The below article is a guest post from blogger Cory Huff, who produces TheAbundantArtist.com where artists can learn better techniques to sell their artwork online.

In 1937 Napoleon Hill published the book Think and Grow Rich. In the book Hill outlines 13 principles that make people successful. He created these principles after spending 20 years studying the most wealthy people of his time. One of my favorite principles is the idea of the Master Mind. Hill makes a comparison between the human brain and a battery. The more cells a battery has, the better it works. Also, the more batteries you have working together the better they work.

Hill is not the only person to draw this type of conclusion. We all know that we need other people to help us. That’s why we hire specialists in different fields. Hill, however, gave the guidance that it is necessary for people who desire success to cultivate associations with people who can help them.

Artist Salons

In 17th century France artists and academics began a system of academies and salons, holding each other accountable, and generating positive energy aimed at raising the level of success for each artist involved. These artists became friends, confidants, and business partners with each other. While outsiders criticized the salons, those who were part of the salons enjoyed recognition and financial success.

There’s nothing all that complicated about getting a group of friends together to discuss art. You probably do that all the time in your immediate circles. There is a big difference, however, between having a group that discusses art and having a group of people together who are focused on helping each other succeed.

Band Together for Success

It is an acknowledged principle that those who succeed do so with the help of those around them. Successful business professionals purposefully seek out mastermind groups. I am a member of a mastermind group that consists of people from several different industries. We meet together to discuss obstacles that hold us back from succeeding and to share resources & ideas. Artists can and should be doing the same thing.

I hear so many artists talk about how they don’t know anything about being in business and that’s perfectly fair. Having a mastermind group, or a salon, is a way of making up for some of your weaknesses in business. I have found that once you get a group of artists together and start talking business, they often find that together they have a lot more knowledge of how to be in business than they give themselves credit for.

How to Organize

Many art critics and art coaches advise having a group of like minded painters together. There is certainly value in having other painters around to critique your work, but what about artists from other disciplines? A great deal of brilliance comes from getting artists of different disciplines together.

Having an agenda is a good idea. Artists together have a tendency to chat about topics not related to business. An agenda that is distributed beforehand complete with what you’ll talk about, when the meeting will start, whether there will be food, and how long you’ll spend on each topic is a good idea.

Who you organize a salon with is important. Don’t go for variety just for variety’s sake. You should find other artists who you are inspired by, who are focused on their business, and who you trust to do things well.

What to Talk About

Some art salons simply talk about art. That’s all well and good, but you need to focus on your business if you want to be a successful artist. If you want to talk about the finer points of Existentialism, put that at the end of the agenda. Good topics for your art marketing salons include: incorporating as a business, building Web sites, selling at art fairs, pricing models, taxes, health insurance, and many other topics.

Even if you can’t find a few artists in your area that you can band together with to form a mastermind or artist salon, you should be able to find at least one person with whom you can brainstorm. The idea is that we don’t work alone.

I’m interested in hearing from Imagekind users – are any of you part of an artist salon or mastermind group?

Cory Huff is an actor, husband, and producer of TheAbundantArtist.com, a site dedicated to teaching artists how to sell their work online. He firmly believes the starving artist is a myth that must be dispelled. He is available for individual consultation on Internet marketing and business planning for artists.

With the Imagekind Portfolio Manager it is now easier than ever to edit your images for sale on Imagekind. The Portfolio Manger allows you to batch-edit your images’ titles, tags, descriptions, categorization, default frame and more. Login to your account to start utilizing the Portfolio Manger right away!

Get Recognized!

It is essential to add titles, tags, descriptions and categorization to your images. Adding these will not only allow shoppers to  find your work easier, but Imagekind team members as well. Our internal search engine, as well as big ones like Google, take all of these into account. So, it is imperative that you heed this advice if you are selling your artwork on Imagekind, and want your images to be found!

fragments of me VII by Lisa Scadron

1. Title your Work

Descriptive titles will not only help your buyers connect with a piece, but will help your images come up in searches. If you do not have a title for a piece, putting a descriptive term in the title box is adequate. Having a more personal title than “DSC1937” will let your buyers know that you spent the time to think about and present your work.

2. Write a description

Adding a short description will also help buyers to connect with your pieces. A couple of lines will do. Some artists include a little snippet about how they created the piece, or what inspired it. Others will add a small detail shot of the image. If your description is too long, it will be truncated, but you can view it in its entirety by clicking the “View More” link.

St George Reef Lighthouse 232 by John Foster

3. Tag It!

What are tags?
The Imagekind search engine uses several methods to find your work, one of them being your tags. Tags are descriptive keywords that you assign to your images to identify major elements and details featured in your work.

