Shipping art: FedEx is the most trusted service

I've been running opinion polls about posting and shipping art in 2011.  These have consistently identified FedEx as being the service most people seem to trust when shipping artwork.

One caveat is that the numbers responding to the polls have not been high - hence why I'd like to encourage more people to participate in the two ongoing polls listed below.

• In February 2011, the Making A Mark Poll for February asked the question Which service do you trust when posting/shipping artwork?
• Results were reported in Which service do you trust when you post or ship artwork? (Results)
• On my information site How to pack, post and ship art - Resources for Artists, I've been running
  two polls.Click the links if you have still to vote. 
• POLL: Which is the best post/shipping service for artwork in the UK?
• POLL: Which is the best post/shipping service in the USA?

Below you can see the charts of results from the three different polls - together with the number of respondents to date

February Poll - Which service do you trust when you post or ship artwork?

FedEx came top in February with 28% of the poll

Results of Making A Mark Poll February 2011 (29 respondents)

FedEx(UK) is the clear leader in my poll about the best post/shipping service in the UK

FedEx is just ahead of UPS in my poll about the best post-shipping service in the USA

If you are an artist and post or ship art in the UK or USA - and you have not yet responded - you can help give other artists an even better picture about which services artists prefer to use by voting in one or other of the polls on How to pack, post and ship art.

Just click the links to the polls to vote.

On Making A Mark today, there is a post which is a Review of Specialist Art Couriers in the UK.  This is primarily about the couriers used by artists to get their artwork to and from an exhibition.  Follow ups to that review will be posted on this blog.

Product Review: Daylight Professional Artists Lamp

Daylight Company: Professional Artist Lamp

Jana Bouc (Jana's Journal) has done an independent product review on her blog of the new Daylight Professional Artists Lamp made by The Daylight Company in the UK.

I've used The Daylight Company's daylight bulbs for years (even to the point of favouring art stores which stock them!).  This particular lamp is one I had already highlighted on my Art Equipment - Resources for Artists website - purely on the basis of my experience of their product quality over the years.

I was really interested to see what an American artist made of the lamp.  The important point is that Jana is a person who is most concerned about having good light

I’d bought and returned many other “full spectrum” or “daylight bulb” lamps in the past that were total failures because the light was too weak, too blue, or both.

It's very evident that Jana is very impressed!

Hence I've created a summary review below based on:

• the technical product specification and 
• the review done by Jana Bouc
• this is being updated as additional comments are received

Do check out:

• Jana's blog post for the full text of her full review Reviews:  Daylight Easel Lamp and...  
• plus Jana's article about lighting and color temperature.  
• Plus see also Jana featured on The Daylight Company website.

Product:  Daylight Artists Professional Lamp

Summary:  "The difference is amazing" - recommended by Jana Bouc

Technical Details (as per website's technical specifications) 360° head joint to direct the light exactly where you need it Bright 18w Daylight™ tube (100w equiv.) reduces eye strain and glare  Flexible arm and multi-position joint allow easy positioning Supplied with two clamps Easel clamp: Attaches to all floorstanding metal & wooden easels up to 5cm/2" thick Table clamp: Attaches to all tables and work benches up to 5.5cm/2.25" thick Height: 50cm (19½ inches) Weight: 2.4kg (5½ lbs) Arm length: 70cm (27½ inches)

Who should buy this?  artists producing studio paintings/drawings artists working at a studio easel artists working with a table easel

Who should not buy this?   plein air artists who do not work in the studio

Highlights: light quality is amazing according to Jana and helped her create better colours in her paintings fully adjustable - works well can be used for painting and for photographing paintings

Think Again? availability of replacement light bulbs via some suppliers (see comment received)

Manufacturer / Distributor:  The Daylight Company Ltd, 89-91 Scrubs Lane, London, NW10 6QU. Phone:  020 8964 1200  |  Fax  020 8964 1300  | email  info.uk@daylightcompany.com The Daylight Company was created in the early 90s and is now the market-leading brand of speciality lighting technology for the hobby industry across Europe.  It aims to become the No.1 brand for Craft Lighting.

Suppliers:  Full price it retails at £109.99 / $159.99 (May 2011 prices) however it's possible to buy it for less. available from various good art supply stores in the UK also available on  Amazon (USA) Daylight Company Professional Artists Lamp with 2 clamps and Amazon (UK) Professional Artists Lamp

For those who love the technical aspects you can also refer to their FAQS section (click the links to go to the FAQ):

All you always wanted to know about lux, lumens, spectrum, CRI, SAD...

• Why is Daylight so good for you!

• How Compact Fluorescent Bulbs & Tubes work?

• What is the difference between energy saving and tungsten bulbs?

• What is the Colour Rendering Index? (CRI)

• What is the Light Colour Temperature(°K)?

• What is the difference between Lumens & Lux?

