artspan contempory
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Artspan:
This Past Month
We are in the final stages of our move to the
new "cloud" servers. The cloud solution will
provide us with the performance we need right
now and the flexibility to grow. If we are, for
example, subjected to a very large volume of
search engine generated queries, as we have
been recently by Russian and/or Chinese bots
(robots), we will be able to add more server
power right away. Our tech team along with our
outside consultants have worked very long days
to get this done. We require more server power
than other website providers because of the
large number of image files, and the wide range
of features that our sites incorporate coupled
with the features of Artspan.com. No other
template provider is trying to do anything on
this scale.
Regarding the email enhancements, we are testing the capability of our system to accommodate large lists with 2500+ addresses. We are able now to handle multiple lists. Also, you will shortly be able to see the number of click-throughs on each link in your eblast. When our various upgrades are completed, you will have close to the same functionality with our email system as you would with Constant Contact or other premiere email list providers who charge $30+ per month. With Artspan, this service is free.
On other fronts, all the marketing documents have been updated this month and the How-to documents (relating to managing your site) are in the process of being updated. Please log in to your Control Panel and click on the links corresponding to these documents. These documents should be of very real use to you.
Only Two Months Left: the New Best Ever Referral Program
Our regular referral program gives members a free month each time a referral signs up for a website. But, with this special program, until December 31, if you refer 3 new members, you will get 6 free months. That is,two free months for each referral - when you refer 3 new members.
The new members will continue to receive one
free month in addition to the 30 day free trial
they get automatically…. so
that is two months they get free when they
mention your name or give your referral code
(which is found in your Control Panel). Also,
for anyone who may already have a website,we will be happy to provide
individual assistance in moving images from
their current site to their new Artspan site
and help in any other way we can.
We know that it may seem a lot of trouble to
set up a new site (even if they are paying
twice our cost with their current site
– and getting a lot less).
So we want to make the process an easy one.
Need some reasons why Artspan offers the best
value of any template provider? Go to the Join
Us page. https://www.artspan.com/become_mbr.php
. Then scroll down to the "Why Artspan" section
which gives some idea of the scope of what we
do.
Design Contest: Deadline Extended
We encourage members to make use of the new design tools which allow you to customize your site and to make it really unique. A lot of members are doing very interesting things and we would like to see more. To help that along, last month we announced a contest for the best website design using the new tools. We have now extended the deadline by one month to December 31. The winner will be announced with a press release on Tuesday, January 11.
The prizes are a top prize of 6 months free membership and $150, a second prize of 3 months and $100 and 3 awards of 1 months membership (all Professional Plus level sites) with a $50 cash award each. The only requirement is that the website must be designed with our new totally customizable templates. Judging criteria will include (1) excellence of design, (2) originality, (3) how the design works with your work, and (4) how the design maximizes the capabilities of the new tools.
Send your URL to DesignContest@artspan.com any time between now and December 31. To date, we have received very few entries, so this is an opportunity. But the biggest opportunity lies in participating in the contest. It will help you focus on your most important marketing tool, your website, and on updating and customizing it and making it work for you and your art.
Design Tip
Give your site a totally unique look and/or texture.
Step 1. Find an interesting image or pattern. The image file size has to be under 200kb. Save it on your hard drive.
Step 2. Log in to your Control Panel, then click on Design Themes and then on the Custom Styles tab. Upload the image file as your background image. You will probably need to tile the image.The "hex numbers" will still show for the 4 main website regions (site background color, site header, navigation bar area, main content area, ).
Step 3. Delete the "hex numbers" from the field where they ordinarily appear for each of the regions (this field is called "Background Color"). Then each region of your site will be transparent with no color and and the background image that you have uploaded will show as the pattern for the entire website.
Steps 1 through 3 are below, left to right, showing 1) the image file, 2) the custom design field - "Background Color" - with the hex numbers deleted and 3) the way the final website looks:
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Marketing Tips: Interpreting the Twitter Code
by Sid Bailey, Artspan Marketing
Associate
(This is the third installment of a series of articles on making Twitter work for you. I have found them really interesting and it is making me a believer in the usefulness of Twitter).
Unless you've got the charisma of a hero from a cult film (or you're Charlie Sheen), attracting followers to your Twitter account is going to take some time and effort. The best way to do this is by joining the conversation: frequently and aggressively. Think of yourself as the awkward guy at the party who sporadically mingles from one group to the next. Except, on Twitter, it's not only acceptable to do this, it's almost like an unwritten Twitter law. Drop your two cents with as much abandon as a Vegas slot machine addict.
It's a conversation best infiltrated through the use of symbols. But don't panic: it's an easy code to break.
Six Ceramists
We have a very talented group of ceramists on Artspan. Let’s spotlight 6 of them here - a small sampling of our many accomplished ceramists. Not so coincidentally, all use the new templates, so we get to show how they used the design tools. We try to showcase the sites with the new designs wherever possible..
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John
Preus
Nina
Dyer
Featured Members
Erik Alos
This is visually imaginative work. You
could call it pop or surrealist or
allegorical, or you can simply go with
it. We also love what he did with his
website design...it is really
different.
A little background on the artist:
Alos began to admire art at an early
age and spent much of his time drawing.
In his teens and twenties he spent
years dedicated to painting graffiti.
He continues to paint producing new
surrealistic and figurative works,
sometimes influenced by cartoons and
American pop culture.
Alos lives and works in Los Angeles,California where he was born in 1978. He has shown extensively in the area over the last 7 years.
James Edward Scherbarth
jamesedwardscherbarth.artspan.com
He lives and works in Minneapolis,
Minnesota, USA. His current mediums
are oil+wax painting, photography,
digital montage, and kumihimo based art
jewelry. Each piece of his visual art
and his jewelry is uniquely
accomplished through layers of color,
line and texture exploring themes of
time, patinas, memories, symbols and
stories.
"My work is about patinas acquired over time, the evidentiary marks of experience and life's accumulation of layers. Layers built over time and into timelessness: layers of color, shades of memories, and reflections of nature. Each image, whether a painting, digital montage, photograph or piece of art jewelry, is an emotional statement, a memory recalled, or a fleeting glimpse of nature's diverse beauty.."
Legal and Other
Copyright 2011. 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!