Hi Everyone! Below is a progress update with some fun bits of info regarding how The Untapped Source is coming along…Remember to use our suggestion box in the Artist Access Center and give us your thoughts or suggestions regarding the blog or any improvements you’d like to see regarding The Untapped Source.

Per usual, I’ve highlighted the main points in Orange if you’re just a skimmer of text…

1.) Homepage Updated

2.) BIO Page Updated

3.) New Tutorials Up In AAC

4.) Real Name/Site Name Update

5.) Smaller Size Artist Buy Program Prices Up

6.) Use The AAC Suggestion Box…

7.) Paper Samples For You and Customers

8.) Artist Buy Program Doing Very Well…Still

9.) Continuing Automation Work And Artist Cart System

10.) Link Back To YOUR PAGE Now In The AAC

11.) Filling In The Gaps With Usefulness

1.) So we’ve updated the homepage again, this time, with a New Category Side Bar for easy access to all the categories, a Paper Samples Link For Customers to Purchase Paper Samples, some pics of some prints, and we now feature 6 artists randomly on the homepage instead of just 3 to help everyone with exposure! This is an upgrade in usability with the side bar, and just the first step in our site overhaul while we continue back end work on the Artist Cart and the Automation process. You’ll also notice a link to the Artist Access Center in the top left corner of the page (every page now) for easy access.

2.) When you login to the Artist Access Center (We’ve added a link at the top of every page on the site for easy access) you’ll notice we’ve changed the layout for the BIO PAGE as well as adding the HTML stuff for making your bio info fancy. So re-update your BIO INFO with fanciness if you so choose.

3.) We’ve added the Tutorials Section in the Artist Access Center in order to get the ball rolling in making the AAC a learning center as well as a print selling/web display tool. Go ahead and check them out…Our staff and interested artists will be updated this section regularly, and TUS staff in particular will be focusing on functional and professional tutorials that have to do with more practical things in art. The limited edition tutorial has been particularly popular. We are accepting suggestions for tutorial additions, so send them our way through the Suggestion Box in FAQ section of the AAC.

4.) In the bio section of the Artist Access Center, you’ll notice a “real name” and a “site name” field…hopefully those are self explanatory, but basically the name you have inputed up to this point has gone to “site name”, and “real name” is now open to be filled with your actual name. Please fill in your “real name” and if you like, you can change your “site name” for display on the site. *NOTE: Subdomains CANNOT be changed at this point as we’re working on a new system for them currently.

5.) Smaller sizes are now available for purchasing your own prints in the Artist Access Center. The new sizes, in inches, are 4×5, 4×6, 5×5, 5×6, 5×7, 6×10, 6×12, 6×15, and 8×10. *NOTE: These sizes will not be available for purchase by general customers until our back rebuild is done.

6.) KEEP FEEDING US SUGGESTIONS USING THE ARTIST ACCESS CENTER’S SUGGESTION BOX. It is located under the “FAQ” tab. 90% OF OUR “TO - DO” LIST COMES FROM ARTISTS!

7.) GET YOUR FREE PAPER SAMPLES IN THE ARTIST ACCESS CENTER! Also, we’ve made our Paper Sample Program available for general customers as well on the homepage underneath the new categories side bar. You can refer your customers to that as well if they have questions on the papers. Customers pay a shipping and handlng fee.

8.) The Artist Buy Program, our service for artists to purchase their own prints at discounted prices is going strong! Use the paper samples as well as the new Limited Edition Tutorial in the Artist Access Center to get the ball rolling so you can start to take your print sales into your own hands…making yourself more profit using our printing services and delivering your prints to your customers can be a BIG HELP to your artistic sales endeavors.

9.) Work on the Automation of the site is STILL in the works…same goes for the Artist Cart System. Yes, we know it’s taking a while to complete these things, but we’re working VERY HARD and trying our best to get them right before we roll them out. They are both complicated systems to work out, but rest assured when they are done they will both be amazingly useful tools for everyone to use.

10.) In the Artist Access Center, the link in the upper right corner that previously went to our front page now goes to your page. This is in preparation for the Automation stuff so you can refer to your page when adding things to the site.

11.) You’ll notice as we move forward that we will be “filling in the gaps” around the site where there is usable space. We would love to hear from you guys if you have any particular places on the site where you think certain features might be handy, please let us know through the artist suggestion box in the AAC or by emailing artists@theuntappedsource.com.

Drew

Artist/Admin/Founder

The Untapped Source

THE UNTAPPED SOURCE Topics:

1. Switching Servers
2. SEO strategy
3. Cosmetic Updates
4. Automating the Site

Hi Untapped Artists! The topics above are all hit on below in a short and sweet manner? Please feel free to contact me (Drew) at drew@theuntappedsource.com with any questions, comments, or concerns.

1. Switching Servers:
We are in the process of re-formatting the site so that it can be switched from GoDaddy (really generic hosting platform) to Media Temple, which will help a lot with some of the issues we have in terms of upload errors as well as server speed. This is basically a move that will take us to a hosting platform more suited to our needs…we’ll let you know when it happens, and have some of you test out the Artist Access Center’s functionality in it’s new form.

2. SEO Strategy:
Even though we are growing in total number of unique hits by 20-30% each quarter, we think it’s time to start pushing things marketing wise a little bit since the site internally is starting to take better shape in terms of the things we have going on our end. With that in mind, we are shopping around for Search Engine Optimization companies which will, in the most basic of terms, be working over the next 6 to 9 months to get us a 1st or 2nd page ranking in the organic listings of the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, etc…) for site specific keywords. For example, when some types in say “fine art prints” The Untapped Source will be ranked highly in Google and other major search platforms. A majority of our traffic is currently coming from the inbound linking of you, the artists, and this will start to get us outside what we call the “artist bubble” (cool industry lingo term we came up with) and bring in some more general buyers and art lovers. This is an expensive process, but since obtaining more funding from art benefactors, we feel it’s an expense we should incur for the good of all involved.

3. Cosmetic Updates:
It’s not really that huge of a deal, but the site will be going through some cosmetic updates in the near future. By the middle of April (rough estimate…of course) we’ll be adding things like a ‘recently added work’ page, better, more enticing ‘galleries page’ with images and examples of categorical work, as well as more functional items and tools for you guys in the Artist Access Center. The artist shopping cart is still in the works but has been delayed up until this point due to us having to work out switching servers and a few other major stumbling blocks of annoyance. Let us know if you think you have any good ideas on making the site prettier or more functional…

4. Automation Process:
Our line of business for the 2nd quarter of 2008 will be dedicated primarily to the automation of the site. Basically, as it stands now, we have to do a lot of processing work before submitted work and, to a lesser extent, bio updates, get added to the site. We resize every image manually, and look over and approve all the info that goes on the site (yes, it’s a lot of work). By this, we intend to give you:

1. Immediate control of your bio page, with extra areas for information to be posted
2. Immediate control over your pricing and size options
   Note: sizing is really complicated over the web, so we are still planning this out…any thoughts or ideas are welcome of course as the cropping on the web is complicated, and though some sites do it quite efficiently, they aren’t too eager to help us out with it.
3. Immediate addition of work to the site, with automatic web image sizing features, and perhaps we can find a way to keep the “close up” feature and give you control of the function.

The above control issues will not only make our lives easier on this end so we can work toward more of the promotional aspects, but inherently you will also see more immediate results and have more control over your gallery.

Drew