How Artists Can Market Themselves on the Internet

The first thing you need to decide before is this...what do you want to be known for on the web? Most artists think, "Well, I'm a potter, so I'm going to be known as a potter."

THIS IS NOT SPECIFIC ENOUGH.

I just did a Google search for pottery and got 64,800,000 results. Where will you be in those search results?

Go beyond the obvious...what makes you and your work special from all the other thousands of potters out there? Superstar marketer Seth Godin calls the thing that makes you special a "Purple Cow". If you're driving past a field of ordinary brown and white or black and white cows you won't even notice them. See a purple cow in that field, and you'll probably drive off the road.

Why is it so important to decide this before you get started? Creating an identity for yourself will give people a way to recognize you outside of all the other artists out on the web. You need to give people a way to remember you. At every craft show, there's always at least one artist that's well-known for something and you hear customers talk about them. Perhaps its an artist who creates gorgeous beadwork and people call her "The Bead Lady". Or maybe it's an artist who makes art out of old beer cans and people call him the "Beer Can Guy". People will remember "The Bead Lady" and "The Beer Can Guy" long after the artist who's "just a potter".

That's what you want to recreate on the Internet when it comes to promoting yourself. So step #1...decide what you're going to be known for.

Need some help in figuring out what makes you special? You can find some tips here:
Crafts, Comics, and Purple Cows

Do you have a domain name? No? Get one right now.

That's right. Now. I'll wait.

What's that? You don't have a website up yet? Nonsense...you don't need to get a website first to get a domain name...however you will need a domain name if you're going to build a website...and the sooner you get a domain name the better.

I'm sorry, repeat that? You don't know what your domain name should be? Start with your own name. If your name is Jane Potmaker, register janepotmaker.com or janepotmakerdesigns.com. Do you have a company name? Perhaps your company is called Janes Pretty Pots. Register janesprettypots.com as well. What! Two domain names? What on earth are you going to do with two domain names?? Point them both to your website. Some people will know you as Jane Potmaker while others will know you as Jane's Pretty Pots. If they type either web address they'll still get to your website.

What was that? You want to wait a little while longer before you get a domain name? Listen. The first thing you need to understand is this...on the Internet, domain names are like real estate...digital real estate. It's like that great corner lot in your neighborhood or neat corner booth at a craft show that gets all of the traffic. A great domain name can help brand you and it can help attract traffic to your website. But you need to act quickly. If you've decided that you want to be known as the "Bead Lady" and you want to register beadlady.com you're out of luck...someone else a little quicker than you have already gotten that name and the only way you'll get it now is if you:

1. Wait until the original owner decides they don't want the domain anymore and lets it expire (and you'll probably be waiting a long time)

2. Contact the person who owns beadlady.com and offer to buy it from them. And chances are that it's going to be a lot more than the original 7 to 10 bucks it took to register it.

A good domain name helps you to create that unique identity I was talking about earlier. A good domain name is something that's easy for people to remember and easy for people to type in when they want to go to your website. People will remember www.janepotmaker.com a lot fast than they'll remember www.freehosting4u.com/JanePotmaker. And a good domain will get harder and harder for you to find the longer you wait. People are building websites and registering domain names every day...wait too long and the one that's right for you will be gone.

You can get a domain name for less than $9 in less than five minutes. And it's yours for as long as you want it. It's really the cheapest piece of identity that you can get...cheaper than business cards, stationary, or a logo. There's really no reason to wait, is there?

What's that? You don't know where to get a domain name?

You can get a domain name here:
My Namespot Domains

If you're going to promote yourself on the Internet, you'll need a website. Now that seems like a pretty "DUH" thing to say, but I've actually have some artists ask me if it's possible. And yes, it's very possible to promote yourself on the Internet and not even have a website...it's just not as effective.

Why?

When you get people that are interested in learning more about you, you want to make it as easy as possible to do so. Telling people to email you so you can send them a brochure or telling them to call you at your studio is not as effective because 1) It's not instantaneous...people want the information NOW...you don't want to make them wait, 2) It's not convenient. Composing an email or dialing through voice mail menus is not as convenient as visiting your website and getting the information right then and there.

Plus a website also allows people to visit a small piece of your world. Your website is your "home base" on the Internet and you want people to be able to get a sense of who you are and what you do.

And it's open 24/7.

So how do you get a website? That's the $64,000 question. There's a number of different ways to get a website...the best way for your depends on what you want your website to look like, how you want your website to function, how much money you want to spend, how much control you want over your website, and whether you are willing or able to do the work yourself.

In a nutshell, here are your main options:

Option 1: Hire someone build it for you. If you don't have the time, inclination, or skill to build your own website, hiring someone to build it for you is a good option. If you plan carefully you can have the exact website you want and it can look a lot more professional than if you do it yourself.

