Business tips 101 from Elto.com. Check them out...

-20 tips for dramatically better emails.-9 growth hacks any small business can implement.

-A pattern exists in internet communities where 1% of people create the content, 9% will edit or contribute and 90% will watch from the sidelines. 

Focus on the 1%

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-We’re really enjoying 

Peter Thiel’s Zero to One

 guide to startups. A++ would recommend.

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-Trivia for the week: 

World Standards Day

 is celebrated internationally each year on the 14th of October. Except for in the US, who celebrate on the 23rd of October.

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-Related: I’ll be speaking at the 

WooThemes WooConf

 on Tuesday in SF. Let me know if you’re going, I’d love to buy you a coffee.

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-Three tips for 

emailing a busy person

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-HubSpot generate a whopping 50% of their revenues (around $50m) from their channel sales program. Here is how to 

build a channel sales program like HubSpot

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-A great guide to 

cold calling

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-Some people retire at 65. Others 

are still going well into their 90’s

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Get your hashtag mojo on! #HashTagMojo These little symbols have power to move your visibility up the search engine chain in a big way. It's all about metadata folks. There are some great resources and articles about how to use hashtags effectively.Overall view on hashtags- Here.Trending hashtags- Hashtags.orgAnd why its ruining the English language- Here.Ha!

Artist As Brand-Rise of the Artist Entrepreneur was the title of my San Diego Comic Con panel on art career sustainability with Donato Giancalo, Daniel Davis of SteamCrow, Drew and Maria Brophy, and Dawn Schiller.We had a nice crowd and a super conversation on the art of the start (begins in the heart), and outward toward what projects to make, how to connect with our fans, what social media is working or not, and ways to integrate your lifestyle into all of it.Donato spoke about listening to your inner path, Daniel talked about the power of experimentation in art and marketing, Drew reflected upon the importance of  fusing lifestyle and art, Maria touched upon licensing agreements, and Dawn about being respectful of your fans and fellow artists and many more topics.I thank my incredibly talented panel for sharing their expertise and love with the comic con audience which was filled with newbie art professionals.I was also signing my new book published by Titan Books in London. See more about my book and Comic Con here.

In case you missed these pics on Facebook here is the amazing group that participated in the Denver Artist As Brand Workshop. Jon Schindehette, Tom Samo, Keith Goble, Cayce Goldberg, Crystal Sully, Tawny Fritz, Elliot Lang, Michelle Barnes, Kayla Edgar, Charlotte Ricker rocked their art empires at the Helikon Gallery.Cayce is the brainchild behind this amazing forward thinking gallery. Go and see Helikon now and see what the future of a gallery can be. Check out each of these professional artists and the amazing Jon Schindehette, who is also a mentor to artists everywhere.Lastly, I spoke at the Denver Comic Con about my career and moderated an art career sustainability panel with Jon Schindehette, Daniel Davis, Dave Rapoza, and Michael C. Hayes. I will be back in Denver next year!

 Join me at the Denver Comic Con, Friday, June 13th, 2014 - 5:15 PM - Room 203 for a panel discussion on art career sustainability.

Artist As Brand: Rise of the Artist Entrepreneur

Learn strategies on how to create an income from your talent on your own terms.On the panel will be Jon Schindehette (Award-winning Creative Director for Wizards of the Coast, Treehouse Brand Stores, Founder of The ArtOrder community, mentor), Daniel Davis (Artist/Designer of Steam Crow, publishers of monster books, serigraphs, and other art products), David Rapoza (Illustrator, creator of Skull and Shark! Bethesda, Hasbro, Blizzard, Universal, Lionsgate, MTV, Riot Games), Michael C. Hayes (Award winning oil painter and illustrator, Magic the Gathering, Blizzard Entertainment, LucasArts and numerous book covers).Don't miss it!

I was surrounded  by a powerhouse of talented Goddesses at the Kansas City Artist As Brand workshop. The workshop was sponsored  by the Kansas City Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Artist thanks to Vania Soto (behind to right) and president of the chapter, Carlos Gomez. This group of women (from left) Eva Maria Toker, Eugenia Ortiz, Vania and Pavina Tonsavanh are going to ROCK! I see amazing success in their futures.

To present a workshop, and man a booth at Spectrum Fantastic Art Live all in one week is a lot of work but also very fulfilling. You can see my booth set up here. I was projecting images on fabric at the back of the booth. A few highlights of interesting booth design are below. Click on the images to see larger.

Awesome gallery look with lights.

Black on Black works nicely here.

A tad messy but nice use of tiering the art upward to get more real estate out of the booth.

 David Frizell was in my AAB workshop two years ago and has embraced the convention circuit by building a system that goes up and comes down in a short period of time. He also has his family there as an amazing crew to help with the set up and break down. Go David!

If you come across cool booth designs please let me know and I will share them here on the blog.

Every decision you make - every decision -is not a decision about what to do.It's a decision about Who You Are.When you see this, when you understand it, everything changes.You begin to see life in a new way.All events, occurrences, and situations turn into opportunitiesto do what you came here to do.

- Neale Donald Walsch

 Your Blog is part of your Social Media kit. If it is not by now, then get started. Facebook and Twitter and any of the other social media platforms are there to support your platform which includes your blog and website.If you are still feeling a little unsure about how to start your blog with a bang go HEREto learn more.  

 I plan to start showcasing more artists who really have their social media together. Your High Tech promotion is vital for a thriving art business. Social media platforms are always changing, hence everyone who relies on Facebook for instance may have a rude awakening when they have put all there energies into promoting themselves there and it goes belly up.

