Kelly, I think this is a great topic! I bet a lot of us would love to hear about more of those places to get a free website. I knew about free hosting, but it’s great to learn about getting sites built too.

Thanks for posting this.

The ultimate challenge is to have those who might be interested in purchasing any particular artist’s work see that work – any thoughts on that?

Hi, Kelly and everyone,

I already have an extensive website with traffic from free garden info I have posted there. So of course I made a page for my framed Imagekind images (the url is http://www.mackeybooks.com/artwork.html ). I am pleased to see that when I google the words Betty Mackey and art, many links come right up for both the Imagekind and Mackeybooks websites. How did I get pics of my images framed or stretched so nicely? I downloaded them from Imagekind, of course. I hope that’s fair use, Kelly! Best wishes, Betty Mackey

When we eventually get the Imagekind Forum up, we’ll definitely add this as a topic.

Hi Kelly and everyone,

I’m new to ImageKind with a dozen or so images of my acrylic paintings here.

Thank you for posting this topic. It’s a good one. I have had good success with my website http://www.philipfrey.com hosted by http://www.FolioLink.com (not free but very well run host and self-updating site where you edit your own content). They do extensive advertising and so I get a lot of traffic to my site.

In my experience, the other important key to getting one’s work noticed and purchased is regular postcard marketing (to your patrons and potential patrons from a mailing list that you build over time). It’s cheap, goes to the people who are interested in your work and it’s something they can hold in their hands… unlike a website. Also, word of mouth from people who already have your work (originals or reproductions from ImageKind) is some of the best advertising you can get… people who love you and your work telling their friends about it. What a deal!

Best wishes,
Philip Frey

Hi Philip, welcome to Imagekind.

Another marketing suggestion; for those of us who are ebsqart.com members, they have that nifty ecard feature.

I’ve used it to send emails when I add pieces to my portfolio, and when I was the featured artist on Imagekind.

I have named my main marketing plan so far as the Doubling Project which I have described here:

http://www.qpg.com/custom/doublingprojecte_f.pdf

I began the Doubling Project in 1992 before I had a web site *(my current main web site I won in an e-magine competition held by American Express and which was designed by IBM – prior to that I had built 80 free at the time web sites with bigstep.com) and the Doubling Project was designed to assure that I secured steady assignment work – and so things have only grown since my web site has been up (since right before 9/11/01.

So far I have given out over 2.1 million of my business cards working the Doubling Project and I can say that it has definitely been a worthwhile endeavor –

I also get a great deal of increased traffic when my yahoo ad words come on line (I have a small amount of money alloted to this every month and the amount gets used up quite quickly) –

With all of this, however, I still see that there are gaps and holes in places that will improve the entire marketing picture once they get patched up!

My Gallery with images has not been up the entire time that my web site has and has really only begun growing in size during the last two years –

The large number of images taken or created for myself before 2001 are mostly still in slide form and you might say that no one has seen any of those yet –

Although my assignment work has been published throughout the world since 1976 and there are so many more images from before that since I have been photographing now for a total of 49 years –

The most amazing thing happened once my work began being seen on the Internet – I was contacted by a photographer in China who asked if he might have permission to place some of my images (ones that he had seen and chosen) on his web site galleries with some other photographer’s work:

http://www.e9e9.com/show/walter.htm

Most of the images on that site are one’s from before the current series which I have been working on placing up in my Galleries on Imagekind –

And so although there may seem to be a large number of images and Galleries that I have up here on Imagekind so far, this is just a small fraction of both what I have created prior to the current series being placed up here and what I hope to create once I get back to working on so many other images to be photographed and to work on mutating as time goes on.

I would like to repeat here though (I mentioed this somewhere else on this blog) that the one amazing thing that is still beyond belief to mel is that the Imagekind site itself is a real dream come true for me in so many ways!

thank you!

Walter

Logistics – Marketing –

A recent viewing of the statistics section of my main website’s Gallery:

http://estore.websitepros.com/630795/Search.bok?category=Featured+Products

had indicated to me that over the past six months there has been a six fold increase over image search and viewing during this period over the search and viewing performed during the previous six months.

Along with this knowledge, I had also added the imagekind buy my art button directing people to my First Gallery in Imagekind (which in effect has become my primary landing page at Imagekind) not only to all of the pages in the main section of my web site front section, but also to somewhere over 20,000 landing pages that exist in my Main Gallery at my website.

I realized however, that the statistics were not indicating the viewers to these landing pages but to the pages which were finally searched out after the viewers had gotten to the main landing pages and that there was no technical way that the web designers (who had conveniently added that same button to all of those previously here mentioned pages with one stroke of the web designers code wand so that it not only was visible on the existing pages but also on any of the future to be created web pages n this Gallery for all of the images yet to be placed there), could ever put them in what I would call the Gallery Room where the viewers can see the image singly by itself and which was a final destination before a viewer might be ready to make a purchase of that particular image that they had come to see.

And so here was a dilemna of sorts, as well as a Grand Opportunity, since I felt that if a viewer to my Gallery had gone so far as to take themselves and place themselves in a Gallery Room with a single image in front of them (where there were no buy my art buttons directing them to the main landing page for my Galleries at Imagekind) that I could extend them the courtesy of creating the same atmosphere in my Imagekind Environment and place the same image in a Gallery of its very own at Imagekind and utilize the button tool placed in each new Gallery in the Gallery room where this visitor had landed thus directing them to the specific Gallery at Imagekind matching the Gallery Room that they had taken so much of their precious time to search out and land in wih the clickc of their mouse – as illustrated below –

Here I utilize a single image for illustration purposes:

200

First it’s Gallery Room in my main web site’s Gallery:

http://estore.websitepros.com/630795/Detail.bok?no=20273

and then to it’s linked to corresponding

BebirianGallery200

at Imagekind:

http://www.imagekind.com/GalleryProfile.aspx?GID=bc00e049-0636-498e-bad6-f39185537319&P=1

Although the image sizing and uploading as well as linking from one Gallery Room to it’s corresponding Imagekind Gallery has slowed my process down a great deal, I am most happy to accomodate my viewers who have searched out and taken the time to view a particular image so that they can go from initial viewing directly to this wonderful opportunity afforded them at Imagekind without an added effort of having to search yet again through a large group of images in another Gallery.

