Selling All Summer Long - Why Not?

Ed,

I agree with what you are saying.

If you sell tourist art you have even better odds.

The ebb is after the Christmas rush. That does not mean prints are not selling, they are.

Dave

- Then there are those who promised the folks at work they'd bring back great pictures and need to purchase a few good photos.

- The ones who looked at the galleries while on vacation, didn't like the prices and go shopping online when they get back home.

- The folks visiting friends over the summer and say "dang it, Jim did you see all of the great art Suzy and Bob have in their beautiful home? We should get some."

- Or sprucing up the house for summer visitors.

- Or replacing the Currier and Ives winter scenes with something a bit more summery

- Or finally taking down the Christmas tree and discovering a bit blank spot on the wall waiting to be filled with art.

Plenty of reason to buy art in the summer.

Very good points there Edward.

Some people do not care for the Summer heat - and stay inside the A/C to do their surfing.

It's always a good time for a sale.

@Edward: Great discussion, thanks! Especially love this part: "When the boss is away its time to surf the net more!" :-)

@all: Even if there are some slow sales periods for you: use the time to plan your Holiday marketing! The first pre-shopping activities may start as early as September so be prepared.

Another point: We live in different climate zones. It's not the perfect summer weather all over the world now.

Depends if all your eggs are in one basket. Buyers are outside buying art at fairs and soaking up the sun.

Its funny to me that some argue the cost of making art to sell at a fair but never take into account the time they spend doing online marketing mostly every day, like it doesn't cost them anything.

"Its funny to me that some argue the cost of making art to sell at a fair but never take into account the time they spend doing online marketing mostly every day, like it doesn't cost them anything."

I think for many if not most time is far cheaper than money. Most have a couple free hours in the day but for many it is very difficult if not impossible to scratch together the extra funds necessary to pay for all the gear, fees, framing and prints in order to participate in a fair.

Online sales in June have been about average for me compared to other months this year.

I am working on a huge order and as soon as that goes through June will be my best month since I started selling artwork.

I sell in galleries in touristy towns, so summer is a busy season for me, as is fall, and then holiday. The only predictably slow season for me is Feb-April.

DK I thought the same thing but I made back about half my investment in the first art fair I participated in which included a canopy, fair participation fee, tables, prints, mats, bags etc., I think if you do it regularly you'd make back your money in two or three shows then it will be profit from there.

I didn't frame anything though.

Funnest thing is that selling at art fairs and online can actually happen at the same time. It's like magic.

....

Another way to capture summer sales - creating blog posts that capture people researching their summer vacations.

Toby, you must live in a good area for fairs then, the reports on fairs in this area are not so positive, not to mention it's a crap load of work especially if you have to do it all by yourself, (me). I still work full time, I don't want to spend my weekends sitting around under a canopy anyway, that's when I can get out to take photos and sketch as well as pursue my other interests. Maybe after I retire I'll consider it. Don't get me wrong, I don't think SM is all that great a sales generator either, but for many people it's really the only practical option.

Toby, you must live in a good area for fairs then, the reports on fairs in this area are not so positive, not to mention it's a crap load of work especially if you have to do it all by yourself, (me).

Just did a free show this weekend - Free. Wasn't even 30.00. took me all of 20 mins to set up and 10 minutes to pack up and leave. Less than one hour and Free. I'll take that over 3 hours of online work everyday, anytime.

/

Not all craft / art fairs are created equal.

I've done a couple where the gross sales (nevermind profits) only just barely covered the entrance fee, and didn't cover the cost of parking all day (downtown Denver).

I know some photographers who follow the chances of "winning" at a craft fair booth the way bookies follow horses at a racetrack. They invest a lot of time and energy in picking which craft fairs to "bet" on participating in.

Your marketing time is not free. Time = money... ask anyone who does cost estimating for service contracts. There is a reason why businesses have to pay people to work in their sales departments. If you're doing art as a business, the time your sales department spends on marketing (even if your sales department is you) is not free. There is an opportunity cost. If you aren't making minimum wage, at least, on the time you spend selling your work, you would be making more money if you spent that time working in a fast food restaurant.

