Why Blog?

Its not just about SEO

Many "tip" sites will insist that blogging is important for SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and whilst this is mostly true, there is a more important aspect. I believe that the ongoing conversation that you are having with your audience is vital to your success. This enables you to widen your audience and help people understand the source of your inspiration and also the path that you have taken and where you are moving towards. As you document overtime, it enables people to see your origins at whatever point they find your work. This enables people to understand and get taken deeper into your work.

Personally I love the immediacy of contact and feedback. You are not waiting for your first exhibition or for a gallery to pick you up, to start engaging with you and your work.

Where you are a more established artist, it enables you to publicise and feature new works.

Wordpress verses Squarespace

Build from Scratch or Create from Template

In the world of Wordpress you are expected to build your site from scratch, add plugins and keep the site updated and secure. For the more technical amongst us that maybe an acceptable path, but for the less technical, using a pre-created themed template as a start, allows most to create a professional site. This is the next step from Facebook pages, as it gives the owner of the site a little bit more control.

Templates

As you develop your site, you will want to revisit your theme, but the beauty of templated sites is their ability to change without losing your content. This re-style should be attempted regularly as you will find your online voice as well as your art evolving.

You will find that styles of site and fashions change fast and following conventions will allow you to ensure your content is easy to find. I am using Blogger to host the two sites, one to sell my art on and one to provide these tech tips. I have already adjusted the templates with the site and will be changing these frequently. Especially as the audience and content inevitably evolve. The power of a templated site is that I will not lose my old content and it will follow as the changes occur. It is important not to remove content where possible as search engines will hold references to past pages.

Finally it is important to remember that although your site will change overtime, your content will be accessed for the first time regularly overtime, people will join your journey, artistically, at any time. You should always allow them to access your past to see your present and join you in your future.

A business card that really shows your art

Sharing your art in miniature

moo.com have an interesting way to print off your business card, allowing you to have a different background on each card. They are aimed at artists and photographers, to enable you to display a variety of your art, craft or images. This seems to be a much better version than the boring vistaprint business card and also a good way of showing of your range of art.

Eventbrite for Gallery Exhibitions

Ticketing for events

Eventbrite is a ticketing system, which is free if you do not charge for your event and will take a percentage if you sell tickets. It is a convenient way to mange numbers at your event and will enable you to capture information from your visitors and request feedback once your event is over. As most venues have a finite number for capacity, it is worth using the facility to manage the numbers of your hopefully super successful event.

Exhibition Launch Parties

Parties for exhibition launches can be a particularly stressful time with little prior knowledge of interest and numbers to cater for. By using eventbrites ticketing you can get a sense for the numbers attending and also capture information that you as a gallery and your artist will find useful.

Using Facebook

Launching Your Art On Facebook

Most people will have had experiences with Facebook, but it is becoming an important platform on which you can directly sell and publicise art. The facility to have Facebook pages enables a more static location for publicity and they are now enabling you to sell from within Facebook. You should use this service as although this is not an altruistic service, they are hoping you will buy advertising, it is a start to host information about you and your work.

You can set up a page, and I would use a different account to your own personal account. You can obviously link to the pages, but it prevents your latest holiday exploits from contaminating the feed. In the background numerous statistics are available and you should exploit this information to see where your visitors are coming from. This will enable you to adapt your language and focus, depending on the audience.

Continuing the conversation

As your reputation builds and you start making sales, use Facebook as a way to get in touch with your current and potential customers and invite them to virtual and physical exhibitions.

Buying Artists Materials - Support your local art shop

Introduction

Whilst the Internet is a cheaper location to buy art materials, your local art shop should always be your first port of call. In Stroud we have two art shops and the advice they provide is invaluable. You will also find other artists shopping there. Most shop owners also offer courses and with exhibition space, they even provide a place to sell your art.

Making the most of the Shop

The shop will provide details about the products they are selling and are often staffed by fellow artists. You will be able to compare products and you can try out products and see which suit. Something that you cannot do on the Internet.
Personally I have been able to test products by buying one of each of a product to compare their qualties and this has been invaluable in finding the right combination. It is amazing how much even coloured pencils differ between companies.

Finding Suppliers

If you are unfortunate enough to not have a local art shop, then it is worth talking to other artists who use similar techniques to you and find out their suppliers. Online forums can also be a source of this kind of information. Watch out for sites in other countries as you may have to pay import duty on top of the delivered prices. In the UK, sites delivering from the USA will attract import duty on top of the delivered price.

Watch out for products sold on auction sites as they maybe fake or of poor quality. Take notice of seller reviews and also send questions before making a purchase as this will gauge the seller.

Clubbing Together

Multiple artists working in the same media are also good candidates for ordering in bulk through a local shop or from a wholesaler if there is no shop. Artists groups should also be thinking about bulk savings.

Final Tips

Art shouldn't be a lonely pursuit, shops provide a good place to see other artists work, learn and experiment.

Wife Challenge!!

I have been invited to blog on this site by my husband and so am challenging him to something!


I feel that his drawings of trees in ink are really improving but he is still drawing them pretty small. I challenge him to use a large piece of drawing paper and draw a detailed tree. I think he would be really great and it would be worth framing.


Challenge started - 11th September 2016......