United3dArtists Archive

Phosphor Gallery is my online art gallery business. http://www.phosphorgallery.com"

FREE STUFF

Phosphor Gallery is my online art gallery business.

Artists won't join unless they see a crowd there already. So I'm offering 10 free six month memberships for forum members or artists you know and recommend.

See the site here http://www.phosphorgallery.com"

To claim one of these memberships make a post in this thread, or PM me, saying that you claim it. Note if it is for yourself or for an artist you recommend. Then you, or the artist, sign up at the gallery site. Don't claim one unless you, or the artist, has decided to use the free offer.

Not required but traditional media (painting, drawing, sculpture, ...) is most helpful right now. Digital art is welcome too.

Comments and suggestions welcome.

I'm interested, its all digital though
there's the gallery on my site
http://www.nigecstudios.co.uk"

and some others on Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nigec999"

Its up to you whether they are worthy

my daughter does fine art bugs and plants, I'm not sure if anything is online, she was in uni but she dropped out for a year

Hi Nigec,

Several of your pictures look like art to me. Mostly the complete scenes. Sign up at the site to get the free deal. At first you'll see your expiration date 30 days in the future but I'll change that to 6 months.

Send some of your daughter's pictures to owner a=t phosphorgallery d=t com. What medium does she work in? You have to be 18+ to join.

Ok will do, I'll drop you a pm and choose which ones you'd like on there.. probably tomorrow, its rather late here lol

She is over 18 (scary!), she favours water colour, but she can turn out some nice work in most medium, I'll have a chat with her tomorrow, I would imagine she'd do some new work, most of her recent work was course work for uni

9 free memberships left. Details: http://www.tscommunity.co.cc/forum/view ... &t=35#p238"

do you have a banner to promote the site?

Hi Nigec,

I'll make one. What size?

at the moment the site runs 250x70
I plan to redo the site and lose the Joomla cms, then I'll have a lot more freedom on the size

9 free memberships left. Details: http://www.tscommunity.co.cc/forum/view ... &t=35#p238"

Nigec, and anyone who would link to the gallery, here is a banner:

It should link to http://www.phosphorgallery.com" of course.

Thanks Finis, now added on the front page

9 free memberships left. Details: http://www.tscommunity.co.cc/forum/view ... &t=35#p238"

Thanks Nigec! Maybe I'll do some trueSpace stuff soon. I hope to work on my chariot.

Nigec: Your site must be popular. The banner produced at least 221 gallery hits during the same period that my Google ads produced 356.

9 free memberships left. Details: http://www.tscommunity.co.cc/forum/view ... &t=35#p238"

I have games on blogger sites all around the world so I get a lot of traffic from them to see if anything new has happened, not bad considering most of the games aren't very good, the Candy Boom game was made with software by a Chinese company so that gets a lot of interest from there, I think if you trace the hits they will be a lot from Asia and Russia
At the end of the day it keeps Phospher high on the search engine lists

The next game will be running ads, my most successful still gets played daily, its 2 years old and probably the worst I ever did, the download version has been downloaded 50.000 times
If you want to make money on the net do small flash games

(Removed help wanted. I'll do it.)

I'm going to add more services to the gallery. Unknown when they will be available.

- Paypal buttons leading to the artist's own Paypal accounts for buyers to pay artists. There would be two different ways available to the artist to produce the buttons. An artist can choose to use the buttons or not of course.

- Artist mini blog. Optional. No pictures and posts must be about art. More trouble for me since I review all published material. Galleries that are still doing well have this or similar features.

- Visitor comments on each artwork. Optional. Screened by artist and me before published.

- Working on a deal for print on demand.

9 free memberships left. Details: vi ... p=238#p238"

I added a feature to put Paypal buttons on the art Buy pages for artists who have Paypal accounts. The buttons go to the artist's own accounts.

9 free memberships left. Details: vi ... p=238#p238"

Your experience and suggestions solicited.

I'm designing a visitor comments system for the gallery. Visitors will be able to comment about the art and the comments will, or may, be displayed.

What have you seen at other websites that allow visitor comments?

What features do you like or dislike about comment systems?

The comments will have to be approved by me (default = approved) and the artist to be shown. There will be a "report this" link for complaints. Opinions or suggestions?

