Site News – Art & News from EBSQ

O yea! O yea! A royal sale is on!

Those of you know know me even slightly likely know that I’m a bit of an Anglophile, and Happy British Things are usually excuses for a sale. The birth of Prince George Alexander Louis of Cambridge is no exception!

Grab these royal savings through the end of July!

Monthly memberships for just $6.50 (click here)
A full year for just $66 (click here)
A pay-once-and-you’re done permanent account for $299 (click here)

Already member and want one of these better rates/different plans? Feel free to grab one. We’ll then cancel your existing plan and update your account accordingly.

So pip pip, cheerio, and save a few quid in the process!

Image at right: Bluebird of Happiness by EBSQ Artist Sherry Key

With gratitude,

-Amie on behalf of Team EBSQ
http://www.ebsqart.com
Supporting living artists since 2000

PS This is a special email & social-media only event, with these prices not advertised on the EBSQ site. So feel free to pass these savings on!

EBSQ Data Center Outage

If you visited EBSQ this afternoon (6 March 2013) you might have noticed things were sluggish, then spotty, then completely down. We’ve discovered the problem isn’t on our end, but rather at our Data Center, where their network is completely down. They’re working to correct the problem now. Thanks for your patience!

10pm EST The good news is that the problem has been diagnosed by the good folks at our data center. The bad news is that the replacement part the data center needs to get their customers (including EBSQ) back online will not be available until tomorrow morning. It’s been a long frustrating day, and we appreciate that a solution is on its way.

Thanks for hanging in there, folks. Once we’re back up, we’re looking forward to seeing all of the new art created during our rather unexpected downtime!

Heads up–anticipate a brief period of site inaccessability

6:25pm EST We expect a brief outage within the hour while we replace a piece of equipment in our server array. We anticipate it being 5-10 minutes total. Thanks in advance for your patience, and sorry for any inconvenience!

7:16pm EST Our new equipment is installed and we’re running tests to make sure everything is working as expected before switching back on. ETA 5-10 minutes

7:46pm EST We are still mid-testing process. Sorry this is taking longer than expected, but we want to make sure everything is smooth sailing once we’re back up. Thanks for your continued patience!

8:45pm EST All EBSQ services are back online. Truly sorry this took longer than anticipated!

EBSQ is back online

9:12am EBSQ is currently down. We’re working with our server people to quickly resolve the problem. We’ll be updating this post with further information as it becomes available. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience.

10:18am Our current estimated uptime is no later than 11am EST. Thanks for your continued patience!

10:50am The issue has been resolved.

A special appeal on Cyber Monday

12 years ago, EBSQ began in a small 2-bedroom apartment in Pittsburgh, PA. We’ve now doubled in size (4 total employees instead of just Bill and me), we *finally* own our own servers, and the bulk of the day-to-day work is done via an ancient laptop on my dining room table. In the past dozen years, we’ve seen competitors, many of whom had a lot of capital backing them, go by the wayside. There’s no question, it’s a tough market for artists–and the sites that support them. I suspect it’s our very smallness that has kept us going where others have failed. But we’re ready to grow. And we need your help to do that.

Bill has spent the last 6 months re-writing 100% of the EBSQ site code in another programming language (and let me tell you, this was no easy feat!). This will make the site significantly faster, and it will be easier to maintain–and extend. And over the next 6 weeks, we will be fine-tuning as we prepare to launch what we think is a gorgeous version of the site that WILL include e-commerce. Now, something I have lobbied for time-and-again is for the advertising to go away. It’s ugly, it detracts from the art, and frankly, it slows down page load time. But it’s been a necessary evil since it’s how we’ve kept the lights on. I’m not going to lie; each month when that money comes in is a HUGE relief.

Here’s how you can help: plain and simple, we need more members to make up for the huge deficit that going advertising-free would create. To be exact, we need 150 new monthly members before the end of December.

Today through the end of November, monthly memberships, normally $8.95, will be on sale at the grandfathered rate of just $6.50 a month. That’s less than a month of Netflix. And for this week only, we’re making Permanent Accounts available for the discounted price of $499.

Will you help us grow? We are calling all former members, all of the artists who have been on the fence about joining, and on current members to lobby their artist friends on our behalf. Please, we need you. Each and every one of you. Come grow with us.

>>Click here to grab a great deal!

