Newsletter - November 15, 2009

This month’s Newsletter tracks the progress of many of Artisan Direct’s goals for the future. We would hope that as our plan unfolds and becomes more operational, we will look to you, our network members for advise and counsel. We can’t build this network community alone and we surely need your help.

We are currently working on and making progress in the following areas:

1. ARTIST SOLICITATION — Because of the economy we had ceased looking for new artists to join the Artisan Direct network. We have now begun to solicit anew special, promising artists who we believe would make a welcome addition to our network. If you know of any artists who may be interested in the type of exposure we are capable of delivering please let us know.

2. ART RESOURCES — We continue to look to add new categories and names of potential art prospects or resources to email market to. We now have a number of categories including: additional art galleries, attendees of national art shows, private collectors of art, designers, decorators, frame shops, high end gift shops, pet stores, specialty furniture stores, art supply stores, restaurants, art publishers, corporate buyers of art and many more categories. We have recently hired individuals whose sole job is to comb sources of research materials (art books, magazines, etc.) in order to add to our marketing databases.

3. DELIVERING ARTIST IMAGES & INFORMATION - In the future, not only will we increase the amount of delivery formats (we currently have four) we are also testing other ways to entice recipient art resources to view and consider our artists for either purchase or resale including - audio, video, pod casts by artists, webinaires and flash. Whatever it takes a prospect to view our artist’s information! We want our resources to be excited every time one of our artists is introduced to them.

4. WEB SITE — We have recently completed the first step to greatly expanding our web site in order to attract more of the public to it. Of course, we would like a forum to market our services and products, but as important, to create a greater awareness of our artist’s work. We have transitioned to www.artisandirectltd.net. The change is intended to better reflect our network as an art community. It is also easier to remember! We have additionally worked hard in the web site’s Infrastructure to make it more inviting for Internet search engines to find us. We are now pleased to invite the public to access us.

5. SALES REPRESENTATION — We are pleased to announce that we have hired our first Sales Representative. His name is Jim Collins and he will be handling North Florida. Jim lives in Tampa, FL. and is in training as I write this Newsletter. As soon as Jim is fully trained and ready to visit with galleries to represent your work, we will begin looking for additional people to join our Sales Group. We are looking for people who are knowledgeable with art, loves the business of art and would like to make a significant amount of money to stay in a business that is alluring and has cachet. Our goal is have Reps in every major Metro area in the United States. We want full coverage!

6. ONLINE SALES — We are going to offer free of charge an opportunity for Artisan Direct artists to sell their work online. The artists will be afforded a method to advertise their work currently on their individual web page with pricing and other pertinent information. The service will be introduced early next year.

7. NETWORK OF GALLERIES — One of the Company’s medium range goals is to build a network of both corporately owned and Artisan Direct affiliated galleries that will give Artisan Direct artists preferential treatment with respect to representation and wall placement. This is a very ambitious plan that will take some time to implement. However, we have begun the process by converting The Artisan Gallery in Pittsford, New York to an Artisan Direct Gallery and we are actively looking for our second Artisan Direct Gallery in Naples, FL. We have also started speaking with other gallery owners around the country about our Gallery representation program, which gives galleries additional opportunities to earn money through a relationship with Artisan Direct.

8. IMAGE DOWNLOAD — In order for you to get more utility out of your e-advertisements and web pages, we are working on making it easier for you to download those marketing pieces for you to use for your own personal use. In addition, you will be assigned your own domain name for your web site so that once again you can use it as a marketing tool.

9. FREE LIST OF GALLERIES — For those of you who want to market additional messages and information to local and regional galleries, we will be happy to share what information we have with you. At the end of the day, whatever it takes to make you more successful is our goal.

We obviously have lots of work ahead, but it’s awfully exciting. As you can also see we are going to be communicating with you much more to keep you advised what are plans for you are. We have lots of exciting new ideas that have not been tried on line before. I am not sure they will all be successful, but we are going to try to find that magic combination of marketing and sales techniques to help you. AS always, thank you for all of your considerations. This has been a very difficult art environment and we have to stay focused and persistent to survive. Please stay patient. Good things sometimes take a while to realize.

Best Regards,
artisandirectltd.net


Artisan Direct, Ltd. 82 Callingham Road, Pittsford, NY 14534. Telephone 585-586-3535, Fax 585-586-8555, e-mail: info at artisan direct L T D dot net