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Is anyone here a fan of the artist who lent an ear helping narrow down the dozens of papers we're choosing between?
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Art.Page Update 06/01/24 - Prints & Alpha
Happy 2024 everyone! It’s been a while since the last update because I want to give an update with something meaningful, so here’s the highlights of what’s been happening behind the scenes:
Print Service
Ohhh boy this was so much more work than I could have imagined, but I’m happy to say this will be launching early February!
The lease is signed and I get the keys to the unit on the 15th of January, if you happen to live near Glasgow feel free to drop me a DM and you can come round for a cup of tea and some biscuits :D It'll be based out of Many Studios which is a small creator community here, I’m super excited to get this off the ground at long last!
The printer of choice is an Epson SureColor 7500, it's an incredible 12 colour inkjet (Giclée) printer. The wide array of inks it has gives it an extensive color gamut capable of 99% Pantone coverage, and the prints it creates can last for up to 200 years (400 in black/white). It’s arguably one of the best fine art printers available on the market.
The goal as with everything else at art.page is to have artist friendly pricing and to try and find the happy middle ground that other companies have missed out on. Here I’m hoping that there’d be interest in prints that are higher quality than standard digital cardstock, but cheaper than traditional fine art printers. A large amount of the cost in making prints is staff time setting up and managing jobs, so as you can see in the pricing below it’s set up to encourage that and pass the savings onto you.
These prices will likely change over the coming months, but this is what we’re starting with: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hRzAfImbJ6z10Crqa96qxPpbOglORANzBFRpCCPgjc8/edit?usp=sharing
If you’re an artist who has experience buying/selling prints, please reach out, I'd be happy to give anyone who places an order before February a substantial discount - Email [email protected], or DM me directly to sort this out.
Why focus on the print service over the site builder?
To tell the complete truth, the answer is money and thinking ahead to when people would be willing to actually pay a subscription for the site builder. It would be very easy to launch that, grow the site, but end up in an awkward stage where the site is up, bills need to be paid, but it’s not really in a place that artists would spend money on it compared to more mature offerings already available elsewhere.
I don’t want art.page to end up like many other creator oriented sites that promise the world and never go anywhere because the founders need to work a full time job whilst working on the site and burn out (those of you who have used commiss.io, or waiting on the likes of haru/easelcat will be well aware of the disappointment involved).
The print service was the solution to that, because it does two major things:
Gets revenue almost instantly so the bills can be paid, and development continues
Encourages subscriptions because you get a discount included in the master tier subscription (If you’re ordering more than a few prints the discount pays for the subscription instantly, even if you just subscribe and cancel again immediately after)
So what’s the current state of the site builder?
Now that all the (unholy number) of decisions have been made for the print service, and I know when money will be coming in, I’m glad to announce that it will be going live next week.
So when will you start charging for everything?
The current rough goal is to offer a discounted subscription (to reflect that not all the features are present yet) once the following features are available:
A site builder you can use to create a portfolio site and some marketing pages
The ability to use a custom domain for your site
Print service operational
And to reiterate, there is a free tier so even when that happens, if you’re happy with what you make and using https://domain.art.page nothing will change for you, that’ll just carry on working as normal.
Discord overhaul
The discord has also had a bit of an overhaul now in prep of the launch next week, thanks to the new moderator @missaethe for helping organise everything and making this place tidier!
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So I've got some good news and some bad news on this topic.
Lingerie is supportable (as are things like boudoir photography) however in all their photos, no genitalia can be exposed and all female nipples must be covered.
I know that's not exactly perfect, but payment providers are very sticky around not supporting sites which host pornogrpahy (images/videos of real people, this doesn't apply to artworks).
Hope this helps! I'll update the terms on our site to reflect this when the launch update goes live next week.
I'm really looking forward to using your app, especially for my illustration work. However I am a fashion designer for lingerie and would love to show the awesome artwork that goes into product design. What is your policy on the display and promotion of undergarments regardless of body coverage?
Thanks and good luck on the back end
Appreciate the kind words <3
Artworks and product design of lingerie there would be absolutely no issues.
Where it gets tricky is if it involves photography of real people modelling the lingerie? We have no issues with it but payment processors can be uneasy when it starts getting into gray areas like this, as it depends if it's classified as nudity or pornographic content.
I'm going to reach out to Stripe and try to refine that section of our terms further, so thanks for bringing this to my attention!
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I just saw your post with resources for creating a mailing list & wanted to say thank you - I've been trying to build a mailing list for my art & my writing over the last few weeks & have felt like I've been walking into a brick wall video-game style. So thank you for the resources!
Thanks for the kind words and glad it helped!
