Optimism
197 creative works found
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This photo is also available without the quote.
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Begin to hope and all the colors start to change / Beneath the light you might forget that the world’s so sad / You might forget that things are awfully bad - Regina Spektor, “Begin to Hope” Model: Rachael
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Fractal art. It’s all about attitude. If everything was easy, where would be the challenge? Learn to look on the bright side. © 2008 Dave Moilanen
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This Tshirt with Black Print / / / / / / / / / / / / / /
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This Tshirt with White Print / / / / / / / / / / / / / /
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12×12 acrylic ink and watercolor on cotton paper
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Have to remind myself to do this sometimes…
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The Power of Encouragement
by RedBubbleWelcome to 2009. To kick off the new year, l want to reflect a bit on how constructive comments can encourage members to create new work …
Welcome to 2009. To kick off the new year, l want to reflect a bit on how constructive comments can encourage members to create new work and grow artistically. The majority of the member comments on my artwork pages are less than 100 characters in length (including spaces). That’s not a lot of information, but they do provide just the right amount of inspiration. The best comments motivate members to create more work or to see their existing work in a new way. Comments are also incredibly valuable if they come from peers that work in similar mediums. In my case, printmaking is a niche medium, so comments from other printmakers regarding technique are always welcomed. And at a visceral level, comments simply feel good; they bond us to the larger RedBubble community. Comments can also help guide art buyers. For example, your comment can link to an artwork or written work on RedBubble that’s similar in topic or aesthetic. When linking, it’s best to link text that best describes the image or subject matter that the member will see post-click. Here’s a real-world example: “What a wonderful photograph of the Perth waterscape. I especially like the way you highlighted the horizon and ramp/dock – great technique using the prolonged exposure. Check out this photograph of Perth by EOS20.” The “medium-plus-subject” link structure is helpful to readers and search engines alike. You can use this tactic on your personal websites and blogs in order to send visitors to your RedBubble pages (or other websites). RedBubble typically sees a dip in website chatter during the holidays, but the silence ends as members return from holiday, post new work, and reconnect with those they follow. If you would like to share a favorite comment or a positive feeling that you had as a result of a comment on your work(s), please post it below! Enjoy the New Year. We look forward to viewing and commenting on your new work in the coming weeks. Regards, / Jason
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...Australia Day weekend 2009 Torquay, Australia
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Acrylic on canvas, 15.5” x 15.5”, created in January 2009. With a new president and philosophy in the USA, a spirit of optimism has finally opened up for many of us who had problems with the previous administration’s attitudes. This is especially true in regards to the overwhelming evidence of the harm we’ve been doing to our environment. In this painting, a rich red poppy has also opened up, growing out from a rusty, discarded tin can. The atmosphere around it is grungy and its spindly leaf is barely recognizable – is it up to the task of photosynthesizing the nutrients the flower needs to survive? The title of the work provides a hint at my hopes and feelings. A closely related piece is “The Price of Redemption – an Ecological Statement”. / / ~
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Visit my online store Acrylic with gloss varnish finish on framed canvas. 30” x 24”. Original is for sale. Please contact me for price. Second painting in my series for exhibition. The corset detail slowed me down by about 12 hours all up. I would have liked to have finished this much, much quicker but I just HAD to detail the corset dammit! lol. Overall, I LOVE the feeling and emotion of this piece. Image used for reference is by faestock and can be viewed here / /
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Dawn on the south coast of phillip island. pyramid rock can been sean far of in the distance. canon 40D
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Iranian Dhow Worker signaling his optimism, Dubai U.A.E.
