The Studio Source.com

I got an email in response to my call for your burning questions: how do you get the right people (curators, dealers, buyers) to find you on the web?

That’s the big one. How to find them, get their attention, and make them love you, plus conduct this apparent feat of magic without ever looking them in the eye.

Piece of cake. Throw a few pictures on Flickr, sign up for an Etsy shop, sit back and wait for the cash to roll in and the lovesick groupies to shower you with fan mail.

If you’re reading this, you already know that doesn’t cut it. When you set out to establish an online audience, you take the same basic steps as you would to build an audience offline. It requires time, energy, and smart decisions.

Let me begin by saying that when you experience genuine enjoyment while vacuuming your house, it might be a sign of creative burnout.

I’d also like to tell you a long period without what most people consider a vacation isn’t necessarily a cause for alarm—provided your schedule and the work you do allows you to recharge your batteries.

And finally, with your indulgence, I would like to inform you it’s possible to nearly destroy a lifelong love of something if you approach it the wrong way.

Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

Here’s a revolting development: I have run out of words.

No, that’s not true. I’ve run out of ways to string the words that regularly bounce between my ears into coherent thoughts. I’ve been trying to write for two solid days—reasoning, cajoling, threatening, and pleading ideas into solid form.

It’s not happening.

This morning I thought about the last time I had a vacation. By “vacation,” I don’t mean taking time away from regular work to do other work, like siding a house, for example. I mean the kind where you do whatever you want. Spend the day in your pyjamas, eat popcorn for lunch, read comic books, sit and watch the wind blow.

When did I do that last? 1996.

The last time I took a real break was 14 years ago.

I am spent. Go figure.

So I’m taking a week off to do whatever the hell I want.

I could have scheduled posts to be published in my absence, but I wouldn’t be around to respond to comments, which is poor manners. And if I did show up to reply to the great people who take the time to share their thoughts, it wouldn’t be a real vacation.

Sometimes the only thing you can do to get your creativity moving again, is stop.

I will be back next Monday—World Water Day, if you’d like an event to mark it—with bells on. Or at least a few coherent thoughts. In the meantime, I leave you with a wonderful animation called “Procrastination” by John Kelly. If you’re reading this in your RSS feed and can’t see the video, you can find it here on YouTube. A big shout out to Eugen Oprea, who brought the video to my attention.

Enjoy your week, and many thanks to all of you who have come along for the ride so far. Talk to you soon.

Sometime during the Pleistocene era, when the dinosaurs were Claymation (think about it),* I learned the difference between sales and marketing.

The only thing that mattered at the time was knowing marketing takes longer.

If you want to get technical, sales is part of the marketing process—the good part, where nice people decide to give you money. Marketing is about creating something and telling people about it, then selling it and actually getting it into their hands.

(If you’re really smart, you will make the telling into a two-way street, and listen to your audience. Paying attention to people is a good way to learn how they think.)

But let’s get right back to the “marketing takes longer” thing, because that’s what really frustrates people. Since it’s a considerable investment of time and effort, it’s critical to pay attention to your marketing, and it’s why the following four concepts belong in your marketing and in your head. I named them the Four Ps to make them easier to remember.

There were a couple of responses to my call for your most burning questions that point to an important part of marketing and personal branding: you.

The questions were about name recognition, writing a bio, and how to write an About page for your website. Each requires talking about yourself in a way that engages your audience.

Unless you’ve gone through the process a few times, writing a bio or About page for your website can be stupidly intimidating. You’re not sure exactly what you should write. You want to impress people. You want to sound smart and talented and likeable, or smart and talented and edgy, or smart and talented and sophisticated.

Which might be exactly the wrong approach.