Library clips

My wife paints in her spare time, and is thinking of selling her paintings via an online shopfront.

She asked me how she could create a webpage, I straight away thought a wiki, but then the idea of this is self editing, not really collaboration.

Here is a list of website/host creators:

Google Page Creator
Weebly
SiteKreator
Synthasite
Squarespace
Sampa

Has anyone played with any of these, or know of examples of websites made using these services?

I guess the idea is to be able to make a website with limited web knowledge, and be able to host the site as well.

I guess the design of the site would be a lot of photo’s of paintings, maybe even a feed for new photo’s…maybe photo’s from flickr can be embedded, or a presentation on slideshare.
She’d also need perhaps a a sidebar for PayPal, email, etc…

We are also thinking of a way for people to interact so they can request paintings…I guess they can just email, or use IM.

Another idea besides her own personal website is to promote her paintings elsewhere on the web, perhaps a social bookmark shopping gallery, I noticed esnips kind of does this (I’m talking e-commerce social bookmarks, see example).

Anybody know of free social bookmark shopping sites where you can upload a gallery of your merchandise?
I wonder if there are services like esnips that really hone in on the e-commerce side of things.

I just found Stylehive, Closo, elsewares, ThisNext, Etsy, and Zazzle, maybe there is a site like this specialising in paintings…I found one, check out deviantART…and the rest…beholder, NextMonet, Art Exchange, also Original Art Online.

When she gets going perhaps I can promote her paintings on my blog sidebar, kind of like a shop.

Perhaps she can make her own lens on Squidoo.

And of course she can sell on e-bay or Aus Action, or any other social shopping sites.

Check out this article about art blogs, Artists take paintings to masses…I like this idea as blog engines get you traffic. I also like this idea as it is not a straight up shop, there is a theme or difference.

This article has led me to the perfect site ARTbyus.com.

Gee, with all these services, you hardly need your own website.

More:
Online art auction takes off in India
ImageKind

Funny thing is that as I blog this post I start researching and finding answers to my questions, but I’m sure there are many more services out there.

One again del.icio.us was brilliant for quality research on this subject matter.

[ADDED 5/12/06: David Rusenko from Weebly points to a unique site called, Shopify, it is a combination of your own website within a shop type of format, ie. create your own online shop (gallery, inventory, sales, etc…). They collect examples at Shopify.org.]

[ADDED 5/12/06: After reading the TechCrunch post on Shopify the comments, as usual, provided a plethora of new services:
Vendio, Big Cartel, Yahoo! Stores, and eCrater.]

[ADDED 21/12/06: The Social Shopping Faceoff …also lists wists]

[ADDED 08/01/07: USuggest - Social Shopping That Pays…also lists Crowdstorm, Kaboodle, and MyPickList]

[ADDED 15/01/07: RightCart, FlyingCart and Stuart]

[ADDED 06/02/07: RedBubble]

[ADDED 10/02/07: Zlio Launches in US - Build Your Own Online Shop…also lists Loomia, astore, Shoplinc]

[ADDED 10/02/07: booBox To Help Bloggers Sell Stuff]

[ADDED 19/02/07: design:related]

[ADDED 28/02/07: Sistino]

[ADDED 14/03/07: Noovo, Jimdo]

[ADDED 16/05/07: Artflock, Shozam]

[ADDED 5/06/07: SynthaSite]

[ADDED 20/09/07: artbreak]

[ADDED 20/09/07: Web Design Toolbox: 50+ Tools for Web Design]

[ADDED 20/09/07: Artist’s Toolbox: 30+ Places to Promote Your Art]

Flukiest allows you to take a photo/video with your phone and email it to your blog that is part of a social network.

I wonder if Twitter could incorporate photo/video, using MMS or email, as well as SMS.

I do like the idea of Flukiest, I suppose email blogging is not new (whether you email the post from your phone or your PC doesn’t make a difference), my phone has a built in feature to send photo’s to a mobile blogger account.
What I like about Flukiest is the social network part, they could really shine if they added some features from Twitter.

I have an idea for a similar service called “Soundbites” where you could MMS or email audio bites of “stream of consciousness” thoughts or whatever you like eg. you playing guitar, ideas for poems, ideas for films, things to remember, sounds of the city, etc…
You could make it private or share in a social network, as soon as you post, your subscribers would receive your soundbite to their phone…I’m thinking Twitter with audio rather than text.

By the way Twitter have some new features…favourites, top 10, direct messages, search.
You can also post to Twitter by IM (thats SMS, web, and now IM). Plus the nudge feature that reminds you to post to Twitter…wake up and post.

[ADDED 12/01/07: PixPulse, Cellblock, MyTago]

Plugoo allows you to embed a chat box on your blog and visitors can intiate a chat with you, the innovative part is that you chat back with your IM client.

This is a great idea, if a visitor to my blog wants to chat with me (and I’m online) my Google Talk will pop-up…instant feedback.

As Solution Watch mentions the benefit is you don’t need a browser open to chat, it’s just IMing as usual, and a visitor to your blog doesn’t need to be registered with an IM client, they can just use the widget on your blog. Plus you don’t miss messages when you are offline, they can be emailed or waiting there when you are online.

The makers of meebo (a web-based meta-IM service), ie. you can chat to people using different IM services, and you can use it from any computer, as you login in to a web site…have a similar service called meebome.

The difference is that if I embed meebome in my blog, it means that it won’t work directly with Google Talk, you have to use meembo…whereas Plugoo works directly with my IM client.

The advantage with meebome is that you can chat to multiple people at a time.

I’ve posted before about the massive number of embedded chat boxes for blogs, but I really like the idea of the owner chatting using their usual IM client.

Plugoo is by invite at the moment…gimme, gimme!!

Related:
The six biggest new ideas in chat

[ADDED 28/02/07: Mabber]

[ADDED 1/03/07: Wambo]