The Art of Self Promotion for Starving Artists

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.
  
  This is the software I use to send out my newsletter: Mailloop
  This program saves me TONS of time and headaches when e-mailing my newsletter members. It wasn't too cheap, though. At the time I bought it, was about $200.00. However, the time and aggravation it saves me is worth ten times that amount. I highly recommend it! It automatically creates the e-mail list, manages members and sends out the letter just with a few clicks.
  
  
• Get a referral program started. I got a great free one from 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! I found lots of great tip, tools and tutorials there on web site promotion.
  
  
• Check out my sample newsletter page. In it, I have listed over 50 helpful web sites. They are organized into several parts: Web Utilities, HTML Help, Web Site Promotion, Artist Resources, Writers Resources and Freelancer Resources.

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