Ecommerce software - analytical review of different options

If you are an artist and want to market and sell your art online then one of the things you'll end up doing sooner or later is investigate ecommerce software. The aim will be to try and evaluate whether any of them do what you want and which one might work best for you.

For those who have never had to deal with anything more threatening than a new version of Microsoft Office, this can be a major challenge!

The first thing you learn is that, with few exceptions, most of the software is generic and not targeted at artists.

I've just come across a website called G2Crowd which provides a way-in to:

• understanding what the options exist relating to ecommerce software
• typically in-depth customer reviews for different products
• an evaluation and rating of different business software according to market presence and customer satisfaction

Home Page - GCrowd website

The idea behind the site is that there is too much spin out there in relation to products available for sale in the marketplace - and not enough well informed reviews.  

• The idea is to eliminate "vendor spin and outdated analyst reports".  
• Products ranks are aggregated from peer reviews and social data. 
• The reviews are intended to be real, unbiased feedback or ....advice from people who had actually implemented and used the software and related services

This, for example, is its page relating to ecommerce software and below is the widget it uses for demonstrating how one site relates to another.

• The y axis is documenting presence in the marketplace with those in the top half being the bigger players
• the x axis looks at the satisfaction scoring attributed to different sites - with the more established sites tending to have more and higher scoring ratings.

These are the policies for grid rating objectives and grid rating methodology. 

Compare Best E-Commerce Software

This is how GCrowd describes the four quadrants of the four cell table

The best E-Commerce Software products are determined by customer satisfaction (based on user reviews) and scale (based on market share, vendor size, and social impact) and placed into four categories on the Grid:

• Leaders offer E-Commerce products that are rated highly by G2 Crowd users and have substantial scale, market share, and global support and service resources. Leaders include:Amazon Webstore, Paypal, PayPal Payments

• High Performers provide products that are highly rated by their users, but have not yet achieved the market share and scale of the vendors in the Leader category. High Performers include: Miva Merchant, ChargeBee, Shopify, Demandware, cleverbridge, BigCommerce

• Contenders have significant scale and resources, but their products have received below average user satisfaction ratings or have not yet received a sufficient number of reviews to validate their products. Contenders include: Magento, IBM WebSphere Commerce, Yahoo Merchant Solutions

• Niche vendors do not have the scale and market share of the Leaders. They may have been rated positively on customer satisfaction, but have not yet received enough reviews to validate their success. Niche include: Zuora, CloudCraze

It's worth taking a look and checking out what you currently use (I've just had some validation of my choice to use PayPal for payments by clients!) and investigating how well it stacks up relative to competitors.

To the extent that dedicated software for artists actually exists, you can assess whether (1) it's recognised and (2)  its performance in the market in general for that type of product.

The ecommerce categories for software are

• E-Commerce Platform
• Digital E-Commerce
• Shopping Cart
• Live Chat
• Order & Fulfillment Management
• Payment Gateway
• Product Reviews
• Subscription Management

Click any of these links above and you can find the software which comes into this category.

Use the column on the left to define attributes and further sub-categories which you want to focus on. You'll end up with a list of options for your particular needs eg for Digital E-Commerce Software

You can also use the platform to assess other business and marketing software - for example, find out which product is rated as the best email marketing tool

Print on demand: top choices are Zazzle and Fine Art America

Zazzle and Fine Art America are the most popular choices of artists using print on demand services for their artwork.  

Print on demand is a service where you upload an image and a company fulfils all orders for a giclee print, invoices, processes payments and despatches the print on your behalf - for a fee.  many artists like it as they can make money from their artwork even if the original has been sold and can spend more time on making art and less time on doing the administrative aspects.

However print on demand doesn't just happen - just as with original art, you still need to work at the marketing!

But which site offers the best service?

My poll which investigates which print on demand service artists like best has been running on my website dedicated to Print Art on Demand - Resources for Artists since last August.  You can see it below.

POLL: Which "Print on Demand" site for art prints do you like the best?

Poll ran for 13 months
from 14 August 2012 - 14 September 2013

The poll ran for 13 months between August 2o12 and Sepetmber 2013. I'd have liked the poll to have been bigger - that said it still represents responses from 64 people, some of whom have also left comments on the website.

