Marketing Your Web Portfolio
Quickview Index:
1. Customize Your Meta Tags
2. Submit Your URL to Search Engines
3. Install Marketing Scripts
4. Advertise Locally
5. Provide Press Releases
6. Join Competitions, Conventions, and Trade Organizations
7. Directly Contact and Provide Gifts for Customers
8. Form Cross-Promotional Alliances
9. Regularly Offer Personalized Specials and Seasonal Discounts
10. Organize Special Events for Interest Groups
11. Display Your Work From Multiple Sources
12. Promote Yourself Through Publicity Art
13. Thank Your Supporters
14. Ask for Helpers
15. Be Active Online
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It is vital to customize keywords and site descriptions for your portfolio website using “meta tags.”
Select keywords and descriptions most relevant to your site content, because search engines – like Google, Yahoo, and MSN – will be using this information to help curious web surfers locate your webpage. For instance, if an artist prefers “fantasy,” “anime,” or “gothic” themes for her work, she may use these keywords to explain her site.
Carefully choosing descriptive information most pertinent to the portfolio’s content guarantees more promising page visits by individuals more likely to share an interest in the artist’s themes.
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2. Submit Your URL to Search Engines
URL submission forms are used to submit web addresses to search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Some web hosts will provide their customers with tools that automatically send their site information to a multitude of search engines simultaneously. Once submitted, web surfers may locate your website through keywords run through the search engines.
You may also directly submit a URL to any search engine of your choice. For instance, if you wish to submit the URL of your website to Google, simply visit Google.com and run a search for “submit url to Google.” You should find a webpage by Google.com in the search results that will allow you to submit your URL to their search engine for free. This same process can be used to submit a URL to any other search engine, such as Yahoo and MSN.
The more regularly URLs are submitted to search engines, the higher up on the list of returns for keywords these member pages are placed. The daily limit on the number of times a particular URL can be directly submitted to a search engine is generally five. Following this amount, the search engine may begin to misread the submissions as spam and ignore the URL completely.
Note that after initially submitting your URL to a search engine, it can take about 5-7 days for your website to appear in search results.
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Once you have your private website up and running, browse the internet for “free marketing scripts” using a search engine like Google or Yahoo. Scripts are programs that you can download from the web and install on your website to perform a particular useful function. They are generally free to download and install, although some high-end scripts may be available for a one-time fee. Some websites, like Bravenet.com, will provide free and easy-to-use scripts for the less internet savvy, but in return will place ads on every page where one of their scripts is present.
Some essential marketing scripts you can find on the internet include the following:
• Newsletter Scripts – Newsletters make it easy for you to keep in close contact with your supporters through regular emails containing information about your work and updates to your portfolio.
• Affiliates Systems and Fanlisting Scripts – An affiliates system encourages similar websites to link to your webpage by requiring you to link back to theirs in return. This both directs relevant visitors to your website, and also increases your website’s visibility in search engines like Google and Yahoo.
• Tell-a-Friend Scripts – These invitation forms let your supporters email their friends with links to content on your website, such as blog posts, images, and shop items. Tell-a-Friend invitations may also be used as eCards, linking numerous individuals to your images.
• Blog and Journal Scripts – Blogs allow you to regularly inform your supporters of important events, such as your gallery showings, convention attendances, and portfolio updates. Intriguing content can also encourage return visits to your website.
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It is essential to locally promote your brand. Local commissions are often the most convenient for both artist and client, providing a greater chance of client returns. You can begin introducing yourself to potential customers by placing marketing materials – such as business cards, flyers, posters, and pamphlets – around local campuses, businesses, and any other location your target market may frequent.
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Press releases provide an inexpensive method for gathering public interest in your portfolio. Offer interviews or submit articles about your work, projects, and events to publications like local and school newspapers, business and media arts magazines, websites and blogs, and local and school radio shows.
