Sometimes, when I read some of the emails we receive, I wonder if I am from a different century. That would be a century where people introduced themselves before speaking, asking questions, or demanding information. Basic email etiquette is simple and will help build better business relationships.

If you are an artist and you want to be commercially successful, you have to think like a business. Businesses don’t make money by asking customers or partners to feel sorry for them. They get successful by having a vision, a clear achievable plan, investing in it and executing it.

In my dream, the artist explained that she had been in discussions with a major gallery to have her work represented by them and that the whole process had been going really really well. Until…. she referred to herself as an EMERGING artist. What does it mean?

While we all know that stealing images from your artist website is a fact of life, the big question is: Does it really matter? Will it significantly change your art career if someone downloads and re-uses an image from your website? And can you stop it anyway?

With the current growth and importance in online marketing, one of the biggest heartbreaks would be losing data. That could be the data on your Mac or PC – or the content of your website. Don’t assume that its somehow magically taken care of – ASK!

I was approached this past week with something that looked great at first but turned out to be a major scam with the potential to take advantage of many artists. Thankfully my brother who is a photographer knew all about this and warned me before things progressed too far – but other artists need to be aware.

If you’re like most artists with a website, you started out with a dream that collectors would actually find you through search engines. But the reality for most artists is: Your website floats alone in cyberspace with almost no visitors. It doesn’t have to be that way….

If your website is inefficient in its use of code or images, or if it sources live content from multiple locations (ads, image libraries, off-site video, etc), you may be making life difficult for some of your potential fans using wireless or low-speed land-line connections.

Has anyone noticed recently that the Met or the Guggenheim or the MOMA are short on visitors? I don’t think so – at least not when I last looked. People love art and it’s a much more rewarding experience in the flesh – even if it’s an electronic art form. Learning how to stage successful physically-based art events is an important key to commercial success.

That’s it – our simple AMS new years resolution for 2010! You can borrow it or take it if you want to – but if you do you have to honor the commitment. When you do everything to the best of your abilities you open the door and graduate to the next steps in your art career and your life.