Fine Art Websites

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Sell Fine Art Online - Part 11: Google Adwords

Google AdWords are an excellent choice for driving potential collectors to your website. AdWord campaigns allow you to create online ads based on keywords and other criteria.

AdWord campaigns work on a cost per click (CPC) system. This means that when someone clicks on a Google AdWord link, they are taken to your website, and you are charged whatever the CPC for that keyword is. The cost is determined by the word's popularity. The more people that want to be found for that word, the more expensive the word becomes.

Fortunately Google allows you bid for words and set a daily budget for how much you are willing to spend. This keeps the cost more affordable and less risky. Plus Google gives you some amazing statistics and feedback for how well your campaigns are doing. Then you can make adjustments to help improve your campaigns.

Learn more about Google AdWords.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Sell Fine Art Online - Part 10: Blogging

Fine Art Websites

Blogging is a great way to help promote and sell your artwork online. Unfortunately, most artists I talk to about blogging absolutely despise the idea. They perceive blogging as a venue for angry teenagers. The truth is, while angry teens may use blogs for venting, blogs are a very useful marketing tool and here's why:

Search engines love blogs.
Blogs are easy to setup and easy to manage.
Some art collectors actually enjoy reading blogs, plus they can subscribe to blogs.
Blogs are FREE!

Search engines love blogs because blogs typically provide fresh and relevant content. Every time you create a post on your blog, you can include some kind of a link back to your artist website. Back links are great for search engine optimization. Everything time you link from your already SEO friendly blog back to your website, you're actually helping your website get indexed by search engines.

You want to be careful not to over do it. If you intentionally flood your blog and website with links you can actually hurt your SEO results. Simply add a link when it's relevant and you should be fine. If you're posting about a new piece of artwork you just released, add a link from your blog to that piece of artwork on your website.

In this day and age, blogs are really simple to set up and easy-to-manage. This blog is actually powered by a Google blogging platform called Blogger. I prefer Blogger for most of my blogs, but Tumblr is another excellent choice as well.

Some people actually enjoy reading a blog over visiting a normal website. Just like search engines, people want to read the latest and greatest news. Normally the most currently information is right there at the top of the homepage.

For those people who enjoy reading blogs, they can actually subscribe to your blog. Depending on your settings and the settings of their subscription, every time you create a new post, they will be notified. This keeps people coming back for more which is huge.

Finally, it's free! Should I explain how this is a good thing? Well I'm not going to.

When it comes to blogging, especially for those who aren't overly exciting about the idea, treat your blog like a news post.

If you have a new release, post a picture of the image with a brief description. Be sure to include links to your actual website where they can learn more about the piece and even purchase if they want to.
If you have an upcoming art show, create a post that lets people know about it. Once again, include a link back to your website — preferably to a news page or events page. Then when the show is over, create a new post on your blog that talks about home much of a success the show was, how fun it was. Include pictures from the show.
If your artwork gets accepted into a museum or show of some sort, blog about it. Include relevant links and pictures.

Blog posts don't have to be long, maybe just a few sentences to a couple paragraphs.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Sell Fine Art Online - Part 9: Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is such a big part of selling fine art online. How else will people find your artwork online? Search Engine Optimization refers to the act of designing or changing a website in such a way so that the website is more likely to be indexed or found by search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, and so on.

SEO usually refers to the how well the text, links, and code are written and formatted on a given website. When someone does a search on a particular subject or "keyword", search engines want to return with the most relevant web results possible. Search engines use links and "back links" to validate the worth of a given webpage. Google also considers a websites code— is the code up to date and how well does the website load?

When it comes to text, it's better to just to be honest and thorough with your content. Think about the perception of your site visitors — search engines do. If you are an artist who paints realistic oil paintings of Colorado landscapes,,, where is the text that talks about it. While image examples of your work are great and search engines do pick up on images, you should still have some textual content that goes into the details of your work.

Be very specific and detailed with how you write. If you're writing your biography, write it in the 3rd person. Writing in the 3rd person does 2 things:

It sounds much more professional.
Your name is more likely to be indexed by search engines. How is a search engine going to pick up on your name if you're constantly using the word "I".

