Basic Advice for Promoting Your Art Online

Basic Advice for Promoting Your Art Online

It is important for an artist to think like an online entrepreneur when it comes to promoting his or her art online. One must be relentless if he or she desires to be successful selling art online. Thus, it is important to devote time to online promotion. In the past I have discussed several effective ways to promote art online. Below are some of the topics that have been discussed on the Myartspace Blog in the past. This list is in no way complete, but it may be helpful to artists who are new to promoting their art online. Feel free to comment with any advice that you have.

Join social art sites -- Joining social art networks, such as myartspace.com , is an effective way to promote your art online. A successful social art site will normally have a high traffic ranking-- which can potentially bring traffic to your personal website if you have it listed on your social art site profile.

These online art communities are different than mere art registries due to the fact that they utilize aspects of social networking-- such as the ability to leave comments-- and often involve an onsite messaging system so that users can communicate with each other on the site. This form of interaction can be vital as far as promoting your art is concerned.

Social art sites can be very useful if you are selling art online. Most social art networks offer an eCommerce platform. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of social art networks to choose from. Each site will offer different opportunities. However, some social art sites have limitations compared to others. For example, Artwanted.com currently sets a limit as to how many images a free user of the site can upload per month-- in order to have unlimited uploading capability on Artwanted you must become a Premium user. Other social art sites, like myartspace.com, offer unlimited uploading to free users.

It is also important to remember that some social art sites have a general community theme. For example, deviantART.com tends to promote fan art-- art involving characters from popular cartoons, movies, and graphic novels-- so it may not be the best site to promote yourself on if you are a fine artist. It is also important to remember that the level of professionalism varies from one site to another. Some social art sites cater to young teens while others are designed for career-oriented adults.

Join social networking sites in general -- Joining social networking sites like Myspace.com and Facebook.com can be an effective way to promote your art online. Most of the top social networking sites allow you to create groups and fan pages. Thus, you may consider creating a group for your art along with a fan page.

The interaction you have on social networking sites can potentially introduce your art to individuals who may not frequent social art sites. In other words, by being active on sites like Facebook and Myspace you may open doors to potential buyers who you would not have met otherwise. You may also meet curators and members of the press who can give you advice.

Establish a newsletter (e-Letter) -- Establishing a newsletter is a very effective way to promote your art online. Companies promote their products and keep a steady flow of traffic coming to their website by utilizing this tactic. The business-minded artist should take advantage of this marketing strategy by adding interested individuals to his or her newsletter or by offering a way for individuals to subscribe to the newsletter if they desire.

There are three things to remember when establishing a newsletter. 1.) Regulate how often you send updates-- you don’t want to annoy your subscribers by flooding their inbox. 2.) Remember to offer a way for subscribers to unsubscribe if they desire-- work within the law. 3.) Stay on topic. The newsletter is about your art... not the movie you watched last week.

Create an art blog -- Maintaining an art blog that is focused on your practice is an effective way to promote your art online. As I have mentioned on the Myartspace Blog in the past, Blogger and Wordpress are two good options to consider if you decide to create a blog for your art. It is important to post regularly if you decide to take this route for promoting your art online. Strive to post at least two entries per week-- if possible try to post daily.

Maintaining an active blog can be a great way to increase the traffic ranking of your personal website and art social network profiles that you maintain. Using sites like Pingomatic.com can help you to spread your blog across the World Wide Web like wildfire. You may also consider using social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace to further exposure for your blog. Twitter.com is also a good option to consider.

My advice is to keep your art blog focused on art. Write about your art practice, post images of works in progress, post press releases for any exhibit that you are involved with, and write about issues that concern you within the context of the art world. Remember that writing about fellow artists can be helpful as well-- they may even decide to write about you.

Utilize social bookmarking -- There is a reason why most websites offer social bookmarking tabs-- it is an effective way to promote the site and is also an effective way for site users to promote their interests. This is important for an artist who desires to promote his or her art online. By utilizing social bookmarking you can increase traffic to images of art that you have uploaded or increase the flow of traffic to your art blog. The possibilities are only limited by how active or inactive you are in promoting your art online.

Participate in art forum discussions -- Participating in art forum discussions can be a very effective way of promoting your art. There are many online forums that focus on art. Wetcanvas.com is a prime example. You will also find art forums on social networking sites such as Myspace. Many online art communities have forums as well. Some art forums focus on specific themes or forms of art-- the forum on Conceptart.org is a good example.

