Art Business Info. for Artists
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    • How to write an Artist's Statement >
      • What is an Artist Statement?
      • Why you need an Artist's Statement
      • TIPS How to write an artist statement
      • The Language of an Artist's Statement
      • What an artist statement should contain
      • Examples of Artists Statements
    • How to write an Artist's Resume or CV >
      • Social Media summaries
      • CV for Artists
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    • How to sign a painting, drawing or fine art print
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    • The Private View Invitation
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      • Why websites matter
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      • Keeping Google Happy
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    • How to be mobile-friendly
  • SELL ART
    • Trading Law & Regulations for Artists (UK)
    • E-commerce for artists
    • Art Exhibitions & Competitions >
      • Juried Exhibitions & Art Competitions
      • Juried Art Exhibition Checklist for Artists
      • How to cost a juried exhibition entry
      • How to make labels for an art exhibition
      • Alternative Options for Exhibitions
    • A Guide to Art Agents and Consultants
    • A Guide to Art Dealers & Galleries >
      • How to find the right gallery
    • The Artist-run Gallery
    • The Vanity Gallery
    • Art Fairs
    • How to Sell Art from Home
    • Open Studios
  • FRAME ART
    • List of Recommended Picture Framers
    • Conservation Products
    • Framing for open exhibitions and art competitions
    • Framing Videos
    • How to hang a picture
  • SHIP ART
    • How to pack artwork >
      • How to pack and ship pastel paintings
    • Packaging materials
    • How to ship art internationally >
      • Rules of Origin
      • Export Licences for Cultural Goods
    • How to ship art to exhibitions
    • How to mail art - Post & Parcel Services
    • UK & Ireland: Art Transport Services
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  • COPYRIGHT
    • Copyright and artists' rights
    • BASICS: Copyright Infringement and Fair Use
    • How to protect artwork online
    • How to do a reverse image search
    • What to do about copyright infringement - for artists
    • Global Conventions on copyright >
      • Copyright in the UK
      • Copyright in the USA
      • Copyright in Canada
      • Copyright in Australia
  • MONEY & TAX
    • How to work out profit from an art sale
    • How to Price Your Art >
      • How important is price when buying art?
      • Options for Pricing Art
      • Terminology and Formulas for Pricing Art
      • Art Experts on Pricing Art
      • How artists price their art
      • The price of affordable art
    • Payments to Artists >
      • Paying Artists
      • How to create an Invoice
    • VAT for Artists
    • Tax Tips for Artists >
      • Tax on prize money
      • UK Tax Tips for Artists
      • UK: Self-Assessment Video Tips
      • USA Tax Tips for Artists
      • Ireland: Tax for Artists
      • Australia: Tax Tips for Artists
    • Insurance for Art and Artists >
      • Insurance for Art Teachers
      • UK Insurance Policies for art and artists
      • USA & Canada: Insurance Policies for Art and Artists
    • Artists' Grants & Scholarships
    • Retirement and Pensions for Artists
    • The Art Legacy >
      • Estate Planning for Artists
      • Estate Planning for Art Collectors
      • Famous Artists Estates
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      • Art and Inheritance Tax
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​Web design for artists

The basics of web design and a checklist of factors which need to be addressed
​

This page considers:
  • key considerations for website design
  • technology and software
  • design, layout and navigation
  • text and images
  • checklists for design, selling art etc
  • websites to look at (in development)
There has never been a better time for artists to build their on websites using webware which is very easy to use - and involved absolutely no coding.

However you still need to understand some of the basics of website design.

At the end of this page, I will be developing links to further reading. Unless otherwise indicated the links are to posts on my blog where I've written extensively on this topic.
Picture
Results of a 2012 Poll to identify the factors which made people leave a website fast

Key considerations for website design

There are many excellent websites, blogs and books which provide an excellent introduction to contemporary website design. (I shall be developing a list of recommended books at the end of this page)

Here's a top-level list of the headlines of the things you need to think about:
​

Technology and Software / Mobile friendliness
Websites MUST be:
  • be accessible from mobile devices
  • compatible with all screen sizes
  • work on mobile devices
  • work with different browsers
Websites SHOULD:
  • integrate with social media
  • be accessible for people who don't know any html or any other sorts of code

Design
  • Design needs to be simple and consistent on every page (use a CSS based template)

Page Layout
  • it's important how much content is above the fold and whether it communicates a reason to scroll down
Navigation
  • websites should be really easy to navigate
  • you must be able to get home and/or back to the top level menu from every page
  • make sure all hyperlinks are colour coded - don't leave people guessing.