Fresh content is really important too. Search engines like to give users the newest and most up-to-date information possible. That's why events pages, news pages, and blogs are so valuable.

Links and back links are very important. Search engines like to see that other webpages are linking to you. They also rank the value of the links that are linking to your website. The more relevant and popular a website is that links to your website the better.

Search engines consider code carefully. They don't want to send users to a website that takes forever to load or has a bunch of page errors. Broken links or links that take users to non-existent pages are also bad.

Finally, there is no such thing as instant gratification when it comes to SEO. If someone is promising you fast results they are lying. Long lasting results take time and persistence. It usually takes a few months or more to get to the top and it's usually pretty bumpy in the beginning. In the first couple of months you'll probably see some ups and downs. Good seo requires constant updates and new back links to valuable sites.

Interested in a search engine friendly artist website? Learn about our artist memberships.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Sell Fine Art Online - Part 8: Online Marketing

Online marketing is an important part of selling fine art online. Simply having a well-designed artist website or gallery website doesn't guarantee success. Fine art websites provide artists with an online venue for selling fine art, but the trick is how to drive traffic to those websites.

There are several ways of marketing art online or driving traffic to your fine art website:

Search Engine Optimization - SEO
Google Adwords?
Pay Per Click Advertising
Yelp, Google Places
Blogging
Social Networking
Email Marketing

All of the items listed above are all about trying to drive "interested" traffic to your website to buy artwork. I say "interested", because there is no reason to drive "uninterested" traffic to your website. This may seem like an obvious statement, but this is something way too many ~~artists~~ people don't understand or just simply miss.

People will often throw tons of money into pay per click campaigns and they think the more money they spend the better their results will be. This is not the case. Successful campaigns are not just about spending money. They require a lot of thought and planning. Heavy traffic from uninterested visitors will get you nowhere.

You have to put yourself in the mind of your ideal collector. How does a collector go about finding your type of artwork online? Google, Art Related Websites, Blogs, Yelp? If they're going to Google, what keywords are they looking for?

"Snow Creek" by Quang Ho

Don't market for every type of art. Market by media, subject, and style. If you're a oil painter who paints landscapes, why would you market to collectors interested in abstract charcoal drawings of kittens? Don't waste money on collectors who don't collect your type of artwork.

As a landscape oil painter, look for online venues that are about landscapes, oil paintings or both. If you're an abstract artist, look for those venues. There are so free online venues, blogs, and social networks out there. Take advantage of them.

I'm not suggesting that you neglect online venues that cater to all artwork types. Some collectors may not know what kind of artwork they're looking for. In those cases, they may seek out fine art websites with more variety.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Sell Fine Art Online - Part 7: Image Capture

While image capture should be one of the easiest and most obvious things an artist or gallery has to do in order to sell fine art online, it is often the last thing to be considered. How do you sell a piece of artwork online without a digital image of your artwork? Chances are, you can't. People want to see the product they are about to spend money on before they spend their money.

There are 2 primary ways to digitally capture your artwork for online sells and marketing:

Digital Camera
Scanner

Large format scanning is going to be your best option. The one to one technology you get from a scanner is unmatched. As with anything technology, the quality of the scan can only be as good as the scanner being used and the person operating the scanner. This means that not just any scanner will do, and whoever is operating the scanner should be a professional.

While a flatbed scanner is ideal, we don't want to knock digital photography. It's still a great choice, but requires a lot of work for high quality results. Like the scanner, the image capture from a digital camera is going to be limited by the quality of the camera, lens, lighting, and the person using it.

Once the image has been scanned or photographed, you need someone who is good at digital imaging and color correction. The raw image will need some cleanup and color correction to be great.

Even though having high-quality digital images of your artwork is important, simply getting your artwork online in a timely manner is just as important. One really big issue we see is that an artist either can't afford proper scanning or digital photography or they don't have time. So then the artist or gallery waits to upload their artwork to their website and looses potential sales from visitors who couldn't see their work.

