About Us
Membership
Money Matters
Promotion
Customer Care
Legal Matters
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About Us
What is Essential Artwork and how can it help me
Essential Artwork is an online art gallery which allows artists from across the
UK to exhibit their artwork online. With membership ranging from free Bronze to
a small monthly or annual payment for Silver and Gold, there is a membership model
to suit everyone. Member artists have full access to their account and can make
changes any time, as often as they wish.
If you do not have an online presence with your art or you do but are not 100% satisfied
with it, then why not give us a try? It is possible to upgrade from the free Bronze
account to the Silver or Gold account should you decide you do want to add more
artwork. We also have a free month long trial for the Silver and Gold memberships
in which you can get a feel for how it works so there is no harm in doing so. Try
it, we think you'll like it!
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How are you different from other online galleries?
There are many online galleries out there so why choose this one over any others?
Good question and it really comes down to personal choice. Rather than pick holes
in other websites, the fairest thing to do is mention the positives in our site
and let you make up your own mind.
Customer service is very important to us and so when using this site, you can be
assured there is always someone able to help you out with any problems you might
have. Every member gets free email support and any queries will normally be answered
within 24 hours.
We don't have any real overheads and so we don't need to charge a lot of money to
run the business. Have a look at our membership options
list and compare the amount of features we make available to those of any
other website. This site is continually evolving and so there will be more and more
features added all the time.
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Membership
Do you take commission?
No, any money you make from selling art through this site will be yours. If you
use PayPal to process your transactions online, they will take a very small chunk
of commission (approx 3-4%) from you but compared to what a high street gallery
would charge, this is minimal.
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Can I try before I buy?
Buying something off the internet is always a bit of a daunting process, especially
if it is from a vendor whom you are not familiar with. For that reason, we offer
a free month long trial to all Silver and Gold members. If you are not 100% satisfied
with the service within this month, you may cancel without paying a single penny.
Bronze membership is of course free and so there is no trial for this.
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Why do you need my payment details for a free trial (Silver and Gold only)?
This practice is common on the web and is used to deter time-wasters, internet spammers
and hackers. By using this policy, we are able to keep the content of the site professional
and uninterrupted by deliberate vandalism. Please be assured that your payment details
are only taken by and retained securely by PayPal. At no point does Essential Artwork
have access to your payment details. To cancel your subscription, you simply login
to PayPal and follow their simple cancellation procedure. No written letter of notice
is necessary.
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I have my own website - can I still join?
Absolutely, we don't restrict our artists to only exhibiting with us. We appreciate
there are other art sites on the Internet and the most important result is that
you sell your artwork. The more places it can be seen, the more chance there is
of selling it.
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Can I have a link to my own website?
As you may already know, links are one of the key elements which make the web work
the way it does. Sites which are linked to by many others are deemed more important
than those that are not. We have no problem with you including a link to your own
website from within your Essential Artwork profile but would ask that you have a
reciprocal link from your own website which points at this site. This way both parties
will benefit and this will mean increased visibility of your artwork on the web.
View a selection of adverts for Essential Artwork
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Can I upgrade membership once I've joined?
Yes, you can upgrade from Bronze to Silver/Gold or from Silver to Gold easily through
your Essential Artwork control panel. Upgrading your account will take place immediately
and as a result you will not be valid for the free month trial.
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Money Matters
How do I use PayPal?
Signing up to PayPal to receive online payments is extremely simple and so rather
than rewrite the instructions here, the best thing to do is point you towards the
PayPal website where they have indepth instructions on how to set up your account
there.
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How do sales transactions work?
When a buyer decides they want to buy your artwork, they can either pay directly
for the artwork using PayPal or use the contact form to enquire about the artwork.
The latter is a more manual and insecure way of taking payments and should be avoided
if possible. PayPal will take the buyer's payment details and send an email notification
to the artist telling them that their artwork has been bought. It is then the artist's
responsibility to send out the artwork in a safe way to the buyer.
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What other methods of payment are there?