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Optimize Your Profile Page for Sales
by selling*Your Profile page and Bubblesite are your consumer-facing galleries (some would say shops or storefronts). Here are some simple ways to …
Your Profile page and Bubblesite are your consumer-facing galleries (some would say shops or storefronts). Here are some simple ways to make them both visually appealing and sales focused. A brand called you / Your Profile page should contain an image of you. Many artists dislike this idea, but a happy, smiling image of you helps buyers connect. A photograph, painting, etching, drawing, etc. all work. People are naturally attracted to faces. . . . . . . . The elevator pitch / Tell buyers a bit about yourself. Where you live; your location as it relates to your artwork; your influences; your USPs (unique selling points), etc. For example, Ron Moss wrote: “I have been deeply interested in Eastern art and philosophy from an early age. I have pursued this interest through extensive reading and through the study of Japanese writing forms including haiku. [-] My poetry work has been translated in several languages and is widely published in journals and anthologies. I have won numerous awards both within Australia and overseas (including Japan). I enjoy using visual media and poetry in combination.” For anyone interested in Eastern philosophy, Ron’s description is spot on. The application / What have previous admirers and buyers loved about your work? E.g., “My work looks great in baby nurseries, shared spaces, etc.” You can also let this story be told through the pitch above, e.g., “My work features super hero characters from the 1940s – 1960s, and features an aesthetic reminiscent of the unbridled optimism of yesteryear.” Categorize whenever possible / If you have works that can be bundled by theme, location, application, subject, etc., you can fudge categories and link to them from your Profile page. For example, Scott Ward created categories by tagging work with key words, e.g., “Africa,” and then creating category URLs such as: http://www.redbubble.com/people/membername/art/everything/tags/keyword-tag/ Karin Taylor did the same, but augmented the strategy by creating categories for both topics and themes, e.g., “new baby” and “relaxation.” You can also categorize by holiday or event. See holiday calendars for the US, Australia and UK here. Be smart and efficient with these categories. Too much is, well, too much. See categories that art buyers search for often. RedBubble is a safe place to buy art / RedBubble repeatedly states that the website uses 128-bit encryption and that all sales are “Satisfaction Guaranteed.” This is good for members, as RedBubble carries the burden of complete satisfaction. I added this body of text in the Sales & Marketing Forum, but you could shorten to say “Safe and Secure checkout featuring 128-bit SSL encryption.” “My art sales are powered by RedBubble.com. Since February 2007, RedBubble has shipped more than 240,000 premium-quality works of art and t-shirts to over 70 countries worldwide. RedBubble offers a simple money-back guarantee, gold star customer service, and assures safe online transactions by using 128-bit SSL encryption – an industry standard. RedBubble accepts five different currencies including USD, AUD, CAD, EUR and GBP, and accepts credit cards as well as PayPal.” Kudos / It’s always a good idea to feature any kudos and awards that you’ve received, as well as a testimonial if possible. Causes / If you represent a charity or donate a portion of your earnings to a charity, your Profile page is an excellent space to feature your cause. Melinda Kerr has done a great deal of work in this area, and features calendars and cards. The real thing / I’m not one for cluttering pages with lots of large and heavy images that slow page load. However, there is something to seeing artwork and t-shirts in the real world. You can feature work on your Profile page as well as individual artwork pages by capturing an image of the work after configuring it on RedBubble. You can also add images to the Buyers’ Booth and link to them from your Profile page. ! My recommendation is to note the configuration details near the image, e.g., “Here is a large work X in a bright white mat and cherry box frame. You can buy this work here.” You can also show works that would make good diptychs and triptychs (pairs and threesomes) by showing them together and noting the links (URLs). RubyRed features a t-shirt of the month on his Profile page, as well as an image of the t-shirt on a person. I like both of these techniques, as they encourage repeat visitors. What’s the weather? / If your country is currently in the fall/autumn or winter seasons, note on your Profile page that your t-shirts are available in a long sleeve version (if you chose to reveal that option). The same goes for “girly fit” – which is a must for some buyers. Give buyers the idea to personalize their purchase by choosing a color, size and style. Develop fans / If you have Facebook Page, Twitter account, blog, or other resource that you use to communicate details related to your artwork, link out to them. These resources are a way to capture mind-share and leverage other communication channels – directing people back to your RedBubble Profile page or Bubblesite at a later date. Be sure to link from those sources back to your RedBubble Profile page or Bubblesite too. Let’s wrap / The formatting “code” for making links, displaying/linking images, etc. can largely be found here. Here are a few more resources. Rhana’s guide to making links Karin’s detailed Profile page tutorial Webgrrl’s unofficial RedBubble cheatsheet Before we go / We’re always looking for success stories big and small, so send them our way here. And finally, if you want to help other members sell, you can join our “You Can Sell Art and T-shirts” Group (by invitation). Bubblemail me with the topics you feel confident discussing. Thank you. Regards, / Jason
