Don't Make Those Artist Website Mistakes
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- Опубліковано 5 лют 2025
- Thinking about making an artist website or renovating your old online art portfolio? Keep watching this video! Today I want to point out 12 common mistakes artists make when making their art portfolio websites. Some mistakes are made by beginners, some are made by artists of all levels. With these tips, I can help you make a better website instantly, and for free!
Mistake 1 Using Free Builder
Mistake 2 Long Domain Name
Mistake 3 Beautiful over Useful
Mistake 4 Large Images
Mistake 5 No Texts
Mistake 6 No Keywords
Mistake 7 Not Mobile Friendly
Mistake 8 No Updates
Mistake 9 No Portraits
Mistake 10 No Mailing List
Mistake 11 No Blogs
Mistake 12 No Contact Form
#artwebsite #artportfolio #artisttips
I finally started my own website to sell my art three weeks ago. I’ve been going thru tutorials on Wordpress and selling art online and it is either the creator hawking their crap, talking over my head, or speaking to equals while claiming to be teach the uninitiated. In today’s batch of videos I find this. You. Wow. You are the first person to not only make sense but you are answering the questions I have. I have subscribed and will be diving into your content. I’m going to watch the artist over 50 next. I’ve been putting off selling online mainly from my depression. I keep talking myself out of it. I came up with a solid business plan to sell online and am computer savvy but Wordpress feels like a fairly steep initial learning curve. Just this one video has given me confidence I’m on the right track as I planned for several of your points. I started a blog to begin generating views. It has been showing slow but consistent growth. Thank you for the inspiration.
Hi, I am planning to create one myself, wordpress has a "personal plan" for $4 a month, do you think im okay with that plan? or i should pick the higher ones?
How’s it been going?
Depression is from living in the past. Anxiety is from living in the future. Enjoy the here and now!
@@peecyan now I’m confused. I thought the first,main, point is that WordPress is free!
Thank you.very much! You are the best out if many others! Smart, experienced, very professional! Answered so many questions! Thank you also for the inspiration! You are bringing more hope at such a tough times. I am in a few Museums artist, also was represented by quite few Galleries, but now when 90% of them closed it's tough to get even a profie agent so I waisted lots of time to realise that I have to do everything by myself! Thanks again! Love you!
This is the first video out there focusing on this that is smart, savvy, and helpful. Thank you for your help
Thank you!! I havent started a website yet, i was about to.. but now i can start in the right path
Go for it!😇
also, I think the art work should come up immediately, when I'm surfing websites if there are more than 2 clicks to get to the work I'm out of there
2 clicks? u impatient 😂
"beautiful over useful" that was the one for me......this was an incredible video i learned so much
Regarding being spammed by email, a solution would be to input your contact info on a psd document that you would put on your website, this way the web crawlers won't be able to "read" the email, it will just be a psd file and not something they would glean your email information.
On the cusp of finally building a website. These tips are great and I'll keep them under consideration as I move forward. Thank you.
Thank you for being so straight forward.
Lots of great advice here, but I do think it's fine to not share a photo of yourself. There's a lot of pressure on artists to post photos of themselves, and the assumption is that the only reason you wouldn't want to is shyness or insecurity. There's nothing wrong with sharing photos online if you actually want to, but many artists choose not put a photo online for some privacy.
Maddie M Definitely it’s a personal choice. But becoming a freelancing self representing artist is like becoming a brand. It’s hard to not to show the face and to build a strong brand. Like singers for example. Sia only hides her face after she has a global brand.
@@VeryPrivateGallery True, for performers it's part of the job, unless you're a studio or session musician perhaps.
Maddie M I am sure there could be ways to work around, like being a graffiti artist and hides the face or identity (like Banksy). It’s harder though!
Great video! I definitely learned all this by trial and error.
I think another mistake artists make is selling on other platforms and not even linking to it on their website, or not having a shop. Like people are too lazy and impatient to always contact you for a painting!
I really like your videos. I wish you'd talk a little bit slow and calmer. I get anxiety listening to too fast speech, like something is super urgent lol.
Absolutely brilliant! Thank you
(and guess which Ad I saw directly after? Wix lol)
Customers should be able to download a catalog of an artist’s works from their website. I realized it today what a customer asked me about the catalog of my works. And I’m like “what?..” I don’t have it!
