So what does Internet Marketing, Fine Artists and Faux Finishing all have in common? 3/31/2012
Well, unless you are already an established fine artist and consistently sell your work through galleries, or a faux finishing extraordinaire with a client base on a waiting list then most likely you probably don’t have a lot of concern about internet marketing other than you are drawn to this article out of curiosity. So my question is
Why are you here?
If you are looking for that silver internet marketing bullet that’s going to put you at the top of the search engines over night without any effort on your part then you are in the wrong place because it just doesn’t happen that way despite of what you been reading. If you are like many artists and have finally realized that using today’s technology as a means to expand your market and brand yourself online locally on a much larger scale then….
Welcome to Internet Marketing
Regardless of why you are here as artists we have to market ourselves just like any other business. For fine artists it’s a bit more complicated than to just whip out a website and throw an ad or two in the local paper or magazine because you must be careful of how and where you place yourself as an established fine artist depending on the type of art you specialize in. Knowing your target market and the kind of client you are trying to reach could be the hardest part for faux finishing artists because most don’t know who that might be, or even how to market themselves when it involves the internet, let alone what, how to begin a SEM (Search Engine Marketing) plan.
Fine Artists on the other hand do know their target market, but may be approaching it the wrong way, one example may be right for some but wrong for others is joining an artist hosting site that offer a great gallery, your own web page and a number of other things including access to the web traffic the site generates. But what most don’t realize is that your sharing that traffic with hundreds if not thousands of others artists which is a lot of competition all for a no fee or a very minimal one at best. Chances are of you gaining anything from that traffic is next to nil unless you pay for a premium internet marketing membership to get better exposure to the traffic.
The biggest mistake I see Faux Finishing Artists do is apply all their time on like kind no follow forums and social media platforms (me included) when they should be applying their time at other venues where they are more likely to reach someone who is looking for their faux finishing specialty. But what most often happens is you find many faux finishing artists spending their time in the social medias posting pictures of their faux finishing work and trading thoughts and ideas which is fine and I even do this myself. But just imagine if you were to take at least 75% of that time and spend it on other social platforms?
Now I am not talking about spamming them with photos of your work and what not, I am talking about just socializing without pushing yourself as a fine artist, faux finishing artist or whatever it is that you do. That’s what your profile is for, what would you think something like that could do for you? Gain trust? Friends? a following?
For several years now I have been studying internet marketing and it is a consistently changing platform. With Google making changes on how, when and where you may appear in the search results it’s no wonder how anyone can keep up with it. These changes seem to be an everyday event but in reality it isn’t as often or as complicated as you may think.
I am writing this article to try and at least give a general idea of how to achieve a web presence simply by doing a few things to at least get you started thinking in the right direction.
First and foremost is to start your own self hosted WordPress.org blog.
Maximize it for SEO ( Search Engine Optimization)
These few things are essential and if you are not at least willing to do this much then you may as well not even waste your time reading this internet marketing article and continue on the path that you are currently walking, which is probably pretty lonely and emptied pocket at this point otherwise you wouldn’t be here reading this article. Yes I know its a pretty hard ass way to tell you, but I’m not writing this to pat you on the back and feel sorry for you by telling you what you want to hear and that everything is going to be ok. Internet marketing can play a serious part of all businesses if you want it to, and if you want to know more of how you can make it work for you then leave a comment and share this article. I am doing this for Fine Artists, Faux Finishing Artists
You may even want to join my newsletter.
Internet Marketing. It’s up to you to decide…of what you make of it.
The bottom line is, it takes work and a serious approach and the fact of the matter is if you are not willing to do the work and face the reality that you must make changes in what isn’t working for you then I wish you luck.
Doesn’t matter what business your in Internet Marketing, Fine Artists or Faux Finishing, it’s there for all businesses to utilize
Now for a final note, if you are wondering what makes me such an expert or whether I know what I am talking about or not think about this for a minute.
You found this article on page one didn’t you? or did it find you? Try this on for size do a Google search for
Internet Marketing Fines Artists and Faux Finishing
note the date and time while your at it. My time now is 11:31 pm 3/31/12
Things that make you go hmmmm…(Arsenio Hall)