It Takes Time and Some Digital Sweat

Its taken me awhile to figure this whole e-store business, when I think that I know everything I don't. Something new always comes along, like a new app or a new website template with all the features you were looking for, and you decide to start all over. Sometimes you have learn to code in order to best showcase what you're trying to sell. Sometimes you think you have it all in place and then your computer crashes for days, sometimes you forget to tag your items, or you realized there's a new naming convention that works better for search engines. Or you scrap a campaign and start another. It takes time. And the longer it takes the better it becomes. 

If I knew this back when I start this I would have been in a better shape today but alas that's not how life works, sometimes you have to hit reset, sometimes stuff happens and you have to start all over, but the best part is that while all the ups and downs are riding you wild, you are also learning. 

I think the best way to go about something is to put it first in your head, sketch it you have to, pin it to a vision board, sleep on it, sleep with it. (True story, when I got my first DSLR, I would fall asleep with it near my pillow) Try to step away from your idea and clear your mind and then come back and look at it again with a fresh perspective. Once you have all that developed into a concept and your ideas are clear then you more to step 2. 

Take it all in and put it into practice. Say you have a store that sells fine art photography prints.
If you have physical items that you're selling then I would start by taking photos of those items. By doing this first you can then jump into a website creator and start building your brand. Building your brand is key here. You are more than just the items you sell, people should know who you are. Once you have a website storefront that is clear and highlights what you're selling, then you can move to step 3. 

This part for me was the hardest to do and I wish I would have done some research on this before I started it. Let's say you took photos of all your products, in my case it was about 150 original pieces of artwork. You have all your items ready, the naming convention is SEO friendly. Now you have to import each and every item onto your store, in my experience, i've worked on websites that allow you to import up to 5 items at a time. Each time you import your items you would then have to input information about that item.

In all 150 photos, I had to create a unique Title, a description that at first was also unique to each piece of artwork but later I decided to just describe each item with the same basic description, which meant I had to narrow down the choices I originally wanted to offer. I went from offering fine art prints in various sizes, to then changing my mind and offer just framed prints. I've tried distribution centers and Print on Demand solutions, and then decided that I would instead offer prints and frames that came directly from my hands to the consumer, that way I had more control over the quality of my work.

All that mean that I had to recreate photos, and upload new images, using different titles and descriptions. It went from Fine Art Print, to Fine Art Framed Print, from Glicce to Hahnemühle. By the end of it all I had written over 300+ unique titles, & descriptions, not to mention the Tags, the categories, and the unique filenames that I had to include. On top of all of that the social media campaign I started, changed and evolved into a very large collection of unique lifestyle settings displaying my art.

So you can imagine that all can take some time. After you have done all your descriptions and tags, all your titles are also SEO friendly. You have all your items uploaded, then you start testing, make sure your checkout and shopping cart icons are visible and your customers can navigate your site and find your store easily and seamlessly. There are tons of website templates out there that are very intuitive and are mobile friendly which is super important these days. Now that everything is working fine, and your website looks amazing it's time to step it up to level 4.

This is the fun part and the part for me that gives me the most happiness and stresses me out at the same time. Social Media! It is stressful because it is a full time job, that you have to be on top of at all times. Promoting your store these days either means you print a bunch of fliers and posters, you go knocking on doors telling people about your business, or you create a comprehensive ad campaign and run it on your favorite digital platforms. The list to choose from is large. Your campaign should obviously reflect your goal, what you are trying to sell should be clear and to the point. Being creative and clever with your concepts comes a long way, specially when you apply those virtues in a unique way. The consumer should have a seamless experience. Lastly but not least, step 5. 

Rinse and repeat. As you go along the process you'll learn, everything will become easier, you'll figure out ways to be more productive, like for instance, in my case, I learned how to use lightroom to export all my images with a description, title and tags. This made the process a little smoother because in lightroom you can sync your metadata and cut your keystrokes substantially. Save all photos you take of your products, these can be used for all kinds of social media posts and it can help refresh your brand. Updating your products with new photos should be on your to do list at least every month or so. 

Today I am back on the print on the demand wagon. I am currently testing a service and also making sure that all my artwork is completely perfect before I upload it. Thanks to lightroom I've been able to expedite a lot of the metadata and thanks to Fine Art America I now have the tools and the storefront that I always wanted.  As soon as all the frames and Prints are inspected this store will go live. Stay Tuned.