make art...
There is little statistical information online about the worldwide number of art students and working artists. But I've included some estimates here.
1. Art Students and Amateur Artists
Many people who wish to learn art are unable to attend an art school, for a variety of reasons. Art Head Start is a home study tool for these prospects. It also works later as a reference resource.
2. Beginning and intermediate working artists
Some working artists may lack formal training. Others may be in need of an "art school refresher". Art Head Start is of value to these people as well, and again as a reference resource.
3. Art Teachers
Art teachers are always in need of good teaching materials. I've had several art instructors email me for permission to use my ebook in their classes. No doubt others are using it without contacting me.
I was unable to find any reliable statistics for the number of art students and non-pro artists.
One assumption would be that there are more students then there are employed artists.
US Bureau of Labor Statistics figures for 2008 show 508,000 employed artists and designers. This is only the US, and does not count some types who might also be prospects, including:
There are an unknown but large number of semi-pro artists who sell their work informally online, at art fairs, in local galleries and through other informal means. These artists do not show up in any statistics. However, I will guess their numbers by the published member numbers for some of the larger online art portals and online art sales sites.
Art Sales Sites
The top 7 online art sales sites are said to have 199,000 artist members trying to sell their art works online. There are more than 3 other major art sales sites for which figures are not available.
Art Portals
Renderosity.com is the largest art portal and a large percentage of their over 100,000 members are artists and art students. There are also many smaller art portals online. I think it's safe to estimate that there are at least another 100,000. If 75% or these members are part of the market niche, that's another 150,000.
The total of the above estimates is 857,000. Assuming that 50% of these prospects belong to more than one of the above groups yields a market size of about 429,000. I believe that is a conservative number, given the age of some of the data and the fact that there seem to be so many online artists and students who remain uncounted.
Competing Books
Art Head Start really is a unique book. I did a lot of research to find out if I would be duplicating the work of others, before I wrote it. I couldn't find anything similar offline or on. There are other books dedicated to only one of my many topics. For example, I discuss Image Composition and I've found 2 excellent books on only this one topic. What I can't find are books which combine all these topics into the broad overview an art student needs.
Art Schools
Art schools can be though of as a very big competitor, even though their market is somewhat different. This is one of those times when a marketer needs to get the attention of prospects in another market to show them other alternatives. In other words, many art school students could really benefit from Art Head Start, if they knew of it. Having my ebook and attending an art school are not mutually exclusive.
Of course art schools offer many benefits which an ebook cannot:
This is why I'm currently working on an online art course, with interactivity, collaboration with other students and many other features.
Art students often lack confidence in their abilities or creativity and have doubts about how to acquire knowledge and skills. Their learning may be disorganized and haphazard and they may not realize how many past students have already solved the same problems they face. Many times they believe in the myth of "born talent" and worry that they may not have it. Art students involved in home study may not get enough contact with other art students.
Family and friends may have little respect for the arts and may look negatively on art as a career choice, fearing that it will not pay well or be secure enough.
Artists must balance their need to be independent individuals on a quest for personal and social exploration with their need to empathize with family, friends, teachers, sales agents and customers. They are somewhat anti-social by nature, yet feel the usual need to belong and be intimate.
Needs:
I've done a lot of key word research and analysis, using some very sophisticated tools.
Below are current top key phrases and combinations for Google web search:
| Key Phrase (8/17/2010) | Google Position |
| art lessons e-book | 1 |
| art lessons ebook | 1 |
| visual communication art instruction | 2 |
| art lesson e-book | 3 |
| lighting art instruction | 3 |
| art lesson ebook | 5 |
| computer graphics art lesson | 9 |
| learn art at home | 10 |
| digital art lesson | 11 |
| digital art instruction | 13 |
Below are my top 20 base key phrases:
| Rank | Key Phrase | Daily Searches |
| 1 | art school | 669 |
| 2 | computer graphics | 448 |
| 3 | home study | 260 |
| 4 | digital art | 195 |
| 5 | art classes | 173 |
| 6 | art designs | 162 |
| 7 | arts design | 117 |
| 8 | computer art | 117 |
| 9 | 3d art | 44 |
| 10 | art training | 44 |
| 11 | art lesson | 42 |
| 12 | art lessons | 42 |
| 13 | art how to | 42 |
| 14 | make art | 30 |
| 15 | arts instruction | 22 |
| 16 | art instruction | 22 |
| 17 | visual communication | 21 |
| 18 | learn art | 11 |
| 19 | art secrets | 6 |
| 20 | art skills | 4 |
My site has been through at least 3 radical redesigns to optimize it, and especially the landing page (.../art-lesson-ebook.html). The results are encouraging. My optimization efforts are constant and on-going. And there are always 2 versions running in a Google A/B split test.
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Wishing you marketing success!
