ArtSites Updates

There have been many news reports in the last day or so about a security vulnerability called "Heartbleed".​

This vulnerability affects websites that use a secure connection.

These have web address that start with "https://" instead of "http://". (Note the "s"! ;-)

As an example, you can reach a secure version of ArtSites.ca by going to https://ArtSites.ca.

Many websites, such as Facebook and Gmail, only allow you to use a secure version of them.

Analysis shows that about 17% of websites were actually vulnerable even though about 66% of websites were using the vulnerable software.

This difference is accounted for by the fact that most websites did not have a specific feature turned on that caused the vulnerability.

For ArtSites, we were using the software but had NOT turned on the features that would make websites vulnerable.

So, you DO NOT have any issues to worry about related to this problem on your ArtSites website.

The next question that might come to mind is "how do I deal with this issue on other websites?"

Every website that you use should issue some kind of statement as we have done above.

Some will ask you to change your password.

Others may say that they were never vulnerable so nothing needs to be done.

If you do not see such a statement related to a website that contains information about you that you care about (i.e., a bank, web email, etc.), your best course of action is to change your password.

[Update - April 22, 2014: There have been some major websites where we'd recommend you change your passwords. Here's a fairly extensive list to check to see which ones may affect you.]

If you have any questions about this, please don't hesitate to contact us!

This week, I received a great question from Maureen Tracey:

There is a lot of lifting of artists’ images from the web now and I know the issue of watermarking our images on our websites has come up before but I would question doing it again.

Please comment.

Yes, Maureen is correct that this issue does seem to come up frequently.

In response to these inquiries, we've written a detailed blog post, Protecting Artistic Works on the Web

And, if you are concerned about this issue, you probably should really to take a read.

That said, we've also never heard from any of our 500+ artists about times when / where their artwork has been "lifted".

(Please note that watermarking is definitely a concern for photographers because their digital images ARE their artwork! And, many of our photographers do add watermarks before uploading their images to ArtSites. Or, they only upload lower resolution versions.)

(And, FYI - behind the scenes, we automatically create and use lower resolution versions of all files you upload to ArtSites. The images you see on your website are OUR processed, lower resolution versions. For the web and most screens, these images work perfectly fine, but if you were to print them at the size of your original, they would look fuzzy and quite bad. ;-)

In other words, for our 2D and 3D artists, the image anyone would get from your website is such low quality that it really cannot be blown up to compare with your original piece.

So, please note that the images shown on your website are NOT your original digital files!

Your original (hi-res) images are not displayed or available to any visitors on your website.

That said, a visitor could print out a image from your website, say less than 4" x 6".

However, we've found that many artists are less concerned about this kind of piracy.

Most artists seem more concerned with the potential piracy of full-sized, digital prints that could compete with their originals.

What About Adding a Watermarking Feature to ArtSites?
Unfortunately, there are no easy or inexpensive ways to add / integrate this functionality into ArtSites. (And, we've been looking for quite some time! :-)

it would take a significant amount of time to add this feature if we were to develop it ourselves.

One of the main complexities in creating a general watermarking feature is that most artists want to control exactly what, where and when these watermarks appear.

And, we have already received quite a bit of pushback / feedback from our artists about automating anything that changes how their images are viewed (or manipulated) on their website.

Naturally, this adds to the complexity of finding a suitable solution.

Maureen is correct that there is a lot of online discussion about images being lifted.

However, whenever we have tried to actually find data that backs up these claims, we cannot seem to find many (i.e. more than one or two) artists for whom this has been the case.

(Many "pirates" are looking for well-known, hi-res images / artists and want to print them at 18" x 24", or even larger.)

And, when we have heard artists talk about it, it was difficult to concretely know how much these activities negatively impacted their sales or reputation.

All this said, you still have options ... :-)

If you really want to add watermarks to your images, there are some really nice FREE online image editing tools that allow anyone to do this easily and quickly.

One example would be Picmonkey and here are a few tutorials on either creating or adding a watermark to your images.

Since adding a watermark is easy to do with many other free online tools (and every artist can control exactly when, where and what watermark appears ;-), we've decided to leave this feature up to our artists to do outside of ArtSites.

However, we are very interested in hearing your thoughts and feedback!

