website question

[gary grossman <grossman@zzzzzzzzz>]

Rick's queries/comments were  >

I also see you used FrontPage.  In my business that's a no no.
  >
  > - how do you call attention to you site

I don't know whether my page is readable by Mac's but I haven't had any
comments to that effect.  Perhaps a Mac user on the list can take a look
at the site and tell me back channel if they have problems -- the url is
below.  I actually used one of the early version of explorer which had a
built in html editor/page builder.  IIRC, this was around '97 -- if Mac
users don't have problems, perhaps it's due to this early simple
version, but I don't really know.  Obviously, Rick knows much more than
I do about html than I do.

Rick asked about generating hits and my guess is that I get most of my
hits from folks searching for specific painters -- most of the
paintings/artists on my site are museum quality/well known and
well-collected.  If I just had my sculpture on the site I'm not sure how
I would generate hits, probably via links to sites that have heavy
traffic.  One always needs to ask before doing this.  Lately I've had
two galleries ask to link to my site -- I assume that they're trying to
increase their hits too.  Rick, is this still a good way of "moving up
the page" in search engines?  Finally, for seven or eight years I've
advertised several times a year in the Fine Arts Trader, a trade paper
for art dealers specializing in pre- 1950's art (mostly mid 19th to mid
20th century American & European, -- google Fine Arts Trader).  It's not
too expensive, in fact it's probably the cheapest national advertising
that you can get.  If you're claiming that you're running a business,
it's the best "bang for the buck" and no one can then question the
legitimacy of your business attempts.  If I were a contemporary sculptor
I would try placing an ad with my url there or in one of the
contemporary sculpture magazines.  Now that my web site is getting
enough hits I've pretty much dropped all other advertising.  One final
comment, I've never sold a real sculpture off my web site, although I've
sold pen trays.  Until you have a big name like some of the folks on the
list I think that a web site is more for exposure than selling.  My
experience with the contemporary art world is that folks want a "story"
when they buy and that usually includes "hobnobbing" with the artist and
trying to get some sort of break on the price <g >.  Just my two cents,
well more like a quarter really <g >. atb, g

Gary D. Grossman

G. Grossman Fine Art
http://www.negia.net/~grossman/

Distinguished Research Professor - Animal Ecology
http://www.arches.uga.edu/~grossman/

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