Artist Marketing - How do I market my art on the Internet

If you are reading this on the internet then I will assume you have computer access, an email account (you'll need one to stay intouch with your customers) and possibly even a website or blog. I want to share with you some great things I have learned and sites that actually have built up my art business to the point where I am earning a nice income while still having time to make my art you can too. After all generating income is what keeps artists able to continue producing art while being appreciated with the reward of sales. By creating marketing strategies with web tools here you will honor and value your worth. You have discovered your life's work and passion, let others find your valuable skills and talenst too. There is no need to struggle as an artist. That is a ridiculous myth and I could write articles about it all day. I am glad this article caught your eye, it means you are ready to continue do what you love. Making Art!

The internet is the way to go in marketing your art. Why the internet? It's the brochure to the world. Galleries, art patrons, private shoppers, and many different types of companies all search the internet for the next new hot artist and it could be you. The possibilities are endless but there are 10 things that I have discovered that will assist you.

Before we get to the internet, first let's talk about the physical world first and marketing. Do you have a business card, postcards, and or brochures?  Before you spend a fortune on them, you can get free ones here at Vista print.com, you can also get a small website with them. They also have postcard, and brochure promotions all the time. They are a great way to get free marketing tools. With a little design sense you can create whole image and branding identity for practically nothing. Take advantage of their free promotions, you just pay for shipping and one time fee for uploading your images. They are very friendly if you need assistance. Modern Postcard in Carlsbad California is also a wonderful and inexpensive company to work with. If you ever get a chance to see their campus you will want to work there!  Lulu.com is also great if you want to do self publishing. Do you have a digital camera? A Scanner? Photo-graphic arts software?  These things will become powerful tools for you as an artist. 

Finally the Four most important questions a customer will ask and almost never get answered completley. 1. What is it? (your product) 2. How much does it cost? 3. How fast can I get it it? and 4. How can I pay for it? If you can answer all four questions in your Marketing Materials you will keep customers from going somewhere else where they get those questions answered, have a giant headstart, and save lots of time on your way to the bank. Now onto marketing your art on the internet. 

1. A Blog - About your art. About you. People want to know your story. Tell them here on Squidoo.com or Blogspot.com, MySpace.com, Yahoo.com, etc. First of all search engines like Google love blogs. They provide free websites basically for you to blog on. Then use your blogs to promote their paid advertisers who have similar products and interests as you. How do they know what your interests are? They have S.E.O's search engine Optimization WebCrawler robots that endlessly search for key words in the web. This you can use to you advantage as they use to theirs.  Say you make art made out of found objects; the web crawlers will see this and boom you will be at the top of search engine list before you know it. So make a nice description of your art, tell your story of what art you make, why you make the art, and how people can find your masterpieces and even purchase them.

2. YouTube.com - Make a video clip of you making and describing your art. Make it fun and interesting. People pass these things around. It's a great way you can get your art discovered and once again the SEO's are hard at work. Are you ready for you close up?

3. eBay.com It's where a lot of artist go and sell their works of art. Try it out. They will market you over and over with up selling, especially an eBay store but You don't have to open an eBay store right away and I would wait till you've sold about 100 things. Keep it simple and have fun.  You will learn eBay charges you for every little thing here and there and those little charges can add up fast. It's OK that's how they make money and it's like paying hardly anything compared to advertising or rent for an actual storefront in the real world. Set up a Paypal account too. This will allow buyers from all over the world to purchase your art safely. Paypal is also a great tool for invoice people through your email. Till you can afford a more expensive program such as QuickBooks, which is superb, you can use Paypal to send invoices and receive credit card payment. Not bad! There are fees involved again and Paypal is owned by eBay. Wow what do you know! The future is here and it is eBay. If you do use eBay, good customer service is paramount! People will rate you on it. Once again SEO's love eBay and you go right to the top of the search engine info pages.  There are a few excellent books on eBay, which you can order on Amazon.com which brings me to the next marketing thing to do

4. Amazon.com- Find books, product on art which you like, love, etc and write a review.  It can't hurt and sign it with your website name.

5. Comment on other peoples blogs, share links, what comes around goes around.

6. Write online articles on what you love and direct people to your products in your articles.

7. Send Out Online Press releases regarding your art events Americantowns.com is one that comes to mind and they forward your press to many different media outlets. Don't forget your local papers. They usually accept online Press Releases.

8. Open a cafépress Shop. I have one of these, Its fun, it's easy, you can make product with images of your artwork on them, mark up your products to what you want and you get a commission check when something sells. Products are made ON Demand -No cost to you- No overhead.  It's really quite amazing and I say Turn your computer and digital camera into a creative money maker. Save up and get a scanner, and some photo software like Photoshop. You'll want to open a premium shop to get all the benefits, and trust me its endless! They have great customer service if you need assistance. They have ongoing blogs on their site where you can ask questions and get answers, they're invaluable!

9. Open an Imagekind shop. I also have one of these shops and like cafépress you can upload images but the great thing is that this in an interactive web store where folks can matte and frame their prints of your work in over 5,000 different option. The quality is great and once again you set the price. You can also order prints right from them and make you very own limited editions. You probably will want to upgrade to a platinum account if you have a lot of images.  With either Cafépress or Imagekind you can choose to have a private or public store. Why not have both? They are also ON Demand Printing -No cost to you- No overhead. They also have great customer service.

10. Really this should be number ONE, your own website with an email account attached to it. To colllect email address'sand stay in contact with your fans and customers. There are many places on the web where you can get a free website, including your cable service provider at home. There are also many reasonable hosting companies to choose from, fatcow.com is a good one. They have lots of options and good customer service.  A lot of companies will give you a free website with one or to pages. You can do a lot in that space and direct folks to your web stores, blogs and favorite site with links and most important contact you directly. You'll want to start building your customer contact base list and letting your fans know about your latest creations. I recommend Constantcontact.com and or Microsoft Outlook in Microsoft office which comes with other fantastic business software.

These are just some of many ways to market your art business on the Internet without spending a fortune on outside professionals. Now that you have found these sites and information you will find a stumble across many more fun and amazing tools. Many more are being thought of as you read this. Who knows you may create a new venue for others to benefit from also. As an artist you are a special and unique person. Honor your value, worth and creativity as an artist and put your talents and computers to work, believe in yourself, and appreciate all you have to offer and before you know it with some marketing  that appreciation will start coming back. Your art will pay for itself and then some. The Secret to art sales today Marketing on the Internet and you can do it yourself!

Please feel free to share with me any other great sites you may come across in your travels on the net Best Wishes!

RD Riccoboni

 

RD Riccoboni is a professional artist and art business owner.

While you wont find a Riccoboni in the home furnishing section of your Targets store or Ikeas art department but you will find great deals on Cafepress, Imagekind and RedBubble.