Blog

Today's post is a bit of a rant.  It's an updated rant from a few years ago.  I've dropped a few annoyances off the list (because they don't happen as much as they used to) and added a few new annoyances that seem to be in vogue.   Everything I rant about below I have really suffered through on actual artist websites.  So I apologize in advance for the following rant......[RANT BEGINS]DO NOT DO THE FOLLOWING THINGS ON YOUR ARTIST WEBSITE:1.  Right Click disablersPeople aren't trying to steal your web-quality images, but you're really annoying the rest of us who use [...]

Lately, we seem to have a lot more artists asking us how to implement an email newsletter signup pop-up form on their websites.   I think it's a bad idea.  This article explains why I feel that way.     First Impressions Matter   Imagine this:  You walk into a high end art gallery.  You've heard about the great art in this gallery from a few friends.  Excited, you walk in and your breath is taken away by the first wall of paintings you see.  You approach the wall for a closer look, and, just as you're getting interested.......a gallery associate appears between you and the painting and [...]

Here at FASO, we once lost all of our rankings in Google....sounds like a marketer's worst nightmare, right?   When Google dropped the original Panda [1] bomb, we had somehow incorrectly configured part of our robots.txt file,  and left a section of the FASO site open to Googlebot that we had never intended for Google to index.   The big, bad Panda bear didn't like that section of our web site, and we lost all our rankings for about a month (except, importantly, on searches for "faso").   And guess what happened to our sales and traffic during that month? Nothing.  Well, almost nothing.     Our growth [...]

Ask yourself, "Who else reaches the same prospects I do?"   In my last article, I talked about the importance in marketing of being personal, timely and relevant.   One of the most powerful ways to be personal, timely and relevant, while extending your reach, is through strategic cross-marketing.  Ask yourself, "Who else reaches the same prospects I do?"  Make a list.  Now go partner with those people.Of course, saying "go partner" is easier said than done.  But the effort is worth it, because this form of marketing is so powerful.  I've always been a proponent of "partnership" marketing.  I recall an article by Kim Cady that appeared [...]

Marketing is difficult.  To make a sale, you must reach people when several conditions perfectly align:  You need to reach people WHERE they want your message, WHEN they want your message and the message has to be RELEVANT and PERSONAL to their current needs or desires.  This is what I'm calling the "The Personal, Timely, Relevant Framework." [1] In thinking about how the "Personal, Timely, Relevant" framework idea applies to art, I think it provides a useful context to understand why the following things seem to be true:1.  Art galleries sell better than restaurants (more relevant)2.  Art openings sell better than "regular" days in the [...]