One dilemma that any artist who has a website always runs into is how to get people to bookmark your website so they can come back.

Well, one way to get people to bookmark your website is to tell people to do it. Don’t expect that they will automatically will do it on their own. Remind them to do it by:

1. Including links or buttons to bookmarking websites like del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, and Ma.gnolia on your website and blog posts
2. Including requests to bookmark you at the end of any articles you write on your website
3. Giving instructions on how to bookmark you
4. Placing a “please bookmark me!” note at the top and bottom of each of your web pages
5. Including it in your logo graphic like the one in this post
6. Giving people a reason to bookmark your website

Out of all of these suggestions number 6 is the hardest to do. People aren’t just going to bookmark you just because you want them to. You need to give them a reason to do so. Having work that everyone loves to look at is one reason why people would want to bookmark you. But give them more reasons.

People love to bookmark things like great articles, references, interesting audio and video. People also like to pass along these bookmarks to others especially if the bookmark is funny, useful, or thought-provoking. For more information on how to get more bookmarks to your website, check out this article on getting better bookmarks and links.

So for today, think about it…what kind of things can you add to your website today that will make people want to bookmark it?

P.S. If you’ve found this post useful..please bookmark it. (Hey…just following my own advice )

Well, I’ve been spending most of the week playing around with a website called Squidoo and created a brand new lens called “How Artists Can Market Themselves on the Internet“. There is some advice that artists and crafters can use to promote themselves and their work on the Internet. You can check it out by clicking here.

So what exactly is Squidoo? Basically, Squidoo is a website that allows people to create single web pages focused on a certain topic. Each page is called a “lens”. Let’s say for example that you’re an expert on firing raku pottery, you can create a lens that’s all about firing raku pottery. A Squidoo lens isn’t about creating one page that contains everything you know about a single topic, rather it’s a place that gives you the information and resources where you can find out more.

What exactly does Squidoo means for you as an artist? Isn’t this just one more thing that you have to to that takes up more time? There’s actually some benefits that you can consider.

• Having a Squidoo lens can point people back to your website. If you create a lens on a topic that people are interested in, you can point some of that traffic back to your website.
• A link from your Squidoo lens to your main site will help in your search engine ranking. Search engines give websites a high position in search engine results if they have a lot link links coming to it. They especially favor links from large, popular sites like Squidoo. Creating a Squidoo lens that links to your site will help out with that
• You can make money from your Squidoo lens. Not a ton of it…but even a bit of pocket change is nice
• It’s easy and free. If you can click buttons and type text into boxes, you can build a Squidoo lens. You don’t have to know a lick of HTML in order to create a Squidoo lens within an hour or so (although it’s helpful if you do know).
• It’s another way to get your name out there.

What to know more? Check out my lens (and rate it and email to others if you like it please pretty please and thank you). Plus, you can check out this video tour I made of Squidoo so you can get a better idea of what it’s all about.

P.S. Feel free to pass along this video too… thanks!

A little while ago, some one posted a question on The Crafts Report forum about how they could promote their new art site without spending money on advertising. There’s several things that you can do that cost little or nothing that can be more effective than advertising. So I decided to share what I wrote on the forum. Here goes:

1. Know what it is that you want to accomplish- that’s something you need to know before you even start developing your web site. Then everything you do after that will go towards reaching that goal.

2. Know your audience- If your goal is to sell artwork, then you need to attract art buyers. If your goal is to get into galleries, then you need to attract gallery owners. Once you know your audience, then you can put things on your web site that will attract them.

3. Start a blog- You need to make sure that whatever you’re writing in your blog is compelling enough to attract visitors and regular readers. Again, this goes back to items #1 & #2. If your goal is to sell artwork and you want to attract potential buyers, then you need to provide information on your blog that is attractive to potential art buyers. Also, be mindful that if you’re writing a blog, you have another audience that you should keep in mind…other blog owners. That’s the magic of blogs, if your blog is good enough, you’ll attract attention from other blog owners, who will in turn write about *your* blog, which in turn will entice their readers to look at *your* site.

4. Write articles- If you want to show what you know, one of the best things you can do is write articles about what you know. I’m talking about magazine articles, ezine articles, articles that you post on your web site. And in each article, have a small blurb about you and a link to your site.

5. Search engine optimization- It’s always a good idea to make sure that your site is as optimized as possible. If the main way your audience does research on art is through doing search engine searches, you may want to concentrate on that.

