ArtSites Updates

Wish You Were Here - The Postcard Project

ArtSites artists, Gretchen Markle, has a fascinating project called, "Wish You Were Here - The Postcard Project".

For this project, Gretchen will send a hand-painted watercolour postcard to anybody who wants one.

All she asks in return is that they send her back a postcard telling her: Why they like or don't like 'REAL' (i.e, snail) mail.

The postcard they send back can be either homemade or commercial. Of course, with artists, Gretchen's hoping to get homemade :-)

Eventually, when Gretchen has sent out enough postcards and received enough responses, she's going to have a show of all the cards (copies of hers and the originals from the participants).

To make a really substantial show, she'd like to have at least 350 postcards.

So, Gretchen's question to you is: Would you like one of her hand-painted watercolour postcards?

If so, would you be willing to send her a postcard back telling her why you like or don't like 'REAL" (i.e. snail) mail!

If so, fill out the details on her website and thanks for supporting another ArtSites artist!

With all the social media sites, do I still need my own website?!

We often get asked whether it still makes sense to have your own website, especially with all of the social media websites out there.

And, our answer is a resounding - YES! And, here's why (and it's not because we sell websites ;-)

Think of your website as your online home or studio. It's the place where you can share everything related to your art.

It should be the definitive online resource for ALL your art and for your story!

On your website, you control how everything is presented and what's showcased.

You have COMPLETE control over everything: the colors, the images, the descriptions, how you categorize things, and most importantly, you control how you tell your story about you and your art!

Your website should be your ONLINE ART HOME!

That said, social media sites serve a VERY important role in getting your art discovered and sold!

Think ofsocial media sites as online retail stores and galleries with LOTS of traffic!

Just like in the real world, you need to get your work in front of as many people as possible.

Your ultimate goal is to get potential buyers to "discover" you and buy your works!

So, yes, you need to be on the social media sites, e.g.Facebook, Pinterest, Etsy (probably my top 3 recommendations), etc.

And, the beauty of these "online retailers" is that you don't even need their permission to get shown! :-)

So, go out there and show/distribute you artwork online as broadly as you can!

But, please make sure that you're bringing buyers BACK to your website to view more of your work!

Allow them to connect with you and your art in a way that is appropriate and that is controlled by you!

I got an email this week from a new ArtSites artist asking what else he should do after setting up his website. I thought you might enjoy hearing my answer. So, over the coming weeks, I'll post some of the questions and answers I get, as well as provide tips to help you get more people to your website and to grow your online presence. if you have a marketing question, please send me an email and I look forward to sharing my "lessons learned" with you!

Now, back to the question at hand...what to do after finishing one's website.

One of the first things you should do is:

• Create business cards or postcards with your new website address, as well as your new "professional" email address

With each ArtSites website, we setup a few new email address for you that use your new website address, e.g. YourName@YourWebsite.com or Info@YourWebsite.com.

We will forward these emails to your personal accounts, e.g. yahoo.com, gmail.com, shaw.ca, etc. This allows you to have a professional email address that is linked to your new website.

If you want to find out how to setup your email program to send using your new email address, here are a few tutorials for Gmail, Hotmail or Sympatico.ca, and Apple's Mail program.

If you are using Outlook, simply let us know which version you're using and we'll work with you to get setup (and create some more tutorials ;-) So, Step 1 is:

• Get some marketing materials printed that include your new website and email and start handing these out to everyone you know!

Next week, I'll post some more tips...

Yeah! We've finally launched a whole new set of ArtSites Tutorials!

We're hoping these will help you remember how to do more ArtSites tasks and perhaps even spark you to try some new ones, e.g. Embed a Video or Add PayPal Buttons. (Speaking of which, tomorrow - Saturday - is our next free online PayPal Workshop.)

If you can't find a tutorial to answer your question, simply let us know and we'll probably create one just for you ;-)

Enjoy!

Geoff and I want to sincerely apologize!

We've been busy working on upgrading ArtSites' infrastructure and realized this week that in making some changes, we messed up your Statistics. :-(

If you've noticed a drop in visits, it's probably due to our mistake!

We've fixed it, but if you ever see something odd (or broken) with our service, please let us know!

Yes, we, too, make mistakes and appreciate finding out as soon as possible!

Thanks for your understanding and just pretend you had MILLIONS of visitors over the past few weeks :-)