How to Succeed on Bluethumb: Part 1
In this two part series about Bluethumb we take a deep dive into how you can succeed on this art lovers platform that was started in Australia in 2012.
Initially conceived as a solution to connect local artists with buyers, Bluethumb has since evolved into a prominent online destination for art enthusiasts worldwide.
It’s top 20% selling artists can earn $20,000-$50,000 per year and the top 10% earning $50,000 to $100,000 per year. Allowing unknown artists to grow into financially prosperous prominent artists. And this two part guide is all about helping you flourish financially and creatively on Bluethumb.
Why Should Artists Be on Bluethumb
Being part of Bluethumb offers numerous benefits for artists. Firstly, it provides exposure to a wide audience of potential buyers, helping artists reach beyond their local markets and establish a global presence, to grown from unknown to prominent, and the financial security that comes with that.
The platform hosts a diverse range of artworks, from paintings and sculptures to photography and digital art, catering to various tastes and preferences, thus giving scope to a broad range of artists.
Bluethumb Can Look After the Logistics
Additionally, Bluethumb can handle logistics such as packaging, shipping, and customer service, relieving artists of administrative burdens and allowing them to focus on their creative endeavours. And let’s be frank, doing ALL of the packing, posting, customer service work is time consuming and not as fun as making.
Bluethumb and Marketing
Moreover, Bluethumb offers marketing and promotional support, including features on their website and social media channels, to enhance artists’ visibility and attract more buyers.
You still do need to get involved in the marketing of your work on Bluethumb, and like other platforms such as Redbubble, Patreon, Etsy, Spoonflower etc, you’ll be rewarded by Bluethumb for doing so as they show your work to more potential customers.
Analytics and Insights by Bluethumb
The platform also provides valuable insights and analytics, enabling artists to track their sales performance and make informed decisions about their artistic practice and marketing strategies.
Getting Started
So if you’ve been wanting to make a successful and profitable Bluethumb store so you can sell more of your work to more people, dive into this two part guide.
First, we start with 15 tips for making it work. Then, in part two, we delve deeper into the practical steps to take so you get to stand out in this competitive market art space and get the support of the Bluethumb curators. We also look at realistic timeframes, hours needed each month and methods to grow into a top selling Bluethumb artist, earning $50,000 plus per year.
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15 Tips for Succeeding as an Artist on Bluethumb
Here are 15 ways Australian artists can optimise their Bluethumb profile for the best sales results:
1. Bluethumb Buyers Love High-Quality Images
Use high-resolution images that accurately represent your artwork and attract potential buyers.
This doesn’t have to mean paying big bucks to have a handful of images done, but it does mean that you have to put yourself in the shoes of your buyers to understand what they need to see.
Learning how to take good photos of your work will make the world of difference for all of your selling opportunities, think Instagram and Facebook posts, using in your Artist Profile story here on Art Trails Tasmania, flyers for exhibitions and the list goes on.
2. Use Detailed Descriptions On Bluethumb
Provide comprehensive descriptions of your artworks, including inspiration, techniques, and materials used. Remember, buyers are making their decisions based on what they are seeing on a screen, and it may even only be as small as a phone screen.
So help them out, tell them about the materials that you’ve used and your techniques and methods. People love knowing the story of a work, they share it with their friends, it is the feel good part of making an emotional connection with your work.
So what is your story of inspiration about this work?
3. Complete Your Bluethumb Profile
Fill out your Bluethumb profile with relevant information, including your artistic background, achievements, and contact details.
Keep in mind, the folk at Bluethumb know what the buyers are looking for with an artist profile so they are asking you these questions on purpose. Plus, it is used for search results about you. Hence, it is key to make full use of the opportunities you’re being given by Bluethumb with your profile.
Don’t put it in the too hard basket, get yourself into a positive head space about it and make it happen. It is also perfectly fine to ask your supportive friends for help with this. And don’t use artist speak, write like a human for humans.
4. Regular Updates
Keep your Bluethumb profile and portfolio updated with new artworks to keep your audience engaged and coming back for more.
This may will require some planning once you’re getting a feel for what’s involved. Part 2 has dives deeper into how to make this work for you and the recommended frequency and quanities.
5. Variety of Artworks on Bluethumb
Offer a diverse range of artworks in different styles, sizes, and price points to appeal to a broader audience.
For some, this will be making their hearts sing as they love creating with a host of mediums, in various sizes and styles. While for others that can be daunting. But with a bit of a plan, this can be a lot easier.
Part 2 goes into more details about this very important step of pricing and the range of types of work.
6. Professional Presentation on Bluethumb Makes a Big Difference
Present your artworks professionally with well-lit and staged photographs, showcasing them in a real-world context if possible.
Happily, you don’t have to take this “real-world context” completely literally. You can use free or paid for “mockups” in Canva or Photoshop to show case your work in a real world context.
It is vitally important that you use the correct size mockup to demonstrate your work.
A starting place for doing this is to work up some A3 portrait format works to sell on Bluethumb and work up your promotional graphics in Canva (using the free setup). You can search A3 mockup in Canva and go from there.
Then, as you get more confident on your training wheels, you can experiment with larger or smaller sizes.
7. Engage with Bluethumb Customers
Respond promptly to inquiries, comments, and feedback from potential buyers to build trust and rapport.
This is really important. Silence makes people feel nervous.
But make sure you have set some boundaries with your time for this so you can look after your creative self.
For example, only answer customer questions on weekdays, or for a set hour on the weekend.
Look after your personal and family time with sensible boundaries.
8. Utilise Keywords as they are Game Changers
Use relevant keywords in your artwork titles, descriptions, and tags to improve visibility in search results.
This advice is given for every online platform that you want to be visible on.