• What is the difference between Diopter and magnification?

• Do fluorescent bulbs & tubes contain mercury?

Product Review: Derwent Black Book

Derwent Black Book (A4 size)

Coloured pencils have a reputation for sinking into black paper over time - which is a bit of a nuisance to put it mildly as this can alter the value pattern of any artwork you produce!

Derwent sent me one of their Black Books to review a while ago.  I've been waiting a while to check out the impact of black paper on my coloured pencils. Below you can now read my review.

Product:  Derwent Black Book

Summary Review:  This is a black paper sketchbook.  The stiff 200gsm paper is suitable for dry rather than wet media.  I very much liked the surface and it's easy to take an eraser to it without abrading the surface. In terms of colour, woodless pencils such as my set of Caran d'Ache Neocolour worked better than colours from a range of brands.  Watersoluble pencils are useless on this paper as tints are totally invisible.  Some colours sink into the paper or are distorted due to its colour.  Others appear more muted. In my opinion, it's a sketchbook which is very suitable for use with colours which retain brightness and saturation on this paper - which not all do (see colour charts).  Having said that it's no worse than any other black paper.  Selective use of certain colours will create images with impact.

Technical Details: The Derwent Black Book is a black paper sketchbook.  Available in 3 popular sizes A3 landscape, A4 portrait and Square (12” or 30.5cms) each one contains 40 sheets of 200gsm black paper (which means it's stiffish) heavy weight paper which does not abrade easily and can take a lot of layers of coloured pencil Derwent states it can be used with water soluble pencils for light washes.  (Which means it's likely to buckle if you do any more than that)

Who should buy this? artists interested in drawing and sketching on black paper people interested in flexing their approach to creating a coloured drawing

Who should not buy this?  those who don't like coloured paper

Highlights: sturdy paper with a very smooth surface accepts coloured pencils and waxneocolour crayons well certain colours pop (while others are suddued) sturdy ring binding - gives the sense of lasting a long while and NOT getting annoying

Think Again? the black paper mutes the colours of ordinary artists' coloured pencils  some colours 'sink' over time (a common problem with black paper) some colours do not display 'true' eg yellow takes on a greenish tinge (true of very many black papers) it's useless for watercolour or dispersing watersoluble coloured pencils/crayons.  Tints disappear.

Manufacturer / Distributor:  Cumberland Pencil Company (product page)

Suppliers:  supplied to me as test item to review; available from Derwent retailers Online Retailers include: Heaton Cooper; Artifolk

Derwent have a small range of sketch books which contain stiffish black paper.  Each sketchbook has 40 sheets of 200gsm black paper, which means it's a weight which makes it similar to thin card.  There are a good range of sizes which offer an opportunity to do larger work.  

I tried it with a range of coloured pencils from different brands and with Caran d'Ache Neocolour.  I had a suspicion they might work better with wax crayons - and they do.

Of the charts below the first one is coloured pencils and the second one is neocolour.  After that there are a couple of sketches made using (1) coloured pencils and (2) neocolor crayons.

Coloured Pencils from various brands

In my view, some of the colours have "sunk" over time.  Others continue to appear muted.  The white (bottom right) is actually a white charcoal pencil.

The next chart is of neocolor crayons which to my mind work a lot better.

Chart of Neocolor II Aquarelle Artists' Crayons

Neocolor II Aquarelle Artists' Crayons have a high pigment concentration and seem to work much better on this paper.  I tried wetting the ends of the colour bars to see how a tint might look - and you can see the results.  You can't see anything!  Basically black paper is not suitable for washes or tints - they simply won't show up!

Now for the sketches to see how the colours work together on the paper.  I would say that working on black paper means adapting to a new way of working where the darks are supplied largely by the paper.

First the sketch with coloured pencils.  As you can see the whites look grey - and I tried several!  hence why I ended up using the whitest white I know which is the White Pastel Pencil.

Hertford Union Canal
Coloured Pencils in Derwent Black Book
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I wouldn't exhibit this as overall the colours are just too muted - as found with the colour chart.  However note how effective working back into the sketch with an eraser is for picking out the lowlights.

Next a sketch using the necolor crayons.  This I think demonstrates how well the paper works if you go with big shapes, bold colours, a calligraphic way of working - and again work back into it with an eraser to find the darkest darks

Schönbrunn Park (after Klimt)
Caran d'ache Neocolour in Derwent Black Book
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Overall a book I've been interested to try and one which I will doubtless continue to try in terms of finding what works well with it.

The black paper is very nice - if you accept its limitations.  Expect to see more experiments in the future!

Links:  Watermarks - Schönbrunn Park - after Klimt

POLL: Which "Print on Demand" site do you like the best? (Update #1)

Last summer I started a poll on Print on Demand - Resources for Artists to identify what people's preferences were in relation to different Print on Demands websites.