Which way:
1. Visitor must sign up, like on a forum, to make comments. (No legal trouble for me but fewer comments due to effort by visitor.)
2. Doesn't have to sign up to make comments. (Possible legal trouble for me but more comments since easy for visitor.)
Opinions or suggestions?

Do you know of any software (like Perl modules or developer's kits) for this kind of thing?

Anything else you know or think of is appreciated.

Thanks.

9 free memberships left. Details: vi ... p=238#p238"

you really need a registration system with some anti spambot restriction, ie picture codes
if they can just post you;ll get all sorts of cr*p you don't want or need

nigec wrote:you really need a registration system with some anti spambot restriction, ie picture codes
if they can just post you;ll get all sorts of cr*p you don't want or need

Yes sir, anti-spam is a must. It will have anti-spambot protection, maybe captcha (distorted text), or something that has worked well on the existing contact forms.

Registration: Probably there would be fewer but higher quality comments with registration. It also can give a record that a commenter has agreed to have the comment published but the current Terms of Service take care of that too. Also, registering creates a kind of community since commenters would have consistent identies. It is an art gallery, not an online community, but I see that the successful art sites are using more social networking stuff. Also, comments show the artists some activity and that would increase the likelihood of them paying to continue membership.

I'm not thinking of any significant benefits of a no registration system. Anyone know of any?

So, anti-spam is a must and registration is probably the way to go.

Anyone have more suggestions, knowledge, ideas, experience, comments about this or the other stuff above?

Easier method for this:

- Of the comment systems you have used to make comments which was your favorite and why? Give the site if you can so I can look at it.

- If you have decided how comments would work on a site what did you decide to do and why?

Green dot! Now my gallery shows a green check mark dot in Bing and other searches for Norton Safe Web. Good because the not yet reviewed dot might give a false impression.

Decision on comments:
- Visitors will have to do a brief registration to comment on the art.
- Artists will be able to comment with their customer identity.
- Comments will be approved by the artist and me (probably approved by default).
- Artists can turn the comment system on or off for their art.
- Comments will show the date of comment, poster's name or pseudonym, message, and a title like "Gallery Artist", "Visitor", or "Admin".

Any ideas, critiques, suggestions?

9 free memberships left. Details: Click Here

Come on y'all. Help me out. You are or know some artists. Recommend the free offer to them.

I need to make a client side, customer's computer, browser based script or program where the customer would browse for an image file on their computer and the program would read it, resize it, compress it (jpg), and upload the result to the gallery site. Compatibility with various operating systems and browsers needed.

Any suggestions about the best system to do this? Javascript, Java, Flash, ...?

9 free memberships left. Details: Click Here

Edit: I decided to allow uploads of large images and use Perl to process them but I'd would still appreciate advice about doing this client side to avoid the possibly large uploads.

I've got the rubber band part working. Now to neaten up the script and learn to send the info. to a Perl program.

The right and bottom coordinates are 4 pixels too small in IE if the band is stretched to the edges. I'm not sure why.

Click and drag on the image to get the rubber band.
http://www.phosphorgallery.com/spg/RubberBand_TEST.html"

9 free memberships left. Details: Click Here

I'll be shutting down the advertisements and not taking new artists soon. Without adequate employment and no income from the gallery I can't afford the ads and publicity is the product. The ads I have aren't enough to get things started or provide a useful amount publicity to the artists anyway.

The site will remain up while I can afford that.

I'll try to make this a business again sometime when I can.

Finis I am sorry to hear this did not work for you. I hate to admit it but I am just catching up on this thread as I have been buried with other issues.

I like what you are trying to do for the artists on your site but I think one of the issues you need to deal with is redefining your business model. From what I see you have tried to take the experience of going to an art gallery and put it in a web space.

Unlike an art gallery your customers (artists) customers (potential buyers) can wander anywhere they like or create a filtered list of what they wish to see.

Like an art gallery there is an overwhelming struggle to get eyeballs on the art and then the greater struggle of keeping them coming back for more.

Unlike an art gallery you are trying to offer artists a vehicle for working directly with their potential buyers. Therefore, unlike, or much like depending on your perspective, an art gallery you have limited opportunity to generate enough revenue to keep your gallery open.

From what I see you need to create the profile of services you want to offer to artists and consumers and clearly understand what they need, or at least which of their needs you wish to service, before you relaunch.

