by Rebecca Sciullo | Oct 12, 2020 | Artist Websites, Your Hub
What happens when you neglect your artist website?
Working with artists, I’ve visited countless artist websites—and too often, I come across sites that have turned into digital ghost towns. These are active websites with no sign that the artist is still actively working. The telltale signs? The same artwork displayed for over a year, the most recent blog post dating back several years, or an event calendar showing openings that have long passed.
I get why this happens.
Juggling studio time, art creation, and website upkeep can feel overwhelming. Technical issues, updates, and content creation take time, often getting pushed aside in favor of more immediate tasks. But if you want your website to truly represent your practice, it’s crucial not to let it become an afterthought
How to Prevent Your Artist Website from Becoming a Ghost Town
1 – Set a Schedule to Update Regularly
Reserve time each month to review and refresh your site. Even small updates—like uploading a new piece or updating your contact information—keep things looking fresh.
2 – Post Regularly, Even if It’s Brief.
Platforms like Squarespace and WordPress offer simple blogging options, perfect for sharing recent work or news. Consider setting a goal to post at least once every few weeks to share updates, even if it’s just a quick note on what you’re currently working on.
3 – Keep an Eye on Your Events Calendar and Blog.
Avoid outdated event listings and empty blogs by making it a habit to review and archive older entries if they’re no longer relevant. This keeps your site looking current without needing constant additions.
How to Bring Your Artist Website Back to Life
If your website has turned into a ghost town but you’re still active as an artist, here’s how to revive it:
1 – Start with Small Updates
Begin by refreshing your homepage with recent work and a current bio. Adding new artwork and updating your contact details go a long way.
2 – Reactivate your Blog
If you’ve neglected blogging, don’t stress about the gap. Pick it up again and publish new posts, aiming to build up a collection of 10-15 fresh entries before widely promoting the site.
3 – Revamp your Gallery
Refresh your portfolio with your latest work, remove old or irrelevant pieces, and create a streamlined, professional look.
Why Keeping Your Artist Website Current Is Worth It
A current, well-maintained website is one of your most powerful tools for sharing your art. Not only does it allow viewers to see you’re active and dedicated, but it also gives you more control over how your work is presented. Keeping it up to date can make a big difference in creating opportunities and connecting with people who appreciate what you do.
For more tips on things related to marketing and selling your art, join my newsletter here.
by Rebecca Sciullo | Sep 21, 2020 | Channels, Learning
A Must-Read if You’re Participating in a Virtual Marketplace With Your Art
I just wrapped up a Zoom meeting regarding a virtual marketplace that my father, artist Robert Yonke, will participate in this fall. I’ve seen many social media posts and information about similar opportunities recently. As I’m sure you are, we are always thankful to have new opportunities such as these.
This upcoming event gives him the ability to sell work and provide information about his practice. Because of the event’s marketing and publicity plan, we expect it to get many visitors. Whether or not the visitors purchase work from him is another story, but I’m not focusing on that.
Of Course, I Want to Sell Art!
Don’t get me wrong. I want to make sales and do my best to present work that I think will appeal to the audience the marketplace attracts. My bigger goal is to find new fans and followers for his work. I know that a first-time browser may not buy, but if we can develop a relationship with them, they probably will over time.
Using Virtual Marketplaces to Sell Your Artwork
The Virtual Marketplace is a great way to sell your work and find new customers. Particularly during this time when many live events are postponed or canceled. If you are participating in a similar event, prepare to sell, but also be ready to connect with marketplace visitors. A blog-based website allows you to capitalize on your Virtual Marketplace.
Make sure you have a link back to your website so that you can connect with them. Encourage them to join a mailing list or contact you via email. Ask them to say hello and give feedback on your work. Work to make that initial connection.
The Virtual Artist Marketplace as part of Your Art Marketing System.
I like the analogy of a wheel for your art marketing system, using a blog as the hub of that system. The virtual marketplace is a channel in that wheel.
Here’s how this wheel looks in action.
A blog post devoted to the virtual event is published, encouraging readers to visit the marketplace, This hopefully results in sales from current collectors and fans. The marketplace will also have links back to his blog-based website and a post about learning more about him. This information will allow new contacts that find him on the marketplace to discover more about him at his blog. It’s pretty simple, but for this to happen, there has to be a system in place. We have to have the blog based website, and we have to make sure that we give ample opportunity for people to visit it with links back to it on the marketplace.
Would you Like Help Preparing for Your Virtual Artist Marketplace?
Do you need an artist blog? Get my free guide to setting up an artist blog here.
For even more help, visit my Artist Blogging Services or Artist Blogging Courses.
If you subscribe to my newsletter, I’ll send a follow-up message to a link with my father’s profile when it’s ready, so you can see what we did. You can join the list here.
Photo by rupixen.com on Unsplash
by Rebecca Sciullo | Sep 18, 2020 | Artist Blogging 101, Learning
Dilemma One: Who is My Target Audience?
Your artist blog should offer content that interests an audience that you can grow a relationship with over time. Because of this relationship, they will take action, such as enroll in a workshop or purchase your work.
When I present my Blogging for an Art Business program, a concern I hear from artists is that they aren’t sure of their audience. Who are they, and how to connect with them? Who are the people that will be interested in the artist’s work?
Have you identified a target audience for your artist blog? Who will benefit and be most interested in following you? In other words, who is the target market that you wish to attract with your blog? Before you start posting on your artist blog, you need to understand who your blog will be serving. Understanding who that audience is will help you to create content that keeps them visiting your site.