The popularity of the various 'print on demand' sites waxes and wanes. We know something about the traffic they get ( see the traffic charts below) but what do people think of them after they've used them and/or bought items from them? This poll set out to find out.

This is the situation some six months on.  44 people have responded to date.

Print on Demand Poll as at 12th February 2011

Print on demand - art prints/posters and other printed items

Clearly Zazzle is way out in front.

However looking at the preferences in the context of traffic enables us to get a better picture

Zazzle's premier position is echoed by the growth in traffic to their website.  Zazzle and Cafe Press are far and away the largest competitors with traffic peaking at nearly 7 millon a month in December.  However, since last summer, Zazzle has consistently attracted more traffic than Cafe Press.

Zazzle's traffic (blue) overtook that of CafePress (green) last summer
(January 2010 - January 2011)

Red Bubble is the newest website in this competitive marketplace.  It picked up second place in the order of preferences.

Again this is born out by the compete.com chart when comparing the traffic of Imagekind and Red Bubble - where it can be seen that Red Bubble has been beating Imagekine for all of the last 12 months.

Imagekind (blue) has been consistently losing out to Red Bubble (green) in the last 12 months
(January 2010 - January 2011)

Interestingly 20% of those voting preferred another site - but rather frustratingly didn't say which!

See Print on Demand - Art for more information, advice and tips about the different websites

Print of demand publications

In the print of demand publications stakes, Lulu is preferred to Blurb.  Again this reflects the relative position on traffic.

Lulu's traffic approximately three times that of Blurb (January 2010 - January 2011)

See Print on Demand - Publications for more information

Conclusions / your views

Overall, traffic is a pretty good indicator of preference - with the exception of CafePress.  This site has extremely high traffic but is not the site of choice for most people.  One can only assume this say something about people's experiences with the site or their reputation.

• What's your preferred print on demand website - and why?   
• Have you voted on the poll? - please update the poll if you have not yet voted
  

Review: Paint My Photo

This is an initial overview of a new site called Paint My Photo - for those interested in painting from photos who also want to be able to access reference photos taken by other people to do this.
 
A number of art forums have created photographic resources for their members - notably Wet Canvas's Reference Image Library (although this has been inaccessible for long periods on occasion).

A new site has started up on Ning  - apparently independently of any major corporate interests which is interesting of itself - and it's all about painting from photos

Not only that but it's set up deliberately to create a pool of photos for other people to use - and hence is called Paint My Photo  (subtitle - Where photographers and artists meet).  The intention is that reference photos supplied by photographers are copyright free and hence can be used by artists to produce art which they can sell without a fee to the photographer.

Paint My Photo can be found at http://paintmyphoto.ning.com/

The site seems to have been set up earlier this year and this is how it describes itself.

What's The Idea?

Very Simple, there are lots of great Photographers out there in internet land, and there are lots of Artists of all abilities who would like to paint from photographs. The problem is that Copyright law prevents this, although many photographers would love to inspire other Artists (Yes I do agree photography is an Art, I chose the terms 'Artists' and 'Photographers' for clarity). So-If you have posted photographs here, it is because you are happy to allow derivative works to be created. You still own the copyright of your photos of course. The Artist can, if the photographer has selected that option on joining, contact the Photographer to enable them to see the work. The Artist can sell their work as normal, if the photographer wants 'first refusal' on the Artwork, that should be by private arrangement and has nothing to do with 'Paint My Photo'. Artists can place links to where there work can be purchased. Photographers can place links to where other work and prints can be purchased. Anyone spamming and not following the spirit of the site will be warned and advised before any action taken.

****IMPORTANT!****
We are a site for natural media only, no digital artwork, thanks for sticking to this rule.

Features of 'Paint My Photo'

Here are some of the features I could pick out:

• over 7,000 photos already loaded onto the site.  However it's a little puzzling as the reference photos are mixed up with the digital images of the artwork created as a result so it's unclear how many photos there are altogether
  
• 442 members to date - suggesting it's got enough to keep going
• 22 videos loaded - usually by reference to a link to YouTube where people have chosen to share their videos
• a monthly challenge - which tends to be a very popular feature on many of the forums targeting leisure artists.  
• a forum - of the conventional sort with categories and threads.  This isn't as well advanced as I'd expect given the number of members. Thereagain a lot of interaction takes place by way of comments on individual photos and paintings.
• Leader Boards - for content, members, photos and videos -  which allow people to see what's most popular at any given time - which is a good idea (but does I find tend to reinforce the popularity of 'early adopters')
• a group for painting from photos.  Now as a Ning Moderator myself I'd personally have preferred to have set this up as a category within the Forum.  This would then allow people to start threads for their individual artwork - just like you get over at Wet Canvas.  Using the group function means that it's going to be very difficult to see anything other than what got posted today and people's work will get "lost" (as in difficult to retrieve) over time unless you're looking at that person's individual page.
•  a very fascinating tool called a drawing grid - which looks amazing but I can't work out how it works!

