07 January, 2010
  • ArtWanted.com Staff
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  • 8 Comments

2009 Year In Review & Member Survey

Each year we like to give a quick recap of the previous year for all our members to read. 2009 was a great year for ArtWanted.com! We had over 5,000 new artists join our site and we built a handful of upgrades for our members to enjoy. Here is a quick review of these new features...

NEW WEBSITE FEATURES IN 2009:

  • New Quick Zoom Premium Feature - Hover over part of an image to magnify the artwork up to 3x for a closer look at the details.

  • New Full-Screen Premium Feature - Premium Members can activate the option to have their images display at full-screen.

  • ArtWanted.com Blog - For our members to quickly read everything that is changing on our website.

  • New Twitter & Facebook Pages - ArtWanted.com got into social media in 2009 by creating an active Facebook and Twitter page for our members.

  • New Statistics Reports - This new report shows who is looking at your portfolio and how they found you.

  • New Server Equipment & Optimizations - The recent upgrades we did to our servers has increased the performance of our website and decreased our site down-time.

  • New Artist Store - This new section of your portfolio page filters only the artwork you have for sale on our site.

  • Improved Sales Notifications - We added multiple ways to inform our members when they have a sale on our site.

  • New Website: ArtistMarketingTips.com - A new website dedicated to helping artists better market their artwork.

WE WANT YOUR FEEDBACK!

ArtWanted.com has many great plans for 2010, but we also want to have your "wish list" of the things you want from ArtWanted.com this year. We have created a simple survey for all our members to give us some feedback on a few topics and suggestions on what features/upgrades you would like to see in the near future. Your comments are very important to us and we hope you can take the time to fill out this short survey...

www.ArtWanted.com/members/survey

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8 Comments

Johnny Driggers 08 Jan 2010

7) What new features/upgrades would you like to see on ArtWanted.com?

1. comments on the front page of an artist's portfolio. 2. the ability to see other artists 'artwatch' list and favorite images 3. more control over the appearance of your portfolio 4. the ability to change the color of that white area that the images sit in, and make it different for each image (with pencils the tones look better against a black background and certain color images look better against different color backgrounds, kind of like a blue shirt makes blue eyes look good, or a green dress on a redhead) nothing to gaudy maybe pastels or something. 5. a return of the ability to click on someones profile pic and get a larger version, with all the beautiful people at artwanted I may want to draw one of them of them some day.

Johnny Driggers 08 Jan 2010

here's a few more I thought of after I took the survey.

1.beef up the contests... have at least one a month, announce upcoming contests on the front page and new contests on the message boards maybe in 'general discussion' or here (some of us have givin' up looking in the contest section) and announce the winners here and maybe email the winning picture along with some of the artists thoughts about it to all the members as part of the prize, that way they have maximum exposure. Also give it more exposure on the front page, make it bigger and let us comment on it right on the front page.

2. maybe have an art news section on the front page or discussion area, I don't know how much art news there is in the world but there's got to be enough for one article a week or at least a few links to some articles that we could comment on, especially if you let us submit links to articles, it would be educational and it would also help livin up the place, particularly the front page if it were there which I just click right by sometimes.

3. on the front page you could showcase an artists personal website or aw portfolio (maybe as part of the contest prize) with a few thoughts about their work by whoever runs this place and maybe by the artist and also a comments section so we can say "hey nice website super-artist!"

Johnny Driggers 08 Jan 2010

oh yeah, as far as the contests goes, some of them may be more fun if the pictures weren't hidden and we could make comments as the contest progresses, not all of the contests but it would be fun on some contests like maybe once a week we could have a 'sketch pad' contest that only lasts one day so it has to be drawn fast and it would have to be a unique subject that you'd give us so you'd know it was drawn that day, something fun like an artwanted member or a celebrity fighting a duck or something. you wouldn't even need a prize for it because the giggles would be enough, maybe it could be held in the general discussion area instead of the contest area

Saturday Night Sketch Night! every week, it would also promote awareness of the sketch pad (because I completely forgot it was there until just now.)

maybe a photo-manipulation contest

and maybe you could automate the contests some so we'd be guaranteed at least one a month, one month pencils the next oils and so on, and go by subjects as well like portraits then abstracts or landscapes and holidays, but also have artist requested contests as well so we have several a month.

I think you should hire someone to take care of the contests if they were held on a more regular basis and had good prizes like a few months of free premium membership, members would go to other art-site message boards or their own site and invite people to come and vote for them to win, then they may sign up themselves. And the winner may like their free premium membership so much they decid e to keep it.

LouAnn Knight 09 Jan 2010

I agree with Johnny that clicking on a person's picture should enlarge it so we can actually see what they look like. It's redundant to have a picture if the features aren't clear enough to see it. and.. a pet peave of mine is !) if I click into AW from my email on the link provided, why am I not automatically signed in. In lieu of that, why am I not returned to the location where I was when it was indicated I wasn't signed in. I click on the little 'login" and end up at my own portfolio then I have to go back to my email to get back to the original location of the link I clicked on in the first place. What a pain. It's easier to comment as ANNONYMOUS GUEST... than go thru that...

Vincent von Frese 09 Jan 2010

Is there a feature allowing members to create a zipp file of all out gallery pictures?


ArtWanted.com Staff 11 Jan 2010

Thanks for all your feedback. This is why we have surveys, so we can see what our members want and improve the website for everyone.

As for a zip file download, yes we do have this feature already. Just go to your manage portfolio section of your members area and click on the download portfolio button.

Maureen Bloesch 27 Mar 2010

everyone said exactly what i wanted to say... but overall Artwanted is a good site...

jerry carlin 28 Mar 2010

the ability to comment on our Blogs! most blogs have this feature but our do not! Sometimes I feel as if I am talking to myself. If responces were allowed I would know what someone was interested in. Now it is like having a blog with no audience! I blog about my cancer often and would like to have comments!

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