A lot of attention has been given to social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. But there is another social networking site that artists often overlook. That overlooked networking site is called LinkedIn. Even if you already have a presence on Facebook or Twitter, there are a number of reasons why it makes sense for artists to have a presence on LinkedIn as well. On today’s show, I’ll discuss the advantages of using LinkedIn to promote your artwork and give you some tips on how make the best impression.

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

Just like there are a lot of things that you must keep control of in the offline part of your art business…there are a number of things that you need to be in control of if you have an online presence or if you’re selling your artwork online. Unfortunately, a lot of artists give up a lot of control over their online presence simply because they don’t know how certain parts of the Internet works or because they don’t want to get into the technical parts of running a presence online. And this usually ends up in disaster for the artist who caught unawares. In this show I’ll talk about how to keep control of your online presence and how to avoid some of the pitfalls that can take how your present yourself online out of your hands.

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.

Despite what everyone is saying about the death of email because of social networking, email is still a critical component when it comes to marketing your work online. So are you putting your best foot forward in your emails? Or are you projecting yourself as unprofessional, amateurish, or even worse…rude in your email communications? Here are some tips to make your email communications as professional as possible.

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.

Twitter, Facebook, and now Google Buzz…social networking has certainly been the buzz on the internet for the past few years. If you have an online presence for your art, then you’ve no doubt heard that you need to be on at least one of these networks. Or do you? Do you HAVE to jump on the social networking bandwagon in order to promote your artwork online? In this show, I’ll talk about 5 reasons you might want to avoid using social networking to promote your artwork

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.

Is your art blog the best that it can possibly be? Whether you have a blog on WordPress, Typepad, or Blogger, there are things that you can do that will attract more readers, encourage more comments, and most importantly, help you promote your artwork better! Here are 7 ways you can make your blog be all it can be.

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!

If you’ve ever tried to purchase advertising in an art magazine or done co-operative advertising with other artists, you’ll know that print advertising can be rather expensive. One advantage of the Internet is that you can experiment with advertising for your art and not break the bank…if you know what you’re doing. Here are some of the basics of getting started with advertising your art online.

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.

If you’ve been selling your art for any amount of time and had been very diligent about marketing it, you’ve probably felt “marketing fatigue” at one point or another. You simply felt that you can’t send out another newsletter, make another phone call, write out another blog post, or send out another tweet. How do you continue to market when you feel that you’re not getting the results you want or getting the results you need fast enough? How do you make marketing a continual process instead of something that you do when you’re in the mood? In this episode, I’ll talk about how to get out of art marketing burnout and how to avoid it in the future.

1. Adjust your expectations- Are you looking at marketing like it’s a simple math equation? If I do X, Y, and Z I’ll get result A, B, C? Marketing is more like planting seeds and sowing a crop rather than a math equation. Most of your activity takes time to build up to work…and often you’ll see results later than you expect.

2. See marketing your art as a long term task- Marketing your art, whether online or off is not an occasional task that you do when you get the time. Effective marketing is something that you do on a regular, continual basis.

3. Do one small thing every day. While large marketing projects like setting up a website or sending out a large postcard mailing might give you a boost, most of your results comes from stuff that you do every day. Set aside 15 minutes a day to do some small marketing task, like making phone calls, sending out email, commenting on blogs, etc.

4. Don’t go it alone. Get help for the things that you don’t have to do yourself and help for the things that you aren’t good at.

5. Try something new. If your current marketing doesn’t seem to be working, try something different, whether it’s tweaking your current plan, or trying something different altogether.

6. Take a brief break. If your absolutely burned out, take some time to recharge your batteries. Take some classes, read books and magazines. Connect with other artists. But be sure to give your marketing vacation a time limit so you don’t abandon it completely!

One of the most effective ways to market yourself and to increase sales on your art website is to have a mailing list so that you can easily contact people that art interested in your art. So how do you go about setting one up for your art website? In this show, I’m going to talk about what you need to know to set up your own email list online.

1. Who’s your email list for?- A good email program give value to those that want to join it. In order to give value, you need to know who’s likely to join your list

2. What are your broadcasts going to be about?- What kind of information will your subscribers find interesting? Notices about your next exhibition or show? Exclusive deals? Tips and tricks? Industry news and information?

