**update Sept 2014 - all the links are correct but the new website looks way different than this!
Today is a big day in my business. For some businesses, the announcement of a new product is the big news, but for me, it is the announcement of a website: Linda C Smith Fine Art.
I've never had an honest-to-goodness website for my art business. Yes, I have been writing this artist blog for a few years now and yes I have galleries on other types of art-related sites, but a website devoted to my own business...wow!
And I built it myself. With help, of course. I'm currently taking a course, a webinARTs course, from artist and marketing expert Leslie Saeta. My reason for taking this course and learning to build a website? I think there comes a point in the life of every business when you, as proprietor/owner, realize it is time to take the next step of growth. I'm a reader of Seth Godin's blog [like about a quadrillion other folks] and I found a quote he said that fits this thought of mine:
“Change almost never fails because it’s too early. It almost always fails because it’s too late.”
I had reached a point where I had learned on my own all I could and because I really do want to take my business to its next step of growth, I needed to learn:
- why a website is a positive thing
- why a website will help my business
- how to build a website
- how to integrate all my online marketing efforts into a cohesive, it makes sense plan
I also found a great post by artist Lori McNee titled, "Things Successful Artists Do Differently," and one of those things that she mentions in her article is "...Being a successful artist is not a hobby, it’s a business...."
Another post I found is by mosaic artist Kim Finlan who wrote about "Getting Down to Business." Kim is an artist who is also a mom to two young children and faces the ageless challenge of being both mother and working woman. Kim says, "...So what exactly do I mean when I say I am going to "get down to business"? I am going to treat my art as if I were going to a job...." I know exactly what she means. Your art doesn't come after the weeds have been pulled, it has a priority.
And I consider myself to be an artist with an art business, so I signed up for the class and chose the website building platform called Weebly. Very user-friendly for those of us who don't write code. Here are the features/pages of my website:
- home page - introduces the site and gives an email address
- Merchandise - this page takes you to my shop at Zazzle: Lala's Floral Shop
- About Me - gives a bit of bio info
- Fine Art Prints - takes you to my gallery at ImageKind where you can purchase prints of my work
- The Blog - I write about all sorts of things there
I hope you'll take a moment to give the Linda C Smith Fine Art website a look.
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