How Do I Make My First Sale?

Shop Talk
1

Hi There!
I’m new to Folksy and was wondering if there were any tricks for getting my shop noticed and making that first sale? I’m pretty useless with this sort of thing and was looking for some advice and support :grimacing::grinning:
(I don’t have much work up as of yet as I am painting and building up my shop as I go, could this be a problem?)
Thanks,
Caitlin

Ps. here’s a link to my shop and my website if anyone fancied having a look…
https://folksy.com/shops/caitlinannportraits
www.caitlinannportraits.com

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welcome to folksy…sorry to put a damper on things but have you checked the copyright on these people.??..you need permission to do portraits of famous people and sell the finished items…
If you do have permission then I apologise but if not, then you need to check first as I would hate you to get sued.

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Hi Brenda,
When doing my research I found that it is acceptable to create your own paintings as long as you reference the original photographers of the resource you are working from and aren’t copying any other work, keeping it original. I hope this is right :slight_smile:

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There is lots of useful info on the folksy blog. The tips for how to use social media to get customers to your shop is here http://blog.folksy.com/social-media-tips-designers-makers and this article on how to write descriptions so that they are found by the search bots is also very good http://blog.folksy.com/2017/02/23/how-search-works

5

Thanks for the reply Sasha,
Those links look fab, i’ll definitely have a look!!
:smiley:

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glad you checked…always best to check…your work is brilliant…good luck…and there is a folksy group on facebook that you could join to share your work x
.

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7

Thanks Brenda. I’ve checked out your shop and you have some beautiful work on there :slight_smile:
Thank you for the heads up i’ll make sure I join that group!!

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8

I agree with Brenda that copyright might be an issue. It’s not so much about referencing whose photo you use, it’s the fact you are using a famous persons name and image to sell your work. You are ‘cashing in’ on their name, and many will, in fact, sue over this.

Your work is lovely, but I would seriously recommend getting proper advice from someone who knows copyright law inside out before going any further - there’s all sorts of advice on the internet, and a lot of it is inaccurate.

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I agree with @DandelionsGallery I’d speak to an ip lawyer to clarify. Not only may your products be breaching copyright law, they may also be breaching trademarks by using the famous people’s names in the titles and descriptions (unless you have bought a license to use those trademarks of course)

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Ok thank you guys for the deeper insight. I understand there are different laws within the uk as opposed to the USA but I will definitely look into it further and try contacting the photographers and copyright holders for their permission.

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