Art and Artist Websites and Communities
Hi,
I have observed over the past 9 years or so that artist websites (communities) seem to have more artists than visitors and potential customers. To me this is some what unfortunate. While reviewing the work of other artists can help us grow and develop, the feedback from non-artists is typically missing at most sites.
Many sites become competitive, encouraging members to comment on others works to create a sense that there is a 'lot of activity' At least one site is based almost entirely on a pay for status by reviewing others.
There is also infighting sometimes between the 'longer term' members and the newbies. Again, the sense I have is that it is about being the 'number one' artist on the site. Of course much of this is human nature and the developing world of artist websites.
Sites that have the most number of members and services tend to be a good place to get lost in the daily churn of new art submitted. I gave up on some sites because of the I am a small fish in a very large pond situation.
I also do not have a lot of time nor a strong interest to spend time commenting on the work of others just to get them to comment on my work. Many sites inadvertently (or purposely) penalize me because of that. The most popular art are the ones with the most comments which are created by artists who comment on the work of others. For example, I have a group of people who follow my art on an artist website. I am delighted to get 5-10 comments. Some who comment on my work get 400-1,000 comments per piece. I will never achieve any visibility on that site because I can not comment on the works of 1,000-5,000 artists with any meaningful content. Of course many of those folks comment with "Great work" or "Nice" or "Wonderful" a copy and paste approach to commenting.
I joined this site as perhaps a place where I might interact and comment in a way that felt comfortable and useful to me. Yet I wonder if this site may also become like many of the other sites where visibility is created by individual comments on the work of others rather than on the art itself.
I do not mean to appear negative but perhaps I am a bit jaded by my past experiences. The first artist website I joined was in 2000. I posted my first website in 1994. On some arts websites I get 200-1000 visitors per month. On my own sites I get 1,000-3,000 visitors per day.
Anyway I would love to interact and help this site become not just an artist website but a community of artists that seek to help one another become better artists and develop methods and techniques that help us expose our work to the much greater world beyond this site.
Cheers
Tom Repasky
I have observed over the past 9 years or so that artist websites (communities) seem to have more artists than visitors and potential customers. To me this is some what unfortunate. While reviewing the work of other artists can help us grow and develop, the feedback from non-artists is typically missing at most sites.
Many sites become competitive, encouraging members to comment on others works to create a sense that there is a 'lot of activity' At least one site is based almost entirely on a pay for status by reviewing others.
There is also infighting sometimes between the 'longer term' members and the newbies. Again, the sense I have is that it is about being the 'number one' artist on the site. Of course much of this is human nature and the developing world of artist websites.
Sites that have the most number of members and services tend to be a good place to get lost in the daily churn of new art submitted. I gave up on some sites because of the I am a small fish in a very large pond situation.
I also do not have a lot of time nor a strong interest to spend time commenting on the work of others just to get them to comment on my work. Many sites inadvertently (or purposely) penalize me because of that. The most popular art are the ones with the most comments which are created by artists who comment on the work of others. For example, I have a group of people who follow my art on an artist website. I am delighted to get 5-10 comments. Some who comment on my work get 400-1,000 comments per piece. I will never achieve any visibility on that site because I can not comment on the works of 1,000-5,000 artists with any meaningful content. Of course many of those folks comment with "Great work" or "Nice" or "Wonderful" a copy and paste approach to commenting.
I joined this site as perhaps a place where I might interact and comment in a way that felt comfortable and useful to me. Yet I wonder if this site may also become like many of the other sites where visibility is created by individual comments on the work of others rather than on the art itself.
I do not mean to appear negative but perhaps I am a bit jaded by my past experiences. The first artist website I joined was in 2000. I posted my first website in 1994. On some arts websites I get 200-1000 visitors per month. On my own sites I get 1,000-3,000 visitors per day.
Anyway I would love to interact and help this site become not just an artist website but a community of artists that seek to help one another become better artists and develop methods and techniques that help us expose our work to the much greater world beyond this site.
Cheers
Tom Repasky
Tags: artist, communities, websites
Replies to this Discussion or Review
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Permalink Reply by Tom Repasky on -
Jaded I am lol
Finding resources like The Artist List and Art Deadline List can really help in marketing via contest and juried shows.
More later
TOm
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Permalink Reply by Judah Mahay on -
Tom,
Thank you so much for starting this discussion. I understand your concerns and I've seen it in my exploits with artist communities. Personally, I'm a writer and I've dealt with the same kind of comment populism with no relevant (marketable) viewers to the sites in the first place. Consequently, I've created this site to focus on helping artists treat their work as a business so they may pursue their art as a career. I believe a community like this should be aimed towards content and resources which help artists learn how to deal with the practical aspects of living a life of an artist.
The exposure needed to sell I don't believe comes from these kind of communities, but what they do provide is a group of people willing to learn how to navigate the economics of art and that is what makes these site really useful. This is my objective and I've looked into ways to directly add exposure for artist, but I believe we need to bridge internet and conventional tools.
For instance, I'm in the works with a gallery which will be working with me to exhibit work in a juried show. I don't know if it will happen, but if it does the result will be physical exposure, a juried winner with a finanancial award, and a viewer choice award on this site of a monetary value as well. We need to learn how to bring together the marketing elements of the past with the new tools of the future and that is what I plan on doing.
I have a lot in store for BeYourArt.com and I hope you stick with it to give advice, add your ideas, and help other artists in their careers as artists. Again thank you for starting this discussion. I hope it continues.
Blessings,
Judah Mahay,
Creator of BeYourArt.com
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