For the last few months I have been working on a few things for the website as well as putting more security in place for the information already held on the website. So as of today I will be turning a number of the new features on from the things I have been working on. This news posting covers some of these new things I have been up to recently and the details of the features that are being turned on as well as letting you know a few of the future plans I have for improvements. So what is this new and exciting stuff that I have been working on? The first new thing you will find is the sales section of the website has now been turned on, this can be found using the sales menu in the top navigation bar of the website. In an effort to start to be able to sell some of the images I produce I have partnered with a print on demand art company to sell and distribute the fine art images I produce. This shop system has been integrated into the website and will appear when you go to the sales menu and choose the relevant option. At a later date I will add further options to my shop to sell the other types of images that I produce, these will include the motor sports images and sensual art to name a couple. I will also be adding a photo book section for books of the images I have taken and put together as part of particular themes. Due to the fact these books will be printed only when ordered they may appear a little more expensive however I hope to manage this later to reduce the price on more popular items. Finally from the sales section there will be a link to the secure galleries for clients where they can browse images from photo shoots and other things I have completed for them, there they be able to buy images directly from the selection. Above all as I will be partnering with a number of printing organisations, should there be anything you require that is not available or you would like in a different format then please get in touch with me via the contact page and I will be happy to discuss options. I will also make it clear that I am embarking on selling my images as a little bit of a trial at the moment, I am not doing this to make lots of money. I would like these sales to be able to help me afford to continue producing images in the future and aid in paying the costs of the equipment that is required to produce them. Should it really take off in the future which I am unsure of at the moment then the excess profits from the sales I may be looking at donating to charity. But I will see how things go first of all. The second new thing that you should see as of today is a newsletter option appearing, for the moment this will simply be in place to allow you to sign up and register to receive future mailings. I have already prepared the newsletter design so its all ready to go, though it will be a little while before I have enough new content to build a content worthy newsletter. These mailings in the future will provide you with information on upcoming events, workshops, some of the packages I will be offering as well as some discounts every so often you can use to save money on images I offer for sale. These newsletters however will not be distributed all the time, I am very much like others of the opinion we get far too much spam and junk in our mailboxes. For that reason I want to make the newsletter something that is sent maybe 3 or 4 times a year at the very most. The mailing list will be held with the partner I have chosen for distribution, Mailchimp and as such will be held securely on their hosting platform to protect your information. I will not be asking for lots of information, just your name, your email address and content preference. At any time you will have the option to remove your subscription to the mailing list. Hopefully at some point you may feel interested in my images and some of the articles I would like to publish to sign up. Very much linked to the previous two items, I will be integrating the fine art sales as a shop tab into my primary Facebook page. You will see the new shop tab from today appearing on my Arock Images Fine Art Facebook page, this will allow you to browse the images I make available for purchase from within the facebook tab. I believe that this will integrate very well although be aware that the prices on the facebook page will appear initially in US Dollars but will revert to your chosen currency when you click the link and get taken to the full partner site to refine choices and make a purchase. The other change to the Facebook page will be the newletter signup, there will be a link from the facebook page to allow you to signup to the newsletter and recieve future mailings. Complementing the facebook pages I have previously created, there is now a Google Plus page as well for those using that social media service, you can find a link to it at the bottom of any page on the website. What are the plans for the future then, well I really need to standardise and come up with a final consistent look to the website, the newsletters and the sales methods. That will be down the line way in the future. For the moment I will be progressing with building the remaining shop sections and allowing people to purchase all the types of images I produce. I will be looking at a few trips away to build a bigger catalog of images that will form the material for the shop and the photo books. I will also be putting together some examples of my work in various areas should I wish to offer the photo shoot categories I may do in the future. At the moment that means I may need to organise a few model shoots but we will see. A consequence though of putting together a sales system is that you will find not all images make it onto Facebook and flickr all the time now. A selection of images will make it on there as the rest get built into the catalog of items for sale online or display in gallery locations for sale. In the near future I will be starting to add articles, reviews and guides to the website as well. I have some ideas for content to write for these and who knows maybe the occasional video thrown in with the articles if you can put up with my Scottish accent and the messy beard I am currently sporting :) So lastly let me finish by saying, if you have any questions feel free to get in touch and let me know or submit any further suggestions for things you would like to see.