Aspiring artists need their own web site!

No other tools in the world work as hard or as cheaply 24/7 to help promote your art as your own web site. While not everyone will buy what you sell, your ability to convert viewers to customers increases proportionately every time they return for more information or in turn read what you send them.

Provide a newsletter or e-zine to your customers, friends and family.

I think you can easily see the potential for opportunities to sell your art to readers who know you and want to hear from you. You can mention where and when you have shows, highlight new art being produced, etc. Many of my readers and occasional customers have become friends as well.

A balanced combination of thoughts and actions will increase your creativity.

Nothing gives you confidence like attempting something new that is in line with your creative passion. As you pursue your dream of becoming a successful artist, you're going to find yourself spending a lot of time promoting. Promotion is an activity that will take up as much time as creating the art you wish to promote. You will get proportionally what you put into it. Unless you have somehow developed a remarkably appealing new widget that everyone wants, it's not as though people will beat a path to your door. At fineartpromotion.com, you'll find a wealth of resources to help you focus on your promotional needs.

Make sure you're selling the right product for you.

If you sell something that is common to many sites, it's going to be hard to get noticed. I recommend niche markets, if your product is too similar to your competition. Specialize in something like pictures of dogs if you do animals for instance. There's a huge market of dog lovers, and niche markets for each breed of dog.

Your web site gallery should be in good working order.Act like a customer and click on all your links to make sure they work properly!

Optimize your site for the search engines through keyword submission, meta- tags and a good 10 word summary that describes your site
Submit regularly to all search engines and major/minor indexes. Write a good 10 word summary, make sure you have appropriate keywords and meta tags as part of your index page, and reduce all images to their minimums.

Don't rule out pay-per-click options to drive people to your web site.

Essentially this service allows you to "bid" for traffic. It can be a hit or miss proposition depending upon the nature of your product. I don't necessarily recommend this method, but it has worked for some.

Build a brand.

If your artwork is different or unique in some way, say so. At Fineartpromotion.com my brand is "Your Art Promotion Resource". This is based upon the information I provide. On my web site art gallery Koipondart.com, my brand is "Artwork That Begs to Be Touched". Brand identification is important otherwise Coke, Nike, Burger King and others like them wouldn't have brands.

Spend time studying and learning more about web promotion and marketing.

The internet is a great place to learn about the internet. More information than you could possibly need is available. Spend some time familiarizing yourself with some of the terms I've used. You won't regret the time spent. Follow the many resource links provided at fineartpromotion.com and see how much info is available.

Manage your own site.

Don't let anyone steal this vital ability from you. You need to make a web site a part of your identity. The only way to perform this is to own the process.

Don't forget that just like politics, most art is local.

Your best opportunity to show your work is local galleries and businesses, and your best opportunity to talk to people directly about your work is the local area in a 30 mile radius from where you live. Everyone you talk to and every piece of printed or electronic communication you produce should direct your audience to the web site though. Consider yourself as the "field rep" and your site as the showroom you need to get people into.

Once the "store", which is your virtual gallery, is open for business, you can direct potential customers there at any hour of the day. Every time you meet someone, hand them a business card and mention the web site address. Be diligent about this and curiosity will bring you interested viewers from around the world. Any organization or group of people you belong to or associate with is a potential source of interested viewers. A wise person once said that he would tell at least 5 people about a nice experience, but 10 if it was terrible. He was referring to good service, but the meaning is the same. Make your potential customers' visit a nice one. No one needs lots of negative press.

Every opportunity you are offered provides another opportunity to "piggy-back" upon when promoting yourself. Are you participating in an art show? Have a stack of business cards available. Note your art show participation on the website and where your actual work may be seen and when. I encourage artists to produce postcards they can send out as liberally as they hand out business cards with their best art on one side and every conceivable way of contact on the other side.

As lines of communication open for you, opportunity is channeled directly back to you through your web site via means you probably never dreamed of and through people you may never meet. Your world just got larger and you will get noticed. And, that's what this is all about, isn't it? It's called "viral" marketing and that is simply a means to get people talking to other people about you and your work. Opportunity will rarely come unannounced; you must go out to meet it.

Promotion is an activity that will take up as much time as creating the art you wish to promote. You will get back proportionally what you put into it. It is a fearful thing to expose yourself to strangers, but ultimately rewarding in every sense. Now get out there and make it happen! If you need inspiration to get motivated go to http://fineartpromotion.com and check out my 28-day plan to success and other information you can benefit from.


Gregory Peters is an artist, and author who provides promotional help and resource information for fine artists. His ebook "How to sell Your Art on the Web" is available at: http://fineartpromotion.com.

Gregory may be reached at: Gregory@fineartpromotion.com