Before I talk about the gallery pages on your website I thought I should talk about the mistakes I've seen on artists websites. I want to be sure that you will develop THE most exciting and professional website possible. Your website says so much about you and is there to speak for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It's the world wide web after all and a poorly designed website says so much about you.
1. Not including an artist statement, bio and resume.
Visitors will go to your work, first and foremost, to see your art but a well written artist statement, bio and resume will make the difference between making a sale and not making a sale. Between getting an exhibition and not getting that exhibition. It shows how in touch with your process you are, your experience and your professionalism.
2. Not including contact information or including too much contact information.
If there is no way for people to contact you how will you receive any opportunities. That said putting your address on your website (or anywhere on the internet for that matter) is opening yourself up for identity theft and perhaps something worse. Also putting a landline phone number is a bad idea. If you put your phone number into a search engine your name and address might come up. Try it on Yahoo in particular. With that information someone can start opening bank accounts, getting credit cards, etc. in your name. So put access to an email and a cell phone number only. You can also put links to your Social Networking profiles.
3. Not putting links to other websites
Search engines will give you better ranking if you link your website to another website and they, in turn, link back to you. Make sure that these links are relevant to your work and that they have high search engine ranking. A link to your dentist is fine but does it really have anything to do with your work?
4. Not Meta-tagging Your Website
This means that you will choose 8 key words that will help search engine spiders categorize your website. If you don't' do this they will go by the content of the text on your page and that will make they come up with something totally garbled. There is also a two sentence description that is a tag. You can see what that is in a previous post with a glossary of terms.
5. Letting your website developer handle the whole entire thing, even the design.
A website designer, in most cases, is not a graphic designer. If they are, they may not know the ins and outs of the art world. What makes a professional website. That's entirely up to you. Before you even think of approaching a designer please, please, please take the time to plan your website. I can help you do that through an internet consultation. Visit the website for more information: www.theartistobjective.com I can do it over the phone or in person with internet support.
6. Putting up a website and leaving it static.
In order for a website to be effective it has to be live. Meaning lively and constantly changing. Put new photos, articles, exhibition information and events. If you can't do it yourself have your website designer do it for you. This can be costly. The Artists Objective has a monthly website update program. For more information: www.theartistobjective.com
7. Confusing Navigation/Menus
This runs the gamete from poor placement, to type that's too small, to confusing categories. The number one mistake here is categorizing by the year. To me this is a huge cop out and I'm inclined to leave the website. I feel that it's too exclusive for me, and that I might have had to know about the artist in the first place in order to be privileged enough to visit the website. I know that's not what the artist intended but it's the lazy way out. Describe your art by medium, or subject. You can do drop down menus (technically known as jump or pop up menus). Think carefully about this because it generates hits/clicks which boosts your rating on search engines.
8. Poor Navigation on the Gallery Pages
I will talk more in the next post about how to set up the gallery pages but you will want a way for people to click from one enlarged image to the next without having to go back to an interim page. That's annoying to your visitor and they may leave after the first click.
9. Small Images or Images that Don't Enlarge.
When I visit a website I want a comprehensive look at the art. That's the first and foremost reason I am there. I not only want to see the work, I want to LIVE in it. I want to feel it and almost touch it.. I want to feel compelled to touch my computer screen. Images that are too small do not allow me to do that. In fact, it almost screams ameture. Images must be 72 dpi and I like to recommend a minimum of 350 pixels. but ideal is 504 which is 7 inches. I always try for that but if it's not possible that's okay too. Be sure that it also works on a smaller screen, like an iPad or an iPhone.
10. Poorly Photographed Images
When I see this I sigh. Why did the artist spend the time and the money to put up a website in the first place? I can understand if an artist is using interference or iridescent colors but there is a way. Your images must be 100% perfect! In today's digital world there is no excuse. See the first posts on this blog fore more about photographing your art properly. Please don't put up a website until you have good photos.
A bonus mistake - too many bells and whistles or colors that are so bright that they interfere with the art itself. Your art is fantastic! Make it shine on the internet and everywhere else that you present it. Let planning your website be a way for you to develop a "look" for all of your materials. Your blog, postcard, brochures, stationary, etc.
That said The Artists Objective does website design and internet consultations. Please visit the website for more information: www.theartistobjective.com In the next post I will address the gallery pages. Stay tuned!
Friday, March 2, 2012
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Internet for Artists: Websites: Thinking Simply
That's been one of my mantras – focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex. You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.
Steve Jobs in Business Week, 1998
Steve Jobs in Business Week, 1998
The main reason visitors will come to your website is to see your art. Therefore making your art the central focus is the logical thing to do right? Not so fast. It takes some careful thinking and planning. You have to think simply. Some websites are about written content but your website should be about images and the best images possible in order to showcase your art. The design around your work should be simple. The temptation is to overpower it with bells and whistles or bright colors or large bold text is very compelling. Don't succumb! A clean, professional looking website will help to bring you success in a very significant way.
The first step in planning a website is to think about the design of the actual pages. Most artists have an idea of what that should look like because they are focused on their mission. I would like to give you some help by outlining the components of a website page. If you're doing your website by yourself this will help you tremendously. If you're using a designer this will help you to direct them. Remember that in most cases a website designer is not a "designer." They won't know your art as well as you do and they may not be aware of what is needed for success in the art world. So you need to be a guide and have a strong vision. I will talk about what a visitor will see and the behind the scenes.
The components that are visible on a web page are:
• Banner or Header- the header/logo at the top of the page. This should appear in the exact same place on every page. A common standard is to have this clickable to the home page. More and more websites are doing this and it eliminates the need for a "home" button on your navigation bar. This will be created as an image or a .jpg and images are easily linkable.
• Navigation/Menu Bar - This is the set of links that enables visitors to find things on your website. It can appear at the top of the page under the banner or on the side. More and more websites have it at the top. There is something called Drop Down or Pop Up Menus. This can also be a huge help when categorizing your work.
**Tip: This is where wording and simplicity are all important. You want to be sure that people will click on your website, boosting your search engine optimization. I have seen navigation bars on artists websites that categorize the work by the year. I really, honestly feel that this is a huge cop out. The website probably has a very low search engine rating because the number of hits will be lower. How would a visitor know what to click on? There is probably also a large bounce rate. Visitors that come, see the site and leave without clicking. Categorizing your work by subject or media or something else will mean more to a visitor than almost anything else you do, with the exception of showcasing your art.
• Images - The actual photos of your work. They should always be 72dpi for two reasons. 1. It loads faster because .jpg's are compressed (see the previous post on the different types of images) and 2. 72dpi prints out rather poorly and will be hard to reproduce, therefore protecting your copyright. Remember that visitors will have short attention spans. If an page takes more than 30 seconds to load they are likely to leave your website. The size is also important. I'll talk about the gallery pages more in the next post and what your options for display are.