Cheryl, that's why even when we make a little money at this most of us really are just hobbyists. Even if I ever got lucky enough to make an actual profit on this it most likely wouldn't even be enough to pay me a small fraction of min. wage, even if I did ignore the "time costs" of marketing. Just the making any money on the time spent making art alone is hard enough. For me the cost of spending time on the computer isn't so much money, the cost comes from it keeping me from doing other things I could/should be doing, sitting around at an art fair would be the same, and might actually cost me real dollars as well as time, that "betting" thing you talk about rings true around here as well!

I like sitting around at art fairs. Usually.
Just like you seem to enjoy going to car shows & taking photos of the old cars.

Cheryl, I don't sit around at car shows, in fact while I appreciate the car owners for bringing in their cars I don't understand why they do it. There are some that that show up at nearly every weekend show and weeknight cruise nights, just sitting around talking to the same group of buddies every time all day or night long. I'm usually only there for a couple hours, and I'm moving around taking photos and sketching, just one of the activities that I enjoy doing that I wouldn't be able to do if I was sitting at an art fair all day on the weekend. I actually did own a show worthy car for a few years, I took it to one show, that was it. That show even included a nice parade style cruise through the mountains, but the rest of the time I was bored out of my skull, I never went to another one.

David K:
That's probably the point, sitting around talking to the same group of buddies. They may be a bit more extroverted than you LOL.
I am emphatically *not* suggesting that you sit around at either art fairs or car shows if you don't happen to enjoy doing that.

I can sit around and talk with buddies, not all day long though let alone multiple days/week. I actually have been helping out with an exhibition booth at a couple car shows this year, and that did require I be around for more than just a couple hours, but it's a group of us that man the exhibition, so if I want to walk the car show, take photos or sketch I can do that in between sitting around talking to my buddies and show goers. If I had to sit in the booth or even next to it with buddies for a full eight hours straight I'd go bonkers.

My sales usually pick up in the October time frame, but I feel good with the amount of business I have, it's busy, but not too busy.

I will be on vacation for most of July so I won't be marketing much this next month.

I agree with Kevin... I'd much rather spend a few hours selling in person than spend those same hours playing around with social media.

Especially because I've found spending time on social media to be so unproductive. I sold a lot more in a few hours at one art festival compared to years of posting to SM. I work full-time too but I spend a few hours each weekend day working on my photography anyhow.

I've also found time spent on SM to be largely unproductive...for me, but others have done well with it, so one can't make the blanket statement that live selling is better than online, that's simply not true for all artists. I have no desire to sit at an art fair all day, I don't even consider it an option. I've even stopped participating in group exhibitions, another thing I simply don't enjoy. That's why I've accepted the fact that I'm just a hobbyist, being a professional requires spending way too much time doing things I dislike doing.

Interesting topic, Ed. I was starting to freak out a bit when I realized how few sales I'd had in all my online shops compared to last June. Then I started adding things. Well, what do you know, sales started flowing again. You're right, I was taking a holiday (actually, a few of them) and had really slacked off. You can't just sit back and hope that sales will come to you.

Regarding all the work doing shows...just this past week I officially quit doing them. I was burnt out after doing shows for decades (selling both jewellery and photography). Now I do it all online. While I'll miss my buddies at the shows, I won't miss "having" to do it each week because I made the commitment and I can always drop in and visit them. I'm getting rid of all my craft fair/art market/farmers market paraphernalia and it feels great!

Too bad Peggy, but I certainly understand why you stopped. They can be hard on the feet and such, plus you can't just get up and leave when you want.

Toby, have you tried a live feed to your SM while at one of the art fairs?

Kevin, it was more about not getting up and leaving when I wanted. I'd be on display for hours, eating lunch in front of a table full of people who usually want to ask you a question as soon as your mouth is full, lol! Getting up at 6 am and lugging all my stuff to my van, then out to the market, then do it all again in reverse. Could never go away on holiday in the busy summer months because I'd be missing out on too much money by not being around on Saturday for a fair. It's sad in a way...the end of an era, but it felt like the right decision.

David, I barely do any SM. I do sell on online venues that don't seem to rely on it though (they have their own traffic). I'm thinking about trying to blog regularly again, although I'm not sure that does much good.

