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 Coming this summer |
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New Design
As discussed in previously, we have redesigned the site to make it more easy to navigate and to find art. We had hoped to have the new design up in May, but ran into programming difficulties. We do expect to launch on or about Monday, June 11. There may be a short period when Artspan and your sites are not available, but we will work to insure that any inconvenience is minimal.
Slideshow option
We will be adding a slideshow option to the individual sites, both on the homepage and on one inside page. You will be able to select images to appear in the slide shows just as you now select images to appear in your different galleries. A rough estimate for the launch of this new feature is 2-3 weeks
New Templates
As mentioned in past newsletters, the new template design is complete. It has been coded but, before we launch, we want to check this again. This design is different in that you will be able to show up to 36 thumbnail images on each gallery page (allowing the visitor to survey a much bigger selection of work with one glance). The enlargements will go up to 600 pixels as the maximum dimension as opposed to the current 500 pixels. This new design should be up by the end of the month.
Portals
Three are ready to go as to content and awaiting coding: painting, photography and sculpture. These will feature content and information as well as member work and directories. We aim for these portals to be a real resource for anyone interested in contemporary art. Projected as the next portals are fiber art, jewelry, mixed media, Chinese art, feminist art, and UK & Ireland art. But the possibilities are endless. We realize the launch of this new section has been promised for a while and regret the delay.
Image Upload Function
We will move to a new way of storing images which will mean faster uploads for you. You will also be able to upload larger images. This is a significant change in our architecture but not one that you will necessarily notice right away. This is 40% complete and should be done in two weeks. We will also introduce watermarks to all images. While we do not believe that images at the kind of resolution you see on the web can be meaningfully copied, a lot of members want this feature. So we will provide it.
Cleanup of Site Functions
We have recently completed a clean-up of the programming that runs the sites. This should result in less bugs and, when bugs do occur, they will be easier for us to fix.
Overhaul of the Member Admin
You will see a new interface or way of administering your sites at some point in the next two months.
Video
We want to introduce a video option for all members so as to enable you to be able to upload videos just as you might with YouTube. These would appear on a separate page from your still images. We will also include videos in the articles section and you will be able to upload images of general interest.
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New Artspan Staff as of June 1 |
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The coming enhancements to the sites and to the programming are the responsibility of Caoimhim Barry who joined us part-time in February. He will now be working with us on a full-time basis. Caoimhin (a Gaelic name) is an honors graduate of the University of Dublin (Ireland) and has extensive programming experience project managing for Fortune 500 companies. He will be our Chief Technical Officer.
We also have Michel Allen joining us as our new full time Marketing Director. She has a gallery in Chelsea (Michel Allen Gallery) and her work experience was with Sotheby’s and with two major art websites, artnet.com and artinfo.com. She really understands Internet marketing and is enthusiastic about the prospects for seeing Artspan continue to grow in its service to the visual arts community.
Finally, Laura Kuehl will also join us. A recent college graduate, she has worked part time with us for 6 months and has been working primarily on putting together content for the portals. Laura was a literature major. She is a good writer, and has shown a rare ability to organize material that is both varied and complex. Her title is Portals Editor.
We are lucky to have these three individuals joining us. They are key to the success of Artspan and to the growing the number of visitors to your sites and the appeal of your sites once they have arrived on them.
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Sponsor Ads |
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There will be one other major change with the new Artspan design that will be introduced (we project) June 11. In addition to the main content on each page, there will be a column off to the right (separated from the main content) which will have small banner ads. These will be on most pages including your main admin page, but will obviously not be on your sites. We have been very cautious about adding sponsors. We do not want the ads to detract from the art and from the reason visitors come to Artspan. However, we did need to add some revenue in order to fuel our new enhancements to the sites and to pay for the advertising necessary to ensure that Artspan is the destination of choice for collectors and anyone interested in contemporary art. And we did not want to increase member pricing.
