Getting ahead nowadays is very difficult without some reliance on the internet or digital technology. To promote yourself and keep up with the competition becomes increasingly difficult without websites or social media.

I know I’m not the only artist who finds working on the business side of things more difficult and certainly more tedious than creating in the studio.

TECHNOLOGY – JEKYLL & HYDE

Part of me appreciates the benefits of modern technology and part of me curses the day it was born. For instance, I just spent 30 minutes writing this blog using my usual method, the memo app on my phone. I was getting close to finishing when my phone died. I plug my charger in, open the app and guess what, no blog, erased from the face of the earth. Who makes an app that erases your work when your phone battery dies?

It’s a good example of how exasperating something can be. This wouldn’t have happened in the good old days when I would use a thing called a pen and physically write my thoughts down on a sheet of paper.

The up side? If things don’t go wrong along the way, technology can be a boost to getting your work out there and seen by people which is the ultimate goal of most artists.

THE BEST METHOD?

Trial and error is the answer. It’s not a five minute job working out what channels work best for you. It can take months, maybe years to find the best way of promoting yourself so the sooner you start the better. What works for one person may not suit another.

Try different social media platforms. Some are better for artists than others but it does depend on the type of art you make.

WEBSITES, A PRIME CHANNEL

Some will disagree with me here but I think it is essential for professional artists to have a quality website. Think of it as the shop window to show your wares to passers by. I know of some excellent artists who I’ve heard about through exhibitions and shows and when you research them their online presence is virtually nil. They’re not encouraging visitors to their shop window. Perhaps they feel that elusiveness adds to the mystery of their work or of them as an artist but it just encourages people to move on to artists they can read about and whose work they can view.

I’m in the process of having my website revamped by my long standing web designer zanet.co.uk
Zane has worked with me from my initial basic website requirements up to my new web design which is being developed currently & has always designed appropriately around my requirements at the time.

KEEP TESTING

A piece of advice I was given by Zane some years ago is to keep testing what’s working. For me it’s been a struggle because I’m not always at one with technology, but to survive in this world of nanos, bytes, crypto things and floppy discs (I think they died out actually), you have to keep checking what’s working and who’s finding you. It can be an uphill struggle and yes it’s extremely frustrating sometimes, but there are positives to technology. You just have to stick with it and make it work.