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Avoid outdated event listings and empty blogs by making it a habit to review and archive older entries if they’re no longer relevant.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.
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by Rebecca Sciullo | Aug 10, 2020 | Artist Websites, Blogging
Make a lemon drop martini!
Seriously, we’ve all had a bunch of lemons dropped into our laps, haven’t we?
The important thing, though, is what you are making with those lemons.
Many artists are feeling the pain of canceled exhibitions, festivals and other opportunities due to Covid-19. One disappointment for me was the cancellation of the annual studio tour that my father participates in every year. It is always his best selling weekend of the year. While he moves a decent amount of work online, the studio tour is where the larger pieces sell. Missing this opportunity makes a significant impact on his business.
Here’s What We Are Doing
With the absence of the Studio Tour, we’ve made adjustments and improvements to his website and added a few other features to his marketing mix. I couldn’t allow the annual event to go by without doing something and came up with the following ideas:
Created a “Virtual Tour” page on his website, inviting people to view some specialized galleries that we organized – one which included new and featured work and one with a collection of art offered at a special “virtual tour” discount through August.
Made his first “artist talk” video. Using video has been daunting to me, but with the help of a tech-savvy nephew, we pulled it off. I think our first attempt was pretty good, and we plan on making more.
Sent a personalized direct mail piece to a targeted audience of people we identified who could be in the market for original artwork. It’s a trade secret…but if you hire me or take one of my upcoming courses, I’ll share how I found them.
Outcomes and takeaways
Thanks to his blog, mailing list, and client base, sales have been decent during the pandemic. The Virtual Tour recently launched, so I’ll have to report back on how the sales went. At the very least, it has forced me to get creative about putting new content out on his blog, and we made it over the video hurdle.
It’s a Process
Remember, if you’re looking to start something new in your business, it’s a process. Don’t get discouraged. Just keep moving forward little bit every day, and eventually, you will see results.
Would you like to share a story of how you’re making lemons out of lemonade? Please share with becky@artisan-advantage.com.
Photo by Myfanwy Owen on Unsplash
by Rebecca Sciullo | Jun 15, 2020 | Artist Websites, Blogging
Did the pandemic catch you off guard? It sure got me! I think it did most of us in many areas of life. In business, some were prepared better than others to weather the storm. While most of my business is online, I was still not adequately prepared to pivot everything to an online model.
Art Sales During a Pandemic? Yes!
For my artist father’s business, however, we were prepared. He enjoyed consistent sales during the pandemic and he sold several pieces of original art while people were under stay at home orders. Many people were redecorating and shopping online while stuck at home – artists who were in a position to get in front of people online benefited from this trend. As you may have read in my prior posts, the crux of his marketing efforts stems from his blogging system. Thankfully, this system did its job during this time.
Get Serious about Putting Your Art Business Online
If you’re serious about selling your work, you should have a heightened sense of urgency to beef up your online presence. Being “online” is not a silver bullet for success. You still have to do the work.
My recommendation is to set up your artist blog to be the focal point of your marketing efforts.
In addition to setting up your artist blog, here are three other immediate actions that you can take to beef up your web presence.
Make Sure Your Website is Up To Date
What do people find if they look for you online? Will they find up to date information or a neglected website with blog posts dating back to 2012? If you currently have a website, then make sure that all of your information is up to date, including the best way to contact you and pricing.
Start an Email Newsletter.
Get in the habit of sending an email newsletter at least once a month to your fans and followers.
Get Active on Social Media.
Promote the same message and theme as your blog with the ultimate goal of driving people back to your site. Start with one channel and stick with it.
This post isn’t to make you feel bad, because it’s never too late to start! It’s a reminder and encouragement not to put off working on your online presence any longer. Artists can no longer afford to ignore this area of their business.
For more information on blogging for your artist business and other marketing ideas, please subscribe to my newsletter. For help with your artist blog, read more about my Artist Blogging Services.
Photo by Ben White on Unsplash
by Rebecca Sciullo | Apr 8, 2020 | Artist Blogging 101, Artist Websites, Learning
As you can see from prior posts, Artisan Advantage focuses primarily on blogging for an art business. The recent post, Choosing a Platform for your Artist Blog, talks about the different services that you can use for setting up a blog.
With all of this information about blogging, I want to make sure that one thing is clear.
Your Blog Should Be a Part of Your Website.
That is, while you can have a site that consists only of blog posts, it makes more sense to have a robust website that includes a blog.
There are some basic pages that every site should include.
