Tag: metrics

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A Marketing Challenge for the Year 2023

This is a follow-up marketing challenge to what was started in January 2022.

This is NOT a New Year’s Resolution – they don’t usually work. This is a re-commitment of something I did in January last year to jump-start my art photography business. It worked very well last year – and positive results/metrics were shared here on this website.

This year I am modifying the goals just a bit to make a longer-term commitment well within reach. I am continuing to wean myself from social media and put more emphasis on positive results from the major search engines. I want to (need to) increase the organic search results that bring people to see my photography and my galleries on the various POD (Print On Demand) art production companies that host my gallery stores – listed in the site menu.

Blue Flams heating the Tea Pot
Let me get the fire lit and get underway.

The goal is to create one new article per day for the entire first quarter of 2023.

The caveat is that I will give myself weekends off. (Hey, I am supposed to be retired.) I also will not adhere to a strict schedule. That means, overall, I will publish an average of 5 articles per week on one or more of my websites, 20/21 per month for January, February and March. (Yes, I will count this article among the list below…)

Obviously, this particular article will be a Work In Progress

January Articles

  1. Fenwick Island Dunes and Waves, USPictures.com, 01/01
  2. Fenwick Island Lighthouse Historic Panorama, USPictures.com, 01/02
  3. A Marketing Challenge for the Year 2023, BillSwartwout.com, 01/02
  4. Fenwick Island Lighthouse, SouthBaltimore.com. 01/02
  5. Eclipse of the Moon over the Indian River Bridge, IndianRiverBridge.com, 01/03
  6. Simulated Watercolor from a Photograph, IndianRiverBridge.com, 01/05
  7. Staying on the Boardwalk in Ocean City, Maryland, OceanCityBoardwalkHotels.com, 01/11
  8. For Purple Mountain Majesties, BillSwartwout.com, 01/12
  9. A Cat in a Fishbowl, BillSwartwout.com, 01/14
  10. One Cat Eye Looking Directly At You, BillSwartwout.com, 01/15
  11. Red Sky at Night, Sailor’s Delight, IndianRiverBridge.com, 01/15
  12. Dangerous Passage, BillSwartwout.com, 01/16
  13. Tuckahoe River Railroad Bridge in Delmarva, USPictures.com, 01/17
  14. Photo Tip for Photographing Sunsets, BillSwartwout.com, 01/20
  15. I’ve Always had a Keen Interest in Astronomy, BillSwartwout.com, 01/23
  16. Catching the Sun in Her Arms, BillSwartwout.com, 01/23
  17. Having Fun at the Beach in Ocean City, MD, OceanCityBoardwalkHotesl.com, 01/25
  18. Finding Places to Stay in Ocean City, MD!, SouthBaltimore.com, 01/25
  19. Ocean City Twitter Account Is Now Verified, USPictures.com, 01/26
  20. Iconic Red Barn, USPictures.com, 01/28
Fenwick Island Dunes and Waves
Fenwick Island Dunes and Waves and Sea and Sand in the Afternoon Sun

