In my last post I talked about the Artists Website Software I was planning.

It’s been a busy few months (both with my day-job and with moving house) but I have made some progress, and I hope to have an alpha version available in the new year.  At that point I’ll probably upload everything to SourceForge to take advantage of their tools for Open Source projects (hosting, CVS and bug tracking).

I’ve been coding the project using object-orientated PHP5.  As well as being easier to maintain, this also makes the code easier to extend.  It does mean that it won’t work on an old PHP4 installation - but from what I can see most hosting companies offer PHP5 as standard now, so hopefully that won’t be a problem.

I’m avoiding using various (potentially time-saving) PHP PEAR Extensions even though I have them installed on my server - mainly because I want this software to be usable on a standard PHP5 installation which doesn’t have PEAR.  Similarly, this means I have to eschew MySQL Stored Procedures in favour of SELECT queries, as many webhosts don’t allow their users access to Stored Procedures.

As soon as the alpha version is ready I’ll be looking for people who have some spare server space where they can install and test it.  At this stage the preferred testers would be people with a strong technical (PHP/MySQL) background as the alpha testing will very much centre around the security and optimisation of the PHP code.

My website has grown organically over 12 years, but the code is looking very messy and unmanageable, so I’m thinking of recoding it from scratch (while adding a lot of improvements).

I decided that I may as well make any such “artist’s website application” available as a free open-source application for anyone else who wants to download it for their own use.  It’ll be PHP5 (object-orientated) with a MySQL back-end.

The main core of the script would be the galleries (gallery add-on modules for other applications like blogs always seem to leave a lot to be desired for a serious artist) with a strong emphasis on search engine optimisation.

There’ll be a “leave comments” function for each image in the galleries, integration with PayPal and/or Google Checkout for online sales, automatic thumbnail creation, and RSS feeds of new work in the galleries. There will be a facility to add a few static pages (artist’s statement, front page, contact form etc).

There’ll be an exhibitions/events listing function - with incoming and outgoing iCal feeds for calendars and geo-tagging of galleries/venues (so I can integrate it with Yahoo/Google Maps).

Rather than trying to write a blog application, I’m going to concentrate on writing “bridges” that allow the galleries to integrate with existing blog software (Wordpress etc).This is because there’s no way I could write blog software that’s anywhere as near as good as WordPress.

The same applies to discussion forums - I’ll just write bridges for SMF and phpBB. I am thinking of writing my own email newsletter application, though (because I’ve never found one that I’ve been 100% happy with).

I’m also going to investigate some ways to allow it to integrate with social networks, Flickr, etc.

So, my question to you is this:

What features and functionality would you suggest I include?  What’s important for you in an ideal artist’s website?

I’m going to concentrate on HTML email design here rather than best practice for sending your emails or building your email list.

Suffice to say that you should never email someone without their clear and express permission (opt-in NOT opt-out should be your strategy) - don’t get impatient and cut corners because your email list is growing too slowly for your liking.

Many people still want to receive update via email, and it’s certainly something I continue to get a good response from (here’s my sign-up form if you want to subscribe).

Here’s an example of one of my email newsletters (it might be worth opening it in a new tab or window while you read this post). I want to explain why I design it like I do.

1. Minimal design & branding:

I’ve noticed a growing tendency to “over-design” HTML emails - too many emails use far too many graphics and fancy layouts, trying to emulate a web page.

However an email is not a web page and shouldn’t be designed like one. I use minimalist “branding” and layout - a red bar across the top and a graphic at the top right.

2. A big font size and lots of whitespace:

Emails are full of text trying to impart information and promote your artwork.  Reading emails with small font sizes makes reading all this text hard work - your readers are likely to ignore your email.

I use a nice big 16px sans-serif font combined with plenty of whitespace that makes it easy for people to scan through the email.  This makes it more likely that they’ll (a) bother reading it, and (b) be able to quickly spot something they’re interested in.

