This week’s “Featured Photoblog” is on hold for a special announcement.
No, I’m not talking about the iPhone. The camera on the new iPhone wasn’t even upgraded. Seriously!?
Today is the official launch of DiscoveredArtists.com website.
Disclaimer: I am honored to be a Founding Artist at DiscoveredArtists.com.
Here’s the Press Release from last month -
NEWEST ART MARKETPLACE EXCEEDS FOUNDING ARTIST GOAL
CHICAGO, IL JUNE 13, 2008 DiscoveredArtists.com has enlisted over 200 Founding Artists who will help launch the newest, original art marketplace on July 11, 2008.
According to developer and partner, Brian Walker, two hundred is twice the number of Founding Artists originally targeted by the e-commerce start-up. Walker said, “We’re blown away by the tremendous response and couldn’t be more pleased with the calibre of artists we attracted.”
Founding Artists will be the first artists to post artwork to the website when DiscoveredArtists.com launches next month.
“The site will launch fully stocked with great artwork from day one,” commented Walker. “We can immediately market amazing, original art to buyers who will be absolutely delighted with the artists and quality of work.”
Having an impressive base of talented artists and a wide selection of quality artwork is essential for selling art online. According to business partner, Renee Castelluzzo, “We can attract buyers to the site, but to keep them there and make sales we need inventory at a full range of price points.”
As the full-time marketer for DiscoveredArtists.com, Castelluzzo will attract art buyers to the site. The site focuses exclusively on decorative artwork for homes and offices which allows DiscoveredArtists.com to pour all of its marketing efforts into reaching a relatively narrow, target audience.
“We’re targeting consumers who love to decorate their homes and offices and have the discretionary income to do so,” said Castelluzzo. “If they’re not already buyers of original art we need to show them that they can step up in quality.” The site’s initial consumer marketing campaign asks: “Why buy department store art when you can own an original?”
In addition to targeting consumers, DiscoveredArtists.com will directly market to interior design professionals and serious art collectors. Walker and Castelluzzo will tap into their direct marketing experience to develop and execute a database marketing program to acquire and retain art buyers.
“We know that 80% of our art sales will come from 20% of our visitors, so we’ll want to retain and grow that very valuable segment of our audience,” said Castelluzzo.
Walker added, “We want DiscoveredArtists.com to be the premiere website for buying and selling art online. The art marketing machine will be going non-stop, full force, 100 miles an hour.”
Walker and Castelluzzo began their search for Founding Artists last December at the 2007 Biennale Internazionale Dell’ Arte Contemporanea in Florence, Italy. The two have been scouring art shows for the past six months and have personally reviewed each Founding Artist’s portfolio.
“We’re not art critics,” said Castelluzzo, “We’re looking for artists with obvious talent, and artwork that we know our target audience will want to buy.”
The site will add artists in measured fashion as the audience of art buyers grows. DiscoveredArtists.com will invite another 800 artists to join in the next few weeks. Artwork on the site will include the work of student artists, 2nd career artists, juried professionals, and full and part-time emerging artists.
“We need a wide range of artists and artworks so that buyers won’t feel limited when they search for art,” Walker explained. A powerful search engine will assist buyers in finding artwork by price, media, style, color, size, subject, and shape.
Buyers will also search for artwork by an artist’s career level and experience. “Artist career information helps a buyer appreciate value,” Castelluzzo said. “When you look at the price of an artwork you need to understand and appreciate the experience and achievement behind it.”
Painters, photographers and sculptors who are interested in selling their artworks online at DiscoveredArtists.com may submit their contact informtion by going to www.discoveredartists.com.
The business model is subscription and commission based. Artists pay an annual $50 membership fee for student artists to $99 for experienced artists. For the cost of the annual membership, artists may post an unlimited number of pieces to their online art gallery. A transaction fee is added to cover the cost of credit card processing and a commission ranging from 5% to 10% will be deducted from the selling price of the artwork and charged only when a sale is made. Advanced sellers may negotiate their own memberhship terms and sales commission. Artists who join may cancel membership within ten days for any reason and receive a full refund.
So for all of you photographers and other artists that have been hounding me about this, the site has officially launched!
Next Wednesday I will be posting my review of Camera Lucida for the Your Photo Tips Photography Book Club, which means you only have a few days to finish the book, and get your own reviews in if you wanted to participate. Furthermore, we haven’t received any suggestions for the next book. You can do that in the comments section below or use the contact form to send me an email, otherwise, I’ll just pick the next book myself (I’ve already got one picked out as it is!).
I’m backing up all of my photos and reorganizing, re-tagging, and all of that fun stuff. You should be backing up your images as well (just a friendly reminder).
If you’re interested, the guys over at TWIP are running a contest and giving away a Drobo! which is a huge prize. All you have to do is link to their website in your blog/website/photoblog and they’ll enter your name for the drawing. While I can’t personally vouch for the Drobo, I’ve been dying to get one.
Now here are some fantastic images from you the readers at our Your Photo Tips.com Flickr Group. Enjoy!
Normally, I only show 10 images from the pool, but this week here are a few bonus fireworks images sure to blow your mind!
Hope your 4th of July was both fun and safe. Great job everyone!
Popularity: 8% [?]
If you're new here, thanks for visiting Your Photo Tips. I hope you found the website helpful and informative. To stay updated on all new articles as they come out you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Loading ...
WOWOWOW did I tell you wow - great resource