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Make Your Art and T-shirt Pages Buyer Friendly
by sellingThe Optimize Your Profile Page for Sales a…
The Optimize Your Profile Page for Sales article proved that customization is a popular topic. Today, let’s apply customization and optimization hints to the “show work” (your art and t-shirt) pages. First, let’s look at what a show work page should do. show work page example 1. Honor the art by displaying it in a clean, gallery-style environment 2. Enable the viewer to see the work at a distance and close up 3. Allow the visitor to learn about the work/have enough information to envision the art print or t-shirt in their space or on their body 4. Share the work with friends, family, others via email 5. Inspire/start the order process And for websites like RedBubble: allow the visitor to find other art and design that interests them; a next step rather than prompting an exit. Other ideas are welcomed. Simply list them below in the comments area. RedBubble addresses numbers 1, 2, 3 and 5. You can benefit greatly by sharing information about your work – #4. This helps you on two levels: 1. Relationships sell art – even a newly formed understanding about an artwork or design. 2. Search engines love to be right. Their job is to match a query (search) to a result (content), so any relevant information that you can supply on the show work page can help search engines find your page(s). E.g., if your browser title says that the image is of St. Kilda, and the title of the work is St. Kilda, and your show work page description is about St. Kilda, and the tags include St. Kilda … well, you have a pretty good shot at ranking in web search for St. Kilda. You could do even better by noting the medium (canvas, print, t-shirt) if possible. Here are a few “extras” that can help you merchandise your show work pages. Remember that you’ll need to use RedBubble formatting to make many of these items appear. You can show a detail of the artwork or t-shirt design. / Matt Simner placed a detail of his t-shirt design next to a full view of the design here. You’ll want to save the image for Web (making it lighter weight) with a width of no more than 335 pixels wide. How to? You can upload the detail image via MyBubble and choose not to publish it. After the image is uploaded, right-click (option+click on the Mac) and “copy the image location.” Paste the image location into the product description using the “!” mark at the beginning and end of the URL. See the RedBubble formatting cheatsheet here. Small images of the finished product. / We noted in the previous Selling article that examples of the real product help shoppers envision it in their places and spaces. Luxquarta also noted on their show work page that the image would look great as a “Laminated print, Mounted print or Canvas print.” And another example of the product in real life. Like this? You might also like … / RedBubble members can show small thumbnails of similar products on show work pages. Yanmos does this very thing here. The design for sale is also available as a free iPhone wallpaper too. With enough views of the iPhone image the shopper might just buy the shirt! You can also use the search category trick that we discussed in the previous post to provide visitors with category links that show a broader assortment of similar work. Small touches make visitors feel at home / It’s always the “little things” that make the difference – like RedBubble packaging, t-shirt inserts, swing tags, etc. Along these lines, Definatalie extends her design aesthetic to hand drawn headers and other visual touches that relate her Profile page to her show work pages. Added protection / Some members opt to manually place a copyright on their show work pages. While RedBubble adds a copyright to all pages, you can add a line reminding visitors about copyright. Rupydetequila added a softly-worded note, while boilerplate copy is available via Creative Commons or other reference websites., e.g., “This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia.” or “All rights reserved. Copyright Rupydetequila. Please do not use my images without permission. Feel free to convo me with any questions about this item. Thanks for checking out my work With love Rupydetequila.” Building your audience / RedBubble allows visitors to email a link to their friends. You can go a step further by asking visitors to: Subscribe to your newsletter Follow you on Twitter Become a Fan of your Facebook business page Matt Simner does this in his Stay in Touch section on each show work page. Building your network / We’ve all been beat over the head about Facebook and Twitter, so let’s just say that your profile and show work pages can include links to your Twitter profile page and Facebook Pages (fan pages or your personal profile). Go forth and personalize / I should reiterate that the goal is to show the work in the best light possible whilst not burdening the page load time with tons of heavy images. There are many other customizations that members have made to their show work pages. Feel free to share links to your ideas and pages below. Also, if you’re interested in helping all RedBubble members sell their work, hop on over to the Sell Art and T-shirts group here. Regards, / Jason
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this is a work inspired by watching a bunch of tulips rising high under the sun light brings the feeling of hope…....
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“Sunrise” – A Collaboration / Photograph by: Donna Proctor – Florida / Poem by: Leon A. Walker – Florida / Image layout by: Lilith – Netherlands I have to extend a huge Thank You to Donna for lending me her wonderful image to combine with my work. I think it’s beautiful and I appreciate her willingness to work together!!! You can find more of Donna’s work here: / DonnaP
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Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is Not Scary.
