How many open studios have you done? They’re a lot of work, right (Mike Bailey)? There’s got to be another way.
I’m a “high tech” guy–that’s what people call me, usually other artists–so I decided to try something different, an online-only Open Studios sale. I’ll advertise using my online resources, like online ads, social networks, this blog, email lists I belong to, etc. It’s a good test.
All my paintings are in an Excel spreadsheet, so I selected paintings for sale and used “mail merge” in MS Word to generate the HTML for the site. I’ll let you know how it goes, and be happy to share my code if anyone is interested.
I’m going to launch from this blog first for a few days, so you can get first choice: https://edterpening.com/store.html
Let me know if you come across any problems, or have any suggestions. Happy shopping!
Thanks everyone for your support, I have sold 9 paintings in the first day! one glitch: paypal doesn’t manage inventory, so I sold one painting twice. Not a good customer experience. Any suggestions? Maybe i should have used eBay with a set “buy now” price? What do you do?
Hey Ed! That’s GREAT ! 9 paintings the first day! Whew! I think I am going to give up all the work I had to do here to get one of these off the ground. The rate you are going, you’ll have us all knocking at your door for sales code! I know I will!
Try not to sell em more than once. I know the money is good, but its sorta difficult to ‘splain! 😉
Hi Ed,
Wow, the “store” looks great. Nice to see all the paintings together.
I haven’t done E-bay so can’t help you with that.
Congratulations on the sales.
Jo
Hi Ed, Way to go. My suggestion would be to have people interested in buying email you directly about the piece they are interested in. It gives you a more personal interaction with your clients than a button on paypal or ebay. You can then ask for them to pay with your paypal account, but then there are no mix ups.
Ed . . .I spent almost an hour browsing through your ‘store’ last nite. Hats off for an extremely nice job in the layout and presentation. I’ll be most interested in the method you use to gain publicity to the site. I have been thinkin’ this is going to be the way for me to approach distribution, too. Again, my compliments on a terrific job!
Great idea, Ed! I agree — have an email interaction, and then you can send a PayPal invoice.
Congrats on the sales Ed! I’d have to disagree with the suggestions about email vs direct buy from paypal. I think many of these purchases are on the spot decisions and that excitement can erode or disappear while they are waiting for your reply. I find that people who purchase from my blog come in 2 categories – those who want to interact with me (they usually email to say they just bought something or email first to chat, then buy) and those that just buy – its about 50/50 right now. If someone is up at 3:00 AM buying my art, I don’t want to get in the way of instant gratification! I get an email from Paypal telling me when something has sold. so I always know what is still available and update my blog accordingly. I think you can request that in your “settings”
Thanks everyone for your advice here, really valuable (especially your 50/50 stat, Deborah). I’m still learning. The sales are still coming in. so I’m thinking, “why didn’t I do this sooner!?” It all boils down to time and priority, though, right? I want to spend my time painting, but you know, I think direct, unframed, web-based sales are probably less time intensive than dealing with a gallery and framing… I guess I’ll need to find a balance.
Oh, I’m in a group show at The Vault in Sonora coming up in Dec.
Glad to hear it is going so well, Ed. It is heartening!
I found your site while communicating on UCLA facebook with my son and love the layout and your artwork. Just wanted to let you know that the “tech” format works! I have bookmarked your page and hope to visit often.
Lisa
Santa Barbara
Thanks, Lisa (& son)! Great to hear I’m getting some visits from Facebook users. I assume you saw my ad. Cheers!