With a free gallery album at PixofToronto pointing to your email, phone number and/or store/gallery address, artists do not necessarily need their own web site. The current free websites allow for up to 20 images and 2 updates per year. In addition, in the Fall we shall begin a series of promotions for the PixofToronto and its artists.

If an artist already has a website, the PixofToronto mini-gallery acts as an important link to their primary website helping increase traffic there with the direct link plus a higher search engine placement.

However, we have received a number of queries about other website options that are available to artists and there are many. Artists can create their own websites, as some have already done, for a cost of between $200 to $2000 initial cost plus an annual renewal fee of $100 to $200. Need more info ? Email me here.

The PixofToronto can offer artist some alternatives as well. We have 3 plans.

Expanded Gallery Option - $50/year

For artist who would like to expand their free gallery and have more control of the galleries look and feel, there is the Expanded Gallery Option. This option allows 100 images, 5 albums, plus 4 assisted updates per year. In addition the user gets their own email address, in the form artistname@pixoftoronto.com, plus the ability to do an unlimited number of self administered updates if they are web savvy (trust me - they are not hard to do). These updates can include a new look and styling to your gallery - we provide a how-to user guide. Finally, the price drops to $30/year if you add the gallery address to your business card and one other piece of promotional literature.

Website with Weblog or Gallery - $250 initial, $70/year renewal

This option provides a complete website with either Weblog (see screenshot above) or gallery (see first screenshot) for the artist. The WebLog or Gallery is designed and styled to meet the user needs. The website is quite robust - it allows for unlimited email addresses and over 300MB of images (about 1500 images) and text. File transfers will accommodate upto about a million hits per month. If the site exceeds this hit rate, the owners will gladly pay the $7 overage fee.

Note we say owners - in the plural. An artists group may very well want to explore this option since a gallery can easily accommodate many artists and individual showings and their specific stylings. In addition every member can have 2 to n, where n is large, email addresses. There is also a database option which can allow for advanced options like putting in a shopping cart or bulletin board or calendar of events. At $250 this is a bargain way to get started on the Web.

Gallery with Shopping Cart - $800 initial, $100/year

Again this type of site can be attractive to an individual or group of artists who want to setup their own website and be able to take orders using PayPal and/or 2 checkout.com (major credit cards). The website owners are responsible for credit arrangement as well as order fulfillment. However the setup and configuring of the system allows a wide range of options and is geared for simplified processing.

Meanwhile the website infrastructure allows again for unlimited email addresses, 300MB of image (about 1500 images) and text space, plus will allow 1 database for many additional services. Again this is a robust option for getting your own virtual gallery up and running.

However, just as with physical galleries, the whole trick will be to get visitors to come to your website (regardless of which option you choose)- not necessarily an easy accomplishment. Gallery owners will have to adopt a plan of intensive promotion to get traffic coming to their site. We have some pointers and advisories on this - but a lot of "elbow grease" is involved too.

If you would like to know more call Jacques at 416-516-2075 or email me here.