Thanks for all your good vibes! They worked!
I wanted to report in – I gave my 4 minute Teleseminar Secrets Challenge Speech last night and it went really well – or so I’m told! I was a little nervous but nothing like last year!
What I had to do was explain why I thought I should win “Top Vote Getter” for the Veteran Category – meaning I had made more than $1 with Teleseminars. It was supposed to inspire others, show my passion and what I felt teleseminars had done for my business. Would I be a good spokesperson for teleseminars? Did I make sense? Those were the parameters on which we were judged. (No results in just yet…)
When I sat down to write my speech, I thought about how much teleseminars had changed my business – how they have helped me connect with artists and other industry experts who have come on board to share. Most of all, I wanted to show how I felt it has helped all of us – now you can learn in the most remote region in your fuzzy slippers and you don’t have to travel to New York, Atlanta or Las Vegas. (and neither do I! I’m in fuzzy socks – every time!)
I think I got the point across and here is why: a fellow student was giving me feedback on my speech on Twitter (www.Twitter.com/LoydLarue)
First he said: you did a gr8 job @ the challenge.
I of course thanked him!
Then he said: You Are My Everything @Michael Bublé ==>http://bit.ly/7f8PsV ==>this could be your biz song mantra…?? just a thought.
I didn’t understand so I asked for an explanation. (Honestly, I have that song as the ring-tone when Craig calls so to me it was a romantic song)
@LoydLarue replied: I was just thinking of your passion towards your prospect / clients.. “You are my everything” made sense @ the time..lol
So I’d say my love for this side of my business shined through – yippee! I am also happy the speech is over so I can get back to my art and look forward to our upcoming teleseminars. You are coming right?
Wed, 2/17: www.AskAboutSEOforArtists.com
Wed, 2/24: Brand Yourself for Success in Art Licensing with Paul Brent
So… thanks for your support through this challenge, the blog and everything else going on. You are my online everything…
– Tara Reed
The Cost of Free – and Why so Much is Free Online
I love the internet! It has given people access to information and resources never before possible – and much of it is FREE! So much is free in fact, that many have become irritated when they actually have to pay for services and information.
I have been meaning to write this blog post for some time now… not to make anyone feel bad or negatively rant and rave, but to make sure those who don’t create and sell content online stop to think about the “cost of free.” I have been asked many times, “Why do you do all of this?” “How are you making any money if you give all these things away for free?” and other similar questions.
First let’s look at the reasoning behind doing or offering things for free in the first place. I’ll talk about myself since really, that is the only thing I can speak of with any authority. I do a lot of things for free in the information side of my business. Here are some examples -
1. This blog. Always free and usually added to 3 – 5 times a week.
2. Videos – promotional and mini-tutorials.
3. Monthly Ask Calls – always free if you listen live, sometimes free even if you don’t.
What costs are involved in these free services?
My blog takes time to write and promote via social media. Time that I could use to create my own art for licensing. It is also ‘self-hosted’ so there is the yearly cost of registering the domain name and paying for web hosting.
Videos take time to create, edit and upload to YouTube – which is free. I recently purchased a new video camera and wireless mic so I could create higher quality videos. I upgraded my computer so I could do better screen recordings for tutorials – some free, some for purchase.
Monthly Ask Calls – this is the most expensive piece of “free” that I do.
• Each “Ask” expert website is registered, designed and hosted by me. (So money and time.)
• It takes time to ‘woo’ the experts we all love to hear from. Explain the website and the Ask Call process, how it works and why they would benefit from participating.
• I paid to move all the Ask websites to a WordPress platform to help consolidate time and effort in managing the sites. I also have someone maintaining the sites on a monthly basis, which again, costs money.
• I pay for a service that collects your questions – because getting each one in my email was creating a crazy amount of work to sort and select.
• I usually use a free service for the live calls but sometimes pay for a bridge line (the number you call in to.)
• It takes time and software to record and edit the audios. I pay for a monthly service to add and store audios used throughout the Art Licensing Info family of sites.
• TIME – I estimate that each monthly call takes me at least 8 hours of time when you account for all the activities that take place to plan, host, prepare, edit and promote. That doesn’t even include the time and expertise of any industry experts that share their knowledge on a call.
Not to mention the time and monetary costs of classes and networking events to learn how to do all of these things!
So why do I do it?
I could certainly spend all of my time creating art and focusing on my licensing. But I enjoy teaching and writing – I really missed it when I was first building my business. I enjoy the rewards of hearing that the resource I am building about art licensing is helping artists to learn and understand what used to be a confusing and mysterious thing.
I offer a lot of free services for two reasons – first, to make information accessible to everyone, regardless of their income or ability to buy information at the moment. I also do it so you get to know me and the other experts who are sharing their knowledge and offering coaching or other services on the site. You will feel more confident buying an eBook, signing up for a teleseminar or coaching if you have an idea of who you are working with ahead of time.
