Gettingpaid/ websites blog:
Two interviews done with Artists here today – things speed up when the end gets closer!
These were really interesting as they were more like conversations that developed out of the initial questions (artists I can’t get to have been answering an online survey, which is no where near as satisfying or revealing). Often way off topic, there were some great snippits of things that came up that made me think twice about my standpoint on things.
First thing I’ll mention – I shall come back to it after transcribing them, but my goodness 45 minute interviews contain a lot of words! – is marketing. This was mentioned in both as being utterly essential to getting your work seen and one of the artists said he couldn’t understand why some of his friends didn’t have websites yet.
I am of a similar opinion, although I do think it’s better to having nothing online than to represent yourself poorly. Before I came to Linz I googled all the artists and was really frustrated when I couldn’t find anything on one of the artists anywhere. After seeing both of his studios I am still a bit unsure of what his work is about exactly, a fact that I both like and am frustrated by. I guess what I like is that there is something to discover on my own terms, I don’t have a statement spelling it all out and arranging it neatly online. I wondered whether I look at artists’ websites and then think that I know all about them, when I probably haven’t a clue. Judgements are made very quickly after all and if an artist used comic sans or similar on their website I would probably dismiss them entirely (not really, well maybe..).
However, finding out from people in these chats how many contacts come from the internet (certainly for me it’s the majority) and where that can lead: I think spelling it out is probably wise. I also love having a website because you can see who is looking at your work. You know when, where, which things they look at, how long they spend and ip addresses with ac.uk and gov.uk are very informative. I know how many referrals I get (this month my blog has given me 7 for example), it’s not what you expect that gets you the most traffic. I am always incredibly pleased when people link to me, and in my stats I can see I am getting ten times as many visitors as this time last year.
Free websites and blogs are great, but I like having more control over the appearance and getting statistics! I must admit that I had the help of programmer-husband who got me started – but I can do it myself now. It might seem expensive but I think the £50/year for hosting is very good value. HTML is not too hard to learn, try this step by step website:
