Beware: SEO Companies claiming to get top positions. January 31, 2008

Today I came across this topic again, and I am sick of the bombardments of emails I get claiming to get me top ranking positions.  I asked a leader in Website SEO can a SEO company promise to give top 10 positions on Google?  After wetting himself laughing, he donated this brilliant article to me.

Thanks J – See Below.

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SEO companies often promise the world and deliver nothing. This is not
just because of cowboys. Nobody has a special relationship with Google
or the other search engines. Nobody can guarantee a thing. There is a
plethora of companies out there and the vast majority sell knowledge
freely available on the Internet for free. So you’ll end up with empty
pockets and no improvement in positioning whatsoever. New domain names
are usually subject to the Google  Sandbox; an anti spam mitigation
device for users who want to try and rank for a competitive term
within a short time frame. Sites which try to aggressively obtain
positions are usually placed in the sandbox for at least 6-9 months,
but there are site owners who claim they’ve been in the sandbox for
over 2 years. You need to have patience.

There are many risks of performing an SEO campaign. If done badly,
you’re newly purchased domain name can be banned forever. You may
obtain top positions in a short period of time, but this shouldn’t
make you feel comfortable. There is nothing worse than going from 2000
visitors per day to 0 because you hired an aggressive SEO company that
performs black hat link building and gets you banned for life. I have
seen this happen to friends in the past and despite my warnings;
people will always go for the offer that sounds the most lucrative and
inexpensive.

Want good SEO? Then be prepared to pay for an experienced consultant
who has a history of gaining top positions. The keywords involved
should be one word phrases, ‘loans’, ‘credit cards’ are good examples.
If they show you phrases such as ‘dog food in coventry’ or similar 3
or 4 word phrases, I would be worried. This proves absolutely nothing.

Here is a check list of items in hiring a good SEO:

- Has their own website ranked in the top 10 for ’seo’ or ’search
engine optimisation’
- Has at least 10 case studies for campaigns that have led to top 10
positions for competitive one word phrases.
- They will not *guarantee* anything.
- They will warn you it could take up to 2 years to obtain stable rankings.

Have some respect for the search engines. If it sounds to good to be
true, it probably is.

Canvas for painting January 30, 2008

Canvas prints  have become the most popular support medium for  paintings, replacing wooden panels. One of the earliest surviving oils on canvas is the French Madonna with angels of the year 1410 in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. However panel remained much more common until the 16th century in Italy and the 17th century in Northern Europe. Mantegna and Venetian artists were among those leading the change; Venetian sail canvas was readily available and regarded as the best quality.

Canvas is usually stretched across a wooden frame called a stretcher, and may be coated with gesso before it is to be used; this is to prevent oil paint from coming into direct contact with the canvas fibers, which will eventually cause the Canvas to decay. Various alternative and more flexible canvas primers are commercially available, the most popular being a synthetic latex composed of titanium dioxide and calcium carbonate, bound with a thermo-plastic emulsion. Notwithstanding the concern for deterioration of materials, many modern artists, such as Jackson Pollock, Kenneth Noland, Francis Bacon, Helen Frankenthaler, Dan Christensen, Larry Zox, Ronnie Landfield, Color Field painters, Lyrical Abstractionists, and others sometimes paint onto the unprimed, or “raw canvas”.

Early canvas prints were made of linen, a sturdy brownish fabric of considerable strength. Linen is particularly suitable for the use of oil paint. In the early 20th century, cotton canvas, often referred to as “cotton duck”, came into use. Linen is composed of higher quality material, and remains popular with many professional artists, especially those who work with oil paint. Cotton duck, which stretches more fully and has an even, mechanical weave, offers a more economical alternative. The advent of acrylic paint has greatly increased the popularity and use of cotton duck canvas. Linen and cotton derive from two entirely different plants, the flax plant and the cotton plant.

One can also buy small, prepared canvases which are glued to a cardboard backing in the factory, called “canvas board”. However, these are only available in certain sizes, and are not acid-free, so their lifespan is extremely limited. They are usually used for quick studies. Gessoed canvases on stretchers are also available. These pre-stretched, pre-primed canvases are suitable for all but the most exacting professional standards. They are available in a variety of weights: light-weight is about 4 oz. or 5 oz.; medium-weight is about 7 oz. or 8 oz.; heavy-weight is about 10 oz. or 12 oz. They are prepared with two or three coats of gesso and are ready for use right out of the package. Artists desiring greater control of their painting surface often add a coat or two of their preferred gesso. Professional artists who wish to work on canvas may prepare their own canvas in the traditional manner.