Prioritize your online presence with a website that authentically represents your vision.

Your website is your home. Entice people to stop in, and help them get so comfortable they do not want to leave.Mammoth & Companyhas designed their website intelligently. It looks stellar and has all the e-commerce and social media principles working together seamlessly. Check it out. They are using Shopify as the design platform.

This post is about the courage it takes to create a career your way. Artist and writer Debbie Millman presented a commencement speech on the virtues of following your path (also in her new book, Looking Both Ways). This is her art...

Continue to read more and also listen to Debbie HERE ...

Graphic Design Company as Artist As Brand Master

Known throughout the world as a type foundry, House Industries has made a considerable impact on the world of design. House Industries fonts scream from billboards, tens of thousands of greeting cards, consumer product logos and add elements of style to a wide range of mainstream media.They also create products from clocks to clothing.What ultimately shines in the House Industries oeuvre is what always conquers mediocrity: a genuine love for their subject matter. Go House!

Connecting your vision to a cause that is larger than yourself can energize your fan base with people who are interested in the same.WhenWhale Tails Tortilla Chip company decided to use art for their environmentally conscious product and packaging they wanted to align with someone who was as passionate about the ocean as they were. Connecting the iconic marine artist,Wyland to their organic product was a match made in heaven.

Wyland ©

When your art is aligned with a strong purpose a vibration is set in motion that will connect with others who are in tune with it. I have seen this principle happen over and over again in my thirty year art career. It is a profound testament to the potential power of your vision.

Artists with a store front?Yes, artists can embrace the brick and mortar store as well as a digital shop. Check out Three Fish Studios who do it all in one space, with classes too. This is an option for a group of artists who want to make a splash in their local community as well as online.Annie Galvin and Eric Rewitzer, painters and printmakers, husband and wife, create original and affordable art in their home/studio/store near San Francisco. Go here to see how they do it.

 This is a great post by Gregory Ciotti and Help Scout.Building an ecommerce site that customers love largely comes down to two things: sweating (and testing) the small stuff, and understanding human psychology.How do people view, browse, and use your site? While testing will be the final judgement for what works on your site, conversion studies can be a great place to begin when designing your site. Check out this awesome post on some of the fine points of making more sales from your site- here.

Art by Edel Rodriguez

Knowing your rights as an artist is important to your survival. Tattoo artists are increasingly claiming that they own the copyright to the images they create. And when those images, attached to living people, appear on the silver screen — or a computer monitor — the artists want to get paid.This Los Angeles Times article gets into it here.Check out more Edel Rodriguez art here.

I have talked about the benefits of licensing your art for a while now. If you have a style that can translate into products beyond what you produce for yourself then other companies can essentially rent your images.Here is one take on licensing by Ashley Goldberg.She is an eclectic artist whose pattern designs have found a market .Check out her story on Etsy here.

I have not jumped on the Pinterest band wagon yet, but will soon. You cannot ignore the power of this social media giant. Roxana Illuminated Perfume does it right. She shares her esthetic through Pinterest garnering many like minded followers which drives traffic to her websites. Look at her boards here.Here is a great post on Designing an MBA, called "HOW I GREW MY PINTEREST FOLLOWING FROM 1000 TO 4000+ IN 3 MONTHS"- Here.Also check out the Pinterest web analytics and see what people are pinning from your websitehere

Launching any project can take a lot of time and effort, and that is not including the promotion. There are many factors that go into advertising the premier of a product that may have taken a year or more to birth. Business strategist Tara Gentile has some great advice about preparing for a launch and the psychology of your patrons.She says, "Many of my clients come calling because they’ve had the scare of a launch that didn’t preform to their expectations. It’s not because their plans were bad. Nor was it that the product design was subpar. It might not even be that the messaging or positioning was off.Often, it’s because the wham-bam-thank-ya-ma’am style launch that everyone from that super successful life coach to the latest iPhone wonder app developers make look highly effective is actually the wrong choice for most new products or programs.That blitzkrieg-style launch is actually the final iteration of careful planning, testing, and incremental sales cycles.Why is this important?Sure, planning and testing is always a good idea. But really, the reason the initial stages of introducing a new product, program, or service to the public is that there are 3 kinds of good customers and you need to sell to each differently.Moreover, you must sell to each in their own way in the right order. More...

I have mentioned Kickstarter before but it is nice to see it can be consistent for artists and even their fans. It appears a fan of Amanda Palmer (Palmer's last Kickstarter garnered over $1,000,000.00) has decided to create a tarot deck around her and has pulled in as of this post $45,000. There is still two weeks left in this campaign. That is a nice chunk of change to start any project. Here.If you are complaining that you do not have enough cash to start anything then crowd funding is one way to infuse your business with capital without going to the banking industry or using credit cards. Even if the first attempt does not live up to its expectations you have started the momentum and can do another one with more knowledge about what to do better next time. So rev up those crowd funding engines and let the world know you have something worth investing in.By the way, if you have not seen the TED talk Palmer gave a little while ago, it is a MUST SEE. Here.

If you are using the Artist As Brand® principles to promote your products then you know that High Touch Marketing is key to your success. That means finding the right venues to meet your people. If you are selling a book then schools that are appropriate to your market are great places to meet your fans.Kevin Gerard is a children's book author who has visited hundreds of schools presenting his stories and selling lots of books too. Check out this post on the Publicity Hound and learn how he does it.