Re: NextGallery -- your retail art gallery
King Rundzap
of any type. You should be making your money by selling art, not by
having artists pay to put their art online. Sell some art, and make a
commission. If you can't do that, no one should be paying you in the
first place.
I know it costs time and bit of money to get the website going
(although not much money unless you're not shopping around very well),
but that should be part of _your_ initial investment in _your_
business. It cost me money to get started as an artist, to put up my
website, to buy materials for my booth for arts & crafts shows, etc.
I only saw a return on those investments once I actually sold some
work--why should you be any different?
--King Rundzap
avinash...@hotmail.com (Avinash Sujeeth) wrote in message news:<6e923597.04081...@posting.google.com>...
> I'm sorry a lot of people took my original email to this board as
> spam. I didn't mean to insult anyone or crowd anyone's mailbox with
> junk mail. I really do believe in my product. One yahoo group,
> ArtAnonymous, confronted on spam, and I wanted to include you in on
> the conversation -- its listed below.
>
> -- RESPONSE TO THREADED DISCUSSION --
>
> robert> Ok... maybe you are not a spammer.<g>
>
> Thank you! ;-)
>
> alan> As you say, it seems straight and well composed.
>
> robert> It looks to me like you are selling cotton candy, once one
> gets
> robert> past the fact that your code is decent, well written, and not
> robert> the product of some Microsoft code generator.<g>
>
> To begin, thanks for the compliments on the code and design. I spent a
> reasonable amount of time designing from the perspective of a retail
> store front, and if nothing else your comments reiterate the product
> is solid from a web perspective.
>
> alan> Apart from the $25 joining fee, what other costs are involved?
>
> The prices for the two products I presented to the group represent all
> fixed costs associated with the website. There are no monthly or
> annual charges. Once you have the gallery, it is yours there is no
> time limit and work remains until sold.
>
> Besides fixed cost, there is variable expense of 10% of any sale.
>
> In addition to update items on the site -- ie replacing a sold item
> with a new item to sell -- represents a one time charge of $5.
>
> Also keep in mind that pricing structure includes domestic shipping
> costs.
>
> While the $25.00 product ensures a gallery of 5 items. The artists on
> the website currently use this gallery like a shop would use a
> catalog. Through the course of your networking, you meet with people
> who may not be able to purchase right then and there. It is important
> to provide any prospect with the ability to purchase work that does
> not demand face to face interaction.
>
> The other product presented for $325.00 represents a signifcantly
> greater opportunity. First, it offers domain hosting. Prices on
> non-banner domain hosting vary from free to $100+ a month. The package
> I provide is similar to free hosting offered elsewhere. 1MB limit, no
> script support. With that said, PHP and perlscript will work, I just
> don't want to spend a significant amount of time helping debug
> websites. I'm not a hosting company and I don't want to be. Hand in
> hand with the domain hosting, comes web design.
> Most informational websites are fairly simple requiring basic html
> coding. I want to help create a website that you as a consumer will be
> visually pleasing, while at the same time takes advantage of all the
> features of the website. The second major advantage is the PHP board.
> It gives the opportunity for customer interaction, increasing their
> stay at the website while also giving them ownership of it. That type
> of interactive marketing has been heralded as new wave of retaining
> your customer base. Finally, having 4x art listings represents a huge
> benefit. Based off of existing pricing structure, this feature alone
> pays for a substantial portion of the increased cost -- $25 + 15*10 =
> $175.00.
> If you are spending over $325 in hosting fees annually or do not have
> a website and want to get a start, it represents an excellent value.
>
> robert> I sell my work almost exclusively on-line (and earn a very
> robert> modest living doing so), through my own website, eBay, my
> robert> newsletter, and a few other venues. For about the first year,
> I
> robert> actually tried three different on-line 'galleries', that were
> robert> doing what you are now attempting, but I was able to sell my
> robert> work much more effectively on my own.
>
> robert> I *have* figured out how to bring, real, legitimate, paying
> robert> customers to my website... it's a full time job, and the
> robert> 'business' end of the job, is just as big as the 'painting'
> end
> robert> of the job.
>
> From what I've seen Robert, I think your pretty unique in the sense
> you've turned ebay into profit. Power to you. It reflects your
> business sense as well as your talent. I agree that online art
> 'galleries' are hardly a silver bullet. If you don't drive traffic to
> them, chances are purchases will not happen. As you know, I am
> starting out so I cannot provide you the market that ebay does.
> However I can try to help you spend less time on the business end. I
> am offering to do all customer interaction myself, calling/emailing
> after the purchase is secure. At current, I'm not going to be able to
> drive your marketing efforts although I do intend on helping. Besides
> if I can help cut any of your fixed costs, power to both of us.
>
> alan> I suspect a genuine business enterprise needing both sellers and
> alan> buyers. How many painters have signed up? How many paintings
> have
> alan> sold?
