Do you want people to find your artist website?

More successful artists have been selling their art on the internet. They usually have a website that they direct potential customers to. If you've gone so far as to have a website with your art on it the next step is getting people to find and see it. Those who are successful selling their art that way have learned some of the tricks that direct people to their site. One of the oldest methods is to hand out your business cards, with your website address, to people when your are displaying your art in art shows. Unless you’re handing out hundreds of your business cards in shows you’re not reaching that many people in marketing your website.

I’m presently learning other new methods of marketing my husband’s website rojaxart.com from website marketing professional Mark Rudiger, markrudier.com on how to direct and reach more people and direct them to my husband's website. Having a website is very important for an artist as a place to show their art for sale but knowing how to help people find it is even more important.

I’ve decided to share what I’m learning as a way to help other artists sell their art and, also, direct more people to my husband’s site at the same time at rojaxart.com which is a "print on demand" website connected to fineartamerica.com .

I’ve accepted the fact that my husband will never work on selling his art on the internet. He has never and will never in the future learn to use a computer. He’s one of those kinds of artists, like many older artists, who have never figured out how to sell their art. It’s really a shame as I think his art is really good and it deserves to be seen and has the potential of selling as inexpensive prints on so many different types of products for the general public to enjoy. The average person doesn’t spend a lot on art but might spend a little on art on printed products like poster art, T-shirt art, greeting cards and even on iphone covers.

Just like selling a product on the internet, there are other things that many small and large businesses do to reach a larger audience of buyers. Those of you who already use the internet to search and find a product to buy have learned to just type in a word or two to find sights that might have what you are looking for. That’s why one of the ways is entering a lot of key words on your website that describe your art and help your website to be found. There’s ways to type in as many descriptive words about your art as possible on your website so that when a person types in one of those words in a search your website might be found.

There are many other tricks to market your art and Mark Rudiger is teaching me how to do it, one step at a time. I learned about the possibilities from attending one of his free lectures on marketing on the internet and now I’m signed up to taking his Total Inbound Marketing Program, see markrudiger.com
Right now I’m learning how to use a multi email program called ConvertKit.com and learning how to design Landing pages to put on rojaxart commercial Facebook page to help capture more interested buyers’ email addresses. Learning how to write Blogs is another method of marketing. Since I wasn’t familiar with these marketing methods it has been taking me awhile to learn how to use them all but I am learning how they all interconnect and work together to, in the long run, make it easier to reach a lot more people in directing them to rojaxart.com . I just wrote my first blog and, in a sense, this is what I’m doing right now, writing my second blog.

Mark Rudiger just helped me film my first video which, again, is another powerful way of marketing. I don’t think my first video was that great but I think I learned a lot from doing it and I hopefully will improve with time. I do know that videos can be powerful in attracting people’s attention. I just signed up for an Instagram account. Maybe a lot of you who read this already know about these things and are already using them yourself and see the benefits. I’m determined to learn as much as I can to market my husband’s really cool art to as many people as possible. I feel there are a lot of other artists out there who wish they could sell more of their art so I hope that by me sharing my learning experience they will think that they might be able to learn how to do it, too.

When I first started this learning process it was almost like learning how to read a foreign language. What does the word “hashtag” mean? I’m now learning how important it is and how to use it. Now that I know what it is and does it doesn’t seem that difficult to use it. Once I get over the hangup about writing blogs I think I’m going to start to enjoy this challenge the more I get involved, especially if I start to see results in selling more Rojax art.

I’m, also, getting some interesting advice from some of my readers after sending out my emails and blogs. Recently, I got a response from my last email by a well known international artist Mark Henson. When he’s not traveling around the world exhibiting his art, he resides and has an art studio in Lake County. He was gracious in giving me his take on marketing art. (See below)

Hey Sherry-

I have found that you get lost in the crowd on many of those art marketing sites.

People need to know where to find you. That requires some form of outreach....

I have been marketing my art for about 30 years mostly through fairs and festivals. At these events I let the public know where my stuff can be found on the web markhensonart.com .

I also spend (waste??) a lot of time on Facebook and other social media like Pinterest or Instagram, building my fanbase. 

I also sometimes allow use of my images by others to compliment blogs, etc. In these cases I always insist on a link to my website markhensonart.com 

I don't sell a ton of stuff on the web, but what I do sell adds up to about 25% of my income. Also, I get requests for studio visits from web acquaintances, often leading up to a direct sale.

Some folks have pretty good sales on their art sites, but it does require that you direct potential customers there. 

It, also, is very important how you label and tag your work on the web. Those keywords are what help folks narrow down their searches- "Art" and "Painting" are too general- you need to be a little specific-

In the case of Rojax maybe "whimsical" "colorful" "humorous," etc..  

Your computer guy probably knows all this stuff, but I have to emphasize that you can't wait for folk to stumble upon your pages. You have to identify your "audience" and actively let them know where you are.

For instance- there are many "groups" on Facebook that have thousands of members. You can join the groups that will seem responsive to your art, and post your work, show announcements; etc on their pages, getting your message to many more people than you would by posting on your pages alone. 

It helps to have striking imagery that could be called controversial or shocking. These tend to get talked about and passed around, like that painting of Donald Trump nude, or those pictures of burning banks.

It's really all about the "shotgun" approach, try everything! Eventually it all adds up.

I saw an interesting article from Shepard Fairey, the guy who did Obama's posters, then got sued...

The gist of it was, do something controversial to get attention. Break a rule, offend somebody, like the folks who made naked statues of Trump and placed them around in several cities.

Best of luck with all of this!

Yours,
Mark Henson


Thank you so much, Mark, for taking the time to send me your response and constructive advice. I think you’re right when you say “try everything” and I’m hoping that “eventually it all adds up” for success in sales.

If anyone else would like to share their success in marketing art experience I would love to hear about it and be glad to share it with others. I honestly feel that there are quite a few artists who could use help in selling their art this way. I, also, feel that if done right they’d have a good chance of increasing their income this way.

I will continue to give you updates on my learning progress in marketing on the internet.

Sincerely,
Sherry Harris