Creative Entrepreneur

When in my final high school years people started asking me what I was gonna do for a living, I never knew what to answer. None of the available options (that I knew of) sounded attractive to me. So I opted for going to college because it was the choice with the most freedom involved…or so I thought.  My college years ended with me dropping out and my parents having nightmares about my now surely somber future. I can’t blame them, I actually had the same nightmares but started concentrating on my art because that was what I really wanted to do.

In 2007 I set up Kabai33 (now Creative Web Biz) using WordPress. I wanted to sell my art online.  A year later I attended  a WordPress meet-up here in Berlin, Germany.  @photomatt" href="http://twitter.com/photomatt" target="_blank">Matt Mullenweg, the founder and developer of WordPress was there as well as @Janerri" href="http://twitter.com/Janerri" target="_blank">Janetti Chon of Web 2.0 Expo and @tinythoughts" href="http://twitter.com/tinythoughts" target="_blank">Jody Church, the then community manager of Lifestream.fm as well as lots of other people.  For me it was the first time meeting people who made a living through and with  the internet, blogging and social media.  At the end of the night we set with maybe 7 people on a tiny balcony in Friedrichshain and discovered that almost all of us were college drop-outs. I looked around at all those bright, inspiring people and I knew I was in good company and I never thought leaving college was a bad idea anymore.

Helping Others

Back then I decided to do more than just sell my art online. I wanted to  teach other artists how to use wordpress, how to blog and how to eventually make money with it. So I started writing some blog posts for fellow artists and other creative souls:  blogs to follow if you want to sell art online, how to create a Facebook fan page and some other stuff I had learned while building my own blog. These posts got a lot of attention because there seems to be a real need for this kind of information.

Creative Web Biz Kit

So I decided to take it a step further and actually help creative people set up a blog and start their own online biz and set up  the Creative Web Biz Kit for Artists and other Creative Entrepreneurs. It includes instructions on how to get a web host + the actual site set-up (by me) + 10 preinstalled themes (all designed with artists in mind)  + 10 preinstalled plugins which extend the functionality of your blog so you can sell your creations directly from your site and do other cool stuff. And because I really want you to succeed you will also get a 3 week email course that will teach you how to start and grow your own creative web biz! Sounds good right? Head on over and check it out!

Creative Web Biz - the art of creating an online business

First things first: set up Google Reader

If you are serious about selling art online you need to get to the important information others share about the topic.  One of the most useful tools to accomplish this is a feed/rss reader. It lets you subscribe to your favorite blogs so you don’t have to actually go to the site all the time to check for new content. Instead you get an account at Google Reader and let it deliver all new posts to your reader inbox. It actually works quite similar to an email account.

Here is a quick video on how it works:

And here are two nifty little tools I recommend to use with Google Reader:

Subscribe Bookmarklet: Open Google Reader and go to “manage subscriptions ” in the left bottom corner of your screen. This opens up your settings. Find the “Goodies” tab. Now you can add Reader to your phone, to iGoogle and do other useful stuff. What I want you to do is to scroll down to “subscribe as you surf” and drag the bookmarklet to your bookmarks bar (the one below your search box).  Next time you like a blog, just click on the “subscribe’ bookmarklet to add the blog to your Reader.

Google Reader Watcher Firefox add-on: If you don’t have Firefox, get it now! I promise , you will never regret it. Then install Google Reader Watcher. All you have to do is click a button. It will now show you how many new posts are waiting to be read in your browser bottom bar.

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Blogs for Creative Entrepreneurs:

1 Empty Easel:

Empty Easel is an online art magazine with practical advice, tips, and tutorials for creating and selling art. Especially the business advice section includes articles on the following topics: marketing tips, selling art online, seo for artists, online advertising and more

2 ArtBizCoach:

Alison B. Stanfield started out in the art museum business and now runs ArtBizCoach. Her services are especially geared towards artists and helps them  to learn about promotin, marketing and business. She also wrote a book: I’d Rather Be in the Studio! ( ArtBiz Coach was suggested by  Robin Maria Pedrero)

3 Photopreneur:

A photopreneur is anyone who wants to earn income from their photography, whether as a full-time professional or as an occasional photographer. It’s anyone who can turn their skills behind the lens into cash.  If this is you, go subscribe to Photopreneur.

