Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hey there,

Launched a revised version of www.artinvolved.com

The goal is to be a community for artists. It may seem a bit like DeviantArt, but the USP is that you can earn points (AiR) by being involved. When you leave comments, receive comments, get pageviews, etc. you earn points. These points you can redeem in the store for Widgets for your profile or to unlock extensions such as a personal Journal and custom background images.

I did it all myself, from the backend engine to the design and frontend.

I would really appreciate feedback on either the layout or whether i should change something to increase conversion (signups).

The main problem I'm facing at the moment is "traffic". When i pay for google AdWords i get a few signups, but it's expensive and doesn't lead to a consistent visitor flow. If anyone has suggestions on how to establish more traffic I would be very grateful :)

Thanks in advance!

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Hi,

You might consider adding artwork that has a current events theme to it. Say, politics, climate change, housing collapse, the bank bailout, the Haiti earthquake, etc., etc.

Then, you could leverage the "appeal" that these topics command and get folks to see the related works.

In essence, you need a "hook". Make artists want to go to your site because it affects them personally.

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Hyra,

 

Welcome to the real world of website projects where making is easy but marketing gets tougher. I have struggled myself and still working every day to promote my website to attract traffice. It is work in progress unless you sell some product or service which involves money transaction. FOr those type of websites also it is tough.

Without any rpoduct and service, itgets even tougher. I have few websites myself and work on them every day to bring traffic. I have similar idea like yours to bring blog technicians together at my blogitects.com website but I put on hold because of marketing constraints.

Anyway, your website seems very professional but to bring traffic few things I would recommend,

1. Launch few contest and give away prizes. Do you know threadless.com mantra? They survive because of competition and brining new art to the table to submissions. You can try similar.

2. You also give free websites space for artist with few web pages for them to show case.

3. You can add stores to artiest to sell their art like gettyimages to others

4. You can go add social media type thing for artist to create groups and chat with themself and discuss.

I can give more and more ideas but implementing them and making it happen is all it matters.

Hope it helps.