Name of your website?Artist at Work
Your name?
Margaret Livingstone
Your Location (city, etc)
Edzell, Angus
Please give us a short summary of your website?
This is the website of award winning contemporary artist Margaret Livingstone. It showcases her work and offers the opportunity to view work via a slideahow or purchase via the gallery. The site also contains artist information, testimonials, art-related links and testimonials.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
I am seeking to make a living from my talent, and the website exists as a portal to introduce people to my work.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
This is my first website, launched in October 2007.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
I looked for a domain name which included "artist" and chose this as I enjoyed the play on words with "Men at Work" which led to my logo.
What makes it different from other, similar offerings?
Everything I produce is an original and therefore highly collectable. My work has been recognised with a number of awards, and I have exhibited at major galleries.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
To be a successfull artist.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
So far everything is time - my website is self designed using Microsoft Office Live Basic and my studio is a converted garage. I invest much of the money from my sales back into materials.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
I would hire a website developer at make my life a lot easier!
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
I will never be a high volume seller, that is not the market I am aiming for. The amount of work on the site will always be low in volume, and I can only accept one or possibly two commissions at a time. i need to be true to my talent, and any extra requests would unfortunately have to be declined or delayed.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
No costs (as yet) but negotiating HTML and website design has been a steep learning curve.
What has been your biggest challenge?
I returned to art school as a mature student, and constantly felt the pressure to prove myself against younger artists. Thankfully I was successful.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
My site is still new. I have exchanged links with some other independent artist, and hope to develop this further. I have also set up links with directories and am considering setting up a MySpace page when the website is running smoothly.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
It is time consuming - I am making freequent adjustments to add links etc. When established I will need to add some articles to make the site more attractive. I also have a lot of email traffic to deal with.
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
This is my first month, and I intend to run it until I can no longer paint - which should be a good many years!
What are you looking for from Arts n Crafts?
I hope to build links with other artists who share my philosophy and be able to share website techniques which bring success.
What is your website address?
Artist at Work
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