New ArtWanted.com Upgrades!

Welcome to the all NEW ArtWanted.com! We have just launched a new version to our website with dozens of new features for our members. Below is a brief summary of the new upgrades to our site and we hope you all enjoy them!

1) ALL NEW LOOK AND FEEL

We have completely redesigned the look and feel of ArtWanted.com to give it a more updated design. The new design uses the latest web design technologies, clean layout, easy navigation and colorful icons to help you quickly find what you are looking for on the website.

2) MORE IMAGES FOR FREE MEMBERS

As part of our changes, we have increased the number of images that our free account holders can upload. You can now upload 50 images for every year you have been a member of our site. We have dropped the monthly upload limits and you can now upload dozens of images on a single day.

3) ARTIST GROUPS

We are very excited to announce our new 'Artist Groups' feature. Inside the 'Community' section of our website, you will find an area where any member can create or join an artist group. These artist groups share common interests and have their own group image gallery and group message boards. All members can join and/or create an unlimited amount of artist groups. (For example, if you really like to paint horses, you can create a 'Horse Paintings' group and other members will join that also have an interest in paintings of horses.) The group administrator manages and moderates the group, so the topics/images say within the group guidelines. We feel the artist groups will be a big hit with all our members and a great way to become friends with other artists on our site.

4) NEW PRINT PRODUCTS

As we previously announced, we have launched 6 new products with this update. These new products are instantly available on all artwork that is participating in the ArtWanted.com print program. The new products are: 3M Post-It Posters, Chromalux Prints, Chromalux Wall Panels, Keepsake Boxes, Playing Cards and Travel Mugs. For more details on these products, go to: http://www.artwanted.com/mb/Topic.cfm?Topic=462708

5) ARTWANTED.COM BANK ACCOUNT

We have created a new feature called the ArtWanted.com Bank Account. This is a virtual bank account of all the money you have earned through original artwork sales, prints sales, our referral program, widget clicks and other revenue opportunities. All money you earn on our site is now combined into one location, so you don't need to look in multiple places to see what your ArtWanted.com membership has earned. As you accumulate money through our site, you can go to the bank account page to request a payment via PayPal or check. This new area is found in your members area.

6) SHOPPING WITH YOUR ARTWANTED.COM ACCOUNT CREDIT

If you have any money in your ArtWanted.com bank account, then you can now use that money to purchase any product/service we offer. To use the credit you have on our site, simply add items to your cart you are interested in purchasing, and then on the final checkout page, you will see a place to apply your ArtWanted.com Bank Account balance. Now you can easily use any money you have received through our print sales or other programs.

7) IMPROVED SITE NAVIGATION

One thing we wanted to do with this new version was to make it easier to find what you are looking for on our site. Because of this, we have added many elements to our site to help you navigate the many pages that we have. The biggest improvement in this area is the 'cookie trail' found at the top of every page. This feature allows you to see exactly where you are at on the site, related to pages you have been to. You can click on any page to jump back a level. Many other elements have been added to help our users navigate the site better.

8) BIGGER FOCAS ON SELLING ART

One thing that has been requested by our members was to have a bigger focus on selling artwork. Because of this, we have updated our site to be more 'sales' focused. You will notice an all new 'Shop' section of our site that steps the user through the artwork purchase process. We also display the low & high price of the artwork in the search results, if the user is shopping for art. Many other elements have been added, and will continue to be added in the near future, so turn more 'browsers' into 'buyers'.

9) IMPROVED QUALITY FOR OUR PRINT PRODUCTS

Several of our core print products have been updated to a better quality product with this update. We have updated our entire photo print line to use premium Kodak paper, we have new materials for our canvas prints and our postcards have also been improved. We will continue to look for ways to offer the highest quality products at great prices.

10) FEATURED IMAGE GALLERY

As most of you know, each day we highlight a special artist/artwork on our home page. These images are selected by our staff at random and anyone is eligible to be highlighted. We have created a new gallery called the 'Featured Image Gallery' that is found in the BROWSE section of our site. This special gallery displays all the artists and images that have been featured in the past on our home page and contains some great artwork from our members.

11) NEW CONTESTS AREA

Later today, we will be going live with an all new contests area for ArtWanted.com - We have created a very powerful yet automated system, so the new contests, voting dates and contest closing dates will all run without a staff member getting involved (or forgetting about them). Not only this, we will be launching a new contest every Monday morning of every week. That means 52 art contests throughout the year and each one will have prizes given to the winner. Watch for some exciting new contests and prizes in the very near future.

12) NEW MYSTERY PHOTO CONTEST

On top of our normal art contests we will be having weekly, we are starting a new contest called the 'Mystery Photo'. Each week, we will display a new photo that has been slightly altered, colorized or cropped so it's tricky to tell what it is. Each member can guess what the object is for the 'mystery photo' and we will award prizes to some of these lucky members. Watch for our first 'mystery photo' contest coming later this week.

13) FASTER PAYMENT TIMES

While most other art websites pay commissions on a quarterly basis, we want to make sure you have your commissions quickly. Because of this, we will now be paying artwork sales commissions twice a month. Once you have a sale, simply go to your ArtWanted.com bank account and request a payment and we will make sure you get paid within a week or two. This new 'payment request' form also helps reduce payment problems or incorrect information on file, which has caused payment delays in the past.

14) QUICK PORTFOLIO LINK

At the top of every page, you will find a link to your portfolio next to your login name. This allows you to quickly jump to your personal portfolio from any page of our site.

15) ART WATCH IMPROVMENTS

Inside your members area, you can now see a list of all the members that have added you to their ArtWatch list. You can also quickly remove all of your ArtWatch members with a click of a button.

16) BLOG IMAGES

For those Premium Members that are using the Blog feature, you can now upload images to your blog. These images add a better visual appeal to your blog and invite others to read your blog more.

17) COMMENTS PAGES

Inside your members area, you can now sort all of your image comments by date or image name. You are also no longer limited to 20 images. We have added the back/next buttons to this page, so you can go back as far as you want to read comments that have been posted on your portfolio images.

18) NEW STATISTICS DATA

Today we have turned on some new traffic monitoring code on our website, which is tracking additional details on your images and portfolio. This data is being reviewed and tweaked, so that we can provide you with some additional statistics reports in your members area in the near future.

19) MANY MINOR UPGRADES

Besides the major upgrades mentioned above, we have also made dozens of smaller upgrades to the site that have been requested by our members. You will notice new things 'here and there' that help you better manage your portfolio and navigate the site.

20) WE'RE NOT DONE YET

We hope everyone enjoys these new updates that we have made to the site. We updated hundreds of pages of code for this release, so please be patient as we work out some of the bugs and design issues that we will discover over the next few days. If you find any pages that are not working right, or don't look right, please report them to us right away, so that we can fix them ASAP.

There are many upgrades that are in the middle of development that we simply did not get time to complete before this release. Because of this, we have several other great upgrades planned for ArtWanted.com in the near future. We have turned-off the 'Top Ten' reports with this release, because we are working on a brand new system that will be a big improvement over our previous system. Continue to watch the message boards and e-mails for these announcements of additional upgrades that are coming to ArtWanted.com.

Thanks for your support and we hope you enjoy these new upgrades. Please let us know your thoughts and if you have any questions about these new areas.

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