The one thing which struck me is that the position on copyright would benefit from a much clearer and more prominent explanation - maybe along the line of a FAQs document about what people can and cannot do with the photos they use.  From my perspective, I'd put an emphasis on people learning about good practice as well as what they can do when using other people's photos.

It's also possible with Ning to get prospective members to look at something before people sign up and then ask when they agree to abide 'by the rules' when they join.  However from what I can see there's actually only one rule and that's 'don't create digital art'!

What's good is that you can have a good look at the site before joining - and if this is something which interests you that's what I suggest you do.


I'm not a member and would be interested to know how the people who are members find it.

• What does it do well? 
• Is it useful?
• Is it likely to be a site that you'll use a lot?
• What could it do better?

A new colour tip for Caran d'Ache Luminance 6901

Caran d'Ache has made a change to their Luminance 6901 range of coloured pencils which means it's very likely that I'm going to start investing in more colours.

This new brand of lightfast coloured pencil has previously irritated because there were two ways of identifying the colour of the pencil - neither of which worked too well

• the pencil was introduced with a colour chip painted on the very end of the pencil - it's too small and you can't see it at all when the pencil is lying down
• the colour name and number is written round the end of the barrel in light lettering on a wood background which doesn't give great definition and consequently is very difficult to read

Basically these are two design flaws which are pretty big in terms of the functionality of choosing which pencil to use next!

I really love the pencils and their pigment rich coverage with lightfastness guaranteed - but they were frustrating to use. In practical terms I was always having to inspect a Luminance pencil prior to using it - and that just became irritating.

However I guess a lot of people must have complained or fed back to Caran d'Ache saying that they weren't too ecstatic about the arrangements for identifying colours, because the company has now changed the pencils!

The Luminance pencils now have a new colour cap on the end. It's not as big as the colour on the Lyra Rembrandt pencil but it's a start in the right direction. I'd personally have liked to see it a tad bigger but this is a LOT better than the previous arrangements for colour identification. The change will make it much easier to see what colour the pencil is when you go to pick it up.
just

Now if we could persuade Caran d'Ache to name the pencils along the barrel of the pencil I'd have a pretty big smile on my face!

Coloured Pencils - Resources for Artists

Find out about coloured pencils. This leading resource has information for everybody from experienced artists to beginners wanting to learn all they can. Topics include

• tips and techniques for working with coloured pencils,
• information about coloured pencil brands and associated products (CHECK OUT the poll - find out which make of artist grade coloured pencils is the favourite.)
• coloured pencil societies,
• coloured pencil artists and
• forums where you can discuss coloured pencil matters with artists working in coloured pencils

What brands do you favour for backup?

In How do you archive your images? (MAM Poll Results) over on Making A Mark, I highlighted the different ways in which people archive their image files of reference photos and artwork (in progress; available, exhibited and sold).

How do you archive your images?
copyright Katherine Tyrrell / Making A Mark

Maybe you won't be surprised to know that 14% of the artists who responded had no back up organised at all! If their computer died - so did all their images on that hard drive.

I'm now moving on to the next stage and trying to demystify what's involved inbacking up images and I'm trying to put an information site together.

I'm now looking for help in terms of recommendations and warnings!

What I'd like to know is:

• which brands (eg of external hard disc drives) are you happy with?
• Have you found any branded backup device or software problematical?
  
• Is there any particular hardware or software or digital vault website which you'd like to recommend

For the record I use:

• Western Digital MyBook - for backup onto external hard disc drives which were 'best in class' when I got them = although it now looks like other brands are better
  
• Flickr Pro account for online digital archivng (unlimited storage and no limits on uploads)
  
• a variety of brands for archiving onto non-rewritable CDs
• ScanDisc Ultra and Jessops for my secure digital/SDHC cards
  

Two new coloured pencil opinion polls for 2010

As promised earlier this year, today I have set up two BRAND NEW opinion polls about artists' grade coloured pencils and watercolour pencils on Coloured Pencils - Resources for Artists.

The main reason for starting a new poll is because there have been a lot of advances since the original poll was started:

• CPSA has now published more data about the resusts of its lightfast testing of different brands of pencils
  
• there are now more lightfast pencils, more people are aware of the lightfastness issues and people's preferences may well have shifted
  
• new brands have been created eg Caran d'Ache Luminance pencils
• people will have experimented with more brands and new brands and may well have changed their preferences!

Making A Mark Reviews (16 November 2009) Opinion Poll: Which is your favourite make of artist grade coloured pencil?

POLL: Which is your favourite make of artist grade coloured pencil?
Results chart as at 31st December 2009
(792 votes)

So - as of today there are now two NEW polls. Click the links below to view the options and vote:

• 2010 POLL: Which is your favourite make of artist grade coloured pencil?
• 2010 POLL: What's your favourite watercolour pencil?