Key results

• Zazzle managed to snare nearly a third of the print on demand clients 
• a quarter opted for the services of Fine Art America.

While the traffic for Cafepress and Zazzle is ostensibly similar, it's very clear that Zazzle is the site of choice for smaller and less fine art oriented items with images. Zazzle continues to remain very popular with artists wanting to sell at the 'popular art'/low priced end of the market

Upon further investigation, while there's not that much to choose between them in terms of traffic in the summer months, Zazzle absolutely thrashes CafePress at Christmas with some 2 million more visitors (9+ million compared to CafePress's 7+ million).  So if you want customers for your art at Christmas you might want to give Zazzle a try.

Zazzle also has the snazziest looking website - which is bang up to date.  It's already got its offerings up re. putting artwork on the new iPhone cases on its home page!

Redbubble is close to the Zazzle and Cafepress end of the market - however the general consensus is that this once popular Australian based firm has maybe peaked.  It's been giving an impression of a site which lost its way in business terms.  The website also has a more conventional look about it. A number of people have been looking for other venues since they changed the way they do business.

Fine Art America is a more popular choice for those wanting to sell fine art prints of their artwork on demand - with the company doing all the necessary to fulfil the order.  One of the aspects artists appreciate is the fact that they can choose whether or not Pinterest can pin their images or not - it's their choice, not a choice made for them by the website.

What I like about Fine Art America is that all the basics are explained - with a decent amount of detail - all on one page.  You also have the chance to sell prints direct from your own website.  With a premium membership you can also sell your art via Amazon.com.  On the other hand, its sop site is by far the most traditional looking and is likely to attract an older customer.  In my view, Fine Art America could do with reviewing how its site stacks up compared to the competitors.

My original choice of website for prints (Imagekind) was spot on in terms of quality of print - and absolutely dreadful in terms of their business model and their overall approach to growing the business.  So while you can see my prints via my website I have been giving some thought for a while to switching to a new provider.

I'm not really into selling mugs and mousemats so I'll probably skip Zazzle and give Fine Art America another close look.  I'm also going to check out some of the photography websites which have well organised ecommerce options and will then review the options.

One thing I would say is if you've not given ALL their websites a once over for quite a while, I think you'll notice quite a bit of change.  Maybe time to take another look?

Please share your views

Please let us know your experiences of different print on demand websites either here or on Print Art on Demand - Resources for Artists

Learn how to pack, post and ship art

Have you ever found packing art or shipping art to be a bit of a challenge?

This is a time of year when a lot of artwork gets packed and mailed or shipped. Here's some polls from my website How to pack, post and ship art - Resources for Artists which highlight what most people find a challenge - and what some of the best solutions are in terms of which mail or courier service people like to use and will recommend.

POLL: Packing or shipping - which is the biggest challenge?

The top three challenges for artists are:

• Which is the best mail / courier / shipping service (27.3%)
• Which are the best packing materials (20.9%)
• Where to buy good packing materials (16.5%)

POLL: Packing or shipping - which is the biggest challenge?

You can find lots of information and links to resources and yet more information on my website.

• How to pack art for shipping
• How to ship artwork internationally
• UK, USA and International Post and Shipping Services

Given that choosing the best mail/courier/shipping service is such a major challenge, I have two more polls on this website which review which are the best post/shipping services in the UK and the USA respectively.

Here's a reminder of how the votes have been cast.

POLL: Which is the best post/shipping service for artwork in the UK?

Which is the best post/shipping service for artwork in the UK?

POLL: Which is the best post/shipping service for artwork in the USA?

Which is the best post/shipping service for artwork in the USA?

At the end of last year I also ran an independent poll and this also confirmed that Shipping art: FedEx is the most trusted service

Ning's abysmal communication on billing

I use Ning to provide a framework for online discussion groups about art. The framework they offer and the service they provide is great.

However I have one MAJOR complaint about Ning. I complained about it last year - to Ning.  The situation is no better this year so I'm going to complain about it again - and this time I'm doing it in public.

Ning's communication with respect to annual subscription billing is absolutely APPALLING!

ABYSMAL is another word I would quite happily use.

Communication is limited to a pop-up message on entry to the network.

