All the info you need to get started

Your artwork will be for sale in the Dutch, German, French, Scandinavian, Eastern and Southern European markets.

Dutch market

The Dutch market includes the Netherlands and Belgium. Currently, we realize most sales in the Netherlands.

German market

We are also active in the German market. This market includes Germany, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Austria, and Switzerland. All works uploaded and all works in the collection can be found here, as well as for sale.

French market

Art Heroes is also active on the French market. The market includes Luxembourg, Switzerland, and France.

Scandinavian market

We sell our artworks in the Scandinavian market in Sweden, Norway, Denmark.

Eastern European market

In Eastern Europe, we deliver in the following countries: Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, and Poland.

Southern European market

In Southern Europe, we deliver in Spain, Portugal, and Italy.

When you have created an account, your artworks can be bought both through your Art Heroes/Art Heroes profile and from your shop. But what are the differences and similarities?

Main Art Heroes website:

Picture:

1. URL: werkaandemuur.nl and ArtHeroes.com

2. Profile in Art Heroes house style

3. Part of Art Heroes: other artworks by freelance artists are visible

4. Artworks can be found through the Art Heroes search bar and collections

5. Marketing at platform level is performed by Art Heroes

Own shop:
Picture

1. URL: yourwebshop.artheroes.com

2. Your own environment

3. All your artworks are shown

4. Stand-alone shop (artworks of other freelance artists are not visible)

5. Works can be found via links that you have actively shared online

6. Active promotion through your own marketing

7. Possibility to upload private works in your shop (which will not be shown on the main site)

8. WordPress plugin available to integrate your shop into your own website

Similarities between Art Heroes profile and your shop:

1. Customer service, payments, production, distribution, and technology arranged by us

2. Visible in multiple languages

3. Your work is for sale in all the materials we offer

4. Closed forum with all image creators to exchange tips

Our collection pages and search engine (main site) are designed to help our website’s visitors make the perfect choice. The algorithm that displays search results is personalized, and thus different users may see different pictures.

This algorithm is frequently tweaked to ensure the best results. This makes it hard for us to make any definitive statements about how works can be made more findable. We would suggest that you focus on your artists page. Check out the tips for setting up and promoting your shop here.

Actively promoting your page and distributing its unique URL will bring potential buyers directly to your art.

Your website

If you have your own website, you might make it clear that your works are also for sale, including a handy link. To help here, we offer a marketing dashboard in your account where you can easily work on your promotional material and find other links for promotional purposes.

WordPress plugins

Is your website built on WordPress? Then you can make use of our WordPress Plugin. This allows you to easily transfer work from your shop on to your website. No need to use fiddly iFrames, you can embed the works directly into a page. Download the plugin from the WordPress plugin Directory. In your dashboard >> WordPress plugin, you’ll find the roadmap to install the plugin. I’m afraid we don’t yet have a plugin for other packages.

External sites

You can of course share your shop link via social media or other external sites. Read more about this in the marketing and promotion section. How do I find the right links to my shop? In your dashboard, under the heading 'promotion', you will find the links you need.

The amount of commission you receive depends on three elements:

1. The base price: this is not a standard price, but depends on the size and material chosen by the customer.
2. The joint commission: this is a percentage of the base price, which is determined by you in your dashboard. A portion of this commission goes to you and a portion goes to Art Heroes as service costs (see 3 below).
3. The place where the sale took place. This affects the percentage of the service costs due to Art Heroes. If the sale took place in your shop, the service costs are 15%. If the sale took place on the main site of Art Heroes, then the service costs are 30%.

The minimum amount you can earn from a work is €10 (minus the service fee and any discount).

The size and the material

The price of the work depends on the size and material chosen by the buyer. Please note that some available options have no bearing on this price; for example, acrylic glass, which is a finish of aluminium dibond, or the thickness and frame of a canvas. The reason for this is both simplicity and a desire to keep overall prices as low as possible.

An example

Suppose that the joint commission has been set by you at 50%. If a customer buys a product with a base price of €60 (excluding VAT) then the final price will be €90 (excluding VAT). The commission on this sale is €30. For sales that took place on your shop page we charge 15% service fee (that is €4.50) so you would earn €25.50. If the sale has taken place on our main site, then we receive €9 in service costs, and you earn €21.

You will receive a minimum commission of €10 on every sale. That's excluding service charges (and any ongoing discount offers), so effectively you'll receive a minimum of €7 commission in your account, or €8.50 if the sale took place in your artist shop.

