There are 5 big obstacles that all artist entrepreneurs encounter while building and growing a business.

I'm sure you have faced them yourself at some point and have struggled to overcome them.

But these obstacles are not of a tactical or strategic nature. They are really more a mindset problem.

However, there are ways to overcome them and the solutions are simpler than you might think.

• In part one of this crash course we set our One Big Goal
• in part two we made it measurable and asked ourselves 5 questions to make sure we were headed in the right direction in the year ahead.
• in part three we broke our one goal down into actionable to-do items we can follow step-by-step in the upcoming twelve months.

For this very first episode of the Creative Web Biz Show and the last part of the How To Set & Achieve Your Art Biz Goals Without Overwhelm crash course, I interviewed my friend Kathryn Brown from CreatingYourPlan.com.

She is an artist and works with creative entrepreneurs to help them make simple adjustments to their daily habits so they can increase their productivity and get the work-life balance they deserve.
 

 

The 5 biggest obstacles artists encounter while building and growing their businesses:

I invited Kathryn to the CWB Show because I knew she has the answers and solutions to the following problems:

• feeling stressed out by your never ending to-do list

• being paralyzed by indecision and unable to take action because you don't know what to do next

• bouncing from one great idea to the other

• generally feeling stressed out, overwhelmed and not sure if you are on the right path

• feeling like a failure and ready to give up

Sound familiar? Listen to the interview to finally get past these obstacles once and for all:

Where to find and contact Kathryn: CreatingYourPlan.com

Recommended blog post: The Weekly Download 

Favorite Book: How to Be an Explorer of the World by Keri Smith

Action Task

Overwhelm and stress can clutter up your brain and make you feel unfocused and scattered. To free up your mind and give you more focus, do this little exercise daily (or at least weekly):

Get your notebook or Evernote out, put a date on top of a new page/note and write down everything that is on your mind. Don't stop writing, keep going until you really can't think of anything anymore.

(Personally, I like to use an app called WriteOrDie for this exercise. I set the timer to 35 minutes and write a minimum of 1000 words. This way I make sure I don't think about what I write but just keep going until the timer goes off.)

What you write will probably be a combination of personal and business stuff, basically, everything that takes up mental energy and space.

Then go over it again and add all the things you want to take action on to your planner or calendar.

What's Next?

If you liked this post, make sure you don't miss out and sign up to get the entire crash course:

The 5 Biggest Obstacles For Artist Entrepreneurs with Kathryn Brown first appeared on Creative Web Biz

The problem is that we lose track of our goals, get distracted by #ShinyObjectSyndrome or don't know how to create a clear path to follow that leads us towards reaching our goals.

Sound familiar?

To make sure we actually accomplish what we set out to do, we want to set an achievable art biz goal. To do so we need to follow 2 rules:

• we can only set ONE goal (why just one and what should it be?
• it must be actionable and measurable (so we know if we reached it)

So after you set your One Big Goal, we can apply rule #2 and start breaking it down into actionable and measurable steps we can follow throughout the year. Here is how to do it:

Break it down

Break your goal down into 4 measurable steps you need to take to reach it.

Add each of the four steps to one of the four quarters of the current year.
.

Example

Your big goal is to finally create a professional website with an integrated online shop for your art.

Now you could break it down into these four parts:

1. planning and creating the structure and content for your site
2. planning and creating your opt-in offer and email marketing campaign
3. building the actual website 
4. marketing the new website

Create a simple, but effective to-do list

Now let me introduce you to a favorite biz tool of mine.

Trello is the best to-do list app I have found so far.

And believe me, I have tried them all.

It is simple but very flexible and great to also use for projects you want to collaborate on with others.

You can obviously use any to-do list you like but if you don't have one that is online and accessible from anywhere and is easy to handle, edit and share, I suggest you give it a try.

How to organize your to-do list

After years of using and feeling overwhelmed by my various to-do lists, I found a system that keeps me focused and productive at all times but doesn't make me feel like it's just growing and growing without me making any progress.

Here is how I do it:

• Year
• Quarter
• Month
• Week
• Today

Add your One Big Goal to the Year list and the smaller quarterly goals into the Quarter list.

Then work from there as the year progresses and break the quarterly goals down into ever smaller monthly, weekly and daily to-do items you can tackle step by step.

Tip: Never add more than 3 items to your daily list. This way you will never get overwhelmed!

(get the link to this board to copy it to your own Trello account)

You did it!

There you go, now you have a plan you can follow step by step to actually achieve your One Big Goal without feeling overwhelmed!

What's Next?

For the next part of our crash course, I interviewed my friend and mastermind buddy Kathryn Brown from CreatingYourPlan.com, who is a productivity coach and helps people overcome overwhelm by creating achievable plans and repeatable systems.

You will love the solid tips and great advice she has for us. Don't miss out and sign up to get the entire crash course:

How to Make Your Art Biz Goals Actually Achievable first appeared on Creative Web Biz

Overwhelm is the #1 problem that keeps artist entrepreneurs from reaching their goals.

It comes from not knowing where you are going, how to get there and distractions along the way (#ShinyObjectSyndrome anyone?)

So what you need is GPS functionality for your art biz!

To use a GPS, you need to set a destination.

But sometimes the destination is really not clear enough for the GPS to actually lead us there. So we get lost or end up somewhere we don't want to be.

Why you need clear & specific goals

"I want to go to a sunny beach" is really not a very specific destination.

No GPS knows what to do with that information.

The same goes for "I want to make a living with my art" or "I want to grow my art business".

How much money do you need to "make a living"? $3,000/month? $10,000/month ?

Your GPS likes it much better when you say "I want to go to Railay Beach in Thailand"  because now it can figure out how to get to this very specific place.

And it's also much easier to create an actionable plan to make $5000 a month instead of just saying "I want to grow my art biz".

Makes sense right?

In lesson 1 of this crash course, you already set your One Big Goal for the next twelve months.

Now, in this second lesson, we are taking a closer look at this goal of yours to see if it is actually leading your art business in the right direction.

5 questions to ask yourself

The following tool, consisting of five questions, was developed by Marc Benioff who used it to found and grow Salesforce.com.

His company was named the World's Most Innovative Company for four years in a row by Forbes magazine.

We are going to use this same tool to help your business.

So now I want you to recall the One Big Goal you set for your art biz in our last lesson.

Then open Evernote (or any other notebook) and journal on the following questions below in regard to this goal:

Action Task

1. What do I really want? (Vision)

If I could do anything without chance of failure, and without constraints of time and money, what would I do?

2. What is important about it? (Values)

How is my vision improving my own and other people's lives?

3. How will I get it? (Methods)

What are some of the steps I have to take to get what I want?

4. What is preventing me from having it? (Obstacles)

What is standing in my way? What outside forces and internal believes about the world and myself are holding me back?

5. How will I know I am successful? (Measurements)

How can I quantify my goal so I know I actually reached it?

This could be a deadline, a number of items sold, a number of people added to an email list, a certain amount of money earned, etc.

Do it anyway

Don't be fooled by the seeming simplicity of the questions.

Taking your time to journal on them will give you focus and clarity and stop overwhelm.

And most importantly, writing your ideas down is the hugely important first step to manifesting them!

What's next?

In our next lesson, we will break your One Big Goal down into smaller steps with which you can create a step-by-step action plan for the next 12 months. No more guess work and distractions!

Sign up to get the entire crash course:

Is Your Art Biz Headed In The Right Direction? first appeared on Creative Web Biz

That's normal, it's not just you. So don't give up on your dreams and goals.

Overwhelm is the #1 problem that keeps artists from reaching their goals. But I will show you how to get rid of it and make the next 12 months your best year yet.

Mental overwhelm is the equivalent of having too much clutter on your desk. You can't focus, lose time searching for things and don't know which pile of papers to tackle first.

The trick is to get rid of the clutter. Then the overwhelm will stop all by itself.

In this post, I will show you how to prevent the feeling that

• there is too much to do
• you don't know which step to take next
• you're never getting anywhere.

The key to getting rid of overwhelm is to get organized and having a plan in place that lets you reach your goals step by step.

So let's start with the first step:

Your One Big Goal

We all have goals. We actually have tons of goals for our business.

We want to build a beautiful website, create a marketing plan, learn about SEO, take a certain online class and make more money of course.

So we put it all on our to-do list which gets longer and longer every day and although we work so hard, we don't seem to get anywhere.

At least we think we don't because we have no finish line that shows us that we actually did get where we wanted to go.

It's like running a marathon and not knowing when we are done with it. So we keep running and running until we keel over from exhaustion.

To fight overwhelm we need to set the One Big Goal we want to accomplish in the next 12 months.

This one goal is the dream you are trying to manifest.

It could be all kinds of things:

• selling 25 original paintings
• being featured in a big art magazine.
• creating a new series of artworks
• launching an online mandala workshop.
• building an online shop to sell prints

Whatever it is, there are two rules that you need to stick to when picking your One Big Goal:

1. You can only pick ONE goal.

2. It has to measurable so you actually know when you reached it.

Why Just ONE Goal?

It will help you to

• stay focused
• decide which step to take next (whatever takes us closer to our One Big Goal)
• see what is truly important and what is not (no more shiny object syndrome!)
• stay motivated because you can see the light at the end of the tunnel

But like I mentioned earlier, we all have a multitude of goals, not just one.

So now what?

Well, if you really think about it, they are all just sub-goals, right?

You don't create a marketing plan just for the fun of it. You do it to sell more photo prints.

And why do you want to learn about SEO? To get more people to your site who will sign up for the Photoshop course you sell on your website.

Action Task

Time to actually find your One Big Goal for the next 12 months!

Step 1: Make a list of all the bigger items on your to list:

Example:

• learn about SEO
• create a marketing plan
• finish new painting
• call the local newspaper to see if they want to feature me

Step 2: Ask yourself WHY you want to accomplish these goals.

Example:

• learn about SEO > to get more people on my site
• create a marketing plan > to make more people aware of my art
• finish new painting > to take a picture and make prints
• call the local newspaper to see if they want to feature me > to get some credibility and social proof

Step 3: Now take this new list of goals and again find their higher purpose

Example:

• Get more people on my site > so I can sell more of my artwork
• Make more people aware of my art > so more people buy my artwork
• Take a picture and make prints >so I have more artwork to sell
• Get some credibility and social proof > so more people buy my artwork.

Rinse and repeat until you end up with basically just one goal.

Step 4: Make it measurable

Now that you have your One Big Goal for the next 12 months, you need to add a metric so that you know when you actually hit that goal!

Example:

• sell 10 original paintings
• sell 25 high-quality photo prints
• have 40 people book my mandala workshop
• have 20 people order commission work

And that's it! See how easy that was?

What's Next?

In the next part of the How To Set & Achieve Your Art Biz Goals Without Overwhelm course, we will take a closer look at your One Big Goal and make it actionable and measurable, so you can then break it down into smaller steps that can actually be achieved!

Click the button below to get the entire course sent right to your inbox:

How To Set & Achieve Your Art Biz Goals Without Overwhelm first appeared on Creative Web Biz

Know you need some time-saving tools to help you run your art business, but don’t have the time to spend searching for them? That’s why we’ve rounded up 5 smart resources, so you have more time for what’s most important: creating and selling your art.

There are many tools to help you maintain your tasks, projects, goals and schedules. Some folks like using a physical hourglass when working. Others love to use Internet-blocking software to eliminate online temptations. And, plenty of artists use fantastic coaches or consultants to help keep them accountable.

If you’re struggling to keep things in order, you can also use tools to increase your efficiency–and we know some of the best. Here are 5 terrific time-saving tools to keep you and your art business on track.

1. Schedule Social Media Posts with Buffer

Never interrupt your studio practice to post tweets again! Buffer Free allows you to schedule up to 10 social media posts in advance for a specific time and day. You can connect one profile on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+. And you can see which posts perform well with Buffer’s basic analytics.

It’s simple and very user-friendly. Need to schedule more posts? The Awesome Plan lets you schedule up to 100 posts at a time for $10/month. Buffer claims you’ll save up to an hour a day–cheers to that! Get started at buffer.com.

2. Stay on Task with Todoist

(Photo by Courtney Dirks. Creative Commons, Attribution 2.0 Generic)

We all know to-do lists help us remember our tasks. The problem? The lists often get lost under a pile of papers or in another section of our brain. Enter ToDoist. This online tool allows you to access your to-do list on any device so you’ll always have it on hand.

You can color code projects, set priority levels, create sub-projects and sub-tasks, and more. And, the clean and simple design allows for an easy, distraction-free experience. Create your list with the free version at todoist.com.

3. Brainstorm Blog Posts with Portent's Content Generator

Wasting time looking at a blank page while writer’s block stunts the growth of your blog? Sometimes all you need is the right title to get you going and Portent’s Content Generator is there to help.

While some titles are a little less orthodox than others, they’re bound to spark some blog post ideas. All you need to do is type in the topic and Portent’s will come up with a title. Don’t like it? Click the refresh icon for another.

When we typed in “oil painting” we got “Why Oil Painting is the Best Thing Since Sliced Bread” and “What Wikipedia Can't Tell You About Oil Painting”. You’ll be armed with compelling titles galore to draw in your readers. Brainstorm away at https://www.portent.com/tools/title-maker.

4. Unleash Your Inner Graphic Designer with Canva

Want to create stunning images to use on your website, art blog, or social media, but don’t have time to learn Photoshop? Not to worry, Canva is empowering the masses with its easy, quick graphic design tools.

With a few clicks you can create free images optimized for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, blogs - you name it! You can use Canva’s many free background images, fonts, shapes, and icons–or upload your own photos. There are also many wonderful design elements available for only $1. Check it out at canva.com.

5. Manage Your Art Business with Artwork Archive

Rifling through notebooks and searching excel sheets eats away at precious studio and business time. Artwork Archive allows you to organize all your artwork along with its title, medium, dimensions, creation date, price, sales details, associated contacts, and location all online.

With prices starting as low as $5/month, you’ll have everything you need at the click of a button. You can also quickly create and print professional reports like invoices, inventory reports, and portfolio pages.

Having your data safely on the cloud is also especially useful because you’ll never have to lose time re-entering your information if your computer crashes or breaks. An organized, streamlined art business gives you the time to focus on what’s really important: creating and selling your artwork.

BIO: This guest post was written by John Feustel, the founder and developer of Artwork Archive: the number one online tool that helps you organize your work, grow your business, and share your art with the world.

From inventory and contact management to sales and location tracking, Artwork Archive gives you everything you need to manage your art business so you can spend more time in the studio doing what you love. Create the art business you want today at ArtworkArchive.com.

5 Smart Time-Saving Business Tools for Artists first appeared on Creative Web Biz

We all know that social media is a great way to promote your creative work.

And we also know that the social networks that are focused on visual content are even better suited to show your art to a large audience.

