Comments on: How should the tool links work?

By: Bill Turner

Bill Turner — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 03:58:38 +0000

I want to thank everyone for their thoughts and input! I'm still working out in my head how it should all work, but I'm certainly taking everyone's opinions to mind.

Thanks again.

By: SÃ©rgio Nunes

SÃ©rgio Nunes — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 17:20:06 +0000

My suggestion - have a local page for each tool with a short description (+ photo) of the tool and then keep the comments available. It serve two goals: (1) easily find which artists use a given tool, (2) promote discussion about each tool.

Also, it would be a good way to monetize this site. :)

Thanks for your work on this great site.

By: gabi campanario

gabi campanario — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 06:36:46 +0000

first of all, congrats on the site Bill, a terrific idea. as far as your question goes I’d do links to specific brand products and avoid generic links like “canvasses”, “oil”, “pastels” and so forth. For that maybe it’d be good to do a “glossary” post or page so folks can look up the definition if they need to. Hope that helps!

By: matt c

matt c — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 15:08:50 +0000

In the article, link to the page to buy it.

Then, tag the article with tool name.

By: gillt

gillt — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:40:26 +0000

Great idea for a blog, especially for someone starting out.

Option 2 works best for me. There's an app. for linking multiple sites to one link, that way readers could shop around.

I really like the word cloud in the "Featured Tools" bar.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 02:57:24 +0000

It’s a tough call between 2 and 3. I like the clean text with the links at the end. #3 then.

By: Gabrielle

Gabrielle — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 01:27:34 +0000

I love your new blog. Great idea and perfect for the art supply addict in us all. I’d have to agree with Nina and go with #3. I find the highlighted & underlined body copy a little distracting and since the links are at the end of each post you probably don’t need them twice. Also, be careful about which outside links you use. Places like DickBlick etc. are constantly changing their links. Might lead to frustration for you a few months down the line. Maybe use search engine links instead? Thanks for the great work.

By: nina

nina — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 22:47:23 +0000

I would be fine with any of the options, but I think I like #3 best. A clean text, where the emphasis is on the contents, and then if I wonder what a tool is, I check the links below. On the other hand, links in the text are very easily accessible… oh, so many choices… ;) In any case, itÂ´s good to be able to get some kind of image of the tools youÂ´re curious about, so links to the product instead of to the archives would be great. Any way you choose to do it, please keep up the good work, the interviews are super interesting!

By: Painter ofblue

Painter ofblue — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 22:20:24 +0000

2 definitely!

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:42:16 +0000

I agree. #2 is the way to go.