Learning to See

Inspiration and practical advice for aspiring realist artists

  • Home
  • Workshops
  • The Keys to Colour
  • My Work
  • About
  • Contact me
  • Subscribe

Do artists still need websites?

March 15, 2019 By: Paul24 Comments

There was a time when you had to persuade a business that they needed website. They really couldn’t see why they needed one. Imagine that!

I remember it well because that was my job for a while, building websites for businesses and getting them visitors from Google.

Those days are long gone. Now it’s accepted wisdom that if you’re a business, you just have to have a website.

If you’re a professional artist, making your income from your work, or teaching (or more usually, both) then you’re a business too.

I know it might feel strange to think that way. We do what we do because it  gives our lives meaning. We hope that we can make a living out of it so that we can keep on doing it.

Nonetheless, if you’re an artist, you’re a business. So it should follow that you would need a website, right?

But do you, really?

Artist’s portfolio sites are dead in the water

When you think about it, you don’t actually need one to show what you do.

If I want to keep up with what an artist is doing, I’ll go to their Instagram feed first.

They’re probably more active there. They’ll be posting works in progress, finished pieces, they might even be advertising their workshops there.

A lot of artists know this, so they don’t bother with their websites much.

Why go to all that bother for something no-one ever sees?

Websites are a lot of work to maintain, so most artists don’t.

Unless a website is constantly updated and unless it’s something more than just a portfolio site, it’s unlikely that many people will be visiting anyway.

If you’re not already known, chances are no-one will be visiting.

No wonder so many artist’s website are left to gather dust.

So what are artists websites for now? Why bother at all?

Because the way artists make a living is changing

If you’re doing great with galleries, and they’re handling all your marketing and selling your work and paying you well, you can safely stop reading here.

But I’m guessing that’s not you, because from what I can see, the way artists make a living is changing.

If you want to make a living independently, on your own terms, that means becoming a small business.

And yes, doing marketing. Because that’s what small business do.

And what’s the most effective way to do your marketing?

Email.

It’s been email for a very long time, and it still is. If you want to make an independent living as an artist, the most useful thing you can do is to grow an email list.

Cutting through the noise 

Why email?

Here’s why: On a social media site, you’re just one of many accounts that someone follows. And it’s an ever changing feed. You’re just one post in long string of similar stuff.

Unless someone is online when you post, they’ll have to scroll through a whole load of posts before they see yours, if they see it at all.

There are things you can do to increase the odds. Stories get prominence on Instagram. Video gets prominence on Facebook, at the moment.

But it’s still hit and miss.

There are lots of statistics out there, produced to show businesses that email is much more effective than social media.

It really all comes down to this: People are much more likely to read an email than they are to see a post on social media.

I’m a big advocate of building meaningful relationships with people instead of “marketing” to them.

I start from a position of wanting to help. This site, my blog, has always had that as its main reason for existing.

Somewhere along the way, I realised that it had become a very good place to sell my work and to let people know about the online courses I’ve made.

Without this website, I wouldn’t be making any income from art at all. I’d be doing something else, and painting and teaching would still be a sideline, if I was lucky. More likely, it would be something I was desperately trying to find time and energy for in the evenings and at weekends around a day job I hated.

Been there, done that and it’s not fun.  

The best thing about what I do now is that it’s very meaningful to me and is – I hope – a positive contribution. I try to make sure I give much more than I take.

It just feels right to me to do things that way. If your’e an artist, or you would like to become one, you’re probably wired like me and you probably feel the same.

This is what artists websites are really for now

Here’s the one thing you can do with a web site that you can’t do with a social media site: you can make it possible for someone to give you their email address, to give you permission to contact them in a format that they’ll actually see.

You can only do this with a website.

I’m not saying that social media platforms are a waste of time, by any means.

The way I look at social media is that it’s a party where anyone can come along. You might meet someone there, but it’s not so easy to have a deep conversation with all that noise.

It’s not easy to build a meaningful relationship.

