A Few New Features...

I have recently added three new small, but useful, features to DPW:

1. Gallery links on commenter's name
Now, any new comments on paintings added by members after Dec 29th will link to the commenter's DPW Gallery. Simply click on the commenter's name (in blue) in the comments window that pops-up when you click on the little comment counter to the right of an artist's name under a painting thumbnail and the commenter's DPW Gallery will open in another tab or window.

This new feature makes it easier for you to view and comment on the paintings of members who comment on yours!

2. Yearly Totals on the Art Tracking grid
With a hat tip to the tax season, you can now see your Year to Date and Previous Year sales totals at the top left of your Art Tracking grid. These are in addition to the existing Current Month, Last Month, and the Last 30 Days totals.

Here is what is included in those totals: All your paintings in DPW without auctions you have marked as sold that also have a non-zero price in the price column. And, all your paintings in DPW with eBay or DPW Auctions that have at least one bid even if the auction hasn't ended yet. The price of these paintings with auctions is automatically set by DPW to the current high bid of the auction. Keep in mind that this will increase over time if new bids are placed. The reason for this is with an auction, the current high bid can be considered the effective sale price at that point in time.

3. Re-Notify button on the My Auction page
Now you can resend the email, as needed, that notifies the winning bidder on your DPW Auctions by simply clicking the new re-notify button on your my Auctions page.

As an aside, keep in mind the PayPal page and link to it (in the notify email and on the auction page for the winner) is an optional convenience provided by DPW to your buyers, however you are not required to have your buyers use it. Since all purchases in DPW are completely between you and the buyer, you can accept payment in any way you wish.

Often for example, it is necessary to consolidate the purchase of several paintings by one buyer into one payment with one custom charge for shipping & handling. This can be done simply by manually invoicing your buyer directly through your PayPal account for the appropriate amount.

Happy New Year!

- David

Issue with Broken Images on DPW

Fortunately, Amazon has come through and resolved the issue!

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DPW pays for an image storage service from Amazon, which is supposed to be absolutely reliable.

Unfortunately, that is not currently the case and some images may appear broken. To complicate things, it is different images, depending on where you live.

Amazon is aware of the issue and is working on a solution.

I appreciate your patience.

- David

Now, Comments Everywhere!

We have long allowed comments on the paintings submitted to the challenges. I love the comments because I see they have helped create connections between our artists and buyers.

So, to have more of a good thing, I have just rolled out the ability to comment on all paintings everywhere on the site.

Here's how it works:

The little gray box to the right of the artist's name under the thumbnail of their painting shows how many comments there are for that particular painting. To view or add comments, simply click the little box.

Alternatively, you can click on the painting to open it larger in the pop-up and then click on the "X Comments" link in orange to the right of the painting near the bottom.

When you do comment, the artist will receive an email with your comment.

The artist will not be able to reply by email, though. Instead, the artists will be able to reply by leaving follow up comments.

- David