Creating a presence online as a artist.
I had to make the step into the online world of marketing. Being a artist that solely wants to sell his work online, I had to learn how to drive more traffic to my personal website.
The first step is creating a personal web page. A web page is important; it is a gallery that anyone can see from any where in the world. People that see your page can also (if you set it up right) make purchases from where ever they are. This helps in becoming an international artist without even leaving your studio.
I created a website four years ago. I bought a mac book pro and used the I web program to build the site. It felt great doing it by myself because I like to be as self sufficient as possible. After it was built, I sat back and was anxious to have new people come and visit my page. I passed out 1000s of business cards in hopes that people would check it out. By this time, I was already on myspace and I directed people to the page. I began to get hits but nothing serious. So, I sat back and I waited, waited for the number of hits to stack up and the sales to start rolling in.... and waited and waited. Hmm, something must be missing, I thought after waiting for three years.
Having a website is great and is a necessity. However, having a website is also like having your own virtual private island that only you know how to get to. In order to get visitors to this island you have to make road maps so that people can find it. So lets talk about some of these basic road maps.
When I speak of road maps, I am speaking of SEO, search engine optimization, blogging, article writing, posting comments on due follow blogs, social media networking, youtube videos and publishing all of your relevant content anywhere and everywhere that you can on the web. You can pay someone to market your website on the web. They will be an online marketing pro. If you're like most artists, you're doing your best to just to feed yourself so, it is difficult to pay someone to market your product for you. The following are a few things you can do that require little or no money to get started.
After creating a web site, the next step is to create a blog. Blogging is wonderful because it allows other people that are in your field or just lovers of your field to read relevant information about you and what you are doing. When I started blogging I thought, "What should I blog about?" I started to think about what the people that have bought my art and other artists want and need to know about. I started with who a biography of I am and why I create. Then, I started to talk about the styles that I create and my creative process. Now, I am focussing more about the steps that I am taking to market myself on the web. I do my best to write 1 to 3 blogs a week. Every week I pick up at least one new follower. The going has been a little slow but blogging is a process that should be continued forever. Blogging is also a great tool to use to look back at what you have done in reflection. A personal learning map of trial and error. When you blog you want to add a link to your website that will drive people back to it. You also want to add tag words. I will talk about tag words in a bit.
After creating a blog, the next thing to do is find a website/service that will publish articles. The one that I use is: http://ezinearticles.com. Ezinearticles takes your article and it will publish it posting it out to their readers. Thousands will have access to it. People read it and you'll get a following of readers. It will help lead people back to your website by you linking your website in the article. In order to cut down on my writing, I use the same content from my blog as I do for my article. I post my article at the same time that I write my blogs. This service is also free.
Make some videos. I got a youtube account and started to make videos. I started with videos of me painting live, painting in the studio, painting murals. Video making is fun because the more I get into it, the process becomes a creative act as well. Start thinking about filming relevant content on your topic, informational videos and help videos. Pretty soon you'll get people waiting for your next one. By making videos, you are marketing your work and sending more people to your site.
After you create your website, an article, blog and video it's time to create a few profiles on some social networking sites. You do this so that you can notify people that you are creating, that you're producing great art, being successful and having fun while doing it. I am on,Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. I am on art websites as well, Onewithit, Daggerrom, Myartspace and Flicker. Every time I produce a new art piece, I take a picture of it and I notify all those sites with a link to my new picture and my site. Every time I write a new blog or do anything that is worth mentioning, I post it up on all the sites. Now, people are noticing that I am a creative wrecking ball and slowly but surely I am gaining a following online from people all over the world. I'm selling art to strangers that live across the seas. The more time you put in the more that you get back. Be proactive.
Collect emails from the people that are interested in what you are all about. Every chance I get, I exchange emails with someone and or take their card. I get to my office and log in their info. I try not to blast my email list too often. Perhaps once every three months I will do a mass email to notify people of my new work, new sites, blogs, art shows etc. I don't do it too often because no one likes spam. Make your information useful, relevant and be tactful. Spamers are spotted fast now and communities won't put up with them. It also makes you look cheap.
A little about SEO, search engine optimization. I can't go too far into detail about this because I am a bit of a noob in this field. But with the help of a very good friend, I got showed the right direction and more then a few things that I can do by myself to help in the marketing process. SEO is all about getting google/search engines to recognize your website as a formidable website that is legitimate that entities use and visit. One major way search engines do this, is by reading/counting how many legitimate links you have going to your page. The more links you have in the online world the more google/search engines will respect your website and it will start to place it closer to the top pages. To help make this happen, you have to come up with tag words. Tag words are words that you put to describe whatever you are doing. Mine are, abstract art, pop art, stencil art, surrealism, modern wall art, buddha art, mural art. Every time I write a blog or an article, I put these words somewhere in it. On my website every page's url address has these words in it. These words also help people find my artwork and me when they are randomly searching for lets say "pop art". Because I have "pop art" linked to my website on so many pages google is placing me closes to the top. The more links I create that involve these words, the more google will identify them with my website. I know, it's complex, I'm barely learning it now. Most of this stuff you have to have someone that is a SEO agent help you out with because they have access to programs that will allow them to analyze the efficiency of the way your website is generating traffic. From there you can have a better understanding of what you need to do to create more traffic. Also, they have programs that will analyze the competition for tag words telling you how many people are trying to use the word. The more people that are using the word the more competition you are going to have linking your specific site to it. If you're like most artists that don't have the $$$ to go out and get a SEO agent there are more then a few things that you can do yourself to go to make waves and go forward like blogging, social networking and producing relevant information and publishing it. Won't happen over night, but the more you put in the more you'll get back.
If you want to learn more about online marketing and SEO youtube and google search it. There is free information on the subject that will give you a better understanding of it. I googled and youtubed it for a week straight, watched videos and listed to free online seminars.
Have FUN! Hope some of my experiences has helped.