Text and Images
  • Sites must be easy to read
  • Images must be sized to be both attractive, informative and load very fast

REFERENCE:
  • 7 Signs Your Website Design is Out of Date | Weebly

 A Design Check List

Below are articles which provides information and tips on website design
  • Are You Making Any of These Common Mistakes on Your Artist Website? | The Abundant Artist - this article highlights some of the more common mistakes that are made and explains how to fix or avoid them altogether
  • Why colour converts and creates sales on websites - Did you make any deliberate decisions about which colours to use when putting together your website or blog?​
  • Artist Websites and Good Design - 5 Rules from a Former Gallery Owner | Clint Watson / FASO

Layout

The importance of the page fold

​These articles explain what the page fold is, why it varies in placement from screen to screen and why what appears above the page fold still matters
  • The Fold Manifesto: Why the Page Fold Still Matters (February 1, 2015) What appears at the top of the page vs. what’s hidden will always influence the user experience—regardless of screen size.
  • Where is the Fold? - this is a website which shows you where the page fold comes on different sized screens and with different browsers. Note how pages with deep headers with little content lose a lot of opportunity to make an impact - unless your image does it for you!

Mobile-Friendly
​

This website contains a section on How to be mobile-friendly 
  • Are your sites mobile friendly - or are you facing Mobilegeddon? - A technical change by Google means that all sites which are mobile compatible will get an uplift in search rankings. This post reviews looks at how Google will encourage more sites on the internet to become mobile friendly - and why it's important to us all.
  • Fix mobile usability issues found on..... - Google is initiating a major drive on mobile usability and a lot of people are getting these emails
In 2013, I ran a poll to find out where artists were up to in terms of updating their website
In 2013, some 28% of you had updated your website so it integrates better with social media.  A third of you recognised that you need to do more to keep up with the technological change associated with the explosion on the use of mobile devices
Making A Mark | Artists websites: still a lot to do to update / upgrade for mobile devices
Picture
Here's what the browser statistics look like for one of my new sites for one week in March 2016

Note that the iPad and mobile browsers accounted for 40% of  visitors

(Source: Browser Statistics from Statcounter)
Statcounter Browser statistics reveal percentage of mobile users
Statcounter Browser statistics reveal percentage of mobile users

Browser friendly
​

A key indicator of a contemporary template is that it works with recent versions of every browser.

Once upon a time Internet Explorer dominated web browsers. Those days are long gone (see above chart)

It's now essential that websites are designed to be compatible with every commonly used browser - including and especially ones that are specifically designed to be used with mobile devices.

You don't need to worry about the older versions. You do need to worry about all the updates and new versions!

If somebody asks me to take a look at their new website (and I only do this for free for friends!) I always make sure that I look at it on my iMac, Mini iPad and my iPhone (e.g. see
Brand new website raises design standard for art societies) and I use different browsers to do this.

Page Load Speed

Picture
This website is a very big website - and they tend to load slower. However I will be trying to optmise using the report generated by the Google "Test my Site" took

How long does it take for your page to appear?

Speed on an image-based website is largely determined by
  • overall size of the website
  • file size (based on resolution, actual dimensions and file type).  
  • the speed of your broadband - and how good the connection is
To keep your website fast you need to make sure you don't make images any bigger than they need to be. I reduce all of mine to 72 dpi as any bigger slows sites and generally does not enhance the image (unless you want people to look at fine detail)

This is Google's advice about how to test your website - and benchmark, evaluate and optimise it using the "Test my Site" tool developed by Google
(NOTE: my link is the GB link - you may need a different one. Just search for https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/ to get the right country for you.)

You can also test how fast your website is. 
  • Use Google PageSpeed Insights Tool to check how fast your website loads - Do you know how well your website or blog renders on a mobile device or a normal computer?
  • This website tool from Pingdom allows you to test how fast your website page loads. Note you do NOT get unlimited free tests every month.

ADVERTS

Text for an artist's site
​

Writing for the web

Tips for writing text on websites and blogs
  • don't write an essay
  • keep your writing style and vocabulary simple
  • people "scan read" websites FAST - so keep sentences and paragraphs short
  • use subheads to signal topics
  • ​use bulleted lists where appropriate (such as this topic)

Captions

Keep your captions consistent - decide what to include in a caption eg
  • title of the artwork
  • size (dimensions - make clear whether metric or imperial)
  • media used e.g. is it lighfast
  • support used e.g. is it archival

​Web content

How your website ranks in response to google searches depends on the quality of the content as well as the number of people who follow an artist.