Remember to take advantage of your art forum participation. An effective way to drive traffic to your personal website or art profile is to include a link to those respected sites in your forum signature. In other words, each comment that you leave increases exposure for your art online. You never know who may discover your website while visiting the forum.

Other Art Advice Articles:

Stop Complaining and Focus on your Online Presence!

Just another starving artist?

Should I send a gallery a link to my art or images of my art by email in order to be considered for gallery representation?

How can I make a living off of my art?

Should I invest in my career?

How do I market my art?

Should I be worried about my images being 'stolen' online?

The Artist Statement

The Art Portfolio Serves Many Purposes

Take care, Stay true,

Brian Sherwin
Senior Editor
myartspace
www.myartspace.com
NYAXE
www.nyaxe.com

Don’t Expect Your Art to be Discovered. Make it Happen Online

Don’t Expect Your Art to be Discovered. Make it Happen Online.

After over a decade of researching online strategies for gaining exposure and selling art online I have noticed that many artists tend to embrace romantic notions of how the art market works. These fantasies are fueled by literature and films that depict the magic moment at which point an artist becomes “discovered”. The scenario often involves an artist working years in solitude only to be discovered by chance-- with fame and fortune just around the corner. Unfortunately, the art world does not exactly work that way. To put it bluntly, artists need to put the bedtime stories aside and learn to make it happen for themselves.

An artist can’t stay hidden in his or her studio and expect fame and fortune to appear out of nowhere. I can't stress this enough-- the idea of being picked up by an influential art collector or gallerist out of the blue is best left for the movies. It can happen, but the odds are it will not happen to you, anyone you know, or anyone you will meet in the near future. Yes, it is that rare. There are only so many brick & mortar galleries to go around-- and millions of artists worldwide who desire to be represented by them. In that sense the internet serves a need while offering great opportunity to artists who embrace it. It is a new frontier that the art world is only now starting to explore in detail.

I base my observations on the conversations I've had with hundreds of emerging and established artists. This is why I know that reality works very different than what we read in a novel or view on the big screen concerning the art world and ideas of being "discovered". Thus, it is my opinion that an artist can’t wait to be discovered. An artist must take the bull by the horns and utilize every opportunity in order to promote his or her artwork-- again, he or she must make it happen.

Luckily there is great opportunity to be found online. The potential for gaining exposure and marketing online is limitless. In other words, there is a world of opportunity at our fingertips. All it takes is an entrepreneurial spirit, the initiative to get started and maintain a presence online, and raw ambition. These factors are crucial to establishing a successful online promotion / market strategy.

An emerging artist must do everything he or she can-- as far as online promotion is concerned-- in order to help him(her)self be discovered or simply to carve out his or her own destiny. In other words, artists today don’t have to wait to be “discovered” in order to have their work placed before the public. An artist today can display his or her artwork online in order to reach the public at large-- including potential patrons and art collectors in general. The artist must be relentless in establishing a presence online.

In that sense artists are bypassing the traditional route of brick & mortar marketing by representing themselves and using the internet as a vehicle toward a marketing path that can be just as successful. As mentioned, this online art marketing path has the potential to be very successful in the long-run and has the added benefit of potentially opening career doors in ways that emerging artists in the past would not have had access to.

Getting started is simple enough. Buying a decent computer and enduring the monthly expense of internet connection is a good investment for a visual artist when you consider that he or she can reach more people online per month than he or she ever would buying an expensive ad in an art publication or other magazine. Another thought-- technically an internet savvy artist has the potential to reach more viewers per month than he or she ever would in a traditional gallery setting.

True, if you can afford it you can have the best of both worlds-- but you will find that many artists are focusing on online efforts rather than traditional forms of gaining exposure-- just as many who have been successful within the traditional model have stated that the internet is opening new doors. The methods of art marketing are changing and artists are leading the charge.

The simple fact is that artwork is being seen in ways that would not have been possible years ago. For example, some artist blogs have more unique traffic per month than physical exhibit spaces do in a year. True, you can debate the value of viewing art in person compared to viewing art online, but when it comes down to the line traffic is traffic no matter how much you try to philosophically slice it. To put it bluntly, today artists don't have to cling to fantasies of being discovered-- they can make it happen simply by following their ambition and utilizing the internet. A little initiative can go a long way online. Make it happen.

A few suggestions:

* Answer email that you receive about your art promptly. When a buyer or other interested person has a question about your art it is always best to answer it within 24 hours. After all, if you wait a month to answer a potential buyer her or she may have already purchased from another artist who was more prompt. Thus, you will want to set time aside each day to check your email and answer any questions that viewers may have.

