First of all: About the website and galleries - yes and no! If you want to sell your art and manage to gain the interest of a professional gallery you will often be told to watermark and resize your images. Because: who would pay for something that is plastered all over the web and can be printed out easily?! I was told so before and with very few exheptions I watermark everything I do and resize it, too. About gathering up for advertising purposes: After several tries with getting published by gathering up to an artist community I definitly have to discourage you, sorry. The first thing you will notice is that there are always some "wannabe's" ("My husband bought me a fashion store but I still have some spare-time!") that lower the overall-quality of artwork presented by the group. The next thing is that money is unfortunatly not allocated in an equal way, so some have to stand beside when it comes to exhibitions and such. But okay, this is something that can be handled. What will destroy the fusion in the end are two things: hard work and decisions. All members should participate in both of them but you'll find that people have limited time for work and they will find it very hard to accept a majority decision they don't like. I have seen communities that gave up on collaborated work because they could not decide over a logo... Although I didn't like to I finally find myself in minding my own business and just sharing knowledge with artist-friends instead of spending hours and hours working for a community that ails from boast and impatience (CAUTION!! This means in no way R'osity, I talk of smaller coalitions that gathered together, worked hard for a while and then lost interest because (Yes!) it turned out to be work). Anyway, the discussion you brought up here is something that is worth to think about it - I'm a bit sorry I missed it so far. Because okay, I've been there and gave up on it but this didn't rescue me on being a thinking individual. So I always like if someone comes up with ideas and new brain-food ;o)

This is extremely well thought out a great advice for promoting anything! You should collect these together and do a book for ALL businesses not just art. The only question is whether people here will actually help themselves. I've got my doubts because they aren't even reading this. No wonder artists starve.

Superb marketing ideas! This is helpful to anyone working on the web. And that is jsut about everyone these days! READ MEREDITH'S BUSINESS ESSAYS PEOPLE! The gal knows what she is doing so pay attention!!