Thread: How well do ART sites perform?

I am an artist, and have been since I was a child. My girlfriend constantly tells me that my work is great, as does everyone else. I have considered making a website for it, but how well do you think it would work? I don't want to necessarily monetize it with adsense, but rather offer commission work from it.

Questions:

1. How do you optimize an art website? What are good keywords to use for ranking and being "Discovered"?

2. How should I promote it to gain clients?

3. Do you have any experience with something similar?


Thanks everyone.

What sort of art is it? Photography or paintings? This will make a big difference in how to monetize the website. The art-niche is something which is pretty hard to get big in, but because of all those pictures image-ads would perform very good for example

Originally Posted by Aquarezz

What sort of art is it? Photography or paintings? This will make a big difference in how to monetize the website. The art-niche is something which is pretty hard to get big in, but because of all those pictures image-ads would perform very good for example

It would likely be digital artwork for now, including retouching on someone elses photo if they wish, digital paintings, etc. I don't have a professional camera just yet, so no photography worth selling or promoting.

I have a few artist type friends, working in digital media, photograpy, and even the fine arts. The best thing for them in promotion online seems to be different social media outlets, they're all all over twitter, facebook, and myspace. Each of their websites are done in a way that expresses who they are, what their personality is like, and each offers an extensive portfolio and resume of works. But the big thing for them is offline promotion, they do a lot of local art shows and exhibitions. Getting out there in the community seems to be the biggest thing for getting recognized for the arts.

I would say build a portfolio, and then use the social media that dtkguy suggested to drive people to it. Showcase your best pieces upfront (on the homepage somewhere) and maybe even have a "sketchbook" section to put some of your lesser/messing around stuff.

As far as monetization might go, advertise your services as a digital/traditional artist (so...illustrations, print design, whatever it is you want to do) if you're looking to get into freelancing.

If you just want to sell your art, then make sure you tag each piece with either a bidding price (for auctioning) or a BIN (buy it now) price. If you offer reproductions or prints, put that there as well. Make sure the visitor can clearly see that the artwork is for sale.

I would suggest going with a minimal scheme for your portfolio should you create one. Too much graphical effect could take away from the artwork itself.

Originally Posted by Sneakyheathen

I would say build a portfolio, and then use the social media that dtkguy suggested to drive people to it. Showcase your best pieces upfront (on the homepage somewhere) and maybe even have a "sketchbook" section to put some of your lesser/messing around stuff.

As far as monetization might go, advertise your services as a digital/traditional artist (so...illustrations, print design, whatever it is you want to do) if you're looking to get into freelancing.

If you just want to sell your art, then make sure you tag each piece with either a bidding price (for auctioning) or a BIN (buy it now) price. If you offer reproductions or prints, put that there as well. Make sure the visitor can clearly see that the artwork is for sale.

I would suggest going with a minimal scheme for your portfolio should you create one. Too much graphical effect could take away from the artwork itself.

Great information. Thanks!

You can start building your website via blogs or use your social media profile. In driving traffic you need to optimize it which means market it, start with your friends then go to related sites like blogs and others to promote your site, this will increase traffic and use niche keyword so that you'll have a good market position when surfers search your keyword.

If you believe your art is good then you can sell it..i see a lot of cool artwork at deviantart.com. So you can build your portfolio as said before.

regarding traffic, use Digg and stumble as extensively as possible, initially you will need to do exchanges but later on when your viewership builds then you will get them automatically..it will work great for art related sites cos people can forget an article, but not an art..

or may be you can venture into logo or website designing..if you know coding then its better, or else you can make psd's and sell them uncoded.

Good luck..

Originally Posted by rome9t9

If you believe your art is good then you can sell it..i see a lot of cool artwork at deviantart.com. So you can build your portfolio as said before.

regarding traffic, use Digg and stumble as extensively as possible, initially you will need to do exchanges but later on when your viewership builds then you will get them automatically..it will work great for art related sites cos people can forget an article, but not an art..

or may be you can venture into logo or website designing..if you know coding then its better, or else you can make psd's and sell them uncoded.

Good luck..

Thank you. I could probably do decently making vectorized documents uncoded than I could coding. It's just too annoying and time consuming to code. What you said about not being able to forget art is so true! I know a lot of people save images to look at later, or even use artistic wallpapers. Its a continuous impression that art has, that articles usually don't.