I ran across a blog entry today on ArtBizBlog.com that got me to thinking about the way artists and galleries generally promote art exhibits. 

Blog Far in Advance to Promote Your Art Exhibit
http://www.artbizblog.com/2006/09/blog_far_in_adv_1.html

Generally, all of the artwork gets created and then the exhibit gets promoted in an attempt to culminate in an opening where sales are made.  But what if promotion started much earlier?  How about sending email newsletters telling collectors what you are conceptualizing for a show?  Then follow up with emails regarding your experiences during any trips or research for the show?  Share photographs of places that you visit.  In other words, keep your clients in the loop during the entire process and SHARE PHOTOS of works in progress.

By the time the opening rolls around, you will have quite a few people who are at least interested in the show and should have an easier time in boosting attendance and sales.

I have watched this work in another industry.  I watched Chris Anderson, editor of Wired Magazine, publicly blog for months regarding research for his book, The Long Tail.  As the weeks rolled by, he generated more and more interest in the upcomming release of the book, and, I suspect, increased his own books sales quite a bit.

The Long Tail
http://www.thelongtail.com

I think back over my time as a gallery owner about the various shows that I had involvement with.  Each time, I would become excited about the exhibit as the artist shared information with me, sometimes, months in advance.  Why did I not think to share this information with customers?

I have no concrete evidence to prove this technique will increase sales, but my gut tells me that it will.

Sincerely,

Clint Watson
Software Craftsman and Art Fanatic

PS:  Unless you know that your blog is viewed by a lot of viewers, I would suggest using email newsletters instead of or in addition to blogging.  I have found that a number of art collectors don't really take the time to follow blogs, but do seem to respond to emails.  This is simply anecdotal, I have no statistics to provide, but it doesn't cost much to provide it in both formats.

Reality:
Your web site traffic is going to come to your site largely because of marketing strategies and efforts that you undertake.  Please don't expect search engines, your web host or anyone else to do it for you, after all, you don't expect the phone company to market your phone number, but simply to make it work.


Essential Elements for Marketing Artist Web Site - Draft 1
These are my thoughts on the subject of marketing an artist's web site.  These represent my initial compilation of thoughts on the subject and are not meant to be taken as the final word on the subject.  Notice that I included "Draft 1" in the title.  There very well may be a "Draft 2", "Draft 3" and so on.  One more important point:  These are elements in marketing the artist's web site.  There would be a whole slew of non-website marketing strategies an artist should pursue that are not included here.

1.      Get other art-related sites to link to you

a)      Automatically included with MyStudioSite.com and FineArtStudioOnline.com
b)      Don’t participate in “link farms” or “link exchanges”
c)      Get your galleries to link to you

i)   Be sure to link back to them
ii)  make sure they know you will not sell behind their back

2.      Develop good, focused site content

a)      terms should be used in content of pages, 4 times, in sentence form
b)      main term to focus on – your name
c)      other terms must be niche-oriented and specific

i)      “Laguna Beach Sailboat Paintings” is good
ii)      “Oil Painter” is bad – too broad

d)      Your domain name should include YOUR name
e)      If you are in a specialized niche, get a second domain with the specific niche-oriented words in the domain.

3.      Get your site in google, msn, and yahoo (don’t worry about the rest)

a)      Submit your site to google at http://www.google.com/addurl
b)      Having other sites link to you increases your chances of being indexed and increases your ranking
c)      For google, use google SiteMaps (this feature is automatically included with mystudiosite.com)
d)      Have properly formed HTML and meta tags
e)      DON’T obsess about keywords
f)      DON’T put more than 10 keywords in your metatags
g)      DON’T rely on search engines as your marketing strategy

4.      Plaster your easy .com domain on everything you give out

a)      Business cards, letterhead, back of artwork
b)      Make the domain easy to remember (your name) so people will remember it, even from conversation

5.      Your email address domain should be the same domain as your web site

a) have your web site advertised in your email signature
b)  Attach a *small* image to every email you send (except unsolicted)
     i)  image name should be title, size and price of artwork
     ii)  image must be a very small file (no bigger than 30-50K)
   iii)  Some people disagree with this tactic, but I feel if you keep the image small and only use it when emailing people you have an established relationship with, it can be useful.
*) FASO includes email accounts

6.      Print advertising

7.      Press Releases

8.      Email Marketing

a)      Email everyone you know

i)      Tell them you’ve set up a site and encourage them to view it
ii)      Invite them to join your site’s regular email list for regular updates

b)      Email people you know to ask for referrals

i)      Email a few each day so it can be personal
ii)      Ask them to email everyone in their address book with the following