If you have any experiences or concerns to share, please let us know!

Thanks again for your understanding and happy watermarking! :-)

I'm not sure if you've noticed ...

But, you can now read the ArtSites newsletter translated into different languages!

While I really wish I spoke ALL the languages of the world, I only speak 3 (English, German, and Spanish ;-)

That said, if English isn't your language of choice, click on the "View it in your browser" link at the very top of every newsletter.

On the webpage where you land, you'll see a "Translate" drop down menu that "translates" the newsletter into other languages. (see below)

(click to enlarge)

Now, do keep in mind that this an automated translation service!

So, this definitely won't replace a really accurate translation done by a professional translator! ;-)

(And, we do have several professional translators in our ArtSites community! ;-)

But, if you find English challenging, it may be a nice option to make it a little easier for you to read and understand! ;-)

And, if you ever have any questions or don't understand something we've written, PLEASE let us know!

We really want to make sure you are getting the most out of ArtSites and our community!

Happy reading and "translating"! ;-)

Geoff and I received a great question from Helen Jones:

A friend who just visited my website warned me about getting spam because my email is displayed on the Contact page.

Can you tell me if this is an issue to be concerned about?

This is a great question!

We do some "technical tricks" (behind the scenes) before displaying your email address.

This makes it particularly difficult for email "harvesters" to recognize your email address.

(FYI - email "harvesters" are automated programs that spammers use to find email addresses on websites.)

While this is not 100% foolproof, as best we can tell, these programs cannot "see through" our tricks.

Another thing to consider is that it's almost impossible to keep your email address out of spammers' databases.

The main way that email addresses are harvested is through malware, i.e. "bad" software, that gets installed on various people's computers.

So, for instance, if a friend, who you regularly email, gets a virus on their computer, that virus might send all email addresses from your friend's email program / contact folder to a central place.

Once your email address is in an email database, it then gets sold around and ends up in other spammers' databases.

From a practical perspective, the only way to keep an email address out of spammers' databases is to never use it.

Since that's not very practical, the best strategy is to focus on filtering spam out of your incoming email.

Spam filters have been quite effective in recent years.

Both Geoff and I use Gmail and Gmail is very effective in filtering out spam.

On average, only 1 spam message a day gets through their filters.

And, we have MANY very public email addresses that all get forwarded to our Gmail accounts. ;-)

Based on this, there is very little risk in having your email address on your Contact page, especially since we are taking precautions to protect it.

That said, it still is possible for people go to your website and manually collect your email address.

This is generally too much work / effort for most spammers ;-)

But, if you do feel uncomfortable, you do have the option NOT to display your email address.

To select this option, just follow these steps:

1. Go to your "Contact" tab in your Admin Panel
2. Click on "Do not display email on page". (see red arrow below)
   
   (click to enlarge)
3. Scroll down to the bottom of the page.
4. Click the "Update Contact Information" button to save your changes.

Now, your email address will not be displayed on your Contact page!

Speaking of email addresses, check out our Flashback Friday Post to read about what email addresses you may want to use for a more "professional" brand / look.

And, as always, if you have any more email questions, please just ask! ;-)

Safe emailing! :-)

(click to enlarge)

Recently, Geoff and I have received several questions about uploading photos from iOS devices, e.g. iPad, iPhone, or iPod, to your websites.

Many of you seem to be taking pictures of your artwork with your iPads or iPhones.

(While we do recommend using digital cameras to photograph artwork, iOS photos will generally work fine for online images.)

It is now also quite easy to edit your photos directly on your iPad or iPhone.

Once you have your photos cropped, filtered, etc., you may want to upload them directly from your iOS device to your website.

Today, I'll provide a quick Tutorial on How to Upload Photos from your iPad, iPhone or iPod to your website.

1. Click on your preferred web browser app. (For most people, Safari is fine.)
2. Go to your ArtSites Admin webpage, e.g. YourDomainName.com/admin
3. Type in your username and password.
4. Go to your "Images" tab.
5. Click on the "Upload Multiple Images" link. (see image above)
6. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the "Choose Files" button.
   
   (click to enlarge)
7. Select the appropriate photo album on your device (see below).
   