Be Specific…
Specific, accurate tags are essential. Tag your images with all the specifics of your image. If you have taken photograph of a sunset over the ocean, don’t stop tagging at “photograph” and “sunset.” You might want to include water, pink, sun, ocean, seascape, pacific… Be precise and detailed, and use terms that a customer would search for. If your images convey a certain emotion, such as “Happy” or “peaceful,” feel free to include them, but keep in mind a buyer may not search for terms such as these.

chair_2 by Greg Simanson

Be accurate!
Inaccurate tagging leads to bad search results. If a customer is looking for a sunset, and you have tagged your nature photograph of a tiger with “sunset,” then you will not change the customers mind – in fact, you make your customers frustrated. Inaccurate tags may be removed at the discretion of Imagekind.

Not enough tags? Upgrade your account
Free accounts can tag their images with up to 10 tags. Pro members get 50 tags, and Platinum members can use 100 tags to classify their work. If you need to add more information, consider upgrading your account.

old piano by Gabrielle Ralle

4. Utilize Taxonomy

What is Taxonomy?
“Taxonomy” means the science of classification. Our taxonomy system allows you to group similar images together based on broad categories such as subject, genre, medium. Users can then drill down their search results based on the classifications you have assigned each image. One of the best ways to think about taxonomy is as a categorization method that allows shoppers to easily find particular images, based on their broad preferences.

Subjects, Genres, Mediumsand Decor

Categorizing your images is one of the best ways to be found on Imagekind. Directly after the general search (based on titles and tags), is categorization. Let’s go through some of the options individually.

Subject – Subject is the content found within your image.  Let’s say you have a photograph of cows in a large field, with flowers. You’d want to find subjects that relate to what is actually in the image. If there is not a direct subject available, tags are the next best option.

Genre – Genre is the general style of art that your image might fit into. For example, if your image is more conceptual in nature, you’d want to categorize it in that genre. If you are still stuck on this, here is something that might help. Consider your artwork were going to be hung in a museum, or gallery, or heck, they were selling it at an art supermarket (if such a thing exists). Before you go to drop it off, the owner calls you up and asks what section of the gallery or museum it would fit best. If the supermarket were split into various genres, which isle would your image fit best in?

Medium – Medium is the method you used to create your image.

Decor - Decor is what style of home you think your art would look best in.

Remember, you can feel free to leave any of these blank if you’d like. However, categorizing your images appropriately is one of the best ways to be found on Imagekind.

3-COWS by Brian Simons

Need to classify further? Upgrade your account
Free accounts can add 2 subjects, Pro members can add up to 4, and Platinum accounts are allowed up to 8. If you need to add more information, consider upgrading your account.

Following these tips will ensure that your work gets more recognition when shoppers search for artwork on Imagekind. However, that’s not it. Imagekind team members are always looking for art to showcase as well. We constantly utilize all of these options to find artwork on Imagekind. Whether it’s through tags, titles or taxonomy, make sure to use all of the above options to make sure you get found on Imagekind.

Creating polar (stereographic) panoramics is much easier than I initially thought. Or at least learning some of the basic tricks to produce the effect are not as technical as the final result make it seem. In other words, the captivating effect needed to create polar panoramic photography (or “little planets” as they are endearingly termed) is much easier than it looks.

Torres Kio - Madrid Planet by Germán González Garrido

Here’s a quick step-by-step guide to the basics on how to create polar panoramic images. You can use your own photograph, or grab one with a creative commons license. I found this one on Flickr.

1. Select a panoramic landscape photograph to manipulate. Remember, you can always crop your photo to get a landscape look. That’s what I did with this example. Quick tip: though a 360 degree landscape works best, as long as the image is in at least a 1:2 aspect ratio, you should be fine.

2. Square your photograph by changing the dimensions to the largest side. In Photoshop, go to Image > Image Size and increase the height to match the width. Quick tip: make sure the Constrain Proportions box is unchecked.

3. Rotate the entire image by 180 degrees. In Photoshop, go to Image > Rotate Canvas > 180

4. Create the planet. In Photoshop, go to Filter > Distort > Polar Coordinates. Quick tip: make sure you select Rectangular to Polar though the other option provides quite an interesting effect as well.

Some additional tips:

1. To avoid off-kilter landscapes when polarized, you’ll want to make sure the landscape is parallel before changing it to a square. You can straighten and crop with the crop tool by bringing the cursor just outside the crop box to rotate
2. Images that are near identical on either end of the landscape work the best. Images that are not similar will look disjunctioned
3. Crop out any bold lines on either end of the landscape or you’ll notice a large line when you polarize
4. You should definitely feel free to rotate the image once you’ve created your planet. That way you can choose what is on top of the planet.
5. You can find additional tips here

Mérignac Centre by Alexandre Duret-Lutz

Lonely Tree by Josh Sommers

Planet Old Oak at Sunset by Josh Sommers

A New World by Chris Rojas

Bull Planet by Germán González Garrido