Thinking about ways to really increase traffic to our art ...

[Faerydae]

So I was chatting with a friend yesterday about ways to get more visibility for our mermaid art.

I was whining a little about the forums here as they just are not half as much fun as an actual forum is - especially after another friend found a HUGE amount of cute and fun free generic-ish mermaid-themed graphics and smilies and emoticons.

I've been playing with ning for a while now, and it does have some limitations as to search engines. I'd really like to build a mermaid mecca of sorts - where we could really work on increasing our visibility - which was why I started the ning group, as one didn't really exist on ning.

But after a few days of chattering with my friends, who I inspired a few of to start browsing and searching all over the internet checking into mermaid stuff, one of them suggested and urged me to consider a full fledged site in it's own right.

I'm fairly convinced myself but was wondering if you guys had thoughts on it.

She's already bought me a domain name for it, bless her heart, and I'll swing the hosting for it ... but how does that sound to you guys? Would you all be interested in a real domain to play in and promote your work in?

We could have a real gallery and forum and newsletters and artist of the month interviews and polls and chatrooms and that sort of thing.

I'd still keep this spot open for those that prefer ning.

Ideas? Thoughts?

[Desiree]

I think its a great idea!! I'll help if you like!! I know some stuff... graphics & such and can certainly learn what I need to!! Not to worry if you don't though hon, it won't hurt my feelins!!

I have an art group over on msn and since they are shutting down the groups I've been searching also for our new home. That is how I ended up on ning also! But it does have limitations and for our members with vision problems its turning into a nightmare!! They just can't see & everything is so busy looking... too much for me! lol

The msn format was unique and I really liked what we were able to do over there as far as totally setting up everything the way we liked... the only way I'm finding we can have that again is to host our own site... unless they make the NEW msn live groups premiering next week rock! I've got my fingers crossed...

And as for making the new site lead the way for merlovers everywhere, I think a good old fashioned brain stormin think tank would help!! You never know what terrific idea is gonna bounce off someone else's!!

Oh!! And I also have a web building program I used to make my own site!! So if ya need me, let me know!! so what's the domain name you chose?

[elisa chong]

That would be awesome! Let me know the name of your domain and I will add a link to it through my website. Also, post art at flickr groups, great way to get art noticed there too! And get a blog going at blogspot. to let more people know about your site on ning.
Let me know if you need help with anything.

~Elisa :)

[Faerydae]

Yay!!

And yes!! I'd need help!! I have SO much on my plate that I need all the help that I can get and mods would be GREAT!

Let me make you guys mods here ... and maybe we can get the other going ... I like ning, but I am still struggling with getting them to show on the search engines - which bites.

The name she bought me was http://mermaidartists.com ... right now I just threw up a placeholder, cuz I wasn't really sure what - if anything - I was going to use it for LOL. I figured if nothing else I could throw up a toplist or something, but it might be nicer to have a full fledged domain with gallery and forum and that sort of thing.

[Desiree]

oh awesome!! ok, well... how do you want to approach this all??
Sure... I'll help moderate... know a bunch of mermaid artists to I can hook up when we're ready too...
my email is [e-mail] if you need to speak to me directly...
I did pop on your held spot you linked... it already looks sweet! If you want me to start building it, let me know what you have in mind... like... look at mine, tell me if there is anything about it that you like... also, deb wood's site as well as pixiwillow are all made with the same builder... that's how I found it... word of mouth... told deb I liked the way hers was set up... so, as you can see there are endless ways of making it look... the only problem is, any pictures will have to be added to the finished program and then uploaded again, so that would limit your access to changing the pictures... unless we figure out a way around that...

[Faerydae]

Geez I did not see your repllies until now, and I kept peeking too!

Well adding in a content site is usually the easiest way to let the members do their own thing without requiring a lot of work from any of us.

So I installed a real basic site with a water-sort of theme ... I figured it would work for now at least and we could develop it as we went along.

I just put in a new feature that will even allow members to create their own groups like we can here on ning.

It will allow for a lot more expansion for sure, and I'm already making great strides with the search engines, which I hope to get drastically improved in the next few months.

The little animated mermaid gifs I figure would work until we had a variety of other images we could use ... I didn't want my art to be plastered all over the thing, you know?