Every month, at least 10% of the artists who enter our art competitions do not maintain an art website. I am not sure why, but it may have to do with the artist’s perception that an art website must have potential costs, or that there is a lack of time to maintain an art website or it is the fear of not knowing how to set up an art website? I am not sure if these assumptions are correct, as only the artist could tell us their reasoning for not having a website.

The good news for all artists is that there is a myriad of websites for artists that are easy to set up, very simple to maintain and the best benefit of all to the artist is that they are totally free! Artists who have or do not have an art portfolio website should take advantage of these free web platforms to market their art.

There are many free art portfolio websites that artist can set up, maintain and use to market their art. Every day there are new sites that are coming online whereby artists can join and market and promote their art. There is absolutely no reason not to have an online presence to promote your art. Here are the advantages and disadvantages of setting up and maintaining a free art website;

The Advantages

1.   The website is free to set-up.

2.   The web hosting is free.

3.   Easy to set-up and load art to.

4.   Able to market from that platform to social media.

5.   The web host promotes their site to attract visitors.

The Disadvantages

1.   Part of a community of other artists.

2.   Difficult to find your website/art portfolio.

3.   The art is commingled with ads and other artist’s art.

4.   In most cases, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is not possible.

5.   Being free usually means that there are limitations on design and size.

If an artist already has a self-hosted art website, they should also take advantage and join as many free websites as possible in order to direct that traffic to their main art website or art blog. Many of the newer free art website platforms also provide the artist with blogging capabilities, press release distribution, and art event promotion as well. Here are 20 free art websites that any artist can be a part of in order to display, promote and market their art;

http://artid.com/

http://artpickle.com/

http://foliotwist.com/

http://fineartamerica.com/

http://www.comician.com/

http://www.comistsites.org/

http://www.comselector.com/

http://www.comslant.com/

http://www.comwanted.com/

http://www.asingularcreation.com/

http://www.behance.net/

http://www.foundmyself.com/

http://www.redbubble.com/

http://www.wix.com/

http://www.wooloo.org/

http://gotartwork.com/

https://crevado.com/

https://www.riseart.com/

I am sure that there are at least 20 or 30 additional free art portfolio websites not mentioned in this article that any artist can search for and locate on the internet in order to be a part of as well. Whether an artist has a main art website or not, they should take advantage of these free and easy web platforms to expand their market audience and to promote their art.

Cloudwards.net has an article posted where they rate the best website builders on the internet titled  8 Best Website Builders That Help You Create a Website in 4 Minutes or Less.  You may also be interested in another article post of ours titled "101 Free Art Websites to Help Artists Sell Their Art".