Thinking about a new artist website? Two weeks ago 1stwebdesigner featured a great article titled, “Six Solid Reasons Why You Should Use WordPress”. We think that’s a great message and its just as true (if not more so) for artist websites as it is for the Joe Schmo small business.

Lets start with 1stwebdesigners 6 Reason Titles and we’ll add our 2c worth on why WordPress makes SO MUCH sense for artists! Oh – and just to be clear we’re talking here about the version of WordPress you host yourself (wordpress.org), not the hosted version (wordpress.com).

Here goes…

Flexible Open Source

In a nutshell this means that it uses a flexible open platform and that there are literally thousands of developers all over the world constantly making improvements and extensions which benefit you. It’s happening while you sleep! The framework is also free – you can put up a WordPress website with a number of different themes all by yourself at no cost. A designer can also develop a fully customized site with unique design aesthetic for you too – but still based on the WordPress engine for ease of updating and simplicity. Many of the customized sites we build at Beautiful Artist Websites are just so.

Great Content Management System

To understand this think simply as follows – you can change your own content – images, text, create new pages, create blog posts, add YouTube videos etc, all by yourself. This is really important because you need to update your website content regularly to keep visitors interested and coming back. And in our experience designing artist websites – if its not easy to make the changes it ain’t going to happen! (Not so often anyway)

Search Engine Optimization Friendly

This is really BIG. We wrote a whole book about search engine optimization for artist websites – and we just released a rewrite for WordPress. WordPress is great for SEO because it comes out of the box with a structure and page naming (permalink) methodology that is very simply understood and indexed by search engines. The ease of updating and adding new content is also important because search engines like sites that are active and adding new content regularly. Finally, there are some excellent plugins (extensions) that push the SEO envelope further – such as the Google XML Sitemaps Plugin and The All In One SEO Pack. That gets you at least a third of the way to great search engine results and that’s priceless.

Media Support

WordPress makes it very easy to add images, videos (e.g. a video artist statement), audio, maps, slideshows, google docs, google maps, etc. Adding appropriate media content can make your site really interesting and engaging – and a superior art marketing magnet. Not only that but it actually makes it fun for you the artist and website owner to experiment with new ways of promoting.

Extended Plugins

This is another big one and comes back to the Open Source pint above. There really are literally thousands of plugins (extensions) available for the WordPress Platform. You can check them out on the Plugin Directory. Most times you can find a plugin to do almost anything. Examples: Want to add a Facebook “Like” button to your pages and posts? There’s several plugins for that. Want to check how your Mailchimp email campaigns are affecting your Google Analytics results? There’s a really nice plugin for that. Want to automatically ping Facebook and Twitter every time you add a new blog post? There’s a plugin for that. There are plugins for almost everything and nearly all of them are free, gratis, – a gift for you from some unknown developer somewhere in the Cyberverse!

Easy To Use

The back-end user interface is extremely simple and requires no programming skills at all. You can setup an administrator level account for yourself for use when you need to make design or extension changes, AND you can also setup an editor-level account if you are just wanting to add or change content. The editor level account is really simple to use. You can also setup editor or author level accounts for other artists so that they can post in your blog.  The WordPress Forums also provide fairly good support – in our experience you will get a response within a few hours in most cases. And in several years of developing sites we can count the number of times we’ve needed support on one hand!

Conclusion

That’s the scoop. Think about WordPress seriously when contemplating a new artist website. We’ve tried a bunch of platforms over the years and WordPress gets our thumbs up for artist websites.

Also, this week we are having our annual “SEO For A Song” 30%-off sale which we’re extending to both the General and WordPress editions of our Artist SEO Success System. Enter Coupon Code SUCCESSFULARTIST in your shopping cart and click “Update” to grab the discount. It goes away for another year after Saturday October 15 so grab it while you can!

This last week I received an email from a visitor at Beautiful Artist Websites. We get many emails asking questions about marketing and selling art online and offline, but this particular message got my attention. Let me quote:

Hello. I am from a little town in Wyoming and I am wanting to ask a pretty simple question, Well my wife is a painter/sculptor. She is the best I have seen in my eyes but not only mine, my family, her family all our friends – and she has won art shows throughout Wyoming. She moved to California and tried the art program there but she had no luck. I am contacting all art areas to ask how I can get her work out there to be seen/ sold/ and admired by a massive verity. I know she has a chance at success but she has not taken the steps. If there is a chance you can e-mail me back to let me know I would be so thankful.

