My business journey begins...

I have a good understanding of Adobe Illustrator now, I'm looking more into Adobe Flash to create animations for my website and asittingducktv on Youtube. With my knowledge building and the website traffic moving, I'm looking to seal a deal with a web hosting company. At the moment they spend £400 a month on advertising in the yellow pages, what I want to do is offer a better alternative with targeted traffic so that I could earn the advertising revenues and also the web hosting company will be happy with the extra sales they make.

Have a look at the web hosting company : www.101poundwebsite.com

Its an excellent service and price compared to whats available in the market. Its easy for me to sell the websites as I actually have one myself from this company.

If you have a look at the example websites, theres about 15 on there at the moment, it will give you an idea... Also if you go to buy a website just mention "a sitting duck"...

Thanks

David.

www.asittingduck.com

I had a look around Cardiff the other day to buy a t-shirt. I wanted to look at the styles on offer and how much they cost. I'm talking about round neck t-shirts with a printed design on the front. Average cost was around £15.00, but there was not many I liked, I like shopping in Topman but I've never been a fan of their t-shirts, not that there is anything bad about them, its just that so many are sold. The only place I did find cool t-shirts was in Footlocker. Black t-shirts with bright neon flex designs on them, really cool!. They cost £25.00 which I didn't really want to spend at the time because I wanted some change for a pub lunch!.

I ended up ordering one online, but I would go to Footlocker in the future and theres a place above that called size which has cool trainers.

Thanks

David

www.asittingduck.com

I've been thinking alot about the way forward in the look and feel of my work I sell. I want to create a cool brand, I want "A Sitting Duck" to be well known for urban art and design. It will be a website that is like a mini factory where characters are created and sold as prints and t-shirts. I have a good looking logo which reflects the style of the company by the paint splashes, people start to know what its about just from the business cards, but before I blast youtube with really cool videos for my channel I want to make sure I can back the web traffic up with cool urban art items.

This will be my main aim over the next few months, to build a strong unique batch of characters that will be well liked by people and build personalities over time. The sales will follow and hopefully the brand will become a strong name, I knew when I was lucky enough to buy the domain name it was something special. All the millions of people in the world and none of them thought to buy and keep the domain before me. The term is used in newspapers, magazines and blogs everyday, so its great for website traffic, I just want to have a website that is kept simple and easy to use, where people know my style and know what they are getting.

Thanks

David

www.asittingduck.com

When it comes to drawing or painting, it is easy to do it for fun, but when you have a client that wants something specific, thats when it gets a bit more tricky. My website is the main place where people go to buy my art. I also offer a design service, whether it be an original painting or maybe a new company logo!. Its important to find out what colours a client likes and what style, at the end of the day, they will want my style because thats what they liked about choosing me to do the work, but you always have to ask!...

Thanks

David

www.asittingduck.com

Cardiff has a few art galleries, but it seems to be quiet on the exhibition side of things, if there are exhibitions, they are not being promoted to the public, just to people that live in the art world. What "A Sitting Duck" is looking to do is make affordable art for the public to see and buy in the streets and main stream shops. Illustration art is becoming really popular, as its more chilled out, people feel relaxed about paying £25 - £30 for something, rather than stress over a print that costs £600.

I'm planning on holding a street exhibition in the summer to launch year 2 of "A Sitting Duck". It should be cool as there are alot of people interested in illustration art in Cardiff and Wales. What you find is the best day for street and shop sales in Cardiff is a Saturday. This is the day where people drive from all over Wales to Cardiff to spend there hard earned money and its nice to walk away with something different.

What I'm looking to do is concentrate on the print sales this year, as the web traffic builds up to 2010 I'll start uploading the original paintings collection which will be a collection of 5 paintings, maybe 10, I'm not sure yet, but will definately be interesting to look at and worth buying for your living space.

They will be paintings on canvas, that way there is no hassle for people to mount them or frame them. I'm going to experiment with different paint, its between oil or acrylic paint. Possibly water colour for some drawing work!.

I'm hoping that it will inspire the local government to give me the funding for a proper exhibition or even an investor that would invest enough cash for me to hold a week exhibition in a London art gallery.

Thanks for reading!,

All the best!,

David.

www.asittingduck.com

So you've build your website, it looks good, easy to use, and you have good designs and products to sell. Now all you have to do is get people to get interested in them and buy them. Also with the internet being so big you have to get them to your web shop first.

I started by making friends on Facebook, asking them if they would place a link on their facebook group, in return I'd place a link on mine. That works for a while, but for the amount of effort it takes there is little reward.

Youtube can be powerful as you make friends with popular channels, they may find something interesting on your website and mention it in their Vblog. That may not be a physical link that someone clicks on, but if the website is easy to remember and type then that could be a better option. So if say "Mr Safety" at SMP films says in one of his Vblog's, I love the t-shirts and wall prints at a sitting duck .com, he has a big influence on thousands of Youtube fans. He is one of the select few that is paid by Youtube to make cool videos as a full-time job!.

So there is Facebook and Youtube, both take time, it takes about a year on Facebook to build up 5,000 friends and thats if your adding about 30 every day for a year, because not everyone will accept your friend request.

Youtube takes even longer to make 5,000 friends, it would take you about 5 years if it was just you requesting other channels as friends because I've noticed alot of channels don't accept friends just subscribers, and it takes alot of negotiating for a sub for sub, its not worth the hassle. All you have to do is film yourself, be yourself and keep the videos under 3 minutes to give them a chance to go viral.

Blogging is great, because it creates links on google, I'm writing this blog as 100 entries, the 1st year of my business. Its getting close to the end of the 1st year, its gone so quick, much quicker than I if worked in another sales job.

