9 Heart-Centered Ways to Turn Your Art Website Into an Attraction Magnet for Buyers and Readers
By Thea Fiore-Bloom, PhD
Are you seeing a stream of readers, subscribers, and potential art buyers visiting your art website these days?
Or, instead, does the image of a tumbleweed rolling across a lonely desert highway come to mind?
If you’re in the tumbleweed camp, don’t lose heart.
I’m going to give you nine tiny but mighty metaphorical magnets you can install on your website to attract beautiful new art viewers and readers.
- Almost every one of these nine attraction magnets can be installed by you in fewer than 15 minutes.
- All nine are free.
- And the cherry on top is none of the nine will make you feel like a sleazy mega-marketer or, god-forbid, an influencer.
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash.
Start by picking one of the bite-sized magnets from the list below, then come back when you’re ready to give another a try.
Little by little, your art website will become magnetic, just like you.
Okay, ready to jumpstart your sincere but magical butterfly attraction magnet?
Let’s go.
Nine Authentic Ways To Increase Traffic To Your Art Website
Art Website Attraction Magnet Tip #1
You’ve Got To Be Real Method
Want more subscribers?
Stop using the robot marketing language taught by art biz types in the text you write in your sign-up box.
Make your sign-up box language as unique as you are.
No more “Sign-up-for-my-newsletter” (spoken in a robotic android voice).
And please, don’t say: “Sign up for my newsletter and receive the latest promotions and discounts on my paintings.”
Art marketing gurus teach that using snazzy promotional language like that is effective in a subscription box.
But 90% of readers see it, and in our minds, it translates to:
“Sign up for my newsletter and I’ll relentlessly spam you to buy, buy, buy all your livelong days.”
What To Say In Your SignUp Box
Instead, I gently suggest you use your subscribe box text to tell the reader the value they will get from you that doesn’t involve them having to buy anything, ever, if they don’t want to.
For topic ideas that serve the reader in this way, go here.
You can even be funny. No one will get hurt, I swear.
I hardly subscribe to any blogs or newsletters, but I subscribed pronto to artist Lola Jovan’s blog because her sign-up box says: “Get your regular dose of malarkey.” (I’m still smiling as I type that.)
Lola is signaling to you with her words that if you subscribe, you won’t be enduring the same old, same old from her, right?
And she has wagonloads of both subscribers and buyers. So the absence of in-your-face sales is a good strategy for her, right?
Yes, she does sell via her blog.
But not all the time.
She gives as well.
Her blog posts are for the benefit of her readers.
And she blogs and sells while still being her audacious self. You can too!
Extra Credit: If you’re high-tech, you may want to purchase a more fancy-dancy sign-up box system.
Check out the one I have now at the bottom of all my posts.
It’s from Bloom. (No relation to me.)
Art Website Attraction Magnet Tip #2
Baby Come Back Method
Some of you may put off even installing a sign-up box.
I get it, but if you want your site’s magnet powered on, install one this week.
Why?
Because it sure is fun to have your hard-won first-time visitors come back.
And the way to astronomically increase the chance of that happening is to make it easier for those lovely first-time visitors to subscribe.
Check out: How to Make an Email Sign Up Box Magically Appear on your Website in Under 15 Minutes.
Art Website Attraction Magnet #3
Don’t Build Your Cyber Home On Rented Property
Social media companies like Facebook have no qualms about casually pulling the rug out from under you with their “algorithm changes.”
These changes distance or hide you from the audience you worked so hard to build.
That’s why it’s wise for us artists to invest the majority of our time in building and redecorating our own cyber home.
That home consists of our website and our precious mailing list.
Your own platform won’t pull any rugs out from under you.
Art Website Attraction Magnet #4
Begin Styling Your Brand
Currently, the only social media channel that doesn’t make me break out in hives is Pinterest.
(I opted out of Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.)
Though the growing prevalence of weird ads is making me consider leaving Pinterest behind, too.
If you’ve fantasized about doing the same, check out my post: Bye-Bye Facebook: How Artists Can Succeed Without Social Media.)
And if you want a healthier heart-centered approach to Instagram, look at my post Does it Really Matter How Many Instagram Followers You Have if You’re an Artist?
I make my own blog graphics and my own Pinterest pins for The Charmed Studio with Canva.
And it has helped me get so many subscribers.
Maybe you are reading this now because you clicked on a pin on Pinterest that I created using Canva.
Canva allows you to use templates to make your newsletters, Facebook graphics, e-book covers, class announcements, coupons, art show announcements, and Instagram story covers look on-brand, unique, and professional.