Thank you for your consideration. And from us, to you, have an artful holiday season!
With gratitude,
-Amie Gillingham
co-founder, EBSQ
http://www.ebsqart.com
Supporting self-representing artists since 2000

PS Don’t let these great deals pass you by! Invest in your artistic future–and ours–by grabbing an awesome deal today!

Our LAST EVER Annual & Permanent Account Sale is ON!

Tom Had to Think Quickly by EBSQ Artist Nancy Denommee

Yes, the rumours are true. We’re retiring the annual and permanent account billing options for EBSQ on 1 August 2012* and moving to monthly-billing only for new members. If you’d like to grandfather in with either type of account, here’s your chance to do it at a discount! For this week only, we are offering both account-types at last year’s Cyber Monday sales price.

Grab an annual account for just $66/year (a $23 saving over the current rate) or a permanent account for just $349 (that’s half off the $699 list price!)

*It is important to note that people who have annual billing get to keep their rates for as long as they stay a member. We are firm believers in grandfathered rates. And obviously, permanent accounts are permanent. We’re a small family business and we appreciate your support of our services and community. Without you, we don’t exist.

Both deals are open to new and existing members. So click here to grab what is easily our best deal of the year today!

Of course, we’ll always offer monthly memberships!

Huge cheers,

-Amie on behalf of Team EBSQ

PS Don’t let this chance to grab a grandfathered-rate annual or half-price permanent account pass you by. Upgrade your account today!

This week, we’re going to party like it’s 2002!

"Tom Had to Act Qucky" by EBSQ Artist Nancy Denommee

If you’ve been around EBSQ for a while, you may know that Cyber Monday typically equals our Annual Half-Price Permanent Account Sale. We’d like to think that’s a pretty sweet deal (pay once and you’re done for this kind of professional portfolio space is pretty unheard of). But we know, in this sour economy, and most especially after Black Friday when everyone and their mother is competing for what’s left in your wallet, that a permanent account isn’t always doable. Heck, for some of you, our regular membership dues almost don’t feel doable. 2011 has flat out been a Very. Hard. Year.

What we propose is something rather radical. We keep offering you the same great service as always,but at the rates that were available a decade ago.That’s right: for 4-days only, we’re rolling back EBSQ memberships to 2002 prices!

And the awesome thing is *everyone* is eligible for this special deal, including current EBSQ members who might be paying higher rates. We welcome you to take this opportunity to roll into our lowest grandfathered rate as our holiday gift to you, and as thanks for sticking with EBSQ.

We have gift memberships for as little as $66 (talk about a green gift!)

As always on Cyber Monday, we’re also offering our permanent accounts (normally $699) for just $349 –payment plan options available!

So consider giving the gift of art this holiday season; either for a worthy artist on your list, or for yourself. Watching the nightly news has become very depressing. We think the world needs more art. And artists.

Happy Holidays,

Amie Gillingham on behalf of Team EBSQ

PS Click here to start saving! But remember, the sale ends on 1 December 2011!

Some updates (of the good variety)

Hello Again by EBSQ Artist Thomas C Fedro

We were so busy getting the site back online and everything working properly after our equipment failure and downtime, we totally forgot to tell you (at least via blog post) that, hey guys, we’re back! It’s been a crazy, but good week. I can’t begin to tell you how wonderful it is seeing the sheer quantity of awesome art that was created while we were down.

Some items of note:

Are you an EBSQ artist that has images missing (showing up as broken jpgs) in your portfolio? If so, please get in touch. We’re still trying to match up image files with their proper owners, and your member id would be of great assistance in getting your portfolio restored to its former glory.

In case you missed previous messages about this, due to the downtime, September’s online art exhibits deadlines were extended through the 15th. That date is coming upon us quickly, so if you still have something on your easel, it’s time to get out your hair dryer and your camera!

Art of the Day via email is back! We’re pleased to have moved our newsletters to MailChimp’s awesome care. Now it’s easier than ever to share, forward, or (God forbid) unsubscribe. Let us know what you think of the slightly tweaked look!

Update on EBSQ Downtime

I am pleased to announce that the data recovery effort is complete! We’re now working to put everything back together again and making sure everything more or less works, then getting our new server (currently in our office) to our new LOCAL data center. We anticipate being back online by 9 October 2011 if all goes to plan. I want to thank everyone for their patience during this arduous process. We cannot wait to be back online and seeing what you all were up to creatively during the downtime.

