The most common ways to build a website include:

• DIY build from scratch- you’re building your website by creating individual web pages using some type of web page building tool like Expression Web, iWeb, or Dreamweaver and HTML.

• Professional web designer or developer- you work with a skilled web designer or developer create your website for you.

• Turnkey web builder service- you use some kind of service like Big Cartel or the website builder software provided by many web hosts to develop your website.

• Open source e-commerce or web software- you’re building your website using free or low-cost web building systems like Wordpress, Joomla, or Zen Cart.

Why Wordpress? Here’s 4 reasons:

1. Wordpress is free to install and use- Unlike some of the other paid software and services, you can install and use Wordpress to build your website for free.

2. Wordpress is easy to use and maintain- If you can type in some boxes and press some buttons, you can use Wordpress.

3. Wordpress is flexible- While Wordpress was primarily created run blogs, it can be used for so much more including building a regular website

4. You don’t need to know graphic design to use Wordpress- There are a ton of professional looking, pre-made designs called “themes” in which you can use to create the look for your Wordpress website or blog.

If you are interested in learning how to build your own website, I’m holding a free webinar on Tuesday, June 22nd at 8 p.m. (EST) called Easy Website Building with Wordpress. There’s absolutely no cost register, it should last for about 60 to 70 minutes…plus it will be recorded. So if you have the leave the event early or if you can’t make the event at all, you can watch the replay later. The seats are limited, and since this is a free webinar the seats tend to fill up fast, so you should reserve your spot soon. You can click here to register or learn more.

Before you begin building your website, consider these issues:

1. Cost- how much will it cost you to develop and maintain your website?
2. Maintenance- how and who will keep your website running?
3. Control- ultimately who controls how your website functions, looks, and who’s the ultimate owner?

Here are the most common ways of building a website:

DIY- build from scratch- you’re building your website by creating individual web pages using some type of web page building tool like Expression Web, iWeb, or Dreamweaver and HTML.

• Pros- it’s low cost, you have complete control over how your website runs and looks.
• Cons- you have to know what you’re doing, a certain level of expertise in design, HTML, and web development is needed. If you’re a beginner, developing your site will take a large chunk of your time.

Professional Web Designer or Developer- you work with a skilled web designer or developer create your website for you.

• Pros- You can get a well designed, professional looking website while you can concentrate on making art and running your business. Plus a good web designer can help you maintain your website and give you advice on other web related issues
• Cons- A good web designer will cost you. You’ll need to closely monitor your web design costs. Plus finding a good web designer can take a certain amount of research

Turnkey web builder service- you use some kind of service like Big Cartel or the website builder software provided by many web host to develop your website.

• Pros- You can have a great looking well designed website for the fraction of the cost of a designer and you don’t need to have a lot of technical skill.
• Cons- How your website looks and functions is limited by what service you use. And because your service is standardized to accommodate a large number of people, your website may look similar to others that use the same service. It may also be harder to move your website if you become dissatified with the service.

Open source software- you’re building your website using free or low-cost web building systems like Wordpress, Joomla, or Zen Cart.

• Pros- Website software like Wordpress, Joomla, and Zen Cart is free to install and these programs will help you build a website without having to build individual pages or knowing a lot of HTML. Plus often this software is free to install and use.
• Cons- There is a bit of a learning curve in installing and setting up the software. And there is a bit of a learning curve in learning to use it. Plus, you’ll be responsible for making sure that your software stays up to date and running.

If you are interested in learning how to build your own website, I’m holding a free webinar on Tuesday, June 22nd at 8 p.m. (EST) called Easy Website Building with Wordpress. There’s absolutely no cost register, it should last for about 60 to 70 minutes…plus it will be recorded. So if you have the leave the event early or if you can’t make the event at all, you can watch the replay later. The seats are limited, and since this is a free webinar the seats tend to fill up fast, so you should reserve your spot soon. You can click here to register or learn more.