On the downside, hiring a professional to create your website isn't the cheapest option. Good web designers will cost some amount of money and you have to be careful that you're hiring someone reliable and trustworthy, or else you may end up wasting time and money. Fortunately, there are a lot of designers out there and if you know where and what to look for you should be able to find one for your website. Need to learn how to find a great web designer? Be sure to visit this lens on how to do it.

Option 2: Build it yourself. If you have more time than money and you're willing to spend some time learning, you can build your website yourself. Learning HTML is really not so difficult and there's no reason why you can't least put up a small 1 to 5 page website that contains information about you and a sampling from your portfolio. The best thing about creating your website yourself is once you know what to do you're not dependent on someone else to make changes and updates for you. If you want to create a new page, or make changes to your website at 3 a.m., you can do so.

Now the biggest downside to this option is that there is a learning curve, even if you are using web site building software. Plus if you don't have prior design experience, you run the risk of your website looking somewhat "homemade".

Option 3: Use a template. This is kind of compromise between Options 1 & 2. Instead of building a website from scratch, you can hire a designer to design a template or you can buy a pre-made template. You can use then use web building software to make new web pages out of the pre-designed template. The advantage to this option is that you can get a well designed website for the fraction of the cost of a designer creating the whole site for you and for the fraction of the time it will take you to design it.

The main disadvantage to using a pre-designed template is that some of the cheaper templates can look very generic and may be used by dozens and dozens of other websites on the web.

Option 4: Use a turnkey website service. There are a lot of companies on the Internet that allow people to build websites even if they have limited HTML or web building experience. Most services provides a number of pre-designed templates that you can choose for the look for your website. You simply choose which template you want and type in the information you want for each page of your website. In most cases, the only thing you have to pay is a monthly service fee, and in some cases a setup fee. The main advantage to using a turnkey service is that you can create a website very quickly and easily even if you don't have any previous website building experience. Plus it usually doesn't cost very much to get started.

The biggest disadvantage to using a turnkey service is that your website is somewhat limited by what the service offers. The templates that most services offers aren't as flexible as it would be if you designed the website yourself and if you decide to move your website to another service you won't be able to take your template with you...which means that you'll have to come up with another design for your website.

Option 5: Start a blog. Another way to start a website is to start a blog. Blogging services like Blogger and Wordpress allows people to start their own blogs for free. Other paid services like Typepad and Squarespace will offer more advanced blogging services for a small monthly fee. The advantage to creating a blog for your website is that if you use Blogger or Wordpress, you can start your own blog for free within 5 minutes or less. All blogging services have a variety of different template designs for your to choose from and like a turnkey service, you don't need prior web building or HTML experience. Services like Wordpress.com, Typepad, and Squarespace even allows you to create static pages with your blog which act like regular web pages.

The biggest disadvantage to using a blog for your main site are similar to using a turnkey service. Templates can be limited and inflexible, plus unless your blogging service allows you to create static pages, the format of your site is limited to the typical blog format.

Option 6: Get a Squidoo lens. Now, I'm not seriously saying that a Squidoo lens is truly a substitute for a website or even a blog...but...if you're really in pinch and you need something like yesterday...you can throw up a Squidoo lens in about an hour or less. Heck you can even put some of your eBay auctions on your lens or even sell some of your products using a shopping cart like KickStart Cart to sell some of your stuff. Just know that you need to get something else before too long. The good thing about creating a Squidoo lens is that once you build your website you can then use your lens to funnel traffic to your website.

So...what's the best choice for you? It all depends on how much control you want over your website, how much time you have, how much you want to learn, and how much money you can spend.

Some artists start off with a free blog and then expands to a regular website later while others find that a blog suits all of their needs. Other artists build their own website and then later hires a professional to expand on it. Some finds that a turnkey site fits all of their needs. Decide which course is best for you...then just do it!

There are quite a few marketing opportunities on the web...so many that it can get somewhat overwhelming. Here is a brief run down of some of the techniques you can think about and the pros and cons of each method.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)- This is the technique of designing your website so that it ranks highly on search engine results.

• Pros: SEO can be a great source of new customers who are looking specifically for what you're offering. It also can be an inexpensive way to promote your site.


• Cons: SEO can take months to get good results. You also need to have a good understanding of how search engines work, keyword research, and SEO friendly web design. Plus, since search engine standards are constantly changing, you'll need to keep up with the new standards regularly.

Social Media Marketing- This is the technique of using social media tools and networks like MySpace, Facebook, del.ico.us, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, and other social networking sites to drive people to your site.

• Pros: This can be an inexpensive way to build a large base of customers and fans of your art. Plus it can work a lot faster than SEO. In fact, it can make your SEO marketing work a lot better and faster.


• Cons: Marketing through social networks can be rather time consuming if you want to do it properly. It's also possible that you attract a lot of people to your site that aren't likely to buy something.

P.S.- One social media tool that's gotten a lot of attention lately is Twitter. Not familiar with Twitter? Check out this lens and find out more:

• An Artist's Guide to Twitter

Blogging- This is the technique of reading blogs and commenting on them, or creating a blog of your own.