For that, you want to invite them back to your house. Have them round for dinner, make something delicious for them and chat. Stay in regular touch. Get to know each other.

People often complain about the superficiality of social media, and it’s a just criticism. It is superficial, and it’s often an idealised view of someone.

That happens even if you don’t intend it to. When I look at my instagram feed, it’s mostly pictures of works-in-progress, some finished paintings, random shots of the countryside here and a few of my kids.

Even to me, it looks like an idealised life. I’d love to live that ideal version of my life!

But if you’re on my email list, it’s different.

I can give you in depth information on what I’ve learned and am still learning about colour.

I can give you exercises that have helped me develop my skills and might do the same for you

I can share with you my deepest fears, my most cherished dreams, I can show you my struggles and you can see yours reflected there and feel better about them.

We can both realise that we’re not alone.

But aren’t blogs dead now too?

No, they really aren’t.

I do hear this sometimes, and I suppose for some people it might be true – of their blogs.

It’s like this: I started working in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO – getting visitors to websites from Google) almost 20 years ago now.

When I started, in 2000, Google had just come on the scene. Back then, people were saying that SEO was dead. Over. The ship had sailed. You couldn’t do SEO on Google.

Yet now SEO is a bigger than ever. It didn’t die, it changed. 

If you approach a blog like a one-way conversation in which you post up your random thoughts, it’s unlikely to be interesting to anyone but you. That’s the hard truth.

If you want people to read what you write, you have to be useful and interesting. You have to think about what you have to give to people, how you can make their lives better in some way.

You have to make it about your visitors, not about you. Make it about them.

This blog is over ten years old now and it isn’t showing any signs of requiring life support. In fact, it’s busier than ever. I get just as many comments, emails and readers as I ever did. More, actually.

But I don’t have time to blog!

I get it. More than you know. I’m a blogger after all!

Blogging is a lot of work, it’s true. It means writing sometimes instead of painting. Coming up with interesting things to write about is not easy. Doing it well means doing more than just sitting down and thinking “what shall I write about today?”

It means thinking ahead, it means thinking “what do I have that will be useful, helpful, interesting to other people? What can I share? How can I contribute meaningfully?”

If you’re not looking at it like that, even a blog will end up the same as a portfolio site. It will be an empty little corner of the web that you occupy but no-one ever visits. A shop on a back street with no sign.

Do you own social media or does it own you?

One more thing to consider, and this is the clincher: You own an email list. The contact details on it are yours.

On social media, the company who owns the platform owns your contact list. It’s facebook or Instagram (actually, the same company) that allows you to contact those people that follow you..

And those companies can do anything they like, including restricting your access to your followers if it serves their business interests. And it usually does, and they usually do.

Facebook and Twitter have both done this. No doubt Instagram will have too, or will before too long. As soon as you see sponsored messages on a channel, that means someone can pay to get more attention from your followers than you do yourself.

Your email list belongs to you.

But doesn’t it take a long time to build up an email list?

Yes it surely does. That’s why I’m always advising people to start now, whether they’re ready to turn pro or not.

Start now, because then when you do turn pro, you’ll be prepared.

I’ve been very lucky: I started building an email list before I ever thought about becoming an independent artist. Before social media sites even existed.

That’s why my email list is so much bigger than my follower count on any of the social media channels.

That’s also why I’ve been able to “turn pro” independently.

The bottom line is that is that if you want someone to give you their email address you need a website.

That’s what websites are for. Building relationships.

And that’s why, as an independent artist, or someone who would like to be one some day, you need one.

Best wishes and thanks for reading,

Paul

Learn how to make a living as an independent artist online

One month free trial

Find out more

About Paul

I'm a (mostly) self-taught artist. I paint realism in oils, mostly still life. I share my work, my evolving process and what knowledge I've gained on my own learning journey here, in the hope that it might help you along on
yours.

Comments

  1. 1

    Elizabeth Elgin says

    March 15, 2019 at 2:22 pm

    Thank you for this. It’s so hard to keep up with things that are constantly changing.

