If all that has been written about search-engines and sites to register with was on paper, the stack would reach to heaven!

Fortunately it is easy to scour the Web for information but difficult sometimes to weed out the good from the not so desirable.

I have been on the Internet since 1995, a long time in Internet years. I even received a Who's Who in Internet Technology listing to show for all the time I have spent as a painter on the Web not only building Web sites of my own but for Fortune 500 companies as well.

So, besides having your own Web site you may be asking, "Where else should I register? What art sites specifically should I align myself with?", "Should I pay for services?"

I have tested, signed-up for many sites, but continue to be skeptical of most. Some art sites started out carrying the work of artists directly only to turn to catering to galleries only. The Web is a dynamic force in today's marketplace. So what's an artist to do?

Here are my recommendations:

1. If you see a site you may be interested in listing with, read all you can about their specifications. Read down to the fine print including any costs associated with that site.

2. Do a search on a major search engine of the site(s) you're considering and see what pops up. Are they at or near the top of the list? Then do a search on one of their artists...does that artist pop up at or near the top affiliated with the art site?

3. If you get down to really wanting to be a part of a particular site, it's time to call a few artists. Yes, call. I would try to find the phone numbers of 3 artists that the site represents and ask them about their experience with that company. If you cannot get a phone number then email them. Tell them you are considering this site then ask your questions like:

a. How long have you been listed with abc-art.com?

b. How has the site performed for you?

c. Has it been worth it to you to be listed with this site?

d. Is the site easy to upload and list images with?

e., f, etc., whatever else you want to know.

Here a few of the better sites. I have checked my own site's statistics to see how much direct targeted visitors I receive from each site. This is a short list that has been whittled down over these years due to ineffective marketing on the part of most sites.

The Internet Art Marketplace [d'ART]

That's it. The only one as of this writing that I would register with. Now, there are many other sites that are free to list a link with which I highly recommend doing. Many search engines today still view how many links you have directed at your site as the mark of a popular site.

Most paid art sites want YOUR money. Listing artists is their business and don't care if you sell anything or not. They are selling to you. So the old adage "buyer beware" is the key element here.

Search Engines to Register With

It used to be that you would have to list with hundreds even thousands of search engines to be found on the Web. Today that has all changed.

If you list with just a handful of the major engines, all other engines pull data from these few.

These are the key engines you should be listed with:

Google.com
Yahoo!
msn.com
MetaCrawler
WebCrawler
NBC
Dogpile
domz Open Directory

That's it. Don't need no more! I know that is slang but gets my point across. Except for Yahoo! and the Open Directory, you can register at all the others for just $49.00. (I am not trying to sell you anything!) But once you start trying to register these you'll find it out anyway. There is a charge now associated with registering with the top engines, but it is a nominal fee for gaining so much exposure.

Another way to register for free with several engines by doing it yourself is using addme.com.

I will update this page as time goes on. But for now I hope these few insights will benefit your art business!

Diane

January 26, 2006