Artspan

Marketing to Your Niche Online

artspanstaff — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 12:46:00 +0000

You’ve found your niche online and have interested readers filtering into your website through forums and social networks. How do you get them to make a purchase?

Know your competition. Study the work of other online artists with work truly comparable (popularity, experience, subject, style, size) and note their prices. Take a hard look at what they’re offering and for how much. Then undersell them. People shop online because they are looking for good deals. Give them one.

Know your audience. Try posting a friendly, anonymous survey up on your site, asking your reader some basic questions: where they live, age range, gender, and their art-buying price range. If they already like your art, they will be happy to help you out. If they don’t, then you don’t need their demographic information anyway. Use your findings to think strategically about where you promote your website and how much you sell your work for. (Note: Many blog servers like Blogger and WordPress offer survey widgets which will also do the trick.)

Write Like a Pro. Pull out your best writing skills to describe the pieces you want to sell. Include a bio and artist statement on your site. Often, a timid buyer will be reassured by this professional touch.
Make buying REALLY easy. Allow your potential buyers to become actual buyers. Next to each image of your art keep its price, shipping costs, and a “Buy Now” button (use Paypal if you don’t have a shopping cart). Don’t force them to go through the rigmarole of sending you a query email and awaiting your response. More likely than not, you’ll lose the sale.
Give them a reason to come back. Just because someone leaves your site without buying doesn’t mean they won’t be back. Collect email addresses with a newsletter sign-up on your webpage. Promise it’ll be a good read and deliver. Once you have their email address, follow through at least once a month with a newsletter that is sharp, witty, informational, and full of your art.
Want more marketing tips? Check out Artspan’s December 2008 newsletter for more marketing ideas from us and Artspan members.

Featured Artist: Thomas Bell, Sonic and Visual Artist

artspanstaff — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:29:00 +0000

Thomas Bell Art
Thomas is a self-trained visual artist and works mostly in the abstract with an emphasis on the process of the work itself. Working mostly in the acrylic medium, Thomas’ paintings have grown to include collage elements (paper, metal, wood, cloth, found objects) and print and image transfers. Many works are texture based and built-up and deconstructed over time.

(“Project Haywire,” Double life-size mannequin sculpture commissioned in July 2007 collaboration with Jennifer Harris)

Finding Your Niche Online

artspanstaff — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:22:00 +0000

So, your website is ready to go and you’re just itching for buyers, but where are they? First, find your niche online, then, effectively focus your time and efforts on those who are most likely to buy your art. Today’s and Wednesday’s posts will show you how to find your niche online and then effectively market to the people in it.

Finding Your Niche Online

Associations. If you haven’t already, join at least one art association in your medium. Associations usually have online forums and will send you emails chalked full of links and info about collectors, artists, galleries, resources, and organizations in your art community, most of which will be accessible electronically and will save you tons of time. The Artspan portals list hundreds of art associations. Check out Painting, Photography, Ceramics, or any of the 30+ art portals.
Forums. Next, join forums specific to your art at Artspan and WetCanvas and anywhere else with a strong community. Do an online search to find these. Then, join forum conversations populated with thoughtful and interesting threads. Stay away from the vitriolic, rambling, or off-topic. Read posts, visit website links, and check out blogs, leaving comments wherever you can. In turn, talk up your art and post your website link in the forum and website comment sections.
Social Networking. Join general social networking sites (Facebook, Myspace, Bebo) and vertical (niche-specific) social networks (Ning). List your website URL on your profile and post your website to ‘share a link’. Some Facebook groups, like Black and White Photography have over 40,000 members, all potential readers of your website. All you have to do is leave some comments and post your URL. (Extra tip: if you have a niche so specific that you can’t find it online, try starting your own social networking site at ning.com.)
Social Bookmarking. Social bookmarking sites like del.icio.us and digg allow you to bookmark pages you find relevant and see what other sites are getting buzz. Find the people bookmarking the same pages as you and strike up a conversation by sending a ‘thank you’ for an interesting lead.

Challenging the Challenging Economy

artspanstaff — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 09:00:00 +0000

The Artspan Blog’s 6-week hiatus is coming to an end. We will be back and better than ever starting next Monday, December 1.

In light of the current economic crisis, Artspan’s director and I put our heads together. We decided to revamp the blog in order to give you consistent, step-by-step advice on weathering the current financial storm. Upcoming posts topics include Writing Good Web Copy, Pricing Your Art Wisely, and Finding Your Buyers Online.

In a time of rampant belt tightening and nail biting, we feel it is our duty to stand by artists and offer them real, actionable advice. We plan to meet the challenging economy by challenging ourselves to do so.

We invite you to visit us often and add our RSS feed to your reader.

Thank you,
Nina Alvarez

Past posts are still available online at Philthy Art.

How to Best Photograph Your Art

artspanstaff — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 17:33:00 +0000

A poorly executed shot of your art can really work against you making a sale online. We’ve noticed that some members’ art photos have glare, have distorted dimensions or other major flaws. This kind of thing really detracts from the visitor’s experience of the artwork.

The good news is that it’s not hard to shoot art well if you follow 7 easy steps:

Hang the painting on a vertical surface (wall). Best is gray or off-white background.
Put two photofloods at a 45-degree angle from the work so the light falling on the work is evenly dispersed and does not reflect directly back from the surface.
If the artwork continues to show glare, use polarizing filters in front of the photofloods (you may be able order these and the photofloods from your local camera store or online). Also, if there is glare, use a polarizing filter on your lens.
Most of you will use digital cameras. If you use film, best is Ektachrome 64T.
Put the camera on a tripod. Position the camera so that it is parallel to the surface of the artwork. If you don’t do this, you will see that the rectangle shape of the artwork is distorted. For example, the top of the work might appear narrower than the bottom. Also, center the artwork in the lens.
Use a zoom lens…that cuts down on distortion. You will need to stand back a bit.
Use a longer exposure to get more color saturation.

Shoot several times at different exposures. That will make it far more likely you get something that is usable.

*Photos taken by Rick Wright of art by Amber Lauletta.

Slideshow Option Added to Sites

artspanstaff — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 18:32:00 +0000

We have added a slideshow option for the Artspan templated member sites.

Here’s how to use it:

log in to their main admin page,
then click on “Art Work” button
then click on My Galleries (upper right hand corner)
and then choose a Gallery (or add a new Gallery)
when opening (“Edit”) the gallery page, you will see “Display Artwork as a Slideshow” in the upper left hand corner
click on the check box to choose that option and then click the ‘Add to Gallery’ checkbox below each image.

Members choose from a variety of different effects and speeds. It is VERY simple to use, so we suggest having some fun with it. It can illustrate different works, or your studio or your methodology.

Here for example is the link to a jeweler Jessica V. Burnett who shows us her process for making gold jewelry using a gorgeous “process” slideshow:

An Intro…if you’re lost

artspanstaff — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 22:09:00 +0000

Welcome to the new Artspan blog. Here we collectively will post relevant articles and information for members and non-members alike.

Artspan is for artists and collectors. Everyone is welcome to visit our site and ask any questions they’d like. It would be no exaggeration to say that we have accumulated a real bank of info regarding artists websites since 1999. We were the first provider of artists template websites. And we are ranked #1 for “Artists Websites” on google.

Thank you for your visit,
**Mar**

please bookmark us and visit Artspan.com

*painting by Sandra Flood, an Artspan member