There are currently about seventy seven million boomers in the USA!

Many of these are looking for second careers or need to find different or additional work due to the shrinking economy. Some of these boomers are going to turn or have already turned to the art business for their new careers. 

If you are starting out in a new business as an artist you will need a website for a start. The website for artists will usually provide a place for potential clients to view your work - whatever kind of work you do. But just having a website is not enough.

You will need to market your art yourself and your site. For Boomers, your first thought is likely to be one of the old standbys in what is called Outbound Marketing -- run a print ad, send out some art-postcards (i.e. a direct mail campaign), call your friends and tell them you are having a show. 

But there has been a sea-change in the world of marketing that you are probably not aware of. The change involves the practice of Inbound Marketing. Inbound Marketing is the process of having businesses (and yes as an artist you are a business) get found online.

Remember that once you have your website it's not at all a given that your clients will find you on the web. You have to become a presence. This process of getting found and becoming a presence on the web is what Inbound Marketing is all about. And it is a process - it will involve a combination of learning how to Optimize your site so that the search engines can find you, becoming a authority in your area of expertising by Blogging and also by using social media to connect and interact with people who could become interested in what you have to say and show.

Once you are found online, by a "visitor" to your website, you want to make sure that that visitor has every opportunity to become a "lead" and ultimately to become a client of your art business. And of course you want to be able to Analyze your results and see how you are doing and if you are spending real dollars to market your art business, how effective that spending and your effort is.

One of the leading sources for free information and resources for people getting started in Inbound Marketing is Hubspot (www.hubspot.com).  I have recently converted my approach to marketing website of Coastal Art, Urban Art and Fine Art giclees and prints to an Inbound Marketing approach. Before this, I was spending a bunch of money on Pay Per Click advertising with very little to show for it. With the inbound marketing approach, I am generating leads and visits to my site that I have never thought possible. And anyone can do it.