• Text - Words ARE important, see the previous posts on writing. The content of the home page is usually low on words but you can put a testimonial or a quote from an article written about you. You can also put a section of latest news on the home page: a quote from an article written about you, or an upcoming exhibition. Of course, you will also have pages with your artist statement, resume, bio, copyright, contact, links and press. (If you don't have all of that yet there is no need to worry. Your art is the first reason people come to your website. You can add those pages later.) The fonts you choose are also important. The difference between type used for text, headlines, and banners are viewed differently so it's important to think about it's readability when you are thinking about placement. I'll address design elements in another post.
• Footer - Those are the little words at the bottom of every website that are not necessarily in the navigation bar. They can include copyright, site map and email. These are important because they not only help your visitors but really help search engines to categorize your website. Especially if it leads to the site map.
••Tip: One more thing you should add to the footer of every page. Social Networking Buttons. They allow visitors to share the website page they're on, on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, etc. I am including a link to a website below that allows you to choose those buttons and get .html code that you can simply plug into the code of your website. I always add this complimentary, by default, to every website I create. You don't want to miss any opportunity for exposure after all.
••Tip: One more thing you should add to the footer of every page. Social Networking Buttons. They allow visitors to share the website page they're on, on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, etc. I am including a link to a website below that allows you to choose those buttons and get .html code that you can simply plug into the code of your website. I always add this complimentary, by default, to every website I create. You don't want to miss any opportunity for exposure after all.
• Favicon - That's the little image that appears to the left in the address/URL bar of the browser. If you go on www.starbucks.com for example you will see their logo right up there. This is a 16 pixel image that can be transferred into a favicon very easily. This can be static or it can move. It may be small but it makes your website look so professional. I always include it complementary when I design a website.
• Title - these are words at the top of the browser - above the address bar/navigation. This is helpful to your visitor because they will know what page they're on and the content and extremely useful for search engines. In fact, titles rank in importance with meta-tagging and meta-descriptions.
If you right click on any website a menu should come up - this applies to both Mac's and PC's - and you'll see "View Page Source." Click on that and you'll see the .html code that makes it possible for the website to be visible. You will see two sections. Head and Body. Sounds kind of anatomical in a way and it is. The anatomy of a website.
The Head text is the content you don't see. It's the instructions that will juristic the way the page looks overall. For example: the background color of the page, the default font your page will use, the code for the navigation bar, the alignment of the whole page. You can set these up overall. It will also show what type of code to use. html vs. Javascript, etc. This will also include the Meta Tags (keywords and descriptions) the favicon and the titles.
The Body Code is the part of the website that is visible. The actual words and images. The navigation bar, the footer, etc.
There is one more thing you should know about text and code. It's called CSS which means Cascading Style Sheets. CSS can be used for much more than just text but this will help you speak to a designer tremendously. For changeable text in the body section of your website you should use CSS. Some programs like Dreamweaver will automatically set this up no matter what. So you can use any kind of text in the body/content area that you want to. However it's best to cascade that so that if someone viewing your website doesn't have that typeface on their computer they'll still be able to see it. For example: if they don't have Georgia, they may have Palatino and will definitely have Times Roman. A CSS for type looks like this in the code: Georgia, Palatino, Times, Serif.
I'm telling you this because I was once working with a web designer who told me I could only use Times or Helvetica for text. He was wrong. I was completing my first web design class at the time and told him that's not true. I wanted to use Baskerville - because that's what the organization used in their newsletters. I told him to use this Baskerville, Palatino, Times, Serif as a cascading style sheet. If I hadn't been apprised of that I might have listened to him and the website would have been inconsistent with the organizations print materials.
If you remember simplicity and consistency in everything you do - on the internet and off the internet - you will have success.
LINKS
Website to create favicons - http://favicon.htmlkit.com/favicon/
Website to Create Social Networking Buttons: http://www.addthis.com/?r=0
LINKS
Website to create favicons - http://favicon.htmlkit.com/favicon/
Website to Create Social Networking Buttons: http://www.addthis.com/?r=0
Monday, January 9, 2012
Internet for Artists: Website Design Step 2
The number one key to success on the interent is intuitive design. This takes thought and careful planning but the pay off is huge. It's key to higher search engine ratings and will be very important to your visitors. Most of all the main content of your website is to showcase your art. It should be a retrospective of everything you've ever made, a catalog raisonné of you - the artist.
There is a temptation to put up bells and whistles, fast moving content. Please avoid this. The simpler the better and the more your art will stand out. Sometimes these kinds of websites are built in a program called Flash. Flash is okay in parts of websites but the whole thing should never be built in Flash. For example most videos are viewable in Flash. I'll talk more about website design programs in another text but one major reason not to use Flash is that you can't meta-tag it, losing control over traffic to your website.
At this point I'm sure you have a vision for your website. What color is the background, what typefaces will you use? How will your banner look, etc. I'll talk more about type and color in another post. I'm going to start with a list and descriptions of essential pages every artists website should have.
• Home or Index Page. The first page your visitors will see when they arrive at your website. This should be simple and make a bold statement. Your visitors should never have to scroll for anything on this page. I always recommend putting a work of art there that's bold and inviting and to change that about once a month or as appropriate. It will keep visitors returning again and again to your website.
• Gallery Pages. These are the pages that display your art. How will your visitors see it and how will these pages connect to each other? How many images should go on a page. If you have a lot of art I recommend using what's called a "disjointed rollover." This is an image that opens larger in another part of a page just by having the mouse roll over it. See an example on this website: www.nancyfabrizio.com You will also see a small arrow on the right that connects to the next page of the art. If you have fewer images you may want to consider using one or two larger images of your art.
• Text Pages - one each for an artist statement, bio and resume.
• Site Map - A Site Map is a page with listings of all of your pages. This is a wonderful tool for many reasons. The number one reason is so that your visitor can easily find a specific page they are looking for. Secondly, it helps search engines categorize your website and thus boosts your ratings. Thirdly, it is a wonderful place to start your website on paper. Do this and your web designer will love you. You'll also save a ton of money doing it.
• Press Pages - if you have any press written about you and the images of those articles this is the place to put them. Make sure they are readable. The type and images are clear.
• Copyright Page - it's one thing to say ©Artist Smith, 2012, All Rights Reserved. It's quite another to outline the terms of that copyright. It makes you look so much more professional. Like you really mean business. You can see the copyright page on the website mentioned above. By the way the way to say copyright is just the way I said it above "©Artist Smith, 2012, All Rights Reserved" As I mentioned in a previous post there are international conventions and by saying All Rights Reserved you are conforming to and claiming those conventions.
• "Missing" Page - This is a page that people will arrive at if a URL is typed or linked incorrectly. I'm sure you've seen those pages that say "This Page Does Not Exist." A website host will automatically put up a page for that, however it will not look like your website and you'll lose the visitor. It's easy enough for a website designer to create a "Missing" page with your banner and navagation bar on it. Again your website will look more professional and you will capture the visitors that you'd otherwise lose.
Those are the essential pages. Now it's time to think about how to link these pages and this is where the planning comes in. It's time to draw out that site map. Which pages and links will link to what pages? How will you get there? It's called navigation and I'll address that in the next post.
