Don’t Frustrate Your Fans
In the last article I talked about the different options for an artist to get online. One mistake I see some artists doing is trying to keep many different “homes” on the net. They will post artwork in 20 different forums, 4 community galleries, 3 different blogs, and 2 social networking sites. So whats wrong with that? It wastes the time of the artist and also the fans.
It is frustrating for a fan to find some great artist online and then have to check 10 different websites to keep track of them. Also the artist is not going to keep all these places updated with all his latest work.
The problem is not that the artist posts to all these different communities. The problem is that they don’t pick one place to keep as their home and direct the users from those communities to that home.
Here are some graphics to help me explain.
The above graphic is what I see a lot of artists and fans doing. This shows how fans join many online communities looking for inspiration, motivation, and great artists and the artists join many of those communities trying to get fans and anyone else that may enjoy their work. It’s a rat race for everyone involved. Fans are looking all over and artists are posting all over. It also shows how no fan or artist will be a part of every community.
This is what would work better.
In this graphic, fans find an artist through various websites and are then directed to the artist’s “home” where they can get the latest updates and see a full gallery of their work. The artist can keep their “home” fully updated with their latest news, sketches, prints, webcomic, merchandise, commissions, etc. and can make sporadic updates to the websites outside his “home” as forms of promotion. This frees the artist to promote in more places since it takes less time.
This is good for the fans and for the artist because it gives each a cental location and leads to something like the below graphic.
When a fan knows they can go to one spot and always see the latest happenings, then that is where they will go. I illustrated in the graphic that some of the artist community websites might die out, but only the small sites. The big ones like ConceptArt.org, DeviantArt, and others will stick around.
Recently, Skottie Young announced the LedHeavy Forums are shutting down and it just so happens that he has a blog now. I think this will happen with more forums that are attached to artist websites as the artists move to blogs rather than forums to interact with their fans. LedHeavy actually lasted a lot longer than most artist forums. In the past that meant those users would just go to another forum. Many of them probably will, but small forums will not last up against the convenience of blogs and the social networking explosion.
An Action Plan For Artists
- For artists, I would suggest finding a place to call your home. My first article “Getting Online - Free and Simple” may help you figure that out.
- When you post to community forums and galleries, use the forum signatures to direct people where to see more of your artwork. Anywhere you post artwork, try to direct them to your homepage if they want to see more.
- If you want your fans to interact and leave comments, don’t make them sign up for something first.
- Keep your “home” website updated regularly with news, sketches, etc. Your home should be the first place you update. The other sites should be used to promote your home.
- Don’t maintain multiple blogs, use blog categories to separate your posts. I thought this would be obvious, but there are artists with two or more blogs - one for news and another for sketches. Ugh.
- Don’t link from your home to the other community websites by saying “Check out my gallery at Blah”. This goes right back to not having one spot which is your home. Make a links page and link to those sites that way, but don’t make it sound like there is some artwork there that is not on your homepage.
- Please distribute your updates through an RSS feed. Any blog has this feature, but I still see artist websites with a news section and no RSS. Don’t make your visitors come to you to get updates.
If you have anything to add, discuss, or disagree with, feel free to comment.
January 4th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
alright. am i the only one who visits this place?
i liked the article. and agree with it. simplify. make life easier for everyone.
i used to be a contributor to this place.
i used to check this place every day.
now, it’s like once a month.
how’s everyone doing?
may God bless you and your families with His peace in the coming year; please pray for our nation.
thanks again,
steven lim
January 11th, 2007 at 8:38 pm
Thanks for all the helpful suggestions! I am working on getting more savvy about getting my art, writing, and music on the web. It is a full-time job! I have just published a book of poetry with my cover art. I’ve started a creativity newsletter called My Dancing Heart with the help of aweber.com.
Thanks again,
Kelly Richards
www.howtofeelgood.org
(480) 773-7000 Hear a Poem Line
March 19th, 2007 at 8:11 am
[…] Your income will depend on the market for your artwork and your exposure to that market. You can start by setting up your website with a blog and doing some self-promotion on other websites. It’s a lot easier to create income when there is consistent and good amounts of people viewing your work. Marketing techniques are so vast that a book with several authors still won’t cover everything. Just try to get your work out there, drive eyes toward your site, and if they like what they see, they will stick around… Maybe. In essence, it really boils down to the quality of your work. Unfortunately, residual income as an artist looks to be very difficult. […]
June 18th, 2007 at 7:04 am
THanks, I appreciate it, I’ve been trying to set up a home on the web for a while now, but I just wasn’t sure how to do it, and I almost went in the opposite direction of this.
July 7th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
Good advice (and great diagrams).
But where should I goto let people discover me and my work? I’m not trying to make money, just to get some feedback and hear from the like minded…
August 21st, 2007 at 11:31 pm
These are some excellent tips and I’m totally going to put them to use, too! Thanks for posting this because there are not alot of great places for new and learning independent artists!
Rachael ^_^