Oh–one more note of interest: EBSQ email is now back online, so I’ve personally been trying to sort through 11 days of mail for the 4 different email addresses I help to manage. We’ll get responses to those of you who wrote as soon as we can.

Huge cheers!

-Amie

Not quite there yet…

Our data center let us know that they’ve been having some issues with the data recovery process BUT things are now looking up and they hope to have some good news for us tomorrow. Fingers and toes crossed, folks! Prayers, too, if you’re the praying type.

Some updates for the week

We’re nearing the end of the data recovery process and hope to be back online within the next 48 hours. We’ll update if/when that ETA changes.

In the interim, many of you have last month’s exhibits as well as October’s on the brain. Here’s what’s happening with these.

If you missed seeing the notice on our temporary homepage or our Facebook feed, all September exhibits have been extended through mid-October.

Shows on tap for October are:

Think Pink, our annual Susan G Komen fundraiser. All entries must have a significant amount of pink the the composition. There’s a $10 entry fee per piece, payable to SGK. We’ll get the details on how to pay your entry fee soon.

Our annual Pet Portrait Swap is happening this month. Looking for a partner? Let us know in the comments to this post, or leave a note on our Facebook wall.

This month’s Flower of the Month is members of the gourd family, Cucurbitaceae. As you might have guessed based upon the name, cucumbers and zucchini are also welcome.

We’re postponing our juried Norse Mythology exhibit until 2012, likely January. More details will be forthcoming.

And lastly on a personal note, I miss you guys. I can’t wait to have us back up and running again and see all of the art that happened in the past week.

Thanks for your patience. We know this past week has been a major inconvenience.

-Amie

Guest Curate a Week of EBSQ’s Art of the Day

Think you have what it takes to be a good curator? Want a chance to find out? EBSQ would love to see our members’ art through your eyes by curating a week of Art of the Day. Here’s how!

Send us an email to aotd@ebsqart.com with the following information:

Your name (this will appear with your curated week if you’re selected)
Your theme’s title
Your seven choices for your theme in the order you wish them to appear (don’t send pictures, use the search tool and copy & paste the url for each item)
All choices must be EBSQ artist members in good standing, and we prefer work that hasn’t been used in the past.

Also, all choices need to be “work/family friendly”

If your week is selected, our staff will get in touch for your curator’s statement, as well as let you know if alternate pieces need to be picked in the event that a member isn’t eligible.

So, put on your curator’s hat (or any hat you might have lying about) and give it your best shot!

Hey EBSQ, the clock is ticking!

Tick-Tock!

Ad space is still available for this coming week’s Art of the Day. Grab your ad (and all the promotional glory that goes with it) before time runs out!

Speaking of ticking clocks, time’s running out to enter March Exhibits

If you haven’t yet, you still have a few days left to enter one (or more!) of our monthly exhibits for March 2011:

Is there anything more preposterous than an artist-made rhinoceros? Show us yours!

Show us your best motion captures. Both digital and traditional film photographs are welcome. Juried by Eric Schmadel with a $150 prize for the winner

This month’s focus is the Art of Bonsai. In art

This month’s word: FAMILIAR

The deadline to enter March exhibits is 11:59 PM Eastern Standard Time on 31 March 2011. Voting runs through April 7th. Winners will be announced on April 8th.

Here’s what you can look forward to in April 2011:

Robots

Cat & Mouse

Flower of the Month: Amaryllidaceae

One-Word Concept: Enigmatic

So–8 shows for your consideration, including our first juried show of the 2011 exhibition season. Go create something awesome!

EBSQ introduces targeted advertising for artists & art-related businesses

This month, EBSQ launched its first-ever advertising program. Our intent was to create advertising that augmented rather than detracted from the site experience, as well as a program that is a truly affordable way to reach both artists and art lovers alike.

Just this week, we launched Art of the Day sponsorships, with ad space available both for businesses as well as EBSQ members. And starting next week, we’ll be launching an exhibition sponsorship program that is truly unique: we’ll be giving serious real estate and newsletter time to businesses in exchange for these businesses offering a prize directly to the artists with no fees (hidden or otherwise) involved in the process.

So if your business is hoping to target the art market, might we recommend taking a look at what EBSQ has to offer?

