Blog
Drive Respect, Not Traffic
Artists often ask me how they can "drive more traffic" to their art websites. I've seen some artists become practically obsessed with the latest technique du jour while virtually ignoring their small, but devoted, band of fans and collectors. Over the past few years I've watched some of these artists spend time on SEO, on Digg rankings, on StumbleUpon, on Google Buzz, on Google Wave, on Myspace, on Twitter, on Facebook, and, now, on Pinterest (the current technique du jour). Nothing wrong with trying different marketing channels, but, please, think about this: "The difference between what drives traffic and what drives respect is [...]
Why What You See is NOT What You Get with Email
Art is a visual business. So, obviously, artists want to send nice looking email newsletters, which means, if you want to display images, your emails must be composed with HTML and not plain text. We're all accustomed to HTML rendering reliably in our web browsers. But, unfortunately, email programs don't render HTML in the same way. Email programs munch, mangle and alter your HTML to meet their own needs. And that leads to frustration when you're trying to create a reliable email newsletter design. FASO's awesome Artist Support Agents see this issue fairly often. Customers say, "My email newsletter doesn't look the same in [...]
Why it's fine for artists to lower their prices
The wine bottle's bright orange label called out to me. Sure, you're not supposed to judge a wine based on the label, but the little placard that Costco [1] had placed next to the bottle of Poppy proudly proclaimed a 90+ rating. The price of $17 per bottle was a tad higher than I'd normally spend, but not unthinkable. "Try that one," my wife said pointing right at the same bottle of Poppy with it's orange label. Who am I to argue? Sold. Poppy quickly became one of our favorites. As a fruity, easy-drinking Pinot Noir, Poppy quickly earned a favorite spot in [...]
