Need Ideas on How to Market Daughter's art

CafePress: Custom & funny t-shirts plus unique gifts < can also be considered. But the best thing would be to find forums where people might be interested in getting that thing done.

I feel like there would definitely be a market for your daughter. I know it was mentioned before about doing custom caricatures, but I think she should focus on just doing custom anime and manga (caricatures could just be one of her "categories").

I believe you should start with some keyword research and market analysis. Find out what people are searching for in the realm of anime art.

From there you can buy a keyword related domain name. And set her up a slick website. I would suggest looking at other sites within the niche and doing something similar. Especially if a site has been around for awhile (because they're obviously doing something right).

From there you begin the marketing process.

Good luck! Tell your daughter she is very talented (not that I know anything at all about anime, buuut it looks like all the professional stuff I see, so I think she's got it )

- Tommy

Is your daughter interested in being the artist for a web comic?

Because I'm interested in finding one. Have been for a couple years. PM me.

She could join Deviant Art and sell prints deviantART: where ART meets application!

I would suggest you learns how to illustrate and then start drawing and illustrating things, that placing the images on stock photo websites.

just an idea, some people earn thousands doing this. there will be a little learning curve using the software though

Thanks
Andy

Some good suggestions already, here's some more . . .

Zazzle, many people are saying they prefer it to CafePress.

ImageKind, a good place to sell high-quality giclee prints (free for one gallery)

Find a company selling limited edition prints or greetings cards similar to her work and approach them. They always need new art, and it doesn't cost you anything to work with them. Make sure you understand the royalty agreement before you give them the artwork . . . I got cheated out of many years of royalties as a best-selling greetings card artist because I didn't know enough to get that kind of thing in writing.

Do a squidoo lens about her art.

All those options are free.

Put up her own website and sell from there. That option costs a little.

For most of those options, getting the products available is the easy bit . . . getting traffic that will BUY is the challenge. Ask here (or look at existing info) for how to do that . . . what I mean is, you put your stuff on all the above places, that doesn't mean you'll ever actually SELL anything . . . you have to get people to look at the artwork, and ideally find people who will actually buy it. So you might have to do things like article marketing, comments on blogs, reciprocal links, etc. And it's still a challenge . . . art is NOT easy to sell online, but it IS possible, so do all the above, take action, and keep learning!

A comment on Ebay . . . general art has a sell-through percentage about 5% last time I checked, so that means you have to list it an average of 20 times before you sell one thing. So keep that in mind . . . don't list it 10 times and think you've failed . . . unless you've listed it about 40 or 50 times, you really don't know if it will sell at all. Also keep the sell-through in mind when you consider selling price . . . if you sell for less than your total listing fees, you're making a loss, although, it might be worth making a loss, or only breaking even for a while to gain popularity, then you can increase your prices.

Also, have you tried selling offline . . . "fine art graphics" is a legitimate category now, with makor galleries dedicated to it (I am thinking of one which was there a few years ago in Cork Street, London, not sure if it's still there)? Find suitable galleries and talk to them. Again, it's NOT easy, but worth the effort if you can make it work. And/or do your own exhibitions in libraries, and other such places.

one could even get Limited edition giclees printed oneself (plenty of companies doing this, UK was considerably cheaper than US, when I researched it a few years ago), and walk round suitable high-street galleries and show them. Note, big "fine art" galleries usually sell originals, high-street galleries usually sell Limited edition giclees these days, BUT to make it as a respected fine artist, critics will count it against you if you sell Limited Edition prints, so keep that in mind!

Hope that helps! If you need any details on what I've said, feel free to Personal-Message me!


Chris

These ideas are great. She has told me time and time again that she wants to be a freelance artist but she doesn't know where to start.

I especially like the idea of the how to books aimed at the younger audience. She already has a few Youtube videos that shows her drawing some of her figures but they are high speed and have no voice overs so it's really not tutorial.

I am going to discuss a few of these options with her. We have been discussing her need for a part time job but why flip burgers when you have talent?

I've been paying out good money for similar work to designers here:

http://99designs.com/

May want to check it out.

Edit - Actually I just logged on over there and Sega is holding some sort of anime design contest, winner to receive $480. Here's the link, but you have to be signed in to view the contest: http://99designs.com/contests/30691

Just a FYI...make sure that any art she is selling is of original characters, selling pictures of characters in Anime/Manga Books/Movies/TV Shows and profiting from them is a violation of the copyright on those characters.