It’s late, the night seemed still but has been broken by the
sound of fireworks. It seems my hometown is throwing some sort of
celebration. Maybe there is another
significance for the celebration, I turned in my resignation at my place of
work. Being 63 and a cancer survivor I
decided I didn’t come this far only to die on the altar of stress at a
workplace that seemed to cultivate a toxic environment. Instead I am opting for Social Security and
devoting my time in creating and trying to sell those creations online.
This isn’t new for me. I have been trying to sell online for
over a decade with minimum results, but since I was employed and had that
income to sustain me, the small amount of sales never bothered me. To do the
transition of having the sales be a substantial supplement, well that takes
effort. I find self-promotion and marketing requires a lot of attention,
cultivation and time. Time I personally would rather spend creating. But it is a necessary evil, one that I need
to learn the tactics and trade.
After spending time watching countless videos and articles by
others that market their online products I have come to a conclusion, some just
want your money to show you how, some don’t know what they are talking about
and some don’t really even care about the product, they just want to make
money. The later I understand, but I never was into the get rich quick schemes
of things and frankly I care about my product, which is my artwork.
I decided for me personally, it is all persistence. I have
this blog, Instagram, Facebook and sell on three sites now. I have products on Amazon Merch, Zazzle and
now I am setting up an Etsy Store, which is in progress. I personally love what Zazzle offers, but
they are expensive and the markup to make a profit really adds to the expense,
but I do have to say, for the most part, Zazzle does quality work. But no one really goes to Zazzle compared to
sites like Etsy or Amazon for that matter.
Maintaining the stores, putting your artwork on products,
marketing those products is a full-time job within itself. For me, a reclusive
hermit that would rather draw, I now understand why some artists have agents.
But fortunately, I now for the present, have time to devote to
the marketing and time to create. The past few days has been a mad rush to get
things in order so I can create. After the foundation is complete then it is
simply a matter of maintaining.
It's like a garden, a digital one. You have to maintain it, cultivate it and hopefully a harvest will come.
So, we will see how it goes.
The Etsy store is still under construction and you will see more posters and prints available soon.
