Why You Should Have A Website If You Are An Artist
Why Do I Need A Website?
You may be making a great income from the gallery system and do not need to market yourself in that world, but a website introduces you to a enormous potential audience. The artists I have observed that make the most income and are well known are the artists who took control of their career. This is your career no one else’s. It is not ancient times where you could subsist of your family wealth, you need to eat. If you are part of the one percent, I congratulate you on your good fortune, but you still have to control and maintain your career. No one should care more about your career then you. A website allows you to have a place for people to discover you and see what you are about. You are then not dependant on no one. It is up to you how much time your wish to grow your traffic with SEO, but you have somewhere where people can see your work. Importantly, people can contact you by email.
Make Your Own Platform
Having a website allows you freedom and control over your brand. If you are dependant on one social media platform, what are you going to do, if it becomes less popular or ceases to exist? It doesn’t matter how big you were on one platform, as each social media site is works differently and has different people. If you try to go from one platform to another, you have to build your brand up from the beginning. By having a website you are drawing people away from your social media account to your platform. It gives you control because you built this website from scratch and you decide how it looks and what it has on it.
It Is Relatively Inexpensive
Domain fees can vary depending on the domain and company you are using. I pay $15 in Australian dollars per year for my domain name. Overseas it is often cheaper to buy and register a domain name. If you cannot affording hosting fees, Wordpress and Wix have free versions that you can use. Just having a small portfolio, your contact and commission details are good to have, especially if you are using social media to boost your brand.
A Website Is More Likely to Encourage People To Buy Your Art
A website allows for more information to be given on each item for sale. It is convenient for the prospective buyer to have all the information including the price of each item. Leaving this information out, forces people to email you to ask how much an item costs and that is a bother. The more information you can give people about an item, the more likely they are to feel a connection to it and buy it. You can have an FAQ that tries to answer the most common questions people would have about commissioning an artwork from you. Every artist has a different procedure and rules with regard to commissions. It makes you look professional by having the process clearly set out and what is expected to happen. For a person that wishes to buy an artwork, they have to have faith in you delivering on the promises of your contract. Giving people all the information increases the chances of having a sale.
A Website Gives You More Options To Make Money
You can start a podcast, an emailing list, a blog or anything else. If you are a musician, releasing new beats is easier on a website then Instagram or Twitter, because they are not built for music in way that Soundcloud is. You can sell your beats on your website more easily. An email list is important because it updates people on what you have been doing. Your journey to this point is easier to express on a website through a blog or podcast, it brings people to you. By having more content available on your website, people are more likely to find you. If you receive enough traffic, you can monetize your website. Being an artist in the twenty-first century doesn’t have to be the cliché of the starving artist trope. Unlike the artists from the past, you have so many opportunities to build your brand. The first step should be starting a website.
