Should you plan to sell your art online together with your own distinctive web-site, my advice is straightforward: Be Different! You'll find hundreds of artist websites online right now that are all creating the exact same errors.
The very first challenge I would like to note, is the use of long multimedia presentations that artists are incorporating into their web-sites. I do not feel there is anything much more frustrating then arriving at a site and waiting for this substantial multimedia presentation to download and play. The artist may perhaps think it's cool or adds something to their work, but in all actuality, it only frustrates impatient surfers. Not all Online users have super fast cable or DSL connections. Several are still employing dial up modems and if they have to wait for something to download, they are going to merely leave and pay a visit to your competition.
You will discover also web sites that insist on putting unrelated banner ads or other unrelated advertising on their internet websites. Just the other day I was doing a search for original watercolor art. The first site I arrived at had a big banner at the top of the web site advertising a dating internet site. I'm not positive how dating is related to watercolors? This is just a distraction and you are immediately sending visitors off your web site. For anyone who is going to advertise on your internet site, be sure it is related to the theme of your internet site and is valuable to your visitors. Don't make it the very initial factor they see when they arrive at your residence page.
You should catch your visitor's attention immediately. This means putting your most important facts near the top of your internet site in plain view. Your goal is to draw your visitor into your web-site instantly having a compelling headline to ensure that they remain long sufficient to check out what you've got to provide. Once you draw them in having a great headline, you have to then direct them to take an action. That could possibly be to subscribe to your newsletter, or to check out your most recent product(s).
Maintain your internet site navigation consistent throughout your entire site. This indicates having the same navigation links in the exact same order on every page of your web page. Your objective would be to make it as quick as possible for your visitors to get from 1 location to the next, not to confuse them.
Ensure your visitors can quickly contact you. Put a link to a contact page on each page of your web-site.
For those who have testimonials, use them. Testimonials are awesome sales tools. People appreciate to hear excellent reviews about an item or items they are about to obtain. It seriously does boost sales. For those who have ever received testimonials from buyers, highlight a few of them on your home page in clear view. When you do not have testimonials however, contact men and women that have purchased from you in the past and ask if they could supply feedback on the product they purchased for inclusion on your web-site. Ensure they know how you strategy to use their testimonial, and ask when you can site their name with the testimonial.
Commence an opt-in newsletter. In the event you don't already have a technique for collecting your visitors email addresses, then you may be losing sales. Many individuals who initial come to your internet site will often leave without creating a purchase. It really is significant hence to collect as several email addresses as possible so that it is possible to follow up together with your visitors. You could send out an announcement to your list of subscribers whenever you've got a new piece for sale. If you regularly attend art or craft shows, you could send out an email and let your subscribers know when and where. You could also send out surveys or questionnaires to your list to get a superior notion as to the type of items they're thinking about purchasing.
Make certain that you have many different distinct payment selections for your consumers, specifically payment by credit card. Studies have shown that sites, which accept credit card payments, have drastically much more sales. Use a service like PayPal to accept credit cards from your website. It is totally free and straightforward to setup.
Make sure you have detailed buying and shipping directions in place.
Have an excellent refund policy. When your customer receives your item, it might not be specifically what they anticipated. By having a great refund policy upfront, you are going to gain your customers trust and they'll be more comfortable producing a purchase, particularly if they're parting with a lot of income.
Contain a "Privacy Policy". Net users are a paranoid bunch. People today are still somewhat reluctant to part with personal data, so it can be your job to create them feel at ease when they use your web site. In a nutshell, a privacy policy clearly states what you do with users individual details. What type of details do you collect from your visitors? What do you do with that data? Do you share it with any individual? If you are not positive the best way to produce a privacy policy, go to the following web site to access an straightforward to use Privacy Policy Generator: http://www.the-dma.org/privacy/creating.shtml
Incorporate a "Terms of Use" section. This section outlines the terms and conditions for using your internet site. For instance, you likely want to restrict visitors from copying or reproducing the images on your web site. You would put that in your Terms of Use section.
When adding images of your items, usually use thumbnails which will be clicked to show a larger image, so that your pages download quickly. If the bigger image is really a large file, let the visitor know that they may possibly need to wait for the picture to load.
Stay away from putting traffic counters on your site. Counters make your web-site appear amateurish. If your web site is fairly new, and your visitors is not yet established, you might be broadcasting this to everyone that arrives at your site. If you must track your site statistics, check with your hosting business. You might already have an excellent web-site statistics program included.
Pick a simple color scheme and only 1 or two distinctive fonts. If you go overboard on color and use too many distinct fonts, your web-site will look out of balance and amateurish. Your web-site does not have to be a work of art. You are attempting to sell your art, not your website.
Use a light background, preferably white, with dark text, preferably black. Don't use images or textures for your background. This makes it complicated for your visitor to read the text on your site.
Avoid adding music to your web page. You may believe it sounds nice to contain your favorite songs when your page loads, but not everybody will agree. If they come across the music annoying, they'll leave.
Don't make your visitor have to scroll horizontally to view information and facts on your web site. Web surfers are lazy. Most hate to even scroll up and down let alone left and appropriate.
Prevent animated graphics and scrolling or flashing text. This only distracts your visitors.
Put costs on all of your items. If persons have to contact you to find out the cost of something, they'll extra usually than not leave and look elsewhere.
Be sure your web page works in all of the main browsers. Probably the most well-known browser today is Online Explorer, but there are a good quantity of surfers who use Netscape, Opera, and Firefox. Check out http://www.anybrowser.com/siteviewer.html. They've a great tool that enables you to see what your web site looks like in many browsers.
Lastly, make your site individual. Speak to your visitors. Let them know who you're and what your art or craft is all about. Educate and enlighten. Incorporate a step-by-step article or demonstration on how your work is produced. If individuals have far more of a connection with you and your art, they will be extra comfy buying from you.
I hope these site recommendations have helped. I wish you the best of luck in every thing that you do.
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