I'm wanting to update my website or totally remake and I'm looking for a web host that might actually help with promotion. Not sure what the best approach is. Any advice out there?
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I'm wanting to update my website or totally remake and I'm looking for a web host that might actually help with promotion. Not sure what the best approach is. Any advice out there?
You need to be a member of Art Fair Insiders to add comments!
Comments
Barrie Lynn Bryant--It's a small world isn't it? I think I've even talked to Jim Wilson. My website is terribly out of date and it needs to go. I think I signed up for Instagram but I couldn't figure it out from a computer. I'm fairly tech savy in some ways. I'm on Facebook and you aren't missing anything. FB manipulates the conversation and removes what it doesn't like. I've made one sale off of there. Most everything else has been from tent shows. I don't know much about FASO. That is why I was asking about it. It definitely comes down to exposure. I'm not sure about blogging. I have got to take a more business like approach to marketing. Manage my time and all that. Life just gets out of hand between the ranching and now we have a couple of vacation rentals to manage. I wouldn't do that if I could find decent full time renters but that isn't easy either. So life is what it is. I just need to redo that website, get a newsletter up and paint. Sounds easy enough as long as the cows stay where they are supposed to be. Just a little ranch humor. Well glad you like the website that is up. I wish you could have seen the more up to date stuff. It's easy to get behind when updating is such a chore.
Thanks to everyone else for the comments too.
I use FASO and am unaware of how they will promote me other than by making their website templates and advice better. They do that, too. The creator of FASO, Clint Watson, is good at this stuff.
Who are you wanting the website service to promote to? How can they do it? I think promoting your art is very spefic to your demographic, and you know that demographic better than anyone. So you have to establish followers and then market to them yourself. That's how I do it.
FASO sends out a newsletter daily to subscribers. I open and read a newsletter about every two weeks when I see a topic in my email subject line that piques my interest. A few days ago Clint wrote the advice in it about posting on Instagram. I have an Instagram account, but I've never posted anything there. What's my excuse? I've got lots of art and frames to make. That's a good excuse, because if I don't create new work I'll not have anything to sell. So I balance my time. Using FASO makes managing a website easy. I recommend it. I do update my website regularly and often.
I looked at your website and enjoyed the western art and local feeling of the site. The template websites will erase that somewhat. I live in Wyoming which is why I enjoyed yours so much. I'm in ranching country. In fact, Wilson ranches were right here in my little town of 90 long before I got here and up until they sold to Wyoming Whiskey six or so years ago, and then they moved 25 miles out to the Box Cars ranch. I think Jim was President of the Salers Association, so his name might be familiar to you.
Anyway, I'm digressing into ranch life! And why not?
You either need to do better with blogging, or eliminate it all together. I recently did away with the blog part of my site. I just don't blog anymore.
Back to what I was saying about Instagram.... Clint advises folks to post on Instagram several times a day. If that's too much sometimes, back off to two times or one every now and then. Visibility is the key. The more you post, the more people find you and the more you remind followers you are working in the biz. That's the way this damn internet works. You have to overload the circuits, or try to. I know that is contrary to our lifestyle out here, but that's the internet way.
I am pretty tech savvy. I will start posting on Instagram, I think. I do not have a Facebook account and probably will not ever start one. I have never liked their concept despite being in the old fart minority. And I feel vindicated due to the recent problems they present with the election stuff. The fake posts and stuff like that. The bad side of the thing. There is a good side of the thing, but I still don't like that side of it, either.
So if you start a website, keep it up to date. Post regularly and often. Start a newsletter. Ask for people to subscribe. Send out a newsletter often. And then promote yourself on Instagram more than once a day. I think that can be pretty easy to manage, as long as yer not punchin' cattle and mendin' fences too much. WOOHOO!
I so understand, Debbie. I'm facing a total overhaul of my sites and sticking to my excuse, "I'm too busy." We'll see.
Thanks Connie. I will check out your suggestions. I'm trying to get reacquainted with Weebly. I have a plan with a company that uses weebly. I built one site with it but I'm just having a lot of problems getting it going. I have found wix to be twice as easy but I still have a hosting plan with that I can't get a refund on so I'm pretty stuck with my original hosting company. It's unfortunate that the site needs a total face lift. Funny how a person gets to they don't like anything at all about previous efforts.
Fwiw, Debbie. I started this website and my other ones around the art fair business because my son, Scott Fox, said I should. His area of expertise is advising small e-businesses and his services have been invaluable, obviously. There is of course, lots of info online, but if you want a quickie overview for us beginners, you might find this video helpful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xEbrVkT7Ro&feature=youtu.be
Also, if you want to see a site that has e-commerce capabilities, my daughter-in-law runs a very good site where she sells her knitwear patterns. She has developed this her self ... see over there on the right hand side the ad for SweaterBabe.com. That is she ...
Ideally, Judy, you need your own site and you advertise that site always and you have a signup box on your website, plus opportunities for people to sign up at art fairs to join it. Please click this link where I did a photo essay on Art in the Pearl and you'll see Xavier Nuez's cool sign to get people to sign up for his list.
Building your own brand is most important. Definitely linking to it from an etsy or eBay site is important. You don't want to only be on those sites. They are bait for other artists doing similar things.
I don't know anything about FASO.
One of the best presentations at the arts festival conference was by Benjamin Frey, an artist, who shared a lot of his tips on engaging with social media. Why don't you google Ben and see if you can discern what he has developed. As he stated at the start of his presentation he is trying to get the most exposure from the least work so he has developed lots of links and feeds.
This site (AFI) has a feed that takes these articles to a provider (Feedblitz) so we can send out the posts here and also feeds to our FB pages. Supposedly working smarter, not harder, but still covering all the bases is time-consuming, but ultimately worth it.
There is an art site that allows you to link with them for a monthly fee which would double exposure but I can't find the information. I didn't think it was FASO but I saw it here not too long ago. I think you actually have a page there. Has anyone tried that?
If you also have a shop site on one of the shared sites such as etsy, ebay, amazon, you can get traffic and direct it to your own website. Ideally, I would like to do that.
It's allowed, but the shared sites have some rules, such as not trying to sell the exact same thing on your private site.
Actually it's probably next to impossible to get found unless you advertise it to your potential customers when you do shows. Or you probably need to hire a company that specializes in web site promotion. The template web sites offer links to your social media accounts, but you already should have the following to take advantage of it. The other thing you need to be concerned about is that your web site display properly on a smart phone or tablet. Make sure which ever platform you decide on offers that also.
Larry Berman
http://BermanGraphics.com
412-401-8100
I'm totally redoing my website. It needed more than a simple update. I'm looking for more than just a website. You know how hard it is to get found with just a website.
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