* Be smart about how you list your contact info. Make sure that interested individuals can contact you with relative ease. Include an email address on your website, blog, art community profiles, and so on. You may want to list your email as ‘myhandle AT insertname.com’ instead of ‘myhandle@insertname.com’ in order to ward off bot programs that harvest email addresses. That step will help you to cut back on the amount of spam you receive at the address you have listed. However, keep in mind that some individuals and companies will harvest emails manually. Thus, it is always good to create an email address specifically for your online promotional and marketing efforts instead of listing your personal email address.

* Have a website or online community profile that is devoted to your artwork. Remember that your personal website does not have to be fancy to get the job done. Your main focus should be to provide a site that is easy to navigate and allows images to be viewed quickly. In other words, people are not going to waste time figuring out a puzzle just to view your work nor are they going to wait over a minute for your images to upload.

Remember that in most cases if you have a personal website it will be your responsibility to maintain it. So if something ‘breaks’ you need to know how to fix it or be able to afford the expense of having someone fix it. Hiring someone to design a website can be very expensive and the cost of minor fixes throughout the year can add up quickly. Keep that in mind before your personal website runs you instead of you running your personal website. In other words, learn the skills, find a friend who has the skills, or find alternative ways to display your art online.

If you lack the skills or resources needed to create your own website you can instead use an online art community profile as the hub of you online activity. If you take that path be selective and choose the art community that works best for your needs. To put it bluntly, if you create fine art you might think twice before uploading your artwork to an online art community that appears to focus on anime/manga fan art. Remember that your online associations can reflect on your professionalism in the opinion of some individuals.

*Create free accounts on online art communities. Online art communities can be a valuable resource for artists as far as exposure and marketing is concerned. You should maintain a few regardless if you have a personal website. The simple fact is that an online art community will most likely have more traffic than your personal website will be able to obtain on its own. Which means that you can increase traffic to your personal website by including a link to it on your online art community profile.

Online art communities that offer messaging, comments, forums, blogs and other aspects of social networking can be a valuable resource for keeping in contact with fellow artists and other individuals who are interested in your work. Never forget that having strong connections with fellow artists can lead to exhibit inclusion and provide valuable insight into the market as well. To put it bluntly, you can learn from fellow artists and might even receive a helping hand in the process-- just be sure to spread the knowledge on with open hand.

*Maintain an active blog for your art. A great way to obtain exposure for your art is to create a blog that is focused on your art, the exhibits you have been in, and so on. Choose a blog service that has high traffic-- such as Blogger or Wordpress. Try to post at least two entries per week. If you are selling art online be sure to make a post about it on your blog with a link back to the site where your are selling the art. If you have an upcoming exhibit be sure to post a press release about the exhibit on your blog.

It may seem overwhelming at first, but it is actually easy to find something to talk about as far as your work is concerned. Just remember that each entry helps improve your presence online. Be sure to utilize free services like Pingomatic in order to help spread your blog content on the World Wide Web.

*Establish yourself on social networking sites. Social networking sites-- such as Facebook-- can make it possible for you to connect with professionals with backgrounds in various industries. It is not hard to discover journalists, scientists, politicians, and others who are willing to network with you. These individuals may be willing to give you advice on how to improve your presence online and offline. Just be respectful. Remember that establishing online rapport with influential art bloggers can be very valuable as well. The feedback that you can obtain will be very helpful for your growth.

Take care, Stay true,

Brian Sherwin
Senior Editor
www.myartspace.com
www.nyaxe.com

Five Reasons to Join myartspace

Five Reasons to Join myartspace

1. It's Free and Unlimited: myartspace is the premier online network for the art world. It's free to join. It allows users to upload unlimited images, music, videos and audio narrations. You can create an unlimited number of galleries to organize your work. No limits. So how does it compare to the competition? We would encourage you to compare yourself:

Saatchi/YourGallery -- You can create one gallery that can contain up to 20 images for free. You can't upload or attach music to your galleries of work. myartspace allows you to organize your work into contemporary Flash galleries. But check out the work at their site and ours. A Saatchi Gallery. A myartspace gallery. You decide.

Or you compare our HTML gallery to look at apples-to-apples. And a lot of our competitors charge money just to be a member. Some let you upload 3 images per month unless you are a paying member. We encourage you to look at the other sites. Make the judgement yourself. At myartspace, we use online advertising and competitions to help offset the costs of building the site. So we can deliver the latest technology and unlimited storage for free to our community.

