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Thursday, March 7, 6 pm ET: Part II - Using Facebook to connect with your buyers and sell your work.

Back by popular demand artist Dave Emmons joins me to talk specifically about turning all those people hanging out on Facebook into your customers. Dave has over 85,000 followers on Facebook and has cut his show schedule from over 30 a year to only 4. Will Dave's tips work for you?

This podcast is a strategy session highlighting why Facebook works and why it is powerful. It contains step by step tips that are solid, time-tested and exciting. We talk about an overall marketing plan, a road map,  that goes beyond the free easily accessible Facebook tutorials, to detailing how to utilize the FB tools to  strategically impact your sales. Plus specific examples of how to make it work for you.

• We'll learn the specifics of how to use Facebook to identify fans.
• What FB tools to use to tap into the exact demographic of potential fans. 
• How to use the specific analytics and stats from FB to refine and target advertising 

The purpose of this podcast is to give you the tools so you can start today to take advantage of the huge Facebook platform of 2 billion monthly active users who use Facebook each and every month. Surely even a small percentage of those users can become your audience.

Dave's website: https://www.vermontnaturecreations.com/

His Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/hangingwatergardens/

Please post questions below for Dave.

This was my second show of the year, on the last weekend of January.

This is a three day show with setup on the morn of the first day, which was Friday.

New Smyrna Beach, we call it NSB, is just south of Daytona Beach on the Atlantic.

It is a mellow beach town which has blossomed in the last 20 years.

There is lots of money here, and plenty of visitors come here.

Granted, they mostly buy Florida dreck art, the usual palm trees, shells on the beach. It is what they feel comfortable with. Some serious non-Florida subjects will sell here, but in very limited quantity’s.

This year we list the whole day Sunday due to horrible rain.

In spite of this, I had my best show ever here and I have done this show since the early 80-s.

People we’re out in great numbers even on Friday, and Saturday we were packed with people all day.

The Show is all on paved streets.

Many booths are on Canal Street where all the retail and restaurants are. One plus of being here is that if the weather turns bad, the surrounding buildingsgive you safety from the strong winds that blow off the inter coastal.

My Booth is on the stretch off the show that faces the river,  we get the breezes and also the high winds.

In January it gets quite chilly here.  But I love it.

Sales were steady all day Friday and Saturday.

people knew Sunday was going to be washout so they bought steadily on Saturday.

In the two days I did more sales than any previous time at Inages, and that goes back to 1983.

Most artists packed up on Saturday night.

The Show emailed us early Sunday that it was cancelled.

The strong sales kind of vindicated my hopes for a good year.

My next show, Ft. Meyers kept the good vibes going.

I will blog about Ft. Meyers next.

Well, this is my 45th year in the biz.

2018 ended in a sad fizzle so I was looking for positive vibes to kickstart 2019.

I have done this show many times since its inception.

It moved a few years back from a location off Highway 41, a well travelled road,

to Old Highway 41 located in a picturesque setting, but not getting the same kind of traffic.

Sadly, since that move this show has never been a strong one for me.

In the old location I always did $4k plus.  In the new setting, I cannot crack $3k.

This Show is held on the first weekend after New Years.

Prime time, plenty people down here from up north, mostly from the midwest.

In the old days, the transplanted midwestern were blightfully innocent.  If they liked your work, they bought it, just like they did back where they are from.

Then slowly, the “Florida-what is your best price syndrome crept in.

Sales have never been great since.

Tis is a very well run show.

The local art league runs it led by legendary guru Barry Witt with his new understudy.

It is a well oiled machine.

Trouble is, for most of us, it does not work.

For the price they charge for a booth the return is not there.

In fairness to them, I will say this.

People with high price points who only need a few customers can make out quite well at this show.

A sculptor across from me had about six sales and did well over $10 k for the show.

For guys like me, with lower pricepoints, We did not do so well, not enough customers to sell to.

Crowds were strong until about 2pm and then they fizzled.

They mostly buy very conservative here.

They love the Florida dreck.

Real original Art has a hard time selling here.

Personally, I have to let this show go.  My sales go lower and lower. Bad biz model.

I have done this show more than 25 times since the early 90’s.

But, it is time to say aloha.  It no longer works for me, and also does not work for many others.

The attendees pay a $13 entrance fee and then walk down the middle of the road without looking or going into many booths.  Go figure.

I guess they are easily entertained in Jupiter.

In it’s day this was a major show with sales easily in The &5K-$7k range.

Sadly those days are long gone.

I have reviewed this show many times so you can check my previous blogs for basic info about this threeday show.

Basically, the main flaw for this $500 booth fee show is that there are way too many exhibitors for too few of buyers.

That is it in a nutshell.

Artists who sell big ticket items can make out ok at this show.  Three or four sales and they have a great show.

Guys like me with lower price points (mine are $30-$500) need 30-50 customers to have a good show.

Sadly they are not there for me.

There are always exceptions to this.

My good friend John Leben, a talented digital artist, kills there, and he has modest price points.

He is a very lucky man.

Frankly, paying a high booth fee, having to spend big bucks for lodging, plus pricey restaurants does not  work when I only yield way less than $2k in sales.

This Show has been sliding for years

It is time to cut it loose.

I realize there are probably five people waiting to take my space.

God bless them, but we will see how long they last before cutting it loose.

Trouble is the show does not care.  Bigger is better, no way they will reduce the number of artists.

Sorry to end on a negative note, but I am just telling it like it is.

Feel free to weigh in with relative comments, pro and con.

On a final positive note, if you go and then are looking for a great place to eat seafood at reasonable prices, do not overlook Old Florida Tavern restaurant on the Main Street in downtown Jupiter.

Double shots of Tito’s for $7, woo-hoo!

I have a business page and a shop on that FB page. However, I have yet to sell any prints from it. I admit, I have nearly 200 followers, so I am probably a long way from building a huge following or contact list. Is it a given that we need to pay for a service to help us build the list? It seems very overwhelming to try and tackle yet another huge obstacle. It seems there isn't enough time in my day already, after creating, processing, posting to social media, printing, matting, framing(if needed), applying to call for entry, updating my website..well you follow me :):) I am grateful for any positive feedback or nudge in the right direction.