Yallery Blog

As we look forward to launch, members have been asking how Yallery will segment membership types. Yallery is a for-profit business and we wish to have some revenue to support our operation while also supporting everyone who wishes to Socialize their art. We have decided to offer both free “Registered” accounts and subscription-based “Premium” accounts to artists and collectors. Gallery memberships will be a premium subscription.

“Premium” accounts’ Dashboard and Artwork Info Pages are always ad-free. Feature-wise, Premium members will access the full functionality developed for their membership type — including the complete artwork management toolsets for Artists, Collectors or Galleries. Premium members also receive a private Forum, where they can maintain discussions with other members. Premium Artists and Galleries may use the Yallery Event Management application to create and manage the event/opening/show invitation creation and management process.

We are offering all Beta members a “Premium”-level membership at no cost* until the first anniversary of our public launch.

Premium Members who join after our public launch will receive a 90-day trial period before they are billed for their subscription. Our subscription fees will be billed yearly and will be priced based upon the membership type. None of our memberships will require the payment of a “set-up charge” or “account creation fee.”

“Registered” account subscriptions for Artists and Collectors are free, but will be supported by one display ad located on their Public Dashboard” and a single display banner ad on each of their Artwork Info Pages. Registered members are able to store and interlink unlimited artworks, but the Private dashboard artwork management toolset is reduced. Other “Premium” features are absent as well.

We will be retaining our “Authenticated Member” membership for people who don’t require any art hosting or management services but wish to participate in the Yallery community. We hope this will help us keep the level of random (and not so random) spam and other abuse down to a minimum.

Lastly, once we launch, Yallery will be navigatable by everyone with or without an account.

* Certain optional launch features will require the payment of transaction-based fees that are not included in the “Free Account” agreement.

“Socialize Your Art” is Yallery’s tagline.

I came up with the idea for Yallery while taking long airplane trips during my last consulting contract. I didn’t start the process of design until a March 2006 discussion about sharing my collection online with David Egan, an artist in Sydney AU.

I’ve always had some type of website for my art collection, where friends and family can visit their favorites and view new additions as they’re made. It’s always struck me as odd that there weren’t any post-acquisition web-based art sharing services for collectors. Wasn’t art originally created as a communication medium? Shouldn’t art be enjoyed and appreciated by more than just the person who happens to possess it? Yallery enables me to manage my art collection (object metadata, acquisition records, location information, insurance and appraisal information) privately, and share the artworks with the world.

Even the sites developed for artists limit the context of art exposure. Most “Virtual Galleries” restrict an artist to submitting only works currently available for sale. Most artist-owned portfolio sites highlight significant works created during their career or prominent commissions, in addition to current works available for sale. But there are no services focused on creating, managing and sharing Catalogues Raisonné with the world. As a collector, I wish I cound contextualize the art I have in my collection within the bodies of work created by their artists. Conversely, David and several other artists have mentioned how nifty it would be to be able to contextualize their works within the collections of their patrons. I believe Yallery is the service that will deliver this contextualization to collectors and artists.

During the Alpha, we selected our members through personal invitation. We have close to 50 great members of all membership types who have provided us with great feedback and continue to help guide us as we execute our Beta development plan.

It’s time to grow some more now and as we start our Private Beta, we are changing our membership invitation process. We’re now asking our members to invite people they know to Yallery.  Therefore — as of this evening — all of our members received 10 invitation keys to send to anyone they wish to invite to Yallery.

All new members also receive 10 invitation keys immediately after signing up. All Beta members receive a free year of premium membership beyond the day we launch to the public.

If you are an artist, collector or gallery and wish to join our Beta, please email me at jenn@jenn.com.

Yallery Beta 1 is almost here!

It has been a long trip since the Alpha was launched in March 2007. The Alpha was the result of a “restarted effort” began in November last year. Our first platform of choice was Drupal. That choice didn’t turn out very well and Michael and I decided it was to our benefit if we were to start over from scratch.

I’ve included a few screenshots that represent our Beta1 release after the jump.

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