Dors Fine Art

Article by Cathy Savels. Owner of Total Art and Soul

Total Art Soul is an international place for artistic souls of all disciplines. It is a community of creative spirits that help and nurture each other in their creativity. The main objective is to give encouragement to others. We feel strongly that artistic people need a platform from which they can exhibit what they do but also have help from more experienced people when they need it. Years ago, some of the great painters did apprenticeships to learn their skills. This no longer happens and is why we feel this site is so important. The site is entirely free and non-profit making. When artists and artisans register they will have facilities such as a personal gallery which is fed through to a main gallery for all members to see, a personal blogging space, Twitter feeds, video uploads and access to the forum. We are currently working on a groups section. There is also a chat room. Active members on the forum get featured on the main blog and random members are featured on the front page.The side affect of the site is that artists and artisans are visible online without having to do the 'hard sell'. Members of TAS are given exposure in various ways, therefore making it more of a recommendation and we prefer to think that marketing is about building relationships. When artists talk passionately about what they love to do, others will enthuse with them. Self promotion is hard to swallow for most people and can turn off any potential buyer. Equally, having a site that's full of links to other websites is uninteresting and is why we don't allow people to JUST post their links. Interesting content means that visitors stay around and are more likely to come back.The site is set up in such a way that it's easy for people to dip in and out whenever they have time. We allow just 2 image uploads per day so these can be quickly done if you're short on time. After all, we need members to take time to create. The way to get the best from the site is to upload a little bit of interesting content on a regular basis. That keeps you visible and means that we have something to work with when promoting.The group we have so far is a wonderfully diverse bunch of creative nuts from all over the world. We have hat makers, jewelry designers, painters, photographers, digital artists, writers, musicians, mask makers, sculptors, knitters, quilters, cartoonists, illustrators, poets, corset makers, silk painters, glass blowers etc. etc. All that creativity under one roof makes Total Art Soul a very exciting and inspiring place to be.Our membership has rapidly grown since we started on 1st January 2010 and we are getting new members every day. We have had some lovely feedback from some of our members who say that this is a little spam free haven on the internet, somewhere they can escape to and where they can find a friendly ear who will listen to their ideas. Many are using our badge on their own sites which is a great way of spreading the word. We are now getting around 14000 unique visitors per month which we're really happy about.