The broader public (mass market) who shop on the web use the internet for the sake of convenience and are focussed on price competition. If you want to sell to this group you need to offer product that fits the bill. Requiring this audience to go the next step and negotiate a price with an artist makes little sense as they are going to the internet because they are too lazy to get in their car to go to the gallery. Or, they are in too much of a hurry at Christmas time and need to buy 15 gifts in the next 2 hours.

These folks will also want to see some kind of price competition, even within a product itself. If they like a painting but cannot affort $800 for it, 200 of them might pay $15 for a good quality Tshirt with a print, or $9 for a coffee mug with a transfer on it.....

If this is not the market you want to sell to then you need to further refine your market definition. Perhaps you could consider being an online resource for corporate art buyers. These are the folks that work for multi-nationals and buy art for the office spaces.... trust me .... if you hook up with someone in this trade you can sell utter crap for an amazing price simply because they need 200 new genius pieces by Tuesday.

The point of refining your market definition is twofold. Number one, you now have a better explanation of what you can do for your other clients (artsists). Number two, you can now focus your advertising and marketing efforts on a narrower group. You would not launch a national TV campaign to get to corporate buyers. Hunt them down and send them letters of introduction or a simple snappy postcard with an ad on the front.

To interest more artists I think you need to do more for them. They need someone to deal with all the administration of selling on the internet. Collecting and paying sales taxes, dealing with shipping problems etc. are the kinds of things most artists really don't want to deal with. They also need creative help finding new ways to market and sell their product .... like T shirts....

There was some discussion regarding establishing a sense of community on the site. I think this is essential as it can add tremendously to your branding power. The Santa Fe artist group is a great idea.

Finally, as a small aside, your site navigation should really be structured to accomodate the 2 customer streams you have and your menu should remain consistent throughout your visitors experience.

By way of example, when you hit the browse button on the first page you go to a gallery page and the browse button and related menu items drop to the bottom of the menu column. Ergonomically it would be better to have the browse portion remain in the same location and have the other options appear below or create a horizontal menu to go above the frame with the art pieces.

As a final exercise find 5 web sites that you are competing with and make a list. Post the list here and I will add some comments.

Thanks for the advice. Best to be "loaded for bear" when I can try this again so working on improvements and tactics during this down time will be good.

It isn't so much that the gallery didn't work as that I can't get a good job to support the effort. I'm doing part time yard work and I was lucky to get that job. Artists seemed interested but the publicity and sales weren't there to keep them. If I can keep more of the sign ups I might accumulate enough customers to make a profit.

(Long rambling post removed.)

Not about the gallery but I might do a lawn care business now. Mowing, cleaning, trimming, etc. Any ideas for a name for it?

Gangster lawn mower service?
do ... &mode=view"

"Gangster lawn mower service?"

Each followed by "lawn care" ...

Grass-cias (or Muchas Grass-cias)
Home Turf (Companies in other states already use this. Other names with Turf?)
Jack Rabbit (logo ready name)
Yucca (the state flower, logo ready name)

How 'bout:


Bush Miller .... (logo - a swashbuckling adventure hero, make lawn care an adventure )

Finis Your Greens .... (logo - a model front yard with a broccoli tree, identify with the vegans in your town)

The Great Yankee Hedge Clipper .... (logo - a smiling guy with a tri-point cap, an obvious ploy on the patriotism angle)

Trim Your Hedge Ma'am! .... (logo - a leering Mr. Rogers type, skip this one, I had to include it cuz its late and I think of these things when its late, potentially interesting customers that never pay cash)

Lawn, Stock and Barrel .... (logo - a leaf rake, a shotgun and a rain barrel ... good for NRA clients)

Miller Exteriors .... (logo - a silhouette of FM, if advertised correctly this will attract customers with a lotta money)

Lawn Care Am I .... (logo - a simple farmer's face with a cap, if the farmers' face looks something like Yoda)

More ideas later.....

Good luck with this Finis.

Thanks V3rd3.

I'm leaning towards Jack Rabbit Lawn Care since it's simple. I doubt the ability of most people to understand anything sophisticated or imaginative.

Bush Miller ... I like that swashbuckling theme!

The Great Yankee Hedge Clipper ... "Yankee" has a negative connotation here. It means someone from the northeast part of the US.

Trim Your Hedge Ma'am! ... One of my friends suggested Trim Your Bush.

Lawn, Stock and Barrel ... Hey, that's half of the town! Me too.