Peggy, I opened a new Twitter account, a few days ago but I am struggling to get into it, haven't tweeted in two days. I prefer IG but since I don't have a smart phone I can't send and receive DM's so now I just lurk there. I also question the value of blogging, I haven't written a blog post in over a month. Maybe I don't even want to bother with sharing anymore. lol It all seems rather pointless.

Sometimes I find adding an image to another site sparks sales here. Maybe FAA is a more trusted name for purchase then some of the strange sounding places.

Kevin I haven't tried that... Have you? Which SM platform did you use?

DK I didn't mean to say that selling in person was better than selling online as a blanket statement. I was just sharing my personal experience and I was comparing it more to using social media than say getting found in search.

I find both selling in person and getting found in search to be superior to posting to social media at this point. However, I've probably done a pretty lousy job at branding so far.

Here's some motivation that applies to the discussion: https://www.entrepreneur.com/video/295902

Certainly isn't an either/or decision.

I look at Art Wolfe's website and see he covers all bases - workshops, stock, fine art, travel. Like any good business, he expands into all markets that he can as long as it make sense from a business standpoint.

No Toby, I have not. I will when I do a good show this fall. Hoping for a good East Coast show.

Ed, I also do workshops, sell fine art, stock and travel. Its not easy to implement all that at the same time, because they are all different. I neglected my workshops this year because of the fine art and it shows big time. Each of those things are different businesses and take a lot of time for each. I will be starting my blog again soon, so that should help combine everything, at least I'm hoping.

Kevin OConnell
https://www.kogalleries.com

Workshops are great because they cash in on people who would rather take pictures than buy them.

I was at a hospital dinner this week and sat next to a woman who goes on them all the time. Antarctica, Africa, Alaska, Montana -- her next trip is to shoot polar bears. Probably spends 10K on these photo workshop trips.

I asked what she does with the photos. "Nothing" she says. "I just do it to relax".

Yes you can make a lot of money doing exotic photo workshops, thats for sure. I was going to do a specialized workshop in the Marshall Islands, because I am very good friends with king Kabua. You have to get permission to go there from the king or government. I was going to do workshops and one of the stops, Bikini Atoll and other places throughout the chain. I had to find a boat to use that would take about ten of us total. The natives wanted to charge me $40,000 to drive us to the locations. This was for 10 days. They see americans and think we have a bank roll, so that wasn't going to work for me. Even though I have permission and the workers, I cant make them understand logically its not a one time deal.

Im going to try again and see if I can get another large boat.

"When the boss is away it's time to surf the net more!" made me laugh!
Edward, you have many good points about why summer is a great time to purchase art.
My sales are steady year round with no summer slump. In fact, this month, June, has been my best in all my years on FAA!

Best is when you are actually on vacation, check in and find a couple of nice sales. Happened to me last summer while relaxing on PEI in August. Had a couple days of large print sales.

I love seeing sales come in when I'm on vacation Edward. I got a few big sales during my last two vacations. I got my biggest FAA order while I was having breakfast in San Francisco.

Seems like summers are just naturally slow for all sorts of business, at least I see it across several of my businesses. Then again I turn down a lot of outdoors work summers especially if it's in direct sun.

Hmmmm when I think about it I often had the same pattern as Edward and Toby in the past - nice large sales while beeing on vacation. Time to buy another plane ticket?

For online sales, June has been my best month this year. While it won't beat last December, it is very close.



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June is a great time to sell art with lots of weddings, Father's Day, graduations etc.

Just did a free show this weekend - Free. Wasn't even 30.00. took me all of 20 mins to set up and 10 minutes to pack up and leave. Less than one hour and Free. I'll take that over 3 hours of online work everyday, anytime.- kevin

That's my kind of selling! I may do that in my front yard, over the next week with a little canopy set up, my clothesline type fence art display and watch it all from my living room sofa sitting in the a/c, snacking on some gourmet goodies and sipping fine wine and watching tv. :-)

I always travel in June. Without fail, I always have big jobs come through. This year, I wrote off my trip because it centered around business.
I gave up tracking sales trends decades ago...business comes in when it comes in.I plant seeds all year.
Slower sales in summer is just an excuse for those too lazy to keep at it.