If you can't afford high quality images or if the timing is bad, just take the best digital photo with the best digital camera you have and upload your artwork. You can always go back later and replace the image with a high quality image. Collectors need to be able to see your artwork and sometimes you just need to get it out there.

There are a lot of great fine art reproduction companies out there who can provide high-quality images of your artwork. We recommend Van Gogh Again, a proud partner of Fine Art World. We recommend Fine Art World for all of your fine art needs including artist websites and gallery websites.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Sell Fine Art Online - Part 6: E-Commerce Integration

E-commerce Fine Art Websites - Powered by PayPal

When selling fine art online through a website or some other online venue, the e-commerce tools you choose are very important. Three considerations come to mind when choosing an e-commerce company or processor:

Security
Ease of Use for the Seller
Ease of Use for the Buyer

With any online transaction or exchange of personal information, security is king. Online security has two sides to it. One, the website, programming and processes should actually be secure. Two, the reputation of that company's security may be just as important. You don't want a customer wavering on a decision because they don't know or maybe don't trust the company.

The seller, or in our case, the artist or gallery, should be able to manage their e-commerce tools quickly and easily. This means if there is a change in the product information or pricing, they should be able to make the changes themselves. If the seller wants to upload a new product, it should be easy to do. The seller has enough to worry about with keeping the books, managing the prices, managing the inventory, and in the case of the artist, maybe even doing some artwork. They shouldn't have to worry about, "How do I do this again?" It should just be easy. The ease of use is directly related to the content management system or CMS as mentioned in last week's blog post.

Finally, online purchases should be easy for the buyer. Don't allow a poor interface or hard-to-use e-commerce tools stand in the way of a sell. Purchasing artwork should be easy.

Fine Art World is an excellent choice for a fine art e-commerce website. FAW provides artists and galleries with two online venues:

Independent Website ( A personal stand-alone website for self-promotion. )
Community Website ( A fine website located directly on FineArtWorld.com with plenty of exposure to art collectors and potential clients. )

Fine Art World's artist websites and gallery websites are seamlessly integrated with easy-to-use e-commerce tools powered by PayPal — a secure, trusted, and convenient e-commerce company.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Sell Fine Art Online - Part 5: Content Management Systems

Easy Content Management Systems for Artist Websites

In this current series "Selling Fine Art Online" we've been talking about how to sell fine art online via fine art websites and other online venues. Last week in our series, we took a look at the importance of web design and things to consider when selecting a web designer. This week is about Content Management Systems.

The importance of a Content Management System is going to depend on the kind of website you have. When it comes to fine art websites or artist websites, a good content management system is vital. It's important to note that I said a "good" content management system is vital, because there are a lot of bad ones out there.

Why do artists need a content management system for their artist website?
For some websites a content management system may not be as important, but when it comes to fine art, it's essential. The purpose of a fine art website is to display and sell fine art online. Artists are constantly creating new art. An artist should be able to take a snapshot of their work and instantly put the image online with sizing and pricing. A good content management system allows an artist to do this quickly and easily.

When you don't have a content management system built into your website, you typically have to pay a web designer to upload the content for you. This means time and money.

What makes a Content Management System "Good"?
A good content management system is designed to be easy for anyone to use, not just a web designer. It should use terminology that makes since to the average person. The CMS should also help, not hurt your SEO standings.

A Warning
Having a Content Management System doesn't mean you need to constantly make changes to your website. If you have a new piece of artwork or if the prices of your artwork change then sure,,, make the needed changes. But some content is better left alone. Search engines look for well written content that pertains to what their visitors are looking for. So unless the information is out-dated or wrong, you might consider keeping it.

Fine Art World makes selling art easy because their content management system is easy. Whether an artist is loading new artwork, changing prices on old artwork, or updating a biography, almost any update takes a few seconds. As easy as their control panel is, if you still have troubles, Fine Art World has amazing customer service.

Sign up for an Artist Membership today.

Read what artists are saying in the Fine Art World testimonials.

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