Finally, my "big project" is finished! It’s been a crazy day with a lot going on, but foliotwist.com is finally live and online! Since I’ve kept it a complete secret up until launch, here’s a quick (mostly visual) overview of what it does:
What is foliotwist?
Foliotwist is a service that combines all the tools you’ll need for displaying, promoting, and selling art online in a single website.
In some ways, it’s similar to a portfolio website because you can upload artwork, describe and "tag" your images, even create new galleries—but at the same time it’s also a fully functional blogging program.
We’ve made it so that you can control everything (artwork and blog posts) through a password-protected admin panel seen below.
The tabs, from left to right are Overview, Site Setup, Art Manager and Writing Desk. The two tabs on the right are Tips & Tutorials and My Account.
Artists can also sell art directly from their foliotwist website using PayPal—just verify your PayPal account in the admin panel, and "buy now" buttons will instantly appear next to every work of art in your gallery.
When you want to change prices on your artwork you don’t need to edit each button or mess with PayPal at all. . . instead, there’s a handy "price sheet" underneath the Art Manager tab that lets you edit prices or mark as sold or not for sale.
I should also mention that every foliotwist artist gets to choose their own domain name (like www.yourname.com).
So what’s the price?
A foliotwist website costs $30/month (but with the addition of Traffic Booster, the price is now $45/month. Read more about Traffic Booster here). There are no extra fees of any kind, and there won’t ever be. That means no setup fee, no domain fee, and no hidden fees. Ever.
In addition, we’re offering a special "early adopter" discount until August 15th, 2009 for anyone who signs up for a 6-month or 1-year foliotwist website. You’ll get one month free with the 6-month plan or three months free with the yearly plan.
What else is there?
I have a number of things I could mention, like how we went through every part of the artist website with SEO in mind, or that we’ve included an easy newsletter mailer that allows artists to email their subscribers right from the admin panel.
Anyone who joins will also get access to the members only forum, and I really can’t wait for that community to get going.
OK—I know I’m still forgetting some things, but I’m too exhausted from the launch to figure out what. More information is at foliotwist.com if you want to check it out.
And, if you have any feedback for me about foliotwist, I’d love to hear it! I’m sure I’ll post more about how it goes in the coming weeks and months.