For Instagram and Facebook, this translates to hashtags.
Keywords are your way of telling Bluethumb who to show your work to.
They are the buyers’ way to search for beautiful works that they fall in love with.
You need to include one to three keywords that are specifically about you, eg. if your social media profile name is Jennifer Louise Artist then that is one of your keywords for every product just as it is your hashtag #JenniferLouiseArtist for every single social media post.
You need keywords for the medium, style, size, format, colours, themes, subject and materials.
Also consider using location keywords, such as Tasmania, Sheffield, Hobart, Launceston, St Helens.
Think of the potential buyer who saw your work when they were visiting a Tasmanian exhibition or attending a workshop.
They remember the location and medium, eg. St Helens, watercolour, but aren’t sure of the artist’s name.
So they search by Tasmanian artist, St Helens and watercolour.
Understanding where your buyer is coming from is called the Buyer/Customer Journey.
9. Promote Your Bluethumb Products and Profile on Your Social Media
Share your Bluethumb profile and artworks on your social media channels to expand your reach and attract new buyers.
Bluethumb will give you brownie points for bringing people in from your social media artist profiles, Google will give you reward points too AND you make it really easy for folk who already love what you are doing to find your work online to buy.
Yes, Bluethumb does do social media marketing themselves too.
But to be frank, they have so many artists on board that there is no way you can guarantee that they will promote your work.
It is great that they do promote individual artists but you will make more money when you take control of sending customers to your Bluethumb store yourself.
10. Participate in Bluethumb Promotions
Take advantage of Bluethumb’s promotional opportunities, such as featured artist spots or themed collections, to increase exposure.
You may not be selected the first or the tenth time, but if you don’t put your hand up, your certainly won’t get the spotlight.
Always be polite, friendly and approachable to the Bluethumb team.
Never be rude, demanding, entitled or patronising to them. Positive always outshines negative.
By getting involved with the Bluethumb promotions you will learn more about what they want, what works and what buyers are looking for and you’ll thrive.
Being frank again, most artists on Bluethumb don’t get involved in the promotions.
So by doing so, you’ll be standing out from the pack.
A quicker way to learn how to do these promotions well is to look at the profiles, images, keywords etc, that the artists getting the exposure and making the sales are doing.
Do not blatantly copy exactly what another is doing, that’s unethical but also dumb, because you’re not being yourself and they already have that territory that is themselves.
But you can learn and bringing in various elements into your own unique offering.
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11. Offer Limited Editions
Create limited edition prints or series of your artworks to appeal to collectors and create a sense of exclusivity.
This is where the money is and Part 2 delves deeper into this for you.
12. Collaborate with Other Bluethumb Artists
Collaborate with fellow artists on joint projects or exhibitions to cross-promote each other’s work and reach new audiences.
This is a really powerful strategy and it creates your own online community of supportive art friends too.
By sharing your audiences you all benefit and win.
Coming from a place of abundance rather than scarcity always creates more success.
When you find common ground with other artists, with audiences and followers who will find joy in your different styles you’ll sell more work.
Plus, potential buyers always feel safer in a supportive, kind and caring community. So create this with your collaborations in an authentic and kind hearted manner.
13. Showcase Your Process
Share behind-the-scenes glimpses of your artistic process through photos, videos, or blog posts to engage and educate your audience.
While some may find the videos an easy route, others will find photos and blog stories more enjoyable.
You will need to test out what your online audience enjoy the most and find the easiest to engage with, to share with their friends and family.
I think we all enjoy seeing how a work progresses, from sketchbook idea to the planning board to the initial stages through to the completed work.
The same goes for insights into the creative spaces, whether that be the dinning table or the much longed for studio being decked out.
14. Collect and Share Reviews on Bluethumb
Encourage satisfied Bluethumb customers to leave reviews and testimonials, which can help build credibility and trust with potential buyers.
You can share these lovely reviews on your socials too, in your newsletter and your own website.
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15. Stay Informed with What’s Happening with Bluethumb
Keep abreast of Bluethumb’s latest features, updates, and tips for artists through their newsletters, blog posts, or artist support resources.
While it may seem sometimes that there are constantly emails coming through, by taking the time to go through them you’ll discover the gems of promotional opportunities being offered by Bluethumb.
Flourishing on Bluethumb
With some dedicated thought, planning and doing, you can make good money on Bluethumb.
It will take a while to build your profile, to learn the nuances involved but with consistent attention Bluethumb has the capabilities of being a profitable platform for you.
And in Part 2 we’ll go into realistic timeframes and the hours involved to achieve your financial prosperity goals.
The majority of artists who are on Bluethumb don’t do enough to promote their work and build their profiles to have regular sales.
It is a competitive platform. And it is, importantly, introducing a whole new sector of first time art buyers. And that has to be a very healthy thing for all of us artists.
Part 2: How to Become a Top Selling Artist on Bluethumb
In the second segment of our comprehensive guide to mastering the Bluethumb marketplace, we’re delving deep into the intricacies.
We’ll dissect crucial elements like pricing strategies, product diversity, and the art of timely updates, shedding light on often overlooked yet vital actions. Many artists on Bluethumb overlook these fundamentals, resulting in underwhelming sales despite the undeniable allure of their creations.
Yet, for those willing to invest care, effort, and consistency, the potential rewards are immense. By meticulously adhering to best practices, artists can position themselves for success, propelling towards the coveted ranks of the top 10% sellers on Bluethumb earning $50,000 to $100,000 per year.
Here lies the promise of not just financial prosperity, but also the validation of one’s artistic vision and dedication.
So, if you’re committed to your craft, why not channel that dedication into a systematic approach that yields tangible results? Join us as we explore the path to becoming a thriving artist on Bluethumb, where success is both achievable and rewarding.
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