2. It's Contemporary and Cool: myartspace is hip. It's cool. It's contemporary. It lets artist build contemporary presentations of their works with music, audio narration, video and more. So you can create an experience that's much different than all other online sites for artists. And, if you want, you can take your gallery and "embed" it into other pages (like your www.myspace.com profile and bulletins, or your www.livejournal.com entries).

Some good examples include:

Galleries with music: Amanda Potter, Sarah Maple, Allison Currie
Galleries with narration: Dayton Castleman and Seth Camm
Galleries with video: Derek Ogbourne and Frank de las Mercedes
Galleries in HTML: Todd Burroughs, Paul Mardikian and Viorel George Popescu
e-Catalog in PDF Format: Lois Foley.

3. It takes a community to make it work! myartspace is a community with artists, collectors, curators, art critics, educators, gallery owners, and more. The community has painters, photographers, sculptors, videographers, and everything in between. myartspace has one of the largest collections of online interviews with emerging and established artists. myartspace sponsors all sorts of community events including world-class juried competitions.

In 2006 we sponsored the South of France Competition. Four winners were wisked to the South of France for a week. In 2007 we ran New York, New York -- a 3-week show in Chelsea, New York. Winners from the corners of the earth were flown in and hosted to a gala show opening. In 2008 myartspace sponsored a juried photography competition -- the myartspace/HotShoe International competition AND now the Miami Basel Juried Competition. In 2009 our competition will take us to London, England and Shanghai, China. And in 2010 myartspace will hold its winning global exhibition in Mumbai, India.

4. Wanna Sell your art; We can be your platform: Artists are linking up with collectors and selling their art today through their personal networks on myartspace. In November myartspace will be introducing our solution to art selling -- the New York Art Exchange (nyaxe). It allows artists to set up their own store and list their work. And, of course, the work can contain additional photos, video, and narration. Online galleries will be springing up to sell work using the myartspace platform. And galleries can extend an invitation to you to represent your work in their galleries -- whether online or in Chelsea.

5. And it offers a premium membership for even more! myartspace is a free, open community. But for those artist that want more professional capabilities we offer premium services for artists. Premium subscribers can have their own personal web addresses. They can have HTML and Flash galleries. They can create their own PDF e-Catalogs of their work. They can post news events and press releases, issue eVites to heir exhibitions and upcoming shows and much more. Premium Services is $75 per year. For more information on premium services, click HERE.

So in short, we would love for you to check out our site and see if it works for you. We're proud of our membership and our growth over the past two years. Come check out the premier online social network for the art world. www.myartspace.com

Why Art Sites Work

Why Art Sites Work

There has been debate involving the issue of networking online concerning visual artists for several years now. Some have suggested that online networking is not important for visual artists as far as exposure and success is concerned. Some feel that it is an unnecessary use of time that could be better spent in the studio or in searching for exhibit opportunities on foot. Others suggest, myself included, that online social networking and the exposure gained from it is a worthy pursuit for business-minded artists and that artists can actually save their valuable time if they do it right. Individuals in this camp, myself included, feel that creating and maintaining social networks online is a necessary effort for all artists-- specifically emerging artists-- to commit themselves to if they are seeking exhibit opportunities or opportunities to sell their work.

Why is social networking online necessary for artists? Because in today’s world it is necessary for any professional. I suppose the necessity depends on the artist though. For example, an artist who does not seek exhibition or selling opportunities may not need to focus on social networking in that respect. On that same note, an artist who has been in the rat race for decades may have enough of a following and support that he or she does not need to worry about online efforts aside from maintaining an online presence. However, emerging artists who desire to exhibit and sell need to think of themselves as business entrepreneurs because in many ways that is just what we are. Thus, social networking online is key as it is with any other marketing strategy.

True, social networking online is not the only key toward success, but it beats footing your way in order to obtain information and connections-- gas is not getting any cheaper. In fact, I think artists should view social networking online as a set of keys because there is a world of doors that can be opened with it. The ability to learn about valuable opportunities from your networks online is worth the effort. The potential of meeting a collector or curator online is worth the effort. Keeping in contact easily with fellow artists in order to help each other out is worth the effort. To put it bluntly, social networking online for artists is-- you guessed it-- worth the effort.

