What is Art on Demand?

Magnolia Soft is dedicated powering the sale of all works of art online but it is no secret that our primary focus is upon supporting Art on Demand or Print on Demand.

It is our belief that the art and publishing industry is currently undergoing a huge shift in movement from an analogue business model to a digital business model.

According to our definition, Art on Demand is the process of producing bespoke works of art upon individual order request. On-demand solutions provide the ultimate in consumer flexibility and choice and are being utilised for the delivery of services, software, movies, television, music and a multitude of other different medias. The fine art publishing world is slowly catching up and Magnolia Soft is now positioned as a software 'hub' to to help content originators transform their imagery into a myriad of digital products:

The advantages of Art on Demand are obvious....Traditional supply-chains typically involve the mass production of products in anticipation of future demand. In contrast, on-demand supply supports customisation of the final deliverables and the end consumer often initiates the production process upon submission of a confirmed order.

The popularity of this approach is encouraging many organisations to develop on-demand models for the delivery of their products and services. ‘Art’ is a media ideally suited for adoption of an on-demand model and the Internet provides the perfect conduit for uniting consumers with distributors and suppliers.

With our Magnolia Soft solution, digital content - in the form of high-resolution photographs or scans - is uploaded to the Magnolia Soft content management system and displayed online for customers to purchase according to their precise individual preferences.

These digital images can be reproduced across an almost unlimited range of media (e.g. canvases, framed prints, postcards, etc) and an equally infinite range of sizing options.

Orders are then automatically produced either in-house, using your existing printers, or by our network of highly respected manufacturers.

Finally, orders are then ‘drop-shipped’ with a branded delivery note and delivered directly to your customer’s home.

Through our numerous Art on Demand production and manufacturing partnerships we are able to provide Magnolia Soft clients with access to a large variety of different Art on Demand products. These range from traditional fine art prints and canvases through to acrylic prints, wallpaper, mugs, blinds, etc.

Increasing your online footprint

"Increasing your online footprint" is an Internet concept that describes distributing your content, products and/or services to the widest potential audience.

In the case of online retailers, the objective is to interest as many potential purchaser's, through using as many different marketing channels as possible. Using shopping comparison engines, keyword Pay Per Click advertising and affiliate marketing networks are all popular ways of increasing your online footprint.

One key drawback to these Search Engine Marketing approaches is the fact that you have to pay for any traffic or sales generated via them.

When we launched Magnolia Box we were determined to help our clients increase their online footprints - for FREE - by using our main site and our network of client sites as sources of incremental revenue.

The following diagram outlines the approach we have adopted:

All Magnolia Soft clients have the option of offering any original artworks or products out for retail via the MagnoliaBox.com website or other Magnolia Soft client websites.

If you wish to take advantage of this facility then all you need to do is set your trade distribution prices through the online admin and let your developer know what you are planning.

PicLens now available on Magnolia Box

The team at Magnolia Box are accutely aware that the current way in which websites interact with imagery/artistic content is far from ideal. Therefore, we were delighted when we came across the PicLens solution from CoolIris.

PicLens transforms your browser into a full-screen, 3D experience for viewing photos and videos across the web. With one click, PicLens makes online media come to life via an immersive presentation that goes beyond the confines of the traditional browser.

With the Magnolia Soft application we are constantly trying ensure that not only does your website conform to traditional e-commerce site design but that your browsers can rapdily view your content by taking advantage of the latest developments in browser technology. To view the demo please click the "Start slideshow" button in the top right hand side of the following fine art print search results.

SEO URL's for Magnolia Soft clients

We have recently made a change to the Magnolia Soft application and introduced what we refer to as SEO URL's. SEO URLS are intended to improve the rankings of your page by using the H1 title of the page at the end of the website URL.

