We spent the better half of the day wandering around from booth to booth. Much to my surprise, out of maybe 70 booths we poked around in, and perhaps 40 that we actually spent significant time in, only 2 artists took the time to come and speak to us. ONLY 2!!!! Simply shocking....
She clearly loves the arts and artists and even buys art at the fairs...
In addition she notes the lack of websites among the artists that she was particularly interested in.
Last month I attended the East Lansing Art Fair with Chris Ritke, the man who developed EntryThingy.com, a digital uploading system. As we walked the show you would hear people asking artists if they had websites and the invariable, "no, I do all my selling at the art fairs". After a while Chris was shaking his head and asking me why a person wouldn't take advantage of any way they could to let people find them, if not now, at least for another look at the art.
Me, I can understand about wanting all selling to be done at the shows so other things can be done when you aren't there. BUT -- some day you may not want to do that particular show, you may be incapacitated and unable to do art fairs, you may need supplementary income...someone who loves what you do and has never met you may stumble upon your website and come to find you at an art fair. I don't know about you, but a website can also be a sort of insurance policy.
My husband, photographer Norm Darwish, stopped doing photography and art fairs altogether in 2006, yet we keep his website online because phone calls and emails do come in from time to time that result in sales.
Comments
While we don't actually sell from our website, we have had occasions where we have gotten emails from people after the show to place an order for "the piece they just couldn't get out of their mind!"
But when the show is over, a website is very important. Just like a business card, it lets those who were interested in your work follow up with you on their own time. It's all about relationship building. Pat's example is a perfect illustration of how a strong brand can be reinforced through social media, websites, and personal contact.
Getting off topic here, but two thoughts:
First, if you haven't registered your name or your business name as a URL, DO IT NOW. The best way to get good ranking in organic (unpaid) search engines is to use your own name, if it's available, or a very memorable brand name, such as "Tattoo Dreams". Search terms like painting, artwork or photography are never going to get you high in the ranking -- they are too generic, and there are way too many competitors, for a general search to turn YOUR name up in the top ranks. And if your name is unique and memorable, it will be that much easier to own it in the search rankings. Buying your way to the top is just not an option for most of us.
Second, if you already have a domain name, get a personal email attached to it. Donny@donscreations.com is much stronger branding than donsart@aol.com, for example. Why? Because it says you take your work seriously enough to extend your brand from your booth to your website to your email. Domain hosted email is inexpensive, too, about $20/year, from hosting providers like GoDaddy, and takes about fifteen minutes to set up. If you don't want to give up your old email address, you can forward the new emails to the old one, and keep both.
FWIW, I do have my own domain, it currently forwards to my Etsy shop while I finish building the website portion, but it's something! I can't imagine having nothing available for people to preview, follow up with, etc. I might like your stuff, but I'm not going to traipse across the country and track you down for it....I doubt most buyers will!