15 Minute Craft Website Tips

Video is increasingly becoming an integral and powerful part of the Internet. If you're not using video somewhere on your website or blog, then you're missing out on a wonderful tool to help you attract visitors, tell stories about your work, and make more sales. In this episode, I'll tell you how to get started with online video and some tips on how to create great video content.

Unless you've been under a rock, you've heard of the popular social networking site Twitter. Perhaps you've even started your own Twitter account and started tweeting. But what's the best way to use Twitter to marketing your artwork? What are some of the things you need to avoid? And how does sending out messages that are only 140 characters long useful anyway? In this episode, I'll go over some of the do's and don'ts of using Twitter to marketing your artwork.

If your traffic numbers or sales are down your art website, perhaps you need to take a good look at how you're marketing your website. Are you making it up as you go or are you working with an actual well thought-out plan? In this show, I'll talk about how to create a killer marketing plan that can help you bring more traffic to your art website and to make those sales.

As artists, we're very aware of what our websites look like. This can sometimes cause us to overlook one of the most import aspects of a successful website...the content. Your website's content is the thing that keeps your customer on your website and keeps them returning long after they've admired your website's design. In this show, I'll give you 5 idea for creating compelling content for your art website.

Etsy, Artfire, Foliotwist, 1000Marktplaces, Big Cartel...these are just a few of the places online that artists and crafters can go to open a website, an online store, or online portfolio. While have a number of choices is great, it also can make it a big hard to choose the right one for you? In this episode, I'll talk about how to find and choose the right online service to help you build your website or sell your artwork.

If you've had a website for a couple of years, you might be thinking about starting a fresh new year with a fresh new website. But redesigning a website can be just a big a deal as creating one from scratch. In this episode, I'll give you some tips on how to spruce up your art website for the coming year without losing a lot of money or your sanity.

The year 2010 is here and it's time to start looking ahead to the New Year. Do your beginning of the year plans also include making your artist's website a success? In this episode, I'll talk about how to plan for a successful online 2010.

You've probably heard of image sharing sites like Flickr, Picassa, and Photobucket and perhaps you even have an account so you can share photos of your last vacation with your friends. But did you also know that it can be a great way to help promote your artwork? On today's episode, I'm going to discuss some of the benefits (and pitfalls) of using image sharing websites to promote your artwork.

Blogging is a great way to help promote your artwork online. Unfortunately, setting up a blog is a lot easier than actually blogging on a regular basis. Life gets in the way, you have a show to prepare for, the house needs to be cleaned, the kids are sick, or you just don't know what to write about anymore. Before you know it, it's been months since your last blog post. A blog is only useful if you post on a regular basis. So how do you start up again when it's been months since you've even looked at your blog? In this episode, I'll discuss ways to get out of a blogging slump and how to stay out of the slump in the future.

SEO or search engine optimization is one of those important things that many artists tend to ignore because it seems like it either too difficult to do or doesn't work. But if you ignore the importance of making your website or blog attractive to search engines, you're missing out on potential customers for your art. On today's episode, I'll talk about why it's important to make your website more attractive to search engines and a couple of tips on how to do it.

When most artists think about making money with their art, they mainly think about direct sales....you make a piece of art and you sell it to a customer. But there are number of different ways to make money in addition to selling your artwork. And these alternate streams of income can help supplement your bottom line. In this episode, I'm going to talk about 5 alternate ways to make money without directly selling your art.

If you're an artist trying to promote your artwork or sell your artwork online, you've probably heard of social networking sites like Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter. Perhaps you've already dipped your toe into the social networking waters. But is it working the way you're expecting? Is it getting you results or does it feel like a waste of time? Social networking can greatly benefit your marketing efforts IF you take the right approach. On this episode, I'll give you some tips that you can use right away that can help you successfully marketing your art through social networking.

Simply building your art website is only the beginning of marketing yourself online. You also need to promote your website if you want it to work as an effective marketing tool. But, if you're a working artist or an artist that also holds down another job, how are you going to keep with the marketing part of your website AND creating your art? In this episode, I'll discuss ways you can keep up with both creating your art and marketing it on your website.

Having fantastic images of your artwork on your art website is an absolute must if you want to successfully promote and sell your artwork. So how do you ensure that photos of your handmade items are actually encouraging sales? Here are some tips on how you can create great images of your artwork that makes your customers reach for their credit cards.

An appearance on TV or an article in the newspaper is a great way to bring more attention to your artwork. Your art website and/or blog can help you bring you and your work to the attention of reporters who would be interested in featuring YOU. In this episode, I will talk about 5 ways you can use your art website or blog as a public relations magnet.