Lower service costs are essentially charged when a sale has taken place on your shop page. However, if there is an indication that the customer knows the artist, then the lower costs will be levied irrespective of where the sale has taken place.

We establish whether this is the case by using an UTM (a piece of code in the URL that recognizes a visitor to your shop). This works as follows: if a customer came to Art Heroes via your shop page, but did not directly purchase anything, our system will remember this visit and any subsequent purchase of your art by this customer will result in the lower commission (irrespective of where this art was bought).

For each work you upload, you are responsible for setting the margin. When uploading the work you can adjust the margin as desired, but this can also be changed at a later date.

The higher you set your commission, the higher the price of your artworks will be. A higher price gives you more commission, if you sell a work, but it also lowers the chances of selling. As the commission is calculated as a percentage, it is important to keep in mind that prices can rise steeply when customers choose large sizes or luxury materials.

We recommend setting a percentage between 20% and 30%. When your artwork starts selling, we recommend starting to experiment with your margins

Earned commission is paid automatically every month. The commission will be paid out on the 15th of the following month.

As customers occasionally cancel works before production, we reserve commission for a period of two weeks.
In your dashboard, under the heading 'overview of your sales', you can see exactly when a sale is to be paid out. After payment, you will find the credit invoice for your administration in your dashboard under the heading 'invoices'.

For example: if you sell something on 30 November, you will receive this commission on 15 December. If you sell something on 14 December, you will be paid on 15 January.

In your dashboard, you should enter your payment details. You can sell at Art Heroes for both business and private purposes. You can be paid either into your bank account or a PayPal account.

Are you self-employed with a VAT number? Then you can also enter a VAT number. You will find a complete overview of all data required in your dashboard.

Private versus business

To sell at art Heroes, you don't have to have a business. As a private person, you can simply sell at Art Heroes!

Paying VAT on commission

Are you a regular participant in commerce, and therefore have a VAT number? Then you can enter a VAT number. In case of Dutch VAT numbers, the commission is paid out including VAT and you have to remit this VAT with your VAT declaration.
Please note, that since 1 January 2020, the composition of the VAT number has changed. You will have received a letter about your new VAT identification number from the Tax and Customs Administration. If not, you can request your ID from them, this can be done via the tax phone.

If you do not have a VAT number, the commission is paid out without VAT and you do not have to pay VAT.

Reporting your earnings to the tax authorities

You have to report your earnings with your tax return. This applies to both private and business sellers. Whether you have to pay tax depends on your personal situation. In doubt? Then we advise you to contact a tax office or tax consultant to get informed about the consequences for your tax return.

Tip: Make sure you set aside part of your income. This will ensure that you have enough money to pay your income tax.

The earnings of you as an image maker and the earnings of Art Heroes are declared to the tax authorities

We are required by law to send a statement to the Tax Office each calendar year showing the amounts paid to third parties. For each private image maker who is liable to pay tax in the Netherlands, we report the amount of commission paid out that year to the Tax Office. The Tax Office matches these amounts with the income tax return.

Yes. You can upload a commissioned work or series in your shop. If you would like this work to not be visible to other customers, then this can be indicated during the uploading process.

When uploading your files, you can indicate that this is a private work, if you’re looking to sell a print to a specific customer. Think for example of a commissioned photo shoot, or a special edit requested by a particular person. List the images as private when uploading and share the link with your customer, and you're done! We take care of payment, production and any further customer service. You can also make a work private if, for example, you want to offer it exclusively for marketing purposes.

No, that is unfortunately not possible at the moment. We recommend you remove the artwork and repost it. Why? This is to do with both customer experience - people often save works and consider before buying - and with the indexing of work by Google.

This depends on a number of factors.

• Through the main Art Heroes site. The Art Heroes team is constantly working both online and offline to promote our platform (TV exposure, fairs, partnerships with other retailers, Google Ad campaigns and so on). This ensures that the website continues to attract visitors, giving you an increasing chance of being found by the customer.
  
  You can increase this chance by adding clear titles, tags and descriptions to your works. In addition, make sure your files are ready for production, so if your image is found we can quickly produce a great artwork for the customer.

• Your artist shop page. The more attention you pay to your shop page, the more you can increase your visibility and findability. We offer you many tools to make this easy and fun! Just created a profile? Give it some time. Our collection is very diverse, and every visitor has their own tastes and preferences. Invest in your shop page, but also have a bit of patience.

