A downtown street sign with a touch of whimsy

You May Be Wondering

I've had a couple of questions about my social media and emails over the last couple of months, and yes, you do see a difference in some of my posts and emails. 

I'm getting help through a service that my website provider offers to take some of the stress off. 

In my mind, social media platforms are like a giant alien sucking up everything I post into a black hole.

Weird metaphor? Maybe, but if you're trying to sell any type of product or service, I'm guessing you know what I mean. 

It's imperative to be on social media if you have a business these days but it's time-consuming and takes a lot of mental bandwidth to handle the social media as well as providing all the content because the content is my creations.

Many people posting on social media are using other people's content. They just repost, which makes it much easier on the content-creation side.

In fact, lots of people have used content from my social media for their posts - they just send me a DM and ask if they can use it. I often let them, though not always. 

All the same marketing rules apply to art as any other business but it's more complicated because art is so personal and subjective. 

I don't want marketing and the business side of things to consume my desire to continue making art with my camera - which is something I love. But, I've thought hard about how long I can keep this up because my business isn't profitable...yet. 

I've been at this a while and I definitely sell prints but I also do other things (such as client shoots and content writing) to make ends meet month-to-month. 

I know...a lot of you don't want to hear that because you're hoping to sell your own prints or other types of art someday but I'm always honest with people when they email me about this. And, I do get a lot of emails asking about this. 

It's a tough business but mostly because I don't want to burn out of doing the thing I love the most which is creating photos. 

So...if you're on my newsletter list, you'll sometimes get emails straight from my website provider and some that only I've worked on. I'm doing my best to keep an eye on the posts and emails my provider does so I can add my personal touches.

The regular Wednesday newsletter is always from me.

Also, I'm canceling some of the emails/posts because they feel a little...spammy? Hmmm...not really spammy but just not me at all. But, the people creating them are the ones who know how to sell art so I don't want to defeat the purpose of having them help me in the first place.

But! My connection to and relationship with the people who like my work is super important to me, so it's a delicate balance.

But, if you notice that sometimes the emails or posts don't quite have my voice, you're correct. It's because I didn't get a chance to look at them before they went out. 

I'm working on scheduling my time better, but I also know that organization just isn't my best skill. It's annoying, especially when it comes to doing things like paying my taxes.

It's especially hard right at this moment because my foot/ankle still hurts (and it's purple, yellow, and black ewww!) so it's tough doing much of anything - even sitting at the computer hurts. 

I am taking this opportunity to work on my product shoot setup here at the house - so there's that.

I hope you'll bear with me and stick with my newsletter as I work these things out. I appreciate you!

See you between the raindrops!

xoxo,
Susan