•      They know you personally
•      A one sentence blurb about you (which you provide)
•      Ask their friend to look at your web site

c)      Make sure there is a Join Email List link on your site

d)      Send to your growing email list regularly

i)      I recommend at least twice-monthly (any more and be sure they know in advance approximately how often)
ii)      Update site with new content and notify by email

•      New Works are the most obvious reason
•      If you can write and commit to it, a blog is fabulous
•      A Painting a day can be a wonderful growth tool, if you can stick with the schedule and afford to sell a small work cheap
•      Notices of shows, awards, accolades
•      Helpful art information if you don’t have the above

e)      Consider an incentive to encourage current email list subscribers to refer people.

i)  example – Robert Genn gives his book to people who refer 5 others

ii) perhaps you could give a small print to people who refer others

9.      Participate in Online Forums

a)      each time you do creates a link to your site and increases your visibility
b)      Post your opinions in response to art related blogs
c)      Participate in forums

i)      Google Groups
ii)      Artist magazine site
iii)      Robert Genn’s Newsletter – reply, get listed

d)  Only post when you have a relevant opinion, your link should be part of your signature or unobtrusive.  DO NOT turn your post into an advertisement or it could be tagged as spam by google.

10.      Advertise your site online with adwords type services

1.      Place ads on sites that target your audience
(if you do Christian art, place ads via google adwords on Christian art sites)
2.      Place ads on terms relevant to your work

Author: Clint Watson | 0 Comments | Post a comment | Topic: Marketing - Web Site | Permalink

B writes:

I recently established a website with your company and have several questions. First, I have my own computer for 20 years but am unfamiliar with some of todays terms. questions:

1. What are "blogs"?

The term Blog is short for weblog. A weblog is a journal (or newsletter) that is frequently updated and intended for general public consumption. Blogs generally represent the personality of the author or the Web site. The activity of updating a blog is "blogging" and someone who keeps a blog is a "blogger." Blogs are typically updated daily using software that allows people with little or no technical background to update and maintain the blog.

2. Is my website with you called a "domain"?

A domain and a web site are two separate services.  If you make a real world analogy think of it like this.  You web site is analagous to a physical store.  The domain name is more like the phone number.  If I wish to call your store, I can simply dial the phone number.  If you move to a new address, you can "point" the same phone number to the new address, so that I can still reach you at the same phone number.  Similarly the domain simply points to your web site.  If you move your web site, you can point the domain to the new site.  Another point to keep in mind is that you may have more than one domain point to the same web site.

 

3. Can I change my domain name (if that is what it is called)? I may not want my name in the website.

You can register more than one domain.  We include the charge for the first domain with your web site.  If you choose to register a second domain, we can handle that for you, but additional fees do apply.

Author: Clint Watson | 2 Comments | Post a comment | Topic: Miscellaneous | Permalink

A realistic look at blogs and why Duane Keiser sells a painting a day

Today, dear reader, we visit the subject of blogs.  We preface our missive by saying we have nothing against blogs.  No, that would be hypocritical; after all, we post our own scribblings to a blog.  We simply seek to separate life’s truths from media hype . . . to separate the wheat from the chaff . . . to distill out those ideas that will make a difference in our life and reject those that are simply hype and noise.

Blogs:  Media Mania
Let’s start with the obvious:  Blogs are hot.  We don't just mean hot, we mean HOT.  Right now blogs are over-hyped, everyone's talking about 'em, you've got to get one to keep up with the Jones, freakin' hot.  Don't believe us? We’re  Blogging on Blogs in our blog. How wonderfully ridiculous!

If you believe the hype, dear reader, blogs are now virtually de rigueur for the serious would-be marketer.  However, as is nearly always true of anything that reaches mania stage, a blog is no panacea.

Yes, my friends, like dotcoms in the 1990's, stocks in the 1920's and tulips in the 1600's, blogging is currently experiencing a full-blown mania.  And it has reached the art world.

