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Local Art Scene
Marketplaces to Sell Your Art
There are many online marketplaces to sell or "reuse" your arwork. Here are a few of the biggies:
- Etsy (www.etsy.com)
For the “crafty” set. They do have a marketplace for art, but their forte is hand-made/crafted items such as clothing, jewelry, accessories. You will need to sign up to sell with them. They have a “community” – and you can set up your site w/out knowing html.
- Zazzle ( www.zazzle.com)
This is an ideal site for “reusing” your art on mugs/t-shirts/clocks/stamps, etc.
Again, no HTML knowledge required – you set up a shop through their interface. Shops w/out a great deal of branding are free.
- Café Press (www.cafepress.com)
This is an ideal site for “reusing” your art on mugs/t-shirts/clocks/stamps, etc.
Again, no HTML knowledge required – you set up a shop through their interface. Shops w/out a great deal of branding are free.
- Ebay (www.ebay.com)
At the very least, it's a cheap way to advertise. It's also a cheap way to play with keywords (see Sell Your Art Online link below) and see how many bidders you attract. Don't worry; you won't compromise your art. Think of yourself as an explorer experimenting with new ways to sell. More and more artists are selling successfully on eBay; a handful make good livings. Sooner or later artists are going to figure out how to market their art directly to consumers, and sites like www.ebay.com will play significant roles in making this..
Information for Artists
- Websites for Artists on Artbusiness.com
http://www.artbusiness.com/webworks.html
This is a good overview of how you can use the web and what to expect. It also has a very good list of what to do...and what *not* to do.
- Arts Journal
www.artsjournal.com
This journal is devoted to the arts and has good articles for artists looking to market their work.
Low-cost Hosting
There are many resources for low-cost web hosting. This is only the tip of a very large iceberg!
- 1 and 1 (www.1and1.com)
1 and 1 has very low-cost hosting, excellent tech support and excellent services. I highly recommend them - and we use them for hosting many client sites.
They have "built-in" shopping cart and e-commerce capabilities.
- Blue Host (www.bluehost.com)
Also an excellent - and low-cost web host. This site is being hosted by Blue Host. They have an online console and a dizzying array of available applications. Blue Host appeals to the more technical type...but they are well-worth getting to know.
- Go Daddy (www.godaddy.com)
Go Daddy now does hosting in addition to domain registration. I can't vouch for them, but they do have a good domain registration service.
You might consider doing some research:
Domain Search & Registration
The two most reliable (beside your web hosting company) are:
- Network Solutions (www.networksolutions.com)
Registration is more expensive than most - but also easier to manage...especially if you have multiple domains hosted at different locations.
- Go Daddy (www.godaddy.com)
A good place to register a name before you may have a place to park it. Domains are controlled by an online console, so updating is easy.
Build It Yourself Tools
Web site building software:
- Adobe Dream Weaver (www.adobe.com)
Professional-level tool with an equally as steep learning curve. Only recommended for those who are experienced building sites.
30-day free trial. They also have lower costs for the student version.
- Microsoft Expression Web 3 (www.microsoft.com/expression)
Microsoft's answer to Dream Weaver and the interface design portion of its Visual Studio set of applications. Slightly easier to learn than Dream Weaver.
- Site Grinder (www.medialab.com/sitegrinder/)
This is a plug in for Photoshop that takes your layered Photoshop file and generates a web site. Personally, I've never tried it. However, I can see the appeal for someone who knows Photoshop and wants a quick 1 or 2 page web site.
- Coffe Cup Software (www.coffeecup.com)
This company produces quite a few tools for site building.
They have trial downloads so you test things out before purchasing. I've never really used them, so I can't vouch for their ease-of-use or quality.
...and many, many more. Just do a Google or Bing search for "website building software."
Image manipulation software:
- Adobe Photoshop (www.adobe.com)
The application professionals use. Photoshop bascially rules the image manipulation market. It is powerful - and has a fairly steep learning curve. Well-worth knowing if you create paintings, photos, or 2-dimensional art. Photoshop is expensive - but well worth it once you take the time to learn it.
- GIMP (www.gimp.org)
Very powerful open source image manipulation program....and it's free. It's the choice of the Linux/Unix set.
- Photoscape (www.photoscape.org/)
Another free, and powerful photo editing application.
- More Free Photo Editors for Windows:
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/pixelbasedwin/tp/freephotoedw.htm
About.com review of free photo editors for Windows. Very informative.
- More Free Photo Editors for Mac:
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/pixelbased/tp/freephotoedm.htm
About.com review of free photo editors for the Mac platform.
Blogging
There are many free or inexpensive sites where you can set up a blog to complement your web site:
Social Media
Talking Points
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