The Studio Source.com

Image by Jason Hollinger

There’s an email in circulation. One of those slightly shrill messages that proclaim, “This is a true story!”

Usually they’re not true, and usually they contain a punch line with any combination of multiple exclamation marks, all caps, or a massive increase in point size, as if the emphasis makes up for the poor writing (not that I have an opinion or anything).

Often those emails are nothing but urban legends. This time, though, the story is true. The original version won a Pulitzer prize for Feature Writing, written by Gene Weingarten and published in the Washington Post (click here to read the full story). It was published almost four years ago, but since it’s making the rounds—and since the email got my hackles up—it’s worth a look from a marketing perspective.

I got an email in response to my call for your burning questions: how do you get the right people (curators, dealers, buyers) to find you on the web?

That’s the big one. How to find them, get their attention, and make them love you, plus conduct this apparent feat of magic without ever looking them in the eye.

Piece of cake. Throw a few pictures on Flickr, sign up for an Etsy shop, sit back and wait for the cash to roll in and the lovesick groupies to shower you with fan mail.

If you’re reading this, you already know that doesn’t cut it. When you set out to establish an online audience, you take the same basic steps as you would to build an audience offline. It requires time, energy, and smart decisions.