On February 23rd I was honored to present a brief seminar on Internet Marketing for Arts and Crafts at the Blue Ridge Community College Small Business Center, “Prospering in 2009 Conference.”

This is a tough subject. I spent many, many hours combining what I knew about the arts and crafts community in our region with a whooole lot of online research to prepare for this.

The difficulty for people who produce fine arts, traditional/heritage crafts, and modern interpretations of traditional arts, is online competition. There are so may huge sites out there that deal in “arts” and “crafts” it’s almost impossible to separate the disposable junk from the truly beautiful items that will become family heirlooms. In my area I’m within hollerin’ distance of fine jewelers, weavers and textile artists, basket makers, potters and ceramic artists, doll makers, metalwork artists, glass blowers, sculptors, quilters – you name it.

I already knew before going in that having a website displaying your wares will not get you much in the way of direct online sales. But a website is certainly a must – it acts as your online brochure and gallery, and there are ways to make that site work for you when you can tie it in to some other internet and media outlets.

The time allotted for my presentation was short – I knew we would not be able to discuss everything possible.

So I prepared a written handout for the participants. This 15-page Guide to Internet Marketing for Arts and Crafts (updated March 29, 2009) is available here, as a free PDF download.

Internet Marketing for Arts and Crafts 2009

This document is Copyright Fiona Dudley 2009, all rights reserved. (Artists are welcome to download it and share it with their community, friends, and network connections. Publication or reprinting for any other purpose requires permission.)