3. Decide on your mailing frequency- How often will you email your list? Once a month? Once a week? A couple times a week?

4. Decide on the format of your broadcasts- are you going to do a regular newsletter? Are you doing short updates instead of a formal newsletter? Are you going to have regular features in your broadcasts?

5. Decide on a email list provider- You can’t manage your email list by using Outlook or Apple Mail. You’ll need the services of an email list provider like Aweber or Constant Contact.

6. Make it easy to sign up for your list- Don’t hide your sign up form! Put your form on every single page of your website so that it’s easy for people to sign up no matter where they are.

7. Give people an incentive to sign up- People need a reason to sign up for your mailing list. They won’t sign up if they think you’re just gong to bombard them them marketing messages.

If you’ve liked the tips you’ve read in these show notes and heard on show and want more information on how to shoot, edit, and post your video online, get a FREE copy of my article series “How to Plan and Start a Great Email Newsletter “.

Video is increasingly becoming an integral and powerful part of the Internet. If you’re not using video somewhere on your website or blog, then you’re missing out on a wonderful tool to help you attract visitors, tell stories about your work, and make more sales. In this episode, I’ll tell you how to get started with online video and some tips on how to create great video content.

1. Don’t get too hung up on the equipment- You can take perfectly good video using a simple FlipVideo camera for less than $200. Some digital cameras even have decent video quality. Start small and build up.

2. The most important thing about taking good video is a steady hand and good light- Make sure your area is well lit…natural light works well. Use a tripod for shooting scene that require a steady shot.

3. Don’t make your video too long- About 3 to 7 minutes is good for most online videos. Don’t think that you have to shoot an epic…especially on your first try.

4. Use online video sharing sites to get your videos up fast- While there are methods of getting your video up on your website without using YouTube, if you’re just getting started, YouTube or some other sharing site is a great method of distributing your video online and on your website.

5. If you’re stumped about what kind of video to shoot, here’s some ideas:

• a studio tour
• a video artist’s statement
• a demonstration of how you make your work
• a “day in the life” video
• how to videos
• a series of video tips
• a photoslide show (Animoto allows you to do this without a camera)

If you’ve liked the tips you’ve read in these show notes and heard on show and want more information on how to shoot, edit, and post your video online, get a FREE copy of my article series “How to Use Video to Promote Your Art Website“.

Unless you’ve been under a rock, you’ve heard of the popular social networking site Twitter. Perhaps you’ve even started your own Twitter account and started tweeting. But what’s the best way to use Twitter to marketing your artwork? What are some of the things you need to avoid? And how does sending out messages that are only 140 characters long useful anyway? In this episode, I’ll go over some of the do’s and don’ts of using Twitter to marketing your artwork.

1. Lurk before you tweet- If you’re new to Twitter, follow some folks first and get used to how Twitter works.

2. Know what you want to accomplish with Twitter- do you want to market yourself on Twitter? Do you want to use it as a news gathering resource? Do you want to get your artwork better known? Figure out what you want to accomplish with Twitter

3. Pay attention to your profile- Your profile is how people on Twitter learn about you, make sure that you make it appealing to those that want to follow you.

4. Be selective with who you follow- You’re not obligated to follow those who follow you. You’ll find that Twitter is a lot more useful if you’re selective with who you decide to follow. Pick people with the same interests or those that would be interested in what you do.

5. Use 3rd party tools to help your Twittering- Tools like Hootsuite, SocialOomph, and Tweetdeck are designed to make it a lot easier for you to keep up with your twittering. Make use of them.

6. Don’t make it all about you- Me, me, me…please buy my stuff is quite boring. And you won’t get many followers if all you’re tweeting about is yourself. Make sure that a good portion of your tweets contain useful, non promotional information

7. Tweet regularly- Carve out some time everyday, every week to send out some tweets. Twitter is not going to be useful to you if you don’t tweet on a regular basis.

8. Give it time- While Twitter can work a bit more quickly than other types of online marketing, you still need to be patient and give yourself plenty of time to figure out your best strategy

If you want to learn more about Twitter, get my free guide and video tips on how to use Twitter here.