There is a temptation to put up bells and whistles, fast moving content. Please avoid this. The simpler the better and the more your art will stand out. Sometimes these kinds of websites are built in a program called Flash. Flash is okay in parts of websites but the whole thing should never be built in Flash. For example most videos are viewable in Flash. I'll talk more about website design programs in another text but one major reason not to use Flash is that you can't meta-tag it, losing control over traffic to your website.
At this point I'm sure you have a vision for your website. What color is the background, what typefaces will you use? How will your banner look, etc. I'll talk more about type and color in another post. I'm going to start with a list and descriptions of essential pages every artists website should have.
• Home or Index Page. The first page your visitors will see when they arrive at your website. This should be simple and make a bold statement. Your visitors should never have to scroll for anything on this page. I always recommend putting a work of art there that's bold and inviting and to change that about once a month or as appropriate. It will keep visitors returning again and again to your website.
• Gallery Pages. These are the pages that display your art. How will your visitors see it and how will these pages connect to each other? How many images should go on a page. If you have a lot of art I recommend using what's called a "disjointed rollover." This is an image that opens larger in another part of a page just by having the mouse roll over it. See an example on this website: www.nancyfabrizio.com You will also see a small arrow on the right that connects to the next page of the art. If you have fewer images you may want to consider using one or two larger images of your art.
• Text Pages - one each for an artist statement, bio and resume.
• Site Map - A Site Map is a page with listings of all of your pages. This is a wonderful tool for many reasons. The number one reason is so that your visitor can easily find a specific page they are looking for. Secondly, it helps search engines categorize your website and thus boosts your ratings. Thirdly, it is a wonderful place to start your website on paper. Do this and your web designer will love you. You'll also save a ton of money doing it.
• Press Pages - if you have any press written about you and the images of those articles this is the place to put them. Make sure they are readable. The type and images are clear.
• Copyright Page - it's one thing to say ©Artist Smith, 2012, All Rights Reserved. It's quite another to outline the terms of that copyright. It makes you look so much more professional. Like you really mean business. You can see the copyright page on the website mentioned above. By the way the way to say copyright is just the way I said it above "©Artist Smith, 2012, All Rights Reserved" As I mentioned in a previous post there are international conventions and by saying All Rights Reserved you are conforming to and claiming those conventions.
• "Missing" Page - This is a page that people will arrive at if a URL is typed or linked incorrectly. I'm sure you've seen those pages that say "This Page Does Not Exist." A website host will automatically put up a page for that, however it will not look like your website and you'll lose the visitor. It's easy enough for a website designer to create a "Missing" page with your banner and navagation bar on it. Again your website will look more professional and you will capture the visitors that you'd otherwise lose.
Those are the essential pages. Now it's time to think about how to link these pages and this is where the planning comes in. It's time to draw out that site map. Which pages and links will link to what pages? How will you get there? It's called navigation and I'll address that in the next post.
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Internet for Artists: Desiging Your Website: Step 1
Before we talk about the actual design of your website I want to talk about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It's important to understand how this works and keep it in mind as you're laying out your website. This will also allow you to instruct your website designer about what to do. If you're doing it yourself this will help you promote your website.
ALERT: Once your website is live you may get emails from "SEO Companies." Ignore them all. Most likely they are SPAM and some will even attempt to offer you first page ranking. Anyone who does is making a promise they can't keep. If you do some of the following things or get your website designer to do some of the following things your page ranking will get better and better. It takes some time so have patience but it will happen.
The first thing is to think about is your target market. Sit down and write out who your ideal buyer is. What is their income level? Where do they live? Do they have children? What are their hobbies? Where do they work? Who is your dream buyer that will become a collector. No holds barred. The answer "Anyone who has money"' doesn't count. Think of this person in the most well rounded way that you possibly can Get a pen and paper and write a list of who these people are and what their attributes might be.
Once you've done that think of how they would find you on the Internet. What websites do they visit the most? Do they look at portals for art. Sites like www.saatchi.com or www.fineartamerica.com? Do they go to brick and mortar galleries or only search for art online?
After you've done that start writing a list of words or two word phrases to describe your art. Keep the information you've gathered above in the back of your mind as you do this. Keep going until you can't come up with anything else. You can do this all at once or keep a list by your side for a few days, adding to it as words come to mind.
These words will eventually become meta-tags known as keywords. These will be included in the .HTML code of your website but they won't be visible. They are included in the "Head" tagging which instructs the computer how and where to make your page visible. You should add a maximum of 8 words per page only. I have seen artists who make the mistake of using as many as 30 keywords. It will only confuse the Search Engine Spider and it will negatively effect your page ranking.
I recommend that the first two words be your name and something descriptive about your art. You can also include your location if you feel that there is a localized market for your work. You can add meta-tags to every page so you don't have to put the same thing on every page but your name and that descriptive word should be on every page. I am including links at the end of this post where you can test the popularity of keywords. It's a balance of most popular words and words that set you apart. You should hook your website up with Google Analytics - more on that in another post - so that you can track the effectiveness of your keywords. You can change them if you feel that your website isn't generating enough traffic.
You will also need to create a two sentence narrative description of your art and this is for a Meta-tag known as the "Description." This will appear under your website name on a listing on a Search Engine. A good description can make the difference between someone visiting your website for the first time or not. So make it a good. You can use some of the writing tools in previous posts on this blog for writing your artist statement. Think of it this way. If we were meeting for the first time in an elevator how would you describe your art to me? You have approximately two minutes. Go! Off the cuff. Tell me now. Don't think. Just blurt it out. You can do it by commenting on this post and I'll give you feedback.
An important factor in SEO is links to and from your website - otherwise known as cross linking. This is because Search Engines operate on the idea that if a website has more links - especially from websites with high page ranking - it must be important. This is something you will want to work on all the time. Don't be afraid to ask for links from colleagues, if you're carried by a gallery or are a member of an arts organization. You can also generate links in other ways which we'll discuss later.
ALERT: You may receive emails from companies having nothing to do with your art asking for cross linking. Remember that you ARE the company you keep. Do not link to these companies without researching their relevance first. It's also important to keep your mission on your website focused. Your links should reflect your art, who you work with and your interests - in the sense of business interests - only. Keep everything consistent and clear and you'll have success.
Another thing that really helps is something called Page Titling. Take a look at the top of the browser you are using to view this blog in. Above the URL (Website Address). You will see some words that describe the website. These are known as Page Titles. It not only looks professional but it works like Meta-Tags: Keywords. Sometimes it even works better than a keyword. You can use your name and then something to describe the page your viewer will be on. Example: Jane Smith::Gallery::Landscapes
In addition to links Search Engines will rank your page based on the amount of hits you get. In the first post on the internet I discussed the difference between visitors and hits. This means that people are clicking on things and actually taking action. So to a Search Engine, if people are interacting with your site, it must be important! The art of hits is to link your pages carefully so that you will generate more of them without driving your viewer crazy. Again, clarity and simplicity really do matter in this.
