It's Alive!

After about 27 hours worth of development time (not including the research and content for the artwork pieces.  Well, mostly not including that time), Exhibit Meh is now live!

If the name doesn't ring a bell, it's the website I created that provides bite-sized information on the history of well-known art pieces.  This is the actual grown-up site of the proof-of-concept I created using the Mona Lisa a few weeks ago.  I don't know if the name will stick over time, but I just dropped $14 with Squarespace to register the domain, so it'll be here for a little bit to ensure I recoup such an exhorbitant cost.

So far, I've added content for 4 pieces - The Mona Lisa, The Calling of St. Matthew, Marilyn Diptych, and The Swing - with an expectation of adding at least ~250 to 300 more over time.  I go into detail on those numbers on the About page of the site if you're wondering how I came up with such a specific target. 

I've been pretty happy with the feedback so far.  It's difficult to tell if the reactions of friends and family are genuine while you're hovering over them (who's going to tell you that your website sucks to your face?), but the level of enthusiasm does seem higher than just a typical "Sure that looks great (or whatever else you want me to say so we can chat about something else)!"  I've even made $6 in donations so far (although if you discount the donations given by my household and add in the credit card processing fees, I've lost 21 cents).

I set the initial contribution price to $3.  I hemmed and hawed between $1 and $5.  Though I'm relying on donations and not actually charging anyone for the content, I thought $5 was a little steep for what I'm offering, but I also think I offer a little bit more than $1 in value, so I split the difference.  

A propos of nothing, I'm shooting for an annual paying user base of 30K.  That would gross me $90,000.  My credit card fees are 3.49%, which skims $3,141 off that amount (though I'll get some of it back via business deductions).  I'm also self-employed, which means I need to pay an additional 7.65% for SSI and Medicare, or $6,885.  This would leave me with an equivalent salary of just under $80K - not tycoon level, but not too shabby either.

Is this realistic?  Beats me.  But as I've said before, I know there's a large number of people who are at least passingly interested in art and $3 per year isn't an exhorbitant sum, so it's not on the deep end of delusional.

But it does mean I have to market more.  In addition to this here blog and LinkedIn, I'll have to start haunting Instagram, Facebook, and Blue Sky for better recognition.  I'm scared of the prospect, because the internet is a cruel place, but I'm also thrilled that I have a strategy and a new skill to stumble my way through learning.

I set up analytics via a site called umami and saw the following numbers after my first 24 hours of being live:

I can see how analytics become addictive.  I've got 30 visitors so far, and I know that I haven't browbeat 30 people (or bots) into looking at my site, so there's some organic traffic already.  My bounce rate of 63% kind of sucks (anything below 40% is considered good), but my time of engagement is pretty astounding at over 4 minutes (assuming people aren't simply opening a page and leaving it open while watching Real Housewives of Mordor in the background).

Even more surprising is that the url marked '/swing' is one that I put up about an hour before taking the screen caps of the site analytics.

I'll admit that I'm thrilled with the work I put in and will give myself a little virtual pat on the back for what I was able to put together.  

Scared shitless that it'll fall flat on its face?  Yup.  But I'm proud of what I've created, and, even if the rest of the world turns its back on me, I can be happy that I made the effort.

Until next time, my human and robot friends.