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what is your stance on AI?
To quote from the terms of the site:
"We do not allow any Artist Content created using artificial intelligence generators, or similar technologies, to be posted on art.page"
AI Image generators are the key focus in this clause, as AI is a quickly advancing field there will likely be many new products launched which can help to improve artists and creators lives. Content generated with the assistance of those tools may be permissible in the future, if you're uncertain feel free to reach out and I'd be happy to chat about it.
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Other platforms can take payments and donations. How is this better than any other web hosting platform? Your solutions seem to be like any other recommendations. I have an email list. I've had websites, they are useless. Not only that, but I can't gather much interest on social media. How does your idea help with any of these issues?
Good questions! I'll answer this as best I can, but some of these topics are huge that'll I'll be covering in more depth in future posts, so if you don't follow be sure to tag along and not miss them!
"How is this better than other web hosting platforms?"
Compared to self hosting your own website (eg wordpress), this is infinitely simpler to do, you don't need to worry about paying for servers to host it, configuring them, estimating bandwidth/number of visitors, and don't need to deal with coding/designing the site. I've seen a lot of ugly wordpress sites from people who don't know what they're doing.
Compared to managed solutions like Shopify/Wix etc, those are powerful platforms that offer a lot of advanced tools for the wide range of businesses they support. In my user interviews a lot of creators said designing a site with them can be overwhelming and confusing because of decision fatigue. Additionally getting functionality like commission management and fan subscriptions can need 3rd party plugins with additional costs. They cost more money and don't have something equivalent to our hobby tier with no monthly fee!
We're quite similar to creator oriented sites like Ko-Fi/Patreon, but with the spin of putting your brand first. How often do you hear people say "check out my patreon/check out my ko-fi". What we're looking to do here is put that on it's head and put your brand first, so instead you would say "if you want to see behind the scenes check out my website for more". The goal is basically to give the functionality of these kind of sites, bundled in a way that can be used as your personal website.
Also because we focus on artists and creators, we can use our printing services to offer managed merch to help you earn more revenue without the extra work/costs involved of buying stock to resell. I think Patreon does this as well now.
"I have an email list. I've had websites, they are useless"
I don't know any specifics about your business, but it sounds like you've tried using these but perhaps not in the right way? They are absolutely not useless.
You need to think of these as tools to be used as part of a marketing plan & sales funnel to convert clients, by themselves they can't make you sales.
Having a website is a key part of adding value to your brand, imagine you wanted to hire someone to provide service Y to you. You search around and find two people that you know nothing about online. One of them has a website, the other is a twitter profile with a few photos and a tweet that says "I do X, DM me if you want to hire me". Which looks more professional immediately?
If you visit that persons website and see testimonies from previous clients, examples of work they've complete in the past, some paragraphs around how their work has provided value to their clients or perhaps the moral principles they use to run their business. Then you have various methods of getting in touch with them easily available on a contact page including email, phone, contact form, various social media sites. Based on this alone who are you more likely to do business with?
Mailing lists are very powerful, you could fill a book with how to properly manage email marketing effectively, and I'll make posts in the future around this very topic.
The short version of that will be to make sure you're using them in a way that will encourage your mail subscribers to open your emails, which will depend massively on why they signed up in the first place. Was it just for a freebie? Did you promise behind the scenes content? perhaps guides and tips on how to do x/y/z?
Every time they open that email you are building a repertoire with them, and even if they don't need you today, if they need someone to perform your skillset in the future you can put yourself right at the top of their list.
"I can't gather much interest on social media"
Again, social media is just another tool, and should be viewed as such.
Unfortunately many creators post content to these platforms hoping that they'll get lucky go viral, unfortunately luck due to its nature is a variable which cannot be relied upon when forming a marketing plan.
art.page can't help you post content to social media and go viral, but again I'll be making more posts around this topic in the future about how to approach building a marketing plan to grow your business and convert more clients.
Some food for thought though:
Why should anyone engage with your content? Why would anyone want to follow you to see future content? What type of content is each social media algorithm encouraging more of at each time? Eg shorts/reels, long/short form content? Should you post hourly/daily/monthly?
How do you convert someone from a follower on twitter to buying from you? Do you have a different strategy for your TikTok or Instagram? There's nothing you can do to guarantee anyone on these sites ever buys from you, but you can increase your odds of it happening by making sure your actions are deliberate and designed to encourage them to move further down your sales funnel.
In short
art.page is another tool to be used. Each part of it isn't unique, but how it's all being put together is different.
I hope time will prove it differentiates itself by putting your brand first and and simplifies parts of your business so you can spend that time working on marketing/improving skills/making products.