Yes, there’s a small Canva learning curve for those not born in the 1990s or later— but it’s worth the temporary frustration.
Try pulling the look of your website and brand together bit by bit by using Canva, start here.
Art Website Attraction Magnet #5
Turn Every Email Into an Opportunity for Your Website to Shine
What’s at the bottom of your emails?
Does it need a makeover?
By not having an email signature on the bottom of your correspondence with an image of your art, you are missing out on 10,000 chances a year to give folks a way to open the door to the secret garden of your website.
Learn How To Make a Gorgeous Email Signature here for Free in like 10 minutes!
Art Website Attraction Magnet #6
Make it Easier to Spread the Word
Are you on WordPress? In five minutes, you can install a plugin to make it effortless for your readers to spread the word about you to their friends via email, Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest while they are on your website.
My fave word-spreader plugin is called AddToAny.
Art Website Attraction Magnet #7
Shake It Like a Snow Globe
Every time you shake up your snowglobe and take a chance with your art writing, you up the magnetism of your website.
Run out of stuff to write about? Here are 51 fresh ideas for heart-centered newsletter or blog writers.
Transform Your Art Newsletter in 3 Questions here.
Or eyeball, How Vulnerability Can Make Your Art Writing Shine.
Art Website Attraction Magnet #8
Attention FASO Users
Yes, sending out spirited art newsletters regularly can be great for maintaining an audience.
But ninety percent of the time, newsletters don’t do squat for helping you increase your audience.
Unless…?
Unless you let your newsletters live on your website like a blog post, so they can do some SEO work for you while you are happily splatting paint about your studio.
Alert FASO users: here’s a quick fix to make sure your newsletters are no longer homeless.
Extra Credit: For further SEO discovery, pop over to my post or podcast on: Holistic SEO for Artists: An Ethical, Easy, Beginner’s Guide to Shining Bright Online here.)
Art Website Attraction Magnet Fix #9
Last and Most Importantly, Slow Down
Don’t buy into the competitive, speedy, hamster-on-the-wheel art marketing mentality.
We don’t have to be forever amping things up.
Don’t burn your precious self out.
Artists benefit more from slowing things down and appreciating the connections we already have anyway.
We don’t need 1000 followers or subscribers. We really don’t.
Ben Franklin got it right when he said,
“Comparison is the thief of joy.”
– Ben Franklin
When you feel sped up or that you or your art business aren’t enough, try one of the following:
- Create a goofy video of yourself and send it to a friend who’s depressed.
- Make yourself a Feel Good File.
- Donate time or money to a cause you believe in.
- Use one of your 1,000 unused cat toy thingies to play with your cat.
- Take a nap.
- Share a subscriber’s work you love with your art newsletter readers.
- Write another artist or writer you admire, what famous writing teacher Carolyn See termed a “Charming Note”. Learn how right here: Charming Notes: Carolyn See’s Life-Changing Pro Tip For Writers and Artists.
When you do, you’ll feel time slow; chaos will fall away, your self-esteem will rise, beneficial connections will be made organically, and you’ll hear the distant thrum-humming of your attraction magnet kicking on.
And you’ll feel wonder and abundance whooshing around your studio and your art website once again.
Love You Guys, Over To You.
Have you done any of these already?
Which one do you want to try?
Let me know.
__________________________
You Might Like These Other Charmed Studio Posts:
3 Gorgeous Guided Meditations for Writers: Reduce Fear, Ignite Creativity
Orhan Pamuk, Nobel Laureate: Why Artists and Writers Need to Stay Weird
How to Feel Better When Someone Unsubscribes
This post may contain Amazon affiliate links. This means if you buy books or stuff via my blog I may receive a tiny commission and do a happy dance. There is no extra fee for you. I only link to items I personally use and love; products that I think help heart-centered artists.
I am glad you started with being real. It takes a lot of energy and stress when I am trying to follow the piper. I’m very happy with the amount of work and connections I have because many of them are from my community. I have fun deciding how to present my work and they know it’s me making these, sometimes silly, videos or reels.
I was attempting to put my signature in color with a photo on my gmail but I think I need to review the video. I will figure it out :).
Thank you for posting “Hands On” to the post. I really appreciate that you are so supportive. Sharing your blog and the conversations are helpful to my fellow art friends too.
You are welcome, it was a pleasure to share your gorgeous art. And I believe in creating relationships that last for years with subscribers.It makes blogging joyful. As to the issue with your email signature, it is tricky to set up sometimes. The most common issue is that you can get it attached to your email but the image is not clickable, by that I mean it is not taking you over to your website when the image is clicked on. Is that what is happening for you or is it something different?