One of the most outstanding differences between modern painting techniques and those of the Flemish and Dutch Masters is in the preparation of the canvas. “Modern” techniques take advantage of both the canvas texture as well as those of the paint itself. A novice artist often finds it nearly impossible to approach the realism of such classic art, despite skill in applying the paint. In fact, Renaissance masters took extreme measures to ensure that none of the texture of the canvas came through. This required a painstaking, months-long process of layering the raw canvas with (usually) lead-white paint, then polishing the surface, and then repeating. The final product had little resemblance to fabric, but instead had a glossy, enamel-like finish. Though this may seem an extreme measure to the modern painter, it is crucial if photographic realism is the end goal.

With a properly prepared canvas, the painter will find that each subsequent layer of color glides on in a “buttery” manner, and that with the proper consistency of application (fat over lean technique), a painting entirely devoid of brushstrokes can be readily achieved.

To un-wrinkle the material, use a warm iron (not a hot iron) over a piece of wet cotton to flatten the wrinkles, although hot water on the back works just as well.

Canvas can also be printed on digitally to create canvas prints and photos onto canvas. After printing, the canvas can be wrapped around a stretcher and displayed.
10:41 – 3/1/2008

Photos onto Canvas Prints – Wrap or no wrap January 29, 2008

A common question asked when we get our orders for Canvas Print is “What is a gallery wrap?”

There is no science to this, all it means is that where the canvas print wraps around the frame, does the customer require the edge to be blank or have the picture there.

The most common format for a Photo on canvas is to have them gallery wrapped. We acheive this by applying a mirror to the edge to be stretched and wrapping it around the edges of the canvas print. We do not loose any of the original photo that is sent to us.

Mini Canvas Prints Launched January 24, 2008

New Size Canvas for only £10.00

Today we launched a new size canvas print and called it “The Mini – Canvas Print“. This fun canvas print sports a 6″x4″ frame (15cm x 10cm) and is the same size as a regular photograph.”The Mini – Canvas Print” is aimed at people who want a canvas for at work and maybe work in an open plan room where there is no wall space. It maybe your boss wont let you have prints on the wall, so this is the ideal solution where all your memorable pictures are there with you on your desk at work. This new size canvas print follows the success of the other mini canvas we offer of 8″x8″.

More sizes are on the way where you will have more choice and flexibility than ever before on the size of canvas prints you can buy.

Meet the team January 24, 2008

It is often thought that CanvasDezign are a 1 man band and I sometimes write in the blog referring to the company as “we” making it sound bigger than it actually is.

I thought it was time I introduced you to the team behind what makes us so successful, so here they are:-

John – SEO and anything technical
Anir – Workflow and useability
Carlo – Link building expert and directory submissions
Website technicians – A team of 4 people, who are nameless as this gives me competitive edge over you lot.
Me – Conrad – WEB Design, SEO, Artwork, Colour Separations, Frames, a little bit of everything.
Oh, The missus – Manages all the books, orders and generally nags a lot. LoL

So you see, although we are a small family run business and are not the same size as other larger outlets with money to throw away, there is a bigger team behind us that makes everything tick over. This team ensures that every print that leaves canvasdezign meets the standards you expect.  This high standard is the reason why customers find us in the first place and place orders with us.

CanvasDezign will grow this year from strength to strength and once the new website kicks in, fasten them seatbelts!!!!

Canvas Dezign are Back!!!!!!!!! January 24, 2008

After 2 long days, no sleep and a few high tempered meetings, I am pleased to announce that the photo to canvas ordering system on the site is now back up and running, (Front doors and back) and our checkout system is now working 100% fine. It feels a bit of an under achievement though as in less than 30 days the new canvas print site will be live.

Too much cannot be said about the new canvas site because we do not want the competition trying to copy what we are hoping to achieve, but it will be like no other canvas website in the UK and will be based on a totally new concept of ordering prints.

Start the photos onto canvas orders rolling again and sorry for any problems over the last couple of weeks. If you are concerned about anything, please feel free to call me on 07703 567095 where I will be happy to take your call and put your mind at ease over any potential canvas print orders.

Photos onto canvas montage January 24, 2008

An absolutely fantastic slant on traditional photos onto canvas prints, is to use lots of photos mixed up together to make one canvas print. Creating your own canvas print collage is a unique and creative fun way to show a collection of your favourite photos.

A photo onto canvas montage is where you take a number of  photographs and mix them all up together and is also known as a collage. The combined picture can then becomes a seamless photo canvas print and is then printed onto our premier canvas prints. All you need to do is send us your photos and we will put all your photos onto canvas.