The effort you put into social networking online does not have to be taxing on your physical and mental reserves nor does it have to conflict with your daily life. You will be surprised in what you can accomplish just by spending a few minutes online each day in order to promote yourself on art sites that have social networking capabilities. If that effort is meshed with other social networks, such as Facebook or Myspace, you can technically reach thousands of people each day with just a few clicks of the mouse. It is far cheaper than sending out hundreds of business cards that will most likely end up gathering dust in a drawer or simply tossed aside. It is also far cheaper than paying at the pump or handing over money to a taxi in order to hit streets. The simple fact is that social networking online is an economically sound choice for an artist who wants to stay connected to the art world and opportunities while using his or her time wisely. Less time on the streets means more time in the studio, correct?

One reason that some circles of the art world look down upon art sites with social networking capabilities is the fact that the image of artist registries from the late 1990s and early 2000s are still stuck in their head. If you dig deep enough online you may discover the fractured remains of those ancient-- as far as the internet is concerned-- websites. I’ve found a few doing searches about art. I often do not remember their names, but I do remember their fees-- some charged as much as $50 per month for inclusion while others charged a few hundred dollars per year with no other benefits than being able to have a few images posted in their registry. Some of them were free and riddled with ads, but all of them were pretty much a one stop venture without any sense of community. None of those sites, at least that I’m aware of, function today as they did at that time. Sadly, the ill will brought on by those early art sites continue to sway opinions about art sites today as a whole in some circles. Thus, some art professionals tend to miss out on the positive changes that have occurred online over the years.

The simple fact is that many people who experienced those early online art registries first hand ended up closing their mind to any thought of art sites working for artists. Thus, current art sites with thriving communities and curator / collector involvement are unfortunately thrown on top of that old stack of bones due to opinions spurred by the first online art boom-- which did fail. People need to think about why art sites work today instead of holding on to the memory of sites that failed or exploited artists in the past. After all, many of those early art registries and sites did exploit artists in that most did not allow artists to upload images for free and most did involve a fee that was considered high even for back then. The art sites that thrive today are not a fluke. Some of them report sells involving millions of dollars per year-- a few have even been discussed in major papers, such as the New York Times. Again, that is not a fluke.

Today there are several art sites that allow artists to upload images for free. Some do set limits, but others, like www.myartspace.com, allow users with free accounts to upload as many images as they want for free. These art sites should not be considered just ‘a registry for images’ because most, including myartspace, offer their users the ability to communicate openly as well. For example, on myartspace members of the community can invite other members to their network, can leave comments for other members or send other members messages-- including alerts on the site and by email to their myartspace network when new galleries are uploaded. The network invite you receive could be from a curator, collector, or fellow artist. That is the excitement of social networking online. That is the basics of the importance that social networking online has played-- and will continue to play-- in the success of emerging artists today. The importance of art sites within the context of the art world will not go away anytime soon. Those savvy enough to pick up on the positive changes that have happened will be far better off in the future than those who have avoided it due to concerns of the past.

Why will art sites not go away anytime soon as far as the art world is concerned? Because a few art sites are already embedded within the mainstream art world. A select few-- including myartspace-- are involved, will be involved, or have been involved with major art fairs. Off the top of my head I can think of several art fairs that have featured art sites in one way or the other-- Scope, Pulse, Frieze and the Bridge Art Fair. Correct me if I’m wrong, but last I checked the brick & mortar galleries rush for acceptance from these same venues as well. Thus, at least in the eyes of some art fair founders, one could suggest that certain art sites are just as valid for displaying art as a traditional brick & mortar gallery. Yes, there are differences… but it does show how the internet is changing the way we should think about the art world as a whole. If some of the top business minds and collectors in the art world can find value in specific art sites perhaps the rest of us should at least consider that value, correct?

The influence of the internet and how art sites can work for artists can be discovered in physical art publications as well. Years ago some art publications stated that the sell of art online was doomed and that the internet would never be a viable way to support artists. Those publications wrote the internet-- as a vehicle for art commerce-- off as mere pipe dreams. Today much has changed in that many artists are able to earn a living, or at least extra income, from selling art online by utilizing eCommerce. Art publications have finally picked up on this and are starting to feature artist social networking capabilities on their websites while praising the influence the internet has had on the art world in print. Again, if those professionals can observe the value of social networking and selling art online perhaps those who still have doubts should at least consider the possibility.

