Many artist websites now offer online purchase and payment capabilities with shopping carts and credit card payment processing systems. But how many artists actually have customers clicking on their “Add to Cart” buttons and completing the sale?

There is a huge proliferation of flash-based art and photography websites today and while many of them look sleek and sexy I have some doubts about their effectiveness as marketing tools. Here are my biggest concerns:

They are what they say they are – fully customized websites designed around you and your art. It is very important to do your research well and choose the right website designer so be sure to ask the right questions: Do you have any idea what the designer is going to create for you or how long it will take? … By itself it is unlikely to create overnight success for an artist’s career, but when woven together with other elements into a marketing strategy, it can be very effective in promoting the artist’s work.

Part 2 of our series on website options for artists – Template Art Portfolio Services. These services allow you to create an online portfolio of your work by choosing a website design based on an existing template library. … Just be aware of the cost and ask yourself if the site is really showcasing you the way you would like – If you’re primarily focused on Galleries and Collectors you might want to consider a more customized solution.

For a variable fee (typically $50 to $300 per year) these sites allow you to create your own portfolio by uploading images of your work together with bios, artist statements, resumes, etc. … The down side to these gallery-sites is that there is no flexibility to show your work they way you would like to and their selling fees can be quite high.

Artists seeking to develop a website to showcase their work have many options. Website designers offer a range of solutions ranging from simple template-based sites to fully customized designs built entirely around the persona of the artist and their work. Understanding the benefits of each option is important, as the art marketplace is highly competitive.

The latest issue of Art Calendar (newsstand edition) has a series of great articles on building and maintaining your online art presence. Gay Jervey gives some excellent tips on achieving successful results with high-quality art websites.

Galleries and other Arts professionals do search for work on the internet so it makes sense to do as much as possible to help them find you. If you perform an online search on your name, even if your website is poorly optimized there is a good chance that your site will show in the results. But remember – if a gallery hasn’t heard of you, how would they know to search on your name?

Technique #6 – Advertise in Art Industry Publications
If you are willing to spend a little money, you can promote yourself by advertising in art (or other) industry publications. Good examples are “ARTnews” and “Art In …

Technique #5 – List Your Art In Online Registries & Art Directories
There are several online art registries where you can submit samples of your work including images, artist statements, bios, etc. Registries are used by …