Questions? Fire away!

Today we posted a big question mark on Instagram because we want to hear your questions. It's really exciting to see that there have been so many visitors to our website since launching our platform earlier this week and we know that many of you have had a look and now might have some questions. So, we're inviting you to get in touch with us and to ask your questions and then we'll publish the answers here on our news page because, chances are, if you've got a question, others probably are wondering the same thing.

Our first questions, from Talulah Belle Lautrec-Nunes, via Instagram (@nzartcloud), are great ones to get things started. You can read the Q & A below.

Q: How is this site going to be marketed to buyers? Do you take a commission from Sales?

This is a great question, thanks Talulah.

We have lots of plans for NZ Art Cloud, and are very excited about what we hope it will provide for NZ Artists.

We are planning on launching an online store for our Members to sell their work next year. We hope that this will be helpful to Artists who wish to have a professional online presence with an e-commerce component, but don't want to invest in this all on their own. This will take some time to develop, and we're looking forward to bringing it to the table as an option for our members, but we don't see it as the central purpose of the site.

NZ Art Cloud is primarily about providing a platform for New Zealand Artists to get online. It may be the case that this is particularly appealing to those who don't already have their own website. For Artists that do already have a website, a profile can provide another link back to their site, which is important for search engine optimisation (Google likes this).

NZ Art Cloud is also about connections. By bringing together a directory of NZ Artists in one place, we hope that it will be easier for people to find Artists in their local communities. We also hope to foster connections between Artists. For example, we're already talking tentatively about a 'Christchurch Members' Meetup', and we aim for our platform to provide opportunities for our members to connect and to share their expertise.

There are a range of other benefits which we will be bringing to our members, and these are outlined on our website.

To come back to your core questions about marketing and commissions, these are very important things to be considered as we get ready to launch the online store.

In terms of marketing, we are working on a number of ways to increase the exposure for our site, and we are excited to see that members and Artists who are adding profiles are already sharing the site within their own networks. In terms of Artists profiles, it's really up to each Artist how they choose to market these. We're enjoying being able to highlight different Artists and works on our social channels, and will continue to do this and Artists may choose to market their profiles independently if they wish. This is similar to the way that each Artist can choose how they market their own website and social media pages. A profile in our directory is another option for Artists to present themselves online if they wish to do so.

In terms of our online store, we will be looking into ways to market this to ensure that people see the artwork that is listed there. This is likely to involve a combination of more traditional and also digital marketing including social advertising campaigns. Our online store is intended to be a lower-cost option for our members than having to create their own store online. In the same way as having their own store, they may also choose independent ways to market their profile (which will include their work for sale), and we'll be providing advice about how they can do this effectively.

When it comes to commissions, it is likely that we will take a commission from works sold by Members via our online store. A decision has not yet been made about exactly what percentage this commission will be, or if there will be one at all. It will depend on a range of factors including the fee to become a member (currently this is $1, but this will increase). Once we have a base of members, we will be communicating with them as we make decisions about these membership fees and commissions. Finally, we’re new and we understand that people can be hesitant about becoming involved with something that’s recently started up.

The reason that we’re currently offering free Artist Profiles in our directory and $1 Collective Memberships is to allow Artists the opportunity to come onboard without any obligations and see if this is a good fit for them. A $1 membership will give Artists 12 months to see how this will work, and at the end of that time they can weigh up all the information and make an informed decision about whether continuing their membership is of value for them.

Thanks again, Talulah, for your questions and we hope that you find this information helpful.

We invite you to get in touch with us if you have any questions. You can contact us here, via our Instagram account, or in the comments below.