Once a sign up is completed, the subscriber (artist) receives a free website sub-domain amongst other free publishing tools. The artist can choose any domain name they want (unless the domain name has been taken).

Once the online registration is completed you will immediately have access to your site. An example of the sub-domain naming format is “artistname.simcoeartists.com”.

Brief publishing tutorials are recommended before you begin using the system.

Accessing the Hub

All postings, notices, pages, gallery viewings and downloads are designated to be public by default. Members have the ability to make selected content private or password protected. In these cases only people with the password can access this information. Members can share information with the public and/or with specific members as they wish. Collaboration interfaces are available for the purposes of roundtable discussions.

Secure Logins

Members only will have secured logins for their own publishing purposes. Visitors and the public will see public postings without having to be members. Privately or password published content is safe and can only be accessed by those with login credentials.

Connecting With Visitors

There are several ways to communicate with others in the Hub:

1. The built-in search engine. A few keywords to use when searching could be: artists, groups, artwork or artwork category.
2. Click on “Free Membership” on the top navigation bar to find out which artists have a site.
3. Contact the artists who join the hub.
4. Provide static information and updates.
5. Response-oriented scripts (email form, Twitter, Facebook).
6. How to create your website. We train our members on the best ways to engage their audience.
7. We provide social persona-building strategies as well as help drive targeted
   traffic to the artist’s work.
8. Instant messaging within each artist’s profile (this allows in-moment-response).
9. In-the-moment Customer Service Response. Hub administrators can respond immediately to queries that come through web forms or by phone. This is a platform that encourages person-to person communication, group roundtables, lounge comments, gallery mingling, critic’s reviews and coffee shop discussions.

Advantages for the Artist

• Market exposure & Free advertising
• Group collaboration & information sharing
• Centralized information gathering and reference points
• Ecommerce integration- artists can sell there work online
• Hiring potential à Getting noticed
• Connect to other artists & your audience
• Learn how to leverage the social revolution

What Members Get For Free

• A free permanent domain name (save up to $15/year)
• A free website (save hundreds to thousands)
• 50 meg of disk space  (save $10/year +)
• Publishing interface (Content Management) save $$$
• Free Hosting (save from $6.95 to $20 +/month)
• Free sales and marketing training  (save $$$$$)
• Free marketing and exposure  (save $$$$$ – thousands)
• Leveraging of traffic  (save $$$)

* Depending on who an artist hires to build and maintain their website, they could spend thousands each year without even blinking.

Artist’s Intellectual Property

As an artist, how will I know my work won’t be copied or my private information shared?

Images will be in web resolution (72 DPI) and be presented in flash-based slideshows if you use our free gallery software.

High resolution images will reside off-site and will only be available during the printing process. On the hub, we will offer print on demand recommendations of where artists and buyers can get high resolution images printed. This will be a matter of choice for the buyer and artist. We do not accept any liability for third party workmanship from printers or galleries.

Content published by artists (whether it’s private or public) is the property of the artist.
It will be up to each artist to decide what content is private and what is public.