Over the last week or so, I’ve been rethinking my newsletter schedule and a few other things as well. Since the dawn of the internet, and even before, I’ve been sending out a seasonal newsletter to my mailing list. I’m sure I’ve mentioned before how I used to send handmade ones in the early 90s. I’d stay up all night making color copies at a nearby Kinkos, cut and paste them, compile them all, and staple them together. (It was the middle of the night because that’s when Kinkos charged half-price for color copies.) I might have been a little crazy back then to do all that work.
Maybe it was only a little crazy, but it really helped promote my art business. It helped me make sales and get people interested in my career in those early days. Of course, the internet made things a whole lot easier and way cheaper. Plus, the growth of my mailing list skyrocketed at a much faster pace.
It’s not unusual for artists to send out newsletters and promotional emails. I get dozens, if not hundreds, every month. Most artists I know send them out monthly, and some send them out weekly. I know very few that only send them out occasionally, and I’ll be honest, I tend to lose track of those artists until I hear from them again.
What I’m getting at is how often I’ve been sending mine. I’ve been sticking to four times a year because I’ve always felt like I’d be oversharing too often if I did it every month. On the other hand, I could be taking myself off people’s radar by not checking in with my people as often as I should. I’ve been on the fence about this for a long time.
That being said, I’ve decided to up the frequency a bit. I thought about doubling the frequency, but I think that might be a little too often. So, I think every other month would be “just right.” That’s six times a year, and it would give me a bit of time to gather something to report each time. I’ll admit that hasn’t always been easy, even as I’ve been doing it four times a year. I’m going to have to find other things to talk about because career news doesn’t always just fall into my lap! Sometimes ya gotta wait for things to happen.
But I have a few ideas to make things interesting (hopefully), and I’m banking on pulling it off in creative ways. I’ll offer special perks for subscribers and reveal a more behind-the-scenes look at what goes on in the studio and the story of my process(es) with the art. I may try to implement some participatory elements, too. Maybe some Q&A or something like that. I’m still concocting it all, so I’ll need a little time to think about these things.
In the meantime, the plan is to send my newsletters out during the first week (probably Tuesdays) every other month starting next month (September). Before that, I’m planning to do a free art giveaway for new subscribers. I am not big on Instagram lately, but I’ll be promoting it there (@ayin_es_art), as well as on LinkedIn and here on this blog. So, stay tuned. This will begin very soon.