1. LinkedIn has a couple of advantages over other social networking sites

• LinkedIn is more business-like and professional than Facebook or Twitter…personal stuff is not the focus
• Getting connections is bit more secure than other social networking sites

2. How artists can use LinkedIn

• LinkedIn is a great place to meet higher end clientele. If a lot of your work is with professional, companies, corporations, or organizations, LinkedIn is a great place for you to be
• There’s a number of artists also on LinkedIn. Join some of the artist groups to get advice and information
• LinkedIn profiles also show up on search engine results. This gives you another place to be seen

3. LinkedIn Tips

• Fill out your profile as completely as possible
• Update your status regularly
• Update your profile regularly
• Start gathering contacts
• Give and get recommendations
• Ask and answer questions
• If you have a blog, connect it to your LinkedIn profile
• Show your artwork on LinkedIn through Slideshare. Get an account on Slideshare, create a slide show with your artwork and use the Slideshare app on your profile
• Join and participate in some related LinkedIn groups
• Advertise your LinkedIn profile

1. Register your own domain name…and always register it yourself- Domain names are like digital real estate. If you wait until you’re ready to build a website before you register your domain name, you might miss out permanently. You don’t have to have a website in order to use a domain name, you can send email under your own domain name or forward it to your third part store or blog. You can get your own domain name for as little as $8 per year…so there’s no reason why you shouldn’t have your own domain name even if your not ready to build a website yet.

2. Have more than one place online where people can contact you…perferrably a channel that you have control over, whether it’s a blog, social networking site, or your own website. Websites and social networking services aren’t forever. If you have multiple places where people can contact you, you increase the chance that people can find you and you have a back up if one channel disappears or goes down.

3. If someone is helping your with your website or other technical aspects, always keep control of the login information- This applies to domain names, web hosting, social networking passwords, etc. Always be the main contact for any of these accounts instead of your assistant or web designer.

4. Come up with some good strong passwords for your various accounts and change them regularly. Account hacking does exist and one way to combat it is to create good, strong, hard to guess passwords. You should also remember to use different passwords for each account so that if someone guesses one password, they don’t have access to the rest of your accounts and change them up regularly. If you have a lot of log in information, use a program like RoboForm to help you organize your passwords and login information.

5. Keep backups of everything- Blog posts, customer data, email addresses, sales data…losing any of this information can spell disaster for you. Keep regular backups of all of this information on a weekly basis…especially if they reside on a third party system.

Blogging services vs self hosting

• Blogging service- this includes services like Blogger, Wordpress.com, LiveJournal, etc. A blogging service is something that you sign up to get your blog. A blogging service is responsible for hosting your blog, providing features, doing upgrades, and maintaining the technical side of your blog.
• Self hosting- this includes blogging software like Wordpress.org, Moveable Type, Mambo, Drupal that runs on a web server that you manage.

Free vs paid services

• Free- some blogging services (Blogger, Wordpress.com, LiveJournal, Vox) and software (Wordpress.org, Mambo, Drupal) are completely free. Many of these services make money by putting advertising on your blog.
• Paid- other blogging services (Typepad, Squarespace, Wordpress.com) will charge a monthly fee to host and maintain the technical aspects of your blog. Some services such as Wordpress.com offer a free basic service and will charge for additional features.

Factors to consider

• cost- how much are you budgeted to spend on your blog (hosting, monthly fee, set up, domain name)? Are you willing to pay for a monthly service? Are you willing to help someone help you set up a self hosted blog?
• ease of use- how much technical expertise do you have? Are you willing to maintain the technical parts of your blog if you decide to self host? Do you have the technical expertise to install your own blog or would you rather use a service that takes care of this for you?
• features- what kind of features do you want for your blog? Do you want a custom look for your blog or can you use a generic theme? Do you want your blog to match your website completely? Do you want the ability to sell from your blog? A photo gallery? Show videos? Add a mailing list sign up? If you’re using a blogging service, the features you can have on your blog is controlled by the service.
• control- how much control do you want to have over how your blog runs and looks? Some blog hosting services have a terms of service control what you can and can’t do on your blog (eg. using your blog to make sales, subject matter of your blog, etc). Plus, if the blogging service shuts down, then you can lose your blog.

If you’re thinking about starting a blog or if you already have a blog and you want to be more effective, sign up for my FREE e-course “50 Blogging Tips for Artists “. Get a free tip in your email every day that will help make your blogging life easier. Sign up now!

1. Always email from your own domain- Be sure to get your own domain name, set up an email account, and send all of your emails from that domain. It looks a lot more professional than an Gmail or a Yahoo! account.

2. Be careful with humor and other hard to convey emotions in emails- Humor doesn’t translate well over email. People aren’t there to translate emotions from your face. So don’t attempt to be humorous or sarcastic in your business emails.