You can spend time figuring this out with a Site Map or Site Index. Yet another important tool for Search Engines. This is a layout of all of the pages of your site, categorizing them by subject and importance. Take a moment to view this Site Map and you'll see what I'm talking about: http://www.metmuseum.org/information/site-index The search engine will go over this and decide where and how to place the pages on your website. It's also a wonderful organizational and planning tool for website layout and design. You can map it out page by page and how those pages are going to link to each other. In fact, I usually ask a client to do this when I'm designing a website for them.
Lastly, when you're finished with the website you will want to submit it to Search Engines formally. This will alert them that there is a website to be looked at and they will need to go over it and rank it. It may take 3 to 4 months for them to check out your website. This is probably for two reasons. 1. There are hundreds of thousands of new websites created daily and they can only do so much and 2. To keep people who try to fool the Search Engine Spiders from figuring out how they work. They keep changing the rules and the way they go about ranking pages for this reason. You don't have to worry about that, if you do the above suggested steps you will be covered.
Links to Sites for Researching Keywords:
Wordpot: http://www.wordpot.com/
WordTracker: https://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/
Links for Submitting Your Website
Google: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/submit-url?continue=http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue%3D/addurl&pli=1
Yahoo: http://www.search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html
Bing: https://ssl.bing.com/webmaster/submitsitepage.aspx
The Open Directory Project: http://www.dmoz.org/add.html
ALERT: Once your website is live you may get emails from "SEO Companies." Ignore them all. Most likely they are SPAM and some will even attempt to offer you first page ranking. Anyone who does is making a promise they can't keep. If you do some of the following things or get your website designer to do some of the following things your page ranking will get better and better. It takes some time so have patience but it will happen.
The first thing is to think about is your target market. Sit down and write out who your ideal buyer is. What is their income level? Where do they live? Do they have children? What are their hobbies? Where do they work? Who is your dream buyer that will become a collector. No holds barred. The answer "Anyone who has money"' doesn't count. Think of this person in the most well rounded way that you possibly can Get a pen and paper and write a list of who these people are and what their attributes might be.
Once you've done that think of how they would find you on the Internet. What websites do they visit the most? Do they look at portals for art. Sites like www.saatchi.com or www.fineartamerica.com? Do they go to brick and mortar galleries or only search for art online?
After you've done that start writing a list of words or two word phrases to describe your art. Keep the information you've gathered above in the back of your mind as you do this. Keep going until you can't come up with anything else. You can do this all at once or keep a list by your side for a few days, adding to it as words come to mind.
These words will eventually become meta-tags known as keywords. These will be included in the .HTML code of your website but they won't be visible. They are included in the "Head" tagging which instructs the computer how and where to make your page visible. You should add a maximum of 8 words per page only. I have seen artists who make the mistake of using as many as 30 keywords. It will only confuse the Search Engine Spider and it will negatively effect your page ranking.
I recommend that the first two words be your name and something descriptive about your art. You can also include your location if you feel that there is a localized market for your work. You can add meta-tags to every page so you don't have to put the same thing on every page but your name and that descriptive word should be on every page. I am including links at the end of this post where you can test the popularity of keywords. It's a balance of most popular words and words that set you apart. You should hook your website up with Google Analytics - more on that in another post - so that you can track the effectiveness of your keywords. You can change them if you feel that your website isn't generating enough traffic.
You will also need to create a two sentence narrative description of your art and this is for a Meta-tag known as the "Description." This will appear under your website name on a listing on a Search Engine. A good description can make the difference between someone visiting your website for the first time or not. So make it a good. You can use some of the writing tools in previous posts on this blog for writing your artist statement. Think of it this way. If we were meeting for the first time in an elevator how would you describe your art to me? You have approximately two minutes. Go! Off the cuff. Tell me now. Don't think. Just blurt it out. You can do it by commenting on this post and I'll give you feedback.
An important factor in SEO is links to and from your website - otherwise known as cross linking. This is because Search Engines operate on the idea that if a website has more links - especially from websites with high page ranking - it must be important. This is something you will want to work on all the time. Don't be afraid to ask for links from colleagues, if you're carried by a gallery or are a member of an arts organization. You can also generate links in other ways which we'll discuss later.
ALERT: You may receive emails from companies having nothing to do with your art asking for cross linking. Remember that you ARE the company you keep. Do not link to these companies without researching their relevance first. It's also important to keep your mission on your website focused. Your links should reflect your art, who you work with and your interests - in the sense of business interests - only. Keep everything consistent and clear and you'll have success.
Another thing that really helps is something called Page Titling. Take a look at the top of the browser you are using to view this blog in. Above the URL (Website Address). You will see some words that describe the website. These are known as Page Titles. It not only looks professional but it works like Meta-Tags: Keywords. Sometimes it even works better than a keyword. You can use your name and then something to describe the page your viewer will be on. Example: Jane Smith::Gallery::Landscapes
In addition to links Search Engines will rank your page based on the amount of hits you get. In the first post on the internet I discussed the difference between visitors and hits. This means that people are clicking on things and actually taking action. So to a Search Engine, if people are interacting with your site, it must be important! The art of hits is to link your pages carefully so that you will generate more of them without driving your viewer crazy. Again, clarity and simplicity really do matter in this.
You can spend time figuring this out with a Site Map or Site Index. Yet another important tool for Search Engines. This is a layout of all of the pages of your site, categorizing them by subject and importance. Take a moment to view this Site Map and you'll see what I'm talking about: http://www.metmuseum.org/information/site-index The search engine will go over this and decide where and how to place the pages on your website. It's also a wonderful organizational and planning tool for website layout and design. You can map it out page by page and how those pages are going to link to each other. In fact, I usually ask a client to do this when I'm designing a website for them.
Lastly, when you're finished with the website you will want to submit it to Search Engines formally. This will alert them that there is a website to be looked at and they will need to go over it and rank it. It may take 3 to 4 months for them to check out your website. This is probably for two reasons. 1. There are hundreds of thousands of new websites created daily and they can only do so much and 2. To keep people who try to fool the Search Engine Spiders from figuring out how they work. They keep changing the rules and the way they go about ranking pages for this reason. You don't have to worry about that, if you do the above suggested steps you will be covered.
Links to Sites for Researching Keywords:
Wordpot: http://www.wordpot.com/
WordTracker: https://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/
Links for Submitting Your Website
Google: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/submit-url?continue=http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue%3D/addurl&pli=1
Yahoo: http://www.search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html
Bing: https://ssl.bing.com/webmaster/submitsitepage.aspx
The Open Directory Project: http://www.dmoz.org/add.html
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Copyright for Protection and Profit
When I speak about websites to artists the topic of copyright always comes up. So before I write more about websites I want to give you a brief overview of copyright law. It's not just for protection but for profit. In future posts I will go more into detail but I want you to feel absolutely, positively safe putting your work online. Make the choice, do you want to gain exposure for your work or do you want it to stay in your studio forever. After reading this I hope that you will feel safe enough to put your work out there.