A couple of things struck me about this message. Firstly the love that this man has for his wife and her talent – this kind of moral support from friends and family is just priceless as one navigates the often challenging path to commercial success as a professional artist. In most cases it is a marathon run and your warm circle of friends cheer-leading you on may be the one thing that pushes you over the finish line.

The second thing that got my attention was how well this email describes the real challenges of how to get started. There is SO much advice around in many great books, blogs, forums, etc, but if you’re really starting out with art marketing what do you do first?

When I answered this email I pointed the gentleman to a number of articles on our site, in particular a collection of our best art marketing articles from 2009 which covers some important bases. But several days later his email was really bothering me because I didn’t feel I had addressed the core question.

Here’s what I honestly think – there is enough information online today for anyone to research any art marketing question that they could possibly think of between now and the year 5,000. A lack of information isn’t the challenge. What is typically lacking is an understanding of the overall process or a system to implement it. But there is something way more fundamental that this:

To sell art you need a market to sell to. To some extent there is an existing art market that can be tapped by emerging artists – but probably the bigger piece is the art market that you create yourself. And how do you do that?

A few years back while driving from New York to Los Angeles I listened to a truly fabulous audio book called “The Ultimate Anti Career Guide” by Rick Jarow. I won’t digress into its message here except to say that this book is a great inspiration with some very practical tools to help you find your life’s work. The reason I bring it up is because Rick mentioned something very powerful which hit me like a bolt of lightning. Here is what he said:

Another name for a Community is a Market

Sounds simple right? But think about the power of this statement. What Rick was referring to was that when you build a community around being yourself and doing the work that inspires you, that community can become the market that finances and fuels your ongoing career growth – a true symbiotic relationship in its most positive sense.

So, in  practical sense what does this mean for you, the artist seeking artistic and commercial success? It means to take the regular steps to nurture and build a community around the art that you create. One way I really encourage artists to get started with this is to have monthly open studios. One of my favorite articles on this subject is a 3-part series that I wrote myself called “How to Stage A Successful Artist Open Studio“. Encourage friends to come along – even if they’re not excited about art. Ask them to bring friends and send out postcards and written invitations regularly to galleries and other arts professionals.

What you’re doing is watering the little plant which is your art community and f you do this consistently every month it will grow into a big tree and eventually it may become a mighty oak. This is your art community AND your art market. When you have this foundation in place, all the other marketing steps and tools, and systems fall into place because you’re applying them to your known and trusted market.

I’m big on building strong foundations for success because to reach your objective may take every ounce of inspiration and energy you can muster for a long time. If you build those foundations strongly you’ll make life much easier for yourself in the future – and have a more meaningful and fun time of it. Your art community is a BIG foundation!

Happy New Year from Art Marketing Secrets, Beautiful Artist Websites, and Espresso Artist Websites! We hope that 2011 is a big year for you, your loved ones, and your art career.

To give you a GIANT boost we’re offering $287 in extras FREE when you order one of our Espresso Artist Websites this week. That’s right – Order an Espresso Artist Website by January 7 and you’ll bag these great presentation and marketing features completely GRATIS!

- Home Page Slide Show (Normally $95)
- Email Management System (Normally $95 Setup Charge)
- The Artist SEO Success System (Normally $97)

That’s $287 in free bonuses not to be repeated after January 7. Simply place your order and we’ll include these bonus features.

Why Espresso Artist Websites?

Selling Art is a system and many artists don’t succeed because they only stab at isolated parts of the process instead of consistently working the full system. If you want to understand what we’re talking about, grab our free report, “7 Steps To Sell Your Art Online”

We created Espresso Artist Websites to actively support you through the three critical aspects of selling art:

• Attracting New Buyers
• Impressing them with your beautifully showcased art
• Building relationships with them that lead to sales

We do this with powerful search engine features, fully integrated blogging and email marketing, Social Media Marketing, and, of course, our trademark beautiful showcasing. All of these wrap together into a solution that we call our “21st Century Art Marketing Machines”!

