Word Count:
1101

Summary:
There is a huge market for art. Almost all people from any age or background will buy art and posters from time to time. By purchasing this art online consumers can save a lot of money over retail stores. Knowing all of this puts you in a great position to make a profit by directing consumer to this art without having to make a significant investment or carrying any overhead.

The key to making this possible is to take advantage of art affiliate programs offered by several …

Keywords:
art affiliate, art reseller, creating art website, art, affiliate, website

Article Body:
There is a huge market for art. Almost all people from any age or background will buy art and posters from time to time. By purchasing this art online consumers can save a lot of money over retail stores. Knowing all of this puts you in a great position to make a profit by directing consumer to this art without having to make a significant investment or carrying any overhead.

The key to making this possible is to take advantage of art affiliate programs offered by several websites. It doesn’t matter which program you decide to use the concept and steps to success are the same. In this guide I’ll walk you through every step of the process and demonstrate each step using our sample website, Tropical Art.

For those of you already familiar with how affiliate websites work, you can skip ahead to step one. For the rest of you I’ll briefly explain. By becoming an affiliate of an art website you agree to send customers to them, in exchange for earning a commission off the sale. There are several ways to do this, but the most common is by setting up your own website for your virtual art store. You allow visitors to browse the art selection you offer and when they wish to make a purchase you send them to the website you have affiliated with to check out. When you send the visitor to the affiliate manager’s website, the url includes a tracking id so that you get credit for the sale. You can visit the tropical art website above for an example of how this works. The percentage of commission you collect for this varies based on the program and how many sales you make, but it typically ranges from 10%-25% of the amount purchased. With art purchases it’s not unusual for a single visitor to purchase $100 or more in art so you can see how the sales can add up quickly.

Step 1 – Select an Affiliate Program

The first thing you need to do is select an affiliate program. The reason it is important to do this first is because it can take days or even weeks to receive approval of your acceptance back from these programs. By doing this step first it will not hold you up later on. Some of the affiliate programs require you to list your website before signing up, while with others it’s optional. If it’s required you can skip this step and come back to it.

There are several factors to look when choosing an affiliate program. Some questions you need to ask are: What percentage of commission will you be paid? How wide is the product selection? Will consumers feel safe providing their credit card information to this site?

I highly recommend sticking with the big three art affiliate programs, Art.com, Art International and All Posters. While there are plenty of others to choose from and many are legit, there are always a few scams out there and I simply can not personally vouch for the others. By working with the big players in the industry you also are typically able to offer your visitors a wider selection. For my sample site I will be using the art.com affiliate program

Step 2 – Selecting a Topic

It’s important for you to know that setting up an art website and making money off of it is going to take some work and you’re not going to profit over night. Most websites get the majority of traffic from search engines, but as with any industry you have competition. This guide will show you how to put up a good fight to get your site ranked in the search engines and get traffic to your site. It’s important to begin with the end in mind so the first step is finding what topic you wish to target.

Usually beginners want to set up a massive art store that sells every product available. While this sounds good at first, it’s not practical for a novice or anyone without serious financial backing to compete in this field. You have to find a niche to target and focus all of your energies on that niche. The most important step in doing this is to find the primary keyword you want to target. I recommend the keyword suggestion tool from Digital Point for doing this.

This tool is simple to use. Just enter a keyword that describes the type of site you want to set up such as “art” and click the suggest button. You’ll get a list of related keywords and the number of daily searches each receives. I recommend using the Overture numbers which show the number of searches performed on Yahoo because I feel these are a more accurate example. At the time of writing this the term “art” receives over 29,000 searches a day! As I said before this is way too competetive of a term for most people to target. My suggestion is to scroll down towards the bottom of the list and look at terms for easier targets. The words in each phrase are listed in alphabetical order, not necessirly in the order searched. For example the term I targeted in this example “tropical art” is listed as “art tropical” on this site. It receives about 400 searches a day on Yahoo alone which will be more than enough to earn a decent amount on this site. Once you found one you think you’d be interested in, go to the search engine you use and perform a search for it. Look at the top few sites and ask yourself the question of if you feel you can build a site that is of this quality or higher or hire someone else to. If the answer is no I’d recommend you try other terms until you find the right one.

Step 3 – Make Sure You Have Products to Sell

So far you haven’t spent any money and have invested a minimal amount of time. Before you do either you need to make sure you have a fair number of products to sell related to the topic you have chosen. Doing this is simple. Just browse the site you have chosen to become an affiliate for and make sure they sell products related to your topic.

For the Tropical Art website I’m using as an example I can see Art.com offers a beach and ocean gallery that will be perfect. If you can’t find any products for your topic or a very limited selection I would suggest finding another topic or a different affiliate program.

