One Year of Competitions

[Kimberly Dow]

It

[Terri Ficenec]

Wow Kim... quite a year!
Good for you

[Patricia Joyce]

I appreciate your sharing this with us. It gives me a glimpse into what I may be able to do some time down the road. Congratulations on your awards. I love your paintings, so I am not suprised at all.

[Kimberly Dow]

Thanks ladies!

With my little bit of experience I will have to add - I wouldnt do any competitions if I sold everything I painted in a reasonable time or if I had commissions all the time. It's a lot to keep track of - scheduling, shipping dates, etc... But - as a marketing tool it has been useful so far. It has worked far better than standing on the corner with a sign.

[Jean Kelly]

Congrats Kim! This is so good to hear.

Jean

[Enzie Shahmiri]

Kimberly, it was interesting to read about your experiences and I am happy for you that they have worked out so well.

[Ngaire Winwood]

Thanks for sharing Kim.

It is interesting to note that the smaller shows were more profitable.

It also shows what work needs to go into marketing, administration etc to be successful. What is the approximate costs in advertising e.g. brochures, media kit etc.

[Kimberly Dow]

Ngaire,

I dont advertise or have any kind of media kit. I dont have brochures either. I have my website and business cards that I print myself so that I can change the image on it occasionally.

My media kit is the fact that I am bold enough to send press releases to every newspaper in Texas... And I make friends with reporters. They like me because I write an entire article about myself (I started doing this after a reporter made me sound like a dummy once) - if you write it well enough they will often just use what you wrote and not change a thing - you saved them a bunch of work. Of course - this works well in small towns better since there isn't much news.

[Michele Rushworth]

I do the same thing Kim does with her press releases. I can't afford $10,000 worth of the type of advertising I'd like, but sometimes I do portraits that are kind of newsworthy. Then I send out press releases that sound like articles and sometimes the media outlets will run them almost unchanged. I personally don't enjoy the pressure of the publicity (I'd rather hide than be on camera) but it gets my work seen in ways that I couldn't ever afford to pay for. As another artist said recently on this forum (was it Rob Sullivan?) "It's not bragging, it's business."

[Linda Brandon]

Hi Kim,

I think you've done very well in the competition venues. Congratulations, I'm proud of you!