A popular topic in our online forums has been how artists can increase traffic to their site, and generally heighten marketability of their work online. We’ve developed a very helpful top-ten list of recommended actions for all artists to help make their work sell:
- Ensure to fill out the terms and conditions for buyers on your site (this is a legal obligation) https://www.artweb.com/myaccount/
- Submit site to D-Moz Directory (Run by Google) more info here
- Have a signature when posting on forums with a link to your site. (e.g. http://www.artistsforum.org: Login, User Control Panel, Profile, Edit signature) This will increase your incoming traffic and search engine results when potential buyers do a name search.
- Complete your profile properly on The Artists Web
- Tag your artwork: Login, Image Pages, List images, Open a gallery, Enter tags in tag box for each image. (Untagged artworks are difficult to search for)
- Add testimonials from past buyers to your website and profile on ArtWeb: go to www.artweb.com/myaccount/ -> view profile -> and fill out the Testimonials form.
- Maintain a mailing list of people who have bought from you before, have enquired about your art or would be interested in your exhibition.
- Encourage people to comment on your artwork. The benefits are two-fold, with comments working as a ‘review’ of your work, assuring other viewers that your work receives attention. Secondly comments attract more traffic to your profile.
- Ensure your work is priced.
- Resist the temptation to display every piece you’ve ever created. Show off your best! Although sold works should be displayed, a greater percentage of the work on display should be for sale.
Copyright- Protecting your work
For all of our artists out there, one concern after creating that fabulous piece, is how to protect it. Firstly, to define terms, the UK office for Public and Intellectual Property state that copyright applies ‘to original artistic works such as paintings, drawings, engravings, sculptures, photographs, diagrams, maps, works of architecture and works of artistic craftsmanship’. As long as your work falls under the above definitions, this protection in the UK is automatic, and no action or bureaucratic process is required by the author in order to ‘copyright’ the work. In other words, no other party can make reproductions without explicit permission from you for the life of the authorship.
How long does automatic copyright last?
In the United Kingdom (for works created after 1989), the creator of the work will be the author and first owner (and copyright will las)t for the life of the author plus 70 years.
Simple protection measures
As previously outlined, no official action is required to formally copyright a piece of work, although it is useful because it informs the public that the work is protected by copyright, identifies the copyright owner, and shows the year of first publication. In addition, if a proper notice of copyright appears on the published copy or copies then in an infringement suit, no weight shall be given to a defense based on ‘innocent infringement’.For the purpose of digital images presented on a web page on the internet, a clearly identifiable copyright message, stating © or Copyright, or the author’s name and date of first publication is sufficient.
After I sell my artwork, have I lost my copyrights over that work?
Copyright is a form of intellectual property which, like physical property, can be bought or sold, inherited or otherwise transferred, wholly or in part. So some or all of the economic rights may subsequently belong to someone other than the first owner.In the example that an oil painter sells his or her work, this does not mean the artist has sold copyright of the work. Therefore unless specifically authorized, the new owner of the painting cannot make reproductions etc. without permission from the artist (the copyright owner). For more information about copyright and your work, please refer to our article on copyright for artists.
