Trying to earn some extra income? How about taking your best cartoon and turning it into a gold mine?

I drew a cartoon years ago that seemed to get laughs from everyone that read it. This cartoon has been used over and over and has become a part of that spam email that travels around the world with a dozen or so really funny gag cartoons.

I decided to turn this cartoon into some profit. One of the first things I did was put this cartoon on one of my ChuckleBerry's greeting cards. It is my most sold card ever. Buy the card here.

I then opened a FREE Cafe Press store and threw on some specialty items including t-shirts. This design is by far my most sold design on Cafe Press. See merchandise here.

I also allow people to purchase rights to print the actual cartoon. It has been published in papers, on posters and other silly merchandise. See cartoon licensing here.

Sooo, take one or two of your favorite cartoons and turn them into money making machines!

Labels: How To, Making Money, Marketing, Niches

Are you getting any business? Do people know who you are?

I've been adding short videos to my personal blog and also to my greeting card site. I've gotten really good feedback that people really enjoy the videos. I also pick up traffic from YouTube.

Why not add a little video to your cartooning site? It's simple! I bought a cheap Canon PowerShot SD1000 digital camera for a trip to Disney World. Come to find out you can shoot movies with the darn thing also!

I set up the camera in my studio, turn it on, act like a goof and upload the video to my computer. I then open my YouTube account (you should have one, do you?) and upload the video to YouTube. I then take the code it creates for me and paste that into my HTML or blog. And Bingo! Instant video.

The video below is a prime example. Total time to film, upload and embed was maybe an hour. Most of that was waiting on the file to upload to YouTube. Lights, camera, action!



ChuckleBerry's Paper Card Co.

Labels: How To, Marketing, Video

When the associate editor of Midwest CEO Magazine went looking for the latest professional to feature in his December issue, he went straight to the Internet. Dayne Logan was looking for a cartoonist to feature in the magazines Goat Locker section.

Each month a person is selected and their unusual or unique working environment is focused on in the magazine section. Logan ended up on MY blog and found several photos I posted showing my fun cartoon studio. I was contacted by email and agreed to a short phone interview about Curtoons and an in-studio photo shoot.

Midwest CEO Magazine is a regional magazine and can be found in most large book stores. From Denver to St. Louis, Kansas City to Oklahoma City, businesses in the Midwest all face a similar set of challenges and can learn from each others solutions. These solutions, tips and articles are what you will find in each issue of Midwest CEO. Visit their site.

Read the short article here.

Labels: Marketing, Press

If you want to get jobs and you want to stand out from the crowd you'll need to do a little marketing of yourself. Part of marketing is creating a brand that can easily be tied to you. My brand is That Sneaker Wearing Entrepreneurial Cartoonist Internet Guy that draws cartoon logos.

My brand includes the nickname, a certain style of clothing that I wear and the "look" of my art. My cartoon logos are clean, vectored and easily recognized. Part of my brand is being small and having lower rates than the big agencies.

Market yourself online. I currently have at least three personal cartooning websites, a FaceBook site, MySpace site and a YouTube account with videos I have created promoting my services. I keep several blogs updated with current news, tips and ideas which helps build my reputation as an expert in my field.

Due to my blog and photos of my cartoon studio I was asked to do an interview and photo shoot for Midwest CEO Magazine. I will have a one page article about my services and my working environment. That's advertsing you don't have to buy! I will let you know when the December issue is out.

Get busy and start marketing yourself! If you're not standing out from the crowd, you will be lost in the crowd and clients will choose other artists over you.

Labels: How To, Marketing