Online portfolios have not only become more popular, but really have become more common. If you’re an artist in any respect, it’s nearly unheard of for you to not have an online portfolio… that is, if you’re trying to sell your work.
The idea of an online portfolio seems pretty straight forward, but there are a lot of small details that could have a big turnout for you. For instance, what kind of work do you put up on this website? How do you display it? What information should you include? These seem like simple thoughts, but there are a lot of portfolios out there that aren’t nearly as successful as they could be had they kept a few “simple thoughts” in mind.
Let’s answer some questions:
Who is your target audience? You’re selling something no matter how you look at it. You’re either selling your site for free inspiration, you’re selling something on your site like t-shirts or posters, or you’re selling your work ability to some client. You need to establish who your client is before you even begin thinking about your site design. This may not be as fun, but it is still important.
What work are you offering to do for people? If this is simply a showcase of what you’ve done, then this isn’t so important for you, but if you’re selling your artistic services, you should really only display what it is you’re selling to someone. If you’re a graphic designer and wish to sell those particular skills, displaying paintings you’ve done is probably not the best idea. Someone wanting a painting might try to commission you for it and they’re going to be disappointed when you tell them no.
Now that you know what service you’re selling, which pieces do you display? Don’t just put up your favorite piece you’ve done. Personal attachment is not always going to sell something. You may be emotionally invested in something, but the potential client might not understand or appreciate it. Instead of going on personal choice, use pieces that people were pleased with. What did you get the most reaction out of? Which pieces were most successful?
What information do you put with each piece of work? Give an honest description of what the piece is about, who it was for, how they liked it. Don’t get too wordy, people want quick rundowns of ideas/concepts when browsing for people to do work. Too many words and you may as well put nothing up because people generally won’t read it.
But what do you do with all of that artwork you DO want to show off but you’re not necessarily offering it for people to commission? Try out a deviantART account. This is a fantastic way to get tons of traffic with barely any effort, and you can put anything you want up there.
Here’s some tips on how to structure your website:
About pages are very important, especially if you’re selling your work. Don’t sound pompous. No one likes reading something that does nothing but put yourself on a pedestal. Instead, relate to the customer/client. What do you have to offer? What kind of background do you come from? Where do you pull your inspiration from? What do you think the client would want to hear? Again, don’t be overly wordy. Try to keep it to a couple paragraphs at most.
Contact information needs to be obvious. Most people hate having to go looking for information that should be in plain sight. Why make it difficult on the user when you can make it so simple? Besides, you want people to contact you about work. Why would you want to make this difficult to find?
Making a “Hire Me” page is really helpful! Why should people hire you? What can you do for them? Don’t give away too much information here, but make them curious and interested.
Navigation is important of course, and is really necessary to be consistent. Try to give people at least two ways to get to one destination, but be sure they are related. This can be something as simple as putting the navigation menu both at the top and the bottom of the website, or when you link a thumbnail image, link the text with it too. Go for the obvious. Don’t make people jump through hoops to get places.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) really falls under the structure of the website as well. Be sure to put “title” and “alt” tags on all of your images with words that explain the image (like “Red Velvet Cake” instead of “cake”). Use keywords, but try not to use them too much. If you use a term or keyword too many times your site will be flagged for “keyword stuffing”, which reflects badly on you. Also, name web pages with the title of your article or images. Having a clean URL really helps search engines find what people are looking for. So instead of “www.yourwebsite.com/97326a/65489.html”, make it “www.yourwebsite.com/articles/learn-how-to-make-websites.html”, or something like that.
If you’re someone who doesn’t know the first thing about designing a website, that’s perfectly fine. It’s more than okay to have someone else build your site for, but you still have to take all of the above into consideration. Chances are you’re going to be the one updating this site, so staying on top of things like the SEO will make worlds of difference for you. Write all of this information down, and even do some sketches of what you’d like the site to look like, even if you can’t draw. If you’re working with a good artist, chances are it will make sense with a little explanation.
Hopefully this article has helped you organize some of your thoughts! Making lists are usually very helpful, and once you get it all down on paper it’ll come much easier if you’ve been struggling.
