Blog

Website Checkup - 2 pm ET

Web designer Franklin Piuck and ArtFairInsiders.com will be hosting a ZOOM webinar on Tues., May 5 at 2 pm ET. The topic of discussion will be critiquing websites and answering artists questions about web design, SEO and all the attendant options. 

If you haven't participated in a ZOOM meeting yet, it is a visual meeting, like Facetime or Skype, where you click into the site and appear on screen. We can see one another and chat about the topic. You must contact Frank ahead of time with your interest in participating so he can add you to the invitation list. 

1. Contact Frank: fpiuck@cyberhenge.com

2. If you are interested in adding your site to the critique also alert him to that and send him the link. 

There is a limit to the number of participants. We have room for 25 more at this time.

Should you bother creating/updating/promoting your art online? 

Look what I just found:

• The Louvre in Paris says its web traffic has gone from 40,000 visitors a day to 400,000 a day since the museum closed to visitors due to the Coronavirus. The website offers videos and virtual reality experiences here. 

Okay, that's the Louvre ... but what about all the shows that are offering virtual art shows? Artists are also. Will they come? Will they buy?

Crossing our fingers here. 

This is some promo we've done to encourage virtual shopping for art: https://conta.cc/3c1mwm9

What do you think? What are you doing?

LIVE - THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 2 PM ET

A well functioning website can change your life. It is the art fair that never closes. It can reconnect you with a former collector of your art and expose it to a worldwide audience. It opens the door very wide to new opportunities and has the potential to change your life.

Did you hire a designer to create your site and now it is complete? Or maybe you did it yourself and it is nagging at you for attention again. Facing the fact that a website is never finished is one of the less pleasant facts of life. If you want your site to do its job (market/sell your art) then that requires regular refinements and updates, and sometimes a drastic overhaul.

This podcast focuses on examining your existing website. Some of the topics:

• Is your site up to date?  
  • What are the standards you need to meet?
  • Should you modify it to match the current design style?
• Does your site fit your marketing plan?
  • Is it geared to your target customers?
  • How big should it be?
  • Should it be a store?
  • How often should you update?
  • How often should you revise it?
  • Are you collecting email addresses?
• Getting Traffic
  • What you need to know about Google 
  • Using Social Media
• Q & A

Our guest is veteran web designer Franklin Piuck, Cyberhenge.com, Web Design for the Arts and Small Business. Frank's own interests and contacts have caused him to develop a customer base largely involved in fine arts, designer crafts, and specialized antiques and collectibles. (Reach Frank directly: fpiuck@cyberhenge.com, 973-616-6162)

Please note: on Tuesday, May 5 at 2 pm, Franklin Piuck is going to host a webinar where we will further explore your questions about your website. If you wish to be a participant in the webinar, we need to have your email address ahead of time so you can receive an invitation to participate. Please send to me: info@artfaircalendar.com

We really want your input on this podcast. Please put comments and questions in the box below.

60968236059__3B75065A-278D-40FA-B88E-A9D3839365F1.MOVthis is a test real one coming as soon as I master video.

A potential way to start art shows on a limited basis. A drive by art show. Artists set their tents up either in the street facing the center of the street (if the street is wide enough) or on the sidewalk facing the street. Then potential customers slowly drive by stopping to ask questions or purchasing what they see.

Lots of issues and need of discussions.

Larry Berman
http://BermanGraphics.com
412-401-8100

Shows have been reaching out to us and refunding booth fees.  Thank you, but that's our money.  If you're anything like me, your main concern is about future shows when things begin to get back to normal, say in August or September and beyond.

My biggest artist expense right now is jury fees!  Some shows are deferring deadlines and/or jury fees, but still want their "cash cows" ponying up!  Why not roll the clock back and lower or get rid of them?

When I started doing shows in 1981, there was no such thing as a jury fee.  Then as time went by, I remember a $5 jury fee.  Then the flood gate opened and it has never stopped.  Can anyone really justify a $50 fee just to see if you can beat-out two or three hundred other artists in your category?  And then, often finding out you failed?  At that point, it is just lost money and no longer "seed money".

Having just filed my 2019 tax return, I can report that I did 40 shows and spent $2,200 just on jury fees.

If the shows really want to help us, what do you think the first step could be?

THURS., APRIL 23, 3 PM ET

Part 1 of 2 episodes:

Time is up. Get online or get out. We find ourselves comfortable right where we are. We’d rather suffer a little than try new things. 

(4/21/20) - there is an artist's work that I've always loved and decided to go shopping today to check it out and perhaps buy a piece. Yes, there was a website, but not updated since 2018, and no way to make that purchase. 

Is this you? Is it time to finally get this done? 

If you have never built a site before today is the day. This podcast will get you started with the basics and will sort out the options that have been holding you back. 

Our guest is veteran web designer Franklin Piuck, Cyberhenge.com, Web Design for the Arts and Small Business. His own interests and contacts have caused him to develop a customer base largely involved in fine arts, designer crafts, and specialized antiques and collectibles.

