Total Art Soul - for artists

Ooooh, I love your pieces, especially the kiwi.

I'm working on building relationships on twitter, and I keep telling myself that this stuff takes time, and to just keep on plugging away.

I've just written a Guide on how to nurture your Twitter account without sitting at the computer 24/7. I'll be putting it on this site. I've written another Guide on how to use StumbleUpon too which should be ready in the next few days. I'll be selling these for a small fee to raise funds in order to keep TAS going.

Using Twitter is what keeps us getting new members on a daily basis. It really does work well.

Cathy: "You may be better off just building relationships on Twitter lesley. I've sold quite a few paintings that way."

Here's a dumb question for you- how does one build relationships when noone seems to respond to posts? They just seem to tweet and retweet links or quotes over and over. I don't feel any human connection on Twitter at all.

I've had far better luck on Facebook and a lot of my traffic to my website is generated from there. I don't know that I'll have sales from Artfire, but as a free member, it is a good way for me to link to and list my paintings without taking up space on my website. Plus I feel that anywhere I can post pics is one more opportunity for a potential collector to see them.

I like Twitter. I think you have to start conversations with people. I get what you mean, people are very quick to just post what they're selling etc. but I find that if I say something, they usually respond. Asking questions is always a good way.

I have less conversations on Facebook I think than on Twitter but I do post a lot on Twitter because a lot of exposure I give for the members here is automated.

I'm fairly new to online selling, but started both an Artfire shop and an Etsy shop at about the same time. Etsy is doing way better for me so far. I've only had two sales on Artfire, and that's with a Pro account.

My views are decent on Artfire, but the sales just aren't there for me. I signed up for their new $5.95 promotion and I figure I'll stick with them if the deal goes into effect. If not, I might drop Artfire as I can't really justify $15 a month for no sales!

Personally, I think you're better off paying that money to drive traffic to just the one place. Artfire really doesn't do well by way of sales as far as I can see. I also feel that having to do this offer of 5.95 per month, seems a little desperate and makes me suspicious. Maybe that's just me. I know some people rate them highly but I've never liked the site. I don't like the look or the way they operate or how the site looks. It is personal of course.