4 Design Sponge – Biz Ladies:

Design*Sponge is a daily website dedicated to home and product design run by Brooklyn-based writer, Grace Bonney. Biz Ladies is a weekly column on Design sponge every Tuesday. Interviews with and tips by successful creative entrepreneurs.

5 The Creative Entrepreneur:

The Creative Entrepreneur is a visual, results-oriented, step-by-step method of business development for creatives from all walks of life who want to turn their passions into viable business opportunities. Lisa Sonora Beam is an artist herself , wrote The Creative Entrepreneur book , runs online workshops and doesn’t believe in starving artists.

6 New Media Photographer:

The New Media Photographer blog is run by Rosh Sillars and is the place where he combines his two passions social media and photography.

7 Prosperous Artists Academy:

The Prosperous Artists community memebership site is designed to support the creative spirit as well as develop the skills and knowledge to build the creative life of your dreams. They have a free weekly podcast designed to support your growth as a creative person.

8 Right-Brain Business Plan:

After 10 years in Corporate America  Jennifer Lee made the leap from  a change management consulting career to finally pursuing full-time her passions around coaching, creativity and living in alignment with her values. If you want to learn how to make a business plan that is also a bracelet, you should definitely subscribe to her two blogs: Right-Brain Business Plan and Life Unfolds

9 IttyBiz:

As independent artists we all also have to take care of the business side. That’s where IttyBiz comes in. It’s a place to get tips, advice, motivation, and support for your very small business (read you and your laptop). If you think business is boring, check out IttyBiz and laugh your ass of while learning how to become an artist entrepreneur.

10 Bakery:

You won’t find any bread here, because this Bakery bakes businesses. I just discovered this blog, so I don’t know to much about it, but they have their own Etsy shop, seem to work with a lot of artists and their categories are Blogging, Business, Getting Started, and Social Networking.

11 Rise of the Innerpreneur:

Tara Joyce says that an Innerpreneur is someone who has realized their purpose/life work and started a business to pursue it and also has the creativity to see the world in unique ways and an impulse to make things different. Her blog Rise of the Innerpreneur will help you  with ideas to grow your business and your mind.

12 Ancient Artist:

Ancient Artist is a blog about creating art in Oregon, starting a second career instead of retiring, developing a marketing strategy, and philosophical discussions about art.

13 EBSQ:

EBSQ is a creative space that provides art marketing tools and serves as a hub for the self rep and indie artist community. Their blog has an extra category on Art Biz.

14 The Storque  – Indipreneur:

The Storque is the blog that belongs to Etsy, the social shopping site where you can buy all things handmade. They frequently post about all things Indipreneur which also includes interviews with people that quit their day job because now they are earning enough with their art, design or crafts. Other topics include promotion, marketing, cooperative advertising and much  more.

15 Zazzle, Imagekind, RedBubble, Deviant Art:

all of these are online communities that let artists sell  prints, posters, cards, shirts, shoes, skateboards, mugs, aprons etc.  If you are a member, make sure to follow their blogs, so you are always up to date on new opportunities and tools.

16 The Art List:

Since 2003, TheArtList has been the leading online resource for visual artists and photographers looking for income and exhibition opportunities to enter.

17 Seth Godin:

Marketing guru Seth Godin is the bestselling author of more than seven books. He writes about marketing and the spread of idea. His books have been read by Obama’s campaign advisors. You should read his blog and his books too, because they will teach you how to create a remarkable business for your art. You can get his books for free here.

18 Mashable:

The famous social media blog is a must read for all Indipreneurs. Why? Because being up to date on all things social media is essential to selling art online. You need to know your tools and Mashable will help with that.

19 Problogger:

Problogger is a blog about making money with your blog. It is not specifically geared towards artists, but there is a LOT to learn here.  Advertising, Affiliate Programs, SEO . If you don’t know what I’m talking about – go subscribe to Problogger. Currently he is holding a free 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge you can still sign up for.

20 Zen Habits:

Zen Habits, simpl productivity is one of the top blogs on the internet and covers achieving goals, productivity, being organized, GTD, motivation, eliminating debt, saving,  happiness, and successfully implementing good habits.