Love this Thea! Love all your tips and love how you humanize things! After all, We can’t and don’t really want to function like predictable cookie-cutter machines!
Thank you for sharing so generously which I am sure will benefit many like-minded creatives! I am happy to say, that I have gone ahead and implemented many of your suggestions, the best I can.
One question ? I use faso, and the platform does not come with an obvious subscribe form. Do you suggest using pop up? I sometimes find them annoying, but am curious to know if there was a more elegant way to do it? Thanks again and I look forward to gleaning a lot of great advice from your posts!
Warm Regards
Aruna
Hello Dear Aruna,
Nice to hear from you. You have the most beautiful way of painting light on water by the way-exceptional work.
Ok on to your excellent question.
Your website seems to be on both FASO and WordPress.
ON FASO contact their customer support and use a banner or popup. I see you have a subtle slim top banner already for your newsletter, you can add another one on the bottom of your website for your blog. Or see if you can get a less-intrusive pop-up like I have on this site that enters the page from the bottom or side. I never have the big ones that cover the screen. That kind of aggressive marketing drives artists like us bonkers right? We will leave immediately.
FASO will allow you to change the wording (personalizing ) of the copy of your sign-up box and they can make it bigger. They advise against both these things……but I say stick to your guns. As I mentioned in this post, sign-up boxes with boring, generic ad copy DO NOTHING for artists IMO. FASO also doesn’t believe in giving subscribers anything for signing up, ie no opt-ins. FASO seems to say that EXCLUSIVITY is the payoff, so opt-ins are unnecessary…(insert eye roll here.) 🙂
As you can guess, I totally disagree with this- and could go on a long rant about why I think this philosophy doesn’t fly, but it will have to be a post for another day.
On to helping you with WordPress:
Do you know how to add a plug-in to your WordPress site? If so I recommend one called BLOOM by Elegant Themes. (No relation to me and I am not on commission from them, they just make gorgeous sign-up forms that work 100 times better than anything on either FASO or plain WordPress that I have seen.) They helped me build my mailing list in a non-sleazy way. And I believe will help you too. The user interface on Bloom is so intuitive and good you will actually have fun creating your sign-up boxes with opt-ins and beautiful images- try it.
If you have any more questions, ask away.
Be well,
Thea
Yay, I’ve finished Magnet #5! Well, I still have to do a tweak or two but I’m calling it finished enough to celebrate. Thank you, Thea, I’m finally implementing your ideas!
Your email signature looks absolutely stunning. I am excited to see what good fortune arises from it for you and your art business.
Dear Thea,
I’m excited to begin implementing all your Magnet Tips. I spent a lovely morning doing Tip #1. I was delighted to learn I had already done Tips 2, 3, 8, and 9 (yes, I have recently begun to slow down, and am getting great enjoyment out of art and life).
Next will come the execution of Tips 4 (fun with Canva), 5 (I am most excited about making a gorgeous email signature), and 7 (I love all your ideas!).
Thank you so much for all your valuable information, creativity, and guidance.
Hi Jan Alice,
So excited to see what you come up with on Canva. I think you will enjoy it and get quite good at it in time. You have a magnificent internal color wheel. The tricky thing for me was choosing fonts. My advice for artists who are not graphic designers is to go with the pre-made templates because the fonts are beautiful and the proportions are just right. My initial pins that I made on Canva are cringe-y! (Man do I respect graphic designers now.)But after I started using the templates I am cringe-free. I used to place ads on some of my more popular pins, you can experiment with that too. If you need help on that just let me know.
Keep me posted. Thanks so much for your comment.
Dear Thea
Seek and you shall find.
They say ask a question and the Universe will answer, so I did and it brought me to you.
And what a find x
Weeks of dull marketing and SEO advice had taken its toll. But the Charmed Studio has re-ignited the spark in my creative heart. Just one blog post was enough for me to subscribe.
So heeding your advice, I’m taking time to waste a moment so I can read through the site.
Can’t wait.
Love and Light
Kirsteen
Dear Kirsteen,
What a glorious message to start my day with. I am so happy you found the site and that it helped you re-center yourself again. You have everything you need already to succeed if you listen to your own wisdom and intuition on what to do and when. If you ever have a question on a resource for something you want to explore further, just reach out to me here.
Thanks so much for subscribing!
Thea
Wonderful information! Really wonderful ideas about the sign up box and everything. I absolutely love that Oscar Wilde quote as well as the Ben Franklin. I have enough unused cat toys to play with one every day for 10 years! And again I have to complement all the artist that you showcase. Their pieces are just beautiful. Thank you for exposing us to so much wonderful information and wonderful art.