That's why so many of you are on Pinterest and Instagram.

But now things get even better.

People will now be able to buy your art directly inside the Pinterest mobile app.

Amazing right?

When you spot a pin with a blue price, it means it's buyable.

And it's not just that this blue Buy It button will link to your site.

Buyable Pins work so seamlessly on mobile, they’ll help you close the sale right inside the Pinterest app.

The best part? It's free!

Pinterest doesn’t take a cut from your sales and you still get to handle shipping and customer service the way you always have.

Want to be among the first artists to sell on Pinterest?

For now Pinterest only works with selected merchants to test it all out.

However, there is a way you can can get your hands on this new feature right now.

If you already have a Shopify powered online store, it's your lucky day today. You don't even have to do anything to make it work.

All products pinned from your Shopify store will automatically become Buyable Pins!

Don't have an online store yet? Well, what are you waiting for?

Sign up for Shopify (aff. link) and start selling on Pinterest with Buyable Pins.

Shopify was always one of my two favorite ways to sell art online. I recommend it to clients all the time. And now, with Buyable Pins enabled, it definitely shot up to number one.

There is even more to it.

They will not just let you set up an online store with Buyable Pins but you can also use Shopify to sell in person.

Imagine this: You have a gallery show, a visitor likes your painting and wants to buy it.

Usually you would give them your business card and might or might not hear from them a few days later.

But all you have to do now to make the sale, is whip out your card reader, attach it to your iPhone or iPad, swipe the credit card and boom! You just sold a painting. Yipee :)

Are you excited? I totally was when the Shopify team contacted me and asked to share the great news about Buyable Pins with you.

And since I think this is fantastic news for all artists, I did (and even got $20 to do so).

They were also kind enough to let me pass on a free trial to you:

Click here to start a 14 day trial with Shopify to sell on Pinterest with Buyable Pins

(aff. link)

Now, if you already have a non Shopify online store, don't fret. I'm sure Buyable Pins will soon also become available to you.

Also keep an eye on Instagram because they are also working on a feature that will make it easier for their customers to buy your art right in Instagram :)

How To Sell Your Art On Pinterest With Buyable Pins first appeared on Creative Web Biz

I say almost because to hit the ground running in 2015 we need to do one more thing before we enjoy the holidays and let the champagne flow on New Year's Eve.

We need to set goals we want to achieve during the next solar cycle.

And I'm not talking about promises we make to ourselves (and never keep) while we watch the fireworks.

No, I'm talking about real, well thought out goals for our creative web biz.

The ones we actually achieve because they are specific, measurable and easily broken down into practical steps we can take on a day to day basis.

And as I'm a virgo and I absolutely love planning, organizing and strategizing, I wanted to share the fun with you.

After reading this post and following the two step process detailed below, you will not only have set your goals but you will also be able to actually reach them by the end of 2015.

.

Step 1: How To Find Your One BIG Goal

First we want to figure out what our one BIG overarching goal will be.

Something you really want to do but feel slightly overwhelmed by because you don't even know how to get started or that intimidates you in some other way.

Maybe deep down you already know what it is or maybe you have no clue.

Whatever the case, keep on reading because I have an exercise for you that will help in both cases.

What you need to prepare

Let me introduce you to one of my favorite biz tools.

It's called Evernote and it's a digital notebook to help you remember, collect and share pretty much anything.

From marketing and blog post ideas you have on the road to screenshots of glowing reviews on your FB page that you want to use as a testimonial on your website.

I use it excessively because it helps me save a lot of time and energy by getting my biz and life much more organized and systematized.

No more searching for paper notes, no more rewriting entire notes, no more physical notebooks to carry around.

In Evernote it's all searchable, editable, sharable and in one place.

You can access it from your phone, your laptop and any other device.

And it also saves some trees!

Can you tell I'm a big fan? :)

I even created an #ArtBiz Goals 2015 Worksheet for you that I will share at the end of this post. 

You can directly save it to your own Evernote account and work with it there!

So go sign up and download this awesome app (it's free) and then watch/read this short introduction to Evernote.

Ready? Great!

Five questions to ask yourself

The following tool, consisting of five questions, was developed by Marc Benioff who used it to found and grow Salesforce.com.

His company was named the 'World's Most Innovative Company' for four years in a row by Forbes magazine!

We might not be mentioned in Forbes magazine (yet) but we can definitely learn from the big boys and girls.

So after you read this post, I want you to download the free worksheet I created for you (see end of post) and journal on the following questions in respect to 2015:

1. What do I really want? (Vision)

If I could do anything without chance of failure, and without constraints of time and money, what would I do?

2. What is important about it? (Values)

How is my vision improving my own and other people's lives?

3. How will I get it? (Methods)

What are some some of the steps I have to take to get what I want?

4. What is preventing me from having it? (Obstacles)

What is standing in my way? What outside forces and internal believes about the world and myself are holding me back?

5. How will I know I am successful? (Measurements)

How can I quantify my goal so I know I actually reached it?

This could be a deadline, a number of items sold, a number of people added to an email list, a certain amount of money earned, etc.

Do it anyway

Don't be fooled by the seeming simplicity of the questions.

Answering them will give you focus and clarity.

And most importantly, writing your ideas down is the hugely important first step to manifesting them!

Also, even if you already think you know your one big goal for 2015, do the exercise anyway. There is no such thing as being too clear about something you want to achieve.

Share

Come share your big  goal with the creative web biz community and see what others are planning for 2015.

Step 2: - Make Your BIG Goal Achievable

Awesome, now that you are clear on your goal, it's time to make sure we actually  get it done over the course of the year. Here is how to do it:

Break it down

Break your goal down into 4 measurable steps you need to take to reach it.

Add each of the four steps to one of the four quarters of 2015  in the table below (this is included in the free worksheet at the end of this post)
.

Example

Your big goal is to finally create a professional website with an integrated online shop for your art.

Now you could break it down into these four parts:

1. planning and creating the structure and content for your site
2. planning and creating your opt-in offer and email marketing campaign
3. building the actual website 
4. marketing the new website

Create a simple, but effective to-do list

Now let me introduce you to another favorite biz tool of mine.

Trello is the best to-do list app I have found so far.

And believe me, I have tried them all.

Trello is simple but still flexible enough to also use for projects you want to collaborate on with others.

You can obviously use any to-do list you like but if you don't have one that is online and accessible from anywhere and is easy to handle, edit and share, I suggest you give it a try.

I know you will love it!

You can thank me later ;)

How to effectively use your to-do list

After years of using and feeling overwhelmed by my various to-do lists, I found a system that keeps me focused and productive at all times but doesn't make me feel like it's just growing and growing without me making any progress.

Here is how I do it:

• 2015
• Q1 (rename these to Q2, Q3, Q4 as the year progresses)
• Month
• Week
• Today

Add your big goal to the 2015 list and the smaller quarterly goal into the Quarter (Q1) list.

Then work from there as the year progresses and break the quarterly goal down into ever smaller monthly, weekly and daily to-do items you can tackle step by step.

Tip: Never add more than 3 items to your daily list. This way you will never get overwhelmed!

You did it

There you go, now you have a plan you can follow step by step to actually achieve your BIG goal without feeling overwhelmed!

.

Get the worksheet!

Click the yellow button below and get the free editable worksheet I created for you.

You can easily copy it to your own Evernote notebook of choice, work with it there and also get back to it and edit it whenever you like.

(No more non-editable pdfs that clutter your desktop or get lost in some document folder and that you have to print out to work with!)

It contains the 5 questions, the quarterly table, the Trello image as well as instructions.

And don't forget to share your goal and your experience with this exercise with us!

.

How To Set & Achieve Your 2015 #ArtBiz Goals first appeared on Creative Web Biz

This was her question:

"Dear Yamile! Thank you very much for this interesting proposal, which I would love to join! BUT a serious question, how shall I pay you USD 333,- when I am an starving artist? Thank you for your answer."

She is referring to my course The Art Of Selling Art Online which I linked to from the above mentioned post.

So I asked 10 of my successful artist clients and friends how they earned their first $1000 with their creative craft.

Read their stories, be inspired and then go make money as an artist yourself!

Badkat

Vocal Artist from Berlin, Germany/Tallahassee, Florida, USA

"My first monies made as an artist were strictly from live performances.

As an unknown artist, I made it a point to go to every open mic and local concerts, and expand my network of other artists.

Eventually, this led to paid gigs, collaborations that helped me get known, and even the needed momentum to throw my own concerts."

.

Robin Maria Pedrero

Painter from Orlando, Florida, USA

"When I was 15 I placed art on consignment in a friend's gift emporium and sold my first drawing of an old apple tree with a tire (these things you do not forget).

For a high school assignment I had chosen to paint an old hotel in black and white. Next year when it was purchased to be refurbished I approached the front desk with my painting and they bought it.

I created works and shared them with people, which is the very same thing I do today as a professional artist.

I would say that commission portraiture brought me my first $1000. Perseverance, working smartly and adapting by using creative problem solving are the keys to success."

.

Andrea Schroeder

Textile artist and creativity coach from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

"I threw a holiday art sale in my apartment - I invited everyone I knew and asked them to bring their friends.

I had a wide variety of prices - lots of small pieces for stocking stuffers and some larger pieces.

I made over $1000 that day and started feeling more confident as an artist."

..

Giotto

Musician and producer from Berlin, Germany/Rush, Dublin, Ireland

"When I was 15 I entered my self in "Dj Competitions" in Dublin Ireland. I won 3 in my first year. (€150 each show).

At the same time I was playing drums in a reggae band. We would play all over Ireland and get paid a sum of money to be split evenly between the band members.

In this year (2001) I was paid a lot more than €1000 in total for my artist skills, but this was how I got paid my first €1000 from my music."

.

Cynthia Morris

Illustrator and author from Denver, Colorado, USA

"In 2003, I was going to Paris. I did a pre-sale for hand-painted cards, where buyers could pay what they wanted.

I had 17 sales and made about $300.

More than the money, being forced to paint the cards despite my inner critic's input was so valuable. I've continued to do that and love it." 

.

 Linka A Odom

Photographer from Berlin, Germany/Dallas, Texas, USA

"My first exhibition with work on sale was a group show, I sold three large prints of the same image.

The first for $1000, the second two for $900 each. It paid for the exhibition plus a little in my pocket."

.

Lady Daisey

Singer and designer from Berlin, Germany/Jacksonville, Florida, USA

"Musically, I booked a lot of local shows and sold homemade CDs. I'm sure it took a while to reach $1000, but ya gotta start somewhere!

Since then, I've done a few world tours, released a few albums and the hard work and dedication has paid off.

Graphically, I designed flyers and posters for local businesses until I felt comfortable enough to go after larger projects.

It wasn't much money, but it was a nice introduction to freelancing and all that's involved in finding clients, completing projects and get PAID.

Since then, I've moved from print design to full-time web design, and continue taking on freelance and contract projects."

.

Kim Philipps van Buren

Art journaler, painter and teacher from Weesp, the Netherlands

"I made my first 1000 by giving workshops about the joy of creating, called creative fitness.

The first workshop I gave was just for friends, the 2nd most of them rejoined or referred friends, and thats basically how i've been growing my business since.

I've also joined a few workshops myself and Facebook groups, to share my own work and most of all my enthusiasm, that last item has been my most important means of growth."

.

Webgrrl

Intuitive digital artist from Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia.

"I don't really recall my first '$1000' as an artist probably because i have many great artist moments and opportunities, though without monetary value, left a bigger and lasting impression in my mind.

However i DO remember setting goals to earn $1 a day, and then $5 dollars a day, $10, $20, etc - And i reached that goal thru all the various print-on-demand sites.

I started at Cafepress and then Zazzle and Redbubble.

I also do freelance graphic and web work for a few clients, but the print-on-demand sites is where my regular income comes in... and these days i get that $1000 *each month*.. at least!"

.

Batsauce

Musician, producer and DJ form Berlin, Germany/Florida, USA

"I am not not sure about my first thousand made from my art.

But if I recall correctly, it was from an advance from the first official record I put out. I was in a side-group called The Smile Rays along with my wife, Lady Daisey, and our friend Paten Locke.

We were a hip hop power-trio. We put out two records. But the first was for a (now defunct) Japanese record label named SubContact.

While this was the beginning of a musical era for us, it was the end of an era for record-labels.

Over the years, I have had the good fortune of releasing many records. But this was special because it was our first release -- and the last time a label ever offered us an advance for record sales.

Now, the idea of getting an advance for an independent record is unheard of."

See How These 10 Professional Artists Made Their First $1000 first appeared on Creative Web Biz

Have you ever heard of the 1000 true fans theory?

How To Make $252,000 Per Year As An Artist first appeared on Creative Web Biz

photo credit: SCFiasco via photopin cc

The other day I was interviewed by my friend Mitch for his Pencil Kings Podcast.

When I introduced myself as a business coach for artists, he paused, thought about that for a second and then told me the following story:

When he was 17 and had just found his identity as an artist, he wanted nothing to do with 'business'.

He would even buy Nike shirts and then carefully remove the stitched-on logo and find other ways to boycott 'the enemy'.

He suggested that a lot of artists associate the term business with big corporations, sleazy cars salesmen and selling ourselves out.

So his question was if some potential clients are put off by my 'business coach' title and how I can help someone with this kind of mindset to take them from starving artist to creative entrepreneur.

Of course I was happy to tell him about the process I developed and use with my clients.

There are really 7 steps involved in building your creative web biz. It all starts in our own heads:

1. Invoke The Spirit Of Creativity

We've talked about this extensively in 2 earlier posts (here and here) but I'll repeat it again:

You're an artist and therefore have the great gift of creativity. It's your main talent, your super power.

You can use it as a tool to build create your business. Creating a business follows the same creative process that you use to create your art, music, choreography or whatever your medium of choice may be.

The minute you fully understand this, you will also understand that being a creative entrepreneur is way more fun than you initially might have thought. And definitely better than being a starving artist :)

You can call the spirit of creativity and ask it to help you with your endeavor to make a living with your art. It's a simple exercise and you can do it within 10 minutes. Go do it now.

2. Define Your Vision & Mission

You have probably felt completely overwhelmed at times by all the information that is out there and all the things you are told you should be doing to build or grow your art biz:

Create new products, update the website, write blog posts & newsletters, take care of legal & financial stuff...

So you frantically try to keep up and write a status update here and a blog post there. But there is no real direction or strategy you are following.

Let's change that and make it all much easier for you. Let's define your vision & mission.

Why is that important and how is that supposed to help?

Well, let's imagine you are going on a trip and don't know where you are going. It will be hard to figure out which road to take next, where to find a hotel and to define a holiday budget.

But when you know where you are going, you can plan ahead as much (or as little) as you like.