As Brian Skiba, the Chief Technology Officer and Chief Financial Officer of myartspace, has pointed out-- there are a variety of reasons why sites focusing on the art world are built, survive, prosper, and work. Regarding what I’ve been saying, Mr. Skiba’s opinions-- in my opinion-- reveal that the flukes of the past must be forgotten unless we wish to be blind concerning the art sites that shine in the here and now. Observe the following text concerning these issues in the words of Mr. Skiba and his opinion of why art sites work for artists today and will continue to work for artists in the future:

First, a site like www.myartspace.com provides software functionality that is free and generally is more easy to use in what is known as a SaaS (Software As A Service) model. So artists can manage a contact list, blast out marketing messages, create price lists and catalogs in PDF form, build presentations that integrate music, video, audio narration and images. The level of expertise required to do most of these things by themselves with the basic flash/html/Adobe tools is expensive and complex. So simplicity and ease of access is a primary driver to a website like myartspace.

Second, communities like myartspace, by their nature, attract more traffic than do individual websites. Involvement on an art site will normally bring an artist more traffic than his or her personal website would by itself. There’s a reason why galleries are concentrated in cities. They draw art appreciators into the area of critical mass. The same is true for online sites. Most online sites are being hit tens of thousands of times a day, and this is far more challenging for an individual site, such as a personal site maintained by an individual artist, to do.

Third, the way search engines operate, the more cross-links that point to your individual websites that exist, the higher your site gets ranked in the search engines. So if your presence on a community site includes a link back to your personal site, the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is improved.

Fourth, communities are able to offer benefits that individuals would have difficulty achieving without scale. For instance, if you enter the myartspace competition to have your work shown at the Bridge Art Fair Miami , it will be reviewed by curators from the Whitney Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Contemporary Art, The San Jose Museum of Contemporary Art and the Bridge Art Fair.

In the past myartspace has brought in jurors from the Tate Modern, Sotheby’s, the National Portrait Gallery (London), the Rhode Island School of Design, the Art Institute of Chicago, and more. While it would be nice to believe that most artists had access to such curators for review the simple truth is that they don‘t. Thus, as a community member on myartspace they have the opportunity to gain that access if they choose.

Thousands of art appreciators come on myartspace every week. With over 400 interviews with contemporary artists known and unknown (the likes of James Rosenquist or Michael Craig-Martin), people are attracted to unique perspectives and proprietary content that is made available.

Fifth, artists do appreciate peer review, and participate in commentary, critique and dialog with other community members on art sites. This ranges from opinions on newly submitted work to opinions on art trends, politics and the price of oil.

Sixth, over time, many of the sites like myartspace begin launching eCommerce capabilities so artists can set up shop, sell original and on-demand printed work, and begin monetizing their experience online. Once again, a free, and easy to use platform is a lower hurdle for many artists when they are looking at representing themselves and dealing with the myriad of IT issues associated with a web site.

There are at least another dozen or two reasons why artists join these community-oriented art sites. The challenge to the overall perspective is the “registry” concept. A site like myartspace is not just a site for including your art in an online registry. Registry accounts for about 1/1000th the benefit of the community membership.

In closing, the art sites of yesterday may have not worked for artists. In fact, many of them were very self-serving in that they demanded high fees for questionable benefits. Some boldy exploited artists. However, today there are art sites that do work for artists and that will continue to expand into the future. True, it is not rational to focus your time on every art site you discover. Just as there are top brick & mortar galleries there are also art sites that are more professionally legitimate than others. In that sense, traffic is not always the marker of a professionally sound art site. That said, don’t allow hundreds of bad apples to spoil your basket.

Art sites do work! The art fairs have noticed. The art publications have noticed. Business professionals have noticed. Investors have noticed. Collectors have noticed. Millions of artists have noticed. Don’t you think it is time to take notice? Don’t you think it is time to acknowledge the fact that social networking and eCommerce involving the selling of art is one direction that the art world and art market is going? It is inevitable. Art sites work.

Take care, Stay true,

Brian Sherwin
Senior Editor
www.myartspace.com

Art and the Internet: The Artists Are Here. When will Galleries Participate?

Art and the Internet: The Artists Are Here. When will Galleries Participate?

The internet has quickly changed the way that we think about commerce in general. Anything you can think of can be purchased online. Today, businesses can be made or broken depending on the influence they have online. The art market and the selling of art is no exception as far as good business is concerned. Years ago predictions about the influence the internet would have on the art market were often scoffed at due to the early failure of e-commerce involving art. However, much has changed since those early years and several artists and art sites-- with an entrepreneur spirit-- have went on to sell millions of dollars worth of art since that early bust. One can find story after story of artists who struggled in the brick & mortar gallery scene only to carve out their future online by utilizing the potential that the internet provides. Blogs, auction sites, and art sites with e-commerce capabilities have given artists the tools they need in order to market themselves on their own terms without the need of traditional gallery involvement. The internet is here to stay and artists will continue to benefit from it. The question is… when will the traditional galleries and art dealers catch up?

