One possible and highly likely reason for your lack of success is that you’re using isolated marketing methods that don’t generate enough momentum to lead to results that sell art online. Success in any modern business requires a comprehensive multi-faceted marketing approach and art is no exception to this rule.

To learn how to apply a marketing system to your website you could go study small business marketing for a year in Grad School. Interesting, expensive, and time consuming! You could also get started with 7 Steps To Sell Art Online, a free 20-page primer from Espresso Artist Websites.

In just 20 minutes you’ll understand the framework you need to put in place and follow to be successful with your artist website.

Chapter titles from 7 Steps To Sell Art Online

• The 4-Stage Online Art Marketing Model
• How To Attract NEW Visitors To Your Artist Website
• How To Help Google Sell Your Art
• Social Networking Your Way To Art Career Success
• The Importance Of WOW!
• Repetition Rules Art Relationship Building
• Build Community With A Beautiful Blog

We know that most artists love to work on their own marketing so here is your opportunity to grab some success with this great free report from Espresso Artist Websites.

We’ve seen lots of commentary lately on the state of the art market and it varies all over the map – from super-optimistic tweets and posts on twitter and facebook that sales are up or even better than before, to art industry news reporting a variety of successes and failures, to calls we’ve had ourselves from artists reporting patchy results.

So how is the art market really – for you??

Our experience with the artists we connect with has been that well established pros are doing OK and in some cases are really prospering. While some are report flat or slightly declining sales the business is still there.

The artists who appear to be having more difficulty are those who are entering the market, particularly if they are selling original works with substantial price-tags. Establishing your presence and success in a new market is always a challenge in any sphere of business, but the way is always made easier  when that market has expendable income – and that is not so much the case today compared with 10 years ago.

The path of the artist is a unique one though. Many businesses look first to the market to find a problem to solve and then develop and deliver a product to solve that problem. However artists, by their nature, tend to look inward, bring out something original, and then look for a market that will support and appreciate their vision. It’s a risky business but when it works it’s a beautiful thing and a beautiful life for the artist and their patrons. A wonderful counter-balance to the anarchy of just “letting market forces rule”.

To sell art in the current economy you have to put a system in place and work it even harder than you might normally. You can’t just do things on a wing and a prayer – you need a plan and a system as well. So “on a wing and a prayer and a plan and a system” you might say! We have written frequently on using systems to market art. If you’re interested in this you can research our articles or check out our “7 Steps To Sell Your Art Online” report over at Espresso Artist Websites.

A couple of practical suggestions though to build into your system:

Think Small – If you normally create large pieces that sell for $thousands, try adding some very small pieces to your body of work that sell for hundreds. You don’t have to sell out your artistic vision – just put that vision on a smaller canvas! This is important in a challenged economy because you want to create low-risk entry points for new collectors.

Think BIG – There is always a luxury market segment that has significant expendable income. There are still swags of people spending $5,000 or more per night to stay in luxury hotels and villas all over the world – and those are the cheap rooms! Those folks have available cash flow to buy art – so how could you find a place selling your work there? First, you will definitely need a great plan! What if you decided that you were absolutely going to do this and that failure was not an option. What would you do?

Think on that!

Art Calendar recently ran a series on the Luxury market – you might want to check into that too.

On a side note, Tara Reed recently wrote a great article for us on the subject of YouTube Marketing Videos For Artists. This is a must-read if you are thinking of creating video to promote your work. Now, lets compare a few video styles and get your reactions to them. All are focused on the topic of Search Engine Optimization to give a good basis for comparison.

Example 1

In the first example, the fabulous Tara Reed recently acted a command performance in her video, How SEO for Artists is Like making a Google Field Goal:

Example 2

This next example is one I put together as a selling video on our Artist SEO Success System Landing page.

Example 3

Finally another example of SEO handled in an even more comedic tone. This one is really funny – you have to watch it!

The question I have for you is: What works for you in a marketing sense? What I mean by that is what would actually cause you to buy something? Does the entertainment factor make a difference to you? Or will you just enjoy the entertainment and then go on to find the lowest price wherever you can?

Please share and leave your comments below!

