Here’s the scoop on what you need to know when designing a website to showcase your art, impress galleries, and win over collectors. Learn how to avoid the mistakes most emerging artists make when creating their online portfolio.

Sometimes, when I read some of the emails we receive, I wonder if I am from a different century. That would be a century where people introduced themselves before speaking, asking questions, or demanding information. Basic email etiquette is simple and will help build better business relationships.

If you are an artist and you want to be commercially successful, you have to think like a business. Businesses don’t make money by asking customers or partners to feel sorry for them. They get successful by having a vision, a clear achievable plan, investing in it and executing it.

In my dream, the artist explained that she had been in discussions with a major gallery to have her work represented by them and that the whole process had been going really really well. Until…. she referred to herself as an EMERGING artist. What does it mean?

With the current growth and importance in online marketing, one of the biggest heartbreaks would be losing data. That could be the data on your Mac or PC – or the content of your website. Don’t assume that its somehow magically taken care of – ASK!

If you’re like most artists with a website, you started out with a dream that collectors would actually find you through search engines. But the reality for most artists is: Your website floats alone in cyberspace with almost no visitors. It doesn’t have to be that way….

If your website is inefficient in its use of code or images, or if it sources live content from multiple locations (ads, image libraries, off-site video, etc), you may be making life difficult for some of your potential fans using wireless or low-speed land-line connections.

That’s it – our simple AMS new years resolution for 2010! You can borrow it or take it if you want to – but if you do you have to honor the commitment. When you do everything to the best of your abilities you open the door and graduate to the next steps in your art career and your life.

2009 was a great year for us at Art Marketing Secrets and Beautiful Artist Websites! We launched our gorgeous new website (the one you’re looking at!), researched and wrote a bunch of great new articles on art marketing, selling art, artist websites, and inspiration. And, we heard back from you – your thoughts, creative and commercial dreams, experience, and inspiration! Before we look forward into 2010, here is a roundup of our best and most popular art marketing articles from 2009!

Our Christmas gift to you this holiday season is a special PDF version of our very popular article, “18 Tips To Be The Great Artist Of Your Dreams”. You can download it and pin it on your wall or noticeboard. It’s a reminder of what to focus on to make yourself great in 2010! We hope you enjoy it