Experimenting with ways to get exposure to my artwork….

Hello my massive amount of people who read this blog…….Ok, I think the most readers I’ve had on one day is about 21.  So since you’re reading this you should feel special.  You are one of the chosen few who found an interest in my artwork.   Ahem, alright back to the subject of the post.  I decided to give submitting to an Etsy Showcase another shot.  I’m experimenting with different ways to get people exposed to my artwork, and thought I’d pay the fee to get included in today’s “Art:Painting Showcase” on Etsy.com.

I’m really trying to figure out how I can sell my artwork online.  I recently listened to an interview between Ramit Sethi and J.D.Roth who are both people who write about personal finance.  They were talking about how they started off their sites and how long it took them to develop an audience.  They also talked about when they started to monetize their sites and how.  They both agreed on the importance of writing good content, which will then attract traffic.

So I started thinking to myself about what this blog is to me and what it is I’m trying to do with it.  It started out as a way for me to document a new painting style I began to develop, which I started calling “Meditation Paintings”.  And along the way over the past 10 months or so, I’ve included other elements of several creative endeavors.  This blog is both for me as a place of reference, and also a way for me to share my creative life with others.  Right now there are links on the right-hand side that direct you to places to buy prints and original works of art, and also a link to some of my music.  But so far, the traffic has been very low.  Which in one hand is fine, I didn’t go into expecting to draw a large audience.  Though, now I’m wanting to share my creative projects with more people.  I want this blog to help me get more recognition in the art world.  In my “Time-Lapse Painting Videos“, I put a advertisement for my blog and sites that sell my art in at the end of each video.  And I try and hand out business cards that have the blog’s address on them.  And there are a few people who have found me from searching WordPress.  In keeping with the idea that we can’t control the outcome of our actions, I can find peace with the fact that I put in a lot of time posting work on different sites, and trying to get my name out.  This past year alone has seen me create and share more artwork than possibly any year of my life.

I’m just trying to reach out and say, “hello, how does one get their art recognized online?”

Coming back to mentioning the personal finance gurus, I brought it up because they were writing about, well, personal finance, which all of us are interested in to some degree and need information on it to help us better understand our situations.  So if I were to want to find out about personal finance, I would come to find their blogs.  So how do I shape my blog so that people find it.  Not that I’m going to stop documenting my creative endeavors, but I think I need to start writing about my personal journey on becoming a professional artist.  And the questions that come up on a daily basis.  So this showcase I put my art in today cost me a whopping $7.  It’s the second time I’ve put my stuff in there.  So far it’s created a bit more traffic, but still no purchases.  Too high a price, not the right format (meaning, should I just be selling prints on Etsy?).  Anywho, that’s my post today.  Hope your day is going well.  Now back to that illustration I’m working on of a guy in a canoe going down a blueberry river…….

So, take a look around and let me know what you think.  Here’s a link to : my Etsy shop.