• There are no emails to the network owner prior to payment becoming due
• There are no invoices delivered via email to the owner's inbox - PRIOR to payment.
• Continued subscription is assumed and revisions to existing arrangements are made difficult for network owners due to the lack of information on the network dashboard
• Payment can be made BEFORE an owner has had a chance to review the payment.

Now as it happens I don't want to revise my current arrangements.  However if I did Ning doesn't give me much of a chance to do something about it.

 However as somebody who is very familiar with the proper statutory requirements and other good practice standards applied to systems for billing accounts I know that Ning's arrangements fall far short of what's required.

 I conclude that Ning's communication on invoices is very poor and below all reasonable expectations of standards for online payments.

 It made me think last year that there's a need for some sort of online financial systems ombudsman. I'm thinking the same thing again this year.

This is the online billing enquiry they're receiving from me today.

Please answer the following questions:

1. Why does a responsible company not have a setting for account details and payments of invoices linked to an individual's personal account and/or the network account.
 
2. Why do you not communicate with the site owner via email in advance of the billing date with respect to annual billings.  I do not in any way regard a flash-up message when logging in as any sort of adequate substitute for proper communication.  For one thing there is no online record which is accessible to me that it has occurred.
 
3. Are your billing arrangements fully transparent and completely compliant with all statutory legislation and prevailing good accounting practice relating to the payment of bills for online services?

I'd be very interested to hear about other people's experiences of Ning's Billing arrangements.


UPDATE:  Here's the automated response which completely fails to address any of the questions asked. Like I said - their communication is abysmal!

Hi there,

Thanks for contacting us. You can view all of your account information, including your complete billing and invoice history, by signing in directly to Ning.com using the email address you used to create your network. You can also access your Ning.com account from the dashboard of your network by clicking "My Account." For any questions, please refer to our Help Center article located here: http://www.ning.com/help/?p=5859
We hope this helps.

Thanks,
The Ning Team

Art in Transit: Handbook for Packing and Transporting Paintings

Art in Transit: Handbook for Packing and Transporting Paintings by Mervin Richard
Marion F. Mecklenburg and Ross M. Merrill is available for free from the Smithsoninian Institute.

Art in Transit: Handbook for Packing and Transporting Paintings by Mervin Richard

Marion F. Mecklenburg and Ross M. Merrill is available for free from the Smithsonian Institute.

Title:  Art in Transit: Handbook for Packing and Transporting Paintings

Synopsis: This technically detailed Handbook focuses on different approaches and procedures that will enable museum specialists (packers, registrars, curators, and conservators) to effectively use the results of the research of specialists in the field.  It includes tips and techniques also of relevance to those transporting high value artwork.

Summary review:  If you’ve ever wanted a comprehensive document telling you what to do when packing and transporting artwork, this is a good place to start. Although written for art galleries and museums, there’s a lot of information which will also assist the professional artist who is transporting valuable paintings.  Other artists will also find useful information in this large and comprehensive handbook.

Highlights Accessible: written in the language of lay people rather than art technologists / historians bullet points unpack the processes into easy stages key terms are highlighted in bold lots of useful sub-headings Comprehensive and evidenced synopsis of scientific evidence for best practices in the transport of paintings and other artworks Advantages and disadvantages of different techniques are identified Fascinating glossary Information derived from a variety of publications of note Use of a pdf format enables easy navigation of the document onscreen searches of the document

Think Again? NOT a “how to send paintings for beginners” document NOT for everybody.  Is it relevant to artists producing low value paintings (relative to art in museums)?  However some tips still relevant - and a useful resource of questions arise (eg case labels in different languages) NOT a quick read.The language may be accessible - but there’s still an awful lot of information. NOT a small document - 6.1MB pdf

Who should buy this?: Those wanting to know about good practices detailed in this book Those transporting valuable paintings to clients and to/from exhibitions Museum conservators Gallery transport technicians

Who should not buy this? Those unconcerned about archival practices and nature of packing required for valuable paintings and other works of art People who don’t work in museums have no need to buy this since its is freely available online

Author / (Publisher) Mervin Richard, Marion F. Mecklenburg and Ross M. Merrill / (National Gallery of Art, Washington)

Available from: no need to buy - it’s available for free from the Smithsonian Institute (click the title).   However if you’d like you'd like your very own personal copy you can try buying from via Amazon where copies are available for between $250-$1,000

