We were pleased to introduce the shopping carts this past week. 
Here are the steps that you need to follow to add a cart to your site:

1. Login to your Control Panel, click on the Shopping Cart button and then the “Yes, let’s get started” checkbox.

2. Read the Terms & Conditions for Use of the Artspan Shopping Carts.  You can only use the shopping cart if you explicitly agree to all the Terms & Conditions.

3. Set up a PayPal Premier (for individuals) or Business account. PayPal will process the credit card transactions and remit the proceeds to your bank account. When you sign up for your Premier or Business Account, you must use the same email address and billing address that you have listed in your Artspan Billing Info section.  Again, they must be the same. (If you already have a regular PayPal account and only need to upgrade your PayPal account to Premier or Business, see the next news item for instructions.)

4. Once your PayPal account is set up (it can take a couple of days for them to verify your banking information), return to Artspan to complete the Shopping Cart signup process. Then verify the code that is sent to you by Artspan by entering it in the field that is displayed.
 
5. Now set the tax rate(s) that are applicable to the transactions.  You can opt to have Artspan calculate sales tax for you (U.S. and Canada only) or you can enter the tax yourself.  For U.S. and Canadian members, Artspan will only calculate the sales tax when the address you are shipping to (the “ShipTo” address) is in the same tax jurisdiction as the address you are shipping from (the “ShipFrom" address).  For example, the same state or province and county, city, or other locality. For all other sales, the calculation will be returned as 0. We will return calculations for 7,000 tax jurisdictions. However, it is up to you to pay any taxes due and to secure any required tax certificates.For countries outside North America, you will need to calculate your own sales, use or VAT taxes.

6. Configure shipping options.   First specify regions: if you are in the U.S., you might want to separate shipping destinations into one (or more) region(s) for the 48 states and then add Hawaii and Alaska as another second region.  Europe could be another region.
 
7. Then define the shipping choices for each region. First choose the pricing type. For example  “Free Shipping” or “Per Item.” In the description field, you can specify the shipping time. For example 2-3 days or 10 days. You might want to copy Amazon.com or some other ecommerce site or you may prefer to keep your shipping options as simple as possible.

8. Now go to your Artwork section and choose which items you want to sell. In the Artwork section, click on the Edit link below the images of the items you want to sell in the Artwork section. Then, in the artwork detail page, scroll down until you come to the price field. Fill that in with the price (not including tax or shipping) and then click the checkbox corresponding to the “Enable add to cart button”.

9. Visitors can now buy the work you have checked, adding each item to the shopping cart and checking out when they have finished shopping.  

You can check your individual sales and sales totals as well as a Sales Tax Report…simply click on the Shopping Cart button.  

Please note: you must decide the Terms of Sale that you will post on your site and that you will follow. We have outlined suggested terms of sale in the Terms & Conditions for Use of the Artspan Shopping Carts.

There is a 3.5% sales commission charged by Artspan on sales to cover setup, maintenance and ongoing technical costs together with customer service and legal costs. This sum is deducted from your account 30 days following the date of the sale unless the proceeds from the sale have been refunded to the buyer. You must notify us that the proceeds of the sale have been refunded  – otherwise we will not know that this has been done.  

Artspan shopping carts are optional. However, we believe this creates a big advantage for Artspan members for the following reasons:  

• You can track sales records in your Control Panel
• Buyers no longer need to leave your site to make a purchase
• All customer credit data is protected by an SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificate just as is done on Amazon or any other major ecommerce site.
• Sales tax calculations are provided for some 7,000 tax jurisdictions in North America 
• It’s cost effective. The Artspan shopping carts are the least costly ecommerce solution we have seen. Most ecommerce website packages are much more costly.
• Ongoing tech support and upgrades 
• Promotion and traffic – as we have more resources and members, we can increase our advertising and promotion. 
• Finally, in order to participate in the upcoming prints-on-demand program, you must have the shopping cart enabled on your site.

Here's how to upgrade to a Premier or Business account:

1. Log in to your PayPal account.
2. Click Upgrade Account  in the Enhance Your Account box.
3. Click Upgrade Now.
4. Choose Business or Premier account.
5. Click Continue.
6. For a Business account, fill in your business information and click Continue.

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Next month’s newsletter will have an extensive discussion of what we have done to optimize your websites for search engines (we have done a lot more than any other provider), and what you need to do to take advantage of this work.

But here is a SEO (Search Engine Optimization) tip from Denise for this month: keep your site fresh! She points out that letting your Artspan site go for long periods without updating can result in a drop in search engine rankings. Be sure to log in at least once a month and add an image or two, change image order, or even just adjust some text on your Artist Statement or Bio page. Search engines may discount sites that show no updates as 'dead' sites. It's also good to remove any outdated show information or other dated material as well.

Generally it’s only when Artspan members share their successes with us that we know the positive things that are happening with your careers. But occasionally we also stumble on member work in one publication or another. For example, we just received the latest issue of Black & White Magazine and were happy to see that Maura Brennan and Rudolph de Ram are the recipients of Merit Awards. Congratulations. Rudolph has been a featured member in this newsletter and we are featuring Maura in this issue.

Seems to me have also seen Ben Shamback and Sandra Powers in recent artist magazines.

We would love to publish member news on a regular basis. Please send me anything you feel is of interest.

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