So – here is your one-time chance to grab one of these fully featured websites with $287 in bonus features at no additional charge. Order by January 7th to receive this special offer. Simply place your order and we’ll include the bonus features for you.

Happy 2011 from all of us here at AMS, BAW, and Espresso. Now go get those art collectors!

Have a great art marketing question that has been perplexing you or holding you back from that stellar success you dream of? Now is your chance to ask! Our new department, Ask Art Marketing Secrets is now open for business and we’re looking forward to answering your questions.

Do you have questions or concerns about artist websites, email marketing, search engines for artists, social networking for artists, hosting open studios, building relationships with collectors online or offline, closing sales, selling art online, or any other art marketing, art business or art sales topic? Now is your chance to ask.

In most cases we’ll be able to give you some great guidance based on our own experiences selling art and working with clients at Art Marketing Secrets and Beautiful Artist Websites. If we don’t have an answer, we’ll do our very best to find someone who does.

If we think your question will help a group of artists we will post an answer it in our Ask Art Marketing Secrets Section and we’ll link back to your artist website, if you have one.

To ask your questions, simply visit our Ask Art Marketing Secrets page, fill in the form, and submit. Easy!

Note: We don’t guarantee that all questions will be answered. Our focus is on topics that will benefit artists who are serious about building art business success!

That is the message that greeted me in an email I received earlier this week. It was 6am and I had just made myself a cup of green tea and was starting my day in an exuberant mood as I reviewed emails. The cause of this this terse little response was an email we sent out promoting the smARTist Telesummit. This is an event which we really believe in and in 2011 we are invited Keynote speakers.

I’m normally fairly thick skinned on the odd occasion someone unsubscribes from one of our email lists – but this time I felt different. This was a person who had received some really great free information from us that would really help them to promote their art career if they actually used it. I wouldn’t have minded if they had simply clicked the “unsubscribe” button displayed visibly in the email – but to go the extra step of adding a rude little snipe like that really surprised me.

This got me wondering – do some artists really think that they should get everything free? Is it really too offensive to them that amongst all the free articles and information we and many other great art marketing and art career websites publish that we occasionally promote something we believe in that has a price tag? Surely not! But apparently so!

So, just for the record, here are a few thoughts from me on this topic. In a perfect world I would probably spend a good part of my weeks writing art marketing articles and books and teaching art marketing seminars. I have a genuine interest in helping artists bridge the gap that often exists between art and business and helping them to bring more beauty and creativity into the world. This is a world that really needs it!

That said, I and all the other art marketing writers out there run businesses – not charities. We have to run our businesses successfully because we need to eat and support our loved ones and communities. Money may not buy happiness but you can’t do a whole lot in this world without it. And I for one am several decades past being able to sleep on the sofa at my Mum and Dad’s place!

So, amongst all the volumes of free information we and many others provide, occasionally we promote products and services we believe in that are not free – and we make no apologies. If you as an artist are offended by a commercial offer then by all means feel free to unsubscribe. But before you do, think about what this might be telling you about your own relationship with art career success – because if you are uncomfortable with receiving an occasional promotion from us, how are you going to feel comfortable about asking for the sale with a new art collector? And you most certainly will have to do that!

Money is not a god to be worshiped but it is a big part of the world we live in. If you are uncomfortable with it, then it it will almost certainly feel uncomfortable with you. Think about that!

Artists can learn a lot from the life story of the great Tibetan Saint Milarepa. Do you know his story?

I first became aware of Jetsun Milarepa when I read The Golden Dream, a fictionalized account of his life story by Heather Hughes Calero. It is a fantastic read although I believe the book is out of print. I thoroughly recommend it.

The start of Milarepa’s life story goes like this (borrowing from Wikipedia):

Milarepa was born in the village of Kya Ngatsa – also known as Tsa – in Gungthang province of western Tibet to a prosperous family. He was named Mila Thöpaga (Thos-pa-dga’), which means “A joy to hear.”