Before we talk about copyright we must define the term “publishing” for artists. Publishing means “to make public.” In other words to put before an audience as in an exhibition, in print, online, etc. You will see and hear this term a lot if you decide to read the copyright documents from the U.S. Copyright Office. A work that is copyrighted can also be referred to as "intellectual property."
That said...From the moment you make any idea into a tangible form it is automatically protected under the United States Copyright Law as of 1978. Before March 1, 1989 the use of the copyright symbol © was mandatory on all works. It is not anymore. However, it is best to register it with the U.S. Copyright Office (you save money if you register online) right after you make it. Others may tell you otherwise, (for example to register it after someone else has used your work of art) but this is a bad idea. You also save because you can pursue lawyers fees and statutory damages if you were smart enough to register it prior to the infringement.
One of the questions I hear most is what if someone uses my work as the wall-paper on their computer or prints it out to show their friends. That’s called “Private Use” and that’s okay. Public Use means that they showed it to an audience, exhibited it and claimed it as their own in any way, shape or form publicly. What an artist has to worry about is whether the infringer made any profit off of the work, how much was that profit and will they continue to make a profit?
In that case it is important to formulate a number in dollars that it would take for you to pursue a copyright infringement in court. Remember that it will involve legal fees, time and emotional effort - even if you don’t have an attorney or decide to use one you will have costs, including the cost of registering the case in the courts. I usually advise $5,000 or more. To pursue a case successfully you will need an attorney. I can almost guarantee that a lawyer would not pursue your case for less than that.
DEFINITION OF COPYRIGHT FROM THE UNITED STATES COPYRIGHT OFFICE
Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States
(title 17, U. S. Code) to the authors of “original works of authorship,” including
literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. This
protection is available to both published and unpublished works. Section 106
of the 1976 Copyright Act generally gives the owner of copyright the exclusive
right to do and to authorize others to do the following:
• To reproduce the work in copies or phono-records;
• To prepare derivative works based upon the work;
• To distribute copies or phono-records of the work to the public by sale or
other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;
• To perform the work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and
choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual
works; (including performance art)
• To display the work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and
choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural
works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual
work; (in other words a buyer can’t exhibit the work without your permission, as in “make public”) and
• In the case of sound recordings,* to perform the work publicly by means of
a digital audio transmission.
In addition, certain authors of works of visual art have the rights of attribution
and integrity as described in section 106A of the 1976 Copyright Act. For
further information, see Circular 40, Copyright Registration for Works of the
Visual Arts.
FIRST NORTH AMERICAN RIGHTS
First North American rights means that you give a publisher the right to be the first to publish and distribute your work. So if you are showing a piece in a gallery for the first time, you are most likely giving them First North American Rights to present your work.
FEES TO REGISTER:
$35.00 if you register through the U.S. Copyright web site
$45.00 generally by regular mail with the printable .pdf form from the U.S. Copyright website.
INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT CONVENTIONS: Where Your Work is Protected Around the World This works both to and from the United States.
You will notice that many of these countries either have internal conflicts, poor infrastructure or are just hostile towards the West. Countries the United States doesn’t have conventions with (as of January 2005):
Afghanistan, Bhutan, Comoros (unclear), Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iran, Iraq, Kiribati, North Korea (unclear), Nauru (unclear), Nepal, Palau (unclear), Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tomé and Principe (unclear), Seychelles (unclear), Somalia (unclear), Syria (unclear), Tuvalu (unclear), Vanuatu (unclear), Yemen (unclear) (We can probably currently count most countries in the Middle East because of the political transitions going on there).
You can get exact details on International copyright conventions such as the Berne Convention and the World Trade Organization in the Circular from the US Copyright Office website entitled Circular 38A, available on their website.
LICENSING: Using Copyright for Profit
As the holder of a copyright you have the right to benefit and profit from your registered or unregistered work of art. In order to license formally you will need to visit the licensing division of the U.S. Copyright office for information and fees. There are also ways that you can license informally.
Licensing means that you give a publisher or manufacturer the rights to production and distribution of your work of art in a certain geographic area for a duration of time. In formal cases you will sign a contract with the licensee. It is important to make sure that the contract benefits both parties and if you’re unsure consult a lawyer. Make sure that if the publisher doesn’t hold to their responsibilities as stated in a contract or agreement, there is a way out for you.
A lot of artists don’t like to think of commercial production of their art but think of the benefits. You ‘ll not only profit but you’ll get wider recognition and even boost the value of your work in some cases.
A good publisher will not only produce or manufacture the reproductions but have systems for marketing as well. A good example is AmericanGreetings.com
MARKETPLACES FOR LICENSING YOUR ART INCLUDE:
Greeting Cards, Prints, Print-on-demand, Calendars, Collector Plates, Book Covers, Children’s Books, Animation, Stamps, Stock Photography and Illustration, Music CD’s, Surface Design, Jigsaw Puzzles, Needle Craft and Stitch Kits, Stationary and Gift Products, Tableware, Mat’s Trays, Coasters, Wall Covering, etc. Not to mention use for computer games, computer wallpaper and stock images.
Know the market in full before endeavoring to go in. Read publications and know the in’s and out’s before you approach a manufacturer. Research! Research! Research!
In the case of a formal licensing agreement, you can receive royalties or get paid a flat fee up front. If you get royalties you can get a guarantee – meaning an upfront check – for a certain amount. You will begin receiving royalties after the company has made a return equaling the amount they paid you. Example you may sign a contract with a card company and get a $2000 check for letting them use your work and then receive royalties on any profits after that $2000 is made.
That said...From the moment you make any idea into a tangible form it is automatically protected under the United States Copyright Law as of 1978. Before March 1, 1989 the use of the copyright symbol © was mandatory on all works. It is not anymore. However, it is best to register it with the U.S. Copyright Office (you save money if you register online) right after you make it. Others may tell you otherwise, (for example to register it after someone else has used your work of art) but this is a bad idea. You also save because you can pursue lawyers fees and statutory damages if you were smart enough to register it prior to the infringement.
One of the questions I hear most is what if someone uses my work as the wall-paper on their computer or prints it out to show their friends. That’s called “Private Use” and that’s okay. Public Use means that they showed it to an audience, exhibited it and claimed it as their own in any way, shape or form publicly. What an artist has to worry about is whether the infringer made any profit off of the work, how much was that profit and will they continue to make a profit?
In that case it is important to formulate a number in dollars that it would take for you to pursue a copyright infringement in court. Remember that it will involve legal fees, time and emotional effort - even if you don’t have an attorney or decide to use one you will have costs, including the cost of registering the case in the courts. I usually advise $5,000 or more. To pursue a case successfully you will need an attorney. I can almost guarantee that a lawyer would not pursue your case for less than that.