It seems that with each passing month the press notes the fact that even the traditional structure of art marketing is changing as galleries and other aspects of the art world rush to catch up with what they observed as a doomed aspect of the market early on. The changes brought on my the internet-- concerning the buying and selling of art-- has been written about in major newspapers and art magazines. However, there are still certain aspects of the art world that has been slow to embrace these changes and the benefits they offer. Is e-commerce the market for the future as far as the buying and selling of art is concerned? That question may make an art critic, art dealer, or gallery owner laugh. However, one thing is for certain, it certainly seems that it has made an impact-- at least in the careers of artists who have embraced it.

People have called this change the democratization of the art world in that the buying and selling of art is within the reach of all artists-- instead of the relatively small number who are lucky enough to have traditional gallery representation. Self-representing artists can technically avoid the gallery scene all together by focusing on their online efforts. However, there are also a number of represented artists who have also embraced the internet in order to open up new avenues of commerce as far as the sell of their art is concerned. This is a power that artists-- for the most part-- lacked before the advent of the internet. Artists can now alter their marketing path by flirting with e-commerce or pave a new path that goes beyond the traditional art market by fully embracing e-commerce.

My guess is that traditional galleries, and others who deal in art from a brick & mortar setting, will need to adapt to these changes in order to compete. They will always have their place within the market as far as integrity goes, but tradition does not always equal continued success. As it stands, it is possible for an artist to make a better living selling his or her art online than the living he or she would make through traditional gallery representation. Artists combining both marketing structures will no doubt have the greatest benefit-- even if they are viewed as rogues by their peers who disregard the influence of the internet.

What I enjoy about this recent boom in e-commerce involving art and the many ways that artists have adapted to it is the fact that artists-- in general-- appear to be more open about discussing their work. For example, it is common for artists to discuss their thoughts, process, and methods on blogs. Art collectors and others who appreciate art benefit from this exchange. Artist/bloggers tend to give information that appeals to collectors by making the experience of purchasing art online personal even if no direct contact is made. Artists are able to keep in contact with past buyers in a personal way by blogging about their work and keeping a contact list of those collectors in order to send out new information. That exchange is remarkable. The end result-- due to e-commerce-- is an art market that benefits artists and informs collectors about the artists they are considering buying from.

Instead of focusing on the traditional art marketing structure, which often involves up to 50% commission and the burden of living in a city with great expense, artists online can avoid commission all together or discover a much lower commission by utilizing art sites that attract art collectors with their site traffic and the security of the e-commerce capabilities they provide. Artists can embrace this new avenue of art marketing from the comfort of their home no matter where home may be. In that sense, aspects of the traditional art market structure no longer has dominance as far as the success or failure of an artist is concerned. To put it bluntly, art dealers and gallery owners no longer have direct control over the ability of an artist to advance his or her career nor do they have the power they once held as to how successful an artist can be based on representation and exhibits. The ambition of the individual now dictates success or failure.

Traditional galleries and art dealers will always have their place in that they will continue to have access to a tight network of press and influential collectors who may or may not have a presence online. In a sense, they will always play a role in who enters the history books due to press and the acknowledgment that is rooted in it. For example, the art magazines will always cover brick & mortar exhibits in the hubs of the art world no matter what. One could say that the traditional art market will always influence the perception the public has about specific artists and their role within the context of art history. With that said, as the internet expands so will the consideration for what is historic and meaningful. Art bloggers, like myself, are already picking up on that by featuring artists who have yet to be featured or reviewed in a major newspaper or art publication. Eventually those barriers may very well be broken even if the gatekeepers of old are able to hold back some of the flood of change. There is always room for some aspects of tradition, true?

Art dealers and galleries should take notice of the changes around them. It has been suggested that many dealers and gallery owners are not paying attention to the success of online art auctions, e-commerce art sites, and the ability artists have had to build their own careers by utilizing the internet. Very few traditional galleries with websites have e-commerce capabilities-- in fact, many gallery websites are horribly outdated compared to the standards of today and the expectations of tomorrow. The decision to not expand in an ever-changing market is either bold or foolish. In other words, if traditional galleries lose their standing it is due to being stubborn and not embracing the technology of today while everyone else is. Frankly, the same can be said for newspapers and art publications who discredit the changes that have occurred due to the internet.