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376

Summary:
Art glass means the modern art glass movement in which individual artists are working to generate works from molten glass in relatively small furnaces of a few hundred pounds of glass. It began in the early 1960s and showed continued growth throughout the end of the century. The glass objects created are not primarily serviceable but are projected to make a sculptural or decorative statement.

Keywords:
Indoor and outdoor decoration,wind chimes,garden fountains,decorative home accents,scented candles,glass works,christmas decoration,halloweer decor

Article Body:
Art glass means the modern art glass movement in which individual artists are working to generate works from molten glass in relatively small furnaces of a few hundred pounds of glass. It began in the early 1960s and showed continued growth throughout the end of the century. The glass objects created are not primarily serviceable but are projected to make a sculptural or decorative statement.

Prior to the early 1960s, art glass would have referred to glass made for decorative use, habitually by teams of factory workers, taking glass from furnaces with a thousand or more pounds of glass. This form of art glass, of which Tiffany and Steuben in the U.S.A., Gall? in France and Hoya Crystal in Japan and Kosta Boda in Sweden are perhaps the best known, grew out of the factory system in which all glass objects were cast blown by teams of 4 or more men. In fact, the turn of the 19th Century was the height of the old art glass movement while the factory glass blowers were being replaced by mechanical bottle blowing and incessant window glass. In an art glass studio, “production work” shows more hand worked variation than was allowed in pure factory work environment and every piece shows some of the lead glass worker’s creativity. Most studio glass workers also try to turn out larger individual pieces which might be the corresponding of a master piece in the journeyman system of guild and factory work in addition to smaller production pieces.

Types of Art Glass:

? Blown Art Glass
? Cast Art Glass
? Fused and slumped Art Glass

There’s one way to do it painlessly and easily by annoying some of the hot new paint shades that are available at your local paint store if you’re looking to stride away of your interior design comfort zone. If you’ve already lived in your home for a while, you can revitalize your walls by adding touches of bold colors. You’ll find that paint companies have made it much easier for you to add drama to your interior walls. You’ll be stunned at what a simple thing like varying the color of your walls can do to brighten up your spirits and add a little more relish to your life.

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523

Summary:
I love Mexican folk art! Whenever possible, I try to buy it directly from the artisans who create it. The pieces that speak to me, I keep and add to my own collection. The others, I share with family and friends as gifts, or sell to other collectors and home decor aficionados.

Many people collect museum quality artwork by world renowned Mexican artists. Others choose practical items such as talavera dishes, hand-woven textiles or silver jewelry. Some prefer items of a cere…

Keywords:
mexican folk art, collectors, home decor, beaded masks, prayer bowls, Oaxacan wood carvings

Article Body:
I love Mexican folk art! Whenever possible, I try to buy it directly from the artisans who create it. The pieces that speak to me, I keep and add to my own collection. The others, I share with family and friends as gifts, or sell to other collectors and home decor aficionados.

Many people collect museum quality artwork by world renowned Mexican artists. Others choose practical items such as talavera dishes, hand-woven textiles or silver jewelry. Some prefer items of a ceremonial or religious nature such as beaded masks, prayer bowls or retablos. Still others are attracted to the bright colors and whimsical design of Oaxacan wood carvings known as alebrije, painted tin ornaments, and Day of the Dead miniatures. Each of these items, and many more not mentioned, contribute to the diversity and charm of Mexican folk art.

The history of Mexico is depicted in Mexican folk art. Each piece tells a story or provides a symbolic representation of the Mexican people and their culture. Some folk art reflects the indigenous cultures of the past, many lost to the colonization by the Spaniards. Spanish influences are also present in some works, as are Christian, pagan and folkloric themes. A true collector must study Mexican beliefs and cultural values in depth to fully understand Mexican folk art.

As a new collector, you?ll want to know what to look for to be sure your Mexican folk art is authentic. One key element is the use of indigenous materials from each region of Mexico. For example: alebrije are made from the wood of the copal tree. This tree grows only in the Oaxacan valley. Craftsmanship is another telltale clue. Skill and style will vary between artisans and the price and quality will reflect their ability. However, authentic work is always aesthetically pleasing, well made, and is typically labeled in some manner, whether signed by the artist, with his or her village noted, or at least labeled Hecho en Mexico.

If you?re able to visit Mexico, buy folk art directly from the artisans or purchase from local shops in the region where it is made. Do not buy from vendors in tourist areas unless you wish to pay inflated prices for items that may be of an inferior quality. If your purchases are limited to specialty shops, galleries or online stores in the U.S., make sure you are dealing with a reputable seller and always check out their return policies before buying.