The Perfect Way to Decorate using Canvas Printing January 23, 2008

Canvas Printing basically consists of printing photos on the canvas which is used by painters to paint. Canvas Printing is the best way of making portraits for those who are very bad at the painting stuff. A normal inkjet printer can do this job for you.  You also need not be a computer nerd to try your hand at this art. So in the form of Canvas Printing , you have a perfect way of decorating your house in a totally hassle-free manner.
There are a few techniques which should be followed to make your home like a wonder-palace. It is the collection of these small technicalities which add to the overall effect of these canvas prints.
Firstly, keep software like Adobe Photoshop handy. With it, you can easily enhance your picture digitally and give some stroke effects to your print. Some other minor variations like red-eye removal, etc will make your final product to your liking.
Secondly, you can make a series of related prints which can be put up in the living room. It will look like some kind of story to your guests. And any individual canvas prints can be put up in the bedroom, thus signifying a new approach for a new room. You should also keep some extra prints handy for parties, social gatherings etc.
Thirdly, you can make canvas prints of your vacation pictures as well. You can hang this photo in front of your bed and wake up looking at it every morning. A family photo or a couple photo is ideal.
Fourthly, a canvas print is a non-glare material. Hence don’t hesitate when printing vibrant colors. They won’t appear too glossy or be a pain to the eyes. Sometimes, it is these vibrant colors which bring out the real feel of the painting.
Fifthly, canvas print size varies from small to large. It is always advisable to go for a small or large size rather than remaining afloat with a medium size. A bunch of small size prints can look very attractive when placed together. Else you can get a very large size photo made which shows its importance in your life.
Sixthly, it is also a good idea to print your children’s artwork. No matter how shabby it looks, when you see at it from a guest’s point of view, you will be all praises for it. Another benefit of doing this is that it gives immense encouragement to your children. You never know how a small deed like this can change your child’s life.
Seventhly, if you are borrowing some canvas pictures from the internet, be sure to check their copyright clauses. They might look very good on your walls but can also land you into legal trouble.
Eighthly, take proper care of your canvas prints. Sometimes, they loose their sheen and wear out quite easily.  Use proper maintenance material to keep it new-like.
So, we see that canvas prints can add immense value to your walls. Not only are they a treat for the guests, they also give you a whole lot of satisfaction by replaying your sweet past memories.

Website updates on Canvas Dezign January 19, 2008

I know I have mentioned it a couple of times already, but please be aware that new website updates are coming very soon. I cannot say too much about what they are, all I can say is the changes are absolutely out of this world and will revolutionise the way you order your canvas prints and photos onto canvas.

Canvas Dezign will be the first in the UK offering the service and we cannot wait to bget some feedback.

I am going to place an article with information on wrap or no wrap as people seem to get confused about what this is.

Giclee Canvas Prints January 15, 2008

Giclee Printing

The term Giclee is a derivative of a French verb that entails the significance to squirt, to spray of liquid! Giclee, which is pronounced as “jhee-clay” is a rich and advanced process of inkjet printing. The phrase Giclee Printing, inevitable expresses a reliable increase in the area of print making technology. Giclee Printing is a sophisticated digital printing that produces images, which are sharp and finely detailed and it is the most-familiar variety of fine art printing method similar like the serigraphs and lithographs.

The method of Giclee Printing is universally conceived to be the excellent method of creating quality print work of arts and also for printing digital art creation. The major striking feature of Giclee printing is, the print work looks original and newfangled, which exemplifies the real feel of art! Giclee Printing is created on substantial artist fabric materials like canvas and acid free watercolor papers. Giclee printing fuses the usage of the standard printing formats by means of archival pigment inks and water color papers. Giclee printing process gives an excellent accuracy of color scheme, rather than several methods of reproduction.

The Giclee prints are made by making use of standard 8 color – 12 color ink jet printers. Quite different companies have got a good recognition in manufacturing these varieties of printers and they are Epson, Colorspan, MacDermid and Hewlett Packard. The latest designed brand-new and high-tech printers have the ability of developing exceptional print works for fine artistic designs and as well as for photographic works. At times, the Giclee prints are erroneously intended as Iris prints. The Iris print works are the 4 color ink jet printers, a variety of printer introduced during the time period of Iris Graphics.

The major striking spotlight in Giclee printing is, in this method of printing no screen or mechanical devices are used. As a result, there will never be any visible dot screen prints and so the image will be with excellent quality of original look. The Giclee print works quite similar like inkjet printer, but they have inclusive tonalities of giving quality images.

Giclee prints have quite a number of advantages. Get to know better about their advantages and feasibleness.

Giclee prints will be greatly helpful to artists who never find it possible to make bulk production of art works, but need to produce art works depending on the requirements and demands.