History tells us that in the past certain aspects of the art world felt that the buying and selling of art online would never be in reach-- that it would not work because buyers are not able to see the art in person. Many art dealers and gallery owners feel that only mediocre art is sold online. I’ve overheard that prejudice during discussions about the validity of selling art online. However, I know artists who embrace both the traditional art market and the digital frontier of the art market-- artists who have sold art online for thousands of dollars while their work in a brick & mortar gallery remains mostly unsold. Thus, remarks about artists utilizing the internet being mediocre is a sign of ignorance or denial.

Today e-commerce involving art is obviously working and will continue to work. Especially in a time when gallery owners are reporting a decrease in traffic as far as exhibit openings are concerned. Some have suggested that the decrease is due to gas prices and other economic factors. In that sense, exploring what the internet can provide is a question of economics and keeping a roof over the art they represent. Thus, I would think that now is the time for traditional art dealers and gallery owners to take notice and to embrace the change. Unfortunately, most tend to be stubborn on the issue-- a choice that may very well hurt the artists they represent and their business as whole when everything is said and done. Artists continue to reap the benefits of e-commerce and the rewards of maintaining a social network online while the majority of art dealers and gallery owners remain gridlocked on the issue.

The art market is changing in many ways due to the internet. It is foolish to consider it as just another trend-- it is a reality. The influence of the internet and the capabilities that the internet offers, such as establishing a large network of contacts, is a reality that every successful business must accept in order to maintain that success. At some point traditional galleries may have to embrace social networking online or risk failure. For example, it has been suggested that there is a new wave of younger art collectors that have entered the market. These young collectors are internet savvy-- they have experience utilizing sites like www.facebook.com and www.myspace.com in order to keep in contact with their peers. That is an aspect of the market that artists have tapped into by utilizing social networking websites and enhanced personal websites. One must ask, why are the brick & mortar galleries behind?

The implications of social networking online concerning art and the buying and selling of art is straight forward-- it does not take a business degree to understand it or to explore it as part of a marketing plan. Thanks to the internet it is possible for artists-- or gallery owners-- to discover art collectors on social networking websites or to be discovered by that youthful-- and influential-- market. For example, social networking art sites like www.myartspace.com allow artists to build a network of fellow artists, collectors, and curators. Myartspace allows artists and gallery owners to keep track of one another and inform people in their myartspace network about their career growth and exhibitions. These connections have helped artists to be accepted into brick & mortar gallery exhibits that they would not have otherwise known about. Traditional galleries should take note of that and benefit from the connections that are within their reach.

Traditional galleries and art dealers can benefit from having a presence online as well. For example, art dealers and gallery owners can benefit from having free profiles on websites like Facebook, Myspace, and myartspace. By utilizing these websites an art dealer or gallery owner-- or staff person-- can establish a network of ‘friends’ which will result in free advertising for upcoming exhibits when said network is informed of the event. Having a social networking presence also allows art dealers and gallery owners to observe potential talent with ease. The ability to contact emerging artists or mid-career artists who are not currently represented by a brick & mortar gallery is reason enough for an art dealer or gallery owner to consider utilizing the internet as part of his or her business model. It is a way for them to keep their gallery fresh with new artists when there is space available. In a sense, the art dealer or gallery owner who utilizes the internet and social networking sites can tap into talent before other art dealers and gallery owners have the chance. Thus, it is my prediction that art dealers and gallery owners who embrace the internet may very well corner that aspect of the traditional art market by leaving their peers and rivals in the dust and confusion of ‘what was’.

In closing, artists from all walks of life-- both unknown and known to the traditional art market-- are taking responsibility for their own careers by utilizing the potential of the internet. They are reshaping the business structure of the art world by embracing e-commerce and social networking. Many are making a living, or better living, from that activity. Some artists who have never exhibited in New York, Chicago, or Miami have a better presence online than artists who have stuck to the traditional route of art marketing. In fact, some of the artists who are well-known in those centers of the art world are practically unknown online. You can scoff at that statement all you want, but the simple fact is that content is King and the internet is the King’s castle. Art dealers and gallery owners can do the same. One could say that they must embrace it for the sake of their artists. The time for wishful thinking about the ‘way things were’ has passed. Welcome to art commerce 2.0. Don’t you think it is time to participate?

Take care, Stay true,

Brian Sherwin
Senior Editor
www.myartspace.com