Your vision & mission are the foundation of your business plan. They are the center of your business mandala and the beat of your business song.

When your vision and mission are clearly defined

• you know where you are going because you have a clear goal to focus on
• you can build your art biz around your lifestyle (work to live, not live to work).
• you know what decisions need to be made to get to your goals.
• finding customers gets easier (hint: your ideal customers buy your creative work because they identify with your vision & mission)
• it's easier to find your non-icky, non-salesy, marketing voice

How to find your vision:

Sit down, open Evernote (or get pen and paper) and write your own obituary.

Yes, I know it's weird, but it's also very effective.

Set a timer to 20 minutes and do not stop writing. Whatever comes up, write it down, no one is going to see this so don't hold back.

If you need help focusing use an app like WriteOrDie.

Include your main personal accomplishments, your lifestyle, your loved ones and anything else that is important to you.

When you're done, read it again and make a list of all the things that you identify as life goals. These can be material things, stuff  you want to do or even the kind of person you want to be.

How to find your mission:

And now imagine you just won a really prestigious prize for your work. Like an Academy Award or the Nobel Peace Prize.

Who is the person introducing you to the audience and what are they saying about you and your work?

Open Evernote or WriteOrDie, set your timer to 20 minutes again and write that speech.

What are your professional accomplishments? How have you made this world a better place through your work? What do people admire you for? Whose lives have you changed and how?

3. Create Your Money Makers

Next we are going to look at your financial goals and how to reach them.

Problem is, most people don't know what their REAL financial goals are because they don't know what kind of lifestyle they really want to live. So let's figure that out.

Tim Ferriss of 4 Hour Work Week fame wrote an excellent blog post about ideal lifestyle costing that also guides you through his dreamlining exercise.

I seriously encourage you to hop over there and really do the exercise. It's absolutely amazing!

Now, after you figured out how much money you really want to make, you can start looking at how to get there.

Sit down and make a list of all the products you have on sale right now. How many would you have to sell to reach that financial goal?

Don't despair if it seems impossible to make enough money to support your ideal lifestyle with what you have right now.

Start working smarter, not harder.

Here are some suggestions that might point you in the right direction:

• Maybe you're only selling original paintings and you can start selling prints as well. (see RedBubble for an easy way to do this)
• or maybe you do hip hop workshops for kids and you could record it and sell it online.
• or maybe you could start a subscription service for hard core fans who will pay you a monthly fee and therefore get all your newest songs for free plus a monthly Google hangout concert.

4. Find Your Voice

Now it's time to start talking about marketing.

Yes, I know, you don't want to be salesy and use sleazy tricks to get people to buy your work.

Relax, you don't have to be that guy or gal. You can just be your authentic and beautiful self. I promise!

Here is how you do it:

Go back into Evernote and read what you wrote about your mission during step one and turn it into a 150 word mission statement.

So instead of  pretending to be someone else introducing you because you won a Grammy, use 'I' language and make a clear statement about what your art biz mission is.

Example: I make music because I want to help people get out of their day to day left brain consciousness and get them more into their creative right brain state of mind. Therefore I use instruments like a hang drum, a traditional indigenous flute and overtone singing with nature sounds in the background.

And there you go.

From this simple mission statement, you can create an infinite amount of blog posts and status updates that are authentic, helpful, informative and make people want to buy your music:

• the history of the hang drum
• why music is important to balance your left and right brain
• the importance of the flute in indigenous cultures
• how i learned overtone singing
• why it's important to balance your brain hemispheres
• how a shaman taught me to call the spirits with a flute
• how I record the nature sounds you can hear in my songs
• etc, etc

Now add some of your music (use Soundcloud for this), some pics of yourself with your instruments and some videos of your performances and you have enough content for the next few months.

And here is another little trick:

When you create these blog and social media posts, imagine you are sitting across your biggest fan. Just ONE fan. Now write as if you were talking to them directly. Also think about questions or comments they might have and incorporate that into your posts.

5. Optimize Your Website

See how it all slowly starts to come together? Your vision defines your financial goals and your mission is important for your marketing.

It's just like writing a novel. In the beginning you only have a vague idea of how the story will unfold. But the more you work on defining the individual characters the clearer it gets how they relate to each other and why.

And we needed all of the earlier steps before we get to think about our website.

It's what brings it all together and presents it to the public in general and more specifically to our ideal customers.

Our website should tell our story and guide potential customers through it so they can see what our creative work is really about. Only then will they be interested in buying from us.

So how do we do that? Here are some tips:

6. Revise and Improve

When you follow all the steps and exercises above, you will see some major improvements in your creative web biz. That's very exciting and shows you how much fun it can be to make it all happen.

Like we said earlier, creating an art biz is just like creating a piece of art.

And just like the creative process never stops, your creative web biz is also a work in progress.

You change and therefore your vision & mission change. Which means that your product range might change and your website needs to be updated again.

But don't worry, whenever you feel it's time for a makeover, you can come back to this post and do it all over again.

And just like your art, your music, your choreography get better with time and practice, so will your art biz :)

7. Get Help

Still reading?  You really seem determined to make a living with your creative work and I respect that very much!

This last step is not for everyone but it might be the right choice for someone as determined as you are. And it does make life waaaaay easier.

Get some help! Find a coach, a mentor or a mastermind group to work with. It really speeds up the process.

Here is why:

• it gives a sense of accountability
• you have other people to bounce ideas off of
• you have a peer group to get immediate feedback from
• masterminds have the power to double and triple the amount of success that is achievable
• everyone works together for the mutual improvement of the individual members.
•  you save time by not learning from trial and error & increase the energy put into creating art
• you make new friends who won't fall asleep when you start geeking out about WordPress, Facebook algorithms and blog post topics.
• you will have more fun and feel more motivated working on your creative web biz.

If you are ready for some professional help, I invite you to check out The Art Of Selling Art Online, my 30 day master class.

7 Steps From Starving Artist To Creative Entrepreneur first appeared on Creative Web Biz

And how we need to reclaim our power and use the resources we already have in abundance to build our biz?

Well, your main resource as an artist is your creativity. You use it to express yourself in your medium of choice every day.

Now here is where it get's interesting, so listen closely!

You can take that same creative power you use to make art and apply it to build your creative web biz.

Creating a business is really just like creating a piece of art.

I'll show you how to do it in a minute.

But first I want you to do this little exercise with me.

Calling The Spirit Of Creativity

Imagine you're a mandala artist and you're ready to start a new piece. So you get all your favorite brushes and colors out and spread them around you.

The empty canvas in front of you makes you smile because you remember how it used to scare you when you just started out painting.

You felt overwhelmed by all the possibilities. And you were afraid to make an irreversible mistake. Or you just didn't know which color to get started with.

Nowadays you trust in the power of your creativity and you know that each finished painting is perfect in it's own way and has it's own unique charm.

So you take a brush, dip it in some red paint and start with a tiny dot in the middle of the canvas.

Then you take another brush, dip it in some blue paint and add a circle of tiny flowers around the red dot in the middle.

You keep going like that. You keep adding new circles, layers and colors.

Sometimes you make a 'mistake' and you wince a little because for a moment you're not sure how to 'fix' it. So you close your eyes for a moment to summon your creative powers.

You can feel it bubble up from deep inside of you. It gets stronger and stronger until ...

You're in the creative flow, your mind suspended in a trance like state, and once again inspiration is guiding your hand to give birth to something even more beautiful than you could have ever imagined.

There it is, the spirit of creativity came out to play with you :)

Now close your eyes and feel the spirit flow through and around you.

Note if you have any associations with that creative power. Does it have a color or a smell? Or do you feel it in a certain place of your body? Does it remind you of a certain object or animal? Or does it even have a name?

Yes, I'm serious, close your eyes and do the exercise!

This is the very first step to becoming a creative entrepreneur and it can change your life if you let it!

Next take a notebook or open Evernote and write down what you experienced.

I'll wait.

Do it already!

Ready? Great. Let's take the next step.

How To Use Your Creativity To Build Your Biz

Close your eyes again.

Now don't think about creating your art but about selling it.

I bet this time it doesn't feel so good, right?

The minute you think about the business side of things, like marketing and financial calculations, you feel anxiety creep up.

Maybe you even feel a a twitch or knot in the area of your stomach?

And here comes the negative self talk and wants to take over:

"I'm not good enough", "I'm not a business person", "I hate marketing", "It's all so overwhelming"...aaaahhhh!

Ok, relax.

Take a deep breath!

Breathe in. Breathe out.

Close your eyes and think about your biz again.

But this time, when you feel that panicky feeling coming up, remember that color, smell, animal, name, etc. that you associate with your creative spirit.

Invite your creative spirit to come and help you build create your biz in a fun and playful way, just like it does when you create a piece of art.

Do it out loud.

Come on, it's okay, just do it.

See, there it is, the spirit of creativity came out to play with you once again :)

How does that feel? Great, right?

Do this at least three more times before you go to bed today.

Then do it every single day for the next 30 days.

That's how long it takes to build a habit.

So let's take the next 30 days to build a habit of being a creative entrepreneur who has fun building creating a business around their talents and gifts!

Yes, you will still be scared sometimes and sometimes you will not know what step to take next.

Just like sometimes you don't know if red is really the best choice for your next brush stroke.

But just like over the years you learned to trust your creative power when it comes to art, you will now learn to trust it with creating your business.

The Art Of Selling Art Online

There is an art to selling art online and it's all about using your unique talents and gifts to create a business you love.

A business that, just like your art, reflects your unique personality.

And the first step is always about getting in the right mindset.

That's why the above exercise is the first thing I do with all of my new coaching clients.

It's also the first exercise in The Art Of Selling Art Online, a 30 day mastermind course that will take you by the hand and give you simple step by step guidance on how to use your creative powers to

• fight overwhelm and confusion
• define your financial goals and how to reach them
• create a simple, easy to follow, non-icky, marketing plan.
• make your website actually sell stuff..

This program is an invitation to follow the spirit of creativity on a journey to create something much bigger than just a single piece of art.

It's an invitation to create a true master piece:

Your own creative web biz.

Are you ready to follow your creative spirit on this adventure?

Read more and sign up here.

How To Use The Power Of Creativity To Build Your Art Biz In 30 Days first appeared on Creative Web Biz

When people ask me what I do for a living, I tell them that I'm a business coach for artists who teaches them how to sell their creative work online.

Oftentimes my conversation partner will ask me why I chose to specifically work with artists.

The question usually stems from the underlying assumption that artists are a lost cause because they are generally poor and not interested in money.

"Isn't art supposed to be about making the soul grow and not about making a living with it?"

Honestly, it makes me sad to see how prevalent the starving artist myth is in our society!

But I laugh and remind them about all the rich and famous artists like Lady Gaga, Paulo Coelho, Banksy, etc.

Now they think I'm crazy because these are obviously exceptions to the rule, right?

So I tell them about some of my clients who might not be rich and famous but can pay their bills and afford the lifestyle they chose for themselves. Like Elisandra and Anbuley.

At this point they nod and will tell me about their artist friend who suffers in a 9-5 job they hate and take my card to pass it on.

And this where it gets really interesting.

Too many artists, designers, photographers, illustrators and other creative folks themselves also believe in that same starving artist myth!

They will email me and tell me how it is impossible for them to support themselves financially with their creative work.

They come up with all kinds of reasons for this:

• my art is not good enough.
• my husband/wife/parents won't let me.
• the music/art industry is evil and I don't want to be a sell-out.
• I have no time.
• I'm a right brain person, not a left brain person (read: I don't wanna deal with the financial and tech side of a business).
• I'm completely overwhelmed, I don't even know where to start.
• First I need money to pay someone to create my website/do my marketing.
• I need a business degree to run a business.
• There is no one who has ever done it before.
• I'm afraid people think I'm crazy.

These are obviously all reasonable and valid questions and concerns. I'm sure you have to deal with at least some of them yourself, right?

But here comes the most important part of this whole story:

Choosing to let the negative self talk and outer obstacles dictate your life is the REAL reason you will never make a living with your art.

There, I said it!

I mean, c'mon , you knew that already, didn't ya? WE are the ones holding ourselves back from achieving what we want.

Yeah, I know, it's hard to admit.

But we still know it's true.

So let's look at how we can stop self-sabotaging and finally start making a living with our creative work:

We need to reclaim our power so we can face and overcome any inner and outer obstacles, no matter what.

Reclaim our power? What does that even mean?

Well, it's all about using your inner and outer resources in the right way.

Because having power (or being empowered) really just means to have resources and to know how to use them. This includes the people, skills and experience needed to influence, cause and create one's environment and results. 

What is that? You have none of these resources to work with?

Don't forget that talents are resources too.

And what is a talent that every single artist, you included, has?

Creativity!

You use and work with it all the time. You probably don't think about it that much because it comes naturally to you. But it's a great resource to have!

Here is why:

You can take the same creative process you use to make art and apply it to build your creative web biz. Creating a business is really just like creating a piece of art.

Need some time to process that?

Ok, I'll give you a few days and then I will show you exactly how you can make use of that talent to build your art biz.

So stay tuned for that and get on the Creative Web Biz email list if you are not on it yet.

.

p.s. after doing a live biz building mastermind class in Berlin, I am now offering an online mastermind course. Check out The Art Of Selling Art Online here.

Why You Will Never Make A Living With Your Art first appeared on Creative Web Biz

So go check them out, sign up to their newsletters (that's where you get most of the goodies), connect with them on social media and use their knowledge to get your creative web biz to the next level:

.

ArtBizBlog.com

Alyson B. Stanfield is an art business consultant and author of I’d Rather Be in the Studio: The Artist’s No-Excuse Guide to Self-Promotion. She helps artists gain more recognition, organize their businesses, and sell more art.

.

DesigningAnMBA.com

As a designer/maker, your business has its own set of special needs. But at the same time, you can’t neglect the fact that it is a business. Whats standing in the way of you and success may not be your talent as a crafter, but rather your skills as a business person. Megan Auman want to help you change that.

.

TheAbundantArtist.com

Cory Huff's goal is to teach artists to be empowered to take charge of their own art business, and to not let others dictate to them whether or not their work is good enough, commercial enough, or fits some pre-determined mold of what an art career should be.

.

RedLemonClub.com

Founded by Alex Mathers the site aims to help creative people of all kinds gain the recognition and quality of life they deserve through various resources, tips and ideas centered around promotion, business, branding, productivity, attracting clients and more.

.

FreshRag.com

Dave Conrey is an artist and art director with many years experience working in print media. He says that the problem with most art, design and craft businesses is they operate under the same old principles as they always have, but the playing field has changed. It’s time to change our businesses as well. .

.

EmptyEasel.com

EE was founded by Dan Duhrkoop and is an online art magazine with practical advice, tips, and tutorials for creating and selling art online. Their business section has a huge collection of blog posts on marketing, SEO, advertising and general advice.

