Internet video has completely changed the world in the last few years and it’s become the most popular medium for entertainment and training. We wanted to create a way that our members could quickly turn their ArtWanted.com portfolio images into a video and we are excited to announce that this feature is now live!

ArtWanted.com members can now create unlimited portfolio videos for free, through our integration with Animoto.com. Within minutes, you can create an exciting portfolio video that can be posted on YouTube, Facebook, ArtWanted.com or any other websites. We will even auto-populate your video with your 25 most recent uploads to get you up and running quickly. These are not boring slideshow videos, they are full of animations, transitions and special effects to really show off your artwork.

This Free Video Feature Includes:

• Unlimited 30-second portfolio videos
• Dynamic, themed video styles – Each video is unique
• 600+ audio tracks to choose from for background music
• Upload additional images from your computer
• Add animated video frames with your own text

This new video feature is available for all ArtWanted.com members and can be used to create as many videos as you want. Additional upgrades such as more templates, longer videos, more music and HD options are also available for a small fee.

On top of these changes, we have also added a new “Videos” tab to your ArtWanted.com portfolio. You can use this area to watch the new videos you have created with our system or display ANY other video that is found on the Internet that you like. (See Example) As expected, we also record the number of hits your video tab is getting and report this in our statistics area.

We can’t wait to see the videos you can create with your artwork, so visit the new Portfolio Video area inside your ArtWanted.com members area to get started. Once you create a video, feel free to share the link to the video by replying to this message post.

UPDATE: We have created a quick tutorial on how to get your videos from Animoto.com to your portfolio page. View Tutorial

Enjoy!!!

Create Video Now

PS - Here are a few sample videos from our members to show what can be done...

Artist: Lucia Stewart

We have just added some additional functionality to the new watermark feature based on our users feedback.

You can NOW change the watermark image, reposition the watermark or completely remove the watermark from your images.

To make any of these changes, simply visit the EDIT IMAGE page of your artwork and change your watermark settings for that image. Enjoy!

NOTE: These new features are only available for NEW images that are uploaded and watermarked from 4/12/12 going forward.

ArtWanted.com is always looking for ways to bring more exposure to the artists and artwork on our website. A recent poll on our Facebook page showed that almost all of our Facebook fans would like to see more artwork posted to the ArtWanted.com Facebook Page from our members. In response to this overwhelming request, we are going to start promoting more artwork and photographs on our Facebook page throughout each week. This will be in addition to the daily featured artwork we have already been doing for months.

The artwork that we feature on Facebook will be hand selected by our staff, but you can influence our choices by the images you comment on and add to your favorites. To qualify for this additional exposure, you must at least have a Facebook page and have that linked to your ArtWanted.com portfolio from our social media sites page. This makes sure that only members that use Facebook will get the chance to have their artwork featured on our Facebook page.

Studies have shown that photos/artwork uploaded directly to Facebook receive much more exposure/views than links. Because of this, we will be posting a watermarked low-resolution version of the artwork that we feature to give our artists maximum exposure. The watermark will include the artist's name and portfolio website address. We will also include the title, artist name and link to their ArtWanted.com portfolio in the comments for every image that we highlight. We will also notify the artist via e-mail on the day we feature their artwork.

If you DO NOT want to have your artwork featured on our Facebook page, we have created setting on our social media links page, so you can opt-out of this additional exposure. Again, if you don’t have a Facebook page linked to your portfolio, you don’t need to opt-out, because this will only be an option for artists with a Facebook page. If you artwork is featured on our Facebook page, and you don’t want it there, just let us know and we can remove it.

We are excited about this new option to bring more exposure to the artists found on our site and hope all our Facebook fans enjoy the new selection of art they will be seeing each day. Enjoy!

PS - If you are not already a fan of our Facebook page, visit: www.Facebook.com/ArtWanted and LIKE us!

ArtWanted.com is testing a new feature that has been requested by many of our members… Instant Image Watermarks!

This new system will add an optional watermark to the images that you upload to your ArtWanted.com portfolio automatically. This feature is available to both free and Premium members. We now offer 4 types of watermarks:

• ArtWanted.com Logo (long version)
• ArtWanted.com Logo 2 (square version)
• Large Copyright Symbol
• Custom Watermark Text (you type what you want on the image)

The semi-transparent watermarks are designed with both light & dark areas, so they will be seen with lighter or darker images.

We have made this feature live on the upload page and are now beta testing this with our users. You will see the options to select the watermark type and also the choose where to position the watermark on the image.

NOTE: The watermark will only appear on the larger image in your portfolio (not the thumbnails) and will NOT be posted on the high-resolution images that would be used for Premium print-on-demand program.

Watermarking your images provides an additional layer of protection to reduce image theft and it's also useful for self-promotion.