• Pros: Starting a blog is very quick and easy...and can be free! There's a lot of attention being paid to blogs and bloggers, plus search engines love to search through blogs. So if you have an existing website, adding a blog can help you get better search engine results for both your website and your blog.


• Cons: Starting a blog is easy...maintaining one is not quite that easy. For maximum effectiveness, you should write in your blog on a regular ongoing basis and you should comment on network with other bloggers on a regular basis...which can get somewhat time consuming.

Online Advertising- This is the placement of advertising on websites and search engines through banner ads, pay-per-click ads, and sponsorships.

• Pros: If done correctly, online advertising can be an effective way to bring in paying customers very quickly. You can start getting traffic within days or even a few short hours. Plus you can track your results and improve your ads to become even more effective.


• Cons: If it's done incorrectly, it can get very expensive, very quickly...especially if you're inexperienced or have little knowledge of how online advertising works.
  
  If you want to go down this route, I strongly suggest you read The Definitive Guide to Google Adwords (downloadable ebook) or The Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords both by Perry Marshall. Reading either one of these books will save you a lot of money and heartache in the end.

Public Relations (PR)- This is the method or marketing yourself through the media (newspapers, radio, television, magazines, and blogs).

• Pros: Mentions from the media can give you instant credibility with your customers. Public relations is more powerful and believable than advertising, and it often build upon itself...so once you start getting results, it's easier to get more. It's also fairly low cost as well.


• Cons: Results can be hard to track and to control. Plus, building good relations with reporters, bloggers, and other members of the media takes some time to build and requires constant work.

Contests and Giveaways- Building traffic and excitement through holding contests or giveaways

• Pros: Can be a great way to encourage interaction with your customers and can also be a way to gather information from new customers, especially if you require some action in order to participate. If designed correctly, you can track results.


• Cons: This method can attract a less loyal crowd as some people only enter the contest in hopes of getting something for free.

Email Marketing- The technique of marketing through email messages and newsletters.

• Pros: A very inexpensive way to keep in touch with existing customers. Can be a lot more personalized than other methods of marketing. This method is also a great way to encourage repeat and larger purchases and results are easy to track.


• Cons: The explosion of spam is making it harder to deliver emails. Plus, people have grown a lot more wary of giving away personal information.

If you're interested in learning more about email marketing, check out the first of a four part series on developing an email newsletter.

Now that we've outlined what online techniques there are in the toolbox, it's time to figure out which ones are the best ones for you to use.

1. Have some goals in mind- Different techniques accomplish different things. If you don't know what you're trying to accomplish, it will be hard to pick a technique and it will also be impossible to know whether you're being effective or not. Figure out what you're trying to accomplish with your marketing, whether it be bringing more traffic to your website, building name recognition, or bring more sales, and then tailor your marketing choices to accomplish that goal.

2. Know who you're marketing to- In addition to knowing what you're trying to accomplish, it's important to know who you're marketing to. You've got to market where your audience is.

3. Play to your strengths- If you love to interact with customers and network, social media marketing and public relations may be a good choice for you. If you love research, testing and tweaking your website, search engine marketing and online marketing will probably be a good match for you. By the same token, if you hate the spotlight and prefer to stay in your studio and make beautiful work, public relations and networking are not the venue for you. And if you hate to write...blogging is definitely not for you.

4. Play to the strengths of your work- Sometimes the type of art or craft work you do will dictate the type of marketing you should do. If you have a type of craft that's unusual, or if the story behind it makes people want to about it, then you can market it fairly effectively through blogging or public relations. If your craft demonstrates well, creating a video and putting it on YouTube will work well.

5. Mix and match techniques that work well together- Some marketing techniques work well or even better when they are combined with another technique. For example, blogging works even better if you apply search engine optimization techniques to your blog posts. Plus blogging can also help speed up your search engine marketing. Look for ways to combine different techniques to strengthen the pros and cancel out the cons.

6. Mix and match short term and long-term techniques- In other to market yourself successfully, you'll need a mix of both short term and long term techniques. Some methods like running contests and giveaways are great for a short-term boost, while other methods like public relations takes longer to yield results. While you may be eager to get results right away, take the time to include some long term marketing so you won't have to continuously be chasing after the short term results.

7. Be patient- Don't attempt to try everything at once. Instead, look at your goals, your strengths, your audience, and your work and pick out one or two techniques. Then create a plan to use them. Resolve to be patient and stick with your plan. Remember that you may not get results immediately. It's better to choose a couple of methods and learn how to do them well rather than to do badly at a whole bunch of them.

Not to sound like a Nike commercial, but once you have your website and your plan in place...get out there and do it!

Once you start marketing yourself on the web, it's important to keep with the latest information. Once way to do that is by subscribing to The Crafted Webmaster newsletter and get free weekly articles on how to promote yourself on the web. If you subscribe now you'll get a free audio download on "Effective Ways to Market Your Website Offline".

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