Technical data: Copyright © 1991, 1997 National Gallery of Art First edition 1991. Second edition 1997 No. of pages Hardcover - pages Paperback pages; ISBN-10 ISBN-13 pdf document - 6.1MB file size

The contents include the following.  As you can see this is a technical document rather than a “how to send paintings for beginners” document.  It’s also particularly related to the conservation of very old paintings where the painting may be fragile

• Assessing Risks
• Criteria for the Selection of Paintings for Loan
• Selection Criteria for Frames
• Selection Criteria for Paintings on Canvas or Paper Mounted on Canvas
• Additional Issues for Large Paintings on Canvas
• Selection Criteria for Contemporary Paintings on Canvas
• Paintings on Wood, Ivory, or Bone
• Paintings on Metal and Other Nonporous Rigid Supports
• Transit Climate Conditions
• Expected Transit Environments in Summer and Winter
• Temperature Protection
• Insulating Materials
• Temperature Half-Time
• Temperature Half-Times of Packing Cases
• Relative Humidity Protection
• Wrapping Materials for Paintings: Polyethylene
• Wrapping Materials for Paintings: Glassine
• Wrapping Materials for Paintings: Kraft Paper
• Wrapping Materials for Paintings: Kraft Paper or Glassine Covered with Polyethylene
• Wrapping Materials for Paintings: Inner Packing Case
• General Properties of Silica Gel
• Use of Silica Gel in Packing Cases for Painting
• Shock and Vibration Hazards
• Shock and Vibration Hazards
• Vibration Fragility of Painting
• Shock Protection
• Fragility Factors
• Probable Drop Heights
• How to Use a Dynamic Cushioning Curve: Procedure A
• How to Use a Dynamic Cushioning Curve: Procedure B
• Optimum Static Loads - Quick Reference Table
• Load-Bearing Areas
• Vibration Protection
• Vibration Control for Canvas Paintings - Backboards
• Vibration Control for Canvas Paintings - Foam Inserts behind the Painting
• Vibration Control for Canvas Paintings - Stretcher Lining
• Packing Cases
• Case Construction - Structure
• Handles
• Skids
• Chemical Stability of Packing Materials
• Soft Packing
• Sample Packing Case No. 1
• Sample Packing Case No. 2
• Sample Packing Case No. 3
• Sample Packing Case No. 4
• Sample Packing Case No. 5
• Sample Packing Case No. 6
• Sample Packing Case No. 7
• Case Labels - English, French, Spanish, German, Italian
• Role of the Courier
• Glossary

Makingamark's Top Ten Fine Art Books in January 2012

Find out about the the Top Ten Fine Art Books sold in January 2012 - and which new art books were published.  You can see more about:

• the Top Ten art books in January 2012 in Makingamark's Top 10 Fine Art Books
• the best NEW books in January 2012 in The Best NEW Art Books
• NEW books about drawing in 2012: NEW Books About Drawing
• NEW books about painting in 2012: NEW Books about Painting

Below you can find notes about:

• changes in where I post about the best and newest art books each month
• changes in the marketplaces for book publishing and book retail
• changes in the categories of best and top rated books

Changes to postings about my book listings

Over on Making A Mark, I've highlighted the fact I'm planning a new project on that blog which will focus on the production of books by artists or those working in the art field.

As a result I'm switching the regular monthly posts about art books to Making A Mark Reviews - and this is the first.

Changes in the marketplace

The book market continues to change.  It's very evident that it's now absolutely impossible to ignore the power of Amazon which seems to have ambitions way beyond its present set-up.

Morris Rosenthal has been writing the Self-Publishing 2.0 blog since 2005.  He indicates in Marketplace Sellers Provide 2011 Profit For Amazon (3 January) three important conclusions.  I've provided sub-heads for my readers

#1  Who's the biggest bookseller

 Amazon is now the biggest book retailer, both in North America and overseas,

That's partly because a lot of their business is now done via third party book retailers.

#2  What type of book sells most?

on January 2nd, 2012, the top 20,000 paid Kindle eBooks were outselling the top 20,000 paper books by a wide margin

It's no wonder that the book publishers are pricing their ebooks at a level far in excess of what they cost to produce ie with bigger margins to the publishers.  It would be interesting to know if those margins are being shared with the authors - although I suspect not.  My guess is they're mopping up the cost of the bottom falling out of the printed book market.  However there is a sting over which they have no control........

