Update on new art listings...part one

Well, it's been tons of work & I'm about half way there. I don't see much of an improvement in hits to my website, or sales on eBay, yet. My auction pages do load fast & look very clean, so that's good.

But I'm not convinced it will make a big difference yet. Maybe after search engines index a few times they will pick up more images. A Google or Yahoo search of images, using the keywords - modern original abstract art- is starting to look pretty good. Especially on Yahoo, where my Flicker images dominate. But, I want images from my website & from my auction listings to show up more.

So, time will tell. It's kind of hard to judge right now because sales seem down everywhere. You would think that my stuff would sell rather steady with the average cost under 30 bucks each. But such is the nature of selling original art. It's not a product most people actively search out.

I have a bunch of new stuff listed. I'll post pics in my next blog.

Changes to my listings on ebay. M..u..s..t ...a.d..a..p...t

I have revised all of my images and listings and am slowly filling up my store. It has been, and continues to be a ton of work re-naming & optimizing my pics, loading them on daviniart.com, and then creating brand new auctions with a new, simpler template.

If anyone had trouble with slow loading pages that should be resolved. I dumped Auctiva so the scrolling gallery is gone, and the images have been optimized for fastest loading.
I also realized that while I was searching for something to purchase I would skip the sellers who didn't offer free shipping. Well then, what was I thinking charging for shipping? So, now shipping is free again & will stay that way.

As some of you know this is not my main source of income. I enjoy it (possibly addicted to it?) and love creating stuff. I'm not here to make a ton of money [although that would be nice] so I am not really going to pad the price to cover listing costs. I'm eating approx 7 to 15 bucks on each shipment. If I feel the painting deserves it, I will try to cover those costs in the sales price, but for the most part I'll keep the prices low & still ship for free.

Thanks, Danny

So, check out the new listings & art now at

http://stores.ebay.com/Modern-Original-Abstract-art-Gems

SEO, keywords, facebook, twitter, blogs, tags, titles AND selling art.

We all know the importance of all this stuff to get placement & good rankings from the almighty search engines. I have to say it is driving me crazy. I have known something for a while but have never felt the need to change it until now.

IMAGES ON MOST HOSTING SITES GET RENAMED.

Yes, my image titled davini-art-original-abstract-gem-0955 for example is named farm4.static.flickr.com/3560/3383931182_eb15 on flickr.

or it is named...

img.auctiva.com/imgdata/3/4/3/5/8/0/webimg/245527683_o.jpg on Auctiva

gone is the davini, art, original, abstract from the title of my image. Sure, the tags & titles & descriptions you give your images helps search engines to find them, but the image title itself is pretty important.

Why do you think Flickr, Auctiva & other hosting sites change them? BECAUSE IT DRAWS PEOPLE TO THEIR SITE!!!

Enough I say!!!

It's going to take hours and hours of tedious work, but I'm going to host everything on my website. It's not the easiest way & the image uploader stinks, but at least my images will have the info that will hopefully draw people to my auctions, website, and various other places.

To me, the fastest way to search for art on the major search engines is to search "images". But I have never had an image in an auction show up.

I am not very educated on all this stuff, so I'm not sure how much this will help. I'll post the results when I start to link the images from my site. If I am thinking correctly, a search of images should pick up those in my auctions, therefore increasing hits.

Now all I need is for people to actually search for "original abstract art". Maybe after the spiders gobble up my new image info things will pick up...(but who knows when I will even have time to start this task?)

Great, something else to obsess over.

"Fusion Fix" 16x20 inch original abstract painting. WILD!!

I will ocasionally do larger pieces using the same materials and techniques as my art gems. I really like this one.

Listed on ebay. I featured this one. OUCH!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&item=370176960346

Musings on the ups & downs of selling Original art on the internet. Part 1

I want to seperate selling art online with selling other items. Art is a unique animal in that nobody needs it like they need a new cell phone cover. Not many people crave it like they do a new iPod, and you can't really eat it.

So the trick is finding people who appreciate original works of art & don't mind spending their hard earned dollars on it. Not easy. How do you target art buyers? Not many people go around shouting "I like art" or "I'm into original paintings". It's kind of a hidden society unless you frequent sites and discussion boards dedicated to it.

So, you need to use all the tools at your disposal and use them often. Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Websites, youTube, flickr, picassa, and on and on and on. It can be quite daunting to try to cover all the bases all the time. But the only way to hit a few art buyers is to aim the shotgun all over the place and keep pulling the trigger. You might get lucky.

[Side note:For the most part artists will buy from each other, so don't hestate to shoot a few arrows (no shotguns) in their dirrection from time to time.]

I had a great sale from someone who first saw my work on Flickr. That was very nice. She also owns a website dedicated to promoting eco friendly artists & I will be the Artist of the Month this April or May.

No matter what, it is an up & down, draining experience, selling original art. Not only because of what you put into each piece, but because sales can come and go as fast and as often Major leage teams trade your favorite ball players.

Three weeks ago I did great. Over 1200 in sales. I was feeling pretty good about myself.

Had I arrived?
Is all the marketing paying off?
Will it continue??

No, yes, and NO. Since then I have had a whopping 34.00 in sales. Yes, from 1200 to 34. Big drop. But I don't think I would have had the sales without all the hours sitting in front of my laptop.

I'll be the first to admit that when this happens I lose all hope, no longer feel like scanning new paintings & optimizing the images for listings. I no longer have the fire to promote by blogging, twittering, and so on. Art is a fickle lover and you need to always look forward. The only time to look back is to remind yourself that sales DO happen, even if at the moment you are falling all over the paintings piling up in your studio.

:>

New art & a quick lesson on listings in blogs.

I have some new paintings listed on ebay. Funny, I have always put a link to the auction but realized last night that might not be such a good idea.

Why?...

Well, in looking over my older posts, and clicking on the links, it shows the item went unsold. Not sure what others see, could be nothing (I should probably try it while not logged in to ebay to see. No, too busy).

Anyway, Why send a possible dead link, or links to unsold items (worse in my opinion), out in the world wide web forever? I know that it sometimes takes SEVERAL trys to sell a painting. I'm not going to remember to re-blog when I re-list, I'll be on to new things. So, if all my links go to un-sold paintings, what kind of message does that send?

So what I am now going to do is just link to my store. If I close my store I'll just add a link to my items. Simple enough. Then no matter how old the post is the link will take people somewhere.



NEW STUFF.

modern original abstract painting DAVINI Art Gems
















http://stores.shop.ebay.com/Modern-Original-Abstract-art-Gems