I'm sure most of us complete a piece of artwork, make sure we have natural light and take digital photos, then load them to a computer, do some kind of cropping for clean edges, save the photo, go to FASO, to our Facebook fan page, our Facebook wall and upload the photos, write all the descriptions and move along to the next piece of artwork. For me, this process could take more than hour especially if the digital camera and I were not getting along and if the photos were blurred, I'd have to repeat part of this process at least once. The app ended a lot of this work. [...]

As a writer I strive to offer current / factual information about artists to readers -- artists should strive to offer the same to their website visitors (which may include potential buyers, gallery owners, and art writers). [...]

What all of these different rendering engines mean is that the only way to be sure your email newsletter looks correct is to stick to a small, safe subset of HTML and then to rigorously test each design in every major email program...and different versions of those programs...and with images blocked...and with images enabled. One option for artists would be to pay a designer to design your email designs and test them in all of these email programs. Then you could use the same design over and over, being careful to only change your content and none of the HTML itself. Like I said before, it's a quagmire. [...]

The projects that are the focus of this article, and my resolve, are the projects that have been set aside for awhile. Some have collected quite a bit of dust. Some were set aside as other things took priority. Some of these projects were set aside because I was stuck and didn’t quite know what the next step should be. Others remain unfinished because of fear. Still others have been hindered by overwhelm. You get the picture. There are many reasons why projects get set aside. [...]

So here's something that surprises me: I see some other artist website services recommending you use their software for your blogging solution, but, for their own company blogs, they use Wordpress or Blogger. That should tell you something. How do they find the pain points? How do they know what to fix? [1] Why don't they think their own software is good enough for their own use? [2] [...]

There are many people out there selling courses, doing webinars, and pushing products that teach artists how to do SEO. Many artists see it as a path to the promised land of "traffic" and sales. I can see why: for those of us who did business in a world before Google, the idea is enticing... set everything up "correctly" and watch a steady stream of customers come to your site. But, unfortunately, for most artists, that path won't work. [...]

But, by offering something of value that is exclusive to your newsletter, you can convert anonymous blog followers into newsletter subscribers. [...]

Old information is worthless information. And even worse, you just might alarm your fans into thinking you've checked out. Let'em know you're still working this gig. [...]

What has happened is a learning curve on my part, because the more I have listened, the more I have learned from people who articulate themselves well, generously share their knowledge at the level I can grasp it, and genuinely want to see my project succeed. Each change I make adds knowledge to what I picked up from the project before, as well as customizes our website to meet our marketing, client, business, and personal needs. [...]

Too Much Screen Time – this is the inability to walk by the computer screen (or ignore the phone, for those of you who don’t live in obscure, rural areas where we’re lucky to have electrical poles, much less phone towers) without briefly checking your Facebook or your e-mail or gliding through the Internet on a search for musk ox yarn. [...]

So go ahead, call yourself something kicky and cool – The Staggering Stegosaurus Studio – but somewhere, make sure you add your name, a very important part of you, to your brand. [...]

I found the process valuable as it made me write down, in one place, a lot of information I had scattered across our blog posts and in my head. Since we don't know how much of the information will be used in the actual article, the interviewer, John Parks, kindly gave me permission to post my answers here even before the article is published. I've cleaned up the raw answers I sent him (there was a deadline) and expanded a bit upon them. I hope you find some useful information in them. [...]

I'm curious to know what kind of impact the scandal will have on how the average person views art prints online -- specifically art prints that are sold on commercial art sites, such as art websites like deviantart, that focus on a social networking platform. Will the fallout from the Art4Love scandal harm the business model of commercial art sites in general? Will it be a burden for commercial websites (Think Redbubble, Imagekind, and so on.) that focus on selling prints online? Will it make it harder for artists who sell art prints online? Only time will tell I suppose. That said, in the meantime I want to know what YOU think. [...]

I don’t mean to sound like a laundry detergent commercial, but if you have a website through FASO (Fine Art Studio Online) and you haven’t discovered technical support, then you don’t know what you’re missing. [...]

I recently learned of an alleged 'massive copyright infringement' situation involving artwork 'ripped' from deviantART.com. The copyright infringement allegations involve a website called Art4Love -- which is owned by Art4Love , Inc., a New York, NY-based organization which apparently had a physical gallery space in NYC -- A4L Gallery -- and has been around since 2005. Art Consultant Chad Love-Lieberman, the companies founder, serves as the CEO. [...]

Point blank -- without the protection of specific terms a website, such as Facebook or DeviantART, would not be able to realistically function. The Internet itself would be a useless void lacking information -- very few individuals and companies would want to risk being sued by providing services that allow content to be spread virally online. That is something to think about when criticizing TOS agreements in general. Do you want the Internet or not? It is your choice. [...]

Kathy Bloomgarden, Ruder Finn co-CEO has stated, "The mobile phone is becoming the most powerful online device, and the faster businesses can adapt their services to harness consumer mobile intent, the more rapidly they can capitalize on understanding their customers to drive growth." In that sense one could suggest that artists need to provide their customers-- art buyers-- with a mobile-friendly art website in order to tap into that aspect of selling art online. Thus, I have to commend Clint Watson for understanding that his customers-- artists-- need to be able to harness mobile technology. FASO allows that. [...]

Artists have a lot to consider when finding what works best for them in regards to selling art online. It does not make it any easier when you consider that artist website service providers are a dime a dozen today. It often seems that new ventures pop up every other month-- all 'telling' an artist exactly what he or she wants to 'hear'. I don't blame them-- they want to sell their service by suggesting that they provide the best artist websites online. However, more often than not the services provided are not exactly what they are presented to be. [...]