.

MariaBrophy.com

Maria Brophy has successfully built up her husband Drew’s lifestyle art brand, bringing him the status of being the top licensed surf artist in history and now helps other artists build a succesful career as well. Her expertise lies in licensing, marketing and promoting art, which are the topics she most likes to blog about

.

RightBrainBusinessPlan.com

Jennifer Lee is a certified coach, artist, yogini and the author of the Right Brain Business Plan which includes practical yet playful illustrated worksheets and step-by-step instructions to guide you through all the pieces of building your business plan in an artist friendly, right brain kind of way.

.

SteelToeImages.com

Marketing for photographers can get complicated. That’s why Angela Pointon decided to help independent talented visual artists run their businesses better, market them better, and create an amazing experience for each one of their clients.

.

CreativeWebBiz.com

And last but not least I will mention the blog you are reading right now. My name is Yamile Yemoonyah and like all the other wonderful people I introduced you to above, I want to help you sell art online. My specialty is building WordPress sites as well as online business coaching for creative folks.

.

If you liked this post come join us at Creative Web Biz School and get more free weekly tips, tools and resources right to your inbox.

And if you know any other blogs that might be useful for independent artists please share them in the comments so we can all learn from them.

10 Blogs To Follow If You Want To Sell Art Online first appeared on Creative Web Biz

Since we started looking at what it takes to create a successful website, we talked about the purpose of your artist website (to build a relationship with your visitors) and about content planning and creation.

Both steps took some effort on your part as you had to sit down and really think about the goals of your business, the actions you want people to take on your site and the copy of your about page.

So today I want to give you a break from all the hard work and just share a tip that is easy to implement and will make your life easier, especially if you have a blog on your site.

You might have noticed that I always include an image with every blog post and you might have wondered where I find all these images.

If you are a visual artist you will obviously mostly use photos of your own art to illustrate your articles but if you're a musician or a writer you need to go and find other images to use on your site.

So I will tell you where I get mine:

from Flickr!

No, I don't just go and take any image I like, that would be illegal.

But Flickr gives you the ability to search for  images that use the Creative Commons license.

What is a Creative Commons license?

Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that enables the sharing and use of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools.

Their free, easy-to-use copyright licenses provide a simple, standardized way to give the public permission to share and use your creative work — on conditions of your choice. CC licenses lets you easily change your copyright terms from the default of “all rights reserved” to “some rights reserved.”

Creative Commons licenses are not an alternative to copyright. They work alongside copyright and enable you to modify your copyright terms to best suit your needs.

So this basically means that you can go to Flickr, find an image with a CC license and use it for your website as long as you link back to where you found it.

Here is how you find theses photos (and videos) on Flickr:

Let's say you just wrote a novel about Berlin and you want to find a photo of the Brandenburg Gate to include on your sales page.

Now you simply go to Flickr's advanced search tool, type in 'Brandenburg gate', set all the other options and then scroll all the way down on the search page until you find the section that let's you search for items with CC licenses only. Check that box and hit enter.

Come on, try it:

http://www.flickr.com/search/advanced

Once you found an image you like, you need to click on the 'more' link (see below) and then on 'view all sizes'.

Find the size you need, download it, upload it into WordPress and insert it into your post.

Again, don't forget to add a link back to where you found it! As an example see the image links I placed at the bottom of this post.

And that's it!

Easy right?

Now, go and try it yourself and let us know how it went.

And if you know of any other great ways to find photos for your blog posts, please share with us in the comments.

Where To Find Free Images For Your Blog Posts first appeared on Creative Web Biz

In my last post we talked about the purpose of your artist website and the fact that you need to build a relationship with your visitors before they will even consider buying from you.

Defining a primary, secondary and maybe tertiary purpose for your website and thinking about how to translate these into clear 'call to actions' are essential steps before planning your content or creating your design.

If you haven't done this yet, go back and do it now before reading on.

Creating Content and Menus

Great, now that we are clear on the purpose and the actions we want our site visitors to take, we will take the next step and think about the content of your site.

Building or redesigning a website is a lot of work, for the web designer and for you!

You can't just tell someone to build a site for you, then go on vacation and expect everything to be ready when you get back.

All content, images, logos etc. will have to be provided by you. This includes the copy for all your pages and blog posts, the images that go in the slide shows and the galleries, your business logo (if you have one), your videos (links to YouTube or Vimeo) and music (links to SoundCloud), etc.

You will also need to provide a list of pages you want to appear in the menu/navigation bar (don't make it more than 7 to avoid a cluttered look) and what content you want to appear on these pages.

We will go more into the structure of your website in a future blog post but here is a quick example:

Home:

• shop with 12 products
• sidebar with a little 'about me' blurb, FB like box and categories

About:

• your copy 
• 2 pictures of you
• newsletter sign up form

Contact

• contact form, links to FB page and Twitter

Music

• video gallery with YouTube videos 
• SoundCloud player

Ask your web designer for help if this is difficult for you. They have been doing this for years and will provide some great insight into best practices. That is why I include free coaching sessions with my website packages and help all my clients with content and structure questions.

Use Dropbox or Google Drive to share this content with your web designer as it is too much stuff to send via email and makes it easier to keep organized for both of you.

 Are you overwhelmed yet? Don't freak out!

It does not have to be perfect the first time around because you can always change it later. A website is not a static thing and it will never be finished! There is always something to improve or add. That is the beauty of WordPress, it is very easy to change things yourself.

How To Write Your About Page

The hardest content to come up with for most people is the copy for the About page. So here are some tips to make it easier for you:

• Set an alarm clock for 25 minutes and write 10-15 sentences about what you have to offer to your visitors aka your products or services. Make sure you write it in a way that lets the reader know what is in it for them and how their lives will be better after visiting your site.

Examples:

"My Sculptural Firebowls are intended to have an immediate visual appeal as well as providing a story, meaning, and social interaction. They offer an opportunity to gaze into the fire and connect with the human questions that have enticed every imagination since we first gathered around a captive flame over a million years ago.." -  JohnTUnger.com

"My speciality is to use BOLD, visual designs to help your content spread online, cause people to drool over your products and make ‘em buy and spread it with endless fire inside..." -  MarsDorian.com

When you are done, create a headline for this section (it can be as simple as 'about this site')

• Set the alarm clock for another 25 minutes and write 10-15 sentences about yourself. Who are you? What is your story? What's your special talent or super power? How did you get started with your creative endeavor?

Examples:

"My passion for creative arts, computers and the internet was realized whilst I raised my four kids at home as a single mum, self teaching myself through books, tutorials, volunteering, traineeship and employment opportunities, I am self taught and have nurtured my ideas and goals daily for the last 13 years." - Webgrrl.biz

"I have always loved creating and sewing and started when I was 6 years old making my very first doll clothes.  I was lucky to have loving grandmothers who taught me the art of sewing and allowed me to pursue my creative outlet." - SoTweetFabrics.com

Then find a headline for this second section of the page (it can just be 'about me' or 'the team')

• Find a picture or two (or a video) of yourself to show on the about page. Too shy to put your pic up? Well, think of it like this: Would you rather buy something online from a site that has no pic of the owner or one that does have one? Exactly!

Easy right? After you're done, come back and post a link to your new about page in the comments. I'd love to see it!

Need Help?

I wrote this post because I know that most of my clients have a hard time planning and creating content for their new/redesigned artist website. Now you should have a clearer understanding of how to do it :)

If you have any questions, just post them in the comments and we will all try to help you out.

You can also book a Coaching Call with me and we will create a  content plan for your website together.

.

image by SugarBirdStudio.com

How To Plan & Create The Content For Your Artist Site first appeared on Creative Web Biz

Today I want to talk to you about a topic that not many people think about before hiring someone to build (or redesign) a website for them or before they create one for themselves.

However, overlooking this one simple step will either make or break your site.

It is the one single most important prerequisite you need to be absolutely clear about before you start planning the structure and the design (we will cover these other topics in the next couple posts).

You might think that the most important things to consider are the colors, graphics and how pretty it will all look in the end.

You couldn't be more wrong on this one.

And if you do not invest some time and thought into the really important stuff, your website will never be successful.

The secret to making more sales right from the start:

You might have just decided that you want to start selling your art or music online. Great, so it's time to get a website.

Or maybe you already sold on a third party platform like Etsy or iTunes for a while and decided you wanted to be more in control of your online shop.

Or maybe you already have a site but it's outdated and you're struggling to get traffic, let alone buyers.

Whatever your situation, here is what you need to do right now to make sure your new site will be worth the investment of your time and money:

Define the purpose of your website!

Ok, I see you're confused. "What are you talking about Yamile? The purpose? Well, the purpose is to sell my creative work, what else would it be?"

Wrong again! It's not that simple.

Here is a quick question that will show you that it is a bit more complicated than that:

How often have you bought a work of art or a song from a site you had never visited before or who's owner you don't know?

Exactly!

You can have the best looking website ever created and offer the most beautiful and exclusive products but still not sell a single item.

Not because your creative work sucks or because your website is not pretty enough but simply because your visitors, just like you, are not really inclined to buy from someone they don't know.

So what is the main purpose of your website?

The main purpose of your website is building a relationship with your visitors!

Studies show that a potential customer/client needs to be exposed to your products or services at least seven times before they will even consider buying from you.

This does not mean that they need to see that handmade necklace 7 times in a row.

Please don't go and flood their email inboxes or Twitter streams with sales pitches all the time.

So what can you do to build a lasting relationship with your potential customers?

Well, don't forget that your blog posts, your emails and your social media presence can also be considered products or services even though they are for free.

That is if they are useful to your fans and followers. Use them to bring value to other people and not just to serve your own selfish purposes.

Get it? It's really not any different from the offline world. You need to build trust and yes, it takes time to build that trust.

Here are some ways to build a lasting relationship with your website visitors:

• capture your visitors email addresses with a service like Mailchimp or Aweber. Then send them regular emails that in some way either educate, entertain or do both. An example would be to send out free downloads of new songs coming out just for email subscribers (maybe in exchange for a share or tweet).

• share your social media profiles and get them to connect with you there. You could have special giveaways on your Facebook page or do a live concert using a hangout on Google+ (which you can automatically record and post to Youtube)

• provide your phone number on your website so people can call you directly. This builds a lot of trust right from the get-go.

• come up with other ways to educate or entertain your customers and share them in the comments so we can all learn from each other.

(We will talk about all of these in detail in upcoming posts, so make sure you are subscribed to my newsletter to not miss out.)

Take 5 min to Improve your business in a major way (yes, right now):

What I want you to do right now is to go and get pen and paper or open Evernote on your laptop and jot down the primary, secondary and tertiary purpose of your site.

Remember the main purpose is to build a relationship with your site visitors but there are multiple ways to achieve this.

So take a look at the examples above, come up with your own ideas and find the best ways to build this relationship.

Then, based on your earlier defined purposes, find the one action you want visitors to take on every single page of your site. Each of them should have a'call to action' that serves the overall purpose of your entire site.

Have a look at my About page as an example. There is nothing else to do but to read my story and sign up for my newsletter. I removed the sidebar completely and also got rid of any other distractions that do not serve the purpose of this specific page which is to capture email addresses.

You will see that these modifications to your website will increase the overall number of sales because they will make your visitors and potentials customers want to come back again and again and therefore also buy more of your products.

Questions? Leave them in the comments and I will answer them!

image by Marcin Wichary

The No.1 Reason Your Artist Website Does Not Make You Any Money first appeared on Creative Web Biz

After helping several clients whose sites had been hacked over the last few weeks, I figured it would be a good idea to talk about WordPress security.

Many website owners do not think about security at all until it is too late but the 15 minutes it will take to secure your site are well worth it.

It will save you major headaches, especially if you are not very tech savvy and have no clue how to fix your site yourself after it has been hacked. It will also save you the money you will have to spend on someone to fix it for you.

So here are 4 easy steps you can take to prevent most hacker attempts right away:

1. Change your username 

This is something you have to do right away when you set up a WordPress site because it can't be changed later on. During the set up process you will be asked what username you want to use. The default is 'admin' and hackers know this which makes it a security risk . Change it to your own name or something else that makes sense for your site.

If you want to find out what your username is, you can do so by logging  into your site and clicking on 'your profile' in the left sidebar. There you will find a field that tells you what your username is.

2. Change your password regularly

Send yourself an email note or set up some other reminder to change your password at least every 3 months.

Do not use the name or birth date of yourself, your children or spouse and avoid any word that can be found in a dictionary. Picking these kinds of obvious passwords makes it too easy for hackers to corrupt your site. Use at least 9 characters and add some numbers and symbols, not just letters.

3. Update, update, update!

WordPress itself and all good themes and plugins are regularly being updated by their developers. Every time a new version comes out it also contains security updates so it is very important that you perform these updates as soon as they are released.

Yes, updates can be scary for non-techies. But you will either have to do it yourself or find someone to do it for you (contact me if you need help with this). Avoidance is not an option!

4. Install Wordfence

Wordfence Security is a free enterprise class security plugin for WordPress that includes a firewall, anti-virus scanning, malicious URL scanning and live traffic including crawlers. Just install it like any other plugin and if you enter your email in the plugin options panel it will warn you as soon as there are any security risks you need to act upon.

Do you have any security tips to add to this list? Please post them in the comments below!

image by Mark Fischer

How To Protect Your WordPress Site From Hackers first appeared on Creative Web Biz

Today I want to talk to you about 5 improvements you can make to your website to increase your sales.

I have helped over 300 artists, designers, writers and other creatives build their sites and online businesses so I know the most common mistakes creative people make when it comes to optimizing their websites for sales.

The following 5 ways to improve your site might all seem like very simple and obvious but I'm sure that there will be at least 2 or 3 you haven't implemented on your own site yet:

1) Make It Easy For People To Buy Your Products

Don't hide your art, crafts or music products somewhere on your site. Place them front and center so people can buy them right away instead of having to click multiple times to find and buy them.

2) Place Your Email Opt In form Above The Fold

Anyone who comes to your site should immediately see your email opt in form which they can use to sign up to your newsletter. They should not have to scroll to find it. You will lose a lot of potential customers/clients if you don't make sure it is placed in a strategic place above the fold of your site.

If you haven't started collecting emails yet, you want to start doing that right away. Go to Aweber.com (aff. link) or Mailchimp.com and sign up now!

3) Have A Picture Of Yourself On your About Page

Would you rather buy from a site that also has some info on the person that runs it or from an anonymous site? Exactly! Make sure you have an 'About' page that tells your customers a little bit about yourself and include at least one picture, maybe even a video in which you introduce yourself.

4) Get Testimonials From Your Customers

Ask some of your former customers to write a short testimonial for you and place them on your website. If you're new to the game, just give something away for free in exchange for a testimonial or review. People are always more likely to buy if they know that others where happy with the product or service. See some examples here.