First of all, you are the bees knees. 🐝 For real ! As fellow artist trying to gain momentum & confidence to put myself out there, this has helped immensely on telling myself to just go for it (: Thank you kindly, keep doing what u do pls 🌿
Thanks for your kind message! Yes, I have a new video coming up today! Making and showing your art isn’t easy but certainly rewarding. Hope you have a safe and fruitful 2022. See you around!
Wow, that was fantastic. 👍 I've got to crack on with getting my late brother's art work on a website platform as it's just sitting in drawers when it should be hung on people's walls instead. I shall go watch more of your vids now and I'll get a much better idea of how to start this journey; thank you..👏
Making a website today is easier than ever before. But it’s easy for everyone - there are also more competition than ever before. You will need a lot of valuable content on the website to attract people. It’s like opening a restaurant - who are your customers, why they’d come to your restaurant instead of others? What do you offer them that is so unique? Then, how to let them know that you are here? How to make synergy with social media marketing?
Great information!!!! Thank you so much..... just trying to decide what's the most cost effective and productive way to go..... thank you again!
Glad it was helpful!
Thanks! Very informative and succinct! Just what I needed as I begin the process.
You are fabulous, very honest and direct. Thank you so much. I've learned a lot from you.
B. B. 👋 Thank you so much 😊 for visiting my channel
Amazing channel! You’re helping me so much in my art journey. All your videos are so honest and insightful
Awesome actionable tips! I’m going to start taking more action on these tips. Thank you. 👍🏿😎
Mistake n°9 no portrait.
That is a difficult one for me. I've gone through the harassment of an ex boyfriend many years ago, and am still so traumatized that putting my name and my photo online is simply impossible. It makes me feel so vulnerable, even though the events occured almost 20 years ago. It even kept me from doing shows... insane.
Omg yess thisss!
@@Erinba 😞❤
@@labotraduc8448 can you try and use a variation of your surname? I use only the first half of my surname.
@@Erinba Thank you for your answer! I've been pulling my hair over this for so many years... yes, I'm now in the process of that. I think I'll use a bit of my surname, but with some addition that has to make some sense to me. I musn't have my first name appear, as it would give too much hint.
People who haven't gone through that kind of thing simply cannot understand the traumatic fear!
Thank you for your suggestion! ❤
Thank you for a great video! I seem to have broken most of your rules and will need to rethink my approach! I tried learning Wordpress and it was astronomically difficult.
Thank you so much! All very good points.
Thanks for watching!
Wonderful advice. Thanks!
Mo, thanks again for another very informative video. i make several of these mistakes, but I would also say not fully making each mistake, more like the issue of being more about the art, I have probably 100 paintings that should be on my website and 100 that shouldn't. I have a theory growing in me that picking my absolutely best paintings would be around 120, with right now added together is over 200. I also make $10 8x10 prints of every painting on my website, but a few paintings I have high prices for and some like $40 not good efforts. So right away like you said not written in stone, my thing is I have two concepts on my website that automatically make me want to update maybe 3 times a week, but not the art (I mean blog, and forums.)
I grew up with the internet explosion and fell in love piece by piece each new addition to our world wide web, but over the years some ideas have fallen off. But blogging is important to me, and forums (which maybe no one else you know uses) i grew up in the online gaming community and I learned that someone playing the same video game has lots of different opinions than me playing that same game. So we would talk about politics, religion, the game we played, our clans (as groups in the game who play together mostly is referred to) and it is also referenced in my favorite sci-fi book, which calls them boards and they enable people to get famous for written ideas rather than what they look like, or what they can make with their hands. I have a feeling you wouldn't be as excited with that aspect because it broadens the perspective a first time viewer has of my art, after all I'm trying to make a living on it and instead of focusing on a palatable journey my website might be perceived as cluttered right now with one main gallery for my best works and sub categories for 5 other styles.
I wonder what you think about separating mediums and sizes. Do you think I'm doing a potential client a favor separating good 11x14's and good 12x16's? Or is it more streamlined a different way? Perhaps if I made 5 categories that include landscapes, creatures/animals, sunsets, abstract? This is my main question for you, I want the buying experience to be streamlined, but to encourage repeat visits for new information (ie blog, forum and updates of new paintings) so should I trim down how many paintings they see, or find a concise way to show 5 styles and limit each gallery to a combined 120-150 paintings?
