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.

Friday Favorites are my weekly wrap-up of the cool happenings going on around Imagekind over the past week. This week we launched “images not for sale.” Also, don’t forget, from now until September 21, you can get 20% off custom framing. Cheers!

Images Not for Sale

This week we released images not for sale. Now, artists can upload their artwork that they would like to showcase, but not offer for sale. Some reasons artists might want to choose the “not for sale option” include:

1. Show off commission works
2. Display works in progress
3. Example images
4. Work to showcase on other sites
5. etc.

For full details, including a video on how to setup your images for display only (not for sale), check out the forum post announcement.

20% off Custom Framing

Great news! In celebration of Fall, Now through September 21, you can get 20% off custom framing at Imagekind. If you’re an artist, now is the perfect time to let your shoppers know of the discount.

Practicing artists that build a brand for themselves stand out from the rest of the group. An artist’s brand is a unique way of marketing yourself as something different, exciting, and recognizable. No matter what your preferred medium is, the first step in building your brand is developing your own identifiable image making style. The goal is to make your work recognizable as your own, so when somebody sees it they think “Hey! I know who made that!” Everything that you can do to achieve this will help you!

The Villes by Camilo Bejarano

1. Where to Start

Not sure how to make your images more uniquely YOU? Take a look at the art that is being made right now. How do you fit in? How is your art different? Keep a list of what you like and don’t like, and be sure to reference it often when making new work. If you create work incorporating similar themes, you will start to see your style showing through.

Pinecone River by Dan Turner

2. Make it Come from You

Incorporate your personality and sensibilities into your style. If you are a meticulous, detail oriented person, let that quality work for you! Make very detailed images! If you are boisterous and spirited, your work should reflect that. If you are not sure where to start, ask a friend to describe your personality traits, and work from there. Sometimes just a small change can really make your work stand out. Developing a unique style starts with with discovering your own personal style.

Boxed by Ross Farrell

3. Practice Makes Perfect

Practice, and make as many images as you can to perfect your technique. Learn from your mistakes! Pay attention to what works and what doesn’t in your artwork. Make sure to keep a record of your successes so you can look to them for inspiration in the future. Trial and error is one of the best ways to discover your style. If you’re looking for a sign from the heavens to declare what your unique artistic style is, I am afraid you’ll probably be waiting a very long time. One of the best ways to discover your style is to continue refining it through trial and error; practice.

A Specious Origin by Jerry LoFaro

4. Invest in Classes

Enrolling in an art class can be very exciting! Even if you are an expert in your craft, enrolling in a class can give you alternate viewpoints on your work. Your classmates can offer opinions and critiques of your work to help you grow as an artist. Taking artistic classes are helpful because they can give you that perspective on your artwork that you don’t always see first hand. Having other people around you can really help shed light on your style.

Smart Suit by K Mitchell

5. Find your Niche

If your focus is on selling, pay attention to developing images that will fill a niche market. In other words, provide artwork for a group of people looking for your particular style. Discovering your niche is about the epitome of developing a unique style; they are closely related. To discover your niche, focus on what type of subject matter you find yourself drawn to. Your niche is a perfect place to help discover your unique style.

So, you want to sell more art, but you’re not sure how or where to begin?

One of the most important aspects of selling your artwork online, is having an audience. Imagekind is doing this. We are creating an audience of art lovers to buy, sell and create art.

However, cultivating your own audience is extremely beneficial.

And, it’s not even as hard as you might think. In fact, one of the best ways to create an audience, is to find people who already love your style of work. For example, member artist James Provost has been getting some nice recognition lately in the interior design community with his Imagekind prints. Why? It’s because he has a style of art that already matches an audience: mid-century furniture design and decorating.

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how come you don't call me anymore by Kimberley Ross

Now, here’s the tip: find online audiences who already love your style and ask them if they are willing to help promote your artwork.

Have a niche? That’s often the best place to start.

Blogs are perfect for this. And getting this kind of recognition is not always as hard as you might think. But, before you start trying to submit your art to blogs, it might be helpful to read these dos and don’ts first.

Need more help? What about this:

Love dog art? Well, I know for sure there are more than just a few dog blogs out there…

Nate

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Looking for more ways to market your artwork for sale on Imagekind?