Cat toys…crazy huh. Why don’t we just make our own anyway?
This post is so jam packed its incredible! Thank you for teaching so many things from so many angles. The amount of things and technologies we have to learn to keep things moving is overwhelming. Thank you for always sharing so much information and for breaking it down and making it less threatening. Its so helpful. 😊🙏🙏
Thank you Gale for your kind words. Keep on trucking.
👍👍🤗. Thank you.
Excellent ideas! Thanks!
Thanks very much Trish for taking your valuable time to read this piece and thanks for letting me know you found some good nuggets in here.
The internet ate my comment last night, so I’m going to try again. I love this post! These are all small, doable things that can make a real difference. I know I’m going to implement some and tweak others. But, to me, your last recommendation is essential! It’s so easy to get caught up in a whirlwind of activity and lose sight of the big picture. For me, I need to sell art so I can keep making art, but sometimes I get into the mindset of making art just so I can sell it, getting into all the nitty-gritty of marketing etc. Slowing down is so important, because it allows you to take a step back, to remember why you do what you do, and to realize that you can’t be a go-go-go-machine all the time. There has to be something that nourishes your soul and your art (and writing), and if you lose touch with that, you become a kind of robot. The internet culture these days, with its emphasis on productivity and getting things done, is a recipe for burnout. You have to find ways to regularly reconnect with yourself and with what moves you.
Mineke, thank you so much for taking the time to return and leave your comment AGAIN after the internet ate it. After I read this part of your comment: “For me, I need to sell art so I can keep making art, but sometimes I get into the mindset of making art just so I can sell it, getting into all the nitty-gritty of marketing etc. ” I was literally shouting out loud in my quiet living room….”yes! yes! Me too! I do that too!” And the sad thing is the art I make when I make it TO sell, is not inspired art. It is what I call “time to make the donuts” art. That was an American tv ad you were probably spared from seeing 100 times in Holland. Anyway it encapsulates the feeling of working on a conveyor belt-uninspired. And ironically, often the work I make to sell-is the stuff that sells the slowest, if at all.
So cheers to you for loving your creative self and preventing burnout and remembering to connect with your true self and be a wild thing. You are wonderful.
Yes, thankfully I missed the donut ad… But I do understand what it means, and you’re right that the work we create just to sell is often the slowest to move. All the more reason to stay in touch with our true selves.
Thanks for the kick in the pants Thea! An email signature it’s been on my to-do list for much too long and I need to complete that task.
I thought I’d also share a link to the Clark Hulings Fund FB live presentation on SEO for Sharon- I learned a lot from this great presentation. https://m.facebook.com/events/478098466553389/
Kristen, thanks so much for that link. SEO For Drag and Drop Artists Sites, that is such a good way to put it. SEO for WordPress (a predominantly non drag and drop site, although there are a few drag and drop themes now) is a different animal from Wix, FASO, Squarespace etc. I will check it out.
Such a good post! Thank you! I’ve been trying to find a good solution for my online presence and a better way to grow my mailing list for a couple of years. I like FASO because I can keep an inventory, sell, and present my work there. And the email/newsletter feature is improving. I’m on the fence about Facebook. While I have an artist page there, I feel as though the platform is in constant flux (algorithms, etc), it’s clunky to use, and promotion depends on $$ spent. I use Instagram and think about using Pinterest. I use Canva.
I’ve tried unsuccessfully to “downsize” and do as many things as possible from one Platform. There is no one solution for what I need to do. Just this morning–before I read this post–I got the idea to start a new blog that’s about me and about art (but not necessarily only my art). I’d use the WordPress site to drive traffic to my FASO and FB site. Although I think FB will more likely be a place to repost some of what is created for the WordPress site. And I can repurpose blog posts on the FASO site. I don’t want to spend hours and hours on different platforms, though, so…
…with deliberate effort and not too much haste, I will “try again” and “fail better.”
Sharon
Sharon , first of all great work on all you have done so far. We artists don’t appreciate how much time and effort we have put in to building our existing platform. I have heard that FASO has an easier interface to use than many other website options for artists Wix, etc. I have also heard about its drawbacks though SEO-wise. My question to you is why would you need a blog on ANOTHER website to drive traffic to your FASO site? Isn’t there a blog function within FASO you could use? Or are you opting for wordpress for the better SEO options?
Let me know so I can help if possible with further info.