You are at complete liberty to sell your work elsewhere. We neither ask for nor require exclusivity. Please do keep in mind, however, that if you offer an artwork on another website the prices should be commensurate.

This is not possible. We have deliberately chosen to leave this choice to the consumer. This way, they can pick what suits their interior or budget. It is important to us that every work on the site can be ordered in all sizes (matching the original proportions) and materials.

The choice of format does not materially impact quality, we always produce work to the highest standards. Allowing customer choice respects both their taste and budget.

If you want to order your own artwork, you can always send us a message and we will make you a customised offer. Simply email community@werkaandemuur.nl

Currently, we don’t have a sample package of our materials. This is because we offer various materials and have a large community of artists. It is on our wish list, however.

With our materials pages, we try to showcase the materials as well as we can with photos and videos.

It is not possible to choose to set your commission in euros instead of a percentage. We have chosen a percentage, because the commission remains proportional to what has been sold. A photo print has a lower commission because the total value is also lower, with a large format acrylic glass you earn more. Because we print in all sizes and materials, we think that is the most appropriate application.

No worries! Your commission will typically be credited back to our account. Once we have received this, you will be notified. Update your details and your commission will be paid to your correct account in the following month.

Are you registered with the Chamber of Commerce? Then enter your VAT number in your dashboard. If you do not provide a VAT number, you will receive credit invoices from us without VAT. It is not always necessary to have a VAT number, but if you are in any doubt of the rules in your jurisdiction, we would always advise you to seek professional advice.

To do business at Art Heroes, you don't need to have a company. As an individual, you can simply sell at Art Heroes!

This depends on the type of artwork you have made. We distinguish between:

• Photographs (Non-digital), paintings and Illustrations and other files A digital file should at least meet the following specifications:

• TIFF (with ZIP compression) or JPEG (in maximum quality) file.

• Colour profile: Adobe RGB (or sRGB).

• File resolution, at least 12 megapixels.

• Preferably, work should have a standard ratio (1:1, 2:1, 3:2, 4:3, etc).

• No borders (white edges, or decorative edges).

• Do not include company name, copyright notice, or logos (a signature in a painting is allowed). For all information on our technical requirements. Click here.

Tips for photographing your non-digital works:

When photographing your artworks, it is important that the work is evenly exposed, noise-free and as sharp as possible.

• Ensure even light

  • Shoot outside, for example, under a subtle cloud cover. A bright sun makes the light too harsh.

• Shoot at the lowest possible ISO

  • The higher the ISO, the more noise the photo will contain. We ask for digital files with virtually no noise.

• Use a small aperture

  • The smaller the aperture (high f/ value), the sharper the photo will be.

• Use a tripod

  • If you shoot with a low ISO and small aperture, you will need a slower shutter speed to get the work properly exposed. You can't actually shoot this by holding the camera in your hand. So use a tripod.

• Use mirror-lockup, and self-timer

  • Set mirror-lock on your camera. This means that the mirror of your camera folds up before the picture is taken. The flip of the mirror can cause your camera to move and this will be reflected in the photo.

  • Shoot the picture with the self-timer set. Your hand can also cause the camera to move slightly. By setting the self-timer, you eliminate possible movement.

We distinguish between cameras based on sensor size. Almost all drones have tiny sensors, and therefore deliver photos with much less detail. Since we have a number of wall-filling materials in our collection, detail is paramount!

Although we do often find drone photos very cool, 90% of commercially available drones are not good enough for the sizes we print. For offering your photos through us, we only allow cameras with a sensor of/above Four Thirds.

The sensor type must be of/above 'Four Thirds':

We carefully considered several factors and in doing, so chose to use a minimum sensor size of Four Thirds or higher. Below that, the amount of noise and lack of detail is often just too great. When setting a limit, there will always be a case that falls just in or just out. This is annoying, but something we have taken into consideration. It wouldn't be doable to manually check hundreds of images a day, and we do believe that the current set-up improves the quality of the entire platform.

You don't need to set DPI (or better PPI) because it's not a value. It is mainly about the number of pixels.

DPI is only meaningful with the dimensions in centimetres attached. A file may be 300 DPI but only 2 by 3 centimetres, in terms of the number of pixels, such a file is still tiny and can be printed at most print at postage stamp size.

It is not allowed to upload works that Infringe copyright, intellectual property rights, portrait rights or other publication and/or privacy rights of third parties; contain pornographic, offensive or otherwise illegal or immoral content; contain unlawful or violent acts; contain cruelty or violence towards animals; incite fraudulent acts or give rise to misleading advertising or unfair competition, or violate any other law, statute or regulation.

