ISC portfolio success?

[jsimms]

I've not followed the community for some time, and am ready once more to get involved.

I am interested in putting up a portfolio in the Portfolio section, and would like some indication of the success of others in doing so.

Is there a good reason to put up more than two images?
Has anyone actually gotten sincere interest or sold any works directly related to their portfolio presence?
John

[fritchie]

I hate to criticize, but I have found it of little value beyond the ISC community itself. However, I took another route (galleries) for sales, and I decided not to put up a separate website. One criticism I have of ISC’s Portfolio is of the inhibitions to alteration. However, one must realize that Portfolio is provided free with membership, and so the attention that can be given to each artist is limited.

[RuBert]

I've heard some success stories - as far as interest that translated to sales or increased opportunity for the artist. Charles might remember the sculptor at the ISC Figuratively Speaking conference that attributed much interest and several sales to the portfolio site. She was really using it to generate interest in her work and filter clients.

She also complained that it is hard to give people the url of the address - which I felt was a valid complaint and then personally demonstrated ways to locate the address.

Since then several discussions have occurred on how to make this aspect easier and it was suggested that ISC make typing a address such as www.sculpture.org/your_name go directly to your portfolio page.

This is now in the process of being done and should help with that aspect of easily telling people how to locate your personal portfolio page.

I don't agree that having a portfolio site makes people less likely to do their own website later. If anything it is a way to test the water with no html experience and get work on the web. Later it can link to a more expanded site and offer another way for people to locate their work on the web. Multiple paths for people to find a website is perhaps the key. Having a site visited for multiple reasons helps generate sales or new exhibition opportunities.

Sculpture.org has a fairly large amount of traffic and so can bring people in to see work they might not otherwise see. The portfolio can in turn link to other sites - like a personal or gallery website.

What changes might be made to the portfolio section of Sculpture.org that would make it more effective as a free benefit of ISC membership?

[sculptorsam]

What changes might be made to the portfolio section of Sculpture.org that would make it more effective as a free benefit of ISC membership?

The only improvement I can think of is to make it easier to update. I began my portfolio three subscriptions ago with the basic two images alloted free. I inquired and was told that after each re-subscription, I could add two more images. But the process is so convoluted that I never got around to it last year and might not again this year. If I am merely adding two images to an existing portfolio, seems I should just be able to email a couple jpegs of the proper size. The webmaster could then just add the code. But I believe I was told to create a text-only file with captions and photos and some other stuff I can't remember off the top of my head. Anyway, you asked for suggestions and that's what I thought of.

I'm happy with the portfolio. I understand it is going to be harder to find than my own URL. And I understand it will not be as up-to-date since someone else is administering code. I like having my work there, but I never refer anyone to it and have yet to be cold-contacted by someone because they specifically saw my work there.

Except for some vanity show producers, that is... ;)

Sam

[obseq]

I must say that I would consider the Portfolio section quite successful.

Months before I even noticed the link for the web-forum, I would spend great lengths of time perusing the work of the different artists available.

After quite a bit of scouring the net, I've yet to find such a comprehensive collection. The layout is especially impressive when comparing it to others I have found online.

I can't really offer comment on issues of artist revenue but I would wager to say that if there is a desire for someone to have work commissioned they would run into the ISC Portfolio upon searching. The last few months have seen Sculpture.org move ever closer to the top of general sculpture-related searches which is great.

Go ahead and simply type, sculpture into www.yahoo.com and Sculpture.org is listed at #1.

[Araich]

http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22Sam+Spiczka%22&btnG=Google+Search
http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22Samuel+Spiczka%22
http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22Samuel+P.+Spiczka%22&btnG=Google+Search

Look at these pages and you will find that Sam's 3 year old portfolio page is not listed. While some artists listed on the portfolio directory page get picked up (like Charles), in general the pages do not.

Not having a search engine friendly webpage is like having an exhibition in your locked garage.

As an aside, I made the early mistake of having several versions of my name on the internet. Middle initial, etc. I highly recommend that one finds a version of their name, and sticks with the one spelling. It will greatly increase the success of your websites, with all the interconnections of your pages containing the same variation and increasing the relavance of any search.

[sculptorsam]

As an aside, I made the early mistake of having several versions of my name on the internet. Middle initial, etc. I highly recommend that one finds a version of their name, and sticks with the one spelling. It will greatly increase the success of your websites, with all the interconnections of your pages containing the same variation and increasing the relavance of any search.

Thanks, Araich. What I think happened there was I applied under my usual name but had to supply my SSN# and legal name for tax purposes (to get my money) and they must have gone with my full name from that. I'll watch out for that in the future.

And that last link is almost diabolical. This sculptor has set up his own page with a select few art links. I couldn't find my name so I checked the source code and it looks like he basically set up a meta-tag with the names of about a hundred artists. So, if anyone was to search for Alexander Calder, say, his page might pop up!

Sam

[Araich]

Forgive us if we are swaying off topic slightly but Sam you have cause for complaint. I would first write to the site asking for the names to be removed, then only as a last recourse http://www.google.com/contact/spamreport.html (what they have done is simply have a block of small white text, you can highlight it to see, known as hidden text). This was common practise years ago, but is often heavily penalised against by modern search engines. I would not recommend it.

Also I did not mean to be overly critical of the portfolio. Clearly direct traffic from the main site would make it worth having a page.

PS Russ and Charles your also on that list, amongst others.

[RuBert]

Not having a search engine friendly webpage is like having an exhibition in your locked garage.

I have to agree with this (and actually have had it on my list requesting them to work on it for some time now). The way portfolio was originally constructed three or four years ago generated the pages from a database and that is why it isn't very visible to search engines.

I think that the problem will be fixed to some extent by the portfolio rework that is happening.

[fritchie]

Forgive us if we are swaying off topic slightly but .. deletions ..

PS Russ and Charles your also on that list, amongst others.

I’ve searched for my own name out of curiosity every so often, and the main listings are to this forum and Russ’ earlier version. Maybe it helps to be talkative! And thanks, Russ, for the opportunity!