Recently an artist asked me a really good question. She asked…
I find all the stuff on the internet overwhelming. But I know a lot of artists are promoting and selling online these days. If I did just one thing online what should it be?
This question came out of a conversation we were having about the many avenues available to market and promote you and your work online. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, DeviantArt, Etsy, as well as the countless art sites that offer free profile pages for you to display your work.
I believe if you had to pick just one spot for your online artistic presence it should be your own website. And I further believe that the best option for your artist website is a self hosted Wordpress site. This is the Wordpress software that is found at Wordpress.org, not the blogging service found at Wordpress.com. A tad confusing I know.
The difference between those other internet services and your own website is similar to the difference between owning a car or having to depending on public transportation to get you around. Yes buses and trains can be cheap and even free sometimes but you’re at the mercy of their routes and schedules. The same is true of free sites and services online. You’re at the mercy of how they want things done. But your own site gives you the freedom to do what you need to do exactly how you choose. And these days webhosting has gotten quite affordable.
The Wordpress.org software is free but you have to get a web host in order to use it. These days you can find a host in the range of $5.00 to $10.00 a month that will be there for all your needs. You’ll also need a domain name as well. Those run about $10.00 a year. Most hosts offer the ability to register domains as well.
This site and most of the sites I work with is hosted by Site5 and I can not say enough nice things about them. Customer service is the #1 thing I look for in a host and Site5 has never let me down. But there are many solid hosting companies out there. The best bet is to do a little research and find out what hosting people you trust use.
Most webhosting companies these days offer “1 click install” of Wordpress and many other web tools. Back before 1 click install Wordpress needed to be uploaded via an FTP client. Which can be a bit confusing if you’ve never used one before. Now you just log into your site control panel and look for “3rd Party Scripts” or “Fantistico” to upload Wordpress. This route also offers the support of your webhost. If you have trouble give them a call and they’ll walk you through it. If they are unwilling you might want to keep shopping for a host provider.
Now that you’ve uploaded Wordpress you’ve taken your first step into a larger world. A magical world filled with unlimited possibilities and unicorns. Okay not quite but Wordpress does offer some amazing things for an artist who is making their site DIY. Through the use of themes you have the ability to change the over all look and function of the site. And through the use of plugins you have many more options when it comes to function that you can add to your site. 95% of themes and plugins are free. The best part is the support community that is out there to help you when you have questions. I am not saying there is like a Wordpress hotline you can call when your in a jam but if you do a search for your Wordpress problem you are going to find an answer.
That is my short answer to the question of the one thing you should do as an artist to promote yourself online. There is a lot more I could say about artists using Wordpress so I am going to start a new category that features regular tips and advice for artists who are using Wordpress. Thinking of “Wordpress Wednesday,” because it is hard to go wrong with a double consonant.
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