I suggest we have a forum for only GCU Artists.  Read and write, only for artists.
 
The general public can read all of the forums.  As it stands now, "Artists Chatter" (artists only) is available to shoppers and artists alike.  I was amazed when I came to the site as a guest and had privy to all the forums.
 
I don't know if this is good or bad.
 
I do know that I like sales no matter what and am grateful for everyone who visits my store, likes what they see and finds just what they are looking for!

Quote from Ellie_132541 on Feb 6^th, 2008, 11:35am:

 
Not true - I have shops on several print-on-demand sites. In every forum there you have one or several threads that are only viewable if you log in. These are the threads where shopkeepers discuss things that are not meant for the customers to read. You wouldn´t want to give away all your secrets now, would you ?!  

I think I agree that this idea of a private forum for the Artists would be a good thing.  Sometimes we want a critique, and sometimes not   , and we don't need our customers seeing this.  Critiques--there are as many opinions as there are people, but sometimes if a customer see something negative in black and white, they might take it as gospel.  
And then too, sometimes the artists disagree on certain topics and this would be better vented and the air cleared if we knew it was in private.
Now all of this sounds a bit negative, and we all know that 99% of what goes on here is POSITIVE.  But for that other 1%--that might be just one good reason for an Artists forum to be private.
And now that I think of it, perhaps we would be more likely to offer constructive critism to each other if it was private.  ie:  SueB, I think your feather shot would look better with a nice delicate signature in gray.  I think the bold black is a bit overwhelming for the feather.  
Now wouldn't I be pleased to have this helpful critique offered?  You bet!
But would someone offer it when they were concerned about a customer reading it?
Probably not--they wouldn't want to hurt my chances of a sale.
See what I mean?
What do you others think?  I would really like to hear from all sides on this.  I love a little brain storming.  Two heads are most generally better than one..
Thanks.
SueB
 
Quote from Ellie_132541 on Feb 7^th, 2008, 4:08am:

At this time we do not have any artist only board topics.  One excellent thing about this is that all of the forum pages make for very powerful search engine content.  Not only does every post you make carry your store url but as we discuss topics like Birthdays, Valentine's Day, Happy Mother's Day to my Stepmom, etc... these pages show up as results for related keyword searches on the big search engines as well as any mentioned links which direct shoppers to the related cards.
 
To hide these pages would exclude us from these valuable search results.  However in the future we may be able to provide artists' a private venue but until then the message feature that Corrie pointed out is a good option.

Thanks for all the input.  I can now see how having one's url posted and the comments, good and bad make for advertisement.
 
I also figured out that if someone who posts does not have a store address, they must be a guest.

Quote from David_133145 on Feb 7^th, 2008, 7:36pm:

 
I agree to some extent - for here it´s true. A very simple set-up, the mark-up is the same for everybody, no affiliate programme.
 
For other sites - If I for instance want to tell my fellow shopkeepers that I recently upped my markup to $10 and it works fine, and someone posts and says $3 works fine for him, I wouldn´t want that known to a customer. Because there´s a slim chance that this other SK has cool designs and underestimates his worth. And oops -another customer gone.  
As for shoplinks in the signature: A lot of the SKs stopped using them, because it invites copycats. And copycats are plenty in the POD business ... ´
 
I don´t mind anyone reading what I post here. In others I do, if it concerns internal information that you wouldn´t want a customer to read.