by sellingFirstly, what is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? When you edit (fine tune) your web pages to accurately describe the content on th…
Firstly, what is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? When you edit (fine tune) your web pages to accurately describe the content on the page, you’re optimizing for search. Search engines will scan your website, index the content, and use it to deliver [what they feel] are the best results to the searcher – hopefully your web pages! Why is this important? The better you rank in Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc., the more “free” natural (aka organic) web traffic you receive. And we’re all hoping that those shoppers convert into buyers. WWGD – What Would Google Do? Google is clear about the steps that website owners should take in order to rank highly in natural search results. And while search engine optimization isn’t hard nor scary, it’s a marathon and not a sprint; building your website or webpage’s online credibility takes time. RedBubble keeps pace with the changes being made in the search engine optimization arena, however, it’s important to note that RedBubble – and your own – organic search engine rank will fluctuate due to the searcher’s country of origin, season, competition, and a variety of other factors. Credibility One of the elements that factors into your website or Profile page organic search rank is credibility – your content’s relevance as related to the shopper’s search query. E.g., does your St. Kilda artwork page have a descriptive title, page content, and tags that make it a relevant match for the shopper’s “St. Kilda photograph” search query? Another factor that determines page credibility is the number of links into your page(s). Known as “inlinks,” these are links from credible (content-relevant) websites to your RedBubble pages or to your personal website. If I had to choose one, I would choose quality links. Quality links mean that prescreened customers are clicking from a related piece of content to your artwork – which increases the chance of a shopper converting into a buyer. How can we increase the number of inlinks to our RedBubble Profile and artwork pages (as well as our personal websites and blogs)? Start with directories Google, Yahoo, Bing, DMOZ, and other directories allow website and page owners to submit their website URLs. There’s almost always a free option, so if you see a pay-for-placement option, look around the page for a “basic,” free option. - Google Add URL / - Yahoo Site Submit / - Bing / - DMOZ.org You can also list your art business as a local business with these websites. - Google Local / - Yahoo Local (choose the Basic listing) / - For larger US cities, Yelp.com Reach out to friends and contacts You can trade links with friends, contacts, or other willing website owners. If you approach third-parties, take the time to review their content, relate to the owner, and explain the benefits of reciprocal linking. There are far too many link exchange scams online for an unsolicited and unsubstantiated request to pass muster. Write and distribute articles, press releases We chatted about writing for press here, but you can start by posting your writing on RedBubble. If you’re not confident in writing about yourself or your art, start by writing about a local event, an art opening, museum visit, or another topic that’s important to you. Be sure to link keywords (anchor text) in your articles to work in your RedBubble portfolio. E.g., if you’re writing about Yosemite National Park, link to your images of Yosemite. Commenting creates conversation Comments on RedBubble encourage fellow artists, and they prompt members to view your profile and artwork. Take that same idea and apply it to websites outside of RedBubble. You can use Google Alerts to find websites that talk about topics related to your artwork. If the topic applies and there is a space for a comment, be sure to add a relevant note with a link back to your work or Profile page. Become the expert and share You have a lot of valuable information stored in that head of yours. Now is a good time to share your expertise in a journal entry, articles on friends’ websites, etc. “Test the water” with a RedBubble journal entry; be sure to solicit feedback. Then paste the amended story as a Facebook Note or blog entry. Ask friends to pass along the article to others that might enjoy it. Again, pepper the article with links to relevant artwork (anchor text) and add a small “by line,” biography, and website link in the footer of the article. Smart tagging with anchor text In short, when you or someone links to your artwork or Profile page, it’s exponentially more effective if the link text – the anchor text – relates to the headline and body copy on the destination (landing) page. E.g., if you link from text that says, “tiger photograph,” link to a page that includes text, art, and other content related to a tiger. Search engines interpret this as a relevant link and therefore worthy of higher placement in search results. If many websites link from “tiger photograph” to your page you’ll rise in search engine results. Never give up Don’t get discouraged if you receive little to no feedback or results from your first efforts. It takes time to build an audience, and there are rewards to be found in the maturation of your writing and in the discovery of new websites, resources, and in meeting new contacts. And remember, even the world’s most successful artists are bad at some things. Ideas come from you RedBubble members always have great ideas, so please comment below. If you can relate the content to your work, be sure to add a link! :-) Thanks. Regards, / Jason
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“Strength” – An International Collaboration / Image and layout by: Lilith – Netherlands / Poem by: Leon A. Walker – United States A very special thank you to my lovely and gifted collaborative partner Lilith. This is another fabulous piece of work from her. She is a tremendously talented photographer and graphic designer. / / You can find more of Lilith’s work here: / Lilith
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Search Engine Optimisation Tips
by Dan BigginsHi everyone, A few months ago I decided to build myself a new website showcasing my photography, which can be found at “www.danbiggins…
