Setting Up / Updating An Online Presence

This one is for my artists specifically.

Everyone else, setting up a website is pretty much a you job.

My artists!

When you are deciding to set up or update your online presence, please consider for a little bit which website designing website you would prefer.

You are sticking with this website for the long-term.

For example, I have tried both Wix and WordPress, but my comfort level currently with website design resides with WordPress. Hence, I am on here doing a blogsite! Or a weblog! It really is tailored for my “now” comfort level.

So, you too. Think of what you are comfortable with.

A usual website can even just be the landing page, and you don’t need extra links if they are too hard.

Ask around and see which of your friends or colleagues would be willing to help you with this, because it is so important these days to tell people you exist in the world of art.

I insist on you getting a website of your own instead of just throwing them up on a social media platform, because you own your website and have 100% creative freedom for yourself.

For those of you who are huge on preparing and getting everything just right before you launch, here’s a good best practice for you: before you even find what website type you want, go find every image you want to put on the website.

Dig through your old portfolios, find anything that you are allowed to display from any company work you have done, whether it is an AAA company or an indie company. At this point, your goal is to be more coherent than your ArtStation, which looks very disjointed if you have been contracted out to multiple companies.

Please take time to see if you can have some sort of thread of consistency between all of your work. If you want, you can consider a sort of timeline, where you have one piece and then the year, and maybe an explanation of which company asked you to draw that piece, etc.

You go down the line, and you choose the best of what you have been and are, and possibly will be. Don’t be ashamed of your concepts if you are a concept artist, and it looks more like a doodle or scribble set than a polished piece. As you have seen on my home page, it really doesn’t matter if it is “scribbly” or “unfinished” looking. Having on a professional webpage makes it look professional.

I would like to remind my professional artists that you already are “professional.” I know it makes all of us laugh from the silliness of the statement, but if you have been thinking, “wow, Sarah’s site looks so professional!” it means you are one too. We can only recognize each other when we have experienced the same sorts of things or are in the same sorts of positions. If you are guilty of saying this, get on it! Get your own, update what you have, see what describes you long-term.

Remember, at least have a landing page. Even if you don’t know how to do extra buttons like me, even if you don’t quite know how to do the click and drag drop buttons or items on a webpage designer, just…try for me. Who are you, what are you about (what do you believe?), where is your work, how do you do business, and why are you here? Think about it. We should have more websites for people to come to, be encouraged by, feel safe with, and learn from.

If you are here, you are one of these people!

I love you. Give it a try. You might like it.

Good luck!

Love,

Sarah