21  Creative Web Biz:If you liked this post, please also subscribe to  Creative Web Biz (see top of sidebar) as I will be posting more tips and tricks for artists, designers, musicians, crafters, photographers and all other Creative Entrepreneurs .

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Update: I knew I forgot a blog but luckily I was reminded. So here it is:

22 Artdictive Habits:

Have a look at ARTDICTIVE My amazingly creative  and productive friend Webgrrl knows all about Zazzle, Red Bubble, Imagekind, CafePress, Blurb and all the other sites that let you print your art on prints, posters, cards, mugs, shirts , books etc.

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Do you know of any other blogs that might be useful for independent artists ? Please  share them in the comments, so we can all start living our dream!

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Creative Web Biz - the art of creating an online business

this article was updated on August 12th 2010

Many artists, musicians, designers, crafters, writers and other creative people have  Facebook accounts and can use these to reach more people and grow their creative business. There are many things to be done that can help you promote and market your work and I will name 25 that I think would be useful to implement.

This is not a post about markeing though, it’s more about the little things Facebook offers that you might have overlooked but that can have a big impact on your  creative biz because you streamlined your profile to work for you.  The tips reach from fairly basic  to pretty advanced, so there should be something for everybody.

1  add your website/blog url to the info box under your profile pic:

If you have a website and/or blog, you need to let people know about it and make it as easy as possible for them to get there. Every link that leads back to it will also help with your search engine rankings. To do so you will have to go to your profile then click  “edit profile” right under your avatar picture. Then click “contact information” and fill in your website/blog url. Save your changes.  Now click on the little pencil icon in the right hand corner of your  information box and choose to show your  your website url to all your page visitors.

2 add a Facebook link to your blog  and/or website:

Give people that visit your blog/site the chance to connect to you on Facebook (and other social networks) by adding a link to your FB profile from your blog. This way they become part of your community and will always know about your latest projects and news.

3 let your friends help you:

Every time you update your profile with a link, a photo, a video or anything else , all your friends will see this in their news feeds. Now if they like or comment on your items it will also go out to their friends and can go viral from there. The more friends you have, the more exposure for your art,  your films or recipes you will get. But just adding random people is not gonna do anything. You need to find people that are truly interested in your work. Start with the friends you already have and work from there.  To do so take a look at your home page  sidebar . At it’s lower end you will find the friend finder link. Follow it and you will be able to find your email and IM friends and add them to Facebook.

4 create friend groups/lists:

Let’s say you live in Los Angeles, you have a gig coming up, you created an event (see no 20) and you want to invite people to come. What you should definitely not do is invite all your Facebook friends, because people in Shanghai won’t be able to come anyway and you don’t want to spam them with (for them) useless info. What you do is create friends lists. It’s real easy to do  Go to your “Friends” page and start creating  lists  in the left sidebar. To make it even more easy, facebook will let you add people to lists right when you ask them to be your friend or when they ask you. Use this feature and your Facebook life will be much easier.

5 friend group feeds:

On your  home page you have a  sidebar on the left where you can choose to see  friend group feeds. This simply means that you can choose to only  see what your friends in Paris are up to or maybe you have a customer list and you want to find out what kind of  people like your designs so you can better plan your Facebook ads (see no 24)

6 import updates from your blog  and other social networks:

Right beneath the status baron the right you will find options and if you click on it, you can go to settings. It will show you a number of sites ( Flickr, YouTube, Digg, Last.fm, Delicious and more) which can be set to automatically import updates. You also have the option to import your own blog rss feed. (Alternative: if you have a FriendFeed account, get the Friendfeed application to import even more sites)

7 share with your Facebook community:

If you install the Facebook bookmarklet you will be able to share content from around the web with your community: links, videos, photos. If you share information that inspires others you will always get some love back.  Drag the  Share on Facebook button to your browser’s bookmarks bar (the one below the search box). From now on, you can let everybody profit from the knowledge you find online.