DEFINITION OF COPYRIGHT FROM THE UNITED STATES COPYRIGHT OFFICE
Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States
(title 17, U. S. Code) to the authors of “original works of authorship,” including
literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. This
protection is available to both published and unpublished works. Section 106
of the 1976 Copyright Act generally gives the owner of copyright the exclusive
right to do and to authorize others to do the following:
• To reproduce the work in copies or phono-records;
• To prepare derivative works based upon the work;
• To distribute copies or phono-records of the work to the public by sale or
other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;
• To perform the work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and
choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual
works; (including performance art)
• To display the work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and
choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural
works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual
work; (in other words a buyer can’t exhibit the work without your permission, as in “make public”) and
• In the case of sound recordings,* to perform the work publicly by means of
a digital audio transmission.
In addition, certain authors of works of visual art have the rights of attribution
and integrity as described in section 106A of the 1976 Copyright Act. For
further information, see Circular 40, Copyright Registration for Works of the
Visual Arts.
FIRST NORTH AMERICAN RIGHTS
First North American rights means that you give a publisher the right to be the first to publish and distribute your work. So if you are showing a piece in a gallery for the first time, you are most likely giving them First North American Rights to present your work.
FEES TO REGISTER:
$35.00 if you register through the U.S. Copyright web site
$45.00 generally by regular mail with the printable .pdf form from the U.S. Copyright website.
INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT CONVENTIONS: Where Your Work is Protected Around the World This works both to and from the United States.
You will notice that many of these countries either have internal conflicts, poor infrastructure or are just hostile towards the West. Countries the United States doesn’t have conventions with (as of January 2005):
Afghanistan, Bhutan, Comoros (unclear), Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iran, Iraq, Kiribati, North Korea (unclear), Nauru (unclear), Nepal, Palau (unclear), Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tomé and Principe (unclear), Seychelles (unclear), Somalia (unclear), Syria (unclear), Tuvalu (unclear), Vanuatu (unclear), Yemen (unclear) (We can probably currently count most countries in the Middle East because of the political transitions going on there).
You can get exact details on International copyright conventions such as the Berne Convention and the World Trade Organization in the Circular from the US Copyright Office website entitled Circular 38A, available on their website.
LICENSING: Using Copyright for Profit
As the holder of a copyright you have the right to benefit and profit from your registered or unregistered work of art. In order to license formally you will need to visit the licensing division of the U.S. Copyright office for information and fees. There are also ways that you can license informally.
Licensing means that you give a publisher or manufacturer the rights to production and distribution of your work of art in a certain geographic area for a duration of time. In formal cases you will sign a contract with the licensee. It is important to make sure that the contract benefits both parties and if you’re unsure consult a lawyer. Make sure that if the publisher doesn’t hold to their responsibilities as stated in a contract or agreement, there is a way out for you.
A lot of artists don’t like to think of commercial production of their art but think of the benefits. You ‘ll not only profit but you’ll get wider recognition and even boost the value of your work in some cases.
A good publisher will not only produce or manufacture the reproductions but have systems for marketing as well. A good example is AmericanGreetings.com
MARKETPLACES FOR LICENSING YOUR ART INCLUDE:
Greeting Cards, Prints, Print-on-demand, Calendars, Collector Plates, Book Covers, Children’s Books, Animation, Stamps, Stock Photography and Illustration, Music CD’s, Surface Design, Jigsaw Puzzles, Needle Craft and Stitch Kits, Stationary and Gift Products, Tableware, Mat’s Trays, Coasters, Wall Covering, etc. Not to mention use for computer games, computer wallpaper and stock images.
Know the market in full before endeavoring to go in. Read publications and know the in’s and out’s before you approach a manufacturer. Research! Research! Research!
In the case of a formal licensing agreement, you can receive royalties or get paid a flat fee up front. If you get royalties you can get a guarantee – meaning an upfront check – for a certain amount. You will begin receiving royalties after the company has made a return equaling the amount they paid you. Example you may sign a contract with a card company and get a $2000 check for letting them use your work and then receive royalties on any profits after that $2000 is made.
You can give the manufacturer the rights for a certain geographical area – such as the Northeast United States, or Europe, or parts of Asia – for a formal period of time. For example you would give a manufacturer the right to produce mugs with your work on it in the North Eastern United States for a period of three years. During that time you will agree that no other publisher will have the right produce mugs with your work on it in the North Eastern United States.
There is a lot involved but the benefits of licensing your work are considerable. You will get your name and your images before the public in a way that no other medium or venue can provide.
You can also produce products and sell and distribute them yourself. This is informal licensing. If you do things such as a print on demand Giclee you give the Giclee house the right to print your work for the duration of the printing. If you have a store on CafePress.com you will give them the right to manufacture and distribute products with your work on it until you decide to take the page down.
If you’re interested in pursuing a certain market you may want to develop a presentation package that you will send to a few distributors. For example: If you want to pursue someone like AmericanGreetings.com with your work, you can print greeting cards from your ink-jet printer, produce a professional looking package, including your resume, artist statement, testimonials, articles written about you and samples of your work on greeting cards. Perhaps you’ll want to include a few additional images that you think they may be interested in. This gives them an idea of how your work will look on a product in advance.. It also makes it more likely that they will be interested in your work because you are presenting your work and yourself professionally.
The key to success in licensing is to know your market, research, and approaching them professionally. The possibilities are as endless as your imagination so if this seems like something that would work for you, go for it.
• U.S. Copyright Office online: http://www.copyright.gov
• Publication #38A concerning international copyright conventions from the U.S. Copyright Office - and other downloadable publications from the U.S. Copyright Office.
• Library of Congress – where all registered copyrighted works are housed.
• Licensing Art 101: publishing and licensing your artwork for profit by Michael Woodward, ArtNetwork Press, 2010.
• Legal Guide for the Visual Artist (Fifth Edition) by Tad Crawford, Allworth Press.
Saturday, November 5, 2011
The Internet for Artists: The Basics
The Internet is an extremely important marketing tool for artists. It's a way for you to make connections, make money and develop a real following.
Now that you've gotten all of your other materials prepared it's time to get your website up and running and your "presence" on the internet. You will need to approach it in an organized fashion and think about who "you the artist" are and how you will present it to the world. Developing a website plan can help you construct that "persona" and a brand that will help you towards success. From there you can go onto selling on sites like eBay, Yessy and Etsy, Social Networking, Blogging and so much more. You will need to have a plan just like any other business. Consider it the internet section of your marketing plan.
Just to give you some background on my qualifications on this topic, I am a website designer and am trained as a Graphic Designer and in Advertising. Before I design a website I always like to have a consultation with the artist about how they will present themselves to the world. Here are a few links to websites I've designed:
www.alicejacoby.com
www.rantar.com
www.nancyfabrizio.com
I will go into depth on each and every aspect of the internet and how you can use it to get publicity, network and make a profit from it. As an introduction, you will find a glossary of definitions below. They will not only give you definitions of each item in the topic but perhaps give you information on items you thought you already knew about. You will be able to refer to this again and again. However if you do find it overwhelming you can contact me for a website consultation at: info@theartistobjective.com
The Internet or World Wide Web (www.) – A network of interconnected links - websites, blogs, web pages, etc. that may include content such as text, images, video and/or audio - that are hosted and available for viewing on a computer.