#3  How important are free ebooks?

In the middle of the range for the top 1,000 Kindle books, it appears that free eBooks “outsell” paid eBooks by a ratio of more than 5:1 .

Free is fine so long as it is also good quality.  Free which is dross only serves to downgrade the listings and submerge the better quality books so they never surface in the Amazon listings.

What I need right now are listings that separate out the free ebooks from the paid or very low priced ebooks.  This is possible on Amazon UK but not amazon.com

Changes to the Amazon listings

Amazon.com continues to present challenges with respect to how to make sense of that site's listings.  As I see it there are three problems

Art swamped by music/entertainment:  Changing the category on Amazon.com to include music and entertainment has done art books no favours whatsoever.  A lot of books which gained a good profile by being included in the top 100 art books now have no chance of getting on the list

The Amazon charts favour new books:  Amazon's focus is sales and they obviously think that the emphasis needs to be on new books.  However rankings which favour latest sales are worthless within the context of the bigger picture.  My analysis of the available data in the past suggests that there are some art books which continue to sell well for a very long time - as well as selling much better than new books.  However it's now far more difficult to identify these due to the way books are now listed.

Which I guess makes my listings a bit more important than I anticipated they might become when I started.

Self-publishing:  The Amazon charts are beginning to become swamped by author driven books - which might be good but for the fact that they are of extremely variable quality - and not necessarily written by the author! I cannot over-emphasise how much complete and utter dross now inhabits the listings!

Those that are being priced very cheaply seem to sell well. That doesn't mean to say they're any good or that they will sell well in the longer term. Some are complete rubbish - take a look inside this one. However cheap and free books seem to be successful at submerging books which deserve to do well - but now find it much more difficult to get into the lists. That just spells more and more problems for the traditional printed book produced by the traditional publisher.

New formats: The charts are also being swamped by the production of old books in new formats. There is no new book only a new format.

In general I'm finding that the Amazon.UK listings are lot less adulterated than the Amazon.com listings, plus they enable me to screen out the free Kindle books. I anticipate that my listings for 2012 might well draw more heavily on the UK pages than hitherto. The listings for January 2012 certainly have a more mid-Atlantic flavour.

Best and Top Rated Books

You can see the Top Ten art books in January 2012 in Makingamark's Top 10 Fine Art Books

I've changed the categories of best and top rated books.  For 2012 they will be:

• Drawing
• Painting
• Artists
• Art History
• Art business

Drawing:  The major story of January 2012 is the way The Art of Urban Sketching: Drawing On Location Around The World has topped both the drawing and painting charts but since it can only top one in my charts, I've gone for drawing.  It also rides high in art history charts but how it justifies that is beyond me!

Painting: James Gurney's Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter continues to be the top rated painting book.  However finding the best seller (given that the urban sketching book could only be top in one category) proved to be a tad more difficult.  In the end I selected a book which was doing well in charts on both sides of the Atlantic.

Artists: Having changed the categories because I was finding books about an artist were straying into painting and art history, I then find that January is not awash with popular or top rated books about individual artists.  There's many more fantasy artists and photographers getting good ratings compared to books about fine artists.

Art History:  I've retired the Hare.  I can't cope with the idea of yet another variation on this theme.  I am BORED with a very small hare with an amber eye.  Interestingly I think people are now buying it because people have bought it and it's a best seller - because when you look at the "wished for" books it's not quite so high!

The Louvre: All the Paintings now becomes the top rated art book in recent times.  I think however it's a book which is ultimately destined for the shelves of libraries.

Art Business:  This section has been home to a curious turn of events.  A new art business book has stormed the rankings for one month only.  Last month's top rated book now languishes at #78 in the best selling art business books - and there have been no more reviews.  I've been thinking why this might be and the only explanation I can come up with is that the glowing reviews did not translate to sales.  I have to say I'm always very wary of books which suddenly have a vast number of 5 star reviews - it never seems quite real to me - unless the individual has a strong and well known track record.

New Art Books

Check out The Best NEW Art Books in January 2012.

It's getting really difficult picking out good new art books is the main conclusion this month.  It's been getting progressively worse each month but it seems to have gone up a notch this month.  The main problem is wading through the books which I won't include in my listings.