For additional help, there are numerous resources available at your local bookstore. The best, though pricey, is Great Masters of Mexican Folk Art by Fernandez De Calderon Candida. Several others are good hands-on guides pertaining to a specific type of folk art or region of Mexico.

One last thing and the most important in my opinion. When you buy and collect Mexican folk art, you are helping artisans earn a living wage through fair trade which enables them to support their families. You?re also supporting the continuation of ancient traditions and generations old craftsmanship, rather than endorsing mass-produced cheaply made copies of the real thing.

Now, let?s go shopping!

Word Count:
779

Summary:
The beauty of the art collecting lottery is you can hang the ticket on your wall. A win, win situation, your wall decorations are working for you and all your friends can admire your taste.

Keywords:
art,investing,investment,collecting,collectables

Article Body:
The headline reads ?Undiscovered master piece sells for millions at Auction?. The family was overjoyed to discover that a picture that had hung on their grandfather?s wall for years attracted a six figure price at auction. Grandson and heir said ?The whole family knew he collected odds and ends but we never envisaged it would amount to anything.?

Ok the above is fiction, but it?s what?s at the back of the majority of collector?s minds, especially those who collect art. Buy it cheap and sell it for squillions. Just don?t rely on it as your retirement fund. In many respects it is a lottery, your betting your collection decision against that fickle beast, public opinion. The beauty of the art collecting lottery is you can hang the ticket on your wall. A win, win situation, your wall decorations are working for you and all your friends can admire your taste.

Now that can be scary, because 90 out of 100 people know damn all about art. If it isn?t chocolate box pretty it isn?t art, right. Wrong, have a look at the masters of art in your local museum or better still here on the internet and see how many pretty pictures you can find. Look at Picasso, Gauguin, Pollock, Matisse, Cezanne or Van Gogh to mention a few.

It?s Ok, I?ll wait.

Not much prettiness there. What is there is life, both the depiction of it and in the picture itself. There is an energy that radiates from art and if you allow it that energy will take you places you have never been before. But be prepared, it will confront you, it will challenge you, it is opinionated and isn?t afraid to speak its mind, it is prepared to stand up and be counted, it is art.

As such it is in the vanguard of human experience, it is raw, it is fresh and new. It isn?t the tried and true of recipes of yesterday rehashed, it is pushing the boundaries. In the 21st Century it is computer generated art in all of its many and varied forms. Be it fractal art, manipulated photography or cartoon cells, the collectable artists of today are using a keyboard and a mouse. If Michelangelo were to paint the Sistine Chapel today you can bet London to a brick he wouldn?t be using intonaco. Now as then he would be using that latest technology available to him.

For the collector this just adds another level of complexity. Because computer art is so easily reproduced, what does one actually collect? As in the past, collect signatures, preferably from a limited edition. Obviously, the shorter the edition the better. If an open edition with a signature is all you can afford, go for it, it is better than a poster with or with out a digital signature. If your print isn?t signed by the fair hand of the artist, as a collectable, it is worthless and that includes digital signatures. It is a $29.99 commodity and barely worth the paper it?s printed on. Although the frame may attract a bid or two.

If you consequently come across your print on the cover of Vogue or in a TV commercial for whatever, chances are you?re on a winner. That is the paperback of your signed first edition. Assuming of course your print has staying power, for so much of the mass media is based on ephemera. It is the quick hit that attracts attention and while this can be true of art there is a deeper relationship just waiting for your attention in works that can stand the test of time.

For anyone seriously considering collecting art, the pieces to acquire are those you can live with. If you like it from the start that is a bonus though not essential because if you have chosen wisely you will, over time and many conversations, come to love your new found friend. Works of art do become trusted friends and when it comes time to dispose of them it is a gut wrenching experience. This I know for I have been there and done that. When I had to dispose of my collection a few months ago my main concern was that they were going to good home rather than the financial return they could afford me. Consequently the ROI was less than if I had been less sentimental.

Though if ROI is your motivation and you can be hard nosed at the end of the day you will have many hours of enjoyment from your friends upon your walls along the way.

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452

Summary:
This article is a brief description of the evolution of Chinese art and its influences.

Keywords:
Chinese artantiques tang han rare jade

Article Body:
Chinese Art

Different forms of art have been influenced by great philosophers, teachers, religious figures and even political leaders.

Early forms of art in China were made from pottery and jade in the Neolithic period, to which bronze was added in the Shang Dynasty. The Shang are most remembered for their bronze casting, noted for its clarity of detail.

Fragments of pottery vessels dating from around the year 9000 BC found at the Xianrendong (Spirit Cave) site, Wannian County, in the province of Jiangxi represent some of the earliest known Chinese ceramics. The wares were hand-made by coiling and fired in bonfires. Decorations include impressed cord marks, and features produced by stamping and piercing.