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Understanding Your Stats |
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Stats can be very confusing…. We recently saw a website proclaim that they had 16 million hits! A week! But that is not a meaningful statistic. The most important stats are visitors, unique visitors and page views. See below for a definition of the major terms.
Hits
Hits aren’t a real measure of traffic, but they do generate the biggest number for webmasters to spout off. Hits are the number of requests made for files on a web server. One single view of a page ( pageview) may generate tens of hits.
Pageviews
Pageviews are an important stat but the number can be inflated by repeat visits to a single page. That is, a visitor can go from the homepage to another page, then back to the homepage then to another page, then back to the homepage again. That’s one visit to the site, but five pageviews.
Visits / Unique Visitors
A visit is where a remote server requests a page from your server. Note this does not mean one server requesting a graphic file from your server, i.e., loading up graphics of yours. This is essentially the most important metric to be concerned about. A visit can mean one person browsing your site for a few minutes or several hours (generating many pageviews and many more hits). A unique visitor is a vistor counted once only. Repeat visits by this visitor in a one month period do not count more than the one time. For example, Artspan gets close to 100,000 uniques visits per month, but it gets 170, 000 total visitors (and over 6 million pageviews).
One reason Artspan gets a lot of visitors is because of its high rankings for key search terms. We are ranked #2 in both Yahoo and Google for ‘contemporary art’ out of 80 million results. We will do an article in the next newsletter on how search engines work and suggest ways for members to improve rankings
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Domain Renewal Notices: "Domain Slamming" |
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Domain slamming is a form of scam in which an Internet service provider (ISP) or domain name registrar attempts to trick customers of different companies into switching from their existing ISP/registrar under the pretense that the customer is simply renewing their subscription..
Artspan members who have purchased their own domain name have reported receiving letters in the mail from a company called The Domain Registry of America. Domain Registry of America (DROA) tells consumers that their domain registrations are expiring, leading many to switch their domain name registrar. DROA sends out millions of such renewal notices captioned 'IMPORTANT NOTICE' to urge consumers to act quickly to avoid 'Register Lock' or 'Loss of your online identity.' The company also warned, according to the FTC, that if consumers 'lose their domain name' it may be 'impossible for you to get it back.' The company is based in Canada and operates principally in North America and Europe.
You can read more about DROA here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/01/06/court_bars_canadian_domain_slammer/
The United States FTC (Federal Trade Commission) is looking into this, but the scam continues. Please know that the only way you will be contacted when your domain is about to expire will be by email. Our registrar sends out email beginning about 90 days before expiration. You will not be sent anything by regular mail. It is very important to keep your contact information (email address especially) up to date in your Member Admin/Navigation Bar/Contact Info AND also in your Manage Domain area. This will ensure that you receive notifications of domain expiration and any billing issues for your site
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Featured Members |
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| Richard Hanson |
| Watercolors |
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| "In the Street Series I have attempted to blend a sense of reality with everday societal issues. Most of my work seems to gravitate towards life on the street. I have conjured up scenes of homelessness, hopelessness, desperation, violence, frustration and isolation. Perhaps I can create a moment of fear, loathing, introspection, query or even empathy."
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| Annelies van Dommelen |
| Paintings and Prints |
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| "My work is a conversation between the subconscious, the educated self, the medium used, and the artpiece- during the progression of it. I use recognizable and personal symbols to create my own allegories. I invite the viewers to have their own relationships with my paintings, use their own imaginations, and invite their own responses. My largest concerns are spatial relationships, form, and the tactile experience with each particular medium." |
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Legal and Other |
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Copyright 2007. Artspan LLC. All rights reserved.
All /images are the property of their respective owners. The opinions expressed in this newsletter do not necessarily reflect those of artspan.com members.
Thoughts or ideas for future newsletters? ask@artspan.com
Technical questions or problems? www.artspan.com/help
Visit www.artspan.com today! |
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