For example, a traditional page in our application would typically take the following format, with each product having its own unique product ID that makes up the end of the URL:

http://www.magnoliabox.com/index.cfm?event=catalogue.product&productID=123435

If you decide to turn on our SEO URL rewriting tool then this page would now appear in a format very similar to the following:

http://www.bridgemanartondemand.com/art/96668/Mona_Lisa_c1503-6

The key difference is that the title of the product or the product group is substituted into the URL with underscores ("_") used to seperate each key word. Using this device (which you can access through your online admin account) will enable you to optimise the website address for any of your categories, subjects or product groups.

The jury is still out as to whether or not this device is going to result in any significant improvements as the experts all seem to disagree as to how much value Google place on this aspect of your website. However, at the very least , it might make your hotlinks in the SERPs stand out more, with better keywords?!

As with most of our Magnolia Soft functionality it is optional as to whether or not you wish to utilise this feature. If you do wish to then please just let your developer know and we will turn it on for your store.

SEO tips and advice for Search Engine Optimisation

We get lots and lots of enquiries about Search Engine Optimisation (or SEO) from our clients and it's an area that obviously has a huge impact on your online success. At the most fundamental level, if you want to have a high page rank then you need to get as many high quality inbound links as possible and you also need to make sure that you have some great unique content. Some of the best ways to achieve inbound links are through high-value social networking websites, other peoples blogs, press releases and newspaper articles. This method takes a lot of time and effort and unfortunately there are no short cuts.

Nevertheless, as an introduction to help support your SEO activities, I've put together some online resources that we hope you will find useful in regards to your optimising your Magnolia Soft website.....

Firstly, here's a good introductory 10 point plan outlining basic some do's and don'ts:

http://justcreativedesign.com/2008/06/09/10-seo-rules-for-designers

The more techie aspects to the above list are all provided as a default in the Magnolia Soft application. Next, here's what we consider to be the best resource for SEO information on the Web - these guys really know their stuff and there are lots of great free tools and articles that you can take advantage of:

http://www.seomoz.org

If you are wanting to measure or chart your SEO progess then the following website has lots of free reports that are useful to see how things are improving for you:

http://www.urltrends.com

An old dinosaur of a directory that you should also probably submit your website to is DMOZ:

http://www.dmoz.org

We aren't convinced that this website is as authorative as it used to be in regards to helping Google Page Rank but it is still probably worth getting involved. One thing to note though, please don't expect a speedy response as it might take anything from 6 to 12 months to get included (if you manage at all).

Finally, if you wish to generate some inbound links then you might want to consider using a third party agency (there are lots in India) to submit your website to free directories. We've had some really terrific results with these and we've also had some very poor results - they are mixed bag to say the least - and we can advise if you are thinking about going down this route.

Other then this, making sure you have lots and lots of original content is also of massive importance. If you are creating new Categories, Subjects or Product Groups then we highly recommend that you add a descriptive narrative that provides additional information about your products. As a minimum we would recommend at least 150 words. These narratives should contain your keyword phrases but shouldn't go crazy in terms of repeating them over and over again. You might wish to use a keyword density tool to ensure you get things correctly balanced.

Good luck - optimising your website is never going to be a quick fix but if you put the time in then you will begin to reap decent rewards.

ColdFusion Jobs - Yorkshire Contractor Wanted

We are interested in hearing from any Senior ColdFusion developers who are looking for a flexible freelance programming contract. Key skills should include:

• Extensive ColdFusion 8 experience
• Experience of Mach-II framework (desirable)
• Windows, IIS, HTML (XHTML desirable), XML
• CSS and understanding of Web Standards and accessibility (desirable)
• JavaScript
• Database technologies: SQL, SQL Server
• System and
• Database Design

Rates and location are negotiable although we are based near Leeds in West Yorkshire.

Please send all CV's to: enquiries@magnoliabox.com

Inspiration from Scotch on the Rocks

After a brilliant couple of days in Edinburgh for the Scotch on the Rocks conference, we are back in the office with fresh inspiration and ideas. We saw some excellent presentations, most memorable to me were Peter Bell's pragmatic angle on requirements and estimation, and the Open Bluedragon keynote (and lengthy discussion!); Exciting stuff that I'm looking forward to playing with.