3. Get to the point- Businesses get a lot of email. Whoever you’re sending email to…make their job easier by getting right to the point. No long and rambling emails!

4. Ask before sending images- Sending a bunch of email slowing images of your work is one sure way to annoy whoever is receiving them. Before you send images of your work through email, ask if it’s okay and ask what format they should be in.

5. Optimize your images for email- Make sure the images you send through email are formatted (size, file size, file format) so they don’t clog up the recipient’s inbox. Here is a good article on how to properly format your images for your website and email.

6. Include a signature in your outgoing email- Make sure your signature has your name, company name, email, web address, and other important information and goes out with all of your outgoing email.

7. Spell check and grammar check…and leave the acronyms alone- Nothing screams unprofessional than an email filled with misspellings, grammar errors and acronyms like OMG and TTY.

8. Regularly check and answer your email- This should go without saying. Don’t give out an email address that you don’t check and answer on a regular basis.

9. Don’t email when a phone call or face to face contact would be better- You don’t have to conduct ALL of your business through email. If the situation is too complex for an email, pick up the phone…or if your contact is local, set up a meeting. Sometimes a phone call or a face-to-face meeting will do better than a long confusing email.

1. Your customers aren’t on social networks- While there are a lot of people online, not all of them are using Facebook or Twitter. As of August 2009, it’s estimated that 17% of the time spent online is on social network sites like Facebook or on blogs. If you have an audience that’s not social networking savvy or an audience that don’t spend a lot of time on the computer, then social networking might not be a priority for you.

Reality check- That 17% figure cited had actually increased by 6% from the previous year. Keep in mind that while your current customers aren’t there now…there’s nothing saying that they won’t be in the future…plus there’s a chance that you’re ignoring potential new customers.

2. You’re too busy creating art- While it’s important to market your art, you also have to make sure that you’re spending enough time in your studio so that you actually have something to market. Social networking can be an enormous time sink if you’re not careful.

3. You hate being on the computer- If you only use your computer to check email and avoid it like the plague the rest of the time, you’re not going to be really excited to spend even more time setting up a Facebook page or taking time to tweet about your latest work…and your lack of excitement will show.

4. You’ve tried it and not gotten any results- If you’ve already been on these social networks and don’t seem to get any results, then there’s nothing wrong with moving on to other techniques that will yield better results.

Reality check- a good honest effort is more than just a month or two of sporadically tweeting or logging onto your Facebook page. Just like any other method of marketing, social networking does take time.

5. You’re doing quite well without it- You’re selling out at shows, you’re getting plenty of sales on Etsy, and you’re always filling in orders with your gallery accounts…so whatever you’re doing now is working just fine.

1. Brand your blog- Make sure your blog has the clear stamp of your brand, this includes colors, fonts, logo, domain name, banner, etc. If you’re using a free theme from Blogger or Wordpress, brand the look by getting a custom banner or altering the colors and fonts. But the basic rules of web design still apply!

2. Clean up your sidebars- Use widgets and sidebar graphics sparingly. It’s nice to show that you’re affiliated with but you don’t have to show every affiliation you have. It makes your blog look messy and may slow the speed of your blog. Reserve your sidebar for important marketing features like your opt-in box, links to your website, links to other blog posts, etc.

3. Add an opt-in box- Make sure that everybody is able to sign up for your newsletter and mailing list. If you don’t have a mailing list, you can learn to set one up by getting a FREE copy of my article series “How to Plan and Start a Great Email Newsletter “.

4. Make your post titles SEO friendly- Avoid vague “mystery meat” titles that don’t mean anything to either search engines or your visitors. Make sure that your blog post titles state clearly what your blog post is about and contains major keywords for your topic.

5. Make your blog shareable- If you have great content, make it easy for your visitors to share by adding social networking buttons to your blog. You can also share your blog on Twitter and Facebook by using services like Twitterfeed and Networked Blogs.

6. Make your blog easy for people to read- Display your RSS button in an easy to find place for your RSS subscribers for folks that like to use RSS readers. You can also use a service like Feedblitz or Feedburner to allow people to subscribe to your blog via email.

7. Don’t make it all about you- Don’t make every blog post about your new sale on Etsy or a plea to buy your work. Write about real life events and how it inspires your work. Ask questions from your readers. Answer comments readers leave on your blog. Ask readers what they want…write blog posts based on reader and customer questions. Remember to interact.