Hi everyone, A few months ago I decided to build myself a new website showcasing my photography, which can be found at www.danbiggins.com. My day job is a freelance web designer / developer, and I also take a healthy interest in SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation as it’s also known. My goal was to ensure the site ranked as high as possible in the search engines for the phrase “London photography”, and if you search for this phrase in Google you’ll see my site is ranked second. I managed to achieve this in just under three months. I thought I’d write down a few tips for you here to help push your site up the search engine rankings. SEO can be a bit of a laborious process, involving constantly updating your site, ensuring your content contains lots of relevant keywords, and so on and so forth. First of all, I’d recommend you visit Google AdWords Keyword Tool, to see how many people per month are searching for keywords and phrases that you’re optimising for. As mentioned above, I decided to optimise my site for the phrase “London Photography”, and a quick search for the UK reveals that 60,500 people per month are searching for this phrase locally, and 90,500 per month worldwide. The trick is to find a keyword or phrase that a decent number of people are searching for, but not too many. For example, if you use the Google AdWords tool to search for “photography”, you’ll see that just under 25 million people searched for this phrase in August! To rank highly in Google for this keyword is highly unlikely, so it’s best to aim a little lower to begin with. So, onto the nitty-gritty. There are on-site and off-site factors that influence SEO, and here they are: On-site factors – remember, content and keywords are king! - Page Title: this appears at the top of the browser bar. For example, on the danbiggins.com homepage, the page title contains relevant keywords and appears in the HTML title tag as “London Photography | Dan Biggins | Portrait, Architecture, Landscape Photography”. - Headings: the main heading on my homepage is “London Photography”, and is contained within the h1 tag. Headings range in importance from h1 to h6 - Content: – another important factor, and the main reason why Flash sites generally rank lower in search engines. The content on my homepage again contains various keywords relevant to photography – “I’m a photographer based in East Dulwich, London…”, the regular use of the word “photography” etc. By the way, search engines can’t “read” Flash sites, and thus won’t be able to see the content contained within (this is changing as Flash is becoming more accessible, but a safe bet is to stick with HTML). - Page titles: – I’ve named all my pages to contain the phrase “London photography”, for example, london-photography-blog.html, london-photography-portfolio.html and so on. Separate keywords using a hyphen and not an underscore. Google sees london-photography-portfolio.html as three separate words, but sees london_photography_portfolio.html as londonphotographyportfolio.html. The chances of anyone searching for “londonphotographyportfolio” is small!! - File names: – something which I’ve yet to do effectively but is very useful is using keywords to name files / images. Instead of naming an image “pic.jpg”, use relevant keywords instead – “london-millennium-bridge.jpg” is much better (these words appear in the HTML, so will be visible to search engines). Don’t forget to use the alt element effectively too: img src=”london-millennium-bridge.jpg” alt=”Millennium Bridge in London, UK” - Meta keywords: – To be honest, the meta-keywords tag is becoming less and less important, with Google placing very little importance on it. However, it’s worth putting in as some of the smaller search engines still refer to it when calculating ranking. On my site the code looks like: meta name=”keywords” content=”photography, photographer, photos, images, landscape, portrait, macro, london, hdr, high dynamic range, portfolio, architecture, canon, sigma” Off-site factors: - Inbound links: – the more relevant sites that link to yours, the better. For example, if you’ve written an article on a photography site that links to your site, Google will view this more favourably than a link from a gardening site, for example! Also, submit to directories – DMOZ is probably the largest. I also place a link to my site on all my image pages in RedBubble, and don’t forget Social Media sites too – MySpace, Twitter, Facebook etc. - Write a blog!: – Google loves content, especially sites that add content regularly. So, write a blog about photography – gear reviews, how-to’s, sources of inspiration etc. Allow readers to easily share your content – adding an AddToAny button for example is especially useful. - Add a Google Sitemap: – this is an XML file that contains all the pages of your site, allowing Google to crawl and index your site more easily. Drop me a line if you need any help with this. - See what your competitors are doing! – let’s say you’re optimising your site for “New Zealand Landscape Photography” and want to rank highly for this phrase. Simply search for it in Google and have a look at the top 3 ranking sites. What keywords are they using in the title, page titles, headings and content? Who’s linking to them? (A quick way to find out is to type linkto: www.theirsite.com in Google – this will provide a list of all the sites linking to them). - Install a statistics package: – the best way to keep an eye on visitors who are finding your site using keywords you’ve optimised for is to install a statistics package. I use Google Analytics which is excellent – all the info you’ll ever need, and the option to export the data as a PDF, XLS file etc. Best of all, it’s free! Well, that’s all I can think of for now – hope you find these tips useful!
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This Image was shot during my first trip back to India which lasted a mere 5 weeks. On my way from the airport to my guesthouse in none other but Paharganj, this little girl came up to me in my autorickshaw and asked me to buy a balloon. I loved the life in her eyes!! I exchanged money and a small plastic toy I had for her photo….I carried around pens, balloons and sweets in my pocket from that point onwards in my journey….a pic for their choice of the three…most chose pens
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