Rather than directly promote yourself, offer business advice, media tutorials, or information regarding events or organizations you are involved with. Publications will be more inclined to print stories that are particularly interesting or helpful to their readers, so consider what topics might appeal to their consumers before submitting an offer for an interview or an article. This is an effective method for attaching your name to issues the publication’s readers find meaningful.
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6. Join Competitions, Conventions, and Trade Organizations
Marketing amongst industry representatives is equally as important as marketing directly to clients. Industry connections may lead to new business opportunities and new commissions. Join as many galleries, festivals, expos, trade organizations, competitions, tradeshows, and conventions as you are able. Here you may hand out business cards and other promotional items, network with industry representatives, submit work for judging and receive awards, or invest in booths to promote your work.
If you are interested in commercial work, local business conventions provide a convenient way to meet prospective clients. In some cases, the fees and travel costs for attending such events may be written off as business expenses or be eligible for tax rebates.
Contact your local Chamber of Commerce for information on events held in your area, and use Internet queries to locate the most prominent events held worldwide.
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7. Directly Contact and Provide Gifts for Customers
Accompany display ads with emails, faxes, mailings, and phone calls to local businesses, trade organizations, industry professionals, and other potential clients. Contact your city’s Chamber of Commerce to retrieve a business registry that includes mailing addresses and other contact information. Rather than merely sending advertisements, make an effort to include gifts or special offers for your prospective clients. Some excellent examples include Starbucks Cards or coupons for free consultations. These help make your advertisements more personal and more likely to be remembered.
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8. Form Cross-Promotional Alliances
When making contact with industry professionals or business representatives, remember to suggest cross-promotional deals. For example, if you are planning to send either potential or loyal clients gifts with your mailings, and you have decided café vouchers are most appropriate, contact local café owners and explain that you are interested in sending your clients gift cards for their products. Suggest a pact in which marketing materials for your services are displayed in the café in return for directing your clients there. Many businesses enjoy this type of free publicity.
Likewise, when networking with other industry professionals, politely suggest an arrangement in which they direct clients to you in the event of an overflow of commissions provided you do the same for them. Cross-promotional alliances such as these help guarantee a continuous stream of new cliental.
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9. Regularly Offer Personalized Specials and Seasonal Discounts
Maintain year-round interest in your products and services by regularly offering specials and discounts to your clients. Take advantage of the economic boom during holiday seasons, for instance, by promoting accompanying bargains. For artists interested in corporate commissions this strategy may be particularly appealing since many businesses are eagerly seeking advertising media, such as new ads, packaging, or jingles, during this time.
During the slow season, offer discounts for your products and services to stimulate sales.
Personalized offers also provide an effective way to maintain close relationships with loyal clients. A photographer, for instance, might offer special deals to her customers during their wedding anniversaries and birthdays to both capitalize on these events and remind her clients she personally appreciates their business.
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10. Organize Special Events for Interest Groups
Hosting special events, from luncheons to media showcases and competitions, provides an effective strategy for closely networking with industry representatives and local business owners. These occasions also provide a justification for obtaining promotional interviews or appealing for press coverage from local media outlets like newspapers, magazines, and radio shows.
Catering, space, and entertainment for events may be provided by local businesses and artists seeking an opportunity to promote their products and services to other companies and industry representatives, and hence may be obtained at a discount or without charge. For example, if you choose to hold a BBQ for local studios, offer restaurants in your area the opportunity to provide food for the event as a means of promoting their menu to surrounding companies. Likewise, local hotels, community centers, parks, and other event-hosting locations may enjoy the opportunity to promote their facilities to nearby businesses.
Contact your city’s Chamber of Commerce to request help with organizing special events and for help with recruiting local industries and organizations.
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11. Display Your Work From Multiple Sources
Upload your media to several online communities to strengthen public attention for your portfolio. In addition to increasing your number of followers, using multiple websites to display your media increases your chances of being seen by potential clients and employers.