Now you can keep your fans and friends connected to your art on Imagekind with Facebook!

We’ve just launched a new option you have on Imagekind to connect your art on Facebook. If you’re a member on Imagekind, and have a Facebook account, you can easily post your new art on your feed. It’s a simple way to help market your art to one of the largest audiences online: Facebook.

It’s all automatic and there is little you need to do. Just follow the steps below.

To start marketing your artwork for sale on Facebook, follow these simple steps:

1. Login to Facebook.com. Make sure to check the “Remember Me” box at the top before clicking “Login”
2. Login to Imagekind
3. Upload new art to your galleries, join one of the Imagekind groups, or add a member’s image as a one of your favorites
4. A box will pop up that asks if you want to allow Facebook access. Click “Publish”
5. That’s it! You should see the images on your activity feed on Facebook.

After you allow access, here is what you should start seeing show up on your Facebook feed:

• New images you post for sale in your galleries
• Groups you join
• Images you favorite on Imagekind

The opportunity to make a living from their artwork is a dream come true for most artists. A dream Imagekind continues to make a possibility for thousands of artists on the site and around the world. That is why it is a natural fit to team up with Ariane Goodwin Ed.D, founder, organizer and host of the third annual smARTist Telesummit and provide this resource for artists.

This is truly an excellent event for artists of all levels to join and learn how they can take their art career to the next level.

Eileen Bettelheim, marketing director of Imagekind.com says, “Imagekind is excited to team up with smARTist for their third annual Telesummit. The Telesummit presents a great opportunity for artists to take their art careers to the next level. This is what Imagekind is all about – helping artists sell their work online.”

By joining the smARTist Telesummit, artists will learn very helpful and very practical techniques on how to sell their artwork. With a panel of eleven experts, you can be sure every artist will walk away with a head full of knowledge on how to advance their art career.

You can find more information about this joint venture that is sure to benefit all artists, by reading the official press release.

Reminder: This is happening tonight

Do you ever wonder if you have what it takes to make a living as an artist?

At Imagekind, we don’t want to just create a group of artists with no direction. We want to be a resource for artists as well; this is what we think it means to be a community. And when we hear of a great opportunity for our member artists that will help better their art careers, we want to pass it on!

Sign up now for this free event and listen in while Ariane Goodwin interviews Alyson Stanfield, the Internet’s Premier Art Biz Coach on the 10 qualities you need for promoting yourself and your art.

Sign up and discover

When: December 17, 2008
Time: 7-8:00pm EST
Where: Your own phone! You’ll receive more details via email.

This is a special free pre-event in conjunction with Ariane’s smARTist Telesummit 2009. We’ve joined up with the smARTist Telesummit 2009, hosted by Ariane Goodwin to bring our member artists helpful resources to better their art careers. I will be sharing more about this special opportunity in the coming weeks, but for now, reserve your spot in the free pre-event!

Want to know how to get more sales on Imagekind?

A lot of artists do. Many just don’t know where to start.

I was looking through some of the exposure we’ve gotten in the past from around the web, and I came across this interview with one of our many successful Imagekind artists.

Michael Longfellow has been selling his artwork on Imagekind since April of 2007! He was interviewed by Andrew Gibson, from the online photo magazine Magical Places Fine Art, who had the chance to ask him a few tips on how to be successful selling your artwork on Imagekind.

Though the interview has been around for awhile, I think Michael’s responses are timeless, and worth sharing. I especially liked his thoughts on how to promote your artwork for sale.

Here’s a quick excerpt and some of his advice:

Andrew Gibson: What three pieces of advice would you give to a photographer who wants to successfully sell his or her work on Imagekind?

Michael Longfellow:

1. Post your best work. There’s no advantage to volume unless of course it’s all great work.

2. Tell unique and intriguing stories.

3. Choose the best frame or canvas. The “purchase as the artist intended” button can help present the best display solution for each of your photos, so use it.

Make sure to read the full interview and discover more great ideas to help sell your artwork on Imagekind.

I think some of the best advice to help increase your art sales on Imagekind is to be proactive about it.

Nate