The purpose of the polls is to identify which are the most popular coloured pencils in 2010 - hence all past votes which applied to choices available in the past no longer apply

Which means that all of you who already voted on the first poll can VOTE AGAIN! This time I want to know which brand - out of the ones which you use right now - is your favourite brand.

Note also that this is the first time I've set up a poll specifically for watercolor pencils.

As previously indicated, hopefully by providing feedback to the manufacturers about preferences there will be some incentive to continue with a good selection in the marketplace and products which continue to improve in both quality and lightfastness over time.

If any of the marketing people from the different pencil manufacturers are reading this and note that their new brands in the pipeline are NOT included please contact me with the date your product is due to be in the marketplace AND on your website.

Note: The first poll about artists' coloured pencils is being "retired" although its results will be maintained as an image (see above) on this blog and on Coloured Pencils - Resources for Artists

Links:

• Coloured Pencils - Resources for Artists
• Making A Mark - Which is your favourite make of artist grade coloured pencil? (August 2008)
  
• Making A Mark reviews...... Which is your favourite make of artist grade coloured pencil? (April 2009)
• Making A Mark - Derwent Coloursoft Pencils
• Making A Mark - Derwent Coloursoft Update (May 2006) - includes a link to the Derwent colour charts for all 72 colours
• Making A Mark - Royal Talens Van Gogh Coloured Pencils
• Making A Mark - Lyra Rembrandt Polycolor Pencils (March 2007) - includes my colour chart
• Making A Mark - Ashness Bridge - my drawing for the new Derwent Catalogue (Derwent Artists' Pencils)
  
• Making A Mark - Prismacolor - new colours for 2006 but no change in the breakages (August 2006) - includes my colour chart
• Making A Mark - Prismacolour Premier Lightfast Colored Pencils (October 2006) - lists the 48 new colours by name and number
• Making A Mark - How lightfast are your artist grade coloured pencils?

Coloured Pencils - Resources for Artists

Find out about coloured pencils. This leading resource has information for everybody from experienced artists to beginners wanting to learn all they can. Topics include

• tips and techniques for working with coloured pencils,
• information about coloured pencil brands and associated products (CHECK OUT the poll - find out which make of artist grade coloured pencils is the favourite.)
• coloured pencil societies,
• coloured pencil artists and
• forums where you can discuss coloured pencil matters with artists working in coloured pencils

New Federal rules for product reviews/endorsements by bloggers

Beginning Dec. 1, bloggers, Twitterers and many others who write online product reviews must disclose the receipt of free merchandise or payment for the items they write about.
New York Times - New F.T.C. Rules Have Bloggers and Twitterers Mulling

Not a problem for me. I've already got a disclaimer at the bottom of this blog which clearly states................

Disclaimer

The basic principle which underpins this blog is that all all the reviews which appear here should be independent.

What does this mean?

• I am sent review copies of books by publishers or authors and samples of art materials by suppliers of art materials but I have no financial relationship with those suppliers or any art shop or art bookshop.
• I am an Amazon affiliate (which helps me to finance the purchase of any new books); however I have no formal affiliation with any other manufacturer or publisher and I buy lots of art books in various art shops)
  
• I will always declare if I have any sort of affiliate interest in relation to a product or service under review and I'll also declare whether I was sent a product as a sample.
• I expect all reviews by other artists which appear on this blog to adhere to the basic premise that any and all affiliations are declared.

I don't think I need to take any action.

How about you?

There are clear issues about how to distinguish between ordinary people who write about products they use in an 'everyday' way and those who provide endorsements with a view to earning money from their blogs.

It's been an issue that has always seemed to me to be one which is best addressed by ALWAYS being open and upfront about any products/books/items I'm sent to review. I don't give positive reviews simply because I'm sent something but I really wouldn't want people to think that a positive review is the result of getting a freebie!!!

Overall, I say what I think - but try to be fair. In relation to negative experiences I notify a manufacturers if a sample product has failed to perform - as I've done just recently. I then seek a replacement to ensure that my review is not distorted by what might be a 'one-off' malfunction. It happens.

Further Information

The Guide was last updated in 1980 so this is a major and important change. It's specifically aimed at ensuring transparency in dealings as much advertising now moves away from traditional channels and towards social networking sites.

Here are some links providing more information.

