Do you know what is your Chinese Zodiac animal? You do not have one? Well, everyone has one, if you do not know, you just need to find it. please check here to find out your Chinese Zodiac animal.
The coaster as seen in the picture is one of my favorite item. Rooster is definitely a great choice for kitchen and daily items such as apron and coaster. Check your Chinese Zodiac animal and choose one of the product with it at my store.
Pricing is a complex subject and it might take a semester (4 month) to learn. (At least that is what my school said) Start your price low in fancy business term called penetration pricing. You are hoping the low price will attract more buyers and gain market share quickly but often time you will attract more bargain hunters and they will switch once you increase the price because expected price is low. At the same time, you will need to sell for high volume in order to achieve your sales goal. It is also difficult to lower your price in the future.
The solution is to set your desirable and reasonable price and run special at the same time. The perceived price will still be high but the initial price will be low for you to enter the market easier. The special will run in short term and then the price will go back to normal (high).
I still remember the little story in the book "rich dad , poor dad". One talented reporter refused and got offensive after the author Robert told her to take sales class, she replied" I am a writer, not a sales man." Robert then point out the cover of his book and said" The cover shows best seller, not best writer". Same theory will apply to your art works. You will not want your work worth millions after you die like Van Gogh. You want them worth millions now.
It does not matter you sell your work on e bay or online gallery, you will need to spread the word out. Regardless how good is your work, please remember, if no one knows, it is not good enough. You can get gallery or your agent to help, but no one will promote your work as hard as you do.
You can think being a salesman is necessary evil if you want to.
Apparently, China. But where exactly? Good question and you do not have to speak Chinese. There is a website called Alibaba. It is a very large database stocked with all kinds of suppliers from China looking for doing business globally. Most of them are exporters so they are OK with communicate in English. You might need to find a fellow artist or two to order frames with you because they usually only accept larger quantity order. There is always a room for negotiation. Don't be shy to offer some bargain price, you might get a surprise!
Easy, please visit U.S. copyright office and then click "How to register a work". You can not only register visual art works but also performing art works, etc. Yes, copyright is automatic granted once upon the work is created, so why you bother to pay? Because then your copyright become public record and it is easier to sue someone if he or she copy your work. $45 maybe your best money that you have ever paid. I actually wrote a letter to copyright office and asked if I can send CD-ROM with all the art works. The answer is positive. See here for more Q&A about copyright
A lot of artist would like to have their portfolio online because Internet is such a great tool to promote ourselves. As a matter of fact, most artists would like to have pay little or no fee to have their works online. You will also need little computer knowledge to allow you to sell you work along with your portfolio. There are so far two places other than e bay that I know you can have your portfolio online and also sell some of your works.
One is called boundlessgallery.com. This website allow you to post your work online without fee and only charge commission when you sold your painting. For buyers, they can even place your work in virtue living room to see if your work fit with the layout of the room.
etsy.com. This website allows you to sell everything handmade including your painting. There is a neat tool that you can even pick items based on color; everything which match the color you choose will show up.
The other site called mosaya.com. I personally feel mosaya is not that user friendly. I have a hard time to find any random gallery I would like to look for. It is free and it seems has all the function that artist need. If you are good at promoting yourself, mosaya might be your good choice.
Finally, if you would like to personalize your site and still be able to sell your work without spending any money, not even web hosting fee, then you should have your blog. As long as you can type, you can have a blog, easy as that. Blogger.com is a great site to sign up. If you would like to enable the selling function, you can add Google check out which you can sign up on the upper right hand side of the side bar.Unlike pay pal, Google check out will charge no transaction fee until the end of 2007.
Currently, Google checkout only available for those who have Bank account in USA. You will need to sign up Google check out and then paste HTML code into your blog next to your painting that you would like to sell.
In conclusion, blogger blog plus Google checkout equal to free portfolio with selling function.
While you are in USA, all art items including Chinese paintings you import from China are duty free so you pay less for the cost of the items. A full size container is about 56 CBM(cubic meter) equal to 2000 cubic foot. That is a lot of painting! Of course most of the case you will not be able to find so many premium Chinese Paintings to fit with full size container but if you are talking about other art items like Chinese Art furnitures then you might need a full size container.
Please see fantastic duty free Harmonized Traffic Schedule of works of Art.
Today is the grand opening of chinese painting shop. You can find my grandma's master pieces there. Cafepress.com make it possible for me to have my own online shop even though I am working full time right now and I am still able to manage this online shop. As long as you upload your work, you basically finish everything. They will transfer images to mugs, postcards, and so on. You do not need to worry about packing, shipping and handling. There is no inventory cost for you. You can also set your own price. If you love graphic design, this is a great website to visit.
The basic membership is free.You can also join premium membership for 6.95 per month or 59.95 for a year. In addition, they have volume sale bonus. You earn 7% bonus for sales above $250 in base price sales; 15% bonus for sales above $1,000 in base price sales; 20% bonus for sales above $5,000 in base price sales; 22% bonus for sales above $10,000 in base price sales. Minimum check amount is only $25 less than Google AdSense $100! Great deal! If you are interested, just click the flash ad on the right side bar or simply check out my store to have an idea of basic shop.
Ever since I took Internet marketing class back in school, I was dreaming to have my own online gallery. My team and I actually built a business plan talking about having an online gallery and selling Chinese painting from China. Our plan got professor's favorite and allow me to get A in the class. That is pretty much about it.
As I experienced first time to try blogging in January 2007, the power of Internet really amazes me, especially there is actually a number greater than zero in my Google AdSense account. As long as you can type, you can have a blog. Then I read an article about cafepress, the website allow you to upload your designed image and cafepress will print them on mugs, T-shirt, and so on. They even ship for you. This fantastic story reminds me that my grandma is really good at Chinese painting.
Not to mention about Chinese painting, art pieces themselves are hard to sell. They are subjective and full of self esteem. I believe Chinese painting is quite a niche and would like to explore all the possibility of art marketing and selling.