>
> You are correct. Currently there are two members -- both
> photographers. I have sold one photograph valued at $35.00 8x8
> unframed. God bless friends and family, but you have to start
> somewhere right? I do have plans to increase marketing efforts once
> the website has generated sufficient capital to do so -- skip to the
> business plan if you would like.
>
> alan> I did find photographs and the $15 price tag was very reasonable
> alan> for the buyer but not especially good news for the seller.
>
> Keep in mind that these photographs are 5x7 size, unframed and
> unmatted. Options available on the site increase the size and also
> offer framing and sizing options. The total cost ranges between
> $250-$350.
>
> alan> If I send you $25 and four jpegs, what are the chances of
> selling
> alan> an acrylic 3ft x 2 ft for $500 in the next three months?
>
> As I mentioned above, the odds of selling rest with you. You know your
> pricing structure. You obviously believe in your product, or you
> wouldn't be offering it. I'm just trying to give you away to turn what
> could be a no-opportunity into a sale.
>
>
> robert> I think your Keywords Meta tag might work a little better if
> it
> robert> was comma delimited.
>
> Corrected and thanks for the feedback. If you want to give other
> feedback such as the tools you would like to see available for an
> online gallery, please do. I want to help you do what you do.
> Robert I would also like to send you an email off board, but don't
> want to risk blacklisting my domain ;). Send me a line off-board so I
> could continue our discussion, I really appreciate and value your
> feedback.
>
> alan> Why would the public choose to buy from your site rather than a
> a
> alan> personal website?
>
> robert> Tell me, though... what are you really, really, really going
> to
> robert> do, on your domain, that has even the faintest chance
> robert> whatsoever, of attracting art buyers to the site, so that the
> robert> point of sale streamlining tools that you imply are in place,
> robert> alan> will be of any use?
>
> The questions are related. First, when you are dealing with an
> organization, it's more familiar. It's how most of us buy products
> now. Besides that, I support returns. One of things that makes the
> internet scary is that your don't see the product or touch it, but
> you're going to buy it. That represents risk to the customer, and I
> try to absorb the risk best I can. Returns are subtracted from future
> sales and product is returned to you the artist. One of the other
> things I think fail most online ventures is that people don't go
> online to buy art. I know right now when I go to a search engine like
> google, I'm typing in anything remote to artwork. I think most people
> don't even think about it. I'm going to try a regional approach to
> marketing, focusing on St. Louis, my home town, to generate traffic.
> For me details skip to business plan.
>
> --Pricing Structure--
>
> To be upfront on my costs, my fixed cost is absolutely low. My hosting
> expense at current amounts to $30/year, domain registration amounts to
> $10/year. I have variable costs 3% for credit card processing. I am
> building in a 1% residual for future sales people. Profitability at
> the current is completely devoted to marketing. Translation, like most
> small businesses I'm working for free with a day job.
>
> --Business Plan--
>
> 1) Get 10 artists on the site
> 2) Generate ~$2000 in cash
> 3) Advertise regionally, in the St. Louis Area to generate customer
> base.
> 4) Generate sales $1000/month -- establish 20-30 members
> 5) Price the cost of a retail space in a mall
> 6) Divy the cost over 12 hanging spots and undertimined free standing
> spots, offering monthly rentals to members.
> 7) Generate enough business to quit my day job.
> 8) Duplicate in the next city/Market internationaly
>
> I'm sure you're asking why St. Louis. Well I actually think it's
> perfect. We have several underground and some above ground galleries
> that do moderately well. However these galleries do not have
> mainstream clientelle. Successories is huge here, easily selling
> $5,000 - $10,000 per store. Successories! I believe that there are
> plenty of talented artists out there. I also believe that there is a
> market here that want to buy original works of art for status but do
> not want to set foot in galleries. The same market is internet open,
> but not necessarily internet savvy.
>
> I hope this helps. I have faith, and if I can help you great.
natar...@gmail.com
I encourage artists to boycott online galleries requiring listing fees
of any type. You should be making your money by selling art, not by
having artists pay to put their art online. Sell some art, and make a
commission. If you can't do that, no one should be paying you in the
first place.
I know it costs time and bit of money to get the website going
(although not much money unless you're not shopping around very well),
but that should be part of _your_ initial investment in _your_
business. It cost me money to get started as an artist, to put up my
website, to buy materials for my booth for arts & crafts shows, etc.
I only saw a return on those investments once I actually sold some
work--why should you be any different?
--King Rundzap
I think so should the things go for an artist. Everybody with money can show his work... good one, and bad one.
It's a nonsence....
In Italy still exist ways to promote and do exhibitions without money. So, King I will help you to spread out your message. Sure, I will do it! And from now on On my blog http://freeofchargeinrome.blogspot.it/ I will post all free art exhibitions I find in Italy and worldwide
https://vimeo.com/user6808754