Jane Appleby has been an artist on MyArtClub.Com since the spring of 2000. Jane's site has consistently attracted high numbers of visitors each month. So we sat down with Jane for an in-depth discussion on her approach to her website, and her thoughts generally about promoting her art successfully.

On websites and promotion by artists

MyArtClub: You have a lot of visits to your website. Do you feel you benefit from having this regular traffic? In what ways?

Jane: The regular traffic is a benefit not only to me but to other artists I figure. Having the site helps people know that I have been producing new work and am taking my art career seriously. Also anyone going to MyArtClub.Com may venture to find an artist they like and that's always a good thing.

If you don't have your own unique work to start with than I guess you may be worried about other artists taking customers away. I don't worry about that too much as art has more to do than just one painting that sells well. It has much more to do with how you connect to people and who you connect to.

I believe it's good to let past customers or people interested in your art be remembered at different times of the year like at Christmas Holidays, Summer, Spring Break and the like.

There is something special about an artist's connection with the people that admire their work. It's more personal than providing a necessary piece of home improvement. After all much of the time people connect to the artist as much as the artwork. I want to keep that connection going.

MyArtClub: What feedback do you get from your website visitors? What feedback do you get on the emails that you send out?

Jane: Actually I do not get many reply emails (less than 5% respond back) from my outbound emails from MyArtClub.Com. People are aware it's a group send out and even though I encourage feedback, I do not expect it. However I do not take this to mean that "my fans" so to speak do not like the piece or my work, or me as a person. The few emails I do get are mostly encouraging and kind. That keeps me sending more out. So thank you to those of you that have responded because art can be lonely without input.

The fact that you can get feedback at a click of the mouse is great. A little goes a long way. All you need is one person saying "Hey that's the best piece you've done yet!" and you have enough motivation to do another (whether it sells or not). Others point out spelling errors and offer words of advice and that is also helpful. I make sure I respond back to thank them. Misspelled words and other errors seems one of the surest ways to look unprofessional so I really try to avoid that now.

I keep the site updated with new images perhaps once a month or so. I try to keep the emails short, polite and informative with a personal little update or hello. I try not to send more than one or two [email] per month. It gets boring having to click to delete email too often. On top of that there is always an option to unsubscribe, so I do not worry that my emails are intrusive. Just the fact that people actually haven't opted to be deleted off the list of fans says quite a bit.

In Part 2 of the article, Jane discusses how she generates traffic to her site.

About Jane Appleby
Jane Appleby has been an artist on MyArtClub.Com since spring 2000. She is program coordinator and past president of the Burnaby Artist Guild, as well as active member of the Federation of Canadian Artists, Artfully Yours and the Burnaby Arts Council.

Our thanks to Jane Appleby for her valuable contribution with this article.

This article was first published in the My Art News Letter #9