Using the Group Sales Widget to Attract Art Buyers
We previously talked about how RedBubble Groups bond artists by subject matter, and how they are also powerful search silos (marketers call them verticals) that can direct shoppers to targeted subjects on RedBubble.
Say you’re shopping for abstract art. RedBubble has a beautiful collection of abstract art in Groups. The abstract art group is flush with relevant text, fresh with a diverse art collection, and gets lots of Google love because of third-parties (you and me) link into the Group page. Here’s a free and easy way to help the last point – for any group.
Group Hosts can enable a widget that shows Featured Work in a small and attractive slideshow. This widget can be added to personal websites, and as Denis Leary says, “bliggity blogs, facey spaceys and tweetie pages.” This Groups widget features the same format as the personal artwork widget that many members already use; found in the promote area of MyBubble.
The opportunity for search engines to home in on a Group page is bettered when there are many links into that page from content rich websites, blogs, social media pages, etc. Why? Google’s magical black box of calculations factors links into a page as part of a website’s Quality Score, i.e., how well the search term matches the page content.
If every member posted a link to their Group(s) on their blog using the Group subject as the link, e.g., Abstract art prints, calendars and greeting cards, along with the widget, there would likely be a measurable effect on Group page visitors via natural (organic and unpaid) search results – which is good for everyone in the group. The result is compounded when those links come from sites that already have a good PageRank on Google.
Are you still asking why you should promote your Group in addition to your own work? The simple answer is that the collective power of Group referrals helps direct visitors (shoppers) that might otherwise never see your art. Simply put, a better Google Quality Score equals more search engine exposure, and more exposure is good.
All of us are pursuing art for different reasons, but most of us want exposure, validation, mind-share, and sales. And in a collective, creative space like RedBubble, good karma, back scratching, collaboration, and referrals go a long way.
To allow Group members to use the widget, Hosts need to go to the “Settings” area of their Group and tick the box next to the “Show promote tab?” text.
Here are images of the Promote widget and the tick box.
Promote widget
Activate the Promote widget
Final note: Hosts control the widget at this time; there is a simple on/off function. In the far future we’ll look to give members control of whether or not to have their work included in the widget. We researched this option after receiving feedback, but it’s a bridge too far at the moment.
Thanks!
Regards,
Jason
DeviousLili
Already on it. I’ve posted Widgets for all 4 of the Groups that I Host on all sorts of sites. I’m probably boring people to bits, but promoting the Art found here in The Bubble is a fantastic way to spend a day! :D
gabryshak
i’ve ticked ours on show me a sign and rising stars feel free to promote away people!! thanks for the wonderful articles!!
♥tonja
Uncle Artmonger
Love the Hulu reference.
selling replied
Thanks. Unfortunately our friends in Oz can’t view Hulu, but I bet that the Hulu commercial can be viewed somewhere on the Web.
Karri Klawiter
I’ve put my groups widgets on sites I could. I just have to say, the featured work on the group pages look good and everything, but when I looked at the widget, WOW it put a whole new perspective on the artwork to me. It just made everything look so, the only word I can think of is professional.
I would love to blog them, but I can’t figure out how to put “objects” in my free wordpress blog. Any ideas?
Kathy Nairn
Karri, I have a free Wordpress blog too and I think we are limited to the widgets offered in our dashboard area. (blog setup). If anyone else knows a work around, I’m listening.
selling replied
As I recall, you can paste the widget HTML into the raw Wordpress template.
Blogger makes this very easy by allowing you to add a new HTML box.
Any additional information by Wordpress users is appreciated. Otherwise, I’ll reactivate my Wordpress blog in an effort to help out here.
Thanks for the question!
Kathy Nairn
Thank you selling! I have both blogs you mentioned, so I’ll go check it out. Grateful for your input.
Terry Walker
If a group has a high proportion of nudes then the widget will either break the terms and conditions of many sites or will look silly with “Content Filter is On” over many of the images. Great for non-nude groups though.
selling replied
Good feedback. We are keen to offer other banners, widgets, and tools, so please send any ideas our way.