If you want to adjust the composition of your photo afterwards, crop your photo in fixed proportions (1:1, 2:1, 3:2, 4:3, etc.). Make sure you keep to the minimum resolution requirement

We do not allow a company name, copyright notice, logo, signature and/or watermark. to be incorporated in the photo itself.

We have deliberately chosen not to print the logo of the picture maker on the front, as this is almost never in accordance with a customer's wishes. With a painting or digital art, we see this differently. There, a signature is often part of the work, and we find it no problem.

Please make sure the works you upload are unique. Don't upload the same photo in 5 different variations. Try to think in both black and white and colour and choose your preference. We want to present our range to customers as attractively as possible, and not duplicate everything. If the customer is interested in a variant, they can indicate this when ordering

Photos taken with a compact camera, an action camera (GoPro, etc.), most drones (DJI, etc.) or a phone do not comply. The reason is that the sensors of these cameras are too small and do not store enough detail. We only allow cameras with a sensor from Four Third.

Our experience tells us that the sensor of an SLR or system camera is not only larger, in most cases the sensor of these cameras also gives a better image. Hence, we have set this limit that at least an SLR or system camera is required.

Of course, it's all about the combination of these minimum camera requirements on the one hand, but also how you handle the camera on the other. See our image quality requirements above.

A white (or any other coloured) border is not allowed on our platform, as not all materials are suitable for this. Think of white borders, decorative borders or frames. To avoid confusion, we have decided not to allow borders.

In short, no. Firstly, you must own the image file uploaded or have the right to use it. In addition, you must also have the right to the image that is depicted. The work must not infringe someone else's rights: this could be copyright, but also a portrait right. This is a complicated area, which we’d recommend looking into carefully.

Note! You are responsible for the work you offer on our platform. Make sure you have the right rights to sell the images.

We’ve summarised some areas to avoid below. Do not upload images that do any of the following:

• Infringe the copyright, intellectual property right, portrait right or other publication or privacy rights of third parties;

• Contain pornographic, offensive or otherwise unlawful or immoral content.

• Contain unlawful or violent acts;

• Contain cruelty or violence towards animals;

• Incite fraudulent acts or give rise to misleading advertising or unfair competition; or violate any law, statute or regulation.

You retain all rights to your work. You award us a right to sell the image as long as it remains in your shop. If you remove the work, the right to sell also expires.

This also means that we will no longer use your works for new promotions. If we have earlier decided to highlight your work at a fair or in our magazine, this decision cannot be retrospectively ‘unmade’.

An existing work may certainly serve as inspiration, as long as you do not stray too close to the original. Working from models is no problem, but create your own work so that the original is no longer recognisable.

Where is the limit? Regardless of the number of differences between two artworks, the question is whether copyright traits have been adopted. What characterises and distinguishes a work should not be copied. It is preferable not to take an existing work as a basis. Allow space for your own creativity.

Unfortunately, we can not provide an exact answer. This is because it depends on what kind of arrangements you have made. Famous people typically have a commercial interest. For that reason, they are entitled to a fair share of compensation from profits. So, always make agreements in this regard.

It is also possible to purchase a licence from certain famous people, which ensures the possibility of incorporating the portrait in a new work. Make sure you get a licence with commercial permission.

Your shop link

We automatically make a link for your shop, from your first and last name. The link to your web shop would be:

firstnamelastname.artheroes.com

You can edit the link in your dashboard under ‘Edit profile,’ and then ‘Edit your profile.’ Allowed characters are a-z and 0-9. You can always adjust this later. In your dashboard you can find the button ‘promotion’ with all the links you can make to your shop.

Sharing the right URL

Go to the menu, and under ‘marketing’ you can find the right URL

Certainly! We have many artists in our community that live outside the Netherlands.

It is important to fill in your address, however, even if this address is not in the Netherlands. This information is required by law if we are to pay you.
It is also possible to pay your commission in a currency other than the Euro. If we pay you via paypal, it is also not necessary for you to have a chamber of
commerce registration.

Please note that It is incumbent upon you to ensure that you meet the local requirements for paying tax.

If you’re having problems logging in, email us at community@werkaandemuur.nl

We will be able to give you advice and potentially issue a new password. We may have to ask a number of security questions, however, to ensure your identity (for example; your address, birthdate, and/or the last 4 numbers of the bank account linked to your profile).