When his father died, Milarepa’s uncle and aunt took all of the family’s wealth. At his mother’s request, Milarepa left home and studied sorcery. While his aunt and uncle were having a party to celebrate the impending marriage of their son, he took his revenge by summoning a giant hail storm to demolish their house, killing 35 people, although the uncle and aunt are supposed to have survived. The villagers were angry and set off to look for Milarepa, but his mother got word to him and he sent a hailstorm to destroy their crops.

So, as you can see, Milarepa was off to something of a bad start in his life! But he was aware enough to know that he needed to take responsibility for his misdeeds and make amends. How did he do this? In the story as told by Hughes-Calero, Milarepa set out to find a spiritual teacher and eventually found himself under the tutelage of the lama Marpa.

Marpa was a tough teacher and focused Milarepa’s training on building houses made with large stones. This was heavy exhausting work, especially for one man and especially given the harsh tibetan weather. Marpa was relentless! – but he also didn’t give up on Milarepa.

All told, Milarepa had to build 13 houses with his bare hands, collecting all the materials himself. Marpa would look at each one and find something that wasn’t right and then Milarepa would have to start all over again. Many times he was so proud of his latest building achievement and the lessons he had learned. But Marpa would again tell him that it wasn’t right and to start again. How incredibly frustrating! Can you imagine how he felt?

Eventually Milarepa did learn the lesson that Marpa was determined to teach him and the last house was completed! There are a number of opinions on how this happened but a general consensus is that Milarepa had surrendered his ego and balanced the karma he had created in the earlier part of his life. He had now achieved an elevated state of enlightenment. Some say that he is the only Tibetan Lama to have achieved this in a single lifetime of training.

Milarepa went on to become one of Tibet’s most famous Yogis and poets and he is revered by thousands today.

So – what can an artist or an art marketeer learn from the life of Milarepa? Here are 5 things that come to mind:

1. There is a good chance that your life is a lot easier than Milarepa’s – so feel happy and celebrate what you have!
2. Realize that you have to take responsibility for your life and your art career success.
3. Find yourself a good art marketing coach – a “Marpa of Art Marketing!” – someone who can demonstrate the kind of mastery you want to achieve. Do what they say.
4. When you’re feeling tired and can’t go on, ask yourself: “Do I feel like I’ve completed 13 houses yet?” If not, keep going – Milarepa did and he achieved something truly great – and so can you!
5. Surrender your ego. If something isn’t working don’t hang on to it. Let it go and start again. Start again 13 times if you need to. Just do it, learn what does work, and do more of that.

You will then have achieved Art Marketing Enlightenment!

The brain-child of Art Entrepreneur Ariane Goodwin, Ed.D., smARTist is the only professional-development art-career conference for visual artists that reaches around the globe – artists from more that 16 countries and 38 U.S. states have attended.

Currently in its fifth year this incredibly popular and successful virtual telesummit is structured to replicate a traditional brick and mortar conference and is the first such summit to include leading authorities from both inside and outside the art world

Are you and emerging artist? smARTist is geared toward YOU and you should seriously consider attending! Listen to a couple of testimonials from previous seminar participants:

I can’t believe the people you collected! I can’t believe the value! You know, if anyone is serious about trying to make it as an artist — particularly in this financial climate — it seems to me they’ve got to get the information you are offering or they’re just swimming in a storm — you and your crew are the lighthouse!   —Robert Girandola

I’m so glad I registered for the Telesummit. What a wonderful experience to have all this expertise and wisdom available to me “live” without having to leave home. Before I even registered for the smARTist Telesummit, I had dedicated 2010 as the year of putting myself on the map to financial success. smARTist has provided me an incredible springboard to do exactly that! —Tom Hlas

This week has been amazing…I don’t remember the last time I was so motivated and inspired. I have gotten so much from the keynote speaker’s presentations, the pre-events, even the panel days, and I am saddened that tomorrow will be the last day. Thank you so much for the time and effort that you have all put into this amazing resource for artists. I am feeling ready to re-emerge in my new locale with my confidence, inspiration, skills, and vision strong. —Julie Cooper Young

Sounds good yes? It is and if you’re serious about turning “making art” into “making a living”, smARTist may be one of the best value investments you ever make.

Want to learn more?