Etoile Trees - Josse Ford 2002

We’ve been having another big discussion at Art Marketing Secrets recently – this time about the whole issue of stealing images from artist websites. While we all know that it’s true that this is a fact of life, the big question is: Does it really matter? Will it significantly change your art career if someone downloads and re-uses an image from your website?

At first it’s tempting to go for the obvious answer – OF COURSE it matters! It’s just plain wrong to steal work from a website and to re-use it without permission – especially for commercial purposes. And those images could be used to make prints and art-cards, and could be licensed out to make all manner of things like coffee mugs and tea pot stands.

But is there a real risk of that?

On the other side of the fence one could argue: What can anyone seriously do with a small 72 dpi image? It’s not print quality so it’s not like it is going to be published as an expensive giclee image for example. And in some cases it misses an important point:

What if in making your images completely safe you make it more difficult for galleries and collectors to use your website? That would be like shooting yourself in the foot – right?

One example of this is the popular mouse-over image galleries where you can’t actually see an enlargement of a thumbnail image unless your mouse is hovering over the thumbnail. It probably protects your art but anyone seriously interested in your work is going to have their patience extremely tested – and that’s not really worth considering if you hope to sell some art or “be found”!

You can also add digital watermarks to your images, but in our experience they tend to look unsightly and take away from the quality of the viewing experience. This might be OK if you are focused in a very low-cost art-print market space, but if you’re into promoting your high-end originals we have yet to see a site that looks good with watermarked images.

Some of the do-it-yourself online portfolio services offer image protection as part of their service, but it is far from foolproof. Want to know why? I just tested two of them and was impressed at first that I was not able to right-click and download the image on the screen. But then I remembered the “Grab” application on my Mac – and in a few moments I had successfully copied images from both services – glad that I wasn’t paying them for that feature!

So, there you have it. We haven’t yet seen a fool-proof solution for protecting art online and at 72 dpi, we’re not sure that it actually does matter. There’s an age-old concept that wherever you put your attention, there you go…. Based on that, our honest feeling as we write today is that you should probably spend more time thinking about and planning how to get the RIGHT people to see your website than worrying about how to keep the wrong people away!

That’s our view and it’s always subject to change if we learn something new. What do YOU think about this? Please comment below – we really want to hear what you have to say!

Image from "The World Inside A Picture Frame"

Most artists with websites have a big problem they don’t like to talk about.It’s like the pink elephant standing in the corner of the room that everyone sees but doesn’t feel comfortable mentioning.

At our sister company Beautiful Artist Websites we’ve been designing premium artist websites since 2004. We talk with artists all the time about their online marketing so we hear about many of the problems they face.

As an example, this is a recent email we received from an artist in Hawaii. It’s quite representative of what we regularly hear from artists..

..I get your newsletter and I have a website.  I have a webmaster, but he tells me that the only way I can get noticed, is to join 100′s of sites and spend a couple of hours every night chatting & posting on each of them. I have joined many, but didn’t seem to make any difference.  Is there another way? Can you market my website for me?

Is that how you feel sometimes?

The pink elephant is really important in online art marketing but most artists choose to ignore it because they think it’s too hard to master or they think it doesn’t work. So what is this strange pink creature? And what is it doing in YOUR art studio?

The pink elephant is Google.

If your online art marketing strategy is like a house, then think of Google (and other search engines including Yahoo Search and Bing) as the foundations of the house. All your other marketing activities like email campaigns and social networking then build very powerfully on top of this foundation to create a total marketing solution. And this is what brings results!

If you don’t build the foundation then your other online marketing efforts will never be as effective as they could be. Truly.

Our websites, “Beautiful Artist Websites” and “Art Marketing Secrets” have held Top 1-3 positions for their respective relevant keywords for more than 4 years. As a result, 75% of our website visitors find us through search engines. And they’re not just any old visitors – they are highly relevant and interested visitors who have found us by searching on “marketing art” or “artist websites”. That means that when they find us they are highly-interested in the art services we offer.

It gets better though – Google delivers to us not only the most traffic, but also the visitors who view the largest number of pages and spend the most time on our site. How would you like to have that kind of qualified traffic visiting YOUR artist website?