With Giclee prints, once if a picture is digitally archived, the reproduction of other additional images could be easily done at an affordable price rate with the least possible efforts. Through this, you can greatly cut-short the price of bulk production works.

In Giclee prints, the files that are archived will never drop and fade the quality of the prints, as the print negatives and film intrinsically does.

Above all, in Giclee prints the digital pictures can be resized to any huge pixel size and it has the capability to alter prints to particular customers.

Happy Canvas Customers – Just keep coming!! January 11, 2008

We today received some of the best feedback on a canvas print ever – See below.

Dear Mr McKee
We received the 4 canvas prints you did for us earlier this week and I have to say they are fantastic.  2 of them were for my Mum’s 50th birthday and the others were for us.

We will definately be using the services you offer for putting photos onto canvas , and once again,well done!!!

Regards
William  Derbyshire (danty09)

How to take care of a Photo onto Canvas Print January 11, 2008

It is everyone’s deepest desire to preserve their precious pictures, arts, photos onto canvas , text and other such items for as long as possible. This will not happen at its own you will need to take proper care of your canvas print to ensure that you succeed in your purpose. Over the last few years, canvas prints have gained popularity due to the fact that they are ideal for photograph and artworks reproduction. If you are looking for a perfect print that is suitable for photograph enlargement, pictures, portraits as well as replicas then a canvas print can be your ideal choice.

The main reason why so many people prefer canvas prints for photos onto canvas is its material. You will not find the same texture in any other alternative. This is a perfect material for indoor as well as outdoor usage. Another advantage of canvas prints is that they can be easily stretched and mounted. It is simply for this reason that artists prefer this material over any other material available in market.

The canvas colors seem to last longer due to the fact that they are printed using UV-protected archival inks. For this reason the canvas colors have fresher look for long. The UV-property of the ink used results in slower fading of canvas colors. The ink usually loses its color due to the harmful UV lights but in canvas printing UV-protected colors are used.

However, it is still necessary to take some precautionary steps if you wish to preserve your canvas prints for long. Here are some precautions that you can use to maintain the quality of the  canvas print. This way you can enjoy them for long.

1.    Although canvas prints are water resistant but it does not mean that they are water-proof. The water can glide of the canvas but it does not mean that it can not be absorbed. If water does spill over the canvas then whip it immediately with a dry cloth to ensure that no water is absorbed.
2.    Sun light is a very old enemy of canvas prints. It is resistant to the harmful effects of the sunlight but it does not mean that it will not be affected when placed in direct sunlight. Even the outdoor canvas prints will start fading away after a few years.
3.    Another enemy of canvas is acid. Acid turns the canvas yellow over the years and as a result destroy the painting completely. Therefore it is very important that you select an acid free frame for your canvas.
4.    Clean dust off your prints often so that the dust does not settle on it permanently. Use a soft brush or cloth to clean the canvas of dust particles, hair or other such particles that can cause the canvas print to get dull.

If you follow these precautions and tips then you can be sure of preserving your precious painting for a much longer time then you expected. Memories are part of our life and preserving them must be our priority.

Photo onto canvas – yet another happy customer !! January 10, 2008

I have today recvd the photo onto canvas picture that you did.

I am really pleased with it.

Thank you for your assistance.

Regards,

Angie Bray

Another Happy Canvas Print customer January 8, 2008

Hi Conrad

Just wanted to say THANKS!!

Really pleased with the photo to canvas print you did.

Best wishes.

Kelly

2008 – Canvas Prints News January 7, 2008

2008 looks to be a good year for our photos to canvas site, CanvasDezign.  The site is currently having major overhauls performed on it by our web developers. The changes are being done so that customers enjoy a more user friendly experience when ordering canvas prints.

Over the last month we have done a survey on why customers upload photos and then do not have the photo put on canvas.  The results were very evident on what we need to do on getting more photos to canvas order conversions.

In the next few months, we will launch our new site, gain top positions for all our search terms and kick the competition.

Once all this is achieved, CanvasDezign will once again be the Uk’s best, longest established and busiest Digital Canvas Printer in the UK.

Conrad McKee of CanvasDezign says

“We only reinvented CanvasDezign again late in October. From then on we have gained some very good positions on the internet and have brought in lots of sales. As soon as we increase the ease of user experience and we gain our other 5 search terms, we will be the biggest Canvas Printer in the UK, if not in Europe.  Many people have jumped on our bandwagon, but CanvasDezign was the first Canvas Printer in the UK.  We started manufacturing canvas prints over 7 years ago and now we have a product that sells itself.”