Sometimes your videos are so good, like this one, that I can almost guess your answers to my questions. I know that I learn from how I word my questions, that is not me doing a lot of the work, its your channel is Soooo valuable. Please don't lose sight of that, I don't know where my motivation to the business aspect would be without you. Anyways I didn't really ask easy questions as each website creator/artist has a different series of problems to solve (I love the owner/creator of ali baba, he says he's in the business of solving problems. After 1000 problems were solved in his effort to provide services the business began to grow. I love that idea so much.
Thanks again, I hope you're having an amazing weekend.
-Dave "Sparrow Mountain" Manicom
👋 Hey! Thanks for writing to me! I will write briefly responding to your question first. How your collector would classify your work by size? I think it’s good to group by category that your customers shop. Maybe they shop by style, or media? Or series? Or message? I think size doesn’t matter here. Like Picasso’s Blue Period. We don’t say the 11 by 16 inch period. This is my personal opinion! Don’t separate your works by size, but by interest of your buyers.
Extremely helpful! You make great points and get to the point!
Thanks Chris!
This is amazing! So thorough yet direct and very much helpful. Thank you so much. 🙂
Excellent advice
Wow, learned so much. Everything you say makes sense and is very clear. Thank you so very much!
great video, Thaks!
Great info and helpful! Thank you! 😃
This was very helpful in general. I am a voice talent and musician looking to set up my own website. All of what you have to share here seems like practical wisdom. I like the idea of having a contact form instead of showing your email as if the site were a business card. Thanks for this, and also thanks for your thoughts on Wix. I was going to set something up there until I came here.
Hi there, thanks for dropping by. Wix is not bad for a student project, but quite limited when it comes to making SEO stuff. For a voice talent you might want to choose a WP and template, then make something special for your display. For example, an musician friend of mine has his website customized with music. When someone visits his site, the music will play randomly, and continues to play across the site. It was done very precisely for his needs to give unique user experience.
Thank you for making those awesome tips! I always feel doubtful about people who will check on the artist's website...
Luyi Xu Galleries do, before working with artists. Curators might too, when considering some artists for a future project...
Thank You so much!
excellent info thank you
Concise. Precise. Relevant. Thank you!
Hello! Thank you so much for your guidance on this! It can be intimidating for sure!!! My question is this: how much information is too much when describing a piece you have designed and created. For example, I see a lot of my designs when I meditate. Is that information that people looking at my site would be interested in? What is your advice on this? And thank you again!
I think the information need to resonate with your audience. Do they like to meditate too? If they do, it’s relevant.
I am an artist. What do you advise. Do I use my website to show or feature my work or do I use it to sell my work? What is more professional for people who view my work?
Very nice Information..Thanks
Thank you, very good information here ☺️
I love and appreciate this but I have a question: does using a niche name rather than one's own name a universal advantage aka does it also apply to "fine artists" who showcase original work? My peers and I have MFA's and building a career is grounded in the idea of building a name for oneself as an artist. Going to galleries and shows I feel that the easiest way to lookup an artist online I see would be to find them via their own name
Hi Sunsita, very good point! In the art world people would search the actual names (or artist names). In the art market, people search for the niche. One day me and my friend were having dinner. She was saying this artist who paint dark red and black. She was saying oh that abstract artist who painted color blocks etc. I was like: you mean Rothko? She was like yes! Normally collectors can’t remember every name. They will search for the niche instead.
@@VeryPrivateGallery Yes, makes sense...I wonder is this something that artists could address through SEO, using key niche terms? If so, I would be curious if you could cover that. Just found your channel and will be binging
@@drebugsita Sure, artists could target their search terms like “outsider art” or “aboriginal street art” or “pop art toys” etc. the more competitive/general the terms are, the harder it is for an artist to rank.
Hello! My question is if you want to use Woocommerce to sell your art, prints, note cards etc., does the shop then become your portfolio?? Or do you have separate pages for your portfolio or galleries. I have a lot of galleries of different subjects on my website but want to add woocommerce. Can you advise me?
That’s a very good question! I think the best is to keep the woocommerce store and the portfolio separate, because you can show your sold/older works apart from your current on sale works.
