Thursday 09th January 2014
We've discussed a number of different ways you can structure your Gallereo page in order to boost your sales, from taking advantage of search engine optimisation to writing complete descriptions all the way to using social media to build a name for yourself and ideas for maintaining and building readership using your built-in Gallereo blog. There is an element to your Gallereo page that can make an even larger difference to your success - the visual style, of course! We've held back from commenting on this because it's fairly personal in terms of your own unique artistic vision, but there are still some basic design pointers that we can offer that will be especially beneficial to those of you who are new to the whole web design world.
First of all, it's important to keep in mind that the pre-made templates that Gallereo offers are excellent. If the idea of designing your own website or modifying the templates yourself is overwhelming, don't be afraid to make use of the pre-made options. They're going to do a great job of helping you sell your work, and they all look great. That being said, if you have the time and the skills - or at least the willingness to learn - nothing can do a better job of representing you than a customised site.
When you're customising templates or coding from scratch, though, there are some things you should keep in mind. Namely, unless you're making your entire site an art project in and of itself, you want to keep the design elements to a minimum. To give your artwork maximum impact and so gain maximum sales numbers, you want the artwork itself to take centre stage, not the website. This is why so many artist websites use neutral colours for backgrounds - white, grey, or black - because they really help the colours and elements of the artwork imagery 'pop' from the page.
With that in mind, though, it's a good idea to include a little bit of colour around your site, but make sure to use it sparingly. Choose one or two colours that work well together, and use them as accents around the site - for example, on your 'Buy' or 'Purchase' buttons and any other 'call to actions' you use on your site. A 'call to action' is basically what it says on the tin: a button or link that asks the user to perform an action, such as 'get more information' or 'purchase now', which makes highlighting them with colour very useful.
Plan your site carefully, because it can be one of the largest factors that impact your success at selling your artwork online. Remember - it can be a work in progress. If you finish your site and find that you're getting lots of visitors but not a lot of sales, try changing your site around to see if it will help boost sales.
Posted on January 09th 2014 on 10:56pm
