There are other ways to promote your website that you can do every day. Building reciprocal links and utilizing personal email are highly effective ways to drive more traffic to your site.
Reciprocal Links
Reciprocal links to your site from other art websites is one of the most effective ways to generate free traffic for your website. Contact fellow artists and exchange reciprocal links. Most will be happy to do so. Ask your clients to post a website link to your site from theirs.
Email Marketing
Email is a great tool for self-promotion that is often overlooked by artists. We aren’t talking about sending unsolicited email or spam. Consider how many emails you send out a day. Every email (even personal email) is an opportunity to communicate to a potential client, so make the most of your email. Add a simple signature to all of your email correspondence containing a link to your website. It can be as simple as: “Visit my web site for beautiful, original works of art – http://www.myartsite.com.”
Email Tips
- Stick to one reliable email address
- Stay away from the large, free email hosts (like Hotmail) for business communications. There are some reliable free email hosts, like Google Gmail, but in time it is likely Gmail will be flooded with spam like the others. It is better if you host your own email. Most web hosting companies offer @yourdomain.com email addresses with their hosting packages. Read the Choosing a Web Hosting Company article for more information on choosing a web host.
- If you have to update your email address, look into having your old email address forwarded to your new email address for several months. During this time, send your new contact info to everyone in your address book and update your profile information at each site you display your work. Don’t risk losing a potential commission because your email address is out of date.
- Make it easy for people to contact you from your website. If you are afraid of getting spam, set up a contact form.
- Have two contact options: one for business only, and one for everything else. Filter your business email to a separate folder in your email program so you don’t lose track of important client communications. Some simple email organization will keep important emails from getting buried in your inbox.