• Federal Trade Commission - News: FTC Publishes Final Guides Governing Endorsements, Testimonials

The revised Guides specify that while decisions will be reached on a case-by-case basis, the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement. Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service. Likewise, if a company refers in an advertisement to the findings of a research organization that conducted research sponsored by the company, the advertisement must disclose the connection between the advertiser and the research organization. And a paid endorsement – like any other advertisement – is deceptive if it makes false or misleading claims.
Federal Trade Commission - News: FTC Publishes Final Guides Governing Endorsements, Testimonials

• Text of the Federal Register Notice Note in particular the definitions below and example 8 in this Notice - which is particularly relevant to bloggers
• Definition of endorsement, product and experts

For purposes of this part, an endorsement means any advertising message including verbal statements, demonstrations, or depictions of the name, signature, likeness or other identifying personal characteristics of an individual or the name or seal of an organization) that consumers are likely to believe reflects the opinions, beliefs, findings, or experiences of a party other than the sponsoring advertiser, even if the views expressed by that party are identical to those of the
sponsoring advertiser. The party whose opinions, beliefs, findings, or experience the message appears to reflect will be called the endorser and may be an individual, group, or institution.
(c) The Commission intends to treat endorsements and testimonials identically in the context of its enforcement of the Federal Trade Commission Act and for purposes of this part. The term endorsements is therefore generally used hereinafter to cover both terms and situations.
(d) For purposes of this part, the term product includes any product, service, company or industry.
(e) For purposes of this part, an expert is an individual, group, or institution possessing, as a result of experience, study, or training, knowledge of a particular subject, which knowledge is superior to what ordinary individuals generally acquire.

• Text of the Revised Endorsement and Testimonial Guides: FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION 16 CFR Part 255 - Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising

Webware review: SEO Analysis Tool

Webware: SEO Analysis tool

Owner/Distributor: SEO Workers Consultants.

Technical Details: The tool is webware and can be used without downloading anything from the internet. There's an option to download Firefox browser extension (not tested). This is what it claims to do. Analyze most common meta tags; Analyze keyword density from the page content; Analyze page load time from the page; Analyze size from the page; Analyze title meta tag relevancy to page content; Analyze description meta tag relevancy to page content; Analyze keywords meta tag relevancy to page content; Check robots.txt file if user agent is allowed to spider the page; Display meta tags returned from the web server; Display headers returned from the web server; Search for keywords on the page; Search for keywords in the anchor (URL) tags; Search for keywords in the images alt tag.

Summary: A useful tool for reviewing the titles, text and meta tags used for individual website pages. Identifies quickly and easily issues which might cause a site to fail to rank well in SEO terms.

Suitable for: people wanting to assess whether their website is search engine friendly

Highlights: webware - can be used without installing anything on your computer helps siteowners to improve the page ranking of individual pages of their website by removing aspects unfriendly to Googlebot and other spiderbots tests for a good match between title tags and page descriptions (in text) helps focus attention on how a website page is described - and whether that will be scanned by spiders checks that meta tags are a good match with text produces results very quickly and very simply uses a traffic light system of colours plus text to highlight issues which need to be addressed you can test and retest easily - identify what makes a difference by being able to tweak, republish and check again very quickly

Think Again? debateable how important meta tags are these days (however titles and text and congruence between the two remains very important) it's a bit too addictive - ration your time! inability to understand the coding of blogspot blogs

Suppliers: Available from http://www.seoworkers.com

Before I comment further on the tool it's important to provide some context so here's......

A preamble about SEO and Page Rank

Google crawls webpages to look for changes roughly in order of the page rank of each page. This is how Google rates and ranks web pages for search purposes

PageRank Technology: PageRank reflects our view of the importance of web pages by considering more than 500 million variables and 2 billion terms. Pages that we believe are important pages receive a higher PageRank and are more likely to appear at the top of the search results.

PageRank also considers the importance of each page that casts a vote, as votes from some pages are considered to have greater value, thus giving the linked page greater value. We have always taken a pragmatic approach to help improve search quality and create useful products, and our technology uses the collective intelligence of the web to determine a page's importance.

Hypertext-Matching Analysis: Our search engine also analyzes page content. However, instead of simply scanning for page-based text (which can be manipulated by site publishers through meta-tags), our technology analyzes the full content of a page and factors in fonts, subdivisions and the precise location of each word. We also analyze the content of neighboring web pages to ensure the results returned are the most relevant to a user's query.

Google - Technology Overview

This is a summary of Google SEO Ranking Factors with comments based on the SEOmoz survey of Search Engine Ranking factors v2.

Earlier this year I reviewed which factors were relevant - or otherwise for artists in

• 5 positive ways to help your art website rank well in Google - the top five factors for helping your website or blog do well in search engine enquiries
  
• 5 more ways of helping your art website to rank well in Google the next five top factors
  
• 5 approaches to avoid on your art website or art blog - what you want to make sure you avoid. Note some of these are highlighted in the next post as being controversial
  
• SEO for Artists - which factors help or hinder? - which identifies those factors where experts agreed or disagreed the most as to their importance

What this SEO Analysis Tool will NOT do

This tool is:

• NOT going toimprove a site's page rank in terms of how many links you get (as described above)
• NOT going to tell you what your page rank is - but it will show you how you're messing up your chances of getting a good page rank.
• NOT going to tell you all the things you need to do - but will highlight some important things to address.
  