8 use ping.fm for status updates:

Ping.fm will let you update your status from inside  your browser and it will send the same updates to other social networks as well, i.e. MySpace, Tumblr, LinkedIn and many others. After you sign up you can install their Firefox add-on here

9 facebook applications: notes, photo, videos and links:

This might be obvious but I have seen many artist profiles without any photos or  videos or notes (see no.6 to import your blog here).  Use these in-house Facebook applications to show your work and get the word out.

10 Tab management:

You’re talented. Strut your stuff! Move your photos box to your profile and don’t hide it in your boxes tab among butterflies and friend hugs. To manage the wall tabs on your profile page just click on the + sign on their right. select and then drag and drop in the position you want them to be. To delete a tab, click on it and then on the little pencil icon that will appear. There you will find  a delete tab. To move and remove boxes, click on pencil icon in upper right hand corner of the box in question. There you will be able to delete or move it to your wall or to the boxes tab.

11 manage your application settings:

You can make  applications post new content to your wall and therefore also to your friends news feeds every time you upload a photo, a video or write a new note.

go to account, then applications settings in the right upper corner of your screen. Select edit, choose application and change your settings to add a tab, choose who can see the content and handle additional permissions.

12 search apps:

Besides the apps mentioned above, there are many, many more third party apps. This means that they are not made by the Facebook team but rather by other companies and individual developers (you can even learn how to make one your own). So go ahead and explore because some of these will even let you sell your merchandise, handmade crafts, paintings or books right from your Facebook profile or page (zazzle, etsy) while others will help you connect your different communities around the web (youtube, twitter, friendfeed).  To search the database go to  the applications directory and start browsing.

13 add your youtube videos to profile and pages:

Want to show your art or music videos on your profile and pages? Pick one of these apps to do it for you.

14 your own art application:

Upload and share your art work with artshare

15 get more readers for your blog:

If you have a blog you can join over 450.000 other bloggers on NetworkedBlogs. It will let you find new blogs to read and new readers for your own blog. Add a tab or box to display which blogs you like and be sure to find other bloggers to network with and to get inspired. Join the Creative Web Biz page to get started.

16 marketplace:

buy and sell anything you want with the marketplace application.

17 etsy shop for profiles and pages:

If you took the handmade pledge and have an etsy account you can add your etsy shop on your profile or your business/fan page.

18 sell t-shirts, cards, posters and other merchandise  in a merch store:

Zazzle and Threaded both make it possible to add a store to your facebook page. Check it out

19 sell your music:

If you have an account with ReverbNation , let people listen to , download and buy your music with their app

20 create events for your art shows, music gigs and book readings:

With Facebook Events, you can organize gatherings and parties with your friends, as well as let people in your community know about upcoming events. The Events applications page displays your upcoming events, any invitations you have pending, and links to your own events.

21 fan pages:

Fan pages let you do the same stuff your profile does without the limit of 5000 friends. It is also useful if you want to keep private and business seperate. You can read about the benefits of  fan pages here and also check out ‘10 Facebook Fan Page Tips for Creative Entrepreneurs‘ here on Creative Web Biz.

22 join other peoples fan pages and interest groups:

To find other people interested in film, writing or cooking join other peoples fan pages and/or groups. Check if your favorite artist has a fan page and join it. Chances are that his/her fans might like your art as well. Add some of them to your friends. Check out what groups your friends belong to or join these to get you started: Creative Business Owners / Twitter Artists  Artisans and Art Lovers /  Artdictive / 1.000.000 facebook artists / Artists who refuse to starve. Creative people share their business secrets

23 facebook ads:

Ever noticed the ads on your profile page? Well you can advertise your creative business as well. If you create an ad that is entertaining, informative or engaging you might win some new fans. Read this post by Mari Smith to find out more.

24 facebook connect:

facebook connect is an application that will let your blog readers sign in to your blog with their facebook credentials. The comments they leave will be displayed in their facebook profiles and feeds. This means more exposure for you and your work. Here is how to add facebook connect to your blog in 8 minutes

25 even more tips and tutorials:

30+apps to do business on facebook

facebook posts on mashable, the social media site

a whole blog with facebook tips

Facebook tutorials

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That’s it, or at least as far as I’m concerned. But i ‘m sure there are many more tips and tricks for creative entrepreneurs on facebook and I’d be happy to read them in the comments  or on the Creative Web Biz Facebook page.

