The Mysteries of the Pyramids? Kids' stuff!
The mysteries of the Pyramids are as nothing compared to one of the great mysteries which confronts fine-art printmakers today: How does one go about selling prints over Internet? Is it really possible? If so, how? Who is doing it? Can you do it, too? World Printmakers has been chipping away at this mystery for almost four years now, and we're convinced we've discovered Nefertiti's golden sarcophagus. We have decided to shared our discovery with you in: Selling Prints on Internet, What Works, What Doesn't.

Practice What You Preach
September is a big month around here because it's when our mailing campaign to businesses kicks off, and a lot depends upon doing it well. Our year's sales figures depend to a large extent upon how many companies we are able to convince of the many benefits of giving fine-art-prints as corporate Christmas gifts. So, if you have a business or work for one which gives gifts, please don't hesitate to let us know and we'll send them an offer they can't refuse.

Kilfish comes from Hungary.

World Printmakers comes out first in 11 of 14 search engines,
for "printmakers." In the other three it's number 2, 3 & 4.
(Click on photo to see enlargement.)

¡Número Uno!
It seems that World Printmakers is the number one printmakers' site on the World Wide Web in terms of search engine placement. While browsing a specialist site called "Search Engine Watch" which lists the principal online search services, from Google, All the Web and Yahoo, etc., it occurred to me to run a search for the term "printmakers" on each one of them. The results were both surprising and rewarding. In the top 15 search engines World Printmakers comes out in first place on 11 of them including the main ones named above. On the twelfth our Spanish Printmakers sister site comes in first and World Printmakers second. On the final three search engines World Printmakers occupies second, third and fourth places respectively. These results, besides being a source of personal satisfaction for our team, are excellent news for the participating artists, workshops and advertisers who have been loyal to World Printmakers all the way to the top of the heap.

While we're on the subject of diffusion, I should mention that, according to the excellent Hitbox statistics service, the World Printmakers site is now accessed from 100 countries, some surprisingly far out places like Brunei Darussalam, the Cocos Islands and Albania. Also a place called "Niue" a Polynesian island of the Cook Islands group. Once called "Savage Island," it now has a separate administration from the rest of the group. The principal industry seems to be the sale of ".nu" Internet domains. Meanwhile, it can't be all that savage if they're browsing World Printmakers. Hello, Niue, we're delighted to have you with us!

We're also proud to announce that the World Printmakers website was selected in July as one of the world's relevant websites on the BBC World's "Click Online" computer and technology TV program. We're profound admirers of the BBC and are delighted at being included in their connoisseur's selection.

ExWebis?
A New Medium from "Barcelona, Mediterranean City"
"The Ex Libris are placed on books to artistically indicate ownership. While thinking of this website's design, I suddenly thought that I could add a touch of art to identify the owner. So I came up with the following idea: What an Ex Libris is for a book, an Ex Webis could be for a website. Why not?"

It seems to me that these observations from Catalan print collector and owl lover, Josep Manzano, merit some attention. Is he onto something? If he is, it's good news for printmakers, as it constitutes a charming new outlet for their work! Have a look at Josep's site: http://www.geocities.com/exwebis/Inglesexweb.htm. Follow the links there and you'll bump into some old friends of World Printmakers, artists like María Arango, Janet Stahle-Fraser, Marina Terauds, David Villavera, Pere Pons and others.