Thea, the time and effort that includes learning so many things (how to communicate well, learn and manage technology and platforms, etc., is daunting. And giving too much attention to one area means not enough attention is being paid to something else. FASO is easy to use and what it offers, from appealing designs to inventory management, newsletters, blogs, and shopping cart, are very useful. Their customer service is good and Dave does try hard to help artists market their artworks. But, FASO doesn’t sell art. They sell websites to artists, and artists need to sell their own art. I think FASO could do a lot to improve the one tool they use to promote daily art. The format they use to promote art (I’m going to just say it) sucks. It’s ugly and the art is so small! Even so, it’s still up to us artists to do what we need or want to do to promote ourselves and sell our art. This is true for any platform, though.
To answer your question: Why do I want another blog to drive traffic to FASO? Yes, WordPress has better SEO options but I’m not savvy about how to use SEO (one more thing to learn, or not), so I don’t know that better SEO is a valid reason to complicate my life.
I think the primary reason is because it’s been drilled into me by people who say they know how to reach an audience and market art that we (artists) need to be clear about who the market is and direct content to that specific market. FOCUS. SELL. SELF-PROMOTION. And my mind isn’t happy with that kind of structure and confinement. I think about a lot of things. I don’t always want to talk to potential customers about my artwork. I want to talk to buyers about art and artists about art practices, and vice versa. I don’t want to always be the professional who can’t share anything personal because it’s not professional to do so.
I just did a search for my FASO blog content and it did show up, which is more than I expected. Maybe I just need to do more writing there and see what happens. (Shrug).
Maybe the barriers I feel are really only perceptions and I’ve allowed the experts to have too much influence in my decisions. I’d love to know your thoughts about any of the above.
Sharon, I think it’s very healthy to occasionally (at least every decade or so) throw off everyone else’s perceptions of one’s calling and follow your own intuition and passion. We throw off the chains of other’s dictates about how to make art and perhaps we need to also do a Spring Cleaning with other’s dictates about marketing. We need to experiment and fail and fail brilliantly to find the sweet spot of being able to sell our work creatively, without burnout. Staying safe without error hasn’t worked well for me when it has come to putting the word out about my artwork or written work in the past. This philosophy worked better for me: “Failing is not a problem you will face, failing is how you will get there.” Richard Litvin. Keep experimenting, wildly. And I bet you will come up with your own brilliant solution.
On a less philosophical, more practical level I’d say this. I personally love SEO, it was hard to learn but the free, charming videos I used by the young, enthusiastic Dutch folks at Yoast for WordPress are amazing.https://yoast.com/academy/free-seo-training-seo-for-beginners/ I watched one after another after another while riding my stationary bicycle for a few months years back and ended up taking a bunch of advanced trainings and enjoyed it to my amazement. Try the non-WordPress one Kristen recommended above perhaps if you decide SEO will further your unique goals.
Or go a whole other route and focus more on person to person approach for art sales with a new company I think will be big called StudioDoorz which is an Air B and B like company where artists can list their studios online and have tourists and others schedule appointments to come in their actual studios. Human to human interaction! Who knew! It’s coming back.
Also, I personally alternate my tech learning with creative learning. I do tech some seasons, creative learning alternate seasons to not burn out.
Lastly, examine what is actually giving you results and what is not. You might get something out of this post: Artists and Priorities: A Magical Method For Organizing Your Time. https://thecharmedstudio.com/artists-and-priorities/ It shares a surprisingly revealing exercise invented by Kate Northrup to see what’s working and what’s not working in one’s efforts. Often artists think for example they HAVE to do Instagram every day…but why? Is it working for them beautifully or is it a SHOULD?
Hope that helps. 🙂
Thea, dear Thea… As always, this post is so packed with sparkling and useful info that I must make a pot of coffee, turn off the phone, cancel my plans for this morning, and treat myself to a feast for the next hour. You are an overflowing fountain of shimmering light, and I am a happy little moth flying about in the glow of ideas. “Charmed” is the precise word to describe your magnetic style! Bless you, child! Thank you is so inadequate…
Susan
Susan, I am speechless and humbled. You made my year.
Thea, thank you for sharing this wonderful blog stuffed with an enormous amount of information. Canva is pretty user friendly for me. I absolutely love the collage about Sibylla Merian
Thanks so much for letting me know Sylvia. Glad you found Canva user-friendly, it has an intelligently designed interface that makes for a pleasant user experience.
I couldn’t find the artist for that collage, it wasn’t listed, but I love it too. Actually, I am fascinated by Sibylla Merian from what little I have read. Do you have a book you like on her? I want to find out more and do a post on her someday. She was such an amazing botanical illustrator that hardly anyone has heard of until very recently. By the way, have you read The Miniaturist by Jesse Burton? I think you might like that. Burton has just come out with another fascinating book called The Muse.
Oh I also love this quote and wanted to add it:
“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” — Samuel Beckett