An art enthusiast may not as frequently check a private website for updates as he does his account with a social networking site. Therefore, if he is directed to an illustrator’s Myspace, Facebook, FAN, and DeviantArt account from her private website, he will be more regularly notified of updates to her portfolio and blog. Upon being informed of these updates through a community site, he may then view the artist’s private webpage to learn more about her recent activities.
Some sites to consider for cross-linking include the following:
• MySpace
• The Free Artists Network (FAN)
• SheezyArt
• DeviantArt
• YouTube
• Newgrounds
• DipDive
• Wordpress.com
• Blogspot
• Live Journal
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Monster.com
In addition to online networks, there are various other art-based sources you can submit media to. Numerous community and art scene magazines, ezines, blogs, trade journals, school periodicals, web forums, trade organizations, and websites accept media submissions from independent and student artists. These offer an excellent method of promoting your media and services to art supporters, potential clients, and employers.
To pinpoint local sources for submitting media, run a web search and contact your Chamber of Commerce. Local sources 1) Provide more targeted marketing for artists looking to attract clients and employers in their area, and 2) Increase artists’ odds for having their media submissions accepted for publication and display.
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12. Promote Yourself Through Publicity Art
One solution for independent and student artists struggling to escape obscurity on the web is to become involved in producing publicity art like gift art, promo art, and fan art.
Publicity art provides artists with a “bait and hook” with which to reel in public interest for their skills and for their private portfolio. There are two general methods of advocating your talents through publicity art. In one strategy, you can begin your marketing campaign by exclusively creating publicity art. Then once a fan base has been drawn in, cease your promotional efforts to focus all attention on developing your private portfolio. This method allows you to carry a heightened fan base over to your independent work in one dramatic transition. In an alternative strategy, you can create publicity art concurrent to developing a private portfolio. This method allows a more gradual but constant flow of new supporters directed to your independent work.
Gift art is any work of media specially made for and given to an admired artist to celebrate him and his portfolio. It can also serve as a complimentary method of cross promoting between two artists. The subject of gift art typically reflects the life or work of the artist to whom the artwork is being given. As a result, the display of gift art advertises the receiving artist, directing previously unaware viewers to his portfolio. In return, this artist will often times thank the gifting artist by showcasing the piece on his FAN page. Not only does this reinforce public support for the receiving artist, but it also directs his fans to the portfolio of the artist who donated the gift.
When researching artists to create gift art for, you can document their success with supporters by viewing their number of webpage visits and newsletter subscribers from their FAN member pages. Producing gift art for more popular artists betters your chances of reaching a broader range of fans.
Promo art is any work of media devoted to a distinguished cause or event, like the fight against world hunger or an animal rights convention. One of the most renowned examples of promo art is Shepard Fairey’s “Hope” print depicting Senator Barack Obama for the 2008 U.S. Presidential Campaign. This piece not only contributed support to the campaign, but it also allowed the popularity of the campaign to increase public interest in the artist. This system makes promo art another excellent method of cross marketing, in this instance between an artist and a cause or event rather than between two artists.
Fan art is any work of media devoted to the subject of another media franchise, typically a well-known television show, movie, book, comic, video game, or band. While some artists are skeptical of fan art, considering it to be subpar, in reality it serves as an excellent practice and promotional form of art.
For inexperienced artists, fan art can be used to demonstrate to employers how your skills would appear when applied to commercial tasks. Additionally, some clients can look to fan art as evidence of an artist’s ability to adapt to a wide range of models and subjects, making these artists more suitable for freelance commissions.
In the modern internet era more artists are finding they can gain international recognition through the production of fan art. A prominent fan artist who demonstrates this is illustrator “Bleedman” of SNAFU Comics. Bleedman got his start as an illustrator with fan-made web comics depicting well-known animated characters from contemporary pop culture, including the PowerPuff Girls, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, and Dexter’s Laboratory. He developed an extensive following from these web comics, and once he ceased developing fan art in favor of personal work, he was able to carry that popularity with him. Had Bleedman not started his artistic career with fan art, it is uncertain if there would have been as much public awareness – which developed into overwhelming support – for the private portfolio he later developed.