URL (Universal Resource Locator) – The address of a website, usually - but not always - proceeded by www. It's also known as the Domain Name of a website. Example: http://www.smithartist.com
Domain Name – The name or address of your website - otherwise known as the URL - that is registered with a domain registration company. It is unique to you and you only. In most cases you will purchase a domain name that is registered for a certain number of years.
.html (Hyper-text Markup Language) – The basic language - or set of tags - that make a web page visible. It tells the computer where to find an image or where to place text. The color of the text or design and whether it's centered, aligned to the left or to the right and so much more. It also instructs search engines to place your website or blog in the right category. See Meta-Tags and Meta-Descriptions below.
Tags – The "words" of .html. Usually surrounded by < > (known as ankle brackets) and give a command. Usually starting with a start tag and ending with an end tag like this this content is bolded to give it emphasis.
Java Script – a type of language (like .html) that allows for minor animated functions on web pages.
Adobe Flash – a multimedia platform that is generally used to add animation, video and interactive media to websites. Some websites are designed entirely in Flash. Note that this is not recommended for several reasons, which I'll go into in another post.
Search Engines – A program that allows you to search for documents, websites, pages, blogs or any type of content on the internet.
Spiders, Crawlers or Robots – automated programs used by search engines to evaluate your website and "index" or categorize their content.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – process of adding, removing or placing content on a website so that it can gain higher placement on a Search Engine.
Meta-Tag – a series of up to 8 key words (no more) that helps search engines categorize web pages.
Meta-Description – a two sentence description of a website that is visible on the search engine under the title of the website.
Website – a collection of linked pages that can be static, dynamic or interactive. It can be used for personal or commercial/business purposes. A static website does not change. The content is put up and it stays the same and it doesn't invite a visitor to do anything. A dynamic website has moving content such as video or animation and an interactive website allows your visitor to click on media, watch it or create something and much more.
Blog (Short for Web Log) – a type of website or part of a website that is updated with content. Usually writing but it can be images or video. It has followers and is actually considered a legitimate form of journalism. A good example of a blog is: http://jazzsaints.blogspot.com/
Web Traffic – Information generated by visitors to your website or blog. They click on something that leads to your page or click something on your website.
Visitor – Someone that is viewing the home or index page of your website. There are two types of visitors. New Visitors - a visitor that has not made a previous visit - and a Repeat Visitor - a visitor that has come to your website more than once.
Hit – Otherwise known as a click. A visitor comes to your website and clicks on a link. That's a hit. The more hits a website generates, the more popular it will seem to Search Engines and they will place your website higher on the list based on your Meta-Tags.
Google Analytics – A free service offered by Google that allows you to track traffic, in detail to your website. This will help you figure out what's working and what isn't.
Server/Host – A huge computer owned by a company (like GoDaddy.com or Hostdime.com) that allows your website to be live 24/7 for viewing by the public. Very often hosts will give you a deal if you purchase a hosting package when you purchase a domain name. Both will be for a specific duration of time - like 3 years for example.
Email – An online communication between two or more people. I will go into how you can use email to optimize your visibility online and off in depth in another post.
Social Networking – interactive websites that allow you to connect with people, view photos, videos, join groups, gain more exposure, and keep followers interested. There are 400+ Social Networking websites but the "big three" are Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Even YouTube is now considered a social networking website. I'll go into it more in depth in a series of future posts.
PayPal – The most popular ecommerce company in the world. It allows you to open an account (for free) and pay or get paid for things on the internet. (It will take a small percentage if you get paid - usually from 2-2.75%). You can create customized buttons generated through PayPal that you can add to websites, blogs and emails. PayPal is an eBay affiliated company as well and if you intend to sell anything on the internet PayPal is a MUST! They're in the business of security and everyone knows it. You'll get paid faster and easier because there is a level of trust with PayPal. It also allows buyers or collectors to pay via credit card, debit card, PayPal account or even a checking account. www.paypal.com
YouTube – A video sharing website (created by 3 former employees of PayPal) that allows you to share and watch videos. You can create and subscribe to "channels." Over 10 Million people watch a day and usually more than one video. You can even see demonstrations of painting, sculpting and art making, videos of artists work and so much more. Why not create a video, post it on YouTube and get a piece of the action?
Photostreams or Photo-Hosting Websites – Websites that will host your photos for use in other mediums such as a blog. They also function in a way that is somewhere between a blog and social networking. They are public, allow people to see your images and comment on them. www.Flickr.com is a good example
eBay – An online market place where people sell things from and to all over the world usually through auction. Sellers with a track record can create an eBay store and you can also create a "buy it now" price. eBay makes their money by charging a fee for posting items up front. Start slowly and build. More in another post.
Online Stores – a website where you can sell and purchase items. There are several devoted to art and hand crafted items. Examples are: Etsy.com and Yessy.com
On Demand Stores – Stores where you can design items that are then created and shipped after a visitor to a website purchases it. Such as www.CafePress.com or www.CanvasPress.com
Online Galleries – Galleries that function on the internet in the same manner as a gallery with four walls with one major advantage. They can reach a much larger audience and even some viewers who would never even step foot in a gallery or museum. Beware of the vanity online galleries or galleries that use unprofessional practices like audience generated jurying.
Online Art Portals – Such as Fine Art America, Saatchi Online, Artnet.com. They connect your website - usually for a fee - to a designated portal of art buyers and collectors. Buyer beware! There are websites that claim to put your website in front of a larger audience but don't deliver. Pick and choose carefully.
Website Design Software – Software that allows you to create a website on your computer and then transfer it to the host through something called a ftp (file transfer protocol - a series of web language that helps a host communicate with your computer) The best software for website design is Macromedia Dreamweaver - which can be purchased alone or as part of Adobe Creative Suite. There are other programs for website design out there but none are as easy to use or as flexible. It will even support Adobe Flash and Java Script and something called CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).
That's my glossary of the internet. Just a note that I am assuming that if you're reading this you already know the basics of using a computer - typing, turning it on, creating documents, cutting, copying and pasting etc. I'm also assuming that you know how to do a basic search and send email on the internet. If you feel that any of these skills could be improved, please do it and come back and keep reading the posts. There are free computer classes and websites out there - even websites that can help you type faster. This is the Internet after all. You can find anything here - a car, a house, clothing, a date.... so why not art?
Now that you've gotten all of your other materials prepared it's time to get your website up and running and your "presence" on the internet. You will need to approach it in an organized fashion and think about who "you the artist" are and how you will present it to the world. Developing a website plan can help you construct that "persona" and a brand that will help you towards success. From there you can go onto selling on sites like eBay, Yessy and Etsy, Social Networking, Blogging and so much more. You will need to have a plan just like any other business. Consider it the internet section of your marketing plan.
