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Hi Jean,
I did this three times about a decade ago, and these are some of my experiences:
1. If your studio is somewhat isolated geographically, it may be better to team up with some other artists and have a small group exhibit. This increases foot traffic a lot since people can take in several artists without driving all over the place, You'll probably be competing with several artist's collectives where people can see many studios at one stop. Viewers tend to go into art overload at some point, and may never make it to your studio if they've already seen too much.
2. I've never gotten any good direct sales from these events, but that may be because I was mostly showing high-ticket art furniture items, not paintings. A friend of mine took a bunch of her sketchbook drawings ( small charcoal, pen-and-ink, and pencil drawings ), matted them, and shrunk wrapped them in plastic. She sold them for $20 or less and did quite well with these, even though her paintings did not sell well. I bought two of them myself!
3. Collectors and gallery owners do use these events to see what's out there. I established a long time association as well as a friendship as a result of one of these events. Another friend of mine got a number of illustration portrait assignments from the New Yorker magazine as the result of a staffer having seen his work at an open studio tour 7 years previously. 7 years is admittedly a very long hang-time, but the point is the the exposure value may be there, even though your direct sales may make it seem not worthwhile.
Good luck, and let us know how it turns out.
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