RAFTS ARE SELLING ON THE INTERNET, BUT ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, A WEB SITE'S SUCCESS DEPENDS UPON ACTIVE PROMOTION AND CONSTANT UPKEEP. ABOVE ALL, A WEB SITE SHOULD BE LAUNCHED AS PART OF AN ARTIST'S OVERALL PROMOTIONAL STRATEGY.
IT SHOULD NOT BE EXPECTED TO REPLACE OTHER MARKETING EFFORTS, SUCH AS EXHIBITING AT SHOWS, CONTACTING GALLERIES, CONDUCTING MAILINGS, ETC.
Kathleen McMahon of CraftWeb (www.craftweb.com), an online juried-level craft showcase, says she sees many artists who are disheartened because they started out with unrealistic expectations about what the Internet would do for them. They also may not have anticipated the amount of work it takes to keep a site fresh. "The hardest lesson I've seen artisans learn online is that 'build it and they will come' is not true in this case. Getting people to find your Web site and keeping 'mind share' takes continuous work and online participation."
Barry and Diana Hansen (www.empirenet.com/~hansen), of Hansen Designs in Corona, Calif., continued to modify their Web site for three months after they initially went online in September of 1995. Diana Hansen says, "We didn't like the initial layout. It just wasn't us. We ended up doing away with backgrounds all together ... changed text, rearranged the order of things. [And] we just went through our first major revamping of our jewelry pages this week."
Many people think that if you host your own Web site and can design and change it as you please, you have an advantage over the Web sites in online craft showcases where the host may design one uniform look for all pages on the site. There are distinct advantages to both. Joining an online craft showcase is a great way to get your work in front of Web surfers, while paying someone else to maintain the site. Having your own site affords you complete control over the content and look of your Internet marketing efforts, but requires a lot of time and imagination and maintenance.
While having a presence on the Internet doesn't always guarantee direct sales, most artists agree that the increased awareness of their work is valuable in its own right, and they're willing to see where the Web takes them.
Lynne Stanshine (www.aartvark.com/av/keepsakes), of Keepsakes, Inc. in Huntingdon Valley, Pa., has had a Web site for two years with Liberty Arts (another online craft showcase, www.aartvark.com) and says, "There have been sales; however, they are not overwhelming in quantity. The first year was sparse -- but each year, interest grows."
Customers have bought relatively expensive pieces from fiber artist Bonnie Aitken after first seeing her work on her Web site.
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Jonathan Kaplan (www.sni.net/ceramicdesign/), of Ceramic Design Group, Ltd. in Steamboat Springs, Colo., has had his site for two and a half years with CraftWeb, and he says, "[There have been] lots of inquires, and lots of catalogs sent out, [but] no sales."
Hank Kaminsky (www.uark.edu/ALADDIN/artexp/artexp.html), a metal sculptor with The Art Experience in Fayetteville, Ark., designed and actively changes his own Web site, but says he hasn't received any direct sales because of restraints from his Internet Service Provider (ISP): "My site is part of my community art school's site, which is on an educational server at the University of Arkansas. I am seriously limited in content. I cannot sell from my site, quote prices or promote my work. It is strictly educational."
Web site promotion is relatively easy, most online craftspeople say. Word of mouth, inclusion of the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) in all promotional material, business cards and letterhead, registering with search engines and coordinating reciprocal links are the basic means of advertising a Web site.
Most artists emphasize that a Web site is not meant to be a substitute for exhibiting at shows or print advertising. McMahon explains, "For juried-level artisans, their Web site needs to be viewed as a marketing tool rather than a selling tool. I have seen great payoffs [to having a Web site], but only from those using the Internet as just one piece of their overall marketing activities."
Kaminsky remarks, "I feel that the Web is an excellent medium for disseminating information and making contacts. But, if anything, I feel more of a need to increase the other types of [marketing] connections, the more human-contact types. I can't say that [my Web site] has been a commercial success -- I never expected that. But hundreds of people have talked to me, asked advice and thanked me profusely when they were helped with some metal casting project or other things. ... I have had immense satisfaction from my Web experience."