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hey ! is this just for drawings and paintings and stuff or does it support poetry and stuff like that too?
I want to offer a home for all types of artists! Poets are absolutely included in that <3
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For the wait list, how do we get a referral code?
You don't need a referral code to sign up to the wait list, if you know someone already on the list you can enter their domain name during the sign up process and you both get a free month of a paid plan credited to your account (once setup is complete). This should happen automatically if someone sends you their referral link available on their dashboard.
To get access and use the site, you need an alpha invite code, and not many of those have been given out yet.
We're aiming to start sending out those to more people from the 31st of October, earliest sign ups first.
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I'm really looking forward to using your app, especially for my illustration work. However I am a fashion designer for lingerie and would love to show the awesome artwork that goes into product design. What is your policy on the display and promotion of undergarments regardless of body coverage?
Thanks and good luck on the back end
Appreciate the kind words <3
Artworks and product design of lingerie there would be absolutely no issues.
Where it gets tricky is if it involves photography of real people modelling the lingerie? We have no issues with it but payment processors can be uneasy when it starts getting into gray areas like this, as it depends if it's classified as nudity or pornographic content.
I'm going to reach out to Stripe and try to refine that section of our terms further, so thanks for bringing this to my attention!
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Problems facing modern artists & creators
I've talked with hundreds of artists and creators about the difficulties they face trying to earn a living from their craft.
This post covers two of the big ones (social media algorithms & bargain basement marketplaces), and what tools are available to grow your business despite these issues.
Social Media Algorithms and Audience Ownership
Social media platforms are a godsend for getting your work in front of potential clients and building a loyal fan base.
However as you will all have experienced, it can take a mastermind to figure out what kind of content the algorithm wants you to post, and if you don't do that you'd be as well throwing your content into the void as even your own followers might not see your post, never mind new viewers.
It also means you don't truly own your audience, if you post something slightly controversial your account could be deleted without warning, or perhaps a billionaire buys the site and everyone flocks to a new platform where you have to start growing your following all over again.
Solution: Build a mailing list
This is perhaps the single best marketing tool available to any business, and is sorely overlooked by artists and creators.
It's cost effective and because you own your mailing list it doesn't matter what's happening on social sites, you can always keep in touch with them.
The tricky part is converting people into mailing list subscribers. However I've seen plenty of creators successfully build one by offering incentives including free digital downloads, early access to content, discounts on your store etc.
Those who sign up to your mailing list would be considered high quality followers, someone who is much more likely to convert to a paid client and buy from you again in the future compared to the average follower on social media.
Tools
https://art.page/
https://substack.com/
https://convertkit.com/
Losing clients to undercutting competitors on the same platform/marketplace
If you run your business on a marketplace or platform, your clients are one click away from finding plenty of other choices who are willing to undercut everyone else to land a sale.
These sites have no incentive to make sure that traffic you drive to your profile actually purchase from you. Whether a sale is made through your listing or another seller, they collect their fee either way.
They also use uniform designs which reduce you to a generic product listing. Whilst this can simplify the customer experience, it means you have no control over the sales funnel and ability to differentiate yourself, making it harder to convert potential clients into paying customers.
Solution: Direct clients to your own site
Use your own personal website to make sales from, there are plenty of options with no monthly charge and lower fees than marketplaces. This lets you make dedicated marketing pages showcasing your best work to make a client excited about doing business with you, instead of just being a generic product listing.
Take advantage of marketplaces purely for their customer base. Don't rely on them as your sole business platform. This way, any fees you pay are worthwhile to generate sales you wouldn't have had otherwise.
Tools
https://art.page/
https://www.bigcartel.com/
https://squareup.com/
Interested in more?
There's plenty more I have to share on this topic, including:
How to properly use Print on Demand without getting ripped off
Streamline managing your business so you spend more time creating and growing your business.
How to better utilize your brand to connect with clients and increase sales
So let me know if you’re interested and I’ll get writing!
Transparency
I'm building https://art.page to solve these exact issues, with the goal to create the best all in one site builder for artists and creators that makes running your business easy.
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do you let ppl post nsfw?
Yup! Some more details on that part of our policy here:
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https://art.page is being built from the ground up for artists and creators!
Here's what's planned so far, can you think of anything we missed?
🕸️ Your domain with just your content
🖼️ Portfolio Hosting and custom web pages
🖌️ Manage commissions
💵 Accept donations
🗓️ Earn $$$ from monthly subscriptions
🏪 Sell physical and digital products from your store
🖨️ Print services for fine art prints, stickers, t-shirts
📧 Build your own mailing list
Join the waiting list and claim your free domain before someone else grabs it!
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