How to Promote Your Artwork On-Line
Web Page Basics - A list of do's and don't.
- DO make sure your site is compatible with most of the browsers out
there today. Make sure Netscape and Internet Explorer users, down to at
least 3.0, can see your stuff.
- DO organize your site into separate categories. Have a list of navigation
links on EVERY page. DO NOTcram all your paintings onto one loooong page.
People will not wait for it to download. Separate your images into appropriate
categories. Place all your awards on one page, your links and banners
on another, your bio on another, your web rings on another, etc.
- DO tell your visitors who you are, what you are about, what your
page is about and what you want. Be clear, concise and to the point. Spell
check everything. Have friends and family test it out and look it over
for broken images or misspellings. Ask them if they felt anything was
confusing to them. Just because you know what you mean, doesn't mean everyone
else does. Finally, run your pages through the great free services at
http://www.websitegarage.com/!
Promotion Basics - The simple things.
- Add META TAGS and a TITLE to your html. Meta tags aid search engines
in finding your site. Here is what my meta tags look like:
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Becky's Wildlife and Fantasy Art</TITLE>
<META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="fantasy, wildlife, fantasy
art, wildlife art, fantasy artwork, wildlife artwork, fantasy and wildlife
art, pictures, furry, anthropomorphic, anthro, furry art, anthro art,
furry artwork, animal, animals, animal art, nature, art, artwork, pets,
cats, cat, big cats, kitty, kitties, kittens, felines, Bast, dogs, dog,
puppy, puppies, canines, birds, bird, bird of prey, avians, avian, owls,
owl, foxes, fox, wolves, wolf, myth, myths, mythology, dragons, dragon,
unicorns, unicorn, fairy, faery, faeries, elf, elves, monster, monsters,
roleplaying, roleplay, paintings, illustrations, graphics, graphic design,
web page, Cthulhu, Mythos, horror, HP Lovecraft, gothic, goth, rebecca,
Rebecca, Kemp, kemp, Gallant, gallant, Becky, becky">
<META NAME="description" CONTENT="Wildlife, fantasy
and furry art by Rebecca Kemp. Done in acrylics, watercolor, colored pencils
or graphite pencils. I offer limited edition prints, t-shirts, cards, t-shirt transfers and gift certificates. Web page design and
custom graphics.">
<META NAME="Author" CONTENT="Rebecca Kemp">
</HEAD>
Note that they are placed between the <HEAD></HEAD> tags,
which is before the <BODY></BODY> tags. Have at least 25 keywords
and start with the most important ones in the beginning. Also note that
I do not have any comments of any other extra meta tags, such as <!DOCTYPE
HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN"> and <META NAME="GENERATOR"
CONTENT="Mozilla/3.04Gold (Win95; I) [Netscape]">. I remove
them when I think of it because they're basically just clutter that the
search engines don't really need. All they are doing is announcing what
version of HTML you're using and what editor you used to make the page.
- Add yourself to the following Search Engines BY HAND once you have
added your Meta Tags: Lycos, Yahoo, InfoSeek, Alta Vista, Excite, WebCrawler,
GO Network AOL and HotBot. There are countless numbers of other search
engines out there, but these are the ones that matter. Yahoo especially.
It may take several attempts to get listed with Yahoo. Here's a hint:
Try adding yourself to the Regional section. They're more apt to give
you a listing. Give each search engine at least two weeks to have your
site listed. If it's not listed by then, add yourself again.
Finally, if you're pressed for time, you can use the automatic URL submission
service I provide at the bottom of this page. I still am a fan of adding
my URL to each major search engine by hand, though.
- Trade links with other artists and galleries. Do this a lot. Do this
all the time. Ask them nicely and compliment their work, but be clear
that you want them to link you as well.
I found a great Links Database program at http://www.gossamer-threads.com.
(I gotta warn you though, it was Hell installing it and ended up paying
someone $25.00 to do it for me. Otherwise, it's free and well worth it.)
- I don't recommend those free banner exchanges, like Link Exchange.
You get very MINIMAL traffic and the banners can be annoying and/or distracting
to your visitors.
I do, however, recommend exchanging banners as links with other sites
that have the same theme as your own site. This can generate more traffic
than those free generic exchanges. I created my own Wildlife and Fantasy
Banner Exchange at http://www.wildlife-fantasy.com/bp/
The Good Stuff! - Tricks of the trade.
- E-mail. Create a signature file with your URL and a short description
of your site. Some people create little pieces of ASCII art to go with it.
This is your internet business card.
- Newsgroups. Find topics relating to your works or interests via a search
at Deja News - http://www.dejanews.com. Then, go to these Newsgroups and read
some of the conversations that are going on. If you feel you could contribute
to a conversation, introduce yourself. Your signature file at the end of your
e-mail posting will be enough to get traffic to your site without seeming
like you're pushy. It's rude to simply butt into a newsgroup and say "Look
at my site!". It's like interrupting a conversation. The one place where
you're allowed to say "I have artwork for sale" is at alt.art.marketplace.