February Articles

  1. This Crab Saw His Shadow, BillSwartwout.com, 02/03
  2. Starry Night at the Indian River Inlet Bridge, IndianRiverBridge.com, 0204
  3. Before Sunrise at the Indian River Bridge, IndianRiverBridge.com, 02/05
  4. Starry Night Over Fenwick Island Lighthouse, FenwickIslandLighthouse.com, 02/06 (first sale was 02/07)
  5. Stay on the Boardwalk in Ocean City, OCtheBeach.com, 02/09
  6. Fenwick Shoals in the Atlantic at Fenwick Island, FenwickIslandLighthouse.com, 02/09
  7. Should I Choose a Hotel or a Condo for Vacation? OCtheBeach.com, 02/09
  8. Artificial Intelligence Art Imagery, BillSwartwout.com, 02/10
  9. Indian River Bridge Cam at Delaware Seashore State Park, IndianRiverBridge.com, 02/14
  10. Indian River Inlet Bridge Gift Shop, IndianRiverBridge.com, 02/14
  11. Song for Sunrise over the Bridge at Indian River Inlet, IndianRiverBridge.com, 02/14
  12. Ocean City Gift Shop, OCtheBeach.com, 02/14
  13. About Dead Tree Pictures, DeadTreePictures.com, 02/16
  14. Ocean City Jigsaw Puzzles, OCtheBeach.com, 02/18
  15. New Website Created, aiArtImagery.com, 02/20
  16. Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the Art World, aiArtImagery.com, 02/21
  17. Right Time Right Place Photo Tip, BillSwartwout.com, 02/22
  18. Why Are Barns Painted Red? BillSwartwout.com, 02/23
  19. Free Shipping Now Available for Bill Swartwout Photography, USPictures.com, 02/23
  20. Visiting Myrtle Beach, SC? USPictures.com, 02/23
  21. Do You Have a Tote Bag for the Beach? OCtheBeach.com, 02/23
  22. Vacationing in Ocean City, Maryland, OceanCityBoardwalkHotels.com, 02/24
  23. Virtual Sisters Feline and Human, aiArtImagery.com, 02/27

March Articles

  1. Decaying Red Barns, BillSwartwout.com, 03/01 (Almost ready…)
  2. Vanishing Red Barns in America, aiArtImagery.com, 03/01
  3. Myrtle Beach Beach, Sand, Dunes, Ocean and Sky, USPictures.com, 03/02
  4. Watching the Sun Setting Under the Indian River Bridge, IndianRiverBridge.com, 03/03
  5. Pier Against the Storm, aiArtImagery.com, 03/09
  6. What’s Cooking in the Kitchen?, aiArtImagery.com, 03/09
  7. Fenwick Island Lighthouse on the Rocks, FenwickIslandLighthouse.com, 03/10
  8. Last Bridge into Ocean City, OCtheBeach.com, 03/10
  9. Double Trouble – a Two-Headed Rattlesnake, aiaARTimagery.com, 03/11
  10. OC Vacations on Record Pace for 2023, OceanCityBoardwalkHotels.com, 03/31

OK, so March did not make the cut. We were on an extended vacation and I “finally” realized that doing a daily article was distracting. I will pick this activity up once we return home and things get back to normal (whatever that may be).

Results

Metrics and more… TBD

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Initial Results from my Personal Daily Blogging Challenge

I am seeing growth in traffic and page views beyond my expectations.

Let’s begin with a caveat: One must keep in mind that I am comparing January numbers, one of the slowest sales months, to December and the holiday shopping season. Therefore, I believe any growth AT ALL is a significant increase.

Graph of User Growth USPictures January 2022
Graph of User Growth USPictures.com mid-December, 2021 though the end of January, 2022.

One is tempted, possibly because of innate vanity to describe success based on feelings or “what I think” is happening. That is all a feel good, pat yourself on the back, reaction and may be OK in general conversation. However, what follows is my sharing of actual data, the metrics of which are derived from the Analytics service from Google and from AWStats, an internal statistics package on my leased server space.

Remember the rationale for this is a rebranding of my USPictures domain and to create more SEO “juice” (search engine results) for my own sites – rather than for the stockholders of FB, Twitter or any POD with a forum.

While I have several blog/websites related to (supporting) several of my art photography collections, I have chosen to focus the first part of the year on my personal blog at BillSwartwout.com and my “rebranded” site targeting United States landscape/seascape images at USPictures.com.

USPictures.com was “moved” from being pointed to my premium site at Fine Art America to its own server space in mid-December so I could offer more choices for my customers, including the Free Shipping at Pictorem, another quality POD (Print on Demand) company. See “Rebranding and an Art Challenge.”

Therefore the numbers for USPictures.com and BillSwartwout are based on a comparison of daily averages, not one month vs another month. This is to keep things on an even keel, so to speak.