The good news is that YOU CAN! Next week we’ll bring you a series of articles called “3 Powerful Tips To Bring Search Engine Traffic To Your Artist Website”.

Search Engine Optimization was once something of a black-art. Today however much has changed and SEO voodoo has been rendered almost powerless by good strategy and hard work. You CAN look that pink Google elephant in the eye and become good friends! And enjoy lots more art-hungry traffic to your website. Check back for our new SEO article series next week or join our email list to be notified!

To get the best results you need to understand the different roles in the giant Twitter performance – and to choose and act yours out for the best results.

In my observation, there are 3 primary “roles” you can choose to play in the Twitter-verse as follows:

1. Content Creators: As an artist or a writer this is your primary role. You originate great content for others to read and review in the form of articles and artworks.
2. Connector Hubs: These folks are “well connected” – meaning that they have thousands or tens of thousands of followers and typically tweet A LOT! Their primary role is to find good content and retweet it to their many followers. They may also create content but it’s not their primary role in the performance. You can think of Connector Hubs as the marketing and sales organization for your (Twitter) art business.
3. Content Consumers: These are the voracious readers and consumers of content. They might find your art directly but more likely because something of yours has been retweeted by a connector hub. Content Consumers and the “Art Buyers” of your Twitter art business.

Of course it’s quite possible to be a mix of two or all three, depending on our frame of reference at any time. But as artists it’s always good to remember that your star role is “Content Creator”.

What does that mean about what you should do? Here are some thoughts:

• Focus primarily on creating high-quality content. That means painting, sculpting, writing, etc. If you’re spending 20% of your time or more on Twitter you probably are neglecting your art career.
• Remember that Twitter is just one piece of your art marketing – don’t neglect your facebook page, website updates, email campaigns, mailouts to galleries, etc. These are just as important as ever!
• Develop relationships with “the right” Twitter connector hubs. You don’t just want any old connectors. How will it help you to be connected to a major hub if most of their 20,000 followers are snake oil salesmen? It won’t! What you want is connectors who are (1) interested in art themselves,  (2) who have many followers interested art, and (ideally) (3) have a proportion of followers who are actually interested in buying art. I’m not suggesting this is easy but it’s something to have in mind when you are choosing who to follow and connect with. Think Quality!
• Have a plan for how Twitter dovetails with the rest of your art marketing strategy. You might find our article, “5 Essential Twitter Tips To Sell Art Online” helpful as a starter on this topic.

Twitter is still very much emerging as a marketing force and at Art Marketing Secrets we are learning too. The point of all this is simply to have a plan. It won’t be perfect but if you’ve thought it through it WILL work at least some of the time. That way when you’ve completed your first thousand tweets you might have actually sold some art or interested an art collector – which you really deserve after typing those 140,000 characters on your iPhone!

We very much welcome your thoughts and comments on this topic!

"Shopping Cart Christmas Tree" - Anthony Schmitt (2008)

Many artist websites now offer online purchase and payment capabilities – some have simple paypal buttons and checkout, while others have sophisticated shopping carts and payment processing systems. But how many artists actually have customers clicking on their “Add to Cart” buttons and completing the sale?

In our personal experience, website visitors will frequently buy lower-cost art reproductions (less than $100) through a website store. Our best sale of this type was a single sale of $1,100 for 5 limited edition prints. Our experience with original art has been somewhat different though – our first-time original art customers have always seen the actual work or a similar work in-person prior to purchasing. However – once they are familiar with the work and the quality they will sometimes make a subsequent purchase from the website.

That’s our experience. We’d love to hear YOUR experiences with selling art online from your website.

• Have you sold art from your website using a shopping cart and credit card or Paypal payment?
• What price-range is the art you sell successfully on your website?
• Do you find that art buyers will purchase and pay for your more expensive original works from your website?
• Is it an advantage for you to have an online shopping cart and credit card processing? Or could you do just as well taking phone orders and accepting payments by check or Paypal?
• Do you have any secrets you’d like to share about selling art online?

We look forward to your participation in this discussion – please leave your comments below!