Thank you so much for your reply, I've been trying to figure all this out for a long time. My website is word press but on an old unsupported theme, so I'm looking into something newer without wrecking it! I have SO MANY pages! I'll check out more of your videos. If you have any that may help me with switching to a new theme that supports woo-commerce and art type sales, that'd be great. Cheers! @@VeryPrivateGallery
Thank you for your posts! very helpful and detailed comments.
Thank you so much, very high quality information 👍🏾
Glad it was helpful!
This was so helpful thank youuuuuuu🙏🏽🧡🙏🏽🧡
This is so helpful! Thank you for this in-depth analysis. Are you still willing to review artist websites? I would love your opinion, thanks😊
👋 Hey KK, sure, let me know. I think sometimes YT is blocking links. So if you send me the link via email, I am sure to receive it.
You are helpful:)!! Thank you. I ask more questions as I am setting my artist web site. Thanks again :)!
Thank you, great advice!
Great video! Exactly what I needed!
Aw thank you! This helped loads. It was clear to understand and friendly, too. Also, did anyone ever tell you how beautiful your skin is? 😍
Mistake number 8.
Mine are neglected.
I also don't have mailing list because they were costly back then and I don't believe I can persuade a lot of people to subscribe (so why pay a lot and was time writong just to push newsletters to 3 or 5 persons? I thought). However, I used Blogger features for those who wanted to subscribe to the blog (which is also neglected).
Lots of work on being an artist.
Great video!!! Thank you! What size do I make my website images?
Great ! Info. And the other ! p.s. Good to show a screen with some examples views!,
Thank you!
loved this!
Thanks for watching!
Which theme do you recommend?
NEWBIE HERE.... where do you buy the domain name if you use Wordpress?
Another great job. Great information delivered with energy, humor and sincerety. Not sure what you mean by a "block post"
Blog post
Amazing video. Really apt advice.
Very good info. I appreciate it.
thank you for the awesome content!
thank you for your advices, they are very clear and useful 💖
Is it a good idea to write a website as an artist in shopify? Which platform in your opinion is the best for this?
If your main idea is to sell merchs online, then yes. If you want to do other things that are not necessarily commerce related, I would recommend using WordPress. Shopify is good for easy online store building, but not for many other things like using apps (plug in) within an open eco system.
SO, i just want to show my art in a gallery.... whats ur opinion please?
I wanna start my own website with many categories included : 2d art , graphic design and video editing . creating a website for each category would be very demanding and expensive .
Yes, creating several websites is like working on several projects at the same time. Unfortunately if your categories don’t fall under the same umbrella, you need to create different sites to appear professional and rank high.
Good video....thank you.
Happy art is already taken but good idea 💡
Thanks for the vid
Thanks for watching!
Oh Thank you so much for these helpful tips for artists website Have a Great Day from Rizwana!
Whats a header??
Header is the top of page, but the 'heading's is a term for SEO web building. H1, H2 and H3 refer to the depth of the subject. For example, H1 is fine art, H2 is selling fine art and H3 is selling oil painting online. Usually they are precious, those are just examples.
@@VeryPrivateGallery thank youu!!! Most definitely subscribing!!
Everything i am lacking you mentioned lol.
aloha and thank you for the information.. :)
You can also upload a png or jpeg file if you so desire in regards to email spamming of your own address.
Thank you 💕
Wordpress also charge monthly fees for e-commerce and business sites.
Thank you!!!!!
*12 Potential Mistakes, Depending on Which Kind of Artist You Are/Want to Be :P
Specifically the blog part can quickly become a negative impression imho
Haha yes, blog is just a format, it's not about blogging but about what you write on this blog.
I am not sure if I understand u right but I will also have to pay monthly with Wordpress so what is the different ?
You don’t pay monthly to Wordpress. It’s an open-source free system. If you pay for a theme, as I do, I opt for a lifelong license with no hidden fees from a template designer. You can also do your own design without having to pay anything. The only money you pay is to the domain name company and the hosting.
@@VeryPrivateGallery Thank u , and btw I need a whole solid plan in order to sell my art can u please tell where I can find that ?
Where are you based? How much is your current price and products? If I can get a better understanding, maybe I can give you some directions!
@@VeryPrivateGallery Where I can send u in private ?
