19 September, 2024
- ArtWanted.com Staff
- 788 Views
- 24 Comments
ArtWanted Celebrates 25 Years!
Please join with us as ArtWanted celebrates 25 wonderful and amazing years on the Internet!!! We have a fun post to share with some ArtWanted history, fun facts and screen shots of ArtWanted through the years.
A LITTLE HISTORY
ArtWanted got started in the early days of the Internet, back in 1999. Google was brand new, and most websites were primarily text with very small accent images. Our goal was to create a fun art community for artists and photographers to show off their work and have conversations with other artists. We built the website and then started promoting it to artists, art buyers and art galleries around the world.
The first version of ArtWanted contained a simple page for each artist and a list of local art gallery listings, but not much more. Over time, ArtWanted continued to evolve and grow. New features were built, new products launched, and awesome member feedback helped shape ArtWanted into what it is today. We have been through multiple website design changes over the years as well, as new trends and technologies have emerged. Some of those older screenshots can be seen below as a blast from the past.
FUN FACTS
• ArtWanted has always been FREE for any artist or photographer to join. We never wanted to exclude any person from joining our site, because of their financial situation. Our free basic membership has plenty of great features and will never go away.
• ArtWanted has never raised the price of our upgraded Premium Membership! In fact, back in 1999, the Premium Membership was $199/year and only included 20 images. New features continue to be added, but the price has stayed at $39/year for over 20 years now!
• ArtWanted has never allowed banner ads. While additional revenue could have been made by placing banner ads all over ArtWanted, we have always felt that they were ugly and would distract from the beautiful art on the website.
• ArtWanted is home to over 65,000 artists and over 900,000 images! Every single year since we started back in 1999, we have grown in total artist memberships and images on the website.
25 YEAR SILVER MEDALLION CLUB
We want to congratulate a few special members that joined ArtWanted back in 1999 and are not only here still, but uploaded new artwork to their portfolio this year. These members have been with ArtWanted for 25 years, which is an amazing accomplishment! We have given each of these members a free Premium Membership for a year as a thank you for being with us since the beginning.
Congrats to: Balz Bietenholz, Francie Aguilera Simonson, Kevin Middleton, Mihai Hodorogea, Rene Saucedo and Steen Djervad.
WHAT’S ON THE HORIZON?
We have a lot of great plans for ArtWanted in the near future. We are always building new features, adding new products and looking for ways to increase our member engagement. Here are a few of changes that are coming...
1. MORE ART SALES – Currently, only 1 in 4 images on ArtWanted is listed for sale. Our goal is to increase this number and put a bigger focus on selling art and attracting art buyers to ArtWanted.
2. NEW PRODUCTS – We have a handful of new products that we will be introducing over the next year. These products will increase member sales and allow more art to be purchased through the website.
3. NEW FEATURES & ENHACEMENTS – We have some new features planned to add to the website and additional enhancements to the existing features. These changes will bring more engagement and interaction between members.
4. MORE MARKETING TIPS – Many very talented artists struggle on how to promote and market their artwork. We are planning to add lots of new information on how you can better promote yourself and your artwork.
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
ArtWanted would be nothing without its amazing artist members. THANK YOU to everyone that shares their art here and takes the time to interact with other members. It’s the members of ArtWanted that make it such a great place to be. Thanks for the time you spent on ArtWanted and making it a wonderful 25 years!
We would love to hear from you on why you joined ArtWanted, what you enjoy about it, a memory you have with the website or mention a friend you met on ArtWanted. Just click the REPLY button and share your thoughts.