"Bird On Plum" - Jane Dwight

As we prepared the copy for yesterday’s featured artist column it came as a blinding flash that in finding and choosing Kazuki Takizawi a classic social marketing sales process for art had been revealed to us.

Lets look at what happened and then we’ll break it down into essential components and steps.

Kazuki followed us on Twitter about a month ago and shortly after re-tweeted two of our tweets. As we reviewed our twitter-feed we were intrigued by his icon image – it was bright, colorful, and unusual! So we clicked through to see some of his recent tweets – and they were authentic and interesting. Our attention piqued, we then visited his website and found a wealth of interesting work and a clear artistic vision and direction. We were hooked and wanted more!

We now recognize that process as classic “Twitter Art Marketing 101″. Every step in the process was very important and had to be there or we would have stopped taking further action. Lets now break it down and see how it worked.

Step 1 – Follow People & Organizations That Could Help Your Art Career

Following Art Marketing Secrets was a smart choice by Kazuki. As an art marketing information resource it makes sense that we would have content that he could learn from. Kazuki didn’t know that we were looking for our first featured artist right about the time he followed us – that was serendipitous – but a good example of what can happen when you make smart choices.

Along those lines it’s a smart idea to follow galleries, museums, art coaches, and other people who you would like to be seen by.

Step 2 – Re-Tweet High Quality Content That Interests You

It’s amazing that many people don’t realize that re-tweeting is one of the big secrets of visibility on Twitter. In our case, Kazuki retweeted us and so he showed up in our twitter feed – suddenly he was on our radar. We don’t auto-follow so a re-tweet is a great way to get our attention.

You can do this with any gallery or organization you are following. A word of advice though – only re-tweet content that you genuinely find interesting. I can’t explain why but it’s always transparent when someone retweets just to get attention. And honestly – if you can’t find something genuinely interesting in the tweets of an art organization or gallery – they’re probably the wrong target for you.

Step 3 – Choose Your Twitter Icon Image To Get Attention

The first thing that got our attention in Kazuki’s case was his twitter icon. It was very visually interesting and we felt compelled to click through to his twitter page. The obvious take-home for you (the artist) is to choose an icon image that will get attention and also represents you or your work in an authentic way.

Step 4 – Write Authentic Tweets That Represent Your Artist Brand

It sounds obvious – but it’s not that common! When we clicked through to Kazuki’s Twitter page we were pleased to find that we actually enjoyed his tweets. It wasn’t that he was tweeting lots of high-brow art content – not at all. What was important to us was that there was a nice mix of personal and art content. You could actually feel something of the artist in his tweets. Some of it was fun, some was serious, some was about lunch and dinner! But what came through was something of an ongoing artist statement in 140 character bytes.

Perhaps I can sum this up very simply – be authentic and tweet about what motivates you. At any given time that might be van Gogh or it might be the color of your friend’s shoes or someting your children did or what you had for lunch. Reveal who you are in your tweets!

Step 5 – Your Art Website Must Communicate You

The next step in our progression with Kazuki was that we clicked through from his twitter page to his art website. His website is very simple but effective in saying a lot about him. We liked the quality and choice of the art he displayed and we also enjoyed his artist statement and bio. Each element was adding to our impression and understanding of Kazuki in a very congruent way.

Here are some important suggestions for your art website:

• The showcasing of the art (layout, background colors, etc) is extremely important
• Choose only your very best work for display on the website. If you don’t feel 150% happy with it then don’t have it on the site!
• The art should be photographed by a professional or using equivalent professional techniques
• The navigation (menu) on the site needs to be consistent (same on every page)
• Avoid anything that will draw attention away from the art – you want to showcase the art – not the website. For this reason, we generally recommend against many of the flash website designs used by some artists.
• Be really authentic in your artist statement – it says so much about who you are as an artist

As a result of the process above we selected Kazuki to be our featured artist of the week. If we were a gallery or a potential patron the same process may have led us to look further into representing him or acquiring his work.

So – follow these five essential steps and take yourself seriously in your quest to sell art online!

If you are looking for a great artist website now or in the future, please check out our sister site, Beautiful Artist Websites.