If you’re thinking about starting a blog or if you already have a blog and you want to be more effective, sign up for my FREE e-course “50 Blogging Tips for Artists“. Get a free tip in your email every day that will help make your blogging life easier. Sign up now!

1. Types of disasters to plan for- there are a number of emergencies or disasters that you have to plan for in advance

• Natural disasters- tornados, flooding, wildfires, hurricanes, earthquakes, snowstorms
• Medical and life emergencies- sudden illness (yourself or a family member), accidents, epidemics, disability, death
• Other- computer failure, house/studio fires or flooding, theft

2. Know what your foreseeable risks are- Are you located in a flood zone? Is your studio or business located in a place that’s prone to earthquakes? Take stock of your own medical heath…does your art pose forseeable health risks? Are you prone to certain illnesses? Take concrete steps to help avoid what you can. Call your insurance agent to get proper coverage for your business.

3. Remember that a disaster doesn’t have to happen to you directly to effect you- If you have critical suppliers that get struck by a major disaster, that can be disaster for your business. Don’t be dependent on just one supplier for critical services and supplies.

4. Make a plan- once you’ve taken stock, write out a plan to follow in case of an emergency. List:

• Where you’ll conduct business if something happens to your main place of business
• How people can contact you in the event of an emergency
• Have alternative means of communication
• Who can take over for you if you become incapacitated
• Where all of your critical files and information is located (includes financial info, contact info to lawyers, insurance agent, accountants, galleries, etc)
• Access to online accounts like your website, online portfolio, email, blog
• A backup and security plan for your computers (how often you backup, where to retrieve your backups, and your security)
• A complete inventory of critical electronics and equipment along with serial numbers
• Information about your insurance policy, your policy number, and the name and contact information of your insurance agent
• A cash emergency fund

5. Have a “Pick Up and Go” box- This is a box of vital documents where if you had to evacuate in an emergency that you can simply grab and go on your way out the door.

6. Keep your plan and important documents in multiple places- Your plan is useless if you’re only copy burns up in a fire. Make multiple copies of your disaster plan and critical papers and keep them in multiple places away from your home or studio…such as a relative’s home or a safety deposit box.

For more information about disaster planning and to get a free sample disaster plan, visit: http://www.ready.gov

1. Know your advertising options- there are a number of options when it comes to advertising online. Here are a couple that are most common

• Text ads
• Banner ads
• Sponsorships (text or banner)

2. Know your pricing options- most online advertising is based on either impressions or clicks:

• Pay Per Click (PPC)…this means that you’re charged according to how many people actually click on your ad
• CPM (Cost Per Mille)- this is based on how many people will see your ad. “Per mille” means per thousand impressions, or loads of an advertisement (e.g. If a website gets about $5,000 impressions per month, they may charge $20 x 5 CPM or $100 per month

3. Figure out where to advertise- First figure out who your target market is then make a list of likely places to advertise

• Google Ads
• Facebook Ads
• Niche sites- these are specific websites and blogs where your target market is likely to see your ads

4. Research the ad requirements- every website and service has different requirements when it comes to the ad format and design. Familiarize yourself with requirements such as:

• Format- .jpg, .gif, .png, animated vs not animated
• Word count
• File size
• Image size

5. Figure out your budget- Don’t go into advertising without a budget in mind. A lot of business base their ad buys on 10% of their monthly or yearly income. So if you make $1,000 per month online, then figure about $100 per month

6. Know what are you advertising for- Have a specific goal for your advertising or various advertising campaigns. Are you trying to brand yourself?Promote a specific event? Get more traffic for your website?

7. Spend a good deal of time designing your ad- Art is a visual medium. Make sure that your ad is visually pleasing. Experiment with different sizes, animation, colors, photos, etc. If you’re doing a text ad, don’t neglect your copy! A couple of words can make the difference. Plus, remember to point your ad to a specific page on your website instead of dumping people on your homepage. This will make your ad more effective and easier to track.

8. Know that advertising as a long-term strategy- Advertising takes some time to be effective. Don’t run a couple of ads and decide to quit. Most people need to see your ad at least 7 times before they recognize you or decide to click. If you’re going to do advertising, commit yourself to a plan of at least 3 to 6 months and stick to it.