Thank you again for your great information. How could you apply all of this using a website built using google sites? I am currently making my website using google sites and I will own the domain of my sight by purchasing it using google domain. It’s an extremely cheap and useful tool for starting out but I would want to be able to incorporate some of the things you talked about. So how do you?
Hi Tayler, we actually use WP website builder and recommend it. There are many themes you can purchase, starting from 20-30 dollars, not expensive.
If you have a domain with a provider, you can keep it, or transfer it to another one. We currently transfered to Name Hero.
@@VeryPrivateGallery gotcha that’s still more then what I would pay using google sites tho. The most I need it pay is $9 in a year with the method I mentioned. Last I saw Wordpress would cost a minimum of $48 a year in order to not only have a website but own the domain name and be able to have a store connected/integrated. Then on top of that if you want to buy a theme that’s an additional cost. So again using the method I mentioned would it be possible to use the suggestions from your UA-cam video about site integration (especially the response/question box) on a website built with google sites?
Thank you 👍i guess im gonna use squarespace for my art
Hi Mina, squarespace is not bad. But WP is cheaper and more flexible in the long run :) if you are good with computers, WP is better for you.
Great information. How can we protect our images from downloads other than watermarks
Hey there! I use Photoshop to retouch my images, add watermarks when needed, and compress them for web publications. There are many other tools, I just personally prefer Photoshop. Nowadays speed is important for search engine optimization. You want to compress or convert the format to load fast.
What do you think about .ART domains ? Amazing video.
Haha good question!! We are building a site that contains .art in the domain name. I think it’s cool, as long as you first opt for .com (if that’s not available, .art is the second best option).
Usually the .com domain is the most classic and easy to remember. Take that first, then you can purchase the .art as secondary site.
I tried to move my art gallery to wordpress and found it to be a terrible experience.
All of the unique addons I needed to get the job done in the way I wanted cost an arm and a leg and they wanted to be paid for them monthly.
Amazing!!!
What if I don't have a niche 😱 when it comes to art
You will find your niche with time!
Thank you.
You're welcome!
very helpful
Anda Zhao Thanks! I am happy to give useful tips. Keep watching some more! 😊
Do you design websites for other artists? I am a dinosaur when it comes to computers so I am in great need of help. I so much appreciated your comments.
Can you show me a good website ? Thanks
😆 Our website is pretty good in SEO!
I am not sure I totally agree about the shorter categories. It depends, I guess, on what they actually are.
Having a site called "feminist art" for example would simply result in my not bothering to visit it at all! Better to hide the fact that a site is obnoxious by using the artist's name rather than announcing it up front and giving people an opportunity to steer clear. After all, even a feminist might produce something nice which might not get seen at all if it is presented under the banner of feminist art. A longer, artist's name might actually result in better exposure.
When I was working as a wedding photographer (my part time job in Uni), I realized that most of my clients are muslim women. They want to hire me simply because I was a female photographer. If i use “female photographer for hire” it would result in more popularity, before I could make myself a “name” in this market. It allows me as a foreign student in a whole new place to access the saturated photography market. It would be very limiting too, at the same time.
If I plan to stay longer in Australia (where I was studying at the time), I would switch to “xyz studio” in my marketing. But I knew I would leave and move on, so I just needed some quick cash. I think it depends on the cash flow. If the artist needs to access the market without knowing anyone from inside, the niche art is easier. If the artist has enough contacts from an art school or from family network, then going for the “name” would be much better for the long run.
Dear Very Private Gallery, I can't find your website. Can you give web address please? Thx.
Hi Sue, you can find us at veryprivategallery.com/
💕
what is "Feminist Art" ? never heard of the term!
I dont like any of this advice. "dont pay attention to fonts"?????? cmon
Are there really still stupid ones who build such websites without all these a must have mentioned features??
Haha, according to our survey, 60% of artists surveyed did not even have a website to start with...
@@VeryPrivateGallery That's too bad. I believe there are a lot of services, facilites and available pieces of information on music marketing than it used to be since MySpace days. The ones you're talking about remind of that far past.
Visual artists are late in marketing (and business mindset). My parents used to run a music school. I saw many musicians who were better at marketing than singing, which was the opposite to most visual artists. I guess the key is to find balance between making art and making money!
What about flodesk? I have heard it's better than MailChimp and cost of MailChimp is very high after 2k subscriptions