The world has changed in our life time! So let’s go along for the ride.

It’s said art websites don’t do very well. Don’t believe it. Artists can be successful on the internet.

What is your art like?

Family and friends are eager to give praise,

“Gosh it must be easy to sell your art! Look how fantastic it is. You should…!”

And so out comes their advice. Mostly stuff you already knew… that didn’t work. But you had to be polite. Because they had no idea what protocol was required!

Has that ever happened to you? I’m guessing it has.

And getting into galleries wasn’t as easy as your fans thought either. If you didn’t have the right social connections or capital, you had to really `work your butt off’.

If you wanted to be well known, you had to get known. Isn’t that right? You can’t be just a ‘flash in the pan’ for a day or two. Your art needs to be out there ‘in the face’ of the public regularly, until everyone had heard about it !!!

Now let’s go back in time a little,

To a time before the internet, Facebook or Twitter…

Before 1993 in South Africa, there used to be two to four galleries to each shopping mall. Today there are none. And if you do find one, you’ll be surprised. Why? How did this happen? Because:

• Technology advanced so rapidly and trends were changing so quickly… · And the average man in the street was losing interest in original art.
• So much so that economically very few people were prepared to spend money on art any more.
• Consequently it wiped out gallery owners’ profit margin and they were unable to cover their rent and overheads.
• And as for the artists, the high commissions the galleries were imposing, which left artists with very little profit to pay the rising costs of art materials, caused by the import embargo placed on South Africa at the time.

So if the galleries were folding, what could artists do?

They switched to internet exposure of cause. There they could set up their own galleries and didn’t have to pay a large commission percentage to the gallery.

I for one, started a gallery website some time back, but never knew if people visited it or not. Websites weren’t what they are today, technology has given us wings.

A few years ago I bought a WordPress manual and set up my own WordPress website. Soon after that I bought Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett’s ProBlogger third edition manual. Thanks to those two manuals, and the research I did, I’ve never looked back. My site has gone from strength to strength.

Why is that?

• My attitude is that, I see websites are like having a business. Your shop has to have new stock arriving all the time.  Because people want to see what’s new and exciting to see.
• Or you could say having a website is like a newspaper or magazine. People expect it to be regular.

To prove my point, the moment I’ve been away on holiday and doing location fieldwork, guess what happens? There is a dip in the visits I get coming to my site, during that time. People aren’t concerned if you need time out to produce new works of art, etc. They expect to always find something different and sensational to read and see.

Because technology is evolving so quickly, we have to work smarter.

We are not just artists. Now we must understand things like SEO trends, etc to be internet ‘streetwise’.

And the one thing that people want to see on a blog or website is… photos and images.

Aaah, now that’s where artists come in. We paint pictures, don’t we?!  So why aren’t we taking advantage of it? It’s ‘right up our alley’. We should be excelling!

So what’s wrong?

The only other thing it must be… is our content. We’re obviously not providing what people want or need most. Our content or subject matter isn’t interesting or exciting enough.

Make your website THE PLACE to go:

• If you want your website to be popular, think bigger! Be different: go where other artists haven’t been before. And have a ‘ball of a time’ doing it.
• Just putting up a gallery or slideshow of your art isn’t good enough. Your content on your site has to be absolutely fascinating.
• How informative are your blogs? There are artists out there who want to know how to do the techniques you do. What makes your paintings so dynamic and sensational?
• But that isn’t all, you also need to come across as been fun to be with. That means you can be your crazy self… not too crazy through. We don’t want people confirming artists are crazy people, do we! Allow your sense of humour to show through, though. Your enthusiasm rubs off on other people. Make sure they feel optimistic and inspired by your positive attitude to life.
• And give your art more impact: Play the fanciful against been dramatic. Because people are attracted and buy according to their emotions and senses.
• Because artists’ lifestyles are different, people want to see and hear what you are up to. Going through you website should be like taking an exhilarating adventure.
• People want to read how someone became successful. It gives them a feeling of hope that they too can achieve their own success.
• Added to that. They want to know how you handled problems. Because your problems tend to be other peoples’ problems as well. If you can overcome those problems, they feel they can also.
• Be aware of which nations are interested in art and cater to their particular needs. Google Trends page will help you with what’s trending.

Today artists have busy and exciting lifestyles:

Never a dull moment now that we have the internet. Besides painting stunning stuff, we have to be creative in other things too if we want to sell our art.

We see things normal `muggles’ take for granted and don’t see in their mundane lives! It’s up to us to create paintings that give people an awareness of the beauty of Nature all around them.

Art is a cultural entity. Have you ever noticed nations who weren’t built on a healthy cultural background deteriorated? So it isn’t surprising whatever we promote and paint has an effect on future generations.

Are you having a ball of a time?

Been out there blogging, doing the thing you like best and having fun while you do it!