Sign-up to receive more information about smARTist and to be notified of the one-time-only early-bird special discount.

We’ll be there – will you? Click on the image below for more info on smARTist:

FTC Disclosure: We are a proud partner of smARTist and highly recommend its value for emerging and mid-career artists! If you visit the SmARTist website via any of the links in this article and subsequently decide to purchase and participate in the telesummit we will receive a commission on your purchase.

Lets start with a premise that I hold true.

True art comes from somewhere. It is the result of an experience where the artist explored the worlds of beauty, spirit, terror, humanity, or the psyche – and brought back the experience for us to share. When you look at a painting or a sculpture created with that consciousness it has an impact and you can’t help but notice it.

When I saw one of Van Gogh’s self portraits (the green one!) in the Musee D’Orsay in 1996 I gasped after wandering through the rest of that art museum half asleep. I had similar experiences with a Rodin Sculpture in Amsterdam, several portraits by El Greco at a MET exhibition, and an original Georgia O’keeffe painting at a house I visited in Woodside, California. (Yes – someone actually had an original O’Keeffe in their house!)

I have similar experiences when I look at more recent work, like that of Rick Clarence, Ken Marshall, Zeph Farmby, or Latifah Shay. These artists are all explorers of experience and consciousness and it shows in their work. To me, that is the artistic consciousness and you can’t be an artist without it.

A great artist has that together with the technical skill and craftsmanship to execute the creation of the work. But the technical skill alone does not make an artist. I see this regularly at art fairs and exhibitions – technically excellent work that has nothing behind it. As such it is decoration and that is OK – but it is not art, at least in my personal universe.

Combining the artistic consciousness and technical skill is actually a lot of talent all wrapped into one human being. So then, is it realistic that this same human can also be a good business person?

The answer is: It depends on the person.

Van Gogh was immersed in his worlds of experience, so much so that he often spent all the money his brother Theo sent him on paints and canvasses when common sense would have suggested that some food might be a good idea! So Vincent probably wasn’t the ideal business person. My guess is that he may have lost some of his artistic intensity in becoming one!

Michelangelo's Pieta , sculptured in 1499, St Peter's Basilica Rome

My understanding of Michelangelo (which I admit is entirely based on a reading of Irving Stone’s “The Agony & The Ecstasy”) is that he was very much the great artist and the great business person. In the course of his life he had to manage budgets, difficult family and political situations, and a number of popes, all of whom seemed determined to undermine his success. And yet he did succeed and all those challenges impacted his work in a powerful way. You only have to glance sideways at the magnificent “Pieta” in St Peters Basilica to know what I mean.

Picasso was a consummate Marketer, Jackson Pollock wasn’t. Both were great artists. Andy Warhol was a business person and advocated the business of art. But honestly, I’ve seen a whole bunch of his original work in several museums and I have never been moved. It is certainly iconic work though. Basquiat’s work, on the other hand, grabs me by the throat, but my guess is that he explored the worlds of the psyche in his work and was less interested in business. (Just a guess).

Where does this all lead to? The answer I believe lies simply in the old saying:

Know Thyself

If you know that you can happily bridge the worlds of art and business, especially if you want to or even enjoy the challenge, then that is your path and you will be successful.

On the other hand, if you know, deep down, that you need to focus on the exploration and creation of your art at the expense of business, then do that. You then have choices:

You can choose to pursue your art as a hobby where you can put all your love and creative energy without the guilt of feeling that you have to sell to justify calling yourself an artist. (Hey – how much did Van Gogh sell while he was alive?)

Or, you can choose to look for family, friends and friendly business people to help you with the business aspects of your career. You can also outsource a lot of the repetitive marketing work at very low cost by being a little creative.

Can you be an artist and a business person? If you want to. But you don’t have to be. Build on your strengths and enlist help in the areas you need support. This is actually a principle all good businesses use!

Kristen Hoard is a metal sculptor from Sacramento California. She creates really fabulous metal sculptures and metal wall art, most with a very strong fire element running through them. You can see a selection of her work on her new website.

Kristen’s sculptures are very marketable for a number of reasons.

Firstly, they have a lot of visual impact with the elements of fire and light coming through very powerfully.