How this SEO Analysis Tool can help

This SEO Analysis Tool is to help you analyze and measure the ranking potential of your web pages.

It doesn't only analyze the Meta Tags of your pages, rather it tries to use the same spider technology as the search engines spiders them self.

Before you can get a link you first have to be found! This tool might improve the chances of a page being found as a result of a search due to the page being accurately described in a way which the Google bot and other spider bots like.

All you have to do to use this tool is insert a URL for a website (for the home page) or any URL of any website page and that page will be analysed as to its SEO effectiveness. Then complete a quick spam check.

An example of a report produced
(for my portfolio website http://www.pastelsandpencils.com)

On the right I've provided an example of a page. i'd like to just emphasise that this was after paying attention to the warning messages and tidying up my site description and meta tags.

In general, I found it very helpful to focus in particular on the title tags and the description as that is where Google starts in its hypertext analysis.

I've personally found it very helpful for reviewing the set-up of my information pages on Squidoo and the individual pages of my two main websites. The thing I liked best is that you could tweak a site, republish and then check to see what difference a change made - for better or worse.

The one problem I identified while trying it out is that it is not at all helpful in analysing blogspot blogs.

The website also provides some useful SEO tutorials in layman's language and general terms.

Incidentally, one of the things I liked about SEO Workers was that they identified who they are - see About Us which lists names and provides pics, addresses, and contact details.

Pay attention to Matt Cutts too!

It also pays to review what Matt Cutts, the SEO GoogleMeister, has to say from time to time. he's got the most up to date perspective on what counts and what matters.

Think about the keywords that users will type. Include them naturally in your posts

• "usb drive""thumb drive""flash drive""pen drive"
• ALT attribute are handy (3-4 relevant words)
• Don't forget image search, videos, etc.

Matt Cutts - Straight from Google: What You Need to Know

Plus this is a YouTube Video by Google about Google for Webmasters Tutorial: Crawling and Indexing

Links:

• Wikipedia - Search engine optimisation
  
• Wikipedia - Page Rank
• Google: Corporate Information - Technology overview
  

An introduction to "Making a Mark reviews......"

This is a new consumer oriented blog which will review quality and value in art books, art supplies and other products and services used by artists.

This new blog is a spin-off from my very popular blog Making a Mark. In future this blog - Making a Mark reviews...... will become the home of all reviews oriented towards the artist as a consumer.

This post is about

• why I'm creating this new blog
• what this blog will focus on and cover
• how it will work - what principles underpin it
  
• how you can get involved.

Why a new blog?

A new blog enables me to create a specific focus for each blog:

• 'Making a Mark' (the blog) will focus more being an artist and making art. Specifically it will cover my my art, art projects, notable artists, interviews with artists, art exhibitions, art careers and aspects related to the business of being an artist - plus techie bits about the web and blogging from time to time.
  
• 'Making a Mark reviews...... ' will be more consumer-oriented. It will deal with the commercial aspects of art in terms of books and products for artists and items that we as artists spend money on.
  

This enables me to do more reviews without squeezing out the art-making aspects which are the essential focus of Making A Mark.

As anybody who has visited my website Making A Mark (www.makingamark.co.uk) will know I have three passions - drawing, writing and sharing information.

This new blog will also link to and support the makeover and the major development of the 'sharing' part of that website to create a new digest of information which is focused around specific topics. However, due to the major hiatus I've been experiencing recently with computers misbehaving and dying, I'm very behind with this makeover. However I will start to unveil new pages in the near future and the first one - no surprises here(!) - will be about coloured pencils.

How this blog works - a focus on quality AND value

value noun 1 worth in monetary terms. 2 the quality of being useful or desirable; the degree of usefulness or desirability. 3 the exact amount of a variable quantity in a particular case. 4 the quality of being a fair exchange • value for money. 5 (values) moral principles or standards

My aim is simple - to create a consumer's guide to quality and value in art books, art supplies and services to artists

This blog covers:
- art book reviews (art instruction and art history)
- reviews of art media, art materials and art equipment
- reviews of places where you buy (art shops, online art suppliers and art bookshops)
- reviews of other products or services used by artists
- summaries of good quality and relevant reviews by other practising artists

Using this blog I want to try and identify what is good quality and what is good value in art supplies, art books and services relevant to artists. In doing so I'll also be trying to identify the places where we should be spending our cash - because they provide a cost-effective combination of competitive prices, excellent product knowledge and amazing customer service. Where possible I'll also be reviewing other services that we as spend money on as artists (eg websites, software etc).