At the end of the day, in addition to knowing I have helped and inspired others, this is part of my business that needs to support the systems that run it and needs to be worth the exchange of time for money.
The internet is a great place to get something for nothing, but an equally good place to find valuable information for sale. Support those who you feel add value to your life and business by also supporting the for-fee part of their business.
Here’s to your creative success!
– Tara Reed
P.S. Here’s another article HOW TO COMPETE WITH FREE about how companies can afford to offer so many services for free – including FreeConferenceCall.com – the site that helps me offer the free Monthly Ask Calls. Thanks Free Conference Call!
Difinitive Proof! Ms. PacMan should be in Art Licensing
I’m here to tell you that PacMan is an accountant or engineer - now munching his way through cubicles in a vast and stark corporate office somewhere. I’m sure of it.
Ms. PacMan? She’s creative! She’s hip! She likes to be in the mix, adjusting, adapting, never quite sure what life will throw at her next or how she will be rewarded for her efforts. That is why she’d be quite happy in art licensing. I’m sure of that as well.
But how do I know all of this? Well, I read between the lines a little but I’d say that Chris Brogan and Julien Smith told me in their book, TRUST AGENTS*. Their analogy, on p. 55-56, was this: How Building Trust is Like Pac-Man. I extrapolated the professions of both Mr. & Ms. PacMan from their information.
Watch this video to learn more about my thoughts on the matter:
Then if you want to learn more about art licensing, you have come to the right place!
Want to learn more about getting online with your business, and “Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputaton and Earn Trust”? I highly recommend you look at the book, TRUST AGENTS*.
Here’s to your creative success!
– Tara
* FTC disclosure: the book links are amazon affiliate links so go ahead and click them if you are ok with me making some pocket change for telling you about it. If not – head over and search it for yourself. (Affiliate commissions do help offset the time and effort to create all these free posts so I hope you are happy to click!)
Branding the Artist: Added Protection to Copyright for Art?
This is another guest blog post by attorney Cheryl Hodgson, one of the Art Licensing Info experts and Ask Call participants.
While a copyright is valid without registration, the very statement is misleading. Copyright registration is essential to preserve key remedies for infringement. Unless registered prior to infringement, attorney’s fees and statutory damages are not available. It is often difficult, if not impossible, to prove actual damages or profits attributable to theft of a copyrighted work. Moreover, without the threat of having to pay attorney’s fees to the copyright owner, there is little, if any, chance of finding counsel to bring a costly and drawn out infringement action on a speculative basis. Establishing a strong brand identity for a particular character or product line can serve as an added source of protection and increase the value of the Intellectual Property beyond mere copyright.
An artist’s name, as well as names and logos for particular product lines, can also be protected as trademarks for the goods on which they are licensed. For example, characters from Star Wars have been on bedding, toys, and just about everything else. While the artistic expression of a character remains protectible by copyright, registration of the character and/or its name on the various products as a trademark has been a strategy of film studios for many years. The character becomes part of the “branded entertainment” package that not only brings in additional revenues but helps create wide spread exposure and recognition of the character as a trademark.
Trade Dress protection offers tremendous opportunities to expand IP protection beyond copyright, especially where artists develop a unique use of color combinations and/or designs which become identified with them. Developing protectible trade dress requires advance planning since use must be more than “just another pretty picture.”
Product packaging and designs, including color combinations and artistic images, can function as trade dress, provided they are not used in a merely ornamental manner. To be an inherently distinctive aspect of trade dress, a design should “come out into the spotlight of real trademark significance” and ‘hit the buyer in the eye.” See 1 J.T. McCarthy, McCarthy on Trademarks and Unfair Competition §7:28 (4th ed. 2000). “Use of distinctive design elements must be in a manner so unusual, unique, or unexpected as to be “automatically perceived by customers as an indicator of origin – a trademark.” Id. §8:13. One case example was the use of a rose design as background on a CLARINS product packaging. Registration of the rose background was refused since use was only as decorative background, not as a mark signifying the source of the products.
With proper counsel, visual artists could well do both, namely maintaining the artist aspect of the use, but also creating an additional use consistent across many design groups that come to signify the artist’s work.
Here’s to your creative and defendable success!
– Tara Reed
P.S. Subscribe to or read Cheryl’s blog to get even more great legal insights – www.BrandAideBlog.com
P.P.S. To register your art with the Library of Congress, start at www.copyright.gov
Brand Yourself for Success in Art Licensing – teleseminar with Paul Brent
I’m excited to announce that Paul Brent has put together an information-packed hour to get you thinking, strategizing and building your brand for success in art licensing.
Paul Brent understands branding.
An artist, interior designer and print publisher, he began licensing his art in 1988. Bookmarks, bed linens and insulated barware were among his first licensed products. Since then he has gone on to work with many, many manufacturers and grown his licensing business to be the 94th largest in the world, according to License! Global Magazine’s Top 100 Licensor List for 2008 and 2009.
