Excuse number one: I don’t have the time
Excuse number two: I don’t have a computer
Excuse number three: The gallery is promoting me
Excuse number four: People know who I am and know where to find me
Excuse number five: I am not good at this
Excuse number six: I can’t afford it
Excuse number seven: I don’t know where to start. Its so overwhelming
Excuse number eight: I really am computer illiterate. I just am NOT good with computers.
Art evolves, artists evolve. We have to keep up with the times in order to keep up with our customers.
Let’s look at excuse number one. “I don’t have the time.” When there is something important, such as paying the bill, we make the time, don’t we? If you knew that having an online presence makes a difference in establishing a sale to bring in revenue, you would make the time, wouldn’t you? Granted, it requires commitment and consistency for the online presence to pay off. Just putting up a website, not bothering to respond to e-mails, not bothering to post anything interesting on Facebook or update your product pages, it is not going to pay off. However, there is plenty of proof for those who do put in the time and commitment to their online presence and social media, that it pays off.
Excuse number two: “I don’t have a computer.” According to Nielsen report in 2009, more than 80% of Americans have a computer in their homes. Get a laptop. Take a class at community school and learn how to use your computer. The future is pointing the way ~ which will be the computer, or actually, laptops, the tablets, and hand-held devices (cell phones). Microchips are getting smaller and smaller and it won’t be much longer, that our devices will be communicating with one another. What devices you ask? Your phone might communicate with your thermostat at your house. Your medicine cabinet might communicate with your pharmacist to let them know that you’re low on a certain prescription. Who knows, someday a customer may order your artwork through their phone while they are on their way to work. You certainly would want an online presence at that point, wouldn’t you?
Excuse number three. “The gallery is promoting me.” Yes, the gallery is working very hard at promoting you. However, you should be promoting the gallery too while you’re promoting your work. It should be a two way partnership between you and the gallery for long term success and sustainability. To think that the gallery is going to do all the work is a terrible excuse.
Excuse number four: “People who know who I am and know where to find me.” It is nice to have a following. You have certainly worked very hard to earn that following. But we’re always looking for new prospects. Your regular customers aren’t always buying from you. Their network of people aren’t always as vast nor as willing to purchase artwork from you. So, you need to find new customers and always be on the lookout for new customers. In addition to the gallery helping you to find new customers, your online presence can help you find new customers. How would they find you? They could be on their computer, using search engines, searching for certain types of images or artwork for their home or offices. . .
Excuse number five: “I am not good at this.” It takes practice. Like everything else we do, it takes time, practice, and finding what works and what doesn’t. I also hear, “I’m an artist, not a business person, not a marketing or sales person.” Well, yes you are if you want to make money doing what you do. Or you’re going to have to hire a representative. And wait, don’t think that once you build a website, the customers will come too. You still have to market your art work. You still have to sell. You still have to handle the bookkeeping, the invoicing, taxes and all the good stuff. Like it or not, when you decide to make a living as an artist, you have just decided to also to become an accountant, sales person, marketing person, packing and shipping person, and whatever else that comes along in order for you to earn your revenue and keep your customers happy.
Excuse number six. “I can’t afford it.” WordPress is free. You can establish an online presence for free by using WordPress or Blogger. Now, if you want to be able to do e-commerce, then get on ebay or etsy. However, there are fees involved if you decide to sell your artwork through such sites. Don’t forget to take that in consideration while pricing your pieces. WordPress offers tutorials on how set it up, to post and upload pictures. There are some books and classes on how to use WordPress. Like everything else, it requires computer, digital camera, photo editing software, willingness to learn and time. Last word: you still have to market your site. How? You have to drive traffic to it using your e-mail, Facebook and word of mouth. You can put it on your business card too.
There’s excuse number seven: “I don’t know where to start.” It is so overwhelming. Surely it is. Break it down to manageable chunks. You don’t have to conquer the Internet world in a day. The beauty of the website is that it is adaptable, flexible, and it evolves with you and your art. If you are a photographer for an example, you can feature only your fine art photography to start with before showing off your portrait photography work. The fine art photography images can be broken down to landscape and still life as an example. Do a little bit of research on the Internet, see how your peer artists are setting up their online presence, what are they putting up. What is it that you like or don’t like? Then sort of sketch out your website. That is a good start.
The last excuse: excuse number eight: “I really am computer illiterate.” Then in that case, you might want to consider making an investment in having someone do the work for you. Creating the online presence. Maybe the gallery can help you. Maybe a graphic design student can help you. Maybe there is someone you know. But you do need an online presence.
The Internet and technology isn’t going away. Ignoring it is not going to benefit you.
If you would like more help, I offer workshops on how to use WordPress, Photoshop Elements, and how to be a successful artist using social media and marketing.
