Sold 4 prints last night

Last night I sold 4 prints to an Urban Planning Consultancy in Brisbane Downunder.

It would get a bit boring if I announced every sale but when a decent sale comes along I think it provides a decent opportunity to let folks know that I do sell works regularly around the world.

So if you live in Brisbane and you spot your local urban planning consultants office.. tell him you don't know anything about planning you've just come to admire his collection of "Andy's work" !

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Rogue image search engines bypassing watermarks..

A few days ago I posted about a new type of image search engine effectively giving away artists images. There appear to be a number of sites involved... and the list is growing. These site appear to be deliberately avoiding the images that are watermarked on POD sites and picking up on thumbnails and sales pages where the images are not protected by watermarks. So this is not a case of a search engine accidentally finding our images.. it strikes me they are deliberately bypassing the copyrights and watermarks protecting our images.

It would seem they are basically using our images to generate Google advert income using a network of referring sites.. which don't make it all easy for anyone searching to get to the original site where your image was posted.

For more detailed information I've posted about this in some detail on the Red Bubble forum.

POD sites need to be reviewing their image security...

Please spread the word !

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Many thanks..

Thank you very much for all the Birthday best wishes.. (there have been literally dozens and dozens on forums, via Facebook and email). I am genuinely surprised and touched. I don't think I've even had previous communication with the majority of the people who have sent "best wishes". No disrespect.. but folks I've had contact with you sort of anticipate.. but how amazingly generous of so many folks who really hardly know me to make a point of sending their "best wishes". I must admit I am quite a business like person.. I try to avoid much of the personal internet stuff.. so I am left wondering what I've done to deserve it ?

There are many examples you see everyday of how humans generally do wrong in the world.. but I must say I feel like the recipient of some
simply sincere and positive intentions today. How wonderful that even though we don't always see eye to eye artistically.. that you can set that aside without reservation.

I spent most of the day at an "arts" conference which was interesting and quite rewarding.. on my return my family whisked me off to a local restaurant and we were treated well. So all in all.. its been a good day and I would like to thank you all for contributing to an enjoyable and uplifting birthday.

I'm sure you don't need reminding how solitary an artists path can be.. how we often walk alone in perusing this vision we have.. we make our art works in isolation often with little certainty of how the world will respond. So it is very gratifying for me that aside from family and friends, so many fellow artists of so many different persuasions.. disciplines.. known and unknown have made the effort to pass on their best wishes.

Thank you very much.. I sincerely hope all your good intentions are returned to you ten fold..

Andy

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New marketing idea from Fine Art America

Great new feature on Fine Art America !

Its a type of link exchange - pick a search term that you have used to tag your art. On the first page of results, above the 3rd row of images, there is a link you can click to promote your work. Copy & paste the code somewhere else on the internet (like here). Type in the url where you placed the link & click Submit. In a matter of seconds, it verifies the link and your art appears on the 3rd row on the 1st page!

Here are a few examples..

urban prints
urban drawings
cityscape prints
city prints
graffiti prints
graffiti canvas prints
urban art prints
urban art digital art

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Picsdigger.com

Found my images being displayed on this site without any watermarks and without my permission. The thumbnails are irritating but when you click on the thumbnail a nice "grabable" image presents itself to anyone who wants it. They claim in their terms and conditions that all the images displayed are in the public domain. They certainly are not.

http://picsdigger.com

I checked out the GOOGLE forums about this site..

Apparently its a Russian site and they use your images to generate income via the Google adverts on their site. They have a "handy" linking code that encourages visitors to post your images on forums and blogs.. but then sends the resulting traffic back to them rather your personal site... which raises their Google ranking and in turn attracts more traffic to their sites.

No point in complaining to the site because they will ignore you.. but it is worth reporting it to Google and raising their awareness that they are actually paying for this. Spread the word..

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A double feature..

This week my work has been featured on the home page of two excellent art sites..

1. Artplanet is run by respected artist and writer on art; Jan Weiss. She creates and sell her own art as fine art prints and originals and also works with other artists to promote them through exposure on Art Planet.

2. Talent Network Alateia is a French website (I think ?) that features emerging and established artists from around the world.

Many thanks to Jan and the folks at TNA !

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