July Issue 1999
Art And The Internet Where Small Can Be Bigger
by Mary Ohl
The Blink Gallery opened three and a half years ago in a tiny slice of a building located in Charleston, South Carolina's historic French Quarter. Blink specializes in handmade ceramics, artful jewelry and unique gifts from local artists and from artists around the world.
I emphasize the word tiny because when I opened Blink my friends andfamily thought I was crazy to open a business in such a small space. I have always liked small spaces and thought Blink's size would give customers something to talk about. And, "don't blink or you'll miss it" seemed like a great slogan. To make a long story short, Blink has been a huge success despite its size. But after three years I wanted to expand without moving from our unusual space.
Many of my out-of-town customers request catalogs or tell me they wish they had a Blink in their hometown. Instead of a catalog or opening Blink in another location I decided to offer my customers direct access to Blink from their homes and offices via the Internet. Blink's second location, (www.thinkblink.com) is now beginning its second year of development. The following is a chronicle of some of our ups and downs during the creation of Blink's web site.
Luckily my husband, Nelson, had some computer experience. The two of us came up with several questions to get the ball rolling, such as: How do we secure our own name (domain name)? Who would host our site (we needed an Internet Service Provider or ISP)? Who would develop or maintain the content of the site? And finally, how much would it cost?
Nelson's cousin Kathy Cloud who is the owner of (www.Inetview.com), a successful web developing business gave us the answers to our initial questions.
Kathy was able to help us over the initial hurdles. We hired her to do all of the initial programming. In the future, we planned on maintaining the site ourselves to keep cost down. Kathy charged us $400.00 to put Blink on the web. I know we received a family discount! Do keep in mind prices for developers will vary.
When we thought of the number of people we could reach on the web it was exciting, not to mention a little overwhelming. Momentum was building!
The domain name "blink" was already in use by another organization. So I came up with the catchy alternative "thinkblink". It cost $150.00 to reserve the name for two years. If you think you might have a web site in the future you should go ahead and secure your name now. Blink has already had one serious offer to buy our domain name.
Blink's Internet Service Provider, IMC Online is an Atlanta based company specializing in Microsoft's Internet Information Server or IIS. We pay $20.00 a month for them to host our site and an additional $10.00 a month for our Secure Socket Layer, or SSL for our Shop Blink site. SSL allows customers to transmit credit card information on the web confidentially.
Other items that we have purchased included web authoring software, Microsoft Front Page 98, ($120.00) and a scanner ($100.00). The inexpensive scanner only worked for three months. So instead of buying another scanner we decide to purchase a digital camera that cost $900.00. It was a big investment but it has already paid for itself in convenience. It saves us a great deal of time and the quality is much better.
I feel the total financial obligation is small when you think of the possibilities if offers the gallery. It is great advertising and the site produces additional sales. We spend a lot of time working on it and I think you need to be willing to devote time and effort to creating and maintaining a successful page.
The initial response to our site from friends and customers was positive and encouraging. We were so excited, wondering when someone would sign up for the mailing list, or who would place the first online order.
Nelson's new position as a software developer has given us a leg up with some of the more complicated tools necessary to maintain the site's enjoyable content and easily navigated pages. He is currently transferring the site's content to a mostly data driven platform using Microsoft's Visual Interdev and Active Server Page scripting language.
This will allow visitors more interactivity and greater flexibility during their visit. Nelson feels a user friendly site translates into a more enjoyable experience. He would like our online customers to enjoy their mostly visual experience as much as our customers who visit Blink in person. (Visitors to thinkblink are welcomed with an audio greeting when they first enter the site - Nelson's voice.)
A new section on the web site shows photographs of Blink's neighborhood so that you really can feel like you have been to Charleston.
To encourage people to visit blink!Online often we have introduced a monthly newsletter for our e-based customers. People can sign up to receive Blink News online or at Blink. The newsletter is actually an additional subdivision of the web site. The customer receives a personalized e-mail with a handy hyperlink to the site's Blink News Page.
The May issue linked visitors to a photo gallery of the recent fun filled French Quarter Art walk. One of our goals with the web page is not just to focus on Blink but to encourage artists and galleries to work together for everyone's benefit. We also started a monthly contest that is part of the newsletter. Last months prize was a Piccolo Spoleto Poster signed by artist Pernille Dake. It was a huge success!
After a year in development our web site is now paying for itself. Along with "Blink News," readers may be interested in "Shop Blink" which offers a "Great Gifts" and "Colorful Ceramics" section among others. For fun visit "Blink Barks" and see our Springer Spaniel, Shannon, wagging his tail and showing his favorite "pet" inspired items.
One of the most popular areas on the site is the "Featured Artist" section. It gives us unlimited "virtual" wall space on which to showcase several artists work. To allow customers to meet the artist we show a photograph of the artist along with a biography.
Some of the work we show in this section is available exclusively online! We look forward to expanding this section to show more local artists' work who do not have a gallery space of their own. And we hope the artists we represent will use the site as a powerful tool to market their work to customers or to other galleries.
We feel big rewards and more satisfaction lie ahead as we continue to bring blink!Online to a larger audience. We hope the work we are doing will serve as a positive example of how modern technologies can be used to show art on the Internet.
If you have any questions or would like to contact us you can e-mail us at (mary@thinkblink.com) or (nelson@thinkblink.com). And please take a minute to check out (http://www.thinkblink.com)!
For further information about Blink check our SC Commercial
Gallery listings or call Blink at 843/577-5688.
Editor's Note: "thinkblink.com" is a model site for dealing with art on the Internet weather you have a small gallery space or a large one. The site is colorful, informative, friendly and interactive. The site not only informs viewers about Blink, but its neighborhood and Charleston as well. Mary and Nelson Ohl have shown that you can be competitive and cooperative at the same time in a business that is highly competitive. I wouldn't want people to go out and copy their site, but it does offer a lot of excellent examples of how e-commerce can expand your gallery's sales beyond the front door.
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