Building an Artist Website

Create Your Own Artist Website

Are your ready to create your online art portfolio?

A large portion of the arts community do not have their own website. The main reason is that they wouldn't know where to start. Creating a webpage from scratch can be a daunting task for the average creative professional.

However, a website is becoming an increasingly crucial aspect of reaching buyers and more and more artists are finding ways to put their portfolio online.

Although there are a number of applications popping up to serve the creative communities online, it's not clear what features an Artist should look for when creating a website.

The "Done-for-You" Artist Website

Many artists asking themselves "How do I sell my art online?" have hired a design firm (if they have the cash) or asked a friend-of-a-friend who "knows HTML" to create their website - either for free or a small fee. These resources will buy your domain name, create the site, acquire a hosting service and upload the site. All the technical crud any artist would rather not deal with.

This can be a great "done-for-you" approach - until you want to update the site. We have personally seen situations where an artist's website has not been updated in years because the original person cannot be found, is too busy, or is not interested in helping to update the site without "financial considerations". The design firms will charge additional fees for each site update and "artist portfolio website services" often charge per image making regular updates costly.

Important Tip - If you do have someone else purchase a domain name for you be certain they use your name and email address. There is nothing more difficult than trying to switch ownership after you find out your domain name is owned by someone else. It's best to go search and purchase your own domain name, it's really easy and super cheap. Try GoDaddy.com for domain names starting at $1.99.

Know Your Options

It's important to be an active participant in your online marketing efforts. Art is your chosen profession and decisions concerning your online presence should not be made by others.

Thankfully, there are now a number of online resources that make it easier than ever for Artists to create and manage their own website. Most of these use what is called a Content Management System (or CMS). A full service system will allow you to add, edit and delete website pages, images and files plus change the 'look and feel' of your site. All without knowing anything about XHTML, FTP, AJAX, etc.

Search Google to get a good idea of what's available. It's a good idea to carefully compare each application. Many have a low monthly costs but include a setup fee and additional fees for images over a set limit, email accounts and a domain name.

Most Artists Website Applications have a free trial period and charge $150 - $200 per year (not including setup and hidden costs).

Other than cost, there are a lot of variables that should go into your decision. In addition to being affordable you want the application to be intuitive and easy to use, include plenty of space for your files, offer a wide variety of uses (such as galleries, blogging, audio, video and contact form capabilities). Is there a lot of visual styles to choose from and can you create your own? Will your site be XHTML compliant, search engine friendly and includes XML-syndication? Don't know what that is? This insures that all browsers, search engines, RSS and handicap readers can access your site. If a service your interested in doesn't offer this information on their site - don't be afraid to ask.

When we started building MosaicGlobe (http://www.MosaicGlobe.com) we wanted to provide full featured websites for artists that removed the cost barriers that often made a website unattainable. With large accounts provided free-of-charge and full accounts starting at $9 per month, we're happy to say that MosaicGlobe is quickly becoming a popular choice for marketing savvy artists. Hint - Be sure to include us in your comparisons.

Artist Self Promotion

We encourage 'marketing savvy artists' because having a website is the first step in marketing your art online. A website is useless if no one knows it's there. MosaicGlobe was built with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in mind. This means that search engines can find and index your site rather quickly.

Also, it's worth noting that a website with nothing but images and animated flash effects may look great - but search engines cannot see it. They need a description or they assume there's nothing there and move on. While your website should include lots of images, it should also include a way to describe those images.

In addition, we want to know how many people are coming to the site, and where they came from. If they found your site on google, what keyword did they use? How many people came to the site from the article in last months online newspaper - or the link on your Etsy page? This helps you decide what effort are working and what isn't. A 'visitor counter' on your page is not only antiquated, it's wildly inaccurate. Google Analytics is the premier method of over-the-top traffic analysis. Be sure to shop for detailed visitor statistics, particularly the ability to use Google Analytics free report tools.

Advanced Functionality
One last thing to consider when shopping for a DIY artist website. Let's say you do know HTML or you want the ease of a content management system (CMS ) but are looking to have a custom design created. Can you access the HTML code of a page directly and can you build your own visual template with CSS? This is where most applications really stumble but you don't want to find yourself limited by the designs and options available so it would be nice to know you have the ability to override the basic features.

Requirements for Artist Websites

So to recap, you want to acquire an application that will allow you to create and maintain your website without fuss.
This means it will need to meet the following requirements:

  • Generally Affordable (maybe even free)
  • No hidden fees for setup, additional images and pages.
  • Flexible uses: Image galleries, standard webpages, blogging, contact forms, widgets, music and video capabilities.
  • Have enough file space to store all your content
  • Ability to Add, Edit and Delete website pages, copy, images and files
  • A large number of professional visual templates to choose from
  • Optimized for Search Engines
  • Ability to sell artwork online
  • Advanced Coding: ability to embed code (such as PayPal buttons, YouTube videos, Widgets, etc.)
  • Advanced Design: The ability to create your own custom visual design
  • Detailed Visitor Tracking - preferably Google Analytics

Do you homework, try the trial accounts, beware of hidden costs and ask questions. Creating and maintaining your site should not cost you a fortune and shouldn't be so time consuming that you can't find time in the studio.
Artist Websites