5) Get Social Media Share Buttons

Let your visitors share your content, products and services with their friends and peers. It's free advertising! Place them on all blog posts and product pages and on other relevant pages.

What did you change on your site that made a difference in sales? Share it in the comments below so we can all help each other grow!

5 Ways To Optimize Your Artist Site For Sales [Video] first appeared on Creative Web Biz

The other day, when I logged in to BlogcastFMs online community I read something David Crandall said and I had to wholeheartedly agree:

"Don't agonize over design before you start"

Now this comes from a design guy with a 6 figure business intelligence career!

In other words, don't focus too much on all the little details when you plan to build a website, create a product or start any other project for that matter.

The basics should be covered of course. But in the end, all you really need to start are usually no more than three to five major components. Everything else can be added later on.

To build a basic website, you just need to install WordPress, find a theme you like, add some pages and optionally a blog.

If you want to start selling your products/services online, you simply install a shop plugin or get someone to do it for you.

Yes, design is important but honestly, there is no perfect design. There will always be stuff you want to change or improve. And that's okay!

Since I set up my very first website back in 2007, I have changed layouts, colors and other design details all the time!

I love tinkering on my site to improve it in all kinds of ways, but I don't let it keep me from doing what is most important: get my products and services out there, so I can help improve other people's lives.

And here is a little secret: If you are one of these people that do obsess over design (or other) details, be honest with yourself and admit that this might just be a form of procrastination.

Again, this is something I learned from my own experience and it cost me a lot of time and energy I could have used to do way more productive work.

Don't make the same mistake!

So, now that I admitted to being a recovering detail freak (yes, I'm a Virgo), let us know  in the comments if you are too :-)

Don’t focus too much on the details! first appeared on Creative Web Biz

Sites like Etsy, Zazzle, RedBubble, Society6 and other third party online shop solutions are great to get your feet wet when you start selling your creations online or if you don't have your own site yet to directly sell your work from.

However, I always recommend to get your own eCommerce enabled website as soon as possible so you can start selling directly from your own site.

Why? Well, here are seven reasons why I recommend selling from your own site rather than from an Etsy store:

1. More Control

Artfire decided to close all free accounts, Etsy has grown so much that it is hard to keep up with the competition and other online marketplaces closed their doors completely and left you out in the cold.

If you rely on any third party store solutions you have no control over your own business. That's not smart. You need to be in control of your own store and not be at the mercy of someone else.

2. No Customer Distractions

When you go and have a look at any Etsy or Zazzle store product page, you will find about 40 links that lure customers away from that page and away from that store!

On your own site this will not happen as all links will only lead to more of your own products.

3. Better Design

It's hard to stand out on Etsy and similar third party eCommerce solutions. All stores look and feel the same which also makes it hard for customers to remember your individual shop.

If you have a shop on your own site you can give it a design that brings out your individuality and that suits your products.

4. Easier List Building

The money is in the list. This is a truth that pretty much any internet marketer agrees with. You need to collect as many email addresses of (potential) customers as possible.

The good news is that all marketplaces that let you sell stuff from their site will indeed have mailing lists but the bad news is that they use them to increase their own business, not yours.

Now, if you sell from your own site you can use a service like Aweber to let people subscribe to your mailing list and then cross and upsell to them, send out special discount offers and even create automated email series.

5. Customer Convenience

If you have an Etsy store AND a website you have to send your customers from one site to the other and back. You also need them to remember two domain names, bookmark two sites and share content from two sites. Hmmm, that's not really ideal, is it?

It is way more convenient for your customers if your blog and shop reside under the same domain name, don't ya think?

6. More Referrals

A lot of people buy something on sites like Etsy, Zazzle etc. but in the end never remember the name of the individual shop or seller. So when asked where they got the beautiful earrings, necklace or painting they will just say they got it from Etsy. That's great for Etsy but not so much for you.

Selling from your own site will make it easier for them to remember you and your shop and tell others about it.

7. Better Search Engine Optimization

It's much easier to rank in Google search results with a shop on your own site than with an Etsy store. Yes, Etsy does give you some control over how your store will appear in search results.

But with your own WordPress shop or other online store you will be able to have much more granular control as you can change titles, set keywords, add a description and even get a free page analysis which tells you how to optimize each single page for SEO purposes.

4 Easy Ways To Create Your Own Online Shop

So you're convinced that third party stores like Etsy, Zazzle & Co are not ideal but you don't know how to set up your own eCommerce enabled website that doesn't break the bank and doesn't require you to learn how to code?

.

image by psdgraphics.

7 Reasons To Sell From Your Own Site Rather Than Etsy first appeared on Creative Web Biz

In my last post I told you guys in a video that I went location independent and will be traveling the world as a digital nomad. I've already been to Lisbon (Portugal), Arzon (France) and now I am currently in Antwerp (Belgium). I will stay in Europe for the summer and fall and then I will be off to Central/South America and the Caribbean.Yipee!

Free E-Course

After reading that post many of you sent me emails telling me that it is also your dream to leave your 9-5 jobs, start/grow your own online business, get rid of your stuff and then go wherever your heart leads you.

So I started thinking about how I could help you do it. And as for most of you the major problem is how to make enough money to make it happen, I decided to finally launch that free eCourse I've been talking about for a while now. It will start July 14 and it will teach you how to set up your own WordPress website, so you can start building that creative web biz you have been dreaming about and that will make you financially independent.

You don't need to be a tech geek and you also don't need a designer or anyone else to do this for you. I will help you with easy to understand step by step instructions. So if you're interested (and are not on my email list yet), go sign up here.

Other Resources

In the mean time, check out these other great blogs that also have great resources for (aspiring) digital nomads, travelers and other independent minded individuals:

• The Art of Non-Conformity

Chris Guillebeau plans to visit every country in the world before his 35th birthday. His Art of Non-Conformity (AONC) project chronicles his writing on how to change the world by achieving significant, personal goals while helping others at the same time. In the battle against conventional beliefs, he focuses on three areas: Life, Work, and Travel.

• Location 180

After his college graduation Sean Ogle worked two years crunching numbers at an investment firm. Aside learning he has a disdain for ties, he also realized that he didn’t want to spend his entire life chained to a desk working for someone else. So he started Location 180 and left his job to start the pursuit of his dreams. Now he is starting his new project Location Rebel with which he wants to help people to pursue a life that they are proud of, but more importantly, one that makes them happy.

• Thrilling Heroics

After losing two of his best friends in 2004, life kicked Cody McKibben in the ass with a bit of a wakeup call. He quit his job, moved abroad, and now he lives on the beach, travels regularly throughout Southeast Asia, and strives to help other young professionals live life on their own terms.

• BusinessBackpacker

Brooke Ferguson believes in challenging the norm & finding personal freedom. She does this by living abroad, traveling, climbing, diving, & running her business online. Brooke shows others how to create the Business & Lifestyle of their Dreams & Work from Anywhere in the World.

• NuNomad

"Working abroad" has taken on a whole new meaning. NuNomad is a new resource for those who wish to take their "at-home" jobs with them while they travel and live abroad. They’ll share with you what they know about the process of going from work-at-home to work-anywhere-you-damn-well-please.

.

from Antwerp, Belgium

Yamile Yemoonyah

How To Take Your Biz On The Road first appeared on Creative Web Biz

6 weeks ago I went location independent.

I got rid of almost all my stuff except for what fit in my backpack and then I left Berlin, Germany to become a digital nomad traveling the world indefinitely.

This has been my goal for a while now and I am truly proud to have made it a reality. It did take some dedication and a lot of hard work but it's possible.

There are many ways to go location independent but the way I do it, is through my online business: the CreativeWebBiz website and the services I offer on it (webite building and online biz consulting). All I need is my laptop which doubles as my office and I'm ready to go wherever my heart takes me.

And if I can do it, you can do it too!

We all have gifts and talents we can share with the world. And most of these can be built into an online business of your own. Just be a little creative and dare to think outside the box.

If you need help thinking about a way to make it work for you, just share the challenges you are facing in the comments below and I will be happy to share some tips, tricks, tools and resources with you!

from Arzon, France

Yamile Yemoonyah

Going Location Independent [Video] first appeared on Creative Web Biz

.

...and stop waiting for more money to make it happen. You don't need it!

Here are some steps you can take to start selling your creations or creative services right now. No investment needed but your own talents and skills!

• open an Etsy shop to sell your handmade creations
• get an account with RedBubble to sell your art prints
• offer your logo and graphic design skills on CrowdSpring
• sell your merchandise on Zazzle
• sell your music on BandCamp
• start a a blog on WordPress.com
• sign up to the Creative Web Biz newsletter to get notified of the free e-course that will be launched soon.

.

What are you waiting for? Get going!

Start Living Your Dream Now! first appeared on Creative Web Biz

Jennifer Lee of RightBrainBusinessPlan.com is holding the 'Right Brainers in Business Video Summit' (it's free and yes, you can still sign up!) and during the first session three days ago, her guest Andrea J. Lee got me thinking.

She introduced all viewers of the summit to her 'Hell Yes - Hell No' rule (update: Derek Sivers was the first to come up with this 'rule'. Read his original post here) . It's one of those really simple but highly effective rules that have the potential to completely transform your creative business and it goes like this:

The next time you have to take a business decision (or any other decision really ) and you're not sure if you want to go for it or not, just ask your heart about it. It will either say 'hell, yes' or 'hell no'.  Then go with the answer, no matter what you think you 'should' do! Still not sure because it's a 'maybe'? Well, 'maybe' goes in the 'hell, no' category. Simple as that.

I can promise you that if you start living by it, you will soon have much more fun running your business, and your productivity will also benefit as we all tend to only procrastinate on stuff we committed to but don't really like doing.

Try it out for yourself these next few days and then let me know how it worked for you in the comments below!

Yamile

.

p.s. I sent out an email about the Right Brainers in Business Video Summit to all my newsletter  subscribers before it started so they could take advantage of this great opportunity . If you don't wanna miss out next time around, you better sign up too (see top of sidebar)!

‘Hell, Yes’ or ‘Hell, No’? first appeared on Creative Web Biz

So here we are. It's finally 2011.

2010 was a tough year for many of us and I must admit I'm glad it's over. To me it felt like it was the year of many endings without being able to see the path ahead. The year of the Tiger mercilessly devoured everything that had to go so we would be prepared for what's coming next.

So what IS coming next?

As you might or might not know, I'm very much into Astrology (I'm a Virgo with Pisces ascendant for those of you who are curious) and here are my very own predictions for 2011:

This coming March the planet Uranus will finally move back into Aries after being retrograde (going backwards back into Pisces) for more than 6 months. What does this mean? Uranus is about change. With Uranus in Pisces (last 6 months) much is going on beneath the earth which we cannot see yet. Like seeds being sown and growing but not yet visible above the earth. Uranus in Aries is when change finally gets visible for all to see.

Don't know what I'm talking about? Here is what you need to know in one sentence:

We got three more months to sow some more seeds and then our creations will start to bloom and hopefully turn into a beautiful garden of brilliance.

So get crackin', use the energies of Uranus in Pisces to dream and envision what you want to create this year and then when the planet moves into Aries, see how things start unfolding!

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year, much success with your creative web biz and much love

Yamile

Ready to Reap what You Have Sown? first appeared on Creative Web Biz

Today I'm sitting at my desk sipping tea while outside it is snowing and the sky here in Berlin almost has the same color as the white streets and rooftops. The perfect day to write a post bout Christmas presents :-)

.

I'd rather be in the Studio - from 24$

The art marketing book for artists who want to sell more art by art biz coach Alyson B Stanfield. 'I’d Rather Be in the Studio! The Artist's No-Excuse Guide to Self-Promotion' offers practical advice to help them sell more art and build an art career that lasts.

Buy it before Dec 18 and get 5 bonus goodies (special reports):

• Artist Statements: What's the Big Deal with Something So Small?

• Unbelievably Dumb Mistakes Artists Make When Presenting Themselves

• Receive Feedback Gracefully to be a Better Artist

• 3-page Checklist for Promoting Your Exhibits & Events

• After the Sale: What do you do next?

.

Creating your 2011 Goddess Year Workbook & Planner - 9.95$

The popular Creating your Goddess Year Workbook & Planner by Goddess Leonie is back for 2011… and this time, it’s got a Calendar included!

It’s the best tool to help make 2011 an absolutely incredible year! It’s filled with 72 pages of worksheets & a printable calendar to help dream, manifest, set intentions, plan & cultivate an amazing new year. 2010 has been a big year. In this workbook, the year will be given thanks for, celebrated, healed and given closure. Then the workbook will help getting clarity on what the goals for 2011 are going to be. What will be created during it and how to make it happen.

The workbook is handwritten & rainbow illustrated… perfect to print out, soak up the rainbow colours of, and make 2011 a gorgeous year.

.

Blast Off Online Class - 97$

The Blast Off class by art biz coach Alyson B. Stanfield is a terrific blend of motivation, coaching, and practical business tools creatives can use to give their art career a big boost and take it to a new level. . It will be held January 5-28, 2011

In this class, they will . . .

• Decide to go for it
• Define success for themselves
• Commit to their vision
• Identify and personalize strategies
• Create good habits
• Release what they don't love
• Set boundaries
• Commit to accepting responsibility for their life
• Capture their Vision and plan to enact it
• Identify tasks they can hire out (or let go of)
• Complete a challenging (but workable) plan for the entire year

.

Marketing for Makers eCourse - 397$

The Marketing for Makers e-course by Megan Auman is designed to teach creative entrepreneurs the best methods to market their business to increase traffic and sales.  Not only that, but this course is designed specifically to help makers, designers, and crafters choose the right marketing strategies and develop a marketing plan they can actually stick to.

The Marketing for Makers e-course is for creatives if...

• They want to increase traffic (and sales) in their online shop. (Regardless of whether that shop is through Etsy, Big Cartel, their own e-commerce site, or some other solution.)
• They'd like to see their products featured in more blogs and magazines. (And perhaps a few newspapers and TV news broadcasts as well.)
• They want to get their products in more stores and galleries.
• They want to maximize their reach through blogs and social media.
• And they want to build a strong and consistent brand identity that pulls it all together.

.

The DIY Creative Web Biz Kit - 77€ (about 100$)

For artists, crafters, photographers, designers, musicians, cooks, clowns and other creative entrepreneurs who would love to finally get a professional website with their own domain name but lack the money to hire an expensive web designer and  the technical skills to do it themselves. With the Creative Web Biz Kit they can start building an online biz around their talents and gifts and start making a living while doing what they love, what they care for and what is important to them!

It  includes a basic WordPress  set-up (a state of the art website software) and an e-course that will teach them to design and customize the new website to their own liking and make changes to the site any time they’d like, in any way they’d like. This way they are not dependent on a designer and are then able to grow the site into the foundation of their creative online biz.