"There is NO OTHER form of advertising that can REACH the potential AUDIENCE of the Internet."
-- Ranson Johnson, jeweler and artist and co-founder of Liberty Arts
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Ranson Johnson, a jeweler and artist and co-founder of Liberty Arts, says, "There is no other form of advertising that can reach the potential audience of the Internet." To illustrate the cost-effectiveness, Johnson says, "I pay $300 as an entry fee to a crafts show with a potential audience of 50,000 for one weekend. That same $300 (usually less) will rent me space [with an ISP] for a whole year, with a potential audience in the hundreds of thousands. Considering that a sale only occurs with one person out of every 500 who enter my booth, it's just a matter of numbers and time."
Johnson advises, "If a site is designed properly for the product, has online ordering and is promoted properly, the site will sell an artist's work. Of course, it has to be a product the public is interested in."
The first response elicited from a Web site, whether it's a compliment or a catalog request, does not come in any prescribed amount of time. The first call or e-mail can come within hours to two months after going online, and sometimes much longer.
Laura Sturtz (www.io.com/twinck), a studio artist in Manchaca, Texas, makes jewelry, small figurative sculpture and one-of-a-kind chess sets in various media. Her Web site is only four months old. She has already received a wholesale order from a buyer who checked out her site after seeing her Web address next to her Craft Showcase ad in The Crafts Report.
Glass artist James Clarke hopes more galleries will start using the Internet to browse craft sites like his.
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Bonnie Aitken (www.knitart.com), a fiber artist from Clifton, Va., has a four-month-old Web site, too. It contains about 70 images with text, a section on colors and sizes available, equipment and yarn supplies and the shows where she will be exhibiting. Inclusion of images of her work along with the decision to list her upcoming shows, she says, has proven beneficial: "As a result of my site, customers came to my booth and purchased relatively expensive pieces. They had time to think about the purchase beforehand. These customers had seen my work before, and seeing the pieces on the Web seemed to help them make up their minds. And, they brought friends."
On the other side of the spectrum, how galleries are approaching the Internet, or not approaching it, rather, remains a mystery to most craft artists.
James Clarke (www.indra.com/~james803), of James Clarke Glass Studio in Boulder, Colo., says, "I am somewhat disappointed that more galleries don't have access to the Internet. I get quite a few calls from galleries requesting a catalog or information and when I ask them if they have access to the Internet, the response is usually something like: 'Oh, yeah, is that that Web thing? Do you need a computer for that?'"
It seems to be true that many galleries are still lagging behind when it comes to exploring and utilizing the Internet, but not all of them. Hugh MacBeth, of Scott Laurent Galleries (www.scottlaurent.com) in Winter Park, Fla., says that Scott Laurent went online "in mid 1994 to see how viable the Web might be for commerce." Their site features information about the gallery, their interior design services, it lists fundraising events and, MacBeth says, "features the proven selling items that we wholesale to other galleries" for retail sale. He's not surprised that other galleries are behind on this technology: "I know some who still don't have fax machines."
Scott Laurent Galleries' Web site has received customer inquiries from across the globe, but the site hasn't proven financially viable yet.
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The origins of inquiries and sales from the gallery's Web site have been global. "One is from a potential sale to the United Kingdom. Another is a sale to Oregon, and a customer care/satisfaction opportunity for both myself and a gallery in Tennessee," he says.
MacBeth knows that his gallery is one of the few on the Internet, and says, "In another couple of years, it will be more financially viable for sales over the Web. But it has been lonely out there for the 1994-1996 period!"
Overall, the Web is a powerful marketing tool. But it can't totally replace your existing marketing efforts. Instead, it should be utilized in addition to those strategies and attended to frequently to achieve optimum results -- sales.
Consider this -- you wouldn't let dust collect on your booth, and you strive to keep your work fresh. Apply the same standards to your Web site.
Kimberly Hamb is on The Crafts Report staff.
