ARTISTS ON THE WEB...
Can artists and artisans make money selling their work on the web?
Certainly. Good work, anyway. But it takes a little perserverance at first and some upkeep along the way. If nothing else a website can be your instantly updatable brochure but visitors will not get in the habit of returning if it stays static. On the other hand it is a great way for people to have a contact base for you. To make a website really fly, though, you need to have work that the visitor can see and know he/she can have in hand in a matter of days (unless it's a custom order of course). This would entail using a digital camera to take photos of the work and emailing them to me. The whole process, once you are used to it, can be done in an hour. You can also email shots immediately to your prospective customer from your house. Another option is to take regular photos and scan them on a flat bed scanner. Important note - learning to handle your own image creation and manipulation as the best way to lower the cost of a website for artists - it's the scanning and color correction that takes time. These prices assume that I will be doing that work.
Once your site is functional, I can submit your site to search engines. I would need some things from you. I can help you on this. You can also take over the whole promotion if you wish to be more thorough. It's tedious work but very important and needs to be done right (time=$). There is a trend for search engines to charge for submissions and you will need to make that determination. I will submit to the main search engines but I charge $100 for submission to many engines and other promotional avenues, using information you provide, namely several descriptive paragraphs of varying lengths for various search engines and a comprehensive list of keywords relevant to your work and interests.
If you are ambitious, I can set up a way for you to manage your site completely after the design is finished. This would cost around $150 for the editing software and maybe a bit for tutoring if needed. To truly take it on you would need to become familiar with a graphics program like Adobe Elements to manipulate and optimize (very important) your images. The editing software will allow you to make changes while the basic design code is protected from inadvertent messing-up! For maximum control, you will want to have your site hosted on it's own server space which can cost $6-$30/mo depending on services needed.
STANDARD ARTIST'S SITE - Start at $1200- Unique, individualized and consistent overall layout and design.
- Gallery with 20, 30, 40 or so thumbnail images linked to larger image pages. Price depends on the difficulty of getting your images into an acceptable digital format. Scanning slides is the most expensive way. Having images simply emailed to me is much less. Larger images may have copyright information on the image if desired, along with title, date, size, price, materials, purchasing info, etc. As much or as little information as you wish on the page. The "Gallery" will all be on one page if possible, more if needed (for different media or themes, etc) Clicking on a thumbnail image will bring up the large image with more information if desired. Thumbnails of work are always visible - visitors won't get "lost" wandering around in separate pages.
- Biography/statement/philosophy page.
- Itinerary page.
- Retail outlets page (galleries, shops).
- Contact page with email link, phone, etc. As much or as little contact information as you wish.
- Email link (spam-protected) always accessable for quick communication.
- Search engine submission tutorial.
- Free text updates (itinerary, bio etc.)
- Domain registration for first year ($19/yr thereafter.)
- Comprehensive web site statistics via Google Analytics.
- Unlimited email addresses. (anything@yourdomain.com) Email is forwarded to you at your ISP or you may collect all your email at your domain mailboxes.
- And, of course, the initial technical setting up of your server space including registering your domain.
- Payment may be split.
- Additional thumbnail/large image page including image editing/optimization - up to $75 (depending on image source.)
- Printable purchasing information page - $40
- Ecommerce: Setting up and then tutoring in how to maintain a system where you can take orders via credit cards automatically, go to a secure server to gather orders, and submit the charges with your own existing terminal. This, of course, does not work as well for one-of-a-kind work as you might accidentally have two people order the same piece! - $250 for a reasonable number of "items". See the Services page for more.
- Custom error message rather than ugly default error page for missing (usually mistyped) pages - $45
- Pop-up printable discount coupon (for shows?) if desired - $40
- Comments page. Client/customer feedback is displayed on this page - $70
- Techniques/methods page - $50
- Contact form, results emailed to you, thank you note emailed to the visitor - $90
- Pop-up detail window - $40 each occurrence. (Includes image manipulation.)
- There are many, many other things that can be done with a website! Fancy scripting, random images, slide shows, scrolling messages, etc. We can discuss these.
- See the Services page for more information.
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