Ok I have no affiliation with WordPress, but I have to say, WOW! What an amazing way to make a web site. Before WordPress, I was learning to code my own site in a WYSIWYG. Now, WYSIWYGs can be pretty amazing, especially when you have YouTube and Linda.com from which to learn. But with all that coding, I couldn’t get to the things I wanted to do: searching antique, coin and thrift stores to find ephemera to use in my art, putting time into the studio to make art, and actually taking time to work on concepts. I am not a coder, though I do believe they are worth their weight in gold!
Enter Elegant Themes; the ‘skins’ (oh, they are so much more) and technical support based in WordPress. I haven’t even touched on all of the things I can do on my site through these amazing WP vehicles. I needed a way to sell my original and printed art in a streamlined way. WP did it. And on top of it, their IT support and beautiful look to the site really boosted my business to the next tier. So, while I will probably submit this article to their ‘reviews’ section, I also felt it necessary to write it for those artists out there. Those creative people who would rather stab themselves in the temple than think about making a site that is interactive, intuitive and just downright cool for their customers.
Going forward, my posts will be less technical in nature, but for now, I had to post about the easy and fun vehicle called WordPress, which has changed my business experience for the better.
Hi Christine! I just popped onto your site and got such a kick out of your blogs! I just sat and laughed as I related to so many of your life experiences. Even though Verizon is holding my email hostage right now – I forgot I still have my gmail account. As long as you don’t mind conversing on my junk mail site. 🙂 I was so excited about meeting you yesterday. When my husband got home I told him that I finally met another person who “gets it”! You know what is going on in the church, you are business minded and artsy fartsy to boot! My kind of girl. I saw that you already posted pics of the small pieces that you bought at Creekside yesterday. Can’t wait to see what you are going to do with them. When I lived in FL I worked for the post office but was dreaming of being an artist. I also liked the idea of painting and repurposing furniture. I moved up here and began doing just that but I was surprised at how slowly those pieces sell at a co-op like Creekside. So, I would not recommend that type of thing as a very good outlet. Kyle has tried to sell online locally. I think she tried the Chester County Vintage and Antique Furniture Online Marketplace that is a group on FB. She just told me yesterday when we were chatting earlier that morning that she did not have a good experience there. I’ve noticed that people seem to troll for things that they can buy cheaply and paint themselves. Pieces that are posted that have already been chalk painted are commented on as being lovely but I don’t notice many buyers. If this is where you plan to market check it out for yourself. You may come up with something that people will clamor to have. At one time I had talked with the owner of Creekside about doing furniture and selling it on Easy. I couldn’t believe the prices that they were asking and apparently getting for their painted furniture. They also ask for exorbitant shipping charges that the customer has to fork over. I can’t remember the name of the online store now but I believe they are based out of New Jersey. They have a brick and mortar there too. And that’s part of the equation that you need if you want to sell furniture. Storage. Storage. Storage. A place to paint it too – so that you’re not flicking paint on your hardwood dining room floor. I hope your dad’s garage has LOTS of room because you will be surprised how quickly the space can fill up and then give you no room to paint. One of the ladies at Creekside rents a space so that she doesn’t have to store it at her house. If I had to rent storage I would be operating in the red. I blabbed on and on there – back to the furniture thing that I was asking the owner of Creekside about. She didn’t want to do it. She thought it was too much of a hassle. At the time it seemed to me that she could be making more doing that than selling all the mid-size and little stuff. When I found out that you can contract with a shipping company and they will come and crate up the item for shipping and haul it away I thought how could that possibly be better? Downside to that is you have to find furniture free or at a reasonable price which is becoming increasingly hard to do. When you find it you gotta jump on it even if you’re not ready to house it. I have a beautiful dining table and secretary on my front porch. I have a couple hutches sitting in front of my dining room window and had to push my own dining room table off to the side. And why is this stuff not in my garage? Because, you guessed it, it’s full of furniture and stuff to make into other stuff. I’m a person that likes neat and orderly. I’m a list maker like you. I was being “stretched” to not allow the disarray get to me. All this coupled with my husband’s new found love of making concrete items and hypertufa pots which has now spilled over into the yard with my repurposing windows and doors and honestly we look like we are ready for an episode of intervention on “Hoarders”. I am currently downsizing at Creekside because I have been there long enough now to see some things that sell and what doesn’t sell and I want to pursue outside venues and possibly online avenues as well. I also recently did financial calculations and decided that the profit did not come close to being worth the time, expense and effort that I was putting in. Most of the ladies at the co-op seem to be there as a hobbyist – just as a creative outlet. I want a creative outlet too but I have to be making a living. I will maintain a small space there as my little “test market” to come up with products that I see will sell more rapidly and at what price points. The bottom line is that you have to deal in volume items that can be produced quickly at low cost and sold quickly due to popularity and low price point. The other option is to deal in a more luxury market and sell to customers with a higher disposable income. These are the people who are not going to “DIY”. I don’t know whether you are going to be using acrylic art paints on your furniture or are going to be doing anything that would require chalk paint. If you are going to be using chalk paint I could give you some info that I have learned along the way in making your own paint so that you would not have that cost detracting from your profit. O.K. I have gone on long enough here. I gotta get busy. As a side note I also did not have many friends to play with when I was growing up because I also lived “in the sticks”. I would spend long content hours making things in my room and sell it at school as well. That was back in the day when all kids had was their milk money. So, I was was elated around 2nd or 3rd grade to take that milk money and give them the product that they wanted. I thought it was wonderful – and that was when the business bug bit me. I always thought it was a little strange for someone who is a rule follower, list maker, and analytical thinker to also have a huge creative artistic side. Those things form such a dichotomy and yet – I think I met another one yesterday! Let me know when you want to dumpster dive. I’ve got a flashlight!
Hi, Donna,
How are you doing? So glad you contacted me! Yes, let’s get together. I was sick over the holidays but now am better, thank goodness. Yes, I will let you know when I want to dumpster dive; always fun!