The activity stream is an overview of what’s been happening to your work; if it’s been added to a wish list or is currently in someone’s shopping cart. This gives you extra insight into how the visitors to your shop or the main site are interacting with your art. Have works been bought? Purchase information is also shown in the activity stream.

Having an artwork in the shopping cart does not mean that the artwork will be bought immediately. People often leave works in their shopping carts while considering their purchase or trying to choose between different works.

Every artwork you place in your account is immediately ready to sell. But don’t worry, as long as you don't promote your shop page, you can quietly build it up. Is your shop page you ready? Share it everywhere.

Metadata is data that describes your artwork. These are the title, description, medium, style and tags. You add this data to your work after you have uploaded it. Make sure you do this correctly, otherwise your work will not be saved.

For each work you upload, you can enter the following details: Title, description, medium, style and tags. In addition, you can categorise your works in albums. The title and description can be entered in several languages. Don't forget to read 'In what languages can and should I describe my work?'

EXIF data

Titles, description and tags are extracted directly from your EXIF and pre-filled!

The works in your shop are automatically sorted in the order you uploaded them, with the newest works at the top. You can change the order in which your artworks are displayed, in your settings: it is possible to order by

• rating

• date, newest first

• date, oldest first

You can change the rating of your works using the 5-star rating on the 'Manage your works' page of your dashboard. The rating of your artworks also affects the order in which they appear on the album cover page.

It is also possible to classify your works into albums and create your own category structure. When uploading and editing a work, you indicate in which album the work should appear. A work can be in several albums at once. In your settings, you can indicate the order of the albums you prefer.

You've created a beautiful artwork, uploaded it to your account, and you're ready for your first sale. But how do you make sure you get found by potential customers? Tags can help! All tags are automatically translated, so your works can also be found on German and French sites using the translated terms. This makes you more findable in the other countries where Art Heroes is active. What do we mean by findability? We mean how easily someone can find your work when using the search bar on the Art Heroes website. Works are categorised on the basis of their tags.

What you should do:

• Try to be specific (e.g. "North Sea" instead of "Sea"), but focus on the essential parts of the photo (e.g., if a small mountain is visible in the background of your Northern Lights photo, don’t add "mountain" as a tag).
• Use appropriate names of places, landscapes or landmarks (e.g. "San Francisco", "San Francisco Bay" or "Golden Gate Bridge").
• Special art techniques, if applicable, are also suitable as tags (e.g. "Digital painting", "digital art", or "aerial photography").
• Check for spelling mistakes
• Know when to stop.
  

What you shouldn’t do:

• Don’t describe your camera equipment.
• Don’t use brand or company names.
• Don’t add too many tags.
• Delete duplicate tags, but be careful; overlapping tags can sometimes be helpful. For example, the tags "Amsterdam" and "Amsterdam (city centre)", although apparently duplicate, are useful for reasons of relevance, findability and translation. Such tags do not contaminate search results, moreover, because they can be filtered.

Location tags

Location tags should only be added when the location is relevant to the context of the photo. For example, if you have a close-up of a tree that happens to be in Amsterdam, but nothing else of Amsterdam is visible, the artwork should not be tagged "Amsterdam".

In cases of landscape shots, however, location tags can be relevant even if the precise location cannot be determined. For example, a photo of a beach tagged with "Zeeland" is potentially helpful, even if this location is not obvious to the casual observer.

Spending time on your choice of tags will boost your visibility to searching customers. This can lead to sales

If the content of the photos has no real relation to the location tag, please do not use this location tag. Example: In macrophotography of a poppy flower, it is irrelevant where this photo was taken.

In other cases, tags referring to a location may be relevant, even if the exact location is not discernible from the photo. For example, consider a beach scene with dunes and sunset. Potential customers may associate this with fond memories of certain holiday regions. Specific names such as "North Sea", "Zeeland" or "Texel" are then useful.

At Art Heroes we link tags to Wikipedia articles to automatically get a suitable translation.

The tagging system works in two ways;

• You can type in a term, and then pick one of the proposed terms from the list.

• If you type in a term, and don’t pick from the proposed terms, you can make your own tag terms. The disadvantage of this, is that it can't be translated, so it is not as discoverable in the site with a different language.

Everything that you fill in during the upload process can be edited later. While viewing your artwork, you can click on the edit icon to make changes.

Can I replace the artwork file of a work?

Yes, you can. In the overview of your artworks, you can see a replace-icon

How do I remove an artwork?

