MASTER of your Universe
(Maximizing the illustrator’s presence on the Internet.)
WHY SHOULD I HAVE AN ILLUSTRATOR WEBSITE?
Today’s illustrator faces numerous obstacles. If you are a beginner in the field of Children’s book illustration hurdles show up frequently. Even those who are experienced, well known illustrators face these obstacles.
An essential tool for getting your art ‘out there’ is your computer. The Internet reaches into almost every home in every country. Where it is not in the home it can be found in the library.
Why not put yourself in there too. If your artwork is important to you , and it should be, it is time to show off your talents to the publishing industry. Take time to maximize your space on the Internet. Attract some attention to your art.
Editors and Publishers, Art Directors and Licensing agents are busy people with full agendas. It now less likely that they will spend a great deal of time going through catalogs and files for a particular type of art. In our computer driven world they will, however, spend time on the internet searching agency sites, and various art portfolio sites.
If you send frequent mailers, postcards, or artwork for file, the web address you include for yourself is your personal catalog with easy access for the busy art buyer.
WHERE DO I START?
Start with good web-authoring program. There are many. Some are easy, others are more difficult. There are various programs on the internet that are free, some that cost a small amount and other software that has a lot more to offer but is on the expensive side.
The free programs and low cost ones are easily found by doing a search on the Internet for Free Web Software. They can do a good job of getting your work online.
Here’s the good news: if you purchase one of the leading web building programs and you cannot understand the ins and outs of it, there are tools right out there on the Internet to help you get started.
Lynda.com offers free and fee based teaching movies that enable the beginner to follow an expert step by step to build a website. Other illustrators will often post free tutorials. Many of the high-end programs come with CD lessons packed in with the manual, online tutorials and a help and troubleshooting link right within the program. In addition the purchase of several web building programs also includes a few freebies with your online registration.
HOW DO I GET MY WEBSITE ON THE INTERNET?
Free and almost free hosting services exist on the Internet, but here you need to do a little homework or ask someone whose website you admire about their host.
The hosting service can provide you with a search tool for a domain name, a presence on the Internet and various other tools to maintain and enhance your website.
Beware of any hosting service that will not allow you to tweak your own HTML codes. You need to be able to adjust some very important areas within your web page. Cheap is okay only if you have control.
Once you have chosen a hosting service they will provide you with the various codes and links you need to upload your web pages to the Internet.
WHAT DO I INCLUDE IN MY WEBSITE?
First and foremost you want to be noticed as an illustrator or illustrator/author of and for children’s books.
This means as an illustrator you want to show off your artwork in a gallery of your very best, crisp, colorful and easily accessed images.
The quicker the Art Director can get to the meat of your website, the easier it is for him or her to decide if you have what they are looking for.
Bells and whistles are fun, but unless you are actually looking for a job as an animator or website guru, the pages that open with long waits for intricate animations to “LOAD” aren’t going to be the best invitation for those busy professionals. Fancy Flash and animations take time to load.
BUT I WANT TO GET NOTICED!
And you will. First make this your best work. After all, this is some editor’s first trip to your online Gallery. It can be eye catching, memorable, imaginative, colorful and inspirational. But it has to be quick to open, available on search engines, and kept up to date.
There are some particular codes within your web page that allow search engines to find you. These are called META TAGS. This collection of keywords, descriptive language, and search engine guides will lead viewers to your website.
Where are they? They are located within the code that builds your webpage and usually follow right after the heading and before the body or main content of the page. You can see exactly what these look like if you go to any webpage and in the file menu click on VIEW and the VIEW SOURCE. Up at the top of the page you will find the meta tags. These are what the various search engines will pick up when anyone comes to the internet and searches for specifics such as your name, or simply the type of art that you create.
They will look like this:
<META NAME="Keywords" CONTENT="......”> You would insert pertinent keywords that correspond to your work in between the quotation marks separated by commas.
There should be one META TAG for each of the following categories:Title, Author, Description, Robots,
Copyright, Language, Distribution and Revisit after. By placing keywords that correlate with the text or headings on your web page you increase the chances of the search engines finding you.
(Some websites that can help you create META TAGS for your web pages can be easily located by doing a quick search. Use the free ones, there are quite a few.)
In addition to META TAGS there is are other ‘optimizers’ that will allow visitors to find your best work quickly. Since your name is going to be in the AUTHOR meta tag, your name will generate responses wherever it shows up. Your name is also on your blog, or any blog on which you left a comment
The first page of your website is also a tool in itself. If you want people to see your portfolio, lead them to it directly. Many visitors will quickly leave a site that forces them to tap their fingers or search aimlessly for a link to the main event.
If your expertise is animation and that is what you are promoting, at least provide a “skip intro” button that will allow the art editor a quick passage to your artwork.
Once the visitor has reached the object of your hard work, your portfolio, you can place the necessary links on that page. You may want to have links to other places on the internet where you have work displayed, or where they can find your Resume or Bio pages, or perhaps you have animations, online stories, a blog, or books you have illustrated that you want noticed. All these can be available as links on this page.
When your site is as good as you can make it the next step is to get it listed on as many search engines as possible. Here again, use the free submit sites. In a few weeks, sometimes just a day or two, you’ll be seeing your web pages and links to your site on many search engines.
Some illustrators may choose to have a third party create their website. That’s fine, but keep an eye on your source code and that all important opening page.
Hop onto the Internet and pick any of your favorite illustrator websites. Do a quick VIEW for the source code and see if those sites are up to speed with their META tags.
You might be surprised by what you DON’T see. Then get busy and make your website more noticeable and user friendly.