Back on Google Base
Most of our Pro items are back on Google Base, and we are working with Google support to get additional feeds for the sellers (Basic and Pro) with items not yet on Google Base. Remember that Google Base is different from organic Google traffic, which we have not had any issues with so far.
We’ve added in a new Pro feature that will help members determine why their items are rejected by Google Base. This feature will allow members to mouse over a rejected Google Base status on ArtFire and receive a message letting them know why it was rejected. Since not all products are back on Google Base, many items will appear “pending” or “rejected” right now, but once everything is back on Google Base members will be able to use this tool to know what changes they need to make to resubmit their item to Google Base.
Artisan Sales Surpass $2 Million
Our completed member sales exceeded $2 million earlier this month! Out of those $2 million items sold, 65% of them were handmade and fine art goods. Over 80% of these products were from Pro member studios.
ArtFire Items Now on TheFind.com
ArtFire items are now available on TheFind.com! TheFind is a search engine for shopping similar to Google Base. Since TheFind receives 5-8 million shoppers a month, this should provide quite a bit of additional exposure and traffic for our artisans.
We’ve lowered the price of most of our Featured Studio Spots, which current show on the right of all trend pages, gift guides, and categories. Users are able to purchase month long ads at a fraction of the original cost. These are highly targeted pages and offer an easy way for you to get more exposure and traffic to your studio. All you need is a 110 x 110 pixel image to get started!
The New Pricing Breakdown:
Top Level Categories (I.e. Handmade, Fine Art, etc): $20/ Month
Main Level Categories (categories within the top level categories, i.e. under Handmade< Accessories, Bath and Beauty, etc): $10/Month Sub Level Categories (categories within the main level categories, i.e. under Jewelry< Necklaces, Bracelets, etc): $5/Month Trend Pages (I.e. Alice in Wonderland, Steampunk, etc): $10/Month Gift Guides (I.e. Easter, Mother’s Day, etc): $10/Month However, since Jewelry has been our most popular featured ad spot on ArtFire, it has been decided that ad prices there will remain as they were before the price reduction. This means a month ad in the Jewelry main category will be $20, while all sub-categories under Jewelry are priced at $10/monthly. Jewelry is the most competitive category for ad spots, lowering the price would be unfair to artisans who have already purchased their featured spot in advance.
You can purchase Featured Studio Spots by clicking here or following an of the "Advertising Info" links on any category, trend page, or gift guide on ArtFire.com.
Last week we launched the newly re-designed ArtDaily blog. We’ve made a number of changes designed to enhance the reading experience and make ArtDaily a more useful and informative place to visit.
Check it out the new ArtDaily here.
We’ll be we having a few new writers contributing, including Kevin, our SMO Director will be posting the Social Media Chronicle, and Caleb, our SEO Director, will be posting InsideHandmade Write-ups and SEO Tips and Tricks. ArtFire’s founders, John and Tony, will also be contributing in their very From the Founders column. Even our Lead Programmer Kyle will be posting in the Tech Updates column.
After jumping over the 900,000th item mark, we’ve decided to offer a special prize for the user who lists the 1,000,000th item ever listed on the site. The member who helps us to cross this milestone will receive a Pro account on ArtFire completely free.
All sellers on ArtFire are eligible to win, be they Basic or Pro. Members can choose to apply this free-for-life status to their current account, an alternative account, or they can even give it away as a gift!
Currently item listings are still in the early 900,000s, but be sure to join us as we count down to the 1,000,000th item! To see where your item falls in this countdown, just check your product ID, appearing at the end of your item URL. The user will the product ID of 1,000,000 will be announced as the lucky winner!
For details on this prize, click here
No matter what the occasion, a handmade gift is a one-of-a-kind present sure to make any holiday unforgettable. That’s because handmade goods are specially crafted by talented artists doing what they love. Handmade crafts are each completely unique, and by choosing to give a handmade gift, one is able to offer a present like no other.
ArtFire.com, the premiere online handmade marketplace, offers a wide variety of unique gift guides full of handmade gifts listed by artisans on the site. From Christmas gifts to Quinceañera gifts, ArtFire has a guide for just about every occasion imaginable, and intends to keep building more for shoppers to choose from. These guides sort and filter the nearly 200,000 items handmade by talented artisans available on Artfire.com.
Shoppers today are faced with an important decision, they can choose to help an artisan pay her mortgage, or they can help line the pockets of a rich CEO. When one decides to buy handmade directly from the artists on ArtFire, all profits from that purchase go straight to the artisan creating the product. The shopper gets a quality unique item made with care and love and these talented artists can continue doing what they love - creating quality handmade goods.
When you choose to buy handmade, you get the opportunity to stimulate the economy at home by helping real people not overseas factories and large corporations. So the next time you shop, think of handmade gifts first.
Interested in writing about what you love and working with other artisan writers? Submit an application to be a columnist or editor on HandmadeNews.org! Handmade News is the next generation of Art Daily, an entirely handmade and art oriented news blog. While HandmadeNews.org isn’t quite ready to go live yet, we are currently accepting and reviewing applications for positions on the site. These are paying positions; we’re looking for artisans willing to devote their time to the news blog to make it great! See the Sponsored By section on the right hand side of the page? Once Handmade News is launched, we plan to fill up these spots with paid advertisements. All Handmade News Columnists and Editors will receive a portion of the advertising revenue gained from their category or column. How quickly these ad spots fill up depends on the amount of traffic coming into a particular section of the site, so the more popular our editors’ and columnists’ posts are, the more advertising revenue they can gain from Handmade News. In addition, all editors and columnist receive a FREE verified ArtFire account for however long they choose to hold the post!