Do you no longer want to sell a specific artwork? Delete it by clicking on the bin-icon. Do you have a better version of this artwork? Replace the file instead of deleting the original one to post the updated version.

In the dashboard, you can find the section ‘albums.’ Here you can make and edit albums.

You can indirectly choose which photos are on the cover page of the albums by organising them through categories. To find out more, look at ‘How can I find my work’.

When uploading a work, you will see an overview of your created albums below the work. Select the desired album here and the work will be added. It is also possible to add a work to an album retrospectively. Clicking on edit will bring up the album overview.

You should fill in the title and description in at least your native language. However, we recommend looking at other languages as well. Giving titles and descriptions in only one language means that you might miss out on potential customers. You can use our helpful translation tool.

Art Heroes is active in a number of European markets, and we are in the process of expansion. We therefore recommend entering information in at least English in addition to Dutch. This is because English is the standard language internationally i.e. if someone views the site in French (and there is no French title) we will show the English title and description.If you speak other languages, we recommend using those as well.

In your dashboard you can choose a 'native language', this is Dutch, English, German or French. Depending on your choice here the corresponding description will follow.

Currently we only have a Dutch, German, English and French language website. If you do not add one of these languages to your description, the other language website will pick up the English version.

The image we have available is in a small format. The original files are never displayed for the public.

No, we deliberately do not use watermarks in our images. In our experience, they lead to customer complaints.

Our policy regarding duplicates is as follows:

• The person who uploaded the work first has the rights to keep the work in their shop.
• If the newly uploaded work is an improved version, the artist who already has the work in his shop gets the chance to improve it.
• If the duplicate work has actually been given a "new look", e.g. incorporated into a collage, or in a clearly different style, an Art Heroes team member will decide whether the work may remain in our collection.

Art Heroes will ultimately adjudicate which artworks appear on the site.

Tags can easily be removed. In your dashboard, you can remove tags under "manage works". For each tag, you will find an option to remove that specific tag. To do this, click on the cross at the top right of the tag.

We use a maximum of 12 tags because we want you to stick to the core of the image. You should be able to do this in 12 tags!

You’ve taken the first step: You’ve uploaded your best works. Now it’s time to focus on letting other people know that your shop exists. Creating beautiful art is the start, promotion is the next step.

In your sales overview you will find more information about your sales.

For each sale, you can see whether the sale took place on:

• Art Heroes main site

• Your shop page

While placing their order, we ask customers how they heard about us. The customer can currently choose from the following options: seen at vtwonen & design fair, seen on TV, searched for a subject via Google, I know the artist, seen in Art Heroes magazine, seen on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.

Talk about your style, what you do and the techniques that you use. Describe what moves you artistically; share your likes and passions. Tell readers about your favourite places or about other artists who inspire your art and approach. Be creative! Text length and quality are important! A popular, extensive and well written profile will rank more highly on Google and other search engines and increase your exposure.

Being ‘found’ online means that you have to make your shop more ‘attractive’ to the search engines which automatically index the internet ranking the sites they encounter. If your shop can be found on search engines, you’re doing a good job.

Search engines are dynamic so precise advice is difficult to give. However, working on your profile and online visibility via links is the surest way to boost your chances.

Good artwork titles.

We recommend using strong titles. Be as clear and precise as you can in this. A bad example is; “London 12.” An excellent example is; “Panorama photo of London, the Thames, Big Ben at sunset.” Make sure every work has a unique title, but that it isn't absurdly long. Use the description for adding further information.

With a strong title, such as the example above, you have a good chance of scoring high in the search results if people look up, London, the Thames of Big Ben.

A good description

There are two success factors that make a successful description:

• Quality. The quality has a lot to do with the uniqueness of the description. This ensures that the text you write can’t be found on other websites. Copying a line of text from Wikipedia, for example, only lowers the quality of the description. The more distinctive your description, the better it will score on Google results.

• Length. The more text, the better! Google loves text. We suggest you aim for a minimum of around 100 words

We recommend using powerful titles that are clear and precise. Compare the following: ‘London 12' and 'Panoramic photo of London, the Thames and Big Ben at sunset'. The later more descriptive title is much more likely to increase your visibility; you stand a chance of being found when people are searching for London, the Thames or Big Ben.

Descriptive titles have the advantage of containing relevant keywords and are therefore easier to find.

There are two success factors for good image descriptions: Quality and length. A text is of high quality if it is "unique", i.e. appears nowhere else online. Image descriptions are picked up by Google and other search engines. Make your description as detailed and interesting as possible.