If they are passionate about what they do and  are willing to make it happen no matter what, this might just be the start to earning a living with doing what they love!

.

That's it! I think these are great gifts for any creative entrepreneur. If you know any others, please let us know in the comments!

Gifts for Creative Entrepreneurs first appeared on Creative Web Biz

Have you ever heard of the 1000 fan theory?

Some years ago I came across a very interesting blog post by Kevin Kelly, who says that any artist, designer, musician, performer, author or any other kind of  creative entrepreneur only needs 1000 true fans to make a living while doing what they love.

A True Fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can't wait till you issue your next work. They are true fans.

Now, if each of these fans spends 100$ a year on any of your creative products or services, you will make 100 000$ a year!

.

Imagine this:

Wouldn't it be absolutely awesome and amazing to be surrounded not by fad and fashionable infatuation, but by True Fans, a circle of 1000 people supporting you not only financially but also by spreading the word about you and thereby finding you new fans?  And how about the benefit from the direct feedback and love you will receive? We all know that our creative juices flow more readily when we feel  acknowledged, appreciated and  supported, right?

.

How to get 1000 fans!

The internet and it's technologies of connection and small-time manufacturing make this possible.

• Your website or blog functions as the central hub where you showcase and sell new work.
• Your Facebook Like page and your Twitter account help get the word out and find people who are truly interested in what you do.
• Sites like RedBubble and Zazzle let you print on demand without having to invest any money up front.
• It's also easy to get your music on iTunes
• email newsletters keep your fans updated

Try any or all of the above, keep at it and I assure you, you will find people that LOVE what you do and will gladly spend 100$ a year on you.

Let me know what you think in the comments section, I would love to hear your take on this!

1000 True Fans Is All You Need to Succeed as a Creative Entrepreneur! first appeared on Creative Web Biz

As a child I read the ' Parabel of the Talents' for the very first time. It's a Bible story that stuck with me ever since:

It's about three servants who are gifted by their master with talents when he leaves to travel to a faraway place. One of them is given five talents, the second one two talents and the last is given one. When the master returns, the first two guys have put their talents to work and doubled what they had been entrusted with but the third one has just hidden his talent away because he feared loosing it.

Who do you think was rewarded and who was being called a 'wicked and slothful servant'? Exactly!

So, what do you do with your talents and gifts? Do you waste them in a nine to five job that does not fulfill you? Do you tell yourself that you will make them your hobby on the side or do you even forget about them altogether?

Or are you ready to believe in yourself  and finally make that leap to start earning a living with what you really love doing?

If an investor showed up and gave you 500$ or €, would you double your talents by investing in yourself or would you hide the money under your mattress?

What? No one is going to give you 500 bucks? Well, be your own master and start giving yourself 100$ or 50€ or even just 20 to invest in yourself and get your creative biz going.

You really don't need a fortune to get started. You just need to believe in yourself and acknowledge the gift you have been given!

Ready to rock?

Here are three tips to get you going:

• subscribe to blogs that will teach you how to sell your creations online
• learn how to set-up a Like Page on Facebook
• get your own website to sell your creations or creative services online

The Parabel of the Talents for Creative Entrepreneurs first appeared on Creative Web Biz

11 beautiful e-commerce themes to transform your WordPress site into an online shop.  With these themes you can sell art, fashion, e-books, furniture, jewelry, art and everything else too!

.

eStore

39$ per year / live demo /  more info

.

.

T-Shirt Shop Theme

79$ / live demo / more info

.

.

ViroShop

35$ / live demo / more info

.

.

e-Commerce

65$ / live demo / more info

.

.

MarketTheme

55$ / live demo / more info

.

.

The Jewelry Shop

45$ / live demo / more info

.

.

WP Store

65$ / live demo / more info

.

.

The Clothes Shop

40$ / live demo / more info

.

.

eBook

65$ / live demo / more info

.

.

The Furniture Store

45$ / live demo / more info

.

.

SimpleCart

30$ / live demo / more info

.

11 Beautiful E-Commerce WordPress Themes first appeared on Creative Web Biz

The other day I got an email from an artist who had recently lost her day job and was now asking me for advice on how she could turn her art, that she had always just done on the side, into a career to support herself financially. So I wrote back and offered her some coaching via email. And because I knew she wouldn't have much money to spend, I asked her to just pay me whatever she could afford and thought my coaching was worth to her.

Her answer was that she couldn't take my offer because she had to be careful with spending. That was the first time I thought that maybe this person might not  really want to become a creative entrepreneur. Why did I think that? Because if she was really serious about starting an online biz to sell her work, she would have jumped at the occasion. I know I did when Naomi Dunford had a 'pay what you want'  sale over at IttyBiz. I got 'Marketing 101' (worth 197$) and 'SEO School' (worth 29$) together for 25 Dollars. I din't have any more money at the time, so that's what I paid!

My advice: If you can get something that will help you achieve your goals for free or really cheap, grab that chance. There is just no excuse whatsoever to not go for it!

Anyway, although I was baffled, I still wanted to help and so I sent her a list of blog posts I had written that I thought would give her valuable information on how to proceed.  But in her next email I was told she would follow up on my suggestions in the near future, but she was not just short on money but also on time.

Now I was truly speechless. I had tried to help an artist, who had asked me for advice, just to find out I was wasting my time. I'm actually still wondering why she came to me in the first place. To me it did definitely not seem like she had the right mindset to launch a career as a creative entrepreneur. Now don't get me wrong. I'm not saying she will never make it, but there is one quality we all need if we want to make a living by selling our creations or creative services online:

We need to be passionate about what we do! It needs to burn like fire inside of us and we need to really want it, give everything we have to make it work and grab every opportunity to move forward in our endeavors.  If this is not true for you, you can stop right now and go do something else. If you don't feel this passion, please don't bother visiting this blog again because you will be wasting your time!

But if you are passionate about your creations or creative services and you will take any chance you can get to get ahead with your creative web biz, I am more than happy to help you achieve your goals in any way I can: Read the blog, sign up for the newsletter (upper right side bar),  grab the chance to get the Creative Web Biz Kit for free until Oct 31 and you can even email me and ask for personal coaching. Just don't waste your own and my time!

Are You Passionate Enough To Make It As A Creative Entrepreneur? first appeared on Creative Web Biz

.

What is E-Junkie?

E-Junkie is a simple yet powerful selling solution which works on your site or any other site where you want to use it. They don't impose a bloated shop on you, but just provide you buy now and shopping cart buttons which you can paste anywhere on your site to sell downloads and tangible goods using PayPal , Google Checkout, Authorize.Net, TrialPay, ClickBank and 2CheckOut.

You can sell artwork,  mp3 tracks and albums, e-books, event tickets, cds, posters, books, t-shirts and almost everything else you want to sell. For people selling downloads, they automate and secure the digital delivery of files and codes. If you are selling tangible goods, they automate the shipping calculation and inventory management. Their shopping cart has a built in sales tax, VAT, packaging and shipping cost calculator.

They only charge a monthly subscription fee starting at 5$ a month (10 products, 50MB). With 60 products, 500MB and the possibility to issue downloads from your own server, it would be 18$ a month or 12$ if you have tangible goods only. There is no bandwidth cost, transaction fees or any other hidden fees.

BTW, one of the most attractive features of E-junkie is that it lets you create your very own affiliate program. You can find instructions on how to set it up here.

Why I recommend E-Junkie

Unlike "licensed" e-commerce solutions, E-junkie does not require you to install and configure any software on your own server nor obtain an SSL security certificate for your domain. They spare you all that technical hassle by managing the back-end software for you, and checkouts are handled securely by using either a trusted payment processor's own secure checkout site (e.g. PayPal) or a secure checkout page E-junkie generates for your payment gateway (e.g. Authorize.Net).

Unlike many other "hosted" e-commerce solutions, E-junkie does not require you to send buyers to a shopping page you'd maintain on E-Junkies site (though you could still do that if you wish), nor do they impose any page template on your product listings. Rather, they simply provide you with purchase buttons to place on your own Web site, wherever you wish among your own product pictures, text, and layout; better yet, the standard shopping cart appears as an overlay "inside" your own site, presenting a smooth shopping experience for your buyers within your existing site branding.

Finally, unlike the native shopping cart solutions provided by various payment processors that lock you into using their own payment service, the E-junkie cart lets you accept checkout payments via multiple different payment processors and allows each buyer to pick which payment method they prefer among those you accept.

How does it work?

• Once you register for E-junkie to start your 7 day free trial, then you can start adding products in your E-junkie Seller Admin. For each product, they provide ready-made HTML code for your E-junkie cart buttons and buy now buttons (you can use either or both types of button, based on your needs). Simply copy this button code and paste it into your website.

• A buyer clicks on your E-junkie purchase button and reaches the checkout page, where they pay you directly via your chosen payment processor. The payment processor notifies E-junkies server when they complete the payment, and their server verifies the payment confirmation and screens for pricing fraud.

• After payment is completed, E-junkie grants the buyer access to a thank-you page and also issues them a thank-you email with a link to reach the thank-you/download page in case they did not proceed there after checkout.

How to Sell Stuff from Your Site/Blog with E-Junkie first appeared on Creative Web Biz

image by Mike Licht

If you have a blog (or website) where you sell your creations or creative services, there are 6 basic element you will need to implement if you want to succeed with your online business.

Add an About Page

Have a page where you tell people about yourself, your art, writing, designs or other creative skills or services. Definitely insert one or more pictures, preferably at least one of yourself. People like to know who they are dealing with. If you don't know what to write, check out the about pages of your favorite artist bloggers and/or other creative biz people (new to the game and don't know how to create a page? check out this video to learn how)

Provide RSS Feeds and/or Updates via Email

Let people subscribe to the content of your blog by providing them with an RSS feed or the possibility to receive updates via email. This way they will not always have to come back to your site to see what's new, but will get new posts automatically delivered to their inbox. Google has a service that does exactly that. It's called Feedburner and you can sign up for free. If  you need some help, check out this video that will explain exactly how to integrate Feedburner with your WordPress blog.

Show Links to Your Social Homes

Do you have a Twitter account, a Facebook fan page, an Etsy store? Link to them from your blog, so people can find and follow you on their favorite social networks. There are many great WordPress plugins to help you do it. My favorite one is called Social Homes and shows a subtle list of clickable icons in your sidebar.

Add Like and Retweet Buttons

The more people tweet about, like and share your blog posts, the more people will come and check out your creations and creative services. To make it easy for them add either the ShareThis or the SexyBookmarks plugin.

Get a Creative Commons License

Provide Your Contact Info

This might seem a no brainer but unfortunately a lot of blogs don't have this. No contact, no business, that's how it is!

Gravatar

Your Gravatar is an image that follows you from site to site appearing beside your name when you do things like comment or post on a blog. Avatars help identify your posts on blogs and web forums, so why not on any site? Setting up Gravatars on your site is easy; you don't even need an account! The beauty of it is that people can recognize your comments across the net and it therefore automatically promotes your personal brand aka your creative web.

.

What other basic elements do you think should every blog or site have? Let us know in the comments, so we can all learn and grow our creative online biz.

7 Basic Elements of a Blog You Need to Succeed with Your Creative Biz first appeared on Creative Web Biz

>paper money extreme macro by kevindooley

About Affiliates and Synchronicity

Today I'm in an exceptionally good mood due to the fact that I seem to be in full alignment with the Universe. I'm enjoying lots of  synchronicities all around me and here is the one I want to share with you:

I had been planning to start an affiliate program for the Creative Web Biz Club a while back but I just never fund the time for it. Now, about a week ago, I finally started reading up on the topic and guess what happened? Tony Snipes of the Art Lessons from God blog contacted me to ask if we could work out an affiliate program with each other! So, not only did I find my first affiliate without having a program yet, no, he found me!

That was a very good reason for me to finally kick myself in the butt and make things happen. I went over to e-junkie.com, created the program, wrote an info page for my future affiliates here on the blog and then thought I should tell you how this whole thing is done, so you too can go and earn some money by setting up your own affiliate program for your creations or creative services:

.

Get an E-Junkie Account:

E-Junkie is a service that helps you sell online by providing a simple shopping cart solution for physical and digital goods. One of the most attractive features of this service is that you can set up your very own affiliate program with it!

So go on over and register for a one week free trial (if  you like the service and decide to stay on, you will then be charged a monthly 5$ fee).

List Your Product:

Go to "add product" under "Manage Products" and check the appropriate requirements for what you want to sell. Set your price and  currency and add an optional customized email message to your customers. After submitting your info, you will be redirected to copy your "Add to Cart" button code and paste it into your website or blog.

Create Product Specific Affiliate Programs:

After logging in you will find yourself  in the admin panel of your account. Click on "setup product specific affiliate programs" under "Manage Products". Select your product then click "Add/Edit Affiliate Settings". Fill in the Affiliate Share (mine is 20%) and define the url of your sales page.

Create Common Affiliate Program:

Go to "Seller Admin" (see nav bar) and "Affiliate Settings". Here you can create a common affiliate program for your whole account (read all products). Set your affiliate share and landing page url again and decide if you want your program to appear in the E-Junkie Marketplace.

Let People Sign Up:

Now you can copy your Affiliate Sign-Up link from the bottom yellow box on the same page and paste it into your website, newsletter, Facebook page, your email signature line or any other place around the web.

Join Other People's Programs And Earn Some Money:

I started experimenting with affiliate programs just about 3 months ago and now I make about 100$ a month through being an affiliate for several products and services. All I do is recommend stuff like ebooks and services that I use myself and like so much that I want to tell others about it anyway, just like I do here with e-junkie.  So instead of just using a normal link, I insert affiliate links. I'm planning to use this kind of passive income a lot more in the future!

So go and check if your favorite websites and blogs offer an affiliate program. You will usually find a link to an info page either in the nav bar or somewhere near the bottom of the site.

And of course you are very welcome to join our very own Creative Web Biz Affiliate Program!

How To Set Up Your Own Affiliate Program With E-Junkie first appeared on Creative Web Biz

.

.

So you are an artist, crafter, designer, cook , clown or some other type of creative entrepreneur and started building your online biz. You got your e-commerce enabled website/ blog, you have a Facebook fan page and you are now wondering what else you can do to power up your marketing.

Well, Laura Bray of Katydiddy wrote a new ebook to introduce you to electronic newsletters or ezines, one of the best and least expensive marketing tools out there today. Laura is an artist with an MBA. She loves to share business and marketing advice with other artists and crafters so that they can make money doing what they love.

The Easy Ezines Ebook is 27 pages and contains 9 chapters that walk you through all the necessary steps to create your very first professional newsletter. Each chapter ends with an assignment or action step to make things easy for you.