Paul Brent is the most well known coastal artist in the U.S. He has managed to build and evolve his brand to include so much more than beach and sea life and has done so very successfully. The Paul Brent Designer brand has been in the marketplace for over 20 years and shows no signs of slowing down.
I will be facilitating the teleseminar on Wednesday, February 24th at 5:30 pm PST / 8:30 pm EST. At only $57, this could be the best investment of your time and money you will make to help you build your brand in the market place.
This teleseminar is for artists who want to learn to effectively create a brand for their art that will help them grow their business, with emphasis placed on building a brand for the art licensing industry.
- What to expect from a successful branding strategy over the course of the next 30 days to one year.
- What the 9 most common pitfalls are in both a visual brand and a business brand – and how to avoid them.
- Key strategies of branding to help you:
- create and maintain good artist / agent relationships
- protect your copyright
- keep your brand fresh in the market place
- and use your brand to attract attention in the media.
- How to commit to your brand strategy and take the first step.
Go to www.ArtLicensingInfo.com/branding.html for further details or to see the long list of valuable freebies you will get in addition to the hour long teleseminar.
Or CLICK HERE to get signed up!
Here’s to your well branded creative success!
– Tara
P.S. Combine these branding strategies with the SEO (search engine optimization) skills you will learn on the Monthly Ask Call on Wednesday, February 17th and the impact will be even bigger!
A first timer's experience at the CHA Winter Show | guest post by Jen Goode
I just returned home from an eventful, exhausting and extraordinary experience attending my first CHA Show. The event was hosted at the Anaheim Convention Center in California, and WOW what a show it was!
The show floor consisted of approximately 185,000 sq ft of display area with 592 exhibitors. There were demos happening in every direction – booths filled with people networking, working on make-and-take projects and general craft chit chat. The whole place was over flowing with craft supplies of all shapes and sizes from fabric and stamps to cutters and glitter. For a long time crafter and creative enthusiast, this place was heaven! It was creativity potential on overdrive.
The License and Design section was appropriately placed in the middle of the show floor, almost like a little show within the show. There were artists ranging in style, technique and experience as well as business model and specialty. I had no idea there were so many ways to sell one’s own art creations. From surface design to product design, the license and design section was filled with amazing talent.
I was able to get a hold of an exhibitor pass so I could help a few friends set up their booths. Since I was only walking the show this time, I made a point to stop and introduce myself to nearly all the other exhibitors in the section and offer to help during set up. If you’re looking to make new friends, extending a helpful hand is a good place to start. I was so amazed at the people in this group. Everyone was so friendly and eager to welcome a new comer. I felt at home almost immediately.
The show offered a number of opportunities for artists to promote themselves and their work:
Show reception open to all attendees – a great networking opportunity if you know who will be there or plan to meet with someone in advance. Not everyone attends this event.
Press kits – all attending designers can submit a press kit at no charge. I didn’t know about this ahead of time so at the last minute decided to drop off the postcards I had brought to hand out to those contact I met. I was pleased to see that by the end of the show all my cards had been picked up. There was also an award for the best press kit won by Denise Bosler.
Designer showcase – this event is only for a few hours on night but seemed to be a great opportunity to display work for a small fee. Each designer created a table displayed exhibit while press, buyers and manufacturers browsed through the room.
Classes and workshops – there are a number of classes offered for a while range of topics. An “all class” ticket was well worth the purchase. Not only are these classes great for information, they’re another good opportunity to meet pros in the industry.
Designer meeting – the License and Design portion of CHA has it’s own governing board and official organization which helps to provide the promotion and opportunities for the member designers. There was an official meeting to hear about how the group is doing, future goals. The Plaid New Horizon awards returned for this show, so the winners were announced at this meeting as well: Brenda Pinnick , Tiffany Windsor and Linda Jacobson.
An attendee standing just outside the License and Design section of CHA
I went to this show with the single goal of meeting people in the industry. I did not pre-set meetings – I had no preconceived ideas of who I would meet nor what I would learn let alone what we would talk about. I just wanted to come away with a better view of the industry and what it might have to offer for my art career. I ended up coming home having made new friends, a better understanding and clearer perspective of the industry and how the manufacturers work together with designers and what I want to do moving forward. I also gained a strong appreciation for the organization behind this fantastic event. CHA is wonderful and I’m so very glad to have had the opportunity to participate this year. Watch for it, next year I’m hoping you’ll see JGoode Designs offering art licensing amongst the fabulous booths to browse!
If you need inspiration, would like to network with like minded people, want to mingle amongst your peers or are looking for motivation to move along in your career, I can think of no better place than in the Licensing and Design section of the CHA winter show. Those who participated are an outstanding group and I am honored to have had the opportunity to be around them for the last 5 days.
I end with this little snippet of the CHA Winter Show event opening parade…
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