Second, her work is consistent – even though she creates a variety of different pieces, almost all her work is recognizable in her signature style and themes.

Third, Kristen’s sculptures can appeal to a wide variety of art segments from art collectors through interior decorators to new homeowners. That opens up a lot of commercial possibility.

Finally she has a wide range of price-points – starting at around $500 through to pieces that can fetch $5,000 or more. That broadens her potential market further.

An artist like Kristen needs a website that doesn’t just showcase well but also supports the consistent marketing effort she has to put in to get the word out and make sales. That’s why she came to us at our sister business, Espresso Artist Websites.

“I chose Espresso Artist Websites because I wanted a site that would help me market my work more powerfully,” said Kristen. “I’ve had 3 years of experience with an earlier website so I knew what I was looking for. Presentation is very important but so is the ability to find new customers and build relationships with search engine optimization, blogging, social networking, and email marketing. When I came across the Espresso websites I knew that was exactly what I was looking for.”

Lets talk about how Kristen’s new artist website supports her.

Attracting New Customers

To build relationships that lead to sales, you first have to attract new visitors to your website. One very powerful way to do that is search engines. Kristen’s new Espresso website has an extremely search engine friendly design. Kristen also purchased the optional SEO training system and is currently working through researching her most powerful keywords and placing them in her site. The Espresso websites concept makes this extremely simple.

Another great way to attract new visitors is through social networking. Within a few hours of launching her site 40 visitors had clicked the “Facebook Like Button” on her home page. What that means if you don’t know Facebook is that in each of those 40 visitors Facebook news streams, a message showed up that they had “liked” Kristen’s website – and that was then visible to ALL the friends in their facebook networks. That’s powerful!

Impressing and WOWing Visitors

Kristen Hoard ~ Metal Sculptor

Many artists make a big effort to attract visitors to their websites but don’t deliver on presentation and content. That means those visitors will probably never return and that’s not good marketing!

Kristen’s site on the other had is compelling. All the images, whether on the homepage slideshow or in the portfolio sections really stand out. That’s a result of 3 processes – great quality work, excellent professional photography, and finally professional design. With a very rare exception, artists just don’t have the graphic and web design skills to showcase art like that.

The other part of wowing visitors is with the text content. Kristen’s “About” section is really interesting. I especially recommend that you visit her “Process” page where you can see descriptions and photos of how she creates her work. Also, check out her “Shows” page. Don’t you get the feeling that there is a lot happening in this artist’s career? That is an important perception to deliver because buyers like to associate with success!

At the end of the day this all means impressed visitors who will return for more – visitors who you can build relationships with and sell to.

Building Relationships & Selling

It is an established fact that repetition builds brand-awareness and relationships. The best way to do this is on the phone and with your feet on the street! We are great advocates of traditional marketing, however there is a whole world of relationship building that your website can do for you too. Like a giant marketing iceberg, the large part of the effort required to be successful is largely unseen and this is what your website can help you with. How?

Email Marketing: Those impressed visitors can sign up for Kristen’s email list. With an Espresso Email management system can easily send personalized mass-updates to everyone on your list. What do you write about? Mainly your latest work, and upcoming shows and events. It is about creating a perception of activity and success in your art career.

Blogging and Social Networking: I put these two together because they work in a very integrated way. An Espresso Website is built with a fully integrated WordPress blog backend. We chose WordPress because of it’s unprecedented support for social networking and search engine optimization and we made it fully integrated with the website because that way you get the most marketing power. Here’s how it can work: Kristen writes a blog post or updates her shows page with an upcoming show. A number of things now happen.

- First: An update goes out on her RSS feed – this means that her post can be found by newsreaders looking for content with her keywords.

- Second: The website automatically send updates to Kristen’s Facebook pages and Twitter account. All the people in her Facebook and Twitter networks will see the update and can choose to click through and read the post or show update.

- Finally: Kristen’s email management system can be setup to automatically send out daily or weekly summaries of her updated blog posts and shows updates.

THAT is automated, heavy-duty relationship building working for Kristen’s art career!