Christina Hills is offering this free checklist as she ramps up for her Website Creation Workshop Course. This guide provides information for anyone looking to build a website for a business
Whether you currently have a website or are looking to create a new one to house your blog, this checklist provides some great information that can help you make sure you have everything you need to make your site the best it can be.
In it, you will discover exactly which web pages you need to include if you want to attract customers.
Christina also shares her advice on which pages you can wait until later to create because she knows one of the biggest hurdles is getting overwhelmed by having too much to do!
My favorite resources are actionable, quick to implement and produce immediate results. This guide is one of them.
Don’t waste your valuable downtime over the next couple of weeks on Netflix and YouTube. Spend this time renewing a resource that will contribute to your long term growth!
Check it out:
CLICK HERE for your free Website Creation Checklist
Disclosure: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase an item from Christina Hills I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers.
by Rebecca Sciullo | Mar 28, 2020 | Artist Websites, Learning, Resources
Recently I posted about staying on track during the “shut down” disruption. One thing mentioned was taking advantage of this downtime to focus on a project for your art business. One necessary but often dreaded task you might consider is working on your artwork inventory.
Putting together a comprehensive inventory is something that every artist needs to do. It’s one of those tasks, though, that can get put on the back burner. It’s probably not the most thrilling part of your art business.
If you are looking for something to occupy time when you aren’t creating, now is a perfect time to take an inventory of your work.
Inventory Solutions: Here are my Top Two Ways to Inventory Your Artwork
Artwork Archive is my-go to resource for maintaining an artist’s inventory. We use it for my father’s work. I love Artwork Archive for the following reasons:
1 – It’s intuitive and easy to use. I don’t think I’ve ever had to consult a tutorial or help desk once when using this system.
2 – It is much more than just an inventory tool. It also allows you to track your sales and contacts, showcase your artwork online, and store and share high-resolution images. You can also access your work anywhere from any device.
Artwork Archive costs $6 to $19 a month, depending upon the level you choose. They offer a free thirty-day trial. I recommend giving it a try.
Below is a screenshot of a piece of art that I’ve added to Artwork Archive. This gives you an idea of some of the detail that this system can capture about a piece of your work.
Spreadsheet It
If you want a free and straightforward solution to maintain a basic inventory of your artwork, use a simple spreadsheet such as Google Drive or Airtable, both of which are free. With this method, list each piece with a column for each bit of detail about the work. Columns can include details such as name, size, medium, price, location, status, and a link to the image. Depending upon your work, there are other pieces of information that you may choose to collect.
Be proactive and inventory your artwork!
You’ll be thanking yourself later for storing all of your collection details and financial records in one easily accessible place.
If you decided to test out Artwork Archive’s trial, and you have any other questions on using it, shoot me an email at becky@artisan-advantage.com and I’ll try to help you.
Disclosure: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers.
by Becky Sciullo | Feb 20, 2020 | Artist Websites, Blogging, Learning
If you have a website or blog for your visual art business, the great news is that anyone in the world can find your work and contact you to purchase it. The bad news is that you open yourself up to online scammers, who like to target artists. Back in February 2018, I posted on how to avoid getting scammed when selling artwork online. Since that time, we continue to receive these types of emails.
The reality of placing your artwork for sale online is that you will attract these characters. You need to know how to identify them to avoid getting scammed.
Even though I can always spot a fake, I typically respond to them. I like to see the response that I receive.
I’ve noticed that the people sending these emails are getting a little smarter, attempting to sound a bit more credible and are more persistent. So, I thought it was time for a friendly reminder to vet email requests to purchase your art carefully. Please read Can You Spot a Fake Buyer? if you haven’t already done so.
Below is the latest one that we received. Notice these “guys” are always looking for an anniversary gift. Also, they often don’t have a specific piece in mind, which is highly unusual compared to the legitimate requests that we receive.
In this case, I politely responded with a link to the full gallery and asked which specific piece would interest him. Below is his response.
It’s funny how his budget has increased suddenly to $3,000.
These “guys” are always moving and ask us to work with a “personal shipping agent”. They also never seem to have their own credit cards.
These scams may take other iterations, but this is the basic pattern that we see.
The good news is, yes, we do get legitimate requests to purchase artwork via email. You will too if you are diligent about building your web presence! You just need to make sure you are carefully vetting your buyers.
Here are our rules for transacting in cases where we do not have a prior relationship with the buyer.
- Insist on only accepting credit card payment via Paypal or Square.
- Insist that we ship the piece via one of our preferred methods.
I kindly explained this to Daniel in my response to him, so I have a feeling that will be the last I hear of him. He will move on to his next target, and I don’t want it to be you!
For more tips related to blogging for your visual art business and selling art online, please subscribe to my newsletter here.
