A major makeover for my website

Everything has Changed

A new design has been long overdue for my Artist website and over the past few months I have been playing with ideas and thinking about the look as well as thinking about how to add interesting content.

The time came to set about designing the site and I have finally got down to getting it done. I have made the bones of the site ‘offline’ on my computer and now it’s time to go live!

I decided on Sunday that I have the layout and structure sorted and uploaded it in the afternoon. All needed more configuration to make it secure and work properly, so I had a very late night! The next big task that remains is to add more paintings and stuff. That will take a while, and I must pick from a long list.

Anyway, the old version had very little in it and virtually no words at all so was completely invisible to anyone searching in google unless they knew my name. I don’t know whether you ever saw it. I made it in about 2001 and it had never been updated.
It was no advert for my pictures, let alone my website skills!

Learning to make websites

Making websites for other artists and friends has been a creative pursuit that has given me the opportunity to learn many computer skills. I started doing it at the dawn of the internet phenomenon when I wanted a website for Outlines, my Gallery and Framing business in London.

What with the strange codes and editing images to help them show up when people could only access websites on the old ‘dial-up’ system, let alone the ins and outs of getting the websites ‘up there’, I can tell you, there was a lot to learn.

I started adding mini websites for artists I knew under my Outlines hosting, as a showcase or portfolio for their work, independent of my Gallery site.

I made one for myself too, and eventually bought my domain name and made a website for that. Well, that was a long time ago, and it has hardly changed in all the time I have had the site.

Making websites as part of my creative output

Since those early days, I have made complete websites for all sorts of people and even maintain some of them for the owners. This has occupied a great deal of my ‘computer time’ and has enabled me to learn a great deal about using the internet to promote products and ideas.

Now that I no longer live in London or have a high street Gallery, using the internet is how I can make a living from my art and helping people promote their art is both interesting and rewarding.

As a result of recommendation, a casual conversation at an artist’s exhibition preview, or just when meeting a friend’s friends for the first time, enquiries come in…

…and what do people want to do first?

Look at MY website!

Showing Off

My own website and promoting my artwork has taken a back seat for AGES – I sort of felt shy and embarrassed about doing it somehow.

So my website was just a simple mini portfolio that didn’t actually DO anything. It didn’t matter much to begin with, as I had the walls of my London Gallery to show and sell my work.

But now, it has become More Embarrassing to have a sub-standard website that doesn’t have any information than to just get out here and be myself.

And I have surprised myself!
It’s fun – I have ideas – it makes me want to make new artwork.

How strange that I never realised it before….

Having your own Artist Website makes you even more creative! Click to Tweet This

 

A Word of Thanks

I shall always be grateful to Erica Stone, an ethical and wise internet marketer and teacher.

I went to her for help with design and composing content for product review websites. As well as teaching me solid principles and essential components of such sites she strongly encouraged me – repeatedly – to attend to the update of my own website and helped me embark on the road to making the most of social networking.

I started this makeover because of her – she embarrassed me into it!

This is her Facebook page

What’s Next?

Now to start organising those Artworks for your perusal – and with any luck – your interest and comments…