We'll start with the basics:

• Social Media, Websites or both?
• Where to start
  • Weebly, Squarespace, Wix, Wordpress
• Minimum adequate content to start with
• Should you try to do it yourself, or get help?
• Managing a website
• Getting Traffic
  • What you need to know about Google
  • Social Media
• Q & A

We suggest you print out that outline and make notes as we talk. As always, these podcasts are recorded and always available to listen or download at ArtFairRadio.com. 

LISTEN HERE

We've also scheduled extra time so that we really can take your phone calls. Call in to the show: (805) 243-1338

If you can't join us live, please put your questions in the box below so we can get you the answers you need.

I know, we're all paddling as fast as we can right now and it truly is amazing how our community has come together to help one another. Great job, folks.

Here are two surveys from art festival organizations focused on working to make things better for you in the upcoming days. Can you help these folks out?

• Fast and easy survey from ArtFest Fort Myers to determine how best they can help:
  http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/
  
  
• Survey from FestivalNet.com. They are seeking information to evolve their services to help the Festival Community survive and learn about the Covid-19 impact on your business: https://festivalnet.com/blog/COVID-19-Business-Impact-Survey-4174

FRIDAY - APRIL 17, 1 PM ET

APRIL 16, 4 PM ET - Can we do it again? Finally fill out these forms? We did it last week and now it's time again. Let's do this together.

The CARES Act offers several programs to help small business people. The Payroll Protection Program (PPP) Loans are intended for small businesses to use to maintain payroll and cover other business expenses during the COVID crisis. All or part of the loan will be forgivable. These loans are available to sole proprietors and self-employed workers. That is us!

Helping us out is Elaine Grogan Luttrull, Minerva Financial Arts, an accredited CPA in Columbus, OH. Elaine is a financial counselor whose mission is educating artists in their businesses.

PPP Applications are made through a bank.  Applications opened on April 10 for independent contractors. These may be “first come, first serve” although it is possible that additional funds will be appropriated in other bills.

How to prepare to participate in the podcast:

1. go online to your bank to see if they are a participants. (Mine is and it is a small bank in southern Michigan, so chances are yours is also). 
2. download the application and have it ready to fill out so at the end yours will be ready to file
3. have your most recent completed tax forms nearby for reference

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN

Here is the application: https://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/2020-04/PPP%20Borrower%20Application%20Form.pdf

Learn more about the PPP: https://www.sba.gov/funding-programs/loans/coronavirus-relief-options/paycheck-

I've been puzzling over this question, and thinking about how I will handle art fairs going forward. All those people coming into my booth... coughing, sneezing, pawing through my print bins. I don't know... maybe art fairs are just not in my future any more. Or, maybe I just need to rethink how I do these art fairs.

I'm a digital artist. I sell prints of my digital paintings. I'm a printmaker. Most of my sales are packaged unframed prints. Packaged in plastic bags... perfect surfaces for a virus to cling and hang on for hours and days... perfect for infecting the next person to pick up that plastic-wrapped print.

I also own a gallery in Douglas, Michigan where I have the same nightmare scenario. Print bins everywhere. This has got to change in the aftermath of the Coronavirus. But how? Sales traditionally depend on touch and feel. Getting a product in the customer's hands is essential. Even my framed prints. Chances of a sale increase if I can take the picture off the wall and hand it to the customer. They hold it and it becomes an ownership thing. I can't do this any more either...

Then, there's the masks. Do we wear them in our booth? Do we ask our customers to wear masks? Yikes!

Some solutions I'm contemplating:
Maybe I'll eliminate the unframed print bins. Maybe I'll exhibit only framed prints representing all the images I'm selling. Maybe I'll make it clear that all these images that they see on the walls are also available unframed in several sizes. Maybe I'll have my unframed prints in boxes that only I can access. When a customer points to a picture they like, I'll retrieve the print and show it to them (but, no touch!). If they do touch it, I'll wipe it down with disinfectant (after they leave the booth). 

Maybe I'll eliminate on site sales and offer only shipping of prints they might be interested in. They want to buy a print (either framed or unframed, in a certain size) and I'll ship it to them. I have met a couple of photographers who regularly use this method of sales with success.

Maybe I'll quit the art fair circuit and focus on my gallery and online sales. Surprisingly, since the virus has closed down art fairs my online sales have increased (perhaps only because I initiated an aggressive sale to my email list). Who knows? The gallery is a much more controllable environment. Far fewer people wander through on a given day and there is a lot more room to maintain safe distances.

Have other artists been thinking about these problems and how to solve them? Will art fairs become a thing of the past? Any other ideas out there?

Live Podcast: Friday, April 10 - 1 pm ET

Are you eligible for disaster loan assistance? Probably? Maybe? Together we'll find out. Host Connie Mettler from Art Fair Calendar/Art Fair Insiders and "volunteers from the audience" (Meg Mettler (Art Fair Insiders admin and Stephanie Wheat of Rebellion Bags) in Chicago log into the Small Business Administration site to apply and we'll do a step by step application.

Right here: (https://covid19relief.sba.gov/#/)

I hear it is easy. Join us to find out and while we're at it you can do it too.

Not only listen to the podcast, but click that link and fill out the form along with us. And if we have the presence of mind we'll take your calls along the way to see if we can help each other.  (805) 243-1338

This will definitely qualify as social distancing. Later we'll share the results. Ready?