REFERENCE
  • Search Quality Guidelines: Find out how Google rates websites - An overview of the guidelines Google publishes on how it rates website content and value to those searching for information

Buyers' "need to know" information

You must advise people of what they are buying in terms of presentation and "add ons" 
  • mounted or not
  • framed or not
  • scope of customer choice about how artwork is supplied
  • implications for pricing

Images for an artist's site

Image oriented design

You may have noticed that websites which have had a makeover recently are getting bigger and better images. Images are becoming very prominent on all sorts of sites.  

​A contemporary website design for an artist's website should provide a range of ways for displaying images.
  • Image-Focused Design: Is Bigger Better? (September 28, 2014) Large images are visually appealing, but they can harm the overall user experience if they aren't appropriately prioritized.

Image size and definition

If you want people to but your art, people need to see what they are buying. On the other hand the speed of your website is a major factor in it ranking well.

TIPS:
  • make sure image size is optimised for speed of loading. That basically means nothing higher than 72 dpi.
  • use crops and close ups to demonstrate texture in paintings or quality of brushwork of paintings
  • colours will render depending on the screen used to view them. All you can do is make sure you're creating an image that is as close as possible to real colours.

Sell Art
​

See also my section on this website about Selling Art

Things you need to think about when trying to sell art via your website include:
  • a call to action button e.g. "add to basket"
  • using enough text - but not too much
  • making good use of white space - so you can items clearly
  • good quality images - be prepared to provide large images!
  • use of a visible/professional shopping cart 
  • use of a secure ecommerce facility for payments 

Most importantly, you need to think about which WAY to sell art
  • determine whether you are likely to sell enough art to make a proper ecommerce facility for your website a cost-effective proposition 
  • or consider whether you might do better to use an external third party store/site (eg Etsy, eBay) - and pay fees/commission

Reasons why your art does not sell from your website

  • nobody can find your website
  • not enough traffic to your website. Are you driving traffic to your website? (eg via Instagram?)
  • you advertise your art to the wrong people. Do you know anything about the people that visit your website?
  • you don't tell people how they can buy your art - I cannot tell you the number of artist websites where I see precisely nothing about how to buy the art!
  • your art is not distinctive - particularly relevant to those who try to copy popular artists but fail to achieve the same quality and uniqueness
  • you're offering art nobody likes. Always a possibility that artists need to confront. If you want to sell art, you need to work out what they do like and whether this is something you like producing. Or just make art for yourself.
  • nothing ever changes i.e. "more of the same" - particularly relevant to those who used to sell well - and then sales dropped off. Times change, tastes change - and customers move on....
REFERENCE:
  • How to Fix Common Design Mistakes that Hurt Your Online Sales - what turns people off and what fails to turn people on to buying your art
  • 5 Costly Mistakes That Will Stop You From Selling Your Art - a checklist that will help you sell your art and stories without selling your soul…
  •  How To Sell Art Online – Make Money From Your Passion - Creating an online gallery and selling your work has never been easier.

Websites to look at

Below are some suggestions of websites to look at. None of them are perfect but all have something to help us understand what is possible.
  • Brand new website raises design standard for art societies - Has your art society updated its website to cope with mobile devices and changes in the way Google ranks websites?
  • The Mall Galleries has a NEW website  - a review of the new Mall Galleries website - highlighting new features and better presentation of information.
  • The Royal Academy of Arts has a new website - A short review of the brand new website for the Royal Academy of Arts which has been devised in response to its new digital strategy for creating engagement with its target audiences
  • Search Quality Guidelines: Find out how Google rates websites
    An overview of the guidelines Google publishes on how it rates website content and value to those searching for information.

GO TO: COMMUNICATION
  • Websites for Artists
  • Blogging for Artists
  • How to be mobile-friendly
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ABOUT ART BUSINESS INFO. FOR ARTISTS  -  Please read "PLEASE NOTE"
This website aims to provide a compendium of resources about the art business for artists. 