I also insert quite a few sub-headings in bold to further help people scan through the email and spot items of interest.

3. A personalised salutation:

Any email that includes my real name clearly at the top gets far more attention than a non-personalised email.

The inclusion of my name means I must have provided some information (my name) to the sender and so the email is far less likely to be spam - and far more likely to be something I actually want to (and have asked to) receive.

4. A few small graphics:

To break up the text and provide elements of interest I include a handful (just two images in the example) - large images take longer to load and clutter up the email.

Typically the images I use are around 100px square - although I have occasionally used slightly larger images if it’s justified.

5. Clearly defined links with relevant link text:

I use a red colour for links (as I do on my website) and always use relevant link text.

I frequently use bulletted lists to list recent blog posts rather than just a link to the front page of a blog - it helps the email recipient scan through the posts and go directly to one which catches their attention.

6. Clear unsubscribe link at the bottom:

Don’t be tempted to make this smaller to put people off unsubscribing - they’ll just flag your email as junk mail if they can’t easily unsubscribe, and that could end up with your email being blocked for people who do want to receive it.

If you have any comments, please leave them below.

And of course you can always sign up to the (approximately monthly) Lazarus Corporation email newsletter for the latest updates on the artwork from the artists here.

Another follow-up post, this time following up my post on Self-publishing your art books on Lulu.

From http://www.lulu.com/content/2709735:

“Dear Lulu” is a test book researched and produced by graphic design students and Prof. Frank Philippin at Hochschule Darmstadt, Germany, during an intensive two-day workshop with London-based designer James Goggin (Practise). The book’s intention is to act as a calibration document for testing colour, pattern, format, texture and typography.

Exercises in colour profile (Adobe RGB/sRGB/CMYK/Greyscale), halftoning, point size, line, geometry, skin tone, colour texture, cropping and print finishing provide useful data for other designers and self-publishers to judge the possibilities and quality of online print-on-demand — specifically Lulu.com, with this edition.

The book’s price is set at Lulu.com’s exact printing cost per unit.

The paperback version (96 pages, 5.83″ x 8.26″, perfect binding, full-colour interior ink) is £10.47 and the ebook version (62501 KB) is downloadable free-of-charge.

A great resource to see the quality of printing that Lulu.com can offer the artist wanting to self-publish books of their artwork.

In my earlier post on using Facebook to promote your artwork I promised an update on how it was going.  So here’s the first update.

Rather than doing a massive campaign of promotion for my Facebook page, I’ve been doing a few smaller discrete promotions to study the effectiveness of each one.  It’s been a slow start, but things are building up.  First of all, let’s look at Page Views:

Graph of Facebook Pageviews

As you can see, it’s still low-level but the trend is definitely upwards.

So what have I done so far to promote it?  Well, very little to be honest.  I added a small mention of it in my last email newsletter and put a link to it on the front page of my website. I wanted to see what “organic growth” could be achieved first.

I haven’t used Facebook’s own “Facebook Ads” (the adverts that you see on your Facebook profile depending on your interests and basic demographic information).  This isn’t so much a conscious choice as a technological flaw - if you’re using Firefox 3 on Linux then the JavaScript doesn’t work.

After submitting a support request I’ve been told that the Facebook Ads creation system is only supported on IE6, IE7, Safari, Firefox 1.5 and 2 (For “PCs” or Macs - I have the strange feeling that Facebook think “PC = Windows”).  Whatever the definitions, Facebook won’t let me give them any money to run some ads.  This may not be a bad thing - I’ve always been cynical about the effectiveness of interruption advertising, even though the Facebook ads are relatively inobtrusive.

I’ll be doing some more prominent promotion for my Facebook page in the near future (maybe a special offer or something similar).  I’ll let you know how things go.  If anyone else has been using Facebook to promote their artwork I’d be interested in hearing your experiences - please feel free to comment (and yes, you can add a link to your Facebook page!)

The Lazarus Corporation on Facebook