Irrespective of whether you are on a tight budget or have no financial worries, as artists we all tend to appreciate good quality - when we know what that is - and absolutely hate wasting money. I also know that very many artists love sharing their experiences about art materials and art books and hopefully this blog will become another place where you can do that.

Here's some of the reasons why I'm interested in the consumer perspective:

• I've always been absolutely passionate about consumers getting a fair deal. People should be able to get good quality products for a reasonable price.
• I spent a large part of my career focused on the achievement of cost-effectiveness - otherwise known as value for money.
• I love finding out about new materials, aids and books which aim to help us out as artists. I'm never averse to trying something new - and I'm happy to share what I find out - hopefully in co-operation with you all as readers.
• I hate seeing people getting ripped off by poor quality books, art materials which are not fit for purpose, or OTT product claims.
• I have a very long track record of being a very picky consumer with a pronounced tendency to ask a lot of questions. I read all the labels, the product descriptions, every review on the Internet and anything else I can find before I buy big ticket items! I'm also an inveterate researcher who aims to check out product claims and find out all I can - including the views of other consumers. There's been no stopping me since I've found out that there's absolutely no need to stay in the dark. If you ask questions producers and retailers often answer and some are very helpful!
  
• I want to help you have a voice. Whenever I've highlighted and reviewed a product on my other blog, I've found that the comments it received added real value in terms of the knowledge and experience of you the consumer. I'd like to create opportunities for more of that!
  

How this blog works - the principles

Given that this blog is going to be talking about commercial products, I decided it would probably be a good idea to create a set of ground rules for how it works.

Basically it's all about trying to be both fair and achieve a balanced perspective.

I used to have a policy of not reviewing a book unless I thought it was good ("If you can't say anything good, don't say anything" etc). However with a recession upon us, I'm going to have to revise that policy and start indicating more clearly where books fall short
Making A Mark: Book review: The Coloured Pencil Artist's drawing bible

The basic principles of the approach which will be adopted by this blog are as follows. These will be updated as and when required.

• I'm on the side of the consumer. My principal motivation is finding out whether you and I are getting a good deal and products which do what they claim.
  
• All reviews will be honest AND fair to both producer and consumer. They will highlight both good points and aspects which might make you think again.
• In relation to the overall content, I'm making some highly generalised assumptions about key players as follows:
  
• consumers value information about products and like to be well-informed before they make a purchase
  
• consumers will endeavour to be fair, accurate and precise when commenting on products and will avoid exaggerating the impact of benefits or failures
  
• authors, publishers, manufacturers and producers are doing the best they can do - even if they don't always get it right.
• producers are in business and are not a charity and hence need to make decisions about product offerings influenced by what they think will make money
  
• producers want to hear about what consumers think about their products because this means that they can refine and improve what they have to offer - and sell more product!
  
• All reviews will be independent. I accept both free product samples and advance review copies of books due to be published HOWEVER:
  
• accepting ARCSs/product samples does not impair my judgement or my ability to write a fair review! Besides which I still have quite a few resources of my own in terms of art materials and a few hundred art books already in back catalogues!
  
• if I'm sent a book to read or an art product to try I'm under no obligation to write a review about it on this blog.
• Anybody who acts as a guest reviewer on this blog will maintain the standards set for this blog.

In a separate post which follows this, I'm going to be setting out a statement of how the comments policy will work. This will also be referenced in the side column for all new readers.

How you can get involved

Last week when previewing the introduction of this blog I wrote about some of the ways that we can use this blog to channel the 'wisdom of crowds'. Here are just some of the ways that I hope you can get involved with the development of both this blog and its reviews.

10 different ways of promoting a community of well-informed consumers

I see so many questions on my travels around the Internet about 'where can I find' or 'can you recommend...?'

I'm hoping to help promote a community of well-informed consumers in a number of different ways. The new blog will:

• check claims made and provide a fair and independent perspective
  
• avoid the use of weasel words.
• channel the "wisdom of crowds" by:
  
• asking you for suggestions of useful books, products, suppliers that you've found.
• running opinion polls from time to time
• ask readers to provide useful tips about ways you've found of saving money without compromising quality - which I'll summarise on a regular basis
  
• reference good quality reviews on other blogs
  
• invite guest reviewers to contribute posts about specific products outside my area of expertise
  
• invite experienced artists to offer their views on their favourite products.
• provide a blogroll dedicated to bloggers who regularly provide product reviews
• ask manufacturers and publishers to keep me up to date

The advantage of this blog is that I can also create a set of tags which enable you to identify quickly and easily the type of content you're interested in and what has been said to date - whether it's soft pastels, art pens or art instructions books.

If you'd like to get involved please leave a comment below.

If you'd like to let me know that you've written a product review on your own blog leave a comment on this post. All comments are moderated so I'll always know when you've left a comment.

and finally......

Links to all the blog reviews will be added to the information, advice and reviews which can be found in my "Resources for Artists" sites.