It helps artists learn how to do better at being business-like, marketing and selling their art and looking after their financial security.
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Copyright: 2015-2021 Katherine Tyrrell | Making A Mark Publications
​
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If you've got any suggestions for what you'd like to see on this website please send me your suggestion
PLEASE NOTE:
1) Content and the law change all the time. It's impossible to keep up with it if you're not working on the topic full time. 
​2) I research topics carefully. However, I am totally unable to warrant that 
ANY and/or ALL information is 
  • complete and/or
  • professional and/or
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  • all links lead to the most current information (at the time of writing)​
​3) Hence all information I provide comes without any LIABILITY whatsoever to you for any choices you make. 
4) This website is FREE FOR YOU but not for me. ​Links to books are Amazon Affiliate links. Buying a book via this website means I get a very small payment which helps to fund and maintain this website. .I much appreciate any support your provide. Adverts are provided by Google AdSense - but the adverts do not mean I endorse the advertiser.
  • Home
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  • PRACTICE
    • Starting Out - Tips
    • Being a Professional artist >
      • Working Lives of Professional Artists
      • Artists' Side Hustles
      • Artists' Residencies
      • Artists Unions
    • Business Management for Artists >
      • Setting Up & Running A Business
      • Risk Management for Artists
      • How to spot Art Scams / Fraud
      • Life in an Art Market Recession
      • Coronavirus COVID-19 and Art
    • Best Art Business Books
    • Learning Opportunities >
      • Art Schools in the UK
      • Art Business Courses
    • Image Management for Artists >
      • How to photograph art
      • How To Scan Artwork
      • How to back up image files
    • Law for Artists >
      • Legal Matters
      • Money Laundering in the Art Market
      • Data Protection for Art and Artists
      • Brexit Guidance for Art and Artists
  • MARKETING
    • How to write an Artist's Statement >
      • What is an Artist Statement?
      • Why you need an Artist's Statement
      • TIPS How to write an artist statement
      • The Language of an Artist's Statement
      • What an artist statement should contain
      • Examples of Artists Statements
    • How to write an Artist's Resume or CV >
      • Social Media summaries
      • CV for Artists
      • Resume for Artists
      • Biography for Artists
    • How to sign a painting, drawing or fine art print
    • Business Cards for Artists
    • How to write a press release for an artist
    • The Private View Invitation
    • Publicity for Juried Exhibitions
    • Websites for Artists >
      • Why websites matter
      • Options for Websites
      • Web content for Artists
      • Web design for artists
      • Keeping Google Happy
      • Writing for the Web
    • Image & Video sizes for Social Media Sites
    • How to be mobile-friendly
  • SELL ART
    • Trading Law & Regulations for Artists (UK)
    • E-commerce for artists
    • Art Exhibitions & Competitions >
      • Juried Exhibitions & Art Competitions
      • Juried Art Exhibition Checklist for Artists
      • How to cost a juried exhibition entry
      • How to make labels for an art exhibition
      • Alternative Options for Exhibitions
    • A Guide to Art Agents and Consultants
    • A Guide to Art Dealers & Galleries >
      • How to find the right gallery
    • The Artist-run Gallery
    • The Vanity Gallery
    • Art Fairs
    • How to Sell Art from Home
    • Open Studios
  • FRAME ART
    • List of Recommended Picture Framers
    • Conservation Products
    • Framing for open exhibitions and art competitions
    • Framing Videos
    • How to hang a picture
  • SHIP ART
    • How to pack artwork >
      • How to pack and ship pastel paintings
    • Packaging materials
    • How to ship art internationally >
      • Rules of Origin
      • Export Licences for Cultural Goods
    • How to ship art to exhibitions
    • How to mail art - Post & Parcel Services
    • UK & Ireland: Art Transport Services
    • USA Art Transport Services
  • COPYRIGHT
    • Copyright and artists' rights
    • BASICS: Copyright Infringement and Fair Use
    • How to protect artwork online
    • How to do a reverse image search
    • What to do about copyright infringement - for artists
    • Global Conventions on copyright >
      • Copyright in the UK
      • Copyright in the USA
      • Copyright in Canada
      • Copyright in Australia
  • MONEY & TAX
    • How to work out profit from an art sale
    • How to Price Your Art >
      • How important is price when buying art?
      • Options for Pricing Art
      • Terminology and Formulas for Pricing Art
      • Art Experts on Pricing Art
      • How artists price their art
      • The price of affordable art
    • Payments to Artists >
      • Paying Artists
      • How to create an Invoice
    • VAT for Artists
    • Tax Tips for Artists >
      • Tax on prize money
      • UK Tax Tips for Artists
      • UK: Self-Assessment Video Tips
      • USA Tax Tips for Artists
      • Ireland: Tax for Artists
      • Australia: Tax Tips for Artists
    • Insurance for Art and Artists >
      • Insurance for Art Teachers
      • UK Insurance Policies for art and artists
      • USA & Canada: Insurance Policies for Art and Artists
    • Artists' Grants & Scholarships
    • Retirement and Pensions for Artists
    • The Art Legacy >
      • Estate Planning for Artists
      • Estate Planning for Art Collectors
      • Famous Artists Estates
      • Artwork Inventory
      • After the Death of an Artist
      • Copyright and Resale Rights after Death
      • Art and Inheritance Tax
  • About + Help
    • Would you like me to help?
    • Privacy & Cookies Policy
    • Contact
  • BANKING