Promote Yourself

EVERY artist should have their own portfolio website featuring only their work. Your site should also have an email contact form so customers can contact you directly, and new libraries can attempt to recruit you. This will open you up to more opportunities and bring you even closer to being self reliant. If you do not want to handle customers, you can always refer them to your portfolio at one of the stock sites. Some customers refuse to use libraries and only work directly with artists. Often these customers are big companies that are willing to pay the big bucks for direct and personal service from you.

I've also noticed that a lot of stock sites fail to offer any form of credit to the artist. I often see advertisements or visuals in magazines with credit being given to the stock site, but with no mention of the artist. The notice will read "Image Credit STOCK SITE HERE" with the artist or image number being completely left out. This usually happens when the stock site does not credit the artists on the image pages. How can stock sites get away with not crediting the artists? Granted, when we started up we did not have that feature but it was always on our to do list until we finally got it done. I'm talking about big sites here that get massive amounts of downloads, yet they don't want to mention the artist on the image pages, nor do they have plans to change that. These sites are all about themselves and have no interest in promoting you at all.

If you have your OWN site, you can credit yourself however you want. Put your name ALL over those image pages if you feel like it!

Another problem I see is the crowded search results at nearly every stock site. Good luck getting your stuff seen when your images are mixed in with thousands upon thousands of other artist's work in those search results. One time I went to another site and searched for "palm tree." I wanted 12 nice scenic palm tree images so I could make a calendar for a friend. The results came up with over 30,000 images! Yes, over 30,000 for PALM TREES! I looked through about 6,000, then it would not show any more. I had no way to view the remaining number of images that were not seen previously. Out of all of those 6,000 that I did see, I only liked one and I didn't like it enough to buy it. I didn't even see any images of isolated palm trees. Palm trees were a very small part of most of the images shown in the results, such as a tiny speck in the background of a scene. I bet there were a LOT of really nice images that were filtered out that I had no way to view. Let me tell you, I was enraged and nearly in tears. Imagine how many sales you could be losing at overly crowded sites due to this problem. And most customers probably aren't as patient as I am, and probably would not even bother looking through the first few pages. Lets face it, we live in a world where customers "NEED AN IMAGE NOW!" and dont have time to search through multiple pages.

No one can promote your work better than you. And no one can do it the way that YOU want to do it. It is indeed scary if you are just starting out, but it will be worth it.

Here are some suggestions for your site:

1) Keep your domain name as simple as you can. If you make the spelling too difficult, it will be hard for returning customers to remember it.

2) Don't add other artists or affiliate program images. Use ONLY your images.

3) Keep your search results as simple as you can. If something is a small portion of the image, its best to leave that keyword out. Going overboard will overwhelm the customers and make them want to leave. DO use conceptual terms.

4) Provide links to ALL of your portfolios on the stock sites and keep it updated. This will be good for your portfolios. If you do not want to handle sales at all, then make these links very visible to the customers. If you want to handle sales directly, make these links harder to find, such as on a links page. You don't want to lose your direct sales to your portfolios at subscription or micro sites when you could have made them directly and kept 100%.

5) Take pride and promote your site by using it as part of your signature in forums and blogs. ALWAYS.

Seriously. Starting and promoting your own portfolio site is one of the best things you can do for your image career.

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Dennis Cox: I really like your blogs Jamie, they're full of great ideas and suggestions! Please keep them coming! Jamie Voetsch: Thanks Dennis! There are quite a few more coming.

r formidable: i don't have a website...don't have time to get one together, so i have to settle for a few links on my facebook or myspace pages... yeah, i know, it's sad... :( Jamie Voetsch: You really should look into trying to find some young kid that's starting out in web design and get some quotes on setting up a site for you. Check out local colleges and put a notice up on a bulletin board stating you are looking for help and that you can pay, but your budget is low. Someone will help you. r formidable: for the most part,it's the time for me to get everything organized and set it up the way i want... i had lots of 'friends' that were willing to make a super special flashy and whatnot site for me, but when it came to them actually working and doing things the way i wanted...things seemed to slack... Jamie Voetsch: That's how it happens. Find a stranger :) MilsiArt: Well, I don't find it funny to promote myself - I prefer low-profile more... I have various reasons for that and they are very unpleasant if you ask me... So, low-profile is better solution for me than making my name more known. I am known good enough in circles where is that needed... Well, I don't like idea that my name is printed on any magazine or book where they put my image ;-) r formidable: then use a fake name like i do... you don't actually think my name is 'r formidable' do you? r formidable: oh, and it's not 'jess olen' either....lol MilsiArt: Well... ;-) r formidable: you crack me up dude!! hahahahhaha MilsiArt: Fame has its price if you understand me ;-)