- DON'T SPAM! Newsgroups or e-mail - ever! It's not worth it. Your reputation
will be ruined and you can't afford that. You will receive hate mail and e-mail
bombs that could erase your hard drive and cause everyone on your server to
lose their e-mails! Ultimately, the servers would have to add more connections
to deal with all the spam and pass the cost on to all of us.
Here is a better way: Newsletters.
- Start your own free newsletter by having a SIMPLE sign up form on your
site. Explain what they'll get if they sign up. I say they get to see my latest
works, discounts on my stuff, and announcements of upcoming works. Mention
your newsletter in appropriate newsgroups. Encourage people to join if they
want to know what's new. I have about 1000 people who are part of my newsletter.
It took about 9 months of promotion to do it. However, now I have a VOLUNTEER
CAPTIVE AUDIENCE in which I can "spam" to. These people WANT to
know what I have to say cause they asked me for it, therefore they are not
offended with my art promotions and sales.
- Get a referral program started. I got a great free one from BigNoseBird.com
at http://www.bignosebird.com/. This simple cgi program allows a visitor to
recommend your site or page to several friends via e-mail. Nothing brings
in traffic than a good referral.
- Start a contest. People LOVE free stuff! Raffle a print or a service.
Set up a simple form and post the rules and the deadline. Add if they want
to join your free newsletter while they're at it. Offer everyone who wasn't
the winner a discount on something in your gallery. That way, everyone's a
winner. Add your contest to http://www.onlinesweeps.com. Watch your traffic
skyrocket!
- Check out Virtual Promote at http://virtualpromote.com/! I found lots
of great tip, tools and tutorials there on web site promotion.
Down the road. - When you have some cash.
- Get credit card capabilities and accept them on-line. I got mine from
Total Merchant Services at http://www.merchantacct.com/. They were good because
their bank readily accepts on-line business as legitimate, whereas most traditional
banks do not - yet. I'm not totally thrilled with the software they provided,
but after a lot of searching around, I found that they're pretty good compared
to what's out there.
You'll pay at least $35.00 a month for the credit card service plus you can
lease the software for $40.00 a month or opt to buy it outright for about
$1000.00. I know you're going "Ouch!" right now, but nothing beats
immediate gratification if you're an impatient surfer. Otherwise, they'll
have to pay by check or money order. Which means, print out the order form,
fill it out, get off line, write the check and mail the order. Too many steps
there in which one can become lazy and forget all about it. With on-line credit
card capabilities, you fill out a form and press a button and that's it. Not
only that, but paintings can be expensive. People tend to charge things over
$500.00 or more.
- Place some paid advertisements in traditional magazines and newspapers.
Choose a magazine that is into your genre. I place ads in fantasy and wildlife
magazines because that's what I paint. Cost for advertisements can range from
a $12.00 classified to thousands of dollars for a one or two page ad.
- Find a web site that is related to your artwork and gets LOTS of traffic.
Ask them if they would accept your banner on their main page if you paid them
a monthly fee. I got one site to do this for me by just giving them a print!
I get tons of traffic this way.
- Use a great on-line promotion company called The Internet Marketing Center
at http://www.marketingtips.com/t.cgi/3451/. I recommend the site highly!
Lots of great tips and tricks!
- PROTECT YOUR IMAGES FROM COPYRIGHT VIOLATORS! Go to http://www.gamacles.com
and buy their Image Protect software. It produces a java applet of your images
so you can't right click on them to save them. You also can't link to them
and steal bandwidth! A GREAT ARTISTIC ASSET!
- Start your own Affiliate Program! For a $130.00, I got this great program
that allow others to do the selling for me. With a simple banner on their
site they send me visitors. If those visitors buy something, they get 10%
of the sale (you can set your own percentage). When a painting sells for $500.00,
that quite a chunk of change! Most of those people were going to place a link
on their site anyway, so they're more than happy to make some money off of
it, too!
I got my cool Affiliate Program at http://www.groundbreak.com/
- Buy attractive and professional business cards and brochures with your
web site address printed on them.
My last piece of advice is stick with your promotions for a long time. Don't
just give up if one thing doesn't work. Change your strategy and try
again. Surfers see web pages come and go and they don't take someone seriously
unless you've been around for a long time. Stick with it, even through periods
of no sales and low traffic. You must decide now to be in it for the long haul
or you will fail. There is no overnight success and don't let anyone tell you
otherwise. You'll have to work hard and be thick skinned.
Please visit my web site, Becky's Wildlife and Fantasy Art at http://www.wildlife-fantasy.com/
for visual examples of the things I have outlined here. Be sure to check out
my links pages for some great resources! If you have any further questions,
please e-mail me at becky@wildlife-fantasy.com