Why does an artist need his own website?
In the major cities and “cultural capitals” of the world there are many art salons and galleries where artists and art lovers meet face to face. There you can easily buy and sell a painting, sculpture or any other art object. But often the artist and connoisseur of beauty is separated by hundreds and thousands of kilometers. In order for them to find each other, the Internet comes to the rescue. If you want to find out about your work, and preferably, also buy your work, you need to think about creating a personal website, your own virtual gallery, which would tell “Urbi et Orbi” about your work.
The personal site of the artist is, of course, a tool for business promotion, but in our case we are talking about art, therefore we cannot call it an exclusively business project. Nevertheless, one of the main tasks of such a site is to create all the prerequisites for an art connoisseur who visits it to become a buyer of your artworks, and you can freely sell paintings on the Internet. Therefore, it is necessary to create all the conditions so that the stay on your site is pleasant and informative. His design should emphasize in every way your unique author’s style, and the works placed there should look advantageous. It is desirable that the site consisted of several sections. One of them can be devoted to your biography; and put in it information about your education, teachers, participation in personal and collective exhibitions, art projects, possibly about the awards and other achievements. It is important here to tell a little about yourself, about your work, philosophy and world view, to show the breadth of world views. Not superfluous in this section will be photos from the workshop, your photos at home, from the opening of exhibitions, and other such parties.
The “Announcements” section can be devoted to the expected events – outlined exhibitions, creative trips, etc.
Of course, the central section of your site should be “Gallery”. The gallery is best divided by genre of works, or take as a basis the chronological principle, grouping the work by the time they were created. It is important that the images placed there are clear, in good quality and “clickable”. Of the paintings intended for sale, it is advisable to make a separate subsection, and indicate the cost of work next to the images. Remember that you sell not only the product, but also the atmosphere, history. Next to the exhibited work, place its background; tell us what the circumstances of the appearance of the picture where it was created are connected with, what inspired you to write it, because such a story will emphasize the uniqueness of the work.
Speaking of sales. It is very important to give visitors the opportunity to buy your work online, with the possibility of non-cash payment, so that the buyer can fill out a special form on the site, and send money using one of the payment systems, get the purchased work to the address indicated by him. Should be provided and the possibility of selling paintings through the Internet for cash, if suddenly the buyer is not friends with modern means of payment. Be sure to post on the site your e-mail and phone number. Do not forget to answer the questions sent to the mail in time; get ready that they may be the most unexpected – for example: is it possible to get direct sunlight on the picture; where better to hang it – in the bedroom or living room, and so on. Indicate on the website whether there is an opportunity to return the purchase if it for some reason did not fit (for example, did not fit into the interior).
Now a little about how your site should not be. In no case should he be an amateur, “in haste”, with confusing information and inconvenient navigation, without the possibility of contacting you and ordering your work on it. There should not be low-quality photos of art objects, a lot of unnecessary and secondary information. In general, the site must be “friendly” to the client, and navigation through it is simple and straightforward.
Often overlooked another nuance. Your site should be easily found in search engines. To do this, it is necessary to place keywords in the texts for which a potential buyer can find it, such as: “buy a painting”. So, to make the site successful, its owner would be nice to learn the basics of SEO search engine optimization on the Internet. Of course, all this takes time and money – to competently create a site, make it visible on the Internet, “lead” it in the future, respond promptly to messages and update. How much extra trouble! But there is a way out. To achieve a synergy effect, and entrust the care of such prosaic things to specialists who understand how to sell paintings and other art objects, you can, for example, contact the staff of the Jose Art Gallery online gallery. In its open spaces you will receive:
– its own individual web-page with a public profile, during the creation of which your name as an artist automatically becomes known on the Internet;
– a separate personal online gallery.