The exact firgure for the last six months is 62,740 successful searches for different images made by 4,764 Unique Visitors.

Now I am currently so far only up to adding somewhere in the vicintiy of 340 of these images out of a total in this current series out of a total ranging in the 4,000 plus mark and while this may seem a lot, this is only a fraction of less than 1/2 of the over 11,000 images currently in my main Gallery.

So, I neither want to slow my process down, nor do I want my Main Gallery Viewers to have to wait any longer than necessary to utilize this convenience that I am working so diligently to offer them.

As a positive side effect, a lisiting in the recently added galleries section at the Imagekind Site for each of the Galleries that I create during any time period gives these images an extra added presence –

thank you!

Walter

Small minute – yet grave differences began with my Infinite Generation Series created from an images taken in early 1976:

http://www.575488trillion.com/page13.html

and similarly to much of Kandinsky’s work:

http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/kandinsky/

my abstractions come from original photographs:

http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/kandinsky/sea-battle/

and have for a long time before the cirrent series that I am placing in the Imagekind Galleries:

http://estore.websitepros.com/630795/Detail.bok?no=19649

http://estore.websitepros.com/630795/Detail.bok?no=19663

and while Gorky has had a great deal of influence on that which I have done till this point in time:

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ho/11/waa/ho_56.205.1.htm

my personal friend Marcos Gregorian has also influenced me in ways much beyond my comprehension:

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/ciran/hd_ciran.htm

when I first saw his paintings hanging in his daughter’s apartment when Sabrina was living around the corner from me I could not believe the starkness which came though in the statements that he had made with his pieces and which were hanging so close before my eyes in this most personal of settings.

Although to many an untrained eye, Marcos’ works might have looked all similar being of the same material and of almost identical earthen colors, but I sensed a great deal of difference in each one from the energy which each held onto –

Although there may be some dissagreement as to what my reasons for creating so many images of similar yet different shapes and colors there can be no mistaking the fact that these images were creaed long before the Imgekind Website had come under my radar screen and therefore the motivation for that which I created can in no way be construed to have been for the simple reason of “owning a page” in the recently listed section of the Imagekind Website – the technology is simply reporting the facts as things evolve.

Betty Mackey your site it states Giclee prints; I was under the impression that although these are extremely high quality prints, they are not giclee.

Can Image Kind tell us is any are giclee?

Thanks

To Anonymous and everyone,

Here is a copy of the text describing the ink used at Imagekind
(found at http://www.imagekind.com/create/about_fine_art.aspx):

“About our inks

The same printing systems we make available to online shoppers is commonly found in museums, art galleries, and photographic galleries. Using the new UltraChrome K3 pigmented inkset, from Epson, our fine art printers will allow users to print outstanding color and neutral black & white prints on a variety of media including glossy, satin, matte, fine art and canvas. Without a doubt, the beauty and brilliance of a pigment giclee on canvas, watercolor or satin paper is unparalleled. Fortunately, they´re made to last too! The Epson system of Inks and Paper have received lightfast permanence ratings from the Wilhelm Research Institute that well exceed 100 yrs (with proper UV protection), so you can be assured that your prints will look just as good in 30 years as they do today.

Our 8-color ink set incorporates three unique levels of black, which along with new color pigment technology, dramatically improves both color and black and white prints. Imagine producing archival prints with amazing color fidelity, gloss level, and scratch resistance, while providing stable colors from the moment prints exit the printer.”
—-

I interpreted this as meaning that Imagekind is making giclee prints. If I am wrong, please let me know and I will change my website promptly. And I’d like to know.

Best wishes,

Betty Mackey
http://www.mackeybooks.com

Giclee is actually a commonly mis-understood term, and can be a little ambiguous in the Fine Art Print world these days. We do consider our prints Giclees. Here is a bit more info, which should explain the term better than I can: Giclee on Wikipedia

You can get a free webspace at http://www.50webs.com with no ads placed on your site. you can also get a free site that lets you build a page with templates if you don’t know html at http://www.freewebs.com You should also check with your internet service providers since a lot of them provide some webspace with your account.

My Imagekind Gallery
http://waterart.imagekind.com/artwork

Sorry Betty I didn’t realize I left my name blank and the system put in Anonymous. Now I know that they are giclee and will upgrade my domain to reflect so.

Travis thanks for the Wikipedia info .

And as Liz says most web providers such as Earthlink give you some free space and tools to build your site. It’s where I started.

Re: Admin –

Kelly – It looks as if you have taken on a new title –

what does COE stand for?

Walter

I use Squarespace for my own site and use a combination of ImageKind’s RSS Feed for galleries and an RSS SpringWidget to make a nice dynamic list of available prints. on the blog .

I also use iFrames so a purchase is an end-to-end process within my site.

http://www.lfstyl.com/blog/2007/2/5/imagekind-rss-feed-springwidget.html

Try this web site of world famous artist rollz ,I should have said… http://rollzart.theartistsweb.co.uk/