make it zone – domains & social media
Up to date summary of the music industry state of play by Nick Messitte via leading New England software company iZotope. If you’re new to this, it’s a great primer.
https://www.izotope.com/en/learn/how-do-music-royalties-work.html
Very pleased to see Artful Zone at the top of the search board as it makes finding us easier.
When doing our research on our own brand we found Zone Arts, an excellent art project in Tottenham, London which we recommend you visit . They have some really good art, all sorts of styles, reasonable prices.
It is reported that after implementing the much heralded “new algorithm” which reduces corporate and professional content in favour of “meaningful interactions” with family and friends, Mark Zuckerberg’s personal fortune fell by 3.7bn USD in two hours as Facebook’s market price lost 4.4%. Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, still owns 17% of the company he founded, so he won’t be short of a few dollars. It remains to be seen whether this move will result in less “Facebook fatigue” which causes people to take breaks from the platform, to post less often and include fewer personal details.
Why Facebook’s news feed is changing – and how it will affect you [Guardian]
Whether you intend to compete for business, build a following, or run a community, trying to be seen and remembered in a busy world, your domain name really matters. The name is everything, to begin with. Domain name buyers seem to prefer generic Top Level Domains – .com, .net, and .org. But does a gTLD domain actually translate into greater success in terms of visibility, activity and engagement?
Over the past few years, there has been a veritable explosion of new domain name options. This one, Artful.Zone, an example. But how has that changed user interaction, brand recognition, and loyalty? As to value, the answer is made more complicated by the fact that the newer domains are frequently cheaper to buy, and also a less expensive platform for advertising.
However, as Bill Hartzer found, cost of advertising and the number of page impressions doesn’t necessarily add up to more success. In particular, when it comes to conversions, the old gTLDs do much better :
There were more conversions on the .com domain name for both the download of the PDF file and for clicks on the “Shop Diamond Rings” button on the site, and the total conversion rate was higher on the .Com domain name than it is on the .Diamonds domain name. So while the Google AdWords tends to favor the new gTLD domain name, consumers appear to favor the .Com (we saw nearly a 20 percent better conversion rate on the .Com domain name).
The reason for this could be simply that older domains are more established, dating back to the birth of the web. In web users’ minds, this equates with reliability, trustworthiness and other important psychological factors which occur when people are just plain used to things being a certain way.
Many of these domains have changed hands for large sums of money. There is an established market for top level domains – people hang on to the good ones as investments. gLTDs are more easily tradeable in the domain name marketplace. With the creation of many new top level domains markets have more options, but still good quality gLTDs continue to be sought after.
The best gTLDs by dint of their name are universally recognisable, inexorably destined to become associated with a household brand or well-known corporate badge. They may contain a key English word, like Five.org, or a twist on an established name like Unitedstate.com. Very occasionally a new word is coined which actually becomes ubiquitous across markets and sometimes languages. Whether as the market expands this prestige becomes a maintained advantage depends on the usage to which the domain is put. Industries still see clever internet as essential for emerging brands, and those brands with financial muscle will spend a lot on a standout domain.
Artful.Zone aren’t in the domain name business. We are raising money for projects and training in education and the arts- read more here. We do have a small number of premium domain names for sale. Once they are gone, they’re gone! Check them out.
Artful.Zone Premium Domain Names
Artful Zone is about enabling creative possibilities by raising funds and allocating them to creative enterprises.
We are fortunate to have on our menu a spread of prime intellectual properties which wouldn’t be out of place on a royal wedding buffet.
So, to begin with, we give thanks to our generous donors without whom this wouldn’t be possible.
We anticipate a legacy of inspirational concepts realised with panache, élan and other French descriptors.
Watch this espace!
You will have seen the endless ‘inspirational’ graphics with quotes which litter the entire social web even if you struggle not to see them. They are ubiquitous, because, as the great Inspirobot says, “meaning is comforting”.
Along the same lines as the Arty Bollocks Generator, Inspirobot rewards your search for meaning (less/ful) platitudes with glorious wit and random strangeness.
Send one to your friends, now.
Smörgåsbord is one of those Scandinavian words which has traveled into the world’s languages and found common usage – but what does it mean?
The definition of Smörgåsbord is :
a wide range of something; a variety.
All artists have to provide rationale to explain, backup and promote their work, which in the main, however “intellectual” it may be, is primarily an experience of the senses rather than the written word.
In modern art particularly, this leads to some fairly difficult to grasp language, (cynics would say, deliberately obscure writing) which sometimes seem entirely unconnected to the work being described. Even the most celebrated works and movements of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries have had their incomprehensible moments.
With this in mind, the Arty Bollocks Generator was constructed in order to assist the lost and of course, to poke fun at pomposity
Here is a typical offering:
Artist Statement
My work explores the relationship between the Military-Industrial Complex and copycat violence.
With influences as diverse as Blake and Andy Warhol, new combinations are crafted from both explicit and implicit narratives.
Ever since I was a postgraduate I have been fascinated by the traditional understanding of the zeitgeist. What starts out as hope soon becomes finessed into a cacophony of lust, leaving only a sense of unreality and the unlikelihood of a new order.
As wavering phenomena become reconfigured through studious and diverse practice, the viewer is left with an insight into the darkness of our condition.
Enjoy!