While artists are generally unable to receive any significant income from fan art due to concerns over copyright infringements, it none-the-less provides an excellent avenue to exercise their own artistic styles. Fan art allowed Bleedman to practice developing comics in his unique visual style, referencing subjects from various animated series. Once his techniques were well developed, he was able to apply these matured skills to his original comic series, Sugar Bits.
Fan art also serves as an excellent method of cross promoting, in this instance between an artist and a franchise. For example, if an artist were to create fan-made media parodying Harry Potter, he may call attention to the series from those of his viewers who were not drawn to Harry Potter previously. In return, those who are already supporters of Harry Potter will likely be attracted to the artist’s work and will thereby be more inclined to view his private portfolio than they otherwise might have been.
When creating publicity art an artist must take care to ensure that this media in some way correlates to her private work. This results in cross promotions that are more relevant between the campaigning artist and the admired artist, cause, or franchise to which media is being dedicated. For instance, if an illustrator typically produces paintings depicting fantasy themes, it would be most beneficial to her to dedicate publicity art to relatable subjects. She might devote gift art to other fantasy-inspired artists, provide pop art for fantasy-based causes, events, or organizations, and develop fan art for fantasy-themed television shows, books, comics, and movies. This increases both the likelihood that the viewers whom her publicity art attracts will share an interest in the content of her private portfolio, and that the subjects she is dedicating publicity art to will intrigue her fans.
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When dealing with social networking websites, such as MySpace, FAN, or DeviantART, leave a courteous “thank you” message in the comments section of the member page of each individual who joins your newsletter or collects one of your works. This not only shows your fans that you personally appreciate their support, but can also call the attention of additional viewers to your portfolio.
When expressing thanks, avoid spamming or being inappropriate. Do not repeat yourself, type in all capital letters, use excessive exclamations or emoticons, post images, or make self-promotional statements. Any remarks that come across as desperate for attention or disrespectful to your supporters can have the undesired effect of turning people away from your work.
A simple “thank you for joining my newsletter” will suffice.
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Juggling all the tasks required to run the marketing network behind your portfolio website can become tiresome. If the work becomes overwhelming, don’t be afraid to ask for help from trusted friends or family members. For example, you can recruit friends to lend you a hand in distributing promotional materials at conventions and businesses once a year.
You can also pay for assistance with regular tasks. For instance, if you promote your portfolio through multiple social networking websites, like Myspace, FAN, and DeviantArt, you can offer an allowance to a niece or nephew for aiding you in managing these accounts. This can be especially helpful for simple but time-consuming tasks, like when leaving messages on profile pages thanking your supporters from community websites.
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Investing the effort in showcasing your portfolio on networking websites, such as FAN, YouTube, and MySpace, will result in little returns unless you make yourself visible within each online community by being at least somewhat active.
Remaining dormant after joining a web community is parallel to attending a networking convention and then not speaking with anyone. Potential supporters won’t visit your webpage unless they know where to find it. To make the public aware of your portfolio, you need to introduce yourself to members of the web community and offer up useful information to maintain their interest.
Here are some activities you may get involved in to regularly promote yourself through online networks:
• Leave Comments on Other Artists’ Media and Webpages
• Frequent Chatrooms and Web Forums
• Become a Member of Numerous Online Clubs or Movements
• Organize New Online Clubs or Movements
• Offer Your Assistance to Existing Online Clubs or Movements
• Present Individuals with the Opportunity to Interview You
• Create Helpful Tutorials for Other Artists
• Provide Tips or Weekly Advice to Other Artists
• Pass on News That May Be of Interest to Other Artists
• Conduct Interviews with Professional Artists
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The information above is taken with permission from ~thefluffyshrimp and the Free Artists Network (FAN). Our website is currently in construction with our grand opening estimated for May, 2010. Therefore, many of the references to FAN made in this tutorial can be ignored for the time being.
If after reading this tutorial you are still interested in additional marketing techniques, you may research the following:
• Podcasts
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