We want your feedback! Please try out the new watermark feature on your next image upload and let us know what you think. Tell us if you have any problem or have any suggestions on how it can be improved. Please post your comments by replying to this message.

UPDATE 4/14/2012: Good news! We have just added some additional features to the watermarks. You can now change the watermark image, reposition the watermark or completely remove the watermark from your images. NOTE: These new features are only available for NEW images that are uploaded and watermarked from 4/12/12 going forward.

Enjoy!

PS - Click the image below to see some samples.

This month ArtWanted.com celebrates our 13th Birthday!

Back in 1999 when we started ArtWanted.com, the web was much different than it is today. Much has changed in the last 13 years, but ArtWanted.com is still committed to helping artists around the world connect with each other and bring more exposure to their artwork portfolios.

To celebrate the ArtWanted.com Birthday, we will be adding several new upgrades this month for everyone to enjoy. In the last few weeks we have already gone live with our new crop tool, image rotate feature and this week we launched our Pinterest Integration.

On top of these new features, we are offering our Premium Membership at the amazing price of only $29 for a whole year! That's less than $2.50/month and a 50% savings from our normal monthly price. You can have your cake and eat it too!

Upgraded Premium Features Include:

Learn More / Upgrade Now

We hope you can take advantage of our special Premium Membership offer. This discounted price is only valid from Feb. 9th through Feb. 29th, 2012. Upgrade today and SAVE BIG!

We hope you enjoy the new features we will be launching this month for our birthday celebration!

Pinterest.com is a fairly new social media site that is growing like crazy. The basic concept is that you "pin" things that you find on the Internet that you like and want to share with others. It's a very visual site that is perfect for artists and photographers to get ideas from and to share their art/photos with others. If you are not familiar with Pinterest.com, you soon will be.

ArtWanted.com is happy to announce that we have added Pinterest as one of our main social media sites that we are integrated with.

What does this mean? Let us tell you...

1) As you upload artwork/photos to ArtWanted.com, you can now click on the new "Pinterest Icon" to quickly pin/share your art with your friends that follow you on Pinterest.

2) Other people that are surfing ArtWanted.com can also "pin" your artwork in the same way, which will promote your art to new audience and all images link back to your ArtWanted.com portfolio.

3) If you have Pinterest account, you can add this account to your "Social Media Settings" page, which will create a new "Follow Me on Pinterest" button on your main portfolio page.

These new Pinterest options will help make it easier to share your art to your Pinterest friends and promote your talent to a whole new audience. Enjoy!

ArtWanted.com is working on a whole new website design for the summer of 2012. The new website will have a new look and feel and many new upgrades.

While our developers are working on this, we wanted to gather your feedback on what is important to you and what changes you would like to see this year.

We value your feedback, so please let us know how we can make ArtWanted.com even better by answering a few questions on our survey below.

Take Member Survey Now

We have just added another new image tool for our members to use, the Image Crop Feature.

Every day we see artwork that is uploaded to ArtWanted.com that has some unwanted areas around the border of the image. Sometimes the picture frame is tilted and doesn't look right, sometimes there is an unwanted background in the photo of the artwork and other times we see areas of the artwork that just need to be cropped off.

With our new Image Crop Tool, you can quickly remove those unwanted areas of your artwork with just a few clicks.

There are multiple ways to get to the new image crop tool:

• Click the new crop icon after you post a new image.
• Click the "Crop This Image" link from the Edit Image page.
• Click the "Crop This Image" from the bottom-left menu when looking at your portfolio image.

We hope you enjoy this new online cropping tool to quickly clean-up any unwanted areas of your artwork & photos. Enjoy!

PS - Check out the new Image Rotate Tool, too!

We have just added a new feature on ArtWanted.com to quickly rotate your portfolio images.

If you upload an image to your portfolio and you notice that it's side-ways or upside-down, you can now click the ROTATE button to quickly rotate your image to the correct orientation.

There are multiple ways to get to the new image rotation page:

• Click the rotate icon after you post a new image.
• Click the "Rotate Image" link from the Edit Image page.
• Click the "Rotate This Image" from the bottom-left menu when looking at your portfolio image.

We hope this new tool saves you a little time when you need to rotate the images in your ArtWanted.com portfolio.

PS - Check out the new Image Crop Tool, too!

We wanted to let everyone know that the 2012 calendars have been printed and are now shipping out to everyone that pre-ordered the calendar.

If you live in the US, you will receive an e-mail from us with your delivery tracking information. Most of the pre-ordered calendars have been shipped out at this point and the remaining calendars will ship before December 10th, 2011.

We expect to sell out soon, so if you have not yet ordered your calendar (especially if your artwork was selected) we encourage you to do so before they are gone.

Thanks to everyone that participated in our two calendars this year and we hope they bring you additional exposure to your artwork.

Learn More | Order Now