Blondheim Art Original Paintings

Lotus
8x10 inches
oil on panel
gold frame
500.00

Purchase HERE

Art Notes Blog HERE


Painters Tip



Are you using your web site effectively?

If you have a web site you can use it as an electronic portfolio or as a selling location for your work. If you are using it as an electronic brochure, you will have little chance of selling. That is ok if showing your work to the public is your goal. I see hundreds of artist's web pages with thumbnail images on a gallery page, a bio/statement on a page a gallery list on a page and a contact page. This works great as a portfolio. If you expect to sell this way you will be disappointed. I had various versions of that style for years with almost no sales. I bought into the idea that art would not sell on the Internet. My webmaster finally convinced me to give a well designed web site a try.

She was right. It took about two years of tweaking and hard work to promote my current site but now I sell work from 500.00-3,000.00 directly from my web site. In fact, my web site and studio sales outsell my galleries substantially now.

1. You must add content. Content is king, not images. Of course you must show the paintings to sell them but you must give art lovers a reason to come back.

2. You must use key phrases in your content so that search engines will pick them up.

3. You must have a shopping system which buyers can click to purchase. Without that you will not be sucessful, unless you already have a strong following of clients. Art is a lot about impulse buying. You must make it very very easy for clients to purchase your work. They often are intimidated by the idea of contacting you to inquire about purchasing. With a shopping system they don't have to.

4. Get rid of the thumbnails and show larger images. It's not necessary to show 150 paintings. Just update frequently with fewer images. I hate thumbnails. I won't click on them to enlarge. Others wont either.

5. Don't use cutesy images like little palettes or paint brushes or flash. Keep it fast and easy to load and keep your site nice and clean, more professional looking. Art is a business,it should project you as a serious professional artist, not a hobbyist.


6. Keep your images rotated frequently so that visitors have new things to see.

7. Give them a Work In Progress to see or a newsletter. Give them an opt in sign up for your promotional materials. Offer professional guarantees for your work so that there is no risk for them to purchase.

There are many things you can do to make your web site a selling portal but the above will probably help.