That said, the linking information above applies to all groups. You can further categorize your work via links, e.g., black and white nude photography, nudes in nature, etc.
Uncle Artmonger
Is there any way to make a small version like what we have too? It would fit into a few more places a little better.
nodakami
This is a wonderful new tool. It’s now of course available in the Abstract Art group, so please all feel free to help with our Google ranking !
And thanks a lot RedBubble for the group exposure in this great article !
itsallgoodamanda
Oh I have blogs and websites everywhere ,so I will be going through my groups to see if I can use them cheers
Matt Simner
Fantastic stuff. Can I suggest group hosts also take a minute to review the description and tags for their groups as this will also have a real effect on how easily they’re found in a web search (remember you can do multi-word tags now :) )
Terry Walker
I’ve already put in a “Safe For Work Widget” suggestion in the Red Bubble Feedback Forum so feel free to add your vote. :)
Marion Chapman
Great info. I’m going to find that widget on button right now!
Marion Chapman
I’m confused….i switched the widget option on in “Construction and Demolished” and “Numbers one to a trillion” but i’m not sure what the next step is?
selling replied
Hi Marion. By switching the widget “on” you’ve exposed it to all Group members. Now, Group members can pick up the widget (under the Promote tab) an embed it in their blogs, MySpace pages, etc., thereby referring more visitor traffic to your Group. Let me know if that gets you to the next step.
KreddibleTrout
I think I need to take a course to understand most of what you said but I think I get the gist of it. My issue is that the ‘widget’ (if that’s the thing that is displayed on my facebook page and what goes on people’s blogs) doesn’t update when you update your work on RB. Is something in the works for that or possibly choosing the shots you want the widget to show?
selling replied
I’ll check on the possible widget and Facebook app updating issue. As for specifying the artworks that rotate in the widget, well, that’s a great idea that I’ll note and explore.
And thanks for letting me know that I should further simplify the marketing stuff. I’ll also add more pictures and diagrams when possible.
Russell Greenwood
Re: Wordpress – You guys have two options.
1. There’s a widget called “text” in your wordpress appearance->widgets section, this will handle the raw HTML that you need to copy/paste.
2. Click over to “html” mode rather than “visual” mode when editing your post/page and just paste the code in the appropriate spot.
Feel free to Bubblemail me if you need a hand.
Ozcloggie
Final note: Hosts control the widget at this time;........., but it’s a bridge too far at the moment.
Thanks, from the host of the Bridges group!
Jo, with a Dutch Touch.
KreddibleTrout
you needn’t simplify. I just need training wheels when it comes to technology and am a bit of a layman.
but pictures are pretty. I like pictures. they help me to learn stuff. A bar graph would be nice. I don’t understand them, but they look impressive.
Judith Oppenhe...
do any of these things work on twitter?
selling replied
Indirectly. You can tweet messages about Groups (subjects, works) and link to them via Twitter. Be sure to mark keywords with a # mark so that they can be found easily via Twitter search.
Related: You can customize your Twitter background to include your Group names and URLs. While Twitter does not allow these URLs to be hyperlinks, they can help make people aware of the Group.
More: Using Twitter to Sell Your Art and Your Story
reflexio
Thanks, have now turned on the promote option for the two group that I host. Silhouette and Speed
lightsmith
Gah! I tried this before and it didn’t work – naturally I had to guess the code because there was no group option at the time. Did I miss some announcement on this? Well now I know and I’m so glad you posted this.
Craig Mitchell
Great stuff. Good to see these sorts of new additions. Cheers
kalaryder
Not up with technology, only belong to RB, but am happy to tick the box in all my groups – do I do anything else now??
selling replied
You and group members can now add the code to other websites/social networking sites in order to generate more visitor traffic to your group.
Judith Oppenhe...
OK, I’ve looked at the group promo and the problem I see with it is that the title and photographer’s name do not appear with the image (obviously not necessary with your own promo). I think that’s an important tweak that needs quick fixing by RB – at the very least the photographer’s name, otherwise you’re floating orphan works out there.
selling replied
Agreed. Let me look into this fix.