7 Things Every Artist Needs To Be Successful Online
This week’s blog post is by ALFG subscriber and designer John Clement, founder of J. Sharp Studios located in Greenville, SC.
What does it take to be a successful artist? A keen eye for detail? Good people skills? Unique art? The answers are all “yes”, but in today’s world, you have to be successful online as was as offline. In order to be successful in promoting your craft, there are a few more things you need. The following are some tools to help your artistic business be successful online.
1. A good digital camera
If you want your art to look as good as possible online (as every artist should!) you’ll need a high-quality digital camera—I’d suggest 8 megapixels or higher.
And of course, a good camera is important not only when taking photos for your online portfolio (we will discuss later), but also when capturing images for your blog or emailing a client pictures of the progress you’ve made with their art project
2. Your own art blog
In my opinion, blogging is the single greatest tool for any online artist. It can feel like a full-time job all by itself, but it’s the absolute best way for ONE artist to reach hundreds or thousands of people— and it doesn’t have to cost you a dime. A couple of good resources are Wordpress (www.wordpress.com) and Blogger (www.blogger.com)
3. Your own online portfolio
Art blogs are great for showing works-in-progress and posting art thoughts and opinions, but if you want to show off your art a little more professionally, a personal portfolio website will do just that.
There are many designers available to create a nice artist website for you. . . naturally, I would recommend my company, J. Sharp Studios, because we work very well with visual artists and our background is in visual art (I specialized in airbrush art).
4. Adobe Photoshop
Whether you need to adjust the color in a photo or just resize your images for the web, the professional’s choice for image manipulation is Adobe Photoshop.
Photoshop is expensive (about $700), and has a fairly steep learning curve, so you might want to consider Photoshop Elements (a cheaper, lighter version). Also, check out www.photoshop.com, which provides online photo editing and sharing and gives you 2GB of free space for your photos.
5. A free PayPal account
This one’s a no-brainer: if you want to be able to accept all forms of payment for your work, PayPal is the way to go. PayPal takes all major credit cards, it’s reliable, and it’s extremely easy to set up and use. Yes, there are other options for collecting payment online (Authorize.net and Google Checkout) but PayPal has the lowest fees and it’s also well-known around the world.
6. A mailing list and monthly newsletter
This can be as low-key as you’d like but it’s very important that you give interested people a way to stay informed about your art.
All you have to do is include a short sentence somewhere prominent on your website that goes like this: “If you’d like to receive email updates from me about my art, write to me at-” and end with your email address.
Over time your mailing list will grow, and you’ll be able to use it to promote new artwork, upcoming shows, or anything else.
7. Basic writing ability
Last, but certainly not least, you have to be able to write. Don’t freeze up on me. I mean, you don’t have to churn out prize-winning literature to be a successful online artist, but knowing how to string a few words together is a definite plus. Using a spell-checker is always a good choice (they’re included in every word document program, so why not?) and just spending a few extra minutes to self-check doesn’t hurt either.
In the end, writing ability isn’t something you can buy, but it IS something you can learn—mostly by doing. And trust me; it’ll come in handy as you describe your art, send email to collectors, network with other art bloggers, and in many other ways too.
About Our Guest Blogger:
John has been in the design field for over 20 years. He is fortunate enough to be living his dream of creating innovative design concepts that 
inspire and motivate others. John is particularly gifted at working with entrepreneurial clients because of his own history as an innovator. He has built J. Sharp Studios, a multimedia company involved in all aspects of advertising and marketing, into a thriving enterprise.
Interested in what John and his team can do for you? Click here to contact him.
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And most recently, social network accounts to connect with their readers and quickly share pieces that are too small to blog about.
and then what if you did all those things and you still aren’t successful?
Hi Butch-
I think the key is having a written plan that includes specific goals,which allows you to measure if you’re successful or not. I doubt that if someone had a written plan, then put some (if not all) of John’s suggestions in place, that they would not hit some of those written goals.
So my answer to your question is, first, define success by writing specific goals, then use these tools to reach them.
Tony-
If you have done all those things, you may want to revisit your methods and content. For instance, with your blog, were you only posting information without thought or were you thinking through the process, researching how to write for a blog, building an audience and making sure its the right audience?
One thing we as business owners or artists do, is we think we have the greatest piece of art or the ultimate work and that there’s no way somebody wouldn’t like this. We have to remember that even though we think we have the best thing since sliced bread…not every one eats bread! What I mean is…you have to know your audience, know who YOUR client or customer is (who is most likely to buy what you sell.)
Also, think about the WIIFM’s (What’s In It For Me)…from your customer’s (or potential customer’s) standpoint. What are you offering that benefits the client? Not the features…the BENEFITS!
Have you also thought about giving something away? You often have to give away some stuff (valuable stuff) to get those paying customers. I hope this helps you.
Speaking of writing skills…This article was beautifully written. Thank you for putting the elements in a concise format, then explaining possibilities for each. I will certainly use this information in the future.
This also is a wonderful representation of your business, so I will be passing your name along to others who may need your services in the upstate area.
Thank You ~
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