However there are LOTS of new drawing and painting books published in January 2012 - some in ebook format for the first time.

I've also updated for

• NEW books about drawing in 2012: NEW Books About Drawing
• NEW books about painting in 2012: NEW Books about Painting
• changes in The Best Art Business Books

Shipping art: FedEx is the most trusted service

I've been running opinion polls about posting and shipping art in 2011.  These have consistently identified FedEx as being the service most people seem to trust when shipping artwork.

One caveat is that the numbers responding to the polls have not been high - hence why I'd like to encourage more people to participate in the two ongoing polls listed below.

• In February 2011, the Making A Mark Poll for February asked the question Which service do you trust when posting/shipping artwork?
• Results were reported in Which service do you trust when you post or ship artwork? (Results)
• On my information site How to pack, post and ship art - Resources for Artists, I've been running
  two polls.Click the links if you have still to vote. 
• POLL: Which is the best post/shipping service for artwork in the UK?
• POLL: Which is the best post/shipping service in the USA?

Below you can see the charts of results from the three different polls - together with the number of respondents to date

February Poll - Which service do you trust when you post or ship artwork?

FedEx came top in February with 28% of the poll

Results of Making A Mark Poll February 2011 (29 respondents)

FedEx(UK) is the clear leader in my poll about the best post/shipping service in the UK

FedEx is just ahead of UPS in my poll about the best post-shipping service in the USA

If you are an artist and post or ship art in the UK or USA - and you have not yet responded - you can help give other artists an even better picture about which services artists prefer to use by voting in one or other of the polls on How to pack, post and ship art.

Just click the links to the polls to vote.

On Making A Mark today, there is a post which is a Review of Specialist Art Couriers in the UK.  This is primarily about the couriers used by artists to get their artwork to and from an exhibition.  Follow ups to that review will be posted on this blog.

POLL: Which "Print on Demand" site do you like the best? (Update #1)

Last summer I started a poll on Print on Demand - Resources for Artists to identify what people's preferences were in relation to different Print on Demands websites.

The popularity of the various 'print on demand' sites waxes and wanes. We know something about the traffic they get ( see the traffic charts below) but what do people think of them after they've used them and/or bought items from them? This poll set out to find out.

This is the situation some six months on.  44 people have responded to date.

Print on Demand Poll as at 12th February 2011

Print on demand - art prints/posters and other printed items

Clearly Zazzle is way out in front.

However looking at the preferences in the context of traffic enables us to get a better picture

Zazzle's premier position is echoed by the growth in traffic to their website.  Zazzle and Cafe Press are far and away the largest competitors with traffic peaking at nearly 7 millon a month in December.  However, since last summer, Zazzle has consistently attracted more traffic than Cafe Press.

Zazzle's traffic (blue) overtook that of CafePress (green) last summer
(January 2010 - January 2011)

Red Bubble is the newest website in this competitive marketplace.  It picked up second place in the order of preferences.

Again this is born out by the compete.com chart when comparing the traffic of Imagekind and Red Bubble - where it can be seen that Red Bubble has been beating Imagekine for all of the last 12 months.

Imagekind (blue) has been consistently losing out to Red Bubble (green) in the last 12 months
(January 2010 - January 2011)

Interestingly 20% of those voting preferred another site - but rather frustratingly didn't say which!

See Print on Demand - Art for more information, advice and tips about the different websites

Print of demand publications

In the print of demand publications stakes, Lulu is preferred to Blurb.  Again this reflects the relative position on traffic.

Lulu's traffic approximately three times that of Blurb (January 2010 - January 2011)

See Print on Demand - Publications for more information

Conclusions / your views

Overall, traffic is a pretty good indicator of preference - with the exception of CafePress.  This site has extremely high traffic but is not the site of choice for most people.  One can only assume this say something about people's experiences with the site or their reputation.

• What's your preferred print on demand website - and why?   
• Have you voted on the poll? - please update the poll if you have not yet voted
  

Online publishing platforms - the numbers compared

This post focuses on the relative traffic, size and impact and reach of the different online publishing sites.   This is because many artists now like to be able to publish their artwork or sketches in books and some also publish art instruction online. 

Online publishing platforms

I'm focusing on three publishing platforms.  Their own descriptions of themselves are quoted below.