Lesson One: Choosing a Service
Lesson Two: Getting Focused
Lesson Three: Subscribers
Lesson Four: Auto Forms and Subject Lines
Lesson Five: The Introduction
Lesson Six: The Article
Lesson Seven: Monetizing Your Ezine Part One
Lesson Eight: Monetizing Your Ezine Part Two
Lesson Nine: Scheduling Your Ezine

Sounds good right? And you get all this for just 15$.

So go on, sign up to Aweber (the newslwetter service that I use and love), follow the advice Laura gives you in this wonderful ebook and start your very own Ezine. It will definitely get you more customers/clients and help you sell your stuff, be it art, music or any other kind of creation or creative service!

And if you are interested in more ebooks that will help you with your creative web biz, you will also want to check out my earlier post on Business Ebooks & Audios for Creative Entrepreneurs.

.

p.s. don't forget to sign up for our very own Creative Web Biz newsletter to get notified of updates and special offers :-)

How To Start A Newsletter-The Easy Ezines Ebook [Review] first appeared on Creative Web Biz

How to get started: This is the first step to sell music online

You're an independent artist and would looooove to sell music online but don't know where to start?  Well, it's actually not that hard and you don't even need a lot of money to do it either, so here we go: This is what you need to sell music online.

What you need is an online distributor who will get your music on iTunes, Rhapsody, Napster and all the other major online music stores. Below are listed 4 websites that will do all this for you. Make your pick and get started!

Choose your distributor:

• CDBaby is the best choice to sell music online

Upload and sell singles or full albums on iTunes, Amazon MP3, Rhapsody, Napster, eMusic and more. No annual fees, 35$ per album, 9$ per single. These prices include CD and download sales on CDBaby.com and worldwide digital and physical distribution. CD-Baby gets 9% of your net income and 4$ per physical CD sold (see pricing details).

Example artist page: El Puente on CDBaby

• Tunecore is also a good choice to sell music online

Tunecore sells through iTunes, Amazon MP3, eMusic, Thumbplay, Napster and  AmyStreet. They also provide physical on demand distribution through Amazon. Prices are 9.99$ per single or ringtone, 47.99$ per album, you keep 100% of your royalties.

No artist pages

• Songcast

SongCast delivers music to iTunes US and other international iTunes Stores, Rhapsody, Amazon MP3, Emusic, Napster & MediaNet. They ask for a monthly fee of $5.99 plus onetime setup fee of $19.99 per album or $9.99 per single. This includes a free UPC Barcode for every release (the other services charge extra for the code).

Example artist page: Simonne Lee on Songcast

• ReverbNation 

Sell your music on iTunes, Amazon, etc. and keep 100% of the royalties. Use the free Reverb Store to sell T-shirts, CDs, downloads, hats and ringtones directly to fans on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and your home page or blog.. 34.95$ per year for the 'Essential' package, 59.95$ for the 'Pro' package.

Example artist page: Bantu on ReverbNation

You'd rather sell independently? Then chose this route to sell music online

• Bandcamp is the way to sell independent music online

Bandcamp does not distribute your music but rather makes it possible to sell it form your own personalized site . Instead of ads for Sexy Singles Chat, your fans see your design, your music, your URL. You retain all ownership rights and Bandcamp just hangs out in the background handling the tech stuff. They offer your tracks in mp3, AAC, FLAC, Ogg...all the formats your fans demand. Choose between giving away your music, setting a price, letting folks name their price – it’s up to you.

Example artist page: Kiko King on Bandcamp

Promotion:

Now, that your music is for sale online, you still need to let people know about it, otherwise there will be nobody to buy it, right? Here are the three things you will need:

• A Facebook fan page

If you don't have a FB page yet (and I'm not talking about your personal profile here) , go and read '10 Facebook Fan Page Tips for Creative Entrepreneurs' immediately!

• A SoundCloud account

SoundCloud lets you move music fast & easy. The platform takes the daily hassle out of receiving, sending & distributing music for artists, record labels & other music professionals.

But here is the most important part: All your public tracks come with the coolest audio player widget on the web. It's customizable in a matter of seconds and completely flexible to what info you need to show around your tracks. It even lets you link to iTunes, Bandcamp or other any place people can buy your music. This widget can be posted all around the web: your website, blog, Facebook profile or page, you name it!

Example artist page: Braintheft on Soundcloud

• The SoundCloud app on Facebook

The SoundCloud app allows you to put tracks that are on SoundCloud.com right in your Facebook profile and page, complete with timed comments, a crisp waveform display and all.

Example: Braintheft fan page

Ready to rock! Then get started to sell your music online

Upload your music to the distributor of your choice and to SoundCloud, link the player widget back to where you sell your music (i.e. ITunes) and then hook up the SoundCloud app on Facebook to let your friends and fans know they can finally buy your music online!

How To Sell Music Online first appeared on Creative Web Biz

After I decided to switch domain names from Kabai33.com to CreativeWebBiz.com, I started researching how to go about it.  Most blog posts I found on the topic described methods that included  mod-rewrites, altering my .htaccess file  and moving all of my files to another place...too complicated for me! I like it simple! Usually I am always happy to improve my skills but this time I really didn't feel like investing the time to figure it all out. So I found an easier way and here is how it works:

1. Register your new domain with your web host.
2. Ask your web host  to make the new url your main domain. This means that your account, your databases, your files and everything else will be automatically renamed to match your new web address.
3. Create a permanent redirect  (301) from your old domain to your new one (if you don't know how to do this, ask your web host to help you with this). A 301 will make sure that everyone who tries to find you under the old url will be redirected to the new one.
4. Change all external links that point to your site, e.g. the links on your Facebook page and your Twitter profile.
5. Make the Google juice flow by submitting your new site url, so they can start crawling and indexing it.

That's it!

Easy right? When you're done, let me know how it worked out for you in the comments.

Domain Name Transfer The Easy Way first appeared on Creative Web Biz

How to Conquer Marketing and Make a Living With Your Art

.

.

A one hour audio interview with Naomi Dunford  and Megan Morris about art, marketing and running an ittybiz. Very important things that you can do to help the right people find you, like you, and want to buy from you.

• Hear how you can do what YOU want in you art, and still make money;
• Hear why artists don’t need a USP (lucky you!);
• Hear why custom furniture is the place to look for marketing advice;
• Advice on ways to get more eyeballs on your stuff;
• Hear why high-end art is the way to go if you hate marketing;
• Hear how you might be able to make more money by taking donations instead of selling your art straight-trade

How to Conquer Marketing & Make A Living With Your Art by Naomi Dunford of IttyBiz.com

.

10 Steps to Powerful Online Self Promotion for Creatives

.

.

Freelancers and people in creative professions  are often very good at the work they do, but, because they have little insight into how to promote their work, find themselves with little recognition, few sales and very few decent clients. Not getting the recognition and the clients you deserve can be frustrating, especially when you know you need to promote yourself and your work, but just lack the tools and the know-how to do so effectively.

10 Steps to Powerful Online Self Promotion for Creatives by Alex Mathers of Red Lemon Club

.

.

I'd rather be in the Studio! The Artist's No-Excuse Guide to Self-Promotion

.

If  your ready to get past the excuses you've been making for your lack of success...if you're ready to get out of the studio and take charge...this book will offer practical advice to help you sell more art and build an art career that lasts.

This book is the result of more than a decade consulting with artists. Alyson Stanfield wrote it for every artist who wants more recognition. Yes, you may have heard of some of this before, but you have never had all of this information in a single resource. I promise.

I'd rather be in the Studio by Alyson B. Stanfield of ArtBizBlog

Tip: also check out the other ebooks by Alyson

.

Multiple Streams of Income: A Guide to Creating Income for Artists and Crafters

.

.

In order to create the financial success you desire, you have to find multiple ways to bring in income. You should have a good combination of active and passive income. Read this ebook and you’ll have the beginning of a basic plan and a focus on the areas you need to work on in order to achieve success in your business and make a living doing what you really love.

Multiple Streams of Income: A Guide to Creating Income for Artists and Crafters by Laura Bray of  KatyDiddy

.

Business Ebooks & Audios for Creative Entrepreneurs first appeared on Creative Web Biz

image by cassandrajowett

Almost three years ago I decided to start selling my art online. I knew I had to get a professional blog and my own business email address. So I signed up with BlueHost to get both.

I did have a Gmail account which worked fine but I wanted something more professional looking. No more myname@gmail.com for me.  I wanted myname@mydomain.com and that is what I got. But when I  sent my first email I discovered that the email clients my web host uses are not at all as sophisticated as Gmail is.

I was disappointed and didn't know how to solve my problem until I found the solution using Gmail's Mail Fetcher. It can download messages from up to five other email accounts, centralizing all your email in Gmail. Once you've set up Mail Fetcher, Google will check your other accounts on a regular basis, and new mail will appear automatically in Gmail. But the best part is that the recipients of the mail you sent from Gmail will only get to see your other, more professional business email address!

Here is how it works:

• Go to your domain registrar control panel and create an email forwarding account for your domain (most registrars offer this feature for free with your domain registration).

• Log into your gmail account

• Go to  Settings in the upper right corner of your Gmail screen

• Open the Accounts and Imports tab

• Find the Check mail using POP3 section and click on Add Pop3 Email Account. Type in the email address of the account you want to access, click Next Step

• Check if the sample settings are correct and enter your password

• Now you can choose if you want the retrieved emails to be deleted in your other account or if you want  to leave a copy on the server.

• Click Add Account

• Create custom From address. This allows you to compose messages in Gmail, but have them appear to be sent from your other email account.

Done!

How To Make Gmail Your Business Email first appeared on Creative Web Biz

Standard Plugins:

• WordPress Database Backup

by Austin Matzko

No matter what kind of blog you have, you will definitely need this plugin! It will help you backup your blog so you are always on the safe side if something should ever happen to your blog (which I hope will never occur of course).

I set it up to create daily backups that go straight to the trash of my gmail account (you can do this by going to settings and creating a filter). If I ever need it, I just go there and download the latest version.

• WP Super Cache

by Donncha O Caoimh

WP Super Cache is a static caching plugin for WordPress.  What does that mean? Well, by using this plugin you will speed up your WordPress blog significantly. The faster, the better. Your readers will like it and Google will like it too!

• FD Feedburner Plugin

by John Watson

If you have a FeedBurner account (and you should!), this plugin will help you make sure that all your subscribers get redirected to your Feedburner feed and therefore will appear in your stats.

.

Search Engine Optimization:

• All in One SEO Pack

by Michael Torbert

Out-of-the-box SEO for your WordPress blog. If you ever googled your own blog, you will know that the listing consits of the title, two lines of text and your url (web address). This plugin makes it easier for you to control what exactly will be shown.

• Google XML Sitemaps

by Arne Brachhold

A sitemap is a list of pages of a web site accessible to search engine crawlers or users. This plugin will generate a special XML sitemap which will help search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask.com to better index your blog.

• SEO FriendlyImages

by Vladimir Prelovac

As creative entrepreneurs, most of you will have lots of visuals on your blogs. This plugin automatically adds alt and title attributes to all your images which helps to improve traffic from search results, especially from Google images.

.

Comments:

• CommentLuv

by Andy Bailey

Plugin to show a link to the last post from the commenters blog (if they have one) when they leave a comment. Rewards your readers and encourages more comments.

• Subscribe to Comments

by Mark Jaquith

When someone comments on one of your posts, they are usually  interested in your reply or other comments on that same post. This plugin allows readers to receive notifications of new comments that are posted to an entry through email.

.

Engaging Readers:

• Social Homes

by Elie Zananiri

Adds a sidebar widget containing a subtle list of all your social homes as linked favicons (see my sidebar). Current services include anything and everything! Just add the full URL to the list of services and Social Homes will figure out what the icon is automatically.

• LinkWithin

by linkwithin.com

LinkWithin is a blog widget that appears under each post, linking to related stories from your blog archive. The widget links to stories that are relevant and interesting to readers of a particular post, keeping them engaged with your blog, and increasing your traffic. It is minimally styled and blends in with your site design (see example below this post)

• Sexy Bookmarks

by Josh Jones, Jamie Carter, Gautum Gupta, Norman Yung

SexyBookmarks adds a list of social bookmarking icons to each of your posts so your readers can share tese posts on their favorite social networks.

• Post Footer Library

by Atlantic Dominion Solutions

This plugin allows you to create a library of code snippets and easily include them at the bottom of Blog Posts on your WordPress powered blog. Add any text or even html. You can use it to remind your readers to subscribe to your blog or to follow you on Twitter or whatever else you wan them to do

.

Visuals:

• Shadowbox JS

by Matt Martz

A blog only allows for a certain width of an image due to it's design. To allow people to view your images in a bigger version, they could click through to the original file. Shadowbox offers a more elegant solution. Clicking on the image will now darken your screen and overlay it with your image.

.

Want more?

Find more plugins by opening the "plugin" drop down menu in the left sidebar of your WordPress dashboard. Select "Add New" and start searching by keyword, author or tag

13 WordPress Plugins for Creative Entrepreneurs first appeared on Creative Web Biz

1.  A Simple Guide to Creative Visioning

.

Creative visioning isn’t so much about making dreams come true, it’s about becoming the dream come true.  So this map doesn’t lead you to a physical destination, it leads within - guiding you in aligning to the greatest aspects of yourself. When you are fully aligned with your creative genius, miracles happen and dreams come true. In creative visioning we discover that our dream already exists and is waiting for us to come true!

12$

A Simple Guide to Creative Visioning by Andrea Schroeder of ABC Creativity

Follow @ABCCreativity on Twitter

.

2.  2010: Creating My Goddess Year Workbook & Planner

.

.

The  2010: Creating My Goddess Year Workbook & Planner is  is filled with 40 pages of worksheets to help you dream, manifest, set your intentions, plan & cultivate your amazing new year. It’s handwritten & illustrated… perfect for you to print out, soak up the rainbow colours of, and make 2010 your gorgeous goddess year.

9.95$

Want to share the fun?  It's also available in discounted packs of two (for yourself and a friend), of  five (for all your best friends) and as a gift voucher.

2010: Creating My Goddess Year Workbook & Planner by Goddess Leonie of  GoddessGuidebook

Follow @GoddessLeonie on Twitter

.

3. The Right Brain Business Plan Ebook

.

.

This colorful, out-of-the-box e-Book, guides you through the creative process of envisioning your business and crafting your unique and personal business plan. It’s like having your own creative cohort alongside you for inspiration and motivation! Takes you all the way from the vision through the action plan.

19.95$

Right Brain Business Plan Ebook by Jennifer Lee of RightBrainBusinessPlan

Follow @artizencoaching on Twitter

.

4.  Multiple Streams of Income: A Guide to Creating Income for Artists and Crafters

.

.