Creative Web Biz - the art of creating an online business

When I started showing my art on the web I set up a free website at freewebs.com. But after a while I realized that making constant updates to a traditional website is just too much work. And so I looked around for a better solution. It didn’t take long to find out that a blogging system was really what I was looking for. It is designed to be updated frequently and has over the years developed into a tool which is being used by hundreds of millions of people to let others know what’s going on in their personal lives, their companies or where they share their holiday pictures and videos or the latest news on government policies. So why not use it to share my art ?

After I decided to start a blog I pretty soon found out about WordPress, a  blogging software that anyone can use for free. You even have two choices: you can go to wordpress.com where you just have to create a free  account to start blogging right away without having to worry about hosting or coding or web rankings or anything else than the content for your blog. Just choose one of about thirty themes and a few widgets and you are ready to go using the most advanced blogging software available with all it’s benefits but without the hustle of hosting and maintaining it yourself.

Or you go to wordpress.org where you can download the software and then upload it onto your own server. A self-hosted blog gives you the choice of about 700 themes in the themes directory plus tens of thousands of themes on other sites. They range from simple one column old-fashioned blog templates to magazine style and photo blogs to full-fearured video sites for vloggers.  There are also about 3500 plugins available from the plugins directory and many, many more out on the web. Plugins can help you with event calendars, galleries,  shops,  mailing lists and even search engine optimization and web security. New themes and plugins come out every day and can transform your blog into a content management system (cms) that lets you use it as a blog, a  portfolio, a gallery and a shop to show your art, write about it, discuss it with others and sell it. But that’s not all. If you connect it to your social networks like RedBubble, Zazzle, MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter you can make it a very powerful promotion and marketing tool for your own art business. If you are sick of waiting for some gallery or agent to “discover” and “push” you to the realization of your dreams, which I’m sure includes making a living of your art, you might as well try something new and just do it yourself. With a little knowledge about web 2.0 and social networking sites you have more than a chance to start living your dream and earn a living while doing it.

I started my blog about a year ago and I have learned quite a bit along the way and so from now on I will be sharing my experiences with you. This post is the first in my new “Web2.0 for Artists” category. I will be writing about wordpress, social networks for artists and how to use web 2.0 to get your art biz going.

And the first step I recommend is setting up a blog at wordpress. If you have never hosted a site yourself you might wanna start by setting up your blog on wordpress.com. Get your account, start blogging and don’t worry about any tech details. If you want to expand later on you can do so very easily. Get a web host, download the software from wordpress.org  and import your old posts from wordpress.com.

I skipped that part and got myself a host and so next time we will discuss which plugins and themes are best suited for art blogs.

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Creative Web Biz - the art of creating an online business

Spider Woman, as known by some Native-American tribes, is the goddess that sits at the center of the galaxy and spins the web of life. Her web is the matrix of our reality as we know it and connects us to everybody and everything in our own and throughout all other dimensions and universes.

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By listening to her lessons we are being enabled to perceive these other realities through psychic vision and telepathy. In a dream state we alter our consciousness and are therefore able to move along these threads of her web to faraway places while our body is safely resting at home.

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The internet represents this web of life in our three-dimensional reality. It connects people from all over the world with each other and therefore makes boundaries in every sense pretty meaningless.

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This is really good news for all artists, as we are now finally able to publicize, promote and sell our own art, without being dependent on others (who will only help you with these tasks if they think you will make them good money), and even without any initial investment !

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When I discovered these possibilities for myself, I celebrated my own personal independence day. Being slightly autistic, it has always been rather hard for me to socialize with other people, which is not a very convenient treat if you try to leave the ‘starving artist’ stigma behind.

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So here I am starting my very own WordPress blog to see if Spider Woman will bless me and help me prosper.

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And as I know many other gifted people who sadly gave up their talents because they didn’t see the possibilities Spider Woman is offering all of us, I plan to post about web2.0 for independent artists regularly. I want all of you to be able to follow your calling, for your calling comes from the spirit world and will help transform Mother Earthinto the beautiful planet she is supposed to be !

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image by cybershotking

Creative Web Biz - the art of creating an online business