The Results Are In:

I am not sharing actual numbers, just percentages. The following percentages increases are for BillSwartwout.com & USPictures.com, respectively

Number of Visits: 124% and 189%

Page Views per Visit: 187% and 174%

SEO/Organic Search Results: 175% and 325%

Averaging all of those results yield an average growth in one month of “Daily Posting” of nearly 200% (195.6% to be exact).

But Wow, those Organic Search Results, a 250% increase, are far better that what I was hoping to see at the one-month mark. That means the longer I can keep growing the sites’ SEO the less dependent I am on Social Media.

Hey, these increases are after only one month of Daily Article Posting, or Blogging, if you like. Imagine what may/will happen after another couple of months. Or the whole year. Not too crabby, eh? – Er, I mean, not too shabby.

Yum - a Big Crab Claw Image Matted and Framed

Right?

Geno Prussakov, a long-time affiliate marketing colleague, about a dozen years ago, decided to try posting one new article every day for a solid year in order to help his business grow. He did and it did. AM Navigator at https://www.amnavigator.com is one of the best Outsourced Program Management Agencies in the world today. I am proud to call Geno a friend.

I would certainly appreciate any observations or comments you care to make (below). Your critique or insights may help me improve my outlook and or marketing strategy.

Posted on

Artist Metrics for Fine Art America Colleagues

Not for the faint of heart but a good source of sales data.

A recent post on the Fine Art America forum/discussion group gave me reason to take another look at the data available for people with an art business at FineArtAmerica/Pixels. It was suggested that having more sales data in the on-board analytics would be helpful in marketing one’s art. The following is what I had responded but, later on, realized it may reach a larger audience here…

“There is a work-around for obtaining some of that information – but it does take some effort. The “Export to Excel” feature, available on the “Balance” page in Behind the Scenes (the user administration interface) provides info for:

Date (Transaction) – Date (Reporting) – Pay Period – Description
Image ID – Order ID – Artwork Name – Artist Name
Buyer City – Buyer State – Buyer Country
Deposit – Withdrawal – Balance

The caveat is that one must have an understanding of spreadsheets to be able to manipulate and interpret that data. My knowledge is meager, at best.

Having that info available in Analytics would be helpful to many of you with numerous sales. With my dozen or so sales a month average, I pretty much have – in my head – what has been selling the best.

With that said, here is a very basic example: a “sort” on Column D, Description, gathers all of my titles into groups. I can refine that sort by date – but, keeping it simple, I see that my best selling image of all time is this: https://bill.pixels.com/featured/indian-river-inlet-bridge-twilight-bill-swartwout-photography.html – with dozens of sales. I can look at smaller “groupings” in that column and see that seven (7) of those sales were puzzles (5 – 500 Pieces and 2 – 1000 Pieces). I can also see that four of them were sold with a Discount Code, what that code was and the amount discounted. I can also see the sizes of prints that sold and the variety of other products (face masks, beach towels, etc.) on which this image was sold. It is also interesting that with only one exception, all of my sales over the last 7+ years were within the United States (we can see City, State and Country, but no buyer-specific detail).

I can also see that in 7+ years here I have had four “Cancelled From Order Prior to Shipment” and two “Returned for Refund Within 30 Days.” What is good to see here is that there is no pattern – not like I might have a bad image that was returned multiple times. Of the two that were returned one has been sold (and NOT returned) several times.

What I cannot see, and would love to know, is which platform made the sale – My Premium Site, my profile at Fine Art America or my profile at Pixels.

I added later to say: “BTW – in my example above – about the Export to Excel feature. I do not have the actual “Microsoft Excel” software. I use the FREE Apache Open Office version and it works just fine. It costs nothing, other than some time, to do this.

The down side is that it takes a bit of work on the part of the artist to obtain those extra metrics. I don’t believe the online FAA Analytics screen is meant to do all of that.”