USA Today posted an article on their web site on August 23rd titled Artists take paintings to the masses. By Maria Puente 

Artists Take Paintings to the Masses by Maria Puente
http://www.usatoday.com/life/2006-08-22-blogger-artists_x.htm?POE=click-refer

It outlines the success of an artist named Duane Keiser with his “Painting a Day” blog.  Puente writes, “Keiser once was one of those artists lucky to sell a couple of paintings a year. Now he's something new: artist as blogger. Every day he makes a postcard-size oil painting of something he sees around town or of a still life he arranges here in his studio in the warehouse district of his hometown. Then he posts an image of the painting on his daily blog.”  The articles continues by saying that Duane sells his small painting each day and grosses approximately $60,000 per year on those sales, freeing him from the worry of cash flow and allowing him plenty of time to focus on his larger works.

Duane Keiser's Painting a Day Blog:
http://duanekeiser.blogspot.com/

The article goes on to extol the virtues of the “blogosphere” stating “The blogosphere has doubled every six months for the past two years to 51.9 million blogs, according to blog tracker Technorati.”  Impressive, let’s look a bit closer at the blogosphere, shall we?

Blogs or Splogs?
Wired magazine, in the September issue published an article looking at the growing spam problems of the blogosphere titled Spam + Blogs = Trouble by Charles C. Mann.  Spam blogs are known as splogs.  Mann writes, “some 56 percent of active English-language blogs are spam.”  Mann continues, “More than 10 million of the 12.9 million profiles on Blogger . . . were inactive, either because the bloggers had stopped blogging or because they never got started. (The huge mass of dead blogs is one reason to maintain a healthy skepticism toward the frequently heard claims about the vast growth of the blogosphere.)”  So, if only 2.9 million of the blogs on Blogger are active and 56% of those blogs are spam, our calculations reveal that Blogger actually hosts 1.27 million active blogs.  A healthy number, we admit, but less than 10% of their “reported” number of blogs.

What’s more, one of the great features of blogs is supposed to be the participation of blog visitors via their ability to make comments on each article posted.  But Mann quotes statistics that suggest more than nine out of 10 comments in the blogosphere are spam.  Or there is the opposite issue:  most blogs we personally visit (including our own) have no comments on most posts.  Although we have to grant that most blogs we visit don’t appeal to the masses and are therefore not likely to have large audiences.

Why the Hype?
People in general and the media in particular continually search for something “new” and “hot.”  But there is no “magic bullet” to success.  Setting up a blog won’t guarantee success.  Neither will setting up a web site.  These must seem funny statements from a guy who owns two services that host web sites and one that hosts blogs.  But that’s why our services include articles like this.  We want to assist you to success by using your technology wisely.  Our  point is that media hype tends to get the tail wagging the dog.  Technology doesn’t drive your success and marketing, your marketing and success plan should drive your technology plan.  When utilized properly there is a place for web sites, blogs, email newsletters and the like.  When utilized properly the Internet IS revolutionizing marketing.

Remember, dear reader, we started the essay by stating that we having nothing against blogs.  We toil away at our keyboard for you, working into the wee hours of the night, so that you will be armed with the truth and enlightened with success principles that work.  Oh what a difficult life we endure for you!  Now that we have let the wind carry the chaff away, let us turn to the wheat that is left behind and find out how Duane Keiser is selling over 300 small paintings a year.

Keiser’s Real Steps to Success:
We attempt to distill Keiser’s methodology into a series of steps:

Keiser painted a series of small paintings
See Creativity begets Creativity so Get Small for Erfahrung:
http://www.clintwatson.net/4/lp_2260/pg_blogentries.html/qr1_id=133

Keiser hosted an open studio party
Keiser wondered how to sell the small paintings, so he invited his friends to an open studio party called "100 Paintings for $100."  (This is an excellent idea)

Keiser began posting small paintings on his web site (not his blog originally) daily
See Post New Works to Your Web Site Religiously:
http://www.clintwatson.net/4/lp_2260/pg_blogentries.html/qr1_id=80

Keiser emailed his friends every time he posted
We suggest email marketing in nearly every web marketing article we write.

Keiser consistently continued with his idea daily
See Chasing the Sweet Embrace of Success by Developing Habits:
http://www.clintwatson.net/4/lp_2260/pg_blogentries.html/qr1_id=77

Notice that Keiser’s basic idea could easily be accomplished without a blog.  And in fact, for three years, he did execute his idea without a blog.  In December 2004, Keiser moved the “Painting a Day” concept from his web site to his blog.  I’m not sure what prompted the move, except perhaps that the blog offered easier technology for him to post and email daily.  As the demand grew, Keiser began auctioning the paintings on Ebay, thereby increasing his income even more.  It’s a classic example of good marketing:  begin with a good idea, execute it consistently, refine and improve it as you go.