Why Can’t Your Artist Blog be for “Everyone”
First of all, if your goal is to sell something – such as a piece of art, a piece of jewelry, a commission, or a workshop – you have to accept a universal law of sales – if you are selling to everyone, you are selling to no one. If you are trying to target “everyone” with your content, you will likely interest no one. You need to understand who will be interested in your work and your message, and then fine-tune your site and message accordingly.
Once you have done this, it is much easier to determine which marketing channels you can use to best find and connect with them.
How to Identify Your Audience
Here are a few strategies to figure out your target audience.
Look at Your Existing Customers
If you’ve are already successful at selling work, one of the best ways to do this is to analyze who has purchased work from you in the past. Write a description of your typical client.
Do they come from a specific geographic area?
Do they have any common interests?
Who are the people that attracted to your work?
Are there topics and questions that they like to discuss with you?
The answers to these questions will give you insight into who your audience is and what kind of content they will want to hear from you. Once you’ve analyzed this group, take some time, and see if you can expand on the group. Are there any common denominators that will help you to grow the audience.
Identify a New Audience for Your Artwork
If you are new to selling your work, you may have to work a little harder to come up with your audience. There will likely be some trial and error involved in this process. Take time to develop one or more buyer personas. Hubspot offers a succinct explanation of buyer persona here.
If you haven’t started selling or found an audience, can you put yourself in someone else’s shoes? What would you want to know about your work? What would you like to hear about your work? Who do you think will be interested in this work? A buyer persona is simply working to build a profile of a potential customer, identifying the same qualities, and you would if they were an existing customer.
Does your subject matter appeal to an audience with a specific interest? I’ve explained in prior posts about how I started working with my father, artist Robert Yonke. In his case, the subject matter was an important detail that led us to a niche. Repeat this process to find an audience within any interest group.
Could an audience connect with the emotion behind your work?
If creating functional art, is there an audience that could utilize your work?
Figuring out your target audience is going to take some time to brainstorm. Then, there may be some trial and error involved as you work through this process. Stick with it, though, and you will eventually identify an audience that could have an interest in your work.
Should I wait until I’ve figured out my target audience to start blogging?
While it’s good to start thinking about this and have some idea about who you want to target, it’s unnecessary to have this in mind to build your blog based website. The first thing to do is tell your story and show your work, and you can do that with or without a target audience. You can start blogging before you’ve identified your target audience. Writing about your work may even help in the process of identifying them.
What’s Next?
Once you have identified that audience, your next step will be to figure out how to reach them. Stay tuned for the future post, Dilemma 2: How to Reach My Target Audience.
Would you like to be notified of future posts, events, and more? Please join my Create! Sell! Newsletter.
:Photo by Jonas Jacobsson on Unsplash
by Rebecca Sciullo | Sep 14, 2020 | Events, Learning
I want to thank the McMurray Art League for inviting me to present Building a Dynamic Web Presence during their member meeting via Zoom last week.
We discussed how visual artists can use blogging to strategically and systematically promote their work.
While I’d rather meet artists in person, I’m thankful that technology provides a way for these programs to continue.
Interested in having me present to your group? Please contact me at becky@artisan-advantage.com.
by Rebecca Sciullo | Sep 12, 2020 | Artist Blogging 101, Learning
When setting up an art marketing system using blogging, there are undeniably some technical components that you must include.
Did you know they are some less tangible but equally important elements that are critical to your success? I like to boil them down to three key ingredients you should strive to include in your blogging efforts.
Three Important Ingredients for Your Artist Blog
These three things impact how useful your artist blog will be in marketing your business.
Show up.
With a traditional artist website or even artist blogs, the prevailing thought is that all you have to do is create it, and it will bring you business. Many artists build websites with the expectation that people will either find you by you giving them the link in some form of marketing or through an internet search. The reality is that you need to offer people a compelling reason to visit your site, whether it is a traditional site or a blog. Now, a blog is going to entice them, even more, to view your work as the content is likely more exciting and dynamic. However, this is not all that you need. You need to show up with your blog in the places where your audience hangs out.
When I worked with my artist father, Robert Yonke, to develop inroads in the bluegrass music industry, I went out and found an interested audience and presented him to them. I didn’t wait for them to discover him. Showing up means you find and present yourself to an audience, rather than waiting for them to find you.
Make a connection.
The best way to connect with an audience is to find common ground. Strive to build relationships with people that have an interest in some level with your work. It could be that you’ve met them at a prior event. You may share a mutual hobby. They may be interested in learning more about something that you are doing.
Work to find an audience that naturally connects with your work. Use stories, thoughts, and images to grow the connection. Artist Cory Bonnet instantly makes a connection with people who have a love for his hometown of Pittsburgh, as he weaves his knowledge and love of the town’s heritage into his work.
Once you identify your connection with your audience, make sure that it shows up in your blogging.
Be authentic.
Your work is authentic to you because you have created it. Write and present yourself in an accurate manner on your blog. Post content that is true to your work and your vision. Write in an authentic voice. Rather than worrying about writing a literary masterpiece, write as if you have a one on one conversation with your reader. Your audience can sense whether you are authentic or not.
Read Mara Carlini’s Mara’s Mandalas Blog, and you instantly understand that each piece is unique and authentic.
Make sure that your blog has all three ingredients to give yourself the best chance of moving your business forward.
Would you like to create a dynamic blog for your art business in thirty days? Join my new program, 30 Days to a Dynamic Web Presence, starting October 1, 2020. We go into all three of these elements with specific actions that you can take to make sure your blog has them!
Photo by Calum Lewis on Unsplash