   (click to enlarge)
8. Select the photos you want to upload
   
   (click to enlarge)
9. Hit "Done" when you're finished selecting.
10. Wait while your photos upload to your website.
    (Depending on how many photos you upload and your connection speed, this may take a little bit of time.)

Et voilà! Your images will now be uploaded to your website!

If you have any more questions or problems, simply let us know!

Happy uploading! :-)

This week, Geoff and I received a few emails asking us about an art inquiry from "James Duckworth".

Here's, generally, what the email said:
(with different artwork names entered in the various email messages)

Hi there,my name is James im an art collector from Ontario,was browsing through the internet and my eyes caught this particular work, will like to have it for my new apartment probably this month.please let me know if the piece is available and if yes let me have the detailed price and more information about it.kindly reply me with your phone#.

Unfortunately, this email is a scam. :-(

If you do a quick Google search "on the general text in the email", you'll find a list of many artists who received almost exactly the same email from a "Robert Hallins" a few years back.

(Scroll down to the first comment and you'll see what I'm talking about ;-)

Every few months, we like to remind you that not every art inquiry is legitimate.

Unfortunately, this latest request IS a scam.

Many thanks to those of you who brought this to our attention!

We've added "James" to our "Wall of Shame"! ;-)

And, if you want a refresher, here are a few links and resources to our previous Art Scam articles:

• How to Check if An Inquiry is Legitimate
• Other Art Scam "Sender Names" to Avoid
• Red Flags When Doing Business Online
• More Art Scam Information & Warnings
• Stop Art Scams Blog & Facebook Page
  (list of common Art Scams)

As we've said many times before, we simply want you to make sure you're informed and aware! ;-)

If you ever have any questions about an inquiry, please feel free to send it our way!

This week, I received an email from Bruce Millen asking:

I frequently get statistics of 1 Visitor & 1 View. This seems very odd to me that so many people would go to the trouble of accessing my website and then stop at the Home Page without looking beyond. I would think the Home Page image would intrigue a viewer enough to continue on at least a bit further.

Any thoughts on why this is happening?

This is a great question and I thought you might also enjoy hearing my answer to Bruce.

Firstly, 1 View does not necessarily mean that your 1 Visitor landed on your Home Page.

In fact, it's much more likely that these visitors ended up on another page on your website.

Seondly, what you're probably seeing are the results of online searches.

If you've followed some of my tips from our Search Engine Optimization series of articles, you've done a good job using keywords in your titles and descriptions.

Well, imagine someone doing a keyword search on Google, which just happens to match your title or description.

They may not even be looking for artwork!

For example, perhaps you have a piece of art that is based on a specific location.

If you included that location in your description or title, anyone looking for information about that location may stumble across your website.

BUT, if they're looking for directions or specific activities for that location, your website clearly is NOT the resource they were looking for. ;-)

In this case, that visitor might land on your webpage (because of the location mentioned) and realize quite quickly that s/he was in the wrong place.

So, what would that visitor do next?

Of course, leave and move on to other websites or results to find the information s/he was seeking.

From your Statistics perspective, all you'd see would be 1 Visitor and 1 View (i.e., the page they landed on).

And, given this explanation, it would make sense that they didn't stay longer on your website.

So, when you see Statistics like the above, DO NOT assume that people don't like your artwork or website! ;-)

They may have merely landed on your website based on a search for a keyword and your webpage matched their query.

(And, honestly, nice job on the search engine optimization! ;-)

Now, if you find that MOST of your visitors do not stay around, you may want to look into this!

This may be a sign that your visitors don't know where to go once they get to your website, i.e. they're confused ;-)

Or, maybe your website isn't "guiding" them to stay!

I always recommend having friends, family and fellow artists, periodically look at your website and give honest feedback.

Since you know your website SO well and have been working on it constantly, you may not see certain issues.

For example, look at your language to see if it encourages visitors to browse or go to other pages!

Just like any "shopping" experience, the more we browse, the more likely we are to find something that catches our eye! ;-)

So, do keep an eye on your statistics, but don't be upset if you have a few "bouncers" (that's the technical term ;-) who don't stick around.

What's more important is making sure that the people who DO want to find you and your art, stay around! ;-)

If you want to know more about how our Statistics work, etc., please check out our Flashback Friday Post: How Do ArtSites Statistics Works? And, can I get more details? ...