EBSQ debuts special gallery for Japanese Relief Efforts

The artists of EBSQ have been quick to respond to the unfolding crisis in Japan, just as they always have in other times of trouble during our 10+ year history. We contemplated curating a list of of individual efforts, but ultimately thought we could do more good by creating a special gallery for artists to share their work in concert with a larger audience . If you’re someone who’d like to make a difference by purchasing something beautiful, we ask that you patronize our Relief for Japan Art Gallery and help us spread the word. And if you’re an artist who’d like to be part of this semi-organized aid effort, here’s how:

Relief for Japan Gallery posting requirements

All pieces must give at least 10% of the proceeds to a recognized aid organization (examples: Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity).
All pieces must either be for sale directly on EBSQ (via your own PayPal button) or link directly to where it’s available for purchase.
All pieces need to explicitly state in their artist statement the organization benefiting from its sale and the percentage of the sale price going to that organization.
Need help including a link in your artist statement? Drop us a line; someone on staff would be happy to assist you!
Work not meeting these criteria WILL be removed from the gallery.

Thank you so much for supporting our efforts. And please, pass this on!

Lock in at 2010 rates before it’s too late!

Price increase scheduled for 1 February 2011

We wanted to give you a heads up that rates will be going up for new subscriptions starting 1 February 2011. It’s our first price increase in 5 years, and we hope you’ll still find us to be an excellent value. Artists that subscribe before the end of January can lock in at 2010 rates. As long as your subscription is current, you keep whatever rate at which you lock in. If you’re a lapsed member or have been on the fence about upgrading, there’s no better time than the present! You’ll find the details on our upgrade page. Make a renewed commitment to your art for 2011 and upgrade or renew today!

Last chance for Half-Price Permanent Accounts!

Monthly and Annual subscriptions aren’t the only price going up next month; our permanent account fee will also increase from $650 to $699. But you can snag a half-price permanent account today for just $325! This is our best value: pay once and you’re done! But you’d better hurry; just like our other 2010 rates, this deal expires at the stroke of midnight on 1 February 2011.

EBSQ Debuts Public Patron Accounts

On the wishlist of many EBSQ site patrons over the years was a way to be more involved with the site beyond forum and voting access. Patrons can now create public (or private) profiles at EBSQart.

By default, Patron Profiles are private. This can be changed by editing your profile (http://www.EBSQart.com/Edit-Profile/). Select the ‘General’ tab to update your privacy setting under “Preferences.” Note that as long as you are logged in, *you* can always view your profile, even when it is set to be private.

We welcome patrons to upload an avatar and include a bio. You can also include links to venues such as your blog, Twitter account, and personal website. While Patron Accounts don’t show up in our directories, which are reserved for paid-artist members only, you’re welcome to share your url with the world.

After logging in to your account, you can build galleries of favorites by clicking the ‘Add to My Galleries’ buttons as you browse the EBSQ website. Whether or not these galleries are public or private is completely up to you. If you choose to keep your favourites private, they’ll only be visible to you when viewing your profile page. If you go public, your favourites can then be shared on Facebook and other venues by using the sharing tools that appear near the upper right corner of most site pages.

Sharing your favourite art and artists is a great way to “Support Living Artists!”

Keep an eye on this new feature; we’ll be adding even more functionality for Paton Accounts in the near future!

Tick tock! Catch these artists deals before midnight!

Time by Christine E Striemer — Time by EBSQ Artist Christine E Striemer

Time is running out to catch one of these sweet deals for the artists on your holiday list:

25% off of 1-year Gift Accounts

50% off Permanent Accounts

and our introductory portfolio tune-up special for just $19.95!

Grab one or more of these deals by following the link below:

http://www.ebsqart.com/cybermonday.asp

You’d better hurry since all of these deals turn back into pumpkins at the stroke of Midnight EST!

Grab these Cyber Monday Deals for Artists!

Greetings from EBSQ!

For those of you here in America, we hope you had an amazing Thanksgiving filled with family, friends, food, and perhaps a little football. And for the rest of you, we hope you had a fantastic (if slightly more normal) weekend. The holiday season is now upon us which brings us to: Cyber Monday!

EBSQ’s Cyber Monday Sale has a little something for every budget from 25% off gift memberships for a friend to our annual half-price permanent account sale to one-on-one time with a staff member for customized portfolio tune ups for yourself! Click here to check out these super holiday deals for artists. But you’d better hurry; these savings expire at 11:59pm EST on Wednesday, 1 December 2010!

Happy Holidays from all of us to all of you,
-Amie on behalf of Team EBSQ