The final sales close phase of an expensive work of art will nearly always involve a phone call or studio visit. There are things that humans simply do the best – and don’t we all want to enjoy that feeling of being personally involved in an art sale anyway? I sure do! (Note: we do offer online payment systems if desired)

The point is that a good website – like Kristen’s can take care of a lot of the heavy-lifting marketing tasks, leaving you more time to create art, market with word-of-mouth, and close sales.

“I looked at a whole range of artist website options,” said Kristen, “from monthly fee portfolio services to artist websites with substantial up-front prices. Espresso was not the least expensive but they really stood out as incredible value for what they deliver – I think my new site is a great investment.”

Please enjoy Kristen’s website and the beautiful work that it showcases!

Learn more about Espresso Artist Websites and sign up for our free 20 page PDF report, “7-Steps To Sell Art Online” at http://www.espressoartistwebsites.com

Note: We are in the final stage of our launch phase and we’re still offering introductory pricing. This however will end on September 30 and the prices go up up up! So if you are serious about claiming a great website for your art career – don’t delay.

My rule is that artists should be spending 20% of their time creating and 80% of their time marketing and administering to their art business in order to be a successful artist.

Today, for most artists it is the other way around. Unfortunately most artists will spend 80% of their time creating and only 20% of their time administering, marketing and promoting. How can any artist expect to be successful with their art business if no one knows about or is exposed to their work? It is a dilemma that all artists must face, in that they are doing what they love, which is producing, rather than being in the business of selling art.

Andy Warhol was a prolific and successful American artist. He was also a master marketer, promoter and art business person. We can all learn and follow his art business operating philosophy. There are two Andy Warhol quotes that puts the whole Art vs. Business dilemma into perspective:

“Business art is the step that comes after Art. I started as a commercial artist, and I want to finish as a business artist”

His other quote is:

“Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art”.

Now, I think we should take these quotes seriously, as it was recently documented that in 2009 a Warhol painting of his, the “Eight Elvises” sold for 100 Million! Warhol knew what he was doing as an artist, a marketer and as an art business person!

As an artist are you spending a majority of your time marketing and promoting your work? Have you identified who your target market is and analyzed how to reach them successfully? Do you have a website that displays and showcases your art correctly? Do you have a Blog or online newsletter that helps to drive traffic to your website? Are you taking advantage of and using Social Media to make contacts, promote your art and help to build your brand? Do you have an ongoing email marketing campaign that exposes your work to the decision makers in your target audience? Are you using PR sites to promote your events, shows and sales? Have you availed yourself of promoting your work on Document sites, Bookmarking sites, Blog sites and on YouTube? Artists can give demonstrations and talks on YouTube and in Webinars. Are you prepared to market your work on Smart Phones and on iPads? None of this technology is expensive and most of it is free. It is only the artist’s time and their creativity that is involved to take advantage of these different media to promote their work.

All of these terms, technologies and media may seem daunting and overwhelming to you, but you can turn those negative thoughts around to “wow, look at all of the possibilities that I have to promote, market and sell my work!” and “What a wonderful and exciting time to be an artist, I can’t wait to get going!.” But you cannot hope to be a successful artist if you are only spending 20% or less, of your time promoting your art. Whatever amount of time you are spending on marketing today and if you were able to double your time and effort (and stick with it), you would see more traffic, more inquiries, be in more shows and eventually make more sales!

You will not be very successful in reaching your target audience and selling more art if only 20% of your time is spent marketing. Try doubling your time to 40%, then to 60% of your time and if you can get to where you are spending 80% of your time promoting and selling your work, you will become a successful artist.

Yes, all of this does take time, hard work and persistence. Do you want to be a successful artist? Then try spending 80% of your time marketing and branding your art and spend 20% of your time creating. In time, I believe that you will see good results and become a successful artist.

About the Guest Author

John R. Math is a successful art photographer based in Florida. Mr. Math began his professional art photography career in 2006 and since that time he has had more than 85 exhibitions, sold his art through art galleries and to private collectors and now markets most of his artworks to the corporate art & hospitality markets. You can learn more about John and his art marketing program at Art Marketing Strategies and Light Space & Time Gallery.

Interested in being a Guest Author for Art Marketing Secrets? Learn more about how to contribute on our Article Submission Page.