Tell the story behind your photo or artwork and use appropriate keywords to make your image easier to find! Sophisticated wording is secondary. An absolute no-go (also from a legal point of view) is copying text or text modules from other websites. Be creative and unique.

If you are an artist or photographer who has their own website, you can link to your Art Heroes. You can find your individual links in your dashboard under 'My account > manage shop'.

Tip:

Do you have a website in Wordpress? Then use our Wordpress plugin.

Artwork linken

For each work, and album, you will find an 'embed' button, containing the appropriate links to that work.

You can draw attention to your shop in many different ways. Here are some suggestions:

• Via your website

Linking to your Art Heroes shop or integrating it directly with the Wordpress plugin will attract people interested in your work and make it easier for them to buy.

• Through your social networks

Social networks are excellent places to promote your shop. The chances are that your friends and followers are already fans of your work! Think Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube and, of course, Instagram. But don't underestimate LinkedIn: business contacts can also become clients!Make sure, however, that you use social networks as they are meant to be used and don't just start posting naked commercial messaging. Engage in interaction and build up a high-quality network, as this will benefit you in the long term!With our WallApp you can easily share pictures of your works in situ via social media. The WallApp allows you to place your work in a room and automatically distribute it in the right dimensions via your chosen social media channel.

• Promote in your e-mail

With every e-mail you send, you can draw attention to your shop by putting your shop's link in your e-mail signature.

• Links

Whatever channels you are active on, make sure there is a link to your shop. Not only do you make visitors aware that they can buy your work, but links are also used by search engines to find websites.

Social networking sites are the websites with the greatest reach and therefore the perfect places to promote your uploaded works. Share your images with fans and followers. This is how you gain new followers and potential buyers. We recommend Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. Business networks such as Xing or LinkedIn are also worth paying attention to, however.

Facebook

Facebook lives on stories, photos, videos, and contests. Important note: communication should be personal, straightforward and direct. Interact with your followers, fans and other image makers, react and like their comments. Link your shop and profile with ‘Manage shop’. Place new works in your feed constantly, you can write messages and automatically send them later. Use apps such as ‘Buffer’.

Instagram

Instagram is the ideal platform for artists and photographers and it is fuelled by a combination of strong images and the right hashtags. You will quickly learn how to combine the hashtags that describe image content & style on the one hand and are popular on the other. Use descriptive hashtags (e.g. #oldtimer #sweden), product tags (e.g. #wallart #poster or #walldecorations), your artist or brand name (e.g. #meleahphotography).Ensure to avoid branded hashtags in the description of your Instagram post, it will end up hurting your brand in the future. Links don't work there. You can, however, link your shop link in your bio.

Pinterest

Pinterest works like a search engine. Create albums or collections with your photos and, if they fit stylistically, with photos from other users. You can use the titles and descriptions of your images at Art Heroes on Pinterest, but ideally, you should change them slightly. Think of the right keywords in the image description (e.g. abstract, pop art, nature photography or sunset). Link your images at Pinterest!

Tip:

Use our WallApp to make photos for your social media!

UTM codes can be added to any link you share. An example: suppose Jasper wants to use an UTM source. His link from the webshop is:

https://jasper.Art Heroes.nl/

He can share this link anywhere and everywhere. If a sale is made through his shop, he doesn't know where the customer came from. By adding a UTM Source to the link, he makes his links measurable.

• From his website, he links to his shop via
  

 https://jasper.Art Heroes.nl/?utm_source=website

• From Facebook, he links to his shop via

https://jasper.Art Heroes.nl/?utm_source=facebook

• From Instagram, he links to his shop via

https://jasper.Art Heroes.nl/?utm_source=instagram

You can apply this trick to every link you make to your shop. So also when you link to 1 specific artwork:

• On a whisky forum, he links to this work via

https://jasper.Art Heroes.nl/nl/shopwerk/Ardbeg-distillery/144?utm_source=whiskyforum

• If this work is new, and he shares it on Facebook, he links via:

https://jasper.Art Heroes.nl/nl/shopwerk/Ardbeg-distillery/144?utm_source=facebook

Take any link to your shop, an album, a work etc and paste ?utm_source= behind it, and enter a value after the = sign. If you use the Wordpress plugin, we will automatically add ?utm_source=wordpress to any link from works to your shop.

Art Heroes is constantly working on expanding our brand awareness to increase conversion. This means that your opportunities increase along with our visibility. We actively promote the platform using both online and offline channels.