We first heard about Keiser’s painting a day about a year ago, so, being curious, we subscribed.  We have been treated daily to one of Keiser’s paintings in our inbox, which means that we have now viewed over 300 of his works.  Keiser’s small works represent nice little “eye-candy” pieces.  We enjoy them.  Someday we might, on a whim, purchase one.  By the way, we look at his email every day.  We have never look at the blog.

The exciting part for you:
But here’s the exciting part for you, dear artist:  We have seen the works of the artists who host with our services, FineArtStudioOnline.com and MyStudioSite.com.  Exciting stuff.  More exciting than Keiser’s in many cases.  At least as good in most cases.

We expect that if you would follow the steps Keiser took, you would also meet with some success: maybe more than Keiser, maybe less but success nonetheless.  And in the art marketing game success = sales.  We can’t guarantee success, but we can guarantee that you’ll deserve it.

Sincerely,

Clint Watson
Software Craftsman and Art Fanatic

PS:  If you host your web site with our services, you’ve already got the basic tools you need to implement a “Painting a day” program.  Simply create a collection called “Painting a day”, Add a small painting daily to the collection (be sure to put the date added in the title), and send an email to your list with our built in tools (well we're working on the email system for MyStudioSite, but it is implemented in FineArtStudioOnline).

Robert Genn writes:

Every so often some researcher will publish fresh info on the mental or physical problems of creative folks. The general implication of some of this stuff is that you have to be just a wee bit sick in order to be creative. They often show that many historic artists had something wrong with them. The latest outbreak comes from clinical pathologist Dr. Paul Wolf of the University of California. He cites that illnesses, rather than being obstacles, can be the paths to genius. He mentions the likes of Einstein, Warhol, Newton, Cezanne, Goya, Michelangelo, Turner and Berlioz. According to Wolf these folks suffered varying degrees of depression, autism, myopia, anxiety, chronic pain, gout, stroke and dementia.

Another recent outbreak has to do with sight. According to John Morley of the St. Louis School of Medicine in Missouri, the presence of cataracts leads to Impressionism. Citing Monet, Renoir and Cassatt, he implies that eye problems helped them to paint the way they did. Cezanne is mentioned for a diabetic condition that caused the colour blindness that shows in his work. Van Gogh's probable epilepsy spurred on his hallucinatory imagery--the fuzz and swirls around the stars in Starry Night. Edvard Munch had "floaters," that also floated around in his paintings. Michelangelo's manic depression, now reverse engineered by the experts, affected the way he saw things--according to Morley you can tell by the sad figures on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Monday morning quarterbacking aside, what about the others who pioneered Impressionism without benefit of cataracts? Gauguin, Bazille, Sisley, Pissarro, Morisot, Seurat and Signac didn't have cataracts that I know of. As a matter of fact, what about many of my friends who don't appear to have anything wrong with them at all, but still find it within themselves to create magnificently and with originality? Actually, it's possible that the clear-sighted individuals with no known diseases may be the ones who are doing most of the good stuff. Historically speaking, we artists have been through a hundred years where "artist" has been aligned with "nut case." It hasn't always been so. I, for one, am working to have this current connection declared null and void. It's always struck me that the artists I admire are some of the healthiest folks I know--physically, and yep, mentally. I could be wrong, of course, and the thought of it makes me depressed.

Best regards,

Robert

PS: "Had better treatments been available to certain artists of the past, they might not have found their inspiration." (Dr. Paul Wolf)

Esoterica: At Oxford University, Ioan James has a book in progress on Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism. James argues that the obsessive and repetitious behavior often associated with autism has had a positive result for about twenty successful creators he has studied. "Perseverance, perfectionism and disregard for social conventions and the opinions of others could be seen as a prerequisite for creativity, and these are also behaviors associated with Asperger's." I'm happy to report that virtues such as perseverance, perfectionism, and disregard for social convention can also be learned and are frequently self-taught.

Read More Robert Genn At:
http://www.painterskeys.com


Clint's views on the subject:

We once knew an artist who did beautiful work.  His vivid colors and pure, abstracted style made viewing his work refreshing.  One day, he decided to undergo cataract surgery.  His eye site improved remarkably, but, alas, his paintings lost their spark.

Another favorite painter of ours, Kevin Macpherson, teaches "squinting" as a technique for students to learn to "blur" their subject and focus on the major shapes.  He jokes that squinting is only necessary for those who were not blessed with horrible eye site, as he is.  If you share Kevin's "blessing", you can simply remove your glasses when focusing on major compositional elements.