Review l ImageKind.com

Since imagekind had a makeover a couple of days ago, i think it would be nice to share my 2 cents about this semi-cheerful event. The following is from IK blog:

Some Key New Admin Features

• Reports page allows you to quickly see your most recent views, comments, and sales
• Internal message system allows you to easily communicate with other artists and customers
• Clean interface makes administration of your account a better user experience
• You can choose the image to represent your gallery, and change it at will
• Galleries now appear to the public in order of most recently updated
• Conveniently located tips and related content for each page on the sidebar

New Limits to HTML Code in Profiles and Descriptions

We’re adding some security precautions to the site. We will be limiting some of the HTML code that we allow in the member profile and descriptions. The change will go into effect with this new member admin launch, on Friday morning. Never fear, you still can use the following codes on your site:

br, big, b, small, strong, p, center, a, i, img.

If you happen to have any other than the ones listed above, keep your profile looking great by coming up with alternative HTML formatting before the change is made.

Does this spanking new interface make any difference or get even better? Not really, as far as I'm concerned, though it took me about 3 minutes to figure out the differences, which made me feel like i'm simply tidying up my drawer without removing anything from it. As for the internal message system, i'm quite positive about the function 'cause it makes the communications b/w visitors and artists (or among artists) more direct and convenient.

I also notice the layout in the member's art page has been changed, in the right column there are Curator's Picks, Featured Member, Recent Gallery, and Popular Tags (see the thumbnail). Except the popular tags, which would be refreshed randomly, the other 3 keep stationary, but i suspect the lists get updated periodically. I'm quite curious about the curator's picks but can't find any reference about it, but it definitely helps to make a splash.

How about featured members? from my observation you don't need to be a pro or platinum member to got featured (though i still have no clue who calls the shot here), so that's some extra spotlight you can get on IK, how generous is that!

My overall opinion about IK is it is a great website for any artists or photographers to build online galleries, but do keep my advice in mind:

• Drive sales through outside links to your galleries is essential
• Proper descriptions for each piece and decent profile are another factors to draw more attentions - that's how search engine makes you pop up.
  

In case you need more tips or helps, you can find them through Online Visual Artists Community Forum, lots of guys selling on IK would be more than happy to give you a hand.

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Update:
This is a chart (posts that contain Imagekind per day for the last 6 months.) I found at Technorati, which shows that IK has done a great job in being a more and more popular topic for bloggers out there.

Another news is IK Finally has its own forum launched, so far it's very quiet around so go say hello & make some muss there. ;)