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Michael,
As with any form of promotion, no one can predict results. There have been artists on the web for less than a month and gotten a commission and some who have been on over a year and not gotten anything.
Part of it is luck, getting that right person to look at your work...someone who is in your price range and looking for your style and if they have a location requirement, that you are in their area. And, it's very important that you have a well-rounded portfolio. It's unlikely an artist will get a commission for a CEO if an artist is displaying only portraits of women and children.
Beyond that, there are things you can personally do to bring more traffic to your pages. Karin Wells made a post on here earlier about some of the things she has done. In the links section of the main site, there are some art directories and databases listed where you can register, many of them for free.
My responsiblity as owner of SOG is to insure there is good traffic to the main site. You would be responsible for any promotion for the second set of pages I provide you for your own marketing. Getting visibility on the web is a very complicated and ever-changing subject and there are companies that do nothing but specialize in that.
I have also noticed that the artists who are more enthusiastic about their web site seem to have better results. Those who start out less than enthusiastic and sit back waiting to be proven wrong seem to have less success, generally speaking.
Of course, you'd want to include your web address on any printed material and tell any and everyone about it.
I believe the best attitude is to view one's web pages as part of a whole marketing package. Just like you have a business card and a portfolio that you carry, an electronic portfolio is more and more just a normal part of doing business. I have heard many stories from artists about value they get from their pages beyond actual commissions. But, just like you might not be able to specifically say that a brochure brought you a commission, the same can sometimes be said for web pages. Some of what I hear from the artists is that their site helps to close someone who came from another source; that the web site gave them added credibility when trying to close someone.
But, there have been commissions straight from the web. To name a few that I know about from this site, a general for The Citadel, an official portrait for the Seattle Cancer Research Institute, numerous university official portraits, CEO of Nationwide Insurance, two CEO portraits for Mutual of Omaha. I was personally contacted by Tiffany & Company to help select an artist, however, that unfortunately fell through with 9/11. As well, there have been private and family portraits commissioned. I know there are some artists who have been contacted by the White House, the Supreme Court and the Senate regarding a portrait. Yes, from their web site.
Though there is a range of quality and prices on Stroke of Genius, we've been dedicated since the beginning to keep the level of quality above a certain level.
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Starting on the internet
Hybrid Mode