Keep on plugging your site, my advice is don't spam your wasting their time and yours. Use your personal space on the internet to do it, like your own facebook, youtube, blog and website. Try it because adverts can be throwing money down the drain and you never know, people may like you!.

Thanks

David

www.asittingduck.com

Internet TV is big business now, with more and more people to busy to watch tv and are to hooked on blogging and social networking to sit still and watch tv. I find the internet more entertaining than tv as you can feel your doing something and it brings out the nature that we all have of discovering new stuff!.

There are millions of websites on the internet and there are lots of internet tv channels. What I'm going to do is use asittingducktv as the main channel, with some cool videos on art and music.

Should be good!.

Thanks

David

www.asittingduck.com

Teaming up with another company, I'll be opening an office in Cardiff in August. Offering a design service and website hosting service. It will be a great point of call for business's in Cardiff to have a full new look, new logo, new website design and new designs for their paperwork. This will make Cardiff a strong contender for number one city in Europe. It does make a difference, if a company has a well designed logo, signage and website it certainly helps gain new customers and builds a strong brand in the minds of existing customers. Even if you have a logo and website, its worth spending a few hundred pounds updating your look and site, even if your happy with your design there is a great feature that the hosting offers, which is statistics and the ability to update your website easily without having to learn code.

The plan is to move into the office and start filming videos for the youtube channel, explaining how the hosting works and what a good logo can do for your business. Even if you don't have a business yet, its worth having a website just in case, if you have a talent or idea build a website and if you day job is not going so well, you can always put more effort into blogging and Facebook and Youtube to build your website traffic and sales.

I have around 1,000 unique hits a month now and 5,000 hits. With the Youtube channel I'm hoping to increase that by 10 times over the next year, creating 10,000 unique hits a month and 50,000 hits. With the Facebook group that should increase over time, figures with that I'm chilled out about, its just a place artists can share their work with each other.

So with all that in mind, its good to write my business thoughts in this blog, as it gets me focussed on what I need to do as a business, rather than before I drew and painted for fun.

With the website at the moment I make links for other artists in the news feed, I'm thinking of having a links page instead and keeping the news about what I'm working on.

Its great to have the freedom of what direction I want the business to go in, at the moment I'm happy its just me and a few subcontractors, but in the future I may consider a deal with a large company.

Thanks for reading,

David

www.asittingduck.com

I've been looking into a style to use, to create my paintings and art prints. I'm researching Japanese Graphic design and also the world of designer toys. The plan is to draw, design and paint a collection of artworks for people to buy on my website... Then some how I need to get the UK media attention, maybe just the Wales newspapers and news on BBC Wales or hopefully something that would get coverage on the main 10 O'Clock news on BBC. This would be awesome, as this would get bloggers, facebookers and youtubers writing clicking and talking about the artworks for sale on a sitting duck dot com.

At the moment I'm building friends through Facebook and Youtube. I've had 2,000 pages views so far from this blog, and as a finished piece of 100 blogs, I think that it could be an interesting read in parts in the future.

The office is looking good to move in officially in August 2009, so that will be good, hopefully will get a Cardiff local uplifting news story about a brand new Wales art and design business.

In a way its good that I don't get too many hits at the moment as I would rather show the world the website once it has a finished collection to buy and the support from a toy manufacturer to produce a vinyl toy, that way when you click on the website, there is a proper story on how it got established, mission statement on what "A Sitting Duck" wants to do for the world and what the website can offer people. As I've built a network of designers, I want to use them in the future, so maybe all the web design and graphic design work I will offer for a percentage and I'll try and keep myself free for the drawing painting and public relations. I don't really want to stick on the p.c. forever, thats part of the reason I started my own business was to try and give me more free time to draw, paint and spent time in the great outdoors!, although Wales has been cold this winter!.

Thanks for reading!...

David

www.asittingduck.com

I was wondering where "A Sitting Duck" will be in 5 years time, in a real life shop, still online?. I'm not sure what the future will bring. One thing is for sure, I know this is what I want to do, I like being my own boss, drawing, designing and the thrill of promoting and sales. I have been in sales jobs in the past, 5 years in total working for limited companies for around 20k a year, the hours were ok, Monday to Friday 9-6pm usually, but its not the same selling someone else's logo or brand, and when you don't like the stuff your selling its hard work!, in sales you sell yourself the shift managers kept saying, while they sit at their desks downloading viral videos on the internet and passing them on to their mates in the other department.

I wanted out of all that, I have vowed never to wear a headset or a polyester shirt ever again!. The future for me is flip flops, 3/4 shorts and a sitting duck t-shirts. The business had some good news today. In August the plan is to move all my stuff into an office in Cardiff city centre, working with a new company called 101poundwebsite.com what this will mean is signage on the front of the office to build the brand, phones to answer for design sales and questions and also a new suite with all the Adobe packages!...

This will build the brand faster than ever, and with Cardiff becoming a sort after place to live in the world it should bring the attention to the media when they find out a new brand has been created in Wales!.

I'm looking to paint canvas paintings in the window as well, so passers by can see real art being made, I'm going to start producing more vectors for t-shirts and prints and I'm going to build the youtube fan base by launching videos live from the office, it should be awesome!.

The next few months will be about getting organised, finish the 100 entries on the blog so its complete and build the facebook contacts to its maximum.

So maybe not a toyshop in the future but defo big office chair!.

Thanks

David

www.asittingduck.com

A Sitting Duck recommends you get a website built at www.101poundwebsite.com So you can start a business as well!...