Not The Starving Artist
Robert Maddisons' Not The Starving Artist

Artists And Photographers Websites

A website is a necessity for the artists and photographers who are

thinking about extending their art work into a

business. Even if this is a part time foot in the water

start to greater things you are missing out on one of the

most useful selling and marketing tools that is available to

you if you do not have a website.

A website gives you a shop window to show off your goods, to show potential customers

just what you can do for them. The problem is that just

about every visual artist and his dog thinks the same. If you

ask Google about “photographers” or “artists” you will get thousands of

answers – the competition is high.

It is beyond the space that I have available here to help

you design a website, just to make you think about it if you

are contemplating the freelance road to fame and fortune.

Website design takes a lot of thought and a lot of time and

experimentation to get right. The first website that I made

took forever to design, and when I was finished it was far too

complicated. Website design goes a lot further than what we

see on the surface. We have to consider “key words,” where

we put these words, the domain name, the title of your site,

who is going to host your site. The list goes on and on.

If you have spare time on your hands and web design

interests you then by all means design your own site from

scratch. My advice to you is keep it simple. You are not

trying to impress with the design of your site, but trying

to design a shop window for your goods. People don’t surf

the web to look for all dancing web pages that turn

somersaults and take for ever to show. They go on the web

for information. Give them the information as quickly and

simply as possible.

If you want to make a good but quick website, so that you

can spend the rest of your time actually making the art to put on your site you could look for a website

design firm that specializes in sites for artists and

photographers. Here again you must do your research. Some

firms are better than others, and cost is not always an

indicator of quality.

I have one of my sites hosted by a

firm called “Clikpic.” You don’t need any technical

expertise, but you still get complete control over your

site. There is a choice of templates that were designed

especially for artists and photographers, and it is easy to

create and edit your own website. Clikpic also make it

simple to link up to Pay Pal to sell your work online. There

is also a free seven day trial. All of this for only £35.00

per year. Incidentally, I have no allegiance to Clikpic, other than I

use them for one of my websites and have found them reliable

and helpful.

There are lots of other solutions out there. You could have

your site incorporated into a print ordering system. These

systems can either be incorporated into a website being

created from scratch or it can be added to an existing site.

Working in this way means that you don’t have to bother with

the printing, and you can concentrate more on the actual art work. I’ve never worked this way, but I know those

that do and they are very happy with the system. Ask “Google”

to find you firms that offer this system.

Most importantly take your time, research your subject. Look

at what others have done. If you see a site that excites you

give the owner an email asking about it. Artists and photographers rarely

mind giving advice to other creative people. Remember

that you, as a professional, will be judged by the public on

what they first see. Make sure that it is a good impression.