Offline

• Trade shows. Art Heroes regularly attends trade fairs (e.g. vtwonen & design fair) to reach potential customers and increase brand awareness. We advertise on television via commercials and by sponsoring/featuring in interior design focused shows.
• Art Heroes magazine. We regularly publish our own Art Heroes magazine which is packed with inspiration.

Online

• Art Heroes is very active with social media advertising. For promotion, we use Google+, Pinterest, Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook and Instagram.
• Google Ads. We use Google Ads to increase the visibility of Art Heroes and increase conversion.
• Partners. To promote the platform, we work with many partners such as Flexa. We also use external partners in the field of advertising and suppliers of conversion-enhancing tools.
  

When it comes to marketing, Art Heroes never stands still. Through our newsletter, we continuously keep you informed of the latest developments.

With our Wordpress plugin you can easily integrate your shop into your own website. More information about the plugin can be found on your dashboard when you are logged in to your shop.

With every upload of new work to your shop, you should take the chance to share it with your followers. It’s best not to share everything at once, however, but to stagger posts over a number of days. This avoids information overload and boosts your social media presence. Tip: Check out Buffer. This service helps you spread your posts on your social networks over a period of time.

Promote within your shop

You can also showcase new works within your shop by, for example, creating a specific album for new material or favourites.

Promote on your website

Share your new works via your website. Give them the attention they deserve. Experiment with presentation methods. For instance, use a sample room image and place your art piece in it. You can easily create such images via the WallApp.

Promote on your social networks

Announcing the inclusion of new works in your shop via social media can be very effective. Try to vary the form of these updates. The message could feature an in situ image created with the WallApp, or you could simply present the picture with a more subtle label suggesting that it was available. Short videos with yourself or others can also be extremely effective. Take inspiration from other artists with successful social accounts. Do remember not to flood people with your (commercial) messages. Spread them out over time.

Tip

When you click on one of your works there is a button with "Download share image". Choose the channel where you want to distribute your work and a preview room with your work including price is automatically generated in the right format! Ideal for promoting your art!

You can integrate your Art Heroes shop on your website with our Wordpress Plugin. This is handy, as visitors to your website can buy works directly (without having to go to Art Heroes first), but don't worry, we handle the rest. You don't have to use iframes, which are sometimes difficult to integrate, but instead you can include the works directly in a page. You can download the plugin from the Wordpress Plugin Directory. In your dashboard → 'Wordpress Plugin,' you will find detailed instructions to install the plugin.

We only have a Wordpress plugin at present. You can of course manually place the most popular works on your site and then link to them.

We have documented the API we use for the Wordpress plugin (API documentation forum https://forum.werkaandemuur.nl/t/api-documentatie/1457) so someone else could potentially pick this up for other platforms.

Great that you are organising an exhibition! Who are you trying to appeal to? Who will visit? These questions should play a role in the selection of works to display. It’s a good idea to look at your statistics to see which images are viewed the most in your shop. When thinking about format you should think about the circumstances in which the works will be displayed. Do you have 1 large wall? Or will the works be spread over a room? Here are a few ideas:

• 1 art piece in 3 sizes and 3 different materials, this shows immediately that variations are possible in terms of both size and material.
• Perhaps think of displaying one piece in a (very) large format in a luxurious material - this focuses attention and creates that show piece gallery effect.
• Other works can be displayed at smaller sizes on canvas once people understand that more drastic effects are possible.

Tips for promotion:

Maybe produce a postcard for promotional purposes with an arresting image on the front and your Art Heroes address on the back. Giving people something they can take away is a way of sticking in minds and increasing your profile.

Business cards and flyers are also handy ways of promoting your shop. A press kit can be found in Brandox. Make a video of your creative process so that people have an idea of how your work is made. This could be shown on a screen at the exhibition to give context and help produce a narrative.

Tip: people love discounts! It’s a fabulous way of attracting attention. Perhaps devise periodic discount promotions, or make one work cheaper for a week? Lower your margin and share this promotion everywhere you can; your website, blog and social channels. If you want to work with a discount, let us know via email (note; discounts are always a maximum of 10%).

At the moment, you cannot do this yourself. Please email community@Art Heroes.com and provide the following information:

• Name of discount code
• Duration discount action
• For which country do you want this code

For discount codes, we always apply a 10% discount.

You might have used the wrong shoplink. For example https://www.jasper.artheroes.com instead of https://jasper.artheroes.com So don't use www.