The Business of Art

In order for a website to be successful, it must drive conversions. But what does that mean, and how do you do it? Here are the basics:

• Conversion
  Action that you want the visitor to take, whether that be making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, etc. You decide what that action is and everyone who does that action is a conversion. How do you turn a visitor to your page into a conversion?
• Conversion Flow
  The journey a web visitor takes to reach the desired action. Having proper "flow" on your website means that your page is well designed and inspires the visitor to "desire" what you are offering. Conversion flow is what will drive conversion.
• Calculating Conversion Rate
  Pretty simple, you take the number of visitors who completed your desired outcome (conversions), divide that by your total number of visitors, and multiply the result by 100.  

Source: Dr. Zhihao (Max) Yu, Isabel Soto-Luna

Other Sources:
Google Analytics 101: How to Track Your Conversions (Step-by-Step)  
WordPress Conversion Tracking Made Simple: A Step-by-Step Guide

A great webpage is not hard to achieve and can make your business very successful. Following a few guidelines and basics of web design can really help you achieve your business goals. 

• Follow Conventions 
  People like predictability in certain things, including websites. Follow conventions when it comes to the placement of menus, search boxes, logos, etc. Links and navigation should be obvious and easy to follow.
• Create Visual Hierarchy 
  Make good use of headers, sub-headers, images, and color to create contrast and guide the eye to the important parts of your website in the order that you want people to see it. What the hierarchy looks like will depend on your business goals.
• Eliminate Distractions 
  Less is often more in good design. Make good use of white space and don't crowd the screen. Balance the white space so that it draws the eye, but not so much that the message gets lost. This will make your page easier to read and understand. 
• The Fold
  Anything you see on the screen when you load a page is "above the fold", what you see when you scroll down is "below the fold." You want to make sure that the information included above the fold includes your logo, easy navigation, contact information, and the action you want them to take (buy, sign up, follow, etc). 
• Mobile-Friendly
  Responsive Web Design (the ability to detect screen size and resize/rearrange the elements of the page to fit the screen) is essential. This will make your website easy to use on all platforms.
  Responsive Web Design Checker
• Speed
  No one wants to wait on a website to load, if it takes too long you will lose visitors and therefore conversions. Make sure your images are small but good quality, don't add unnecessary plug-ins, and delete unnecessary code.
  Web Page Test

Source: Dr. Zhihao (Max) Yu, Isabel Soto-Luna

The following can help you add some flair to your site. Make sure you read the terms and conditions and attribute the work to the artist who created it. 

Free images: ​
Pixabay 
Pexels 
Unsplash

Free music:​ 
Free Music Archive 
Bensound 

The following are just a few great examples of good artist websites. 

Karen Hallion

Fabian - Occasional Superstar

John Isaiah Pepion

The links below are just a few of the options available for creating your own website. There are many services and options out there, finding the right one for you will go a long way in getting you started. 

UNOmaha Community 
Provided by UN Omaha to students, faculty, and staff. Completely free, you cannot sell from here. Must learn how to install applications (super easy) or be able to code.  

Google Sites 
Completely free, the number of pages and content only limited by space in Google Drive, does have an option for a custom domain. Does have themes (very limited) or you can build your own with a drag and drop design interface. 

Weebly 
Various service tiers, from free to $26/month depending on needs, and has various premade themes to pick from for your site.

WordPress 
Various service tiers, from free to $45/month. Several theme options to pick from for your site, they will place their own ads on your site.

Squarespace 
Various service tiers, from $12-$40/month, does not have a free level. Created specifically for online commerce, has several theme options.