• Blurb

Make your own book with Blurb online. Create photo books, wedding books and more. Design and publish professional quality books to keep, give or sell

• Lulu

Lulu.com brings the world of online book publishing to you. Looking to self-publish? Lulu's print on demand (POD) solutions make it quick and easy. Create a book in minutes, publish with the click of a mouse, distribute, sell and print books to order. It's that simple.

• Issuu

Explore a world of publications by people and publishers alike. Collect, share and publish in a format designed to make your documents look their very best.

Below you can see what the unique monthly visitors are for the different sites when their website URLs are plugged into compete.com - a site which provides comparative site profiles.

Comparison of the USA traffic for three online publishing sites: issuu, lulu and blurb

Compete's data comes from a statistically representative cross-section of 2 million consumers across the United States who have given permission to have their internet clickstream behaviors and opt-in survey responses analyzed anonymously as a new source of marketing research.  compete.com

These stats came as a bit of a surprise to me.

1. I'm surprised that Lulu is about twice as big as blurb.  I knew it was bigger but not that much bigger
2. I'm amazed at how just how big Issuu is and will be seriously looking into this as a vehicle for publishing my work in future.  Capturing the corporate audience with repeat readers is obviously an excellent way to grow your business.  It remains to be seen whether it does the same for independent publishers.

Bear in mind that

• the above are predominantly statistics for an American Audience. 
• You only really begin to get an appreciation of the global audience for Issuu in the Quantcast pages (see below) - and that's because it's so big.  
• The US audience for Issuu is only around 25% of its global audience.

This is what each of the sites look like on Quantcast which is one of my favourite analysis sites in terms of a demographic analysis of visitors by sex, age group, earnings and college education status.  It appears to indicate that each of the publishing sites appears to attract the same sort of audience for their services.

Click the link in the title to see the full Quantcast page.

Blurb on Quantcast - ranks 7,096 in USA

Lulu on Quantcast - ranks 2,740 in USA


Issuu on Quantcast - ranks 158 in USA



In conclusion:

• Issuu is HUGE compared to the other two platforms - but only delivers online publications
• If you want to have your book or publication about your artwork found online by readers independently of your website or blog then you need to look very seriously at issuu
• If you want to produce a physical copy of your book for distribution to clients or galleries then you're better off looking at Blurb or Lulu.

This is a very much a first look at these three sites in comparison to one another.  I'll be revisiting them. 

What do you think?

In the meantime if you've got experience of any of the three sites and would like to share your experinces please leave a comment below.

Which is the most helpful art business book?

Over on my "resources for artists information site - The Best Art Business Books - I'm running an opinion poll to try and get different artists' perspectives on which art business-related book you find the most helpful. 

Not that there can be any one book which suits all artists - because everybody has their own individual needs and preferences.  However, it is interesting to know which are the ones which people have found more helpful.

One of the reasons for doing the poll was to also highlight these books which I've found are so very often get buried in art bookshops and on Amazon. 

However it's not had a lot of responses to date - so I thought I'd highlight it here too.  So here's the LINK to the opinion poll - Which is the most helpful art business book?

Which art business book have you found most helpful?

The books listed (alphabetically) in the poll are:

• Alyson Stanfield's "I'd Rather be in the Studio!"
• "Artist's & Graphic Designer's Market"
• Caroll Michell's "How to Survive and Prosper as an Artist: Selling Yourself Without Selling Your Soul"
• Cay Lang's "Taking the Leap: Building a Career as a Visual Artist"
• Constance Smith's "Art Marketing 101"
• Daniel Grant's "The Business of Being an Artist"
• "Graphic Artist Guild Handbook"
• "ART/WORK: Everything You Need to Know (and Do) As You Pursue Your Art Career" by Heather Darcy Bhandari, Jonathan Melber
• Heller and Arisman's "Inside the Business of Illustration"
• Jackie Battenfield's "The Artist's Guide: How to Make a Living Doing What You Love"
• Tad Crawford's "Business and Legal Forms for Artists"
• Tad Crawford's "Legal Guide for the Visual Artist"

Do please comment below if there is a book you'd like to particularly recommend.

Links:

• Making A Mark reviews..... The Best Art Business Books which introduces this information site and why I created it.