If you want to see a great site for niche social networking, check out AmateurIllustrator.com. This Lincoln, Lincolnshire (UK) based site launched today and I think there’s a good chance it’s going to thrive. Any targeted, topical social networking site would be well served to check out its look and feature set. There are quite a number of social networking sites that target niche interests but are ugly, empty and uninteresting. That’s not the case with this one.
It’s a place for amateur illustrators to share their art, vote on each others’ work and communicate. The site is very well designed - perhaps unsurprising given the developers’ backgrounds as artists, it’s beautiful to look at. Nick Franklin and an unnamed collaborator created the site while studying illustration at the University of Lincoln.
One of my favorite things about AmateurIllustrator is the prominence of quality, original text content. At launch the site features interviews with four skilled illustrators - to whom credit is due for the illustration in this post, click the images to go to the artists’ interviews. The administrators say they’ll be featuring more interviews with top illustrators, tips on the trade and contests with small prizes in the future. Compelling, well developed content is hard to come by, but offering it along side a social networking space is a great combination. It just raises the quality of the whole site; I hope this site will be able to pull of what they’re aiming for in this department.
The real crux of the site is of course social networking for illustrators who upload galleries of images. Anyone can rate individual works of art and leave comments. Registered users can send each other messages, upload art and participate in the forum. Membership is free and if the site can build an audience then the advertising that’s already present will solidify I’m sure. Given the topic and focused audience of the site, advertising is likely to see higher worth and conversion rates than many general interest, ad-driven sites. I’m sure the founders would like to take the site to the next level, make it a business and that will bring a whole new layer of challenges - but it looks good so far.
There are little touches that are nice, too. When you sign up for an account you are asked whether you want your email, a contact form or no contact information on your profile page.
The site just launched and is clearly the work of very talented… well, amateurs - so for example it’s hard to access the Terms of Service once you’re signed into an account and it would be nice to see the TOS spell out explicitly that artists retain rights to their art. You can tell that’s the intent and I imagine the administrators will polish up such matters soon.
Competitors that I can identify include M.A.D.E.Planet, which seems immediately abrasive to me but got a good review on PostBubble, and eSnips (our coverage). DeviantART is apparently the legacy site in this space; it has free and paid accounts and most standard features, but is missing some of the things that set AmateurIllustrator apart. AmateurIllustrator does not provide means for artists to sell their art directly but peoples’ contact information is available and the overall user experience is likely to matter most. I wouldn’t be surprised if sales through the site were enabled later, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they weren’t either.
On the whole, this is probably the best example of a well executed niche social networking site I’ve seen in some time. Give it a look, I think you’ll be impressed as well.
Comments
Thanks for the great plug….
thanks for the points about the terms of service…I will make some changes….to look at the TOS again once you sign up you have to go to forum/rules but I think I will change this so it is easier to see…maybe at the bottom next to the cantact and about links.
Anyway thanks for tall the positive words.
Hope people like (and use) the site.
Cheers, Nick
oh and just to be clear, artists of course keep all rights to their work
I will make this clearer in the TOS
Yes! Lincolnshire can now become a hotbed of Web companies. Feed Digest is Lincolnshire based (Louth) also
So.. now there are two!
Very cool, there is definitely a market for niche market sites that tailor to specific areas, provided the keep a tight control on the content.
I would think DeviantArt would be a directo competitor with AmateurIllustrator. DeviantArt is a huge online art community.
For web2.0/social sites, one important thing is to make the first visit lot easier and smooth for new user.I did not find the site that way, but I am not an artist, and donot know much.
Marshall,
Have you not heard of DeviantArt? It’s far and away the OG of social networking sites. It’s profitable, been around for years, and has one of the largest art communities anywhere. In fact, it’s members PAY to be a part of it. It also provides them a place to sell their art and DeviantArt handles all the fulfillment and distribution issues.
Welcome to the Internet.
-david
Yep looks very similar to DeviantArt which is about as dominant as you can be. This will have a very difficult time competing with such an established, profitable player regardless of how well done it is.
I’ve been disappointed at the quality of the reviews on TechCrunch lately. Is any research done before writing these articles? DeviantArt is not some unheard of site so the fact that the article completely misses it makes me wonder.
Beautiful site. Great motives. Thumbs up from me.
Thanks for pointing out DeviantART, should have seen that as a competitor but have added now.
Wow,
but look at their chart, its a huge hit:
I have to agree with the comments about DeviantArt. I just checked Alexa out of curiosity and they rank….. 193 overall! I know, we are not allowed to use Alexa anymore
http://www.alexa.com/data/deta.....rt.com#top
As the above reader points out, I have been very disappointed with the articles for the past couple of months. Techcrunch lost its touch with