6. Start an email newsletter- If you write articles consider putting some exclusively for an email newsletter to be sent monthly or bi-monthly. Your newsletter can also contain special offers for artwork, news, and other things that promotes your web site. You can start gathering email addresses on your web site. Also, if you sell artwork, you can ask your customer if they want to be on your mailing list and gather their email addresses. Yes, you can have both a blog and an email newsletter at the same time. I have both on my web site, and they both have different purposes. The email newsletter as more promotional in nature, with discount offers, news, and information about upcoming events. The blog is more conversational in nature, where I post about how I create my designs, links to other things on the web, discussion about jewelry and design related news. Very few of my posts on my blog is promotional…that’s what my newsletter is for. Some of my customers just read the blog, others read just the newsletter, most read both.

7. Join art directories- There are a number of art directories out on the web for artists, for art galleries, etc. Many are free, some require you to pay a small fee. But compared to advertising, the fee may be worth it.

8. Participate in online communities- Start targeting message boards and forums where your target audience frequents and start participating. When you do so, concentrate on contributing to the conversation, resist the urge to spam the boards with blatant advertising…you’ll just make everyone mad. Show off your expertise, answer questions, and be sure that your profile is fully filled out. Once people start reading your posts, they’ll want to know more about you, which may lead to more traffic on your web site.

9. Public relations- Learn how to write a press release. Use it when you have something newsworthy about your site or yourself, say you won an award, or you sold a painting to someone famous. Send out a press release and target your local media and industry press. Create a press section on your web site and post all of your press releases there. Include an online media kit so reporters doing research can get it all from your web site.

10. Create a plan- Don’t run out and try all of these ideas at once. It’s better to pick one or two methods and concentrate on making them work than doing a whole slew of them badly. Write a plan by outlining your goal and your potential audience and pick a couple of methods to help carry them out. Some of the methods you pick will depend on your audience and your goals. Also remember to choose methods that play to your strengths. If you’re great at writing, then starting a blog and writing articles will play to that strength. If you’re good at researching and following trends, then search engine optimization is a good bet. If you like keeping in touch with the media, then the public relations route may be good for you.

11. Be patient- Building traffic and sales on your web site takes time. Even if you advertise, it takes time. Most web sites that are instant successes took years to get there. Give yourself time and keep at it.

While this post is not strictly about the web and web design…remember that a lot of your customers will find your web site through offline means…which includes your business card! So if you’re thinking about designing or redesigning your business card, you can get some design inspiration by checking out this Business Card Flickr set by Daily Poetics. You’ll find the most beautiful collection of business cards there for your viewing pleasure. Check out the rest of the business card designs here. (Notice that almost every business card in this set has their web address prominently displayed)

While I’m on the subject of business cards, the Art Biz blog has a couple of posts on business cards that would be worth your while to check out:

• Some Handsome Artist Business Cards
• Get Your Business Cards Printed

Technorati Tags: business cards, design

Most people are familiar with Google and using Google as a search engine. What a lot of people don’t know is that Google does way more than just search and they have a whole range of cool services like Google Maps, Google Reader for reading RSS feeds, a free email service called Gmail, and a ton of other services.

One service that I’ve been using for a while is Google Alerts. Say you want to keep track of every web site or blog that mentions your name. To set up an alert, you fill specify what you want Google Alerts to search for, where to search for it (Google can search the whole web, blogs, and news sites), and how often you want the results (daily, once a week, or as soon as it finds a match) and the results are emailed to you.

I’ve been using this tool to keep an eye on who’s been linking to my blog and who’s been mentioning my blog posts. And I’ve often been surprised at where I’ve been finding links to my web sites and blogs.

Yesterday, I ran across an even better way to use Google Alerts. A couple days ago I mentioned Chuck Green’s web site and blog Ideabook.com. Yesterday, I received this email:

Nicolette:

Was alerted by Google that you had mentioned ideabook.com–many thanks for the kind words.

His email went on to tell me about some errors that he encountered trying subscribe to my RSS feed and checking out the past newsletter links. He even sent screenshots of the error messages and described what links he clicked on when he got the messages. Well, Chuck just made my day, I’ve been trying to find the source of those errors for awhile and his email pointed straight to the root of the problem. So thanks to Chuck and Google Alerts, the problem is all fixed…thanks Chuck!

After I fixed this problem, it occurred to me, why just use Google Alerts to monitor mentions of your site? Why not also use them as a why to start up a conversation with the people that are kind enough to mention you? Check out the site. Drop them an email to say thanks for mentioning you…make useful suggestions or comments that can help them out. If you run into a problem with their site, do what Chuck did and tell them about it. Invite them to join your newsletter or RSS feed. If you find their site interesting and useful as well, keep it as a resource…blog about it. Remember that marketing yourself on the web is really no different than marketing yourself off the web…it’s all about making connections and forging relationships!