Just to give you some background on my qualifications on this topic, I am a website designer and am trained as a Graphic Designer and in Advertising. Before I design a website I always like to have a consultation with the artist about how they will present themselves to the world. Here are a few links to websites I've designed:
www.alicejacoby.com
www.rantar.com
www.nancyfabrizio.com
I will go into depth on each and every aspect of the internet and how you can use it to get publicity, network and make a profit from it. As an introduction, you will find a glossary of definitions below. They will not only give you definitions of each item in the topic but perhaps give you information on items you thought you already knew about. You will be able to refer to this again and again. However if you do find it overwhelming you can contact me for a website consultation at: info@theartistobjective.com
The Internet or World Wide Web (www.) – A network of interconnected links - websites, blogs, web pages, etc. that may include content such as text, images, video and/or audio - that are hosted and available for viewing on a computer.
URL (Universal Resource Locator) – The address of a website, usually - but not always - proceeded by www. It's also known as the Domain Name of a website. Example: http://www.smithartist.com
Domain Name – The name or address of your website - otherwise known as the URL - that is registered with a domain registration company. It is unique to you and you only. In most cases you will purchase a domain name that is registered for a certain number of years.
.html (Hyper-text Markup Language) – The basic language - or set of tags - that make a web page visible. It tells the computer where to find an image or where to place text. The color of the text or design and whether it's centered, aligned to the left or to the right and so much more. It also instructs search engines to place your website or blog in the right category. See Meta-Tags and Meta-Descriptions below.
Tags – The "words" of .html. Usually surrounded by < > (known as ankle brackets) and give a command. Usually starting with a start tag and ending with an end tag like this this content is bolded to give it emphasis.
Java Script – a type of language (like .html) that allows for minor animated functions on web pages.
Adobe Flash – a multimedia platform that is generally used to add animation, video and interactive media to websites. Some websites are designed entirely in Flash. Note that this is not recommended for several reasons, which I'll go into in another post.
Search Engines – A program that allows you to search for documents, websites, pages, blogs or any type of content on the internet.
Spiders, Crawlers or Robots – automated programs used by search engines to evaluate your website and "index" or categorize their content.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – process of adding, removing or placing content on a website so that it can gain higher placement on a Search Engine.
Meta-Tag – a series of up to 8 key words (no more) that helps search engines categorize web pages.
Meta-Description – a two sentence description of a website that is visible on the search engine under the title of the website.
Website – a collection of linked pages that can be static, dynamic or interactive. It can be used for personal or commercial/business purposes. A static website does not change. The content is put up and it stays the same and it doesn't invite a visitor to do anything. A dynamic website has moving content such as video or animation and an interactive website allows your visitor to click on media, watch it or create something and much more.
Blog (Short for Web Log) – a type of website or part of a website that is updated with content. Usually writing but it can be images or video. It has followers and is actually considered a legitimate form of journalism. A good example of a blog is: http://jazzsaints.blogspot.com/
Web Traffic – Information generated by visitors to your website or blog. They click on something that leads to your page or click something on your website.
Visitor – Someone that is viewing the home or index page of your website. There are two types of visitors. New Visitors - a visitor that has not made a previous visit - and a Repeat Visitor - a visitor that has come to your website more than once.
Hit – Otherwise known as a click. A visitor comes to your website and clicks on a link. That's a hit. The more hits a website generates, the more popular it will seem to Search Engines and they will place your website higher on the list based on your Meta-Tags.
Google Analytics – A free service offered by Google that allows you to track traffic, in detail to your website. This will help you figure out what's working and what isn't.
Server/Host – A huge computer owned by a company (like GoDaddy.com or Hostdime.com) that allows your website to be live 24/7 for viewing by the public. Very often hosts will give you a deal if you purchase a hosting package when you purchase a domain name. Both will be for a specific duration of time - like 3 years for example.
Email – An online communication between two or more people. I will go into how you can use email to optimize your visibility online and off in depth in another post.
Social Networking – interactive websites that allow you to connect with people, view photos, videos, join groups, gain more exposure, and keep followers interested. There are 400+ Social Networking websites but the "big three" are Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Even YouTube is now considered a social networking website. I'll go into it more in depth in a series of future posts.
PayPal – The most popular ecommerce company in the world. It allows you to open an account (for free) and pay or get paid for things on the internet. (It will take a small percentage if you get paid - usually from 2-2.75%). You can create customized buttons generated through PayPal that you can add to websites, blogs and emails. PayPal is an eBay affiliated company as well and if you intend to sell anything on the internet PayPal is a MUST! They're in the business of security and everyone knows it. You'll get paid faster and easier because there is a level of trust with PayPal. It also allows buyers or collectors to pay via credit card, debit card, PayPal account or even a checking account. www.paypal.com
YouTube – A video sharing website (created by 3 former employees of PayPal) that allows you to share and watch videos. You can create and subscribe to "channels." Over 10 Million people watch a day and usually more than one video. You can even see demonstrations of painting, sculpting and art making, videos of artists work and so much more. Why not create a video, post it on YouTube and get a piece of the action?
Photostreams or Photo-Hosting Websites – Websites that will host your photos for use in other mediums such as a blog. They also function in a way that is somewhere between a blog and social networking. They are public, allow people to see your images and comment on them. www.Flickr.com is a good example
eBay – An online market place where people sell things from and to all over the world usually through auction. Sellers with a track record can create an eBay store and you can also create a "buy it now" price. eBay makes their money by charging a fee for posting items up front. Start slowly and build. More in another post.
Online Stores – a website where you can sell and purchase items. There are several devoted to art and hand crafted items. Examples are: Etsy.com and Yessy.com
On Demand Stores – Stores where you can design items that are then created and shipped after a visitor to a website purchases it. Such as www.CafePress.com or www.CanvasPress.com
Online Galleries – Galleries that function on the internet in the same manner as a gallery with four walls with one major advantage. They can reach a much larger audience and even some viewers who would never even step foot in a gallery or museum. Beware of the vanity online galleries or galleries that use unprofessional practices like audience generated jurying.
Online Art Portals – Such as Fine Art America, Saatchi Online, Artnet.com. They connect your website - usually for a fee - to a designated portal of art buyers and collectors. Buyer beware! There are websites that claim to put your website in front of a larger audience but don't deliver. Pick and choose carefully.
Website Design Software – Software that allows you to create a website on your computer and then transfer it to the host through something called a ftp (file transfer protocol - a series of web language that helps a host communicate with your computer) The best software for website design is Macromedia Dreamweaver - which can be purchased alone or as part of Adobe Creative Suite. There are other programs for website design out there but none are as easy to use or as flexible. It will even support Adobe Flash and Java Script and something called CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).
That's my glossary of the internet. Just a note that I am assuming that if you're reading this you already know the basics of using a computer - typing, turning it on, creating documents, cutting, copying and pasting etc. I'm also assuming that you know how to do a basic search and send email on the internet. If you feel that any of these skills could be improved, please do it and come back and keep reading the posts. There are free computer classes and websites out there - even websites that can help you type faster. This is the Internet after all. You can find anything here - a car, a house, clothing, a date.... so why not art?
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