In order to create the financial success you desire, you have to find multiple ways to bring in income. You should have a good combination of active and passive income. Read this ebook and you’ll have the beginning of a basic plan and a focus on the areas you need to work on in order to achieve success in your business and make a living doing what you really love.

10$

Multiple Streams of Income: A Guide to Creating Income for Artists and Crafters by Laura Bray of  KatyDiddy

Follow @katydiddy on Twitter

.

4 Creative Ebooks That Help You Make Your Dreams Come True! first appeared on Creative Web Biz

When I started  Creative Web Biz all I had was a dream. A dream of making a living while doing what I love. It took me a while to get where I am right now (and I am still just at the beginning), ut I have already learned a lot on the way. And I know that there are many artists, cooks, writers, musicians and other creatives out there who feel that it's time to get serious and build a business around their talents. That is why I started Creative Web Biz. I want you to follow your own dreams and find your own happiness . Why?  Let's just say  I'm convinced that the more happy people we are here on planet earth, the better for all of us!

Following are five easy steps that will help you set up your own creative web biz:

1. GET A WEB HOST AND  A DOMAIN NAME:

HOSTING:

What is a web host and why do I need one? A web host basically lets you rent web space on which you can then install your own blog or site.Many of you might already have a blog on blogger, wordpress.com or typepad but the problem with not self-hosted blogs is that you have no real control over your blog. If  for example Blogger decides to close your account, there is very little you can do and you will lose your content, your readers and basically the foundation of your web biz. This has happened to more people than you would think and you don't want it to happen to you. This is why I recommend  you start a self-hosted blog (you can easily import any exsisting blog posts  from all major blogging sites) . To do so  you need a web host. I use BlueHost. They are number one on wordpress.org's recommnded web host list and they offer an easy installment of wordpress and a free domain name to go with the account. You can get one for only 6.95$ a month.

DOMAIN NAME:

If you already have a name for your creative web biz, great. If you don't, here is a short list of things you might want to consider:

- short and memorable makes it easy for people to find you

- your own name is always a good choice

-  if it's more than one word, use hyphens for better reading (rose-seymour.com instead of roseseymore.com)

Remember, one domain name is free (if you already have one you can transfer it) if you sign up with a host.

2. INSTALL WORDPRESS:

Go to wordpress.org (not wordpress.com) and download the software. Then watch the video. It will show you how to  install wordpress on BlueHost in approximately 5-10 minutes.

3. THEMES + PLUGINS:

THEMES:

Now that your blog is installed you want to find a theme that represents what your creative web biz is about.  I listed ten of them in my ten wordpress themes for artists post. They contain both free ones as well as premium ones.

The first place to look for themes would definitively be the the official wordpress themes directory. There alone you will find over 750 skins for your blog.

If you have some money to spend , you can also go for a premium theme. My theme was created by Thad Allender from GraphPaperPress. He designed this one as well as all his other themes especially with artists, designers and photographers in mind. Go check it out.

Best WordPress Themes has a great list of more than 60 themes that are certainly also worth looking at.

PLUGINS:

Plugins are modules that add to or improve the core functionality of wordpress. They will help you customize your blog and just like there is a themes directory there is also a  plugins directory with over 4000 plugins. Some of these plugins are essential but not very obvious to newbie creative entrepreneurs :

All In One SEO Pack - Out-of-the-box search engine optimization for your WordPress blog

WP- Super Cache - Very fast caching plugin for WordPress. It will help to speed up your blog.

WordPress Database Backup - On-demand backup of your WordPress database

Google XML Sitemaps - This plugin will generate a sitemaps.org compatible sitemap of your WordPress blog which is supported by Ask.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO

For more plugins  go to the plugins directory and search with keywords like gallery, shops, forums or whatever else your little blogger heart desires.

You can also start out by browsing the most popular plugins to see what others use.

4. START SELLING:

As independent artists we all have something to sell, be it paintings, crafts, music, a book or a theme we developed. There are three different ways to do this. You can either sell through a hosted shop solution like Etsy or you start selling  directly from your blog or your Facebook and MySpace profiles.

HOSTED SHOPS:

The most common way to sell for artist entrepreneurs is through  hosted shop networks. These shops are  easy to set up , there is no inital investment required and the sites will automatically attract customers for you (although this will not be enough, you will definitively have to go out and promote your shop).

ART/PHOTO PRINTS - RedBubble , Imagekind

SELF PUBLISHING - Lulu (also ebooks), Smashwords (ebooks), Blurb ( very good photobooks)

ALL THINGS HANDMADE -  Etsy (great site), ArtFire, 1000Markets

DESIGN -  Zazzle (put your art on aprons, keychains, posters, shoes, skateboards and more(, Cafepress (mugs, t-shirts, mousepads, caps, hoodies and more)

MUSIC -  get your music out to iTunes, Rhapsody, Napster and other music distribution systems with the help of  Tunecore or ReverbNation

FROM BLOG:

You can also directly sell from your blog which has the advantage of no fees and total control over design and prsentation.

EJUNKY -  E-junkie provides shopping and buy now buttons to let you sell downloads and tangible goods on your website, eBay, MySpace, Google Base, CraigsList and other websites. It also lets you create personal affiliate programs which is a great feature (read how to set  up your own affiliate program with E-junkie). Their plans start at 5$/mo. I use E-Junkie to sell my Creative Web Biz Kit and to host my affiliate program.

FROM SOCIAL NETWORKS:

Almost anybody has a profile/page on either Facebook or MySpace.  More and more applications are being developed that let us sell directly from these profiles/pages.

One that works on both is ShopIt. They have a Facebook app as wel as a MySpace app.

FACEBOOK:

Marketplace - sell and buy anything through the marketplace application.

Check the applications directory for shopping applications (if you don't know how to find new apps read this first). Etsy, Zazzle, Cafepress, ReverbNation, iLike (who work with Tunecore) let you all sell your stuff from your profile or fan page.

Search for more applications here.

5. PROMOTION + MARKETING:

Last week I wrote 21 Blogs To Follow If You Want To Sell Art Online. It lists blogs that you should check out as they will help you understand how online promotion and marketing works, how to improve your blog, how to engage your readers, where to find buyers, where to find other creative entrepreneurs and how to have fun doing it.

The best advice I can give you right here and now is to be authentic and creative. Craft your business. Create it like you create your art or your designs. Have fun and other people will want to join in.  Get inspired by others and inspire others. That is our job as artists right? To inspire the world with our creations. If you do that  people will be glad to support your work and therefore help you  make a living doing what you love.

I'll help you get there!

I hope the  information I collected here will help you get started as an indiepreneur. Let me know how it goes! And if you have any questions,  just ask me in the comments. The only thing I ask  is that you please go through the links in this post when you sign up for either BlueHost or E-junkie or GraphPaperPress. I will  then be able to collect a referral fee which will help me pay the bills for CreativeWebBiz.com. Thank you!

How To Set Up Your Own Creative Web Biz In 5 Steps first appeared on Creative Web Biz

.

1 Empty Easel:

Empty Easel is an online art magazine with practical advice, tips, and tutorials for creating and selling art. Especially the business advice section includes articles on the following topics: marketing tips, selling art online, seo for artists, online advertising and more

2 ArtBizCoach:

Alison B. Stanfield started out in the art museum business and now runs ArtBizCoach. Her services are especially geared towards artists and helps them  to learn about promotin, marketing and business. She also wrote a book: I'd Rather Be in the Studio! ( ArtBiz Coach was suggested by  Robin Maria Pedrero)

3 Photopreneur:

A photopreneur is anyone who wants to earn income from their photography, whether as a full-time professional or as an occasional photographer. It’s anyone who can turn their skills behind the lens into cash.  If this is you, go subscribe to Photopreneur.

4 Design Sponge - Biz Ladies:

Design*Sponge is a daily website dedicated to home and product design run by Brooklyn-based writer, Grace Bonney. Biz Ladies is a weekly column on Design sponge every Tuesday. Interviews with and tips by successful creative entrepreneurs.

5 The Creative Entrepreneur:

The Creative Entrepreneur is a visual, results-oriented, step-by-step method of business development for creatives from all walks of life who want to turn their passions into viable business opportunities. Lisa Sonora Beam is an artist herself , wrote The Creative Entrepreneur book , runs online workshops and doesn't believe in starving artists.

6 New Media Photographer:

The New Media Photographer blog is run by Rosh Sillars and is the place where he combines his two passions social media and photography.

7 Prosperous Artists Academy:

The Prosperous Artists community memebership site is designed to support the creative spirit as well as develop the skills and knowledge to build the creative life of your dreams. They have a free weekly podcast designed to support your growth as a creative person.

8 Right-Brain Business Plan:

After 10 years in Corporate America  Jennifer Lee made the leap from  a change management consulting career to finally pursuing full-time her passions around coaching, creativity and living in alignment with her values. If you want to learn how to make a business plan that is also a bracelet, you should definitely subscribe to her two blogs: Right-Brain Business Plan and Life Unfolds

9 IttyBiz:

As independent artists we all also have to take care of the business side. That's where IttyBiz comes in. It's a place to get tips, advice, motivation, and support for your very small business (read you and your laptop). If you think business is boring, check out IttyBiz and laugh your ass of while learning how to become an artist entrepreneur.

10 Bakery:

You won't find any bread here, because this Bakery bakes businesses. I just discovered this blog, so I don't know to much about it, but they have their own Etsy shop, seem to work with a lot of artists and their categories are Blogging, Business, Getting Started, and Social Networking.

11 Rise of the Innerpreneur:

Tara Joyce says that an Innerpreneur is someone who has realized their purpose/life work and started a business to pursue it and also has the creativity to see the world in unique ways and an impulse to make things different. Her blog Rise of the Innerpreneur will help you  with ideas to grow your business and your mind.

12 Ancient Artist:

Ancient Artist is a blog about creating art in Oregon, starting a second career instead of retiring, developing a marketing strategy, and philosophical discussions about art.

13 EBSQ:

EBSQ is a creative space that provides art marketing tools and serves as a hub for the self rep and indie artist community. Their blog has an extra category on Art Biz.

14 The Storque  - Indipreneur:

The Storque is the blog that belongs to Etsy, the social shopping site where you can buy all things handmade. They frequently post about all things Indipreneur which also includes interviews with people that quit their day job because now they are earning enough with their art, design or crafts. Other topics include promotion, marketing, cooperative advertising and much  more.

15 Zazzle, Imagekind, RedBubble, Deviant Art:

all of these areonline communities that let artists sell  prints, posters, cards, shirts, shoes, skateboards, mugs, aprons etc.  If you are a member, make sure to follow their blogs, so you are always up to date on new opportunities and tools.

16 The Art List:

Since 2003, TheArtList has been the leading online resource for visual artists and photographers looking for income and exhibition opportunities to enter.

17 Seth Godin:

Marketing guru Seth Godin is the bestselling author of more than seven books. He writes about marketing and the spread of idea. His books have been read by Obama's campaign advisors. You should read his blog and his books too, because they will teach you how to create a remarkable business for your art. You can get his books for free here.

18 Mashable:

The famous social media blog is a must read for all Indipreneurs. Why? Because being up to date on all things social media is essential to selling art online. You need to know your tools and Mashable will help with that.

19 Problogger:

Problogger is a blog about making money with your blog. It is not specifically geared towards artists, but there is a LOT to learn here.  Advertising, Affiliate Programs, SEO . If you don't know what I'm talking about - go subscribe to Problogger. Currently he is holding a free 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge you can still sign up for.

20 Zen Habits:

Zen Habits, simpl productivity is one of the top blogs on the internet and covers achieving goals, productivity, being organized, GTD, motivation, eliminating debt, saving,  happiness, and successfully implementing good habits.

21  Creative Web Biz:If you liked this post, please also subscribe to  Creative Web Biz (see top of sidebar) as I will be posting more tips and tricks for artists, designers, musicians, crafters, photographers and all other Creative Entrepreneurs .

Do you know of any other blogs that might be useful for independent artists ? Please  share them in the comments, so we can all start living our dream..

.

I compiled this list in 2009. There is a new one for 2013 here.

21 Blogs To Follow If You Want To Sell Art Online first appeared on Creative Web Biz

Fullsreen: The best of the WordPress Themes for Artists.

Fullscreen is a free one-column photography and multimedia WordPress theme that can be used for portfolios, photoblogs, videoblogs, and virtually anything else where you want your content to be front and center. It provides visual artists a unique way of presenting their latest work online using a minimalist side-scrolling homepage.therefore one of the best WordPress themes for artists.

F8 Lite:

F8 Lite is a theme that can transform your Web site or blog into a fully functioning photography or multimedia portfolio Web site. SEO optimized, iPhone compatible, grid-based css, slideshow-enabled, built-in multimedia support, auto or manual thumbnail control, Gravatars, plus much, much more.

Workaholic:

Workaholic is a minimalistic two and three column WordPress theme that focuses mainly on showcasing portfolios for artists, web designers, photographers and illustrators. Work-a-holic separates your portfolio from your blog, enabling easy navigation for clients in a clean, intuitive fashion. It also has a separate sidebar for portfolio (shows recent projects) and a separate widgetized sidebar for the blog and pages.

Mansion: is one of 10 WordPress Themes for Artists

Mansion is a free photoblogger’s theme for WordPress. It features a flexible-width thumbnail grid for both images and photo journal entries. Mansion is perfect for those who want to primarily showcase their photographs and occasionally write blog posts.

F8 Static:

F8 Static is a unique theme for WordPress that can transform your web site or blog into a fully functioning photography or multimedia portfolio Web site. SEO optimized, iPhone compatible, 100% customizable options page, grid-based css,  slideshow-enabled, built-in multimedia support, auto or manual thumbnail control, Gravatars, plus much, much more. All colors, fonts, front page categories, contact info, slideshow height and other options can be managed on the f8 theme options page. There is no need to edit theme code, unless you want to customize f8.

Modularity Light:

Modularity Lite is a free multimedia theme framework for WordPress by Graph Paper Press. The theme design was developed with users in mind who appreciate visual browsing and prefer a minimal layout, with their photos and multimedia featured front and center.

Gridline:

Gridline is a clean and modular news magazine theme that is packed with javascript to add flexibility to the important home page real estate. The main story section contains four of your latest posts layered on top of each other, accessible via tabbed navigation.

Berlin:

Berlin is a unique, minimal and modular theme for WordPress that can transform your tubular blog into a news magazine website.

Mixfolio:

WordPress themes for artists - mixfolio

Mixfolio is a responsive, HTML5 portfolio theme for WordPress. Best of all, it's free! Use it to build your portfolio or your online brand. Create Image, Gallery, Video or Standard posts using Mixfolio' Post Formats feature.

.

All these themes and more are available at my favorite WordPress theme designer GraphPaperPress.com 

WordPress Themes for Artists first appeared on Creative Web Biz