The Xianrendong site was occupied from about 9000 BC to about 4000 BC. During this period two types of pottery were made. The first consisted of coarse-bodied wares possibly intended for everyday use. The second being finer, thinner-bodied wares possibly intended for ritual use or special occasions. There is archaeological evidence suggesting that both types of wares were produced at the same time at some point.

Some experts believe the first true porcelain was made in the province of Zhejiang during the Eastern Han period. Chinese experts emphasize the presence of a significant proportion of porcelain-building minerals (china clay, porcelain stone or a combination of both) as an important factor in defining porcelain. Shards recovered from archaeological Eastern Han kiln sites estimated firing temperature ranged from 1260 to 1300?C, as far back as 1000 BC. In early imperial China, porcelain was introduced and was refined to the point that in English the word china has become synonymous with high-quality porcelain.

During the Sui and Tang periods (581 to 906) a wide range of ceramics, low-fired and high-fired, were produced. These included the well-known Tang lead-glazed sancai (three-colour) wares, the high-firing, lime-glazed Yue celadon wares and low-fired wares from Changsha. In northern China, high-fired, translucent porcelains were made at kilns in the provinces of Henan and Hebei. One of the first mentions of porcelain by a foreigner was made by an Arabian traveler during the Tang Dynasty who recorded that:
””They have in China a very fine clay with which they make vases which are as transparent as glass; water is seen through them. The vases are made of clay”

Tang Sancai burial wares have become a very popular for of art. “Sancai” means three-colours. However, the colours of the glazes used to decorate the wares of the Tang dynasty were not limited to three in number. In the West, Tang sancai wares were sometimes referred to as egg-and-spinach by dealers for the use of green, yellow and white. Though the latter of the two colours might be more properly described as amber and off-white / cream.

Word Count:
551

Summary:
Article discusses buying art and also shares the process of finding the perfect piece of art.

Keywords:
art, luxury, art gallery, home decor,

Article Body:
Consumers in search of that perfect piece of art often find themselves lost in a tangle of webs created by less than helpful gallery curators, bidding wars, and issues stemming from exhibit proximity and lack of time.

Shopping for accents to complement your home d?cor should be a pleasant experience, one which you look forward to and that expands your creativity.
While attending a gallery exhibition definitely has its benefits the hors d’oeuvres, conversation and cocktails the draw of the crowd can often be overwhelming.

We are not saying you need to succumb to the perils of dealing with large retail chains, which stock over-produced re-prints cased behind plastic frames. And purchasing your art in the same place you go to buy your milk is definitely out of the question. So, what do you do when you want designer d?cor but don’t want to leave the house to find it?

Buyoutsidethebox.com, an online art gallery, is an ideal solution for all of your creative needs. With a name like Buyoutsidethebox.com, you can expect a selection that you most likely wouldn’t find elsewhere. Ruth Mitchell, the creator of Buyoutsidethebox.com, traded in her career in magazine publishing in order to pursue a lifelong dream of owning her own art gallery.

However, Mitchell wasn’t one to sit behind a desk all day, pushing papers and dealing with the public. She felt her time would be better spent searching for innovative artists, new concepts, and artwork that ultimately represented something outside the box. Enlisting help from her business savvy daughter, Cecelia, Mitchell soon turned her dream into a reality.

“I had seen Web sites that sold art, but they were lacking in so many ways. I wanted more of an exclusive collection to be offered in a classy magazine format,” Mitchell said. “We would start out small, but focus on quality, building on the original concept.”

As an avid online shopper, Mitchell was determined to make her new Web site user friendly. “I shop online a great deal myself, and two things I do not like are, having to register to visit a site, and paying a lot of extra costs as you check out,” Mitchell said.

“So, we asked our artists to factor in shipping. We can do that with most of the art.” With merchandise spanning the gamut, the Web site features paintings and photography, jewelry and glass, women’s apparel and children’s accessories, textiles and leather books, and a collection of well-written articles.

“Our theme is creative consumerism,” Mitchell said. “Anything that falls under that umbrella will show up on our site.” In addition to the merchandise sold on the Web site, which is hand-selected by Mitchell from more than 50 artists, Buyoutsidethebox.com offers its customers the luxury of perusing featured collections by visiting their blog.

The blog is much more than an extension of the Web site; it showcases a wide array of any and all things artistic while capturing the essence of creative consumerism. The blog’s resourceful list of Arts and Culture Web sites proves to be a valuable tool for any creative mind.

And with an extensive background in magazine publishing, you can rest assure that this isn’t just some run-of-the-mill blog but rather a tasteful narrative covering everything from museum profiles to film reviews.