GCU Forum - A humble request

GCU Newbies
artist

Posts: 17

A humble request
Feb 23^rd, 2008, 7:52am

Hi everyone,
I started my store in November and sold enough cards to get my first check, which felt quite sweet. After checking other artists' stores I was surprised to see how many cards some of you had in your stores. I don't know if anyone is willing to answer but I would be interested in knowing if there is a real potential of making money. Right now I have only a few of my artworks uploaded as cards, but I am planning to do more. Also I would like advise of any other internet possibilities of selling art related items. I am very ignorant in this mather, but like all of you would really like to make my living doing art rather than anything else.
I have read enough postings on the forum to know people here are amazingly supportive of each other.
Thanks for every bit of advise you can give,
Laila

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Laila Kujala Studio:
http://artist.greetingcarduniverse.com/lailakujala

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Harry_132595

Senior Member
artist

Posts: 293

Re: A humble request
Reply #1 - Feb 23^rd, 2008, 8:17am

I'm relatively new here too and I have yet to sell enough cards here to get a check. BUT ... if I keep on buying them myself at the rate I have been I just may be there soon! LOL

I think the honest answer to your question is it really varies from contributor to contributor. And a lot of that has to do with just exactly how much effort you put into it ... some in the number of cards ... but maybe more importantly, how effectivley you promote your card store.

It's all about being seen and there is a lot to be seen here. So the secret is getting people to YOUR store. I've even had people tell me they would have bought some of my cards for Christmas ... had they seen them ... but they didn't see them until after Chirstmas.

So who knows what I could have done had I promoted better ... or at all ... I really haven't tried that hard promotion wise. But even at that, I sold a total of 65 Christmas cards between here and another site. 30 bucks ... without trying particularly hard. I don't count the effort in making the cards ... that's just playtime!

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Harry's Card Store:
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/harryscardstore

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Laila_132615 GCU Newbies artist Posts: 17	Re: A humble request Reply #2 - Feb 25^th, 2008, 5:56pm Thanks Harry for your reply. I wish I knew how to better promote my cards. If I figured that out I could easily make more cards. Laila
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Mindy

GCU Administrator
Community Manager

Posts: 6537
Gender: female

Re: A humble request
Reply #3 - Feb 26^th, 2008, 3:09pm

Hello Laila,
Here is my 2 cents. Your artwork is lovely and hats off to you for having your own unique style. Your challenge here is to translate your art into greeting cards, not just putting art on a card, that will appeal to shoppers.

Give your cards a real purpose - shoppers are coming with a purpose - Must buy Mom a Birthday card for example. If you don't have a Happy Birthday Mom card that shopper's not interested.

Before you put time and effort into getting visitors to your store I suggest creating some very targeted cards and letting us market those for you. We are ranking high on natural search and we suggest holiday/occasion specific cards in email reminders.

It's important to note that cards with inner verses get more exposure on the site and in reminders than blank cards.

My suggestion is to take a look at the categories and pick a few occasions or holidays that inspire you. Choose your art that relates, give it some appropriate text and voila!

How about starting with an upcoming holiday like Easter? Why not an Easter Angel to add some balance to all those pastel eggs and bunnies. Wink

Hope that helps.

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Laila_132615

GCU Newbies
artist

Posts: 17

Re: A humble request
Reply #4 - Feb 26^th, 2008, 6:19pm

Thanks Mindy,
I think you gave me great advice. I know I should make real greeting cards, unfortunately I have been suffering from lack of time trying to do too many things. Also I am not that good with computers. However, I do love greeting cards and I think the quality of print of the cards I ordered was amazing. As I am trying to move more towards things I love to do I was curious to know if there was a potential to make money if one worked hard.
Thank you again for your advice,
Laila

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Laila Kujala Studio:
http://artist.greetingcarduniverse.com/lailakujala

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Donna_131383

Junior Member
artist

Posts: 100

Re: A humble request
Reply #5 - Feb 27^th, 2008, 7:11am

Quote from Laila_132615 on Feb 23^rd, 2008, 7:52am:

Hi everyone,
I started my store in November and sold enough cards to get my first check, which felt quite sweet. After checking other artists' stores I was surprised to see how many cards some of you had in your stores. I don't know if anyone is willing to answer but I would be interested in knowing if there is a real potential of making money. Right now I have only a few of my artworks uploaded as cards, but I am planning to do more. Also I would like advise of any other internet possibilities of selling art related items. I am very ignorant in this mather, but like all of you would really like to make my living doing art rather than anything else.
I have read enough postings on the forum to know people here are amazingly supportive of each other.
Thanks for every bit of advise you can give,
Laila

Hi Laila! Welcome to GCU

My simple answer is YES, there is real potential for making money on GCU. I read down to Mindy's answer and the best advice I can offer is to take Mindy's advice. Once I started doing what she suggested and building my store up, I began to see that "real potential" and I'm thrilled. It's a lot of work and can be considered time consuming...but it pays off in the long run.

Mindy always offers each artist the same advice to get their store up and running in the right direction... she's awesome like that. Then, it's up to the artist to take it from there

Wonderful artwork in your store! Good luck to you and happy creating!

Best,
Donna

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ARTistic Expressions:
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/donnaproctor

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