For years, we’ve been telling ETR readers that aerobic training is not the best way to improve cardiovascular fitness. Instead, you want to use interval training, bodyweight training, and now, based on a new study, circuit weight training.

In a comparison of circuit weight training and cardiovascular exercise, Brazilian researchers assigned subjects to a 12-week training program. One group served as an inactive control group, a second group performed aerobic exercise three times per week (35 minutes at 70 percent of maximal heart rate), and a third group did circuit training three days per week (lifting at 60 percent of their one-repetition maximum for a series of exercises for 35 minutes).

The results showed a similar improvement in peak aerobic exercise performance for both training groups. Surprisingly, the aerobic training group did not outperform the lifting group. Both groups improved lower-body strength, but only the circuit training group got stronger in the upper body.

This study is a pleasant surprise for men and women who want to strengthen their entire body and improve their aerobic fitness in only three short workouts per week. You don’t have to do slow, boring cardio.

For maximum results in minimum time, perform multi-muscle resistance exercises (such as squats, push-ups, and rowing exercises) at a moderate intensity with minimal rest between exercises. You can see a video of circuit training in action here. ]

(Source: British Journal of Sports Medicine)

[Ed. Note: Craig Ballantyne, expert consultant for Men's Health magazine and the creator of Turbulence Training for Fat Loss, is a contributing writer for ETR's brand-new weekly natural health e-letter. Sign up today for practical strategies and real-world scientific discoveries that can help you melt off the pounds, pack on muscle, and eliminate the underlying causes of disease.]

Worth Quoting: Peter Drucker on Effective Leadership

"Leaders communicate in the sense that people around them know what they are trying to do. They are purpose driven - yes, mission driven. They know how to establish a mission. And another thing, they know how to say no. The pressure on leaders to do 984 different things is unbearable, so the effective ones learn how to say no and stick with it. They don’t suffocate themselves as a result. Too many leaders try to do a little bit of 25 things and get nothing done. They are very popular because they always say yes. But they get nothing done."

(Source: Forbes)

It’s Good to Know: Use Google to Search Individual Websites

No doubt you use Google all the time to search the vast World Wide Web. But you can also use Google to search through the content of a website of your choosing. Use the following formula in the Google search box: [search term] site:[website address]. For example, typing in Florida site:cnn.com will return all the mentions of Florida on the CNN website. And you aren’t limited to one search term. By setting off words by a comma like so - Florida, Miami, beach site:cnn.com - you can search for multiple terms at the same time.

(Source: Google)

== Highly Recommended ==

The Ideal Vehicle For Getting Wealthy In The 21st Century?

Today you have a rare and exciting opportunity to take advantage of one of the largest industries on earth. And it is - most experts agree - the one that has the greatest growth potential.

I am referring to the Information Publishing industry.

Now don’t be intimidated by that phrase. You won’t need a printing press, typesetting equipment or even employees.

Information Publishing is simply about marketing products based on ideas (e-letters, teleconferences, special reports, etc) instead of hard goods (flowers, jewelry, computers, etc). And now, with the explosion of the Internet, it has the lowest production costs of any industry in today’s world.

Because of that low cost-of-entry and growth potential, it is the ideal vehicle for getting wealthy in the 21st century. Whether you intend to make your fortune on your own (as an entrepreneur) or within the context of a corporate environment (as an intrapreneur), taking advantage of these forces is the best and easiest way to achieve fast success and acquire great wealth.

Come to ETR’s October Bootcamp and we’ll show you how to build your own Information Publishing company that could make from $1 million to $100 million a year. (Register today and get a bonus “start-up kit” worth up to $5,000.)

- Patrick Coffey

Word to the Wise: Comport

To "comport" (kum-PORT) - from the Latin for "carry/bring together" - is to conduct or behave oneself in a particular manner.

Example (as used used by Sarah Lyall in The New York Times): "Considered friendly and funny in private, [Queen Elizabeth] has a formal, remote air in public that some people attribute to shyness and others say is a reflection of her belief that, as monarch, she should comport herself with dignity and restraint."

[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker ... build your self-confidence and intellect ... increase your attractiveness to others ... just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR's new Words to the Wise CD Library.]

Michael Masterson
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2007

Similar Articles:


Posted to Daily Issues

Did you especially enjoy this issue of ETR? Why not share it with the world?
with a friend…

Return to the newsletter directory

No comments yet… Be the first.

Leave a reply: