How to get lots of traffic to your blog/website and make lots of money online selling art prints

Made you look!
Gosh, the internet is an amazing, overwhelming and inspiring place to be. Not to mention addictive. I am supposed to be spending most of my time creating art, but instead, today I am becoming a slave to the internet in an attempt to drive traffic to my website and increase sales of my fine art prints. Does that make me a sellout? I know of a few artists that would say so. Who cares, I have a mortgage to pay and what is wrong with wanting to succeed? Gosh, another topic I will address in another post, art, money and artists…
I have lost count of the sheer amount of blogs and articles I have read this evening (or should I say this morning, it is 1am!) around the subject of internet marketing.  Can these principles apply to selling fine art prints online? I don’t see why not.
OK, here is a summary of what I have learned today(gosh, I feel like I am back at uni):
  • The Zen Habits Blog says that branding is key. Ok so have a consistent message and tap into the desires of your audience. I get that. You as a brand. The idea of the artist as a brand is nothing new, although my manager would beg to differ… But then look at Damien Hirst, well thats a whole other blog…That guy is a legend.
  • Key words, key words, key words! So imagine if you will that you are selling Fine art prints like me, so the more times you say fine art prints in your blog and on your website which is linked to your blog, the better. See what I just did;)
  • Link building! Links back to your website, blogging, linking to blogs from your blog 😉 comment on other blogs with your link in the comment, guest writing for other blogs, writing articles for online ezines, pay per click, social bookmarking, participating in relevant forums, writing reviews (Amazon is a good place to write relevant reviews about your particular area of interest- keyword that you want to rank highly for), free press release website (PRLog is the best that I have found) submission sites, paid ones too, link trading, adverts, directories, and social networking. And breathe.. All of this I read in this article from SEObook. It had a lot of useful information.
  • Oh how could I miss out affiliate marketing. That is a good one, if you can recruit lots of affiliates to sell your product. If you have any advice, please do let me know, comment thanks.
  • Last but not least, subscribe to ittybiz. Just brilliant learning tools on this whole business.
  •  And another thing! I stumbled across this brilliant blog post by Chuck Westbrook. He has created a group to help increase traffic to blogs that have good content but no readers. Basically, you join his group and everyone takes turns to read everyone else’s blog. Really good idea, but I am not sure that the blog readers will be in my target market group. Well you never know, stranger things have happened…
So that is my summary of internet marketing and monetizing your site/blog. Oversimplified I know, but this is not really my subject matter! Excuses!! I am just learning about all this net marketing business, my passion is art.
The question is, have I committed a cardinal sin by daring to place art and making money in the same blog post? Again, another post for another day. I will end on this note, I come from a background of a  biology degree with honors followed by 6 years in the pharmaceutical industry selling pharmaceutical products. I have painted all of my life, so the concept of art and money is not alien or uncomfortable to me. I find some many artists I speak to get horrified as soon as I mention business, money and art all in the same sentence. Why?
Like I said, another post for another day.
Best
Adelaide
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