PayPal is the recommended payment method since it is secure and you will be covered
by PayPal should anything untoward happen with the transaction. As an alternative,
you may wish to allow people to contact you using the contact form and then negotiate
a payment method with them directly. This requires a lot more trust and should be
avoided if possible.
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Which currency do I use?
To pay for your subscription (silver and gold only), payment is made in pounds sterling.
When you first join up, you must choose a currency in which to sell your artwork
on the site. Buyers will need to pay in that currency in order to purchase your
artwork.
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How do I define postage costs?
Postage costs should be included within the price of your artwork for delivery using
your preferred method to the same country as yourself, e.g. Mainland UK. If someone
wants to purchase your artwork and is from another country, or somewhere where it
will cost you additional money to send the artwork, then you must request the additional
sum from the buyer. This can be done either through PayPal or by dealing directly
with the artist. The former is the recommended option.
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Promotion
How will Essential Artwork promote me?
As the site grows and becomes profitable, some of the profits will be re-invested
by listing Essential Artwork in art publications, web adverts and home design magazines.
We hope that each of our artist members will also do their own PR and point potential
customers towards 'their' website as nothing beats word of mouth when it comes to
sales.
The site has been crafted in such a way that it is highly favoured by search engines
such as Google and Yahoo. This will ensure that we appear near the top of search
results for common keywords. In order to get high ranking search positions for keywords
that are relevent, the artist member needs to play a part too. At Essential Artwork,
we allow each artist to specify keywords and descriptions for their pages meaning
that the success of search engine indexing is relative to how focused you make your
content.
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How can I promote myself?
We hope that each of our artist members will do their own PR and point potential
customers towards Essential Artwork as, the more traffic we receive, the better
the chance you have of selling your work.
The best way is to spread the word to people you think would be interested in your
artwork. Friends, family, work colleagues and past customers are all possible candidates.
Compiling and using mailing or emailing lists of your buyers and contacts can be
very useful for giving regular updates of new artwork or exhibitions etc and keeping
your buyers interested in your work and have them returning for more.
If you already have your own separate website you will be able to have a link to
it from Essential Artwork and we hope you will reciprocate by giving us a link from
your site to Essential Artwork thus giving mutual benefits.
Publicising Essential Artwork in art clubs, art societies and online forums will
encourage other artists to take a look at what we offer. You can also benefit from
our great promotional scheme whereby you can earn £5 for every artist you introduce
to us who subsequently takes up an annually paid Gold membership.
You can play a part too in helping Search engines find your artwork by achieving
high-ranking search positions for keywords that are important to you. At Essential
Artwork, we allow each artist to specify keywords and descriptions for artwork in
their pages meaning that the success of search engine indexing is relative to how
focused you make your content.
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How many people will look at my art?
The more visitors we get, the more chance you have of your artwork being found.
With this being a new art site, promotion of the site to encourage traffic is one
of the main aims. We allow integration of Google Analytics accounts into each artist's
section so that you can measure the success of your page yourself.
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Analytics
With the integration of Google Analytics into your account, you can see how many
visitors are looking at your artwork, where they are from in the world and how they
arrived at your artwork. There is a wealth of information to be examined through
the easy-to-use dashboard and you can literally spend hours looking through all
the statistics available.
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Customer Care
What happens if I sign up but I'm not happy with the service?
First of all, give us a chance to make you happy. If there is something that is
frustrating you about the site, let us know and we will try and fix it for you.
If you are sure you wish to cancel your subscription, contact us and we will come
to an amicable agreement. Customer satisfaction is very important to us as is our
reputation.
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How do I get help?
If you need assistance at any time, we're only a click away. Free support is available
to all member artists and we aim to get back to you within 24 hours. The website
has been created with usability in mind so that it allows artists to understand
the concepts behind it quickly and easily.
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Rules and Regulations
Where can I read a list of terms and conditions?
You can read the Terms and Conditions here
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What copyright restrictions are there?
You may if you wish choose to have copyright text put over the top of your images
to stop them being printed off by third parties and reused for any purpose. This
is an optional setting and so if you decide not to do this or have your own copyright
mark on your artwork then that is also acceptable.
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