Help Fund a Seattle Art Project...

Please take a moment to check out my latest art project and help make it a reality either by becoming a sponsor, or by simply sharing a link to the sponsorship site on your own facebook page... Thank you!

Disclosure Regarding Banner Advertisements That Appear at The Bottom of This Blog

Disclosure: I receive compensation from iPage for any domain registration and/or hosting sales made on their site that occur as a direct result of my referrals to their company, which are tracked by the specific link that I have provided for you at the bottom of this blog (i.e. the iPage banner ad). It should be noted that the reason I offer my referral to iPage is because I have had domain hosting and registration needs in the past and, after performing extensive research regarding pricing and features for these types of companies, I selected iPage and was extremely pleased with their products and services, so much so, that I have been referring business to them for years after my domain registration and hosting needs are over, allowing me to continue a modest stream of revenue to assist in the funding of other projects. Again, I would not refer you to iPage, if it wasn't a product in which I have complete confidence. Thank you.

Link Exchange

Link Market - Free Link Exchange, Link Building and Link Trade Directory
Have you ever tried to exchange links, link building, or trade links? Was it hard? Use Link Market instead; - it is easy to use, free and very smart. It will save you hours of work.

FREE Backlink Opportunity for Artist

Attention All Artists... FREE Backlink Opportunity

A great SEO tactic is to work on increasing the number of backlinks you put out in the World Wide Web each day, so today I invite you to include a link back to your online storefront or artist website in the comments section of this post.  (This opportunity is for ARTISTS only and all other links will be deleted).

This should help you build your link portfolio and give the readers of my blog a list of artist’s websites to visit, so… link away!

I’ll start with my Original Perspective Zazzle Store which is home to my collection of artistic gift ideas for the holiday season!

Be sure to post live links... There is another post on my blog about how to post links that explains how...
The Importance of Links and How They Work

The Importance of Links and How They Work

Generating Links Are SEO Tactic #1

When you search for something using Google, Bing, or any other online search engine, the results that appear are a direct result of a complex algorithm (or formula) comprised of many different factors, some weighing more heavily than others.  While each search engine’s formula is slightly different, the most constant of these factors (and more often than not, the most heavily weighted) is the number of links (or backlinks) on the internet that connect directly to each site.  Since most people who shop online primarily use search engines to do so, it is imperative that you build an extensive, and diverse, link portfolio.  In addition to eventually cultivating new customers from online search engines, each time you place a link somewhere that leads back to your online storefront is an additional opportunity to make a sale!

Because links are so vitally important for the success of your SEO (search engine optimization) efforts (resulting in the success of selling your art online), it’s important to understand how they work.  Like everything else you see online, links are rooted in an internet programming “language” called HTML.  Below you’ll find the basic HTML code regarding links that you’ll need to know in order to effectively use them in promoting your online storefront.

The basic layout for a link looks like this (the ***s and everything in between them are to be replaced with the actual information)…

<a href=”***URL***”>***anchor text***</a>

EXAMPLE

The URL (“universal resource locator” or internet address) for my online storefront is http://www.zazzle.com/originalperspective and I want my anchor text (what people will click on to get there) to read “Visit the Original Perspective Zazzle Store”, so my link will look like this…

<a href=”http://www.zazzle.com/originalperspective”>Visit the Original Perspective Zazzle Store</a>

And what people see as a result of that code would look like this…

Visit the Original Perspective Zazzle Store

Before you begin plastering your link all of the internet, it IS important to note that another factor in online search engine algorithms is anchor text matching keywords from the site it links back to.  For example, my online Zazzle store is called “Original Perspective” so I not only use that phrase repeatedly in my store’s title, description, and content but in the anchor text for all my links as well.

Business Cards Are Not Dead

Most of my blog posts from this point on will deal with how to promote your online marketplace.  The first thing you should do is inform EVERYONE you know that you've decided to sell your art online and how to get to your online storefront.

We’ll discuss all the ways to do this online in future posts, but don’t underestimate the power of informing people in person about your store.  Getting some business cards is a great way to start this process.

Vistaprint offers FREE business cards, and if you want to get a bit fancier than the free products that are available, you still can’t beat their prices.  It’s an easy process to create and order them online and they’re shipped directly to your home.

Make sure to include the website for your online storefront, as well as any other information you want people to know about your business.

Creating Products for Sale & Using Keywords

Once you've selected a venue for creating your online marketplace, the process of uploading your image files and creating your product pages begins.

As you go through this time consuming process, you’ll need to start thinking ahead… about promoting.

While you must create this online storefront before you can promote it, be mindful of keywords as you create each product.

From this point on, you MUST THINK LIKE A CUSTOMER!  For each product you create, think about what keywords you would type into a Google search in order to find it online if YOU were in the market for this item.  Then use those keywords repetitively in the product title, subtitle, description, category listing, and keyword tags.  That’s the first step towards having your products found by potential buyers.

Here’s an example…

I recently created an iPhone case on Zazzle with a skyline photo of Seattle.  If I were searching for this product online, I would type in “Seattle skyline iPhone case” into a Google search.  THESE became my keywords, which I used repetitively in the title, subtitle, description, category, and keyword tags.  Click on the phone to bring up the product page and notice how many times you find those keywords repeated.

Seattle Skyline iPhone Case by OriginalPerspective