barbaraburns.com

Artist Web Site Planning Questions

Which most closely describes the type of web site you want? (Pricing is generally very different between a brochure or e-commerce site type).

Brochure/Presentation - a site that provides information specifically regarding you and your artwork, gallery locations, appearances, classes, etc. A domain and a hosted WordPress Blog you can create and change yourself will probably be your most cost effective solution.

E-commerce (on a secure server that sells products/services and accepts credit card payments)? Unless you can do this yourself, this can cost you a LOT of money and you probably will not be able to make any changes to it yourself and will need someone else to make any changes so you do not break it. Below are a few planning questions:

Why do you want a site?
What is the purpose of your site? (Listing class schedules / locations vs selling actual artwork online)
How often will your artist statement need updated?
Do you teach classes on a regular class schedule in a fixed location or are places, times and dates subject to frequent changes?
Do you want current for sale artwork inventory on the site at all times or only an unchanging style sampling of your best artwork?
Do you have a logo? Do you have it as a very high resolution computer graphic file?
What colors would you like to use on your site?
What is the most important message you wish to convey?
What do you want to say on your main home page?
If your main message and your front page answers are different, why and where do you want your most important message to appear?
How will you supply the text and content for the site? Examples: Email and computer documents, Printed literature - brochures, flyers, business cards, news releases, Handwritten letters, Actual artwork - Do you have electronic versions of your submission slides or pictures?
Do you have written copyright permission from the photographer to display your submission slides/photos on your website?
Who will make any needed updates - site maintenance?
Do you want to learn to maintain the site yourself?
Have you looked at other artist’s sites? If yes, what are the URL addresses to the sites you like? Who created them?

These are not the only questions to answer before and during web site creation BUT they are a good start to being organized and prepared no matter who does your web site.