Miller Exteriors ... Like it. I'll keep this in mind for for the back up plan: house painting. Lotta money? Here?

Lawn Care Am I ... Not understand they will.

I'll probably apply for a business license* today with Jack Rabbit but I can always change it to something better.

Keep those ideas coming!

* A business license has no benefit to me except that the city won't hurt me if I pay the fee each year. It is like protection money for the mafia.

Phosphor Gallery is officially closed. I notified the state and city. I did the paperwork today to start my new business venture Alamo Pulse. The idea is to get mostly amateur articles from anyone in the area who wants to write one and publish the good ones on the site. Income will be from advertisers. Just test stuff there now. Which categories should get the large picture areas? http://www.alamopulse.com"

Which looks better?

1. http://www.alamopulse.com/wp-content/up ... eImage.jpg"
2. http://www.alamopulse.com"
3. http://www.bavotasan.com/articles/magaz ... um-is-out/"

I would not look at 3.... 1 & 2 look like efforts at an e-zine.

2 has more the appearance of a newspaper so if you are planning on mainly text content this might be more functional.

I like 1 as well, both designs are easy to read and catch the eye well. However, the initial emphasis on the images distracts from what I believe you are trying to do. Perhaps a smaller window for the images would work. It would leave more space for text in the upper part of the page.

Thanks V3rd3.

What's wrong with 3?

These layouts have lots of options but still keep their basic "look and feel".

Everyone is welcome to give an opinion.

I liked "one" the best since it had the largest panel to show a photo or graphic image.
I didn't like the others because of all the small panels which gave me the feeling of clutter.
The first one could have the main article (which grabs the reader's attention) with smaller articles following.
None should have real small text since you may have lots of retiree subscribers.

Thanks!

Trying not to reveal my own preferences or priorities so that I get your ideas/opinions/info. without influence of mine.

The most interested in reading (anything) are the older people and retirees, the technicians/engineers/scientists working at the nearby AFB and research facilities, educated locals, and a small number of youths (mostly the private schooled). The older females however are the least internet savvy. These people vary greatly in their interests.

Blast away with good and bad about these site themes. I may even look for another theme if needed. I handcrafted every part of Phosphor Gallery so I was attached to it. Alamo Pulse is pure business so while I have preferences I'm not stuck on any particular theme and I'm using available tools to do it.

Oh, Chuck is on. Time to watch TV.

Finis wrote:Thanks V3rd3.

What's wrong with 3?

These layouts have lots of options but still keep their basic "look and feel".

Everyone is welcome to give an opinion.

From what you are describing I just think 1 and 2 are really good base lines whereas 3 would be good for a single topic type of publishing. I could see 1 and 2 as layouts for a newspaper but 3 would be more of a craft or trade magazine layout.

3 is attractive enough I just don't think it suits your purpose.

So far from these comments and what others have said there is about 50/50 preference for the literary or text focused style vs. the images/active style.

Universal factors so far: text size, look/style/layout should be good for multi-topic, crowding.

I changed the layout for style 2 to have 2 columns of articles on the front page instead of 3. That looks less crowded. I was thinking about getting a lot of articles on the front page when I picked 3 columns.

Style 1 has sections for categories and style 2 has categories but the layout shows the most recent articles.

Style 1's producer/company seems unreliable for maintaining/updating/supporting this product.

I think I'll use style 1 to start. If I make some money then I'll get style 3 which is not free to mimic style 2 but add some features. It has a lot of options and controls so I would use it to make a theme/style that tries to have the professional/literary look and also has more active/web/image things like a feature article slider. The relative reliability of the companies is a factor there too. I can also poll readers for which or what they prefer.

After further "focus groups" and consideration of various factors this, http://www.alamopulse.com" , will be the style for Alamo Pulse plus or minus a little. Much is still unfinished. Some people have expressed interest in writing.

I'll probably add an image slider for recent posts later. It will not be as large as the other style's slider and will change at a more subdued rate.

I changed the layout to be less crowded by using wider columns for articles and only one sidebar. I increased the thumbnail picture size a little and enlarged the main body text. I'll work on the other small text later. Text size is a problem with the serif fonts. It will start to look bold if made too large.

I still have the domain name http://www.phosphorgallery.com" . I heard from a guy who wants to buy the domain name. He owns phosphor studio and phosphorgallery.net. Any ideas about pricing the domain name?