    Reply
  2. 2

    Melissa Dearborn says

    March 15, 2019 at 2:22 pm

    Thanks, Paul. Sounds like very sound advice. Your emphasis on giving makes perfect sense, and you walk your talk. I appreciate it!

    Reply
    • 3

      Steve says

      March 15, 2019 at 4:58 pm

      Good down to earth advice

      Reply
      • 4

        Lydia says

        March 10, 2020 at 10:13 pm

        Thanks for the post. I’m wondering why I need a website and you helped with that decision.

        Reply
        • 5

          Paul says

          March 11, 2020 at 10:40 am

          thanks Lydia, I’m glad it helped.

          Reply
      • 6

        Edy says

        February 1, 2021 at 10:30 am

        I was confused but now I know I need a website.thanks

        Reply
  3. 7

    Monica says

    March 15, 2019 at 2:24 pm

    I love your blog!!!

    Reply
  4. 8

    Crisalida says

    March 15, 2019 at 2:51 pm

    Thanks Paul. Great encouragement! Each post has always great information.

    Reply
  5. 9

    Helga Parker says

    March 15, 2019 at 2:52 pm

    Another brilliant post Paul, thank you and I concur whole heartily. I have done my share of research and find that we need to accept change. Build relationships is the key and it can be done online.

    Just saying, you and I is friends now for 5+ years.

    Reply
  6. 10

    J says

    March 15, 2019 at 3:51 pm

    Do you have a blog about how to grow an email list as an artist? I’d love to start.

    Reply
  7. 11

    Steve Kidd says

    March 15, 2019 at 3:53 pm

    Thanks for this Paul – the timing couldn’t be better as I’m just in the throes of moving my 2-year old website over to my own host (it’s a bit of a mess at the moment).

    That move was mainly to become more independent and open up more flexibility such as…. creating my own sign-up mailing list 🙂

    Here’s a quick point of proof to backup your theories – through my simple website I’ve made some contacts which have become friends that I’d hope to keep in touch with long after Instagram disappears up it’s own ad-infested stream. That’s even though I’ve got less than a tenth the amount of Instagram followers.

    Furthermore, I’ve had two offers of work through my website and a couple of commission requests. True that the website doesn’t get hundreds of likes that I’d get on Instagram, but until IG likes are convertible into cryptocurrency that you can buy a coffee with then they’re only any good for a short-term ego boost. The work offers from the site were for spendable money.

    I don’t need to earn a living from art (just as well) but on my tiny small scale of doing things then it’s easy to extrapolate the theory to see how it could work.

    cheers
    Steve

    Reply
  8. 12

    Sophie Ploeg says

    March 15, 2019 at 5:13 pm

    Yes, and yes and yes. All that. My blog is doing great!

    Reply
  9. 13

    Allison McSparron-Edwards says

    March 15, 2019 at 5:22 pm

    Thanks Paul. I decided to get some help with setting up the WordPress site and blog as I am full on doing other things (like caring for a 95 year old!). I appreciate your comments – they come from experience and are therefore invaluable. I’m nearly there with my new site and am trying hard to set up a series of blogs that I can fire off as soon as I am ready Fingers crossed – I’m less than a week from launching……………..

    Reply
  10. 14

    Naomi says

    March 15, 2019 at 7:51 pm

    thanks for the insight, Paul, I agree, blogging is not dead. My stats tell me that blogging is alive and thriving! I have several posts that gets tons of visitors every day.

    Reply
  11. 15

    Pamela Robinson says

    March 18, 2019 at 5:51 pm

    How do I grow my email list to reach people that might be interested in buying my paintings but aren’t interested in painting itself? Most people would not want to read my blog or care about my struggles as an artist but they might LOVE my paintings. How do I build an email list of those customers so I can include them in an auction? This business model seems to only target artists who want to buy art. Am I missing something? Aren’t most customers non-artists?

