My year on the Internet

by in art, Blog Posts, digital art, Fine Art

Hi,

This year I’ve really tried extremely hard to establish some sort of presence on the Internet but have found it incredibly difficult. I thought I’d write a few words about my experiences.

At the beginning of the year I had only my Flickr page and this blog but I have tried to explore all avenues and branch out on social media and my website with very limited success.

Firstly the things that I’ve enjoyed, that have worked for me and why. Fellow WordPress bloggers and Flickr members remain my absolute favourites and I’ve really enjoyed the great sense of friendship and comradery that I’ve experienced in both communities, so nothing has changed there but I’ve also enjoyed joining about.me . I guess one could argue that about.me is a bit of a vanity site but I’ve enjoyed  meeting new people there and there are many  professionals and intesting people from all walks of life including artists, photographers and other creatives. It is also a very easy way to interact that doesn’t demand a large amount of upkeep. Another site that I’ve recently joined is the art blog at Niume which is a great place to share one’s art and converse with fellow artists. They also kindly tweet my postings which helps to spread the word. Lastly there are my virtual galleries which are just fun to create and also free which is my favourite word at the moment :).

Now for the sites that haven’t worked for me. I guess that Facebook probably tops the list. I confess to not liking Facebook overly much and it just hasn’t clicked for me. I have “blogs” on Tumblr and Google+ but again these haven’t really worked well for me. Probably my most dissapointing venture is my website  ,I’ve put a huge amount of effort into the site trying to keep it fresh and interesting but it gets very few visitors. Lastly there’s Twitter, this hasn’t worked at all for me, there’s so many millions of tweets all the time and the only things that seems to get many people’s attention contains sexual and/or political content.

In addition to the above I’ve also tried to sell my art through two online shops, ArtPal and Pixels.com but so far neither has been successful. I’ve tried discount codes and limited time promotions on Pixels.com but it is almost impossible to attract buyers with so much art on display or, and I have to recognise this possibility, my work simpy isn’t good enough to tempt people to put their hands in their pockets 🙂 in which case it doesn’t matter where I try and display it.

So, as the year draws to a close and looking towards 2016 where should I go from here?. I think that I may well just revert back to my WordPress blog and Flickr, post on Niume and maintain my profile on about.me and call it a day at that. I’ll probably leave all my other sites as they are at least until any associated fees are due. I’d like to be able to afford to upgrade my Pixels.com account so that I could upload more work and not have to keep replacing works but I’m in two minds about this as it’s an extra expense that I can ill afford.

I’d love to hear from you if you are aware of other sites that I should be looking at and to share your experiences. I sometimes think that maybe I, should video our cat dressed up as Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer whistling “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas” whilst juggling and tap dancing, post it to YouTube, Twitter and Facebook and watch it go viral, it’d probably be easier! 🙂

Best wishes,

Leigh

 

 

 

3 thoughts on “My year on the Internet”

  2. I too have invested much time, money and and effort into trying to make money selling my photographs. To date I have never sold anything on the internet, and not because I didn’t try. My website with a PayPal account for 15 years, last three years all the other social media sites profit = zero. Facebook, Twitter, Nabaroo, Behance, WordPress, 500px, and Tumbler get me followers and friends but no sales. I can’t figure out which place might work to sell my digital art. I had to get a refund from 500px because they said they will only approve pure photographs for sale and much of my work is digital art. I looked at Etsy, and many others. Neume invited me and then I looked at their contract. It stated that all work on their site is theirs. I want to maintain ownership. The owner wrote back and said they will change that, but until they do I will not post my work there. Other places have offered to post and sell my work for $1 – No way! There is a maze of sites and too many of us to count.
    One girl gave a talk about it at B&H Camera store and said that she was found on social media and is now a famous, and much sought after, photographer. She won the lotto! So I suppose it can be done. I’ll keep playing because I do get something out if it; such as, inspiration and community, just no cash.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Hi Sherry Lynn,

      Thank you for writing that, I found your comments very interesting and reassuring. I didn’t realise bout Niume’s conditions, quite worrying as I wouldn’t have joined had I realised, I have contacted them for clarification of the current position and, if they do claim ownership then I shall remove all my posts.

      It is very interesting to hear about your experiences as they closely match mine. I have come to the conclussion that the Internet isn’t a very good place to try and sell art unless perhaps one is very established. When I have somke money I might just try and print up a few of my works and get a stall in the market, at least folks can see what they’re getting and I can chat to them about my work face to face. This might also work out with my local works of the area.

      I think that winnine the lottery would be handy for us both 🙂 Your work is fabulous Sherry Lynn. I guess that there are so many works for sale on those sites that it is a buyers market. I’ve looked at works that sell and many are “niche” works that seem to go to people interested in one style or subject etc. I’ve also noticed that many of these works are sold at impossibly low prices because they are a small size so expecting to sell a large canvas or something is pretty much mission impossible. Having said that I’d happily sell my work in any form as long as the profit is reasonably good.

      Best wishes

      Leigh

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      Reply

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