And, as always, if you have any other Statistics questions, just let ask!

Happy Statistics Watching!! ;-)

This week, I got an email from ArtSites artist, Alana Kapell, asking me the following:

Is it possible for you to give links to a few of your artists who are using PayPal buttons on their websites?

I am curious how they are using them.

I thought that some of you might find my answer and examples helpful.

So, today, I'm going to talk a little bit about PayPal buttons and how some artists are using them.

(For more detailed PayPal information and how-to's, I'd definitely recommend that you listen to our PayPal Workshop Recording and/or check out our Inserting PayPal Buttons Tutorial. )

Now, onto How to Use PayPal buttons on Your Website ...

As with most website features, there are many different ways to use PayPal buttons ;-)

So, today, I'm going to highlight a few artists that I think are doing nice jobs!

I'd first like to highlight ... Danièle Lemieux

Danièle has created an "Online Sales" page (see below) where she posts smaller, original and fixed priced ($250) paintings for visitors to buy.

(click to go to webpage)

Visitors can simply click on any image and each painting has a PayPal "Buy Now" button
(see image below).

(click to see webpage)

This is a great use of the PayPal button because Danièle only has to put PayPal buttons on a limited number of paintings and the price is fixed for all of them, i.e. $250.

In addition to her webpage, Danièle ALSO sends out a "Newsletter", every time she adds a few new paintings to her Online Sales page!

This makes sure that potential buyers are kept up-to-date with her latest online sale paintings and also gets them back to her website to perhaps see what else may be new. (Very clever! ;-)

Danièle also has a How to Buy My Art page that explains what her pricing is and how to view and/or buy her artwork through galleries.

Danièle has done a great job creating a clear and open way for visitors to find and buy her art! :-)

Similar to Danièle, Pilar Mehlis has also created a "Limited Edition Prints" page.

(click to go to webpage)

Once again, there are only a few PayPal buttons Pilar has to manage and it provides a convenient way for anyone who wants to buy a "Limited Edition Print".

And, finally, there's Abdul Mamoon's Art Corner ...

Abdul has included PayPal buttons in most of his image descriptions (see below).

(click to go to the webpage)

This is obviously the MOST convenient solution for your online visitors!

However, depending on the number of images you have, this can be quite tedious, i.e. entering different prices for each piece of art.

That said, if you have lots of artwork and/or lots of variation in your prices, you may want to talk about your pricing policies and payment options in general terms.

And, guess what?!

Today's Flashback Friday Post (see below) specifically talks about how to "generally" put pricing information on your website. ;-)

And, just to get you started, I thought you might like some links to a few ArtSites examples ... :-)

Wishing you many new online purchases! :-D

I recently got an email from ArtSites artist, Andrea Lawson, asking me the following:

Is there anyway to invite all my Facebook friends to an event without clicking each individual friend? It seems crazy to have to do that!

I like inviting everyone to my art show because even if they live far away they should still know about it!

I thought that some of you might also like to invite ALL your Facebook friends to your Show or to "Like" your Facebook Page.

Well, I found the following videos quite helpful:

And, if you'd prefer written instructions, here's the Facebook Page that has all the videos and written instructions.

Now, while this is very doable, I would definitely encourage you to be "judicious" in how you use this trick / tip!

You don't want to be that friend who's known for "spamming" his or her Facebook friends! ;-)

Do spread the word about your activities, but be careful how frequently you use this trick!

(click to enlarge)

Geoff is always keeping our system up-to-date. Thanks SO much, Geoff!! :-)

As a result, we recently upgraded our Content Editor (see image above).

This latest version works much better with mobile devices, e.g. Tablets, Smartphones, etc.

While many of our Tutorials are still using images from the older Content Editor (see image below), the new one works the same way.

We will try to update our Tutorials in the coming weeks, but until that happens, we did want to let you know about the visual changes.

Old Content Editor

(click to enlarge)

New Content Editor

(click to enlarge)

(Once again, it looks like the new version has gone on a colour diet ;-)

If you have any questions, feel free to review our Content Editor Overview that explains how to use it, etc.

And, if you have any issues or problems with the new Content Editor, please let us know!

Once again, we simply want to make sure that you are kept updated and that you can enter your content and text easily! :-D

Happy editing and updating!