​I was reminded of this when reading a post by Gail Sibley about 5 Lessons Learnt From The Loss Of My Tech Guy.

RECOMMENDED READING: I commend the post to those who are very dependent on A. N. Other for their online art business for an account of what can happen when it really happens - and your "tech guy" dies.
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I've long been an advocate of the fact that people need to learn how to do as much as they can for themselves - just because it makes your business more robust (and less risky to tech guy disappearing) and because it costs a lot less money!

However I also recognise that as your art business builds you will need help - and that means employing experts to help you do things you need to do with your art business - including the tech side of being online. Whether it's building, maintaining and developing your website, making a video for your online classes or building a subscription based forum for your teaching online.

The thing is you ALWAYS need to remain in control if you want to be secure your art business and your art income.

That means:

• YOU cannot allow another person to have total control over your website - you must manage the risks of them "falling under a bus"
• YOU must ALWAYS own your own domain name - in your name - not the name of your tech guy. Otherwise the credibility that you build for that domain name is owned by him not you.
• YOU must ALWAYS have access to your own website - as well as your tech guy. That means knowing ALL the relevant passwords. That means thinking very hard before building functionality for systems that he had a licence for but you don't
• YOU must have access at all times to your email subscription database - otherwise you might have to build it all over again from scratch - but without being able to email them to tell them. Plus you MUST have a written agreement with your "tech guy" about the security of that data.
• YOU run a major risk if your system is a one-off built by the tech. guy and not understood by anybody else. That could mean starting again from scratch if he disappears!

So if you need help to run the tech side of your art business life online think about the "what ifs"

• what if he's not around any more - what do you not have access to, what parts of your online life are in jeopardy?
• what if you argue and/or he holds you to ransom re. the increase in his fee. This has happened to people I know more times than I thought possible!
• what if you want to move your website to another tech guy - do you have an agreement in places for how this happens - sensibly and efficiently?

My credentials for creating this page are that I've probably inspected and reviewed information on over 10,000 art websites while blogging about art on my main art blog Making A Mark. I've often got the impression that artists managed to get their images online and write something brief about themselves and then rather ran out of steam - or were not too sure what to do next.

As you know this website is about the art business side of art. I've also noted that some artists have a number of different ways they interact with others - but lack the relevant business pages that really need to be present as well. 

So this page aims to provide a resource and get people thinking about how they can improve their website. It also maybe highlights some issues some artists have never thought about.

The new page Web Content for Artists covers and provides brief guides to and TIPS about:

• essential pages
• website menus and navigation
• content for home pages
• content for image galleries
• content for news
• content for "about the artist"
• content for a contact page
• Terms and Conditions Content
• Privacy Page

The Privacy Page is especially relevant to all those artists who have dealings with anybody living in the European Union - given we are now just over a month away from the new General Data Protection Regulation coming into force (see Data Protection for Art and Artists).

The reason for emphasis on the Terms and Conditions pages is that I see far too many websites which neglect the fact that any business interaction with customers via the website involves explicit or implied contracts and all the relevant legislation and regulations relevant to such business. In particular, I see far too few which really get to grips with their terms and conditions of business.

This is intended to complement other pages in my Website for Artists sub-section of MARKETING which are (at present):

• Website for Artists  (general advice)
• Why websites matter
• Options for websites
• Web design for artists
• Writing for the web

In the interests of updating and improving content, I'd be interested to have your FEEDBACK about the new page. You can either comment on this post or use the feedback form on my "contact" page

If you are still on an old school fixed pixel width website and haven't as yet upgraded to a responsive template and become mobile friendly, you will want to know that Google is migrating to mobile-first indexing for its search engine.
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(see Rolling out mobile-first indexing on the Official Google Webmaster blog) .

Mobile-first indexing means that Google will use the mobile version of the page for indexing and ranking.

This in part reflects that most people using search are now on a mobile device.

This means:

• sites using responsive web design or dynamic serving are generally set for mobile-first indexing.
• sites which have two versions of their site will continue to have the non-mobile version used for indexing.

In addition, starting in July 2018, web content that is slow-loading may perform less well for both desktop and mobile searchers.

You'll find out if your site is affected via the Google Search Console (new name for Google Webmaster)

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IF you have moved your blog and/or website from "http" to "https" - as required by Google if you still want your pages to be indexed - then you have to reverify your site WITH THE HTTPS PREFIX in Google Search Console.

In other words add in your site AGAIN, but this time with the https:// prefix

Otherwise Google ignores your site on the basis that all your pages are redirected i.e. to the https site!

For me it was a very concrete demonstration that Google is seriously not indexing pages which are insecure.

The clue to the explanation was the date when things started to go awry. October 2017 was the deadline to get sites transferred to the more secure https - and that's when Google started its sweeping and deindexing of sites which remain in http.

I'll be working out a "how to" for those who need handholding through the re-input of a site and verification within Search Console.

• However - for the moment - I'm just so relieved when I did my verification update and refreshed Google Search Console - and there was my site with all its pages!
• I've only done one so far so my immediate priority is getting the rest of my sites fixed which I'll be doing tomorrow.
• In the meantime if you understand what I'm talking about you might want to start inputting your complete https://nameofyoursite.com to Search Console!

This is a list of six articles which focus on effective writing for web and business writing which I think you'll find useful.

​They provide great tips and techniques for effective writing for the web which makes life simple for your reader and creates engagement and come from from reputable sources.

I've previously written on this website about Writing for the Web - specifically in relation to the development of your website.  I'll be adding these articles into this web page above if you just one bookmark for future reading and reference!

The articles below are generic - meaning they're not specifically written for artists who are developing websites and anywhere else where their text is read online. However the tips and techniques provided are BASIC to good writing for the web which create engagement.

Here are the six articles which all come from reputable sources. Some provide lists and checklists you'll want to make a note of or bookmark.

1. 10 plain English principles for writing better web content | GatherContent - this is an ace list of absolute basics for effective writing for the web which gets engagement
2. Writing for the Web | BBC Journalism Academy - although this relates to generic news-writing, the guidance is still valuable in relation to basic tips and techniques for the basics of writing engaging news online, covering language, style, visual appeal - and how to avoid making mistakes.
3. Writing for the Web | NYU - New York University provides a very good and quick to read guide providing top tips covering readability and tone; scannability; length, links, search engine optimised writing and cultural sensitivities.
4. Web writing basics: frontloading | University of St. Andrews - 'Frontloading' is a technique which I employ all the time but don't always remember to highlight as a technique to study
5. The rules for clear, effective business writing | Financial Times - a bit 'heavy duty' but keep going, there's lots of excellent tips and things to make a note of in this article
6. Why you should make proofreading part of your content strategy | GatherContent - includes some great tips for eliminating mistakes within your text

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