    Reply
    • 16

      Paul says

      March 25, 2019 at 1:15 pm

      Yes, this business model is absolutely based on other artists – amateur or professional – buying your work. The reason I’ve done it this way is because it works. All the people who buy my work are artists, and after having talks with other artists who sell their work online, and hearing the same from them, it’s become obvious that this is a new audience for art that replaces the traditional buyers who go to galleries.

      It may be possible to build an audience of art lovers who aren’t artists, but I think you will find it more effective to go where they are – and they are in galleries, mostly. That’s the old model and one which I think has a limited lifespan now. There’s no reason why you can’t try both, but your chances of building an audience like that from a blog are much more limited I think – to the extent that I wouldn’t do it, myself.

      I think it’s a case of going with what’s working rather than how you would wish things to be.

      Reply
  12. 17

    kato d says

    April 1, 2019 at 8:27 pm

    Hi Paul, what do you recommend we do to get people to give us their email addresses? Offer a free something to download? Do you use a subscription service like constant contact to manage unsubscribes and scheduling your emails? Would I need that to have an email list? I sort of think no one would care to sign up for my list, I’m not sure what to offer them. Any thoughts on Patreon? I feel like i could give art rewards, but I just don’t have that much knowledge like you do to pass on that people would sign up for it. Thank you. K

    Reply
    • 18

      Paul says

      April 3, 2019 at 3:02 pm

      Hi Kato,

      Yes usually it’s a good idea to offer something in order to encourage people to sign up. A download or a short course is great.

      Yes you do need an mailing list provider in order to build a list of contacts – I use Convertkit but Mailchimp is a great starter option since it’s free up to 2000 contacts.

      I have actually considered Patreon and would love to experiment with it, but I just don’t have the time at the moment! And it’s not a good idea to have too many different things on too many different platforms, since they all have to managed and that means less time for painting – not good! Certainly some artists are doing well with Patreon.

      As for what you have to offer, that takes time and some thought to come up with. I’m sure that you will have something useful you can share, but it may not be immediately obvious what. A good idea at is to try a few things at the beginning and see what works well for you. You can learn as you go along, which is the best way. Think of it like a painting, a step on the road. It doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be 🙂

      Reply
      • 19

        kato says

        April 9, 2019 at 4:14 pm

        Thank you, Paul! You’ve given me lots to think about. I really appreciate your insightful blog posts and the time you devote to responding to questions

        Reply
  13. 20

    Stella Haddon says

    June 6, 2019 at 11:59 am

    Really good post – down to earth. Makes sense too. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
    • 21

      Paul says

      June 6, 2019 at 12:01 pm

      Thank you Stella, you’re very welcome.

      Reply
  14. 22

    Claire says

    August 24, 2019 at 1:26 am

    Thank you for this post. I found it very current to what I’ve been feeling about expanding my business. I’ve been working full-time trying to build my art business on the side, five years post-graduating college. It’s been a long, slow journey. For the past three years I’ve been teaching random art workshops around town, and I started taking e-mail contacts. Just now I’m looking into Mailchimp. It feels intimidating and daunting, but still so exciting! It feels like my voice isn’t just getting lost in the void of the Internet like my ye olde dusty website.

    Reply
  15. 23

    Amy says

    February 12, 2021 at 2:13 pm

    Paul,
    How important is a website, at al, if one is only a hobbyist painter, and likely to remain one?

    Reply
  16. 24

    Janet Davies says

    March 29, 2022 at 7:40 am

    Very useful advice. I was wondering whether to give up my website, as I have had it for years and only sold about three paintings from it. I sell more on eBay and artgallerySW.co.uk. I have been trying to design greeting cards and some sites want to see your website. They bring more traffic, even though no one has wanted my cards yet.
    I can never see how to build an email list. If anyone wants to visit my website, it would help the search engines know it exists, and honest feedback is always welcome. I won’t cry. thanks. http://www.artjandavies.com

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Elizabeth Elgin Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Hi, I’m Paul

I'm a (mostly) self-taught artist. I paint realism in oils, mostly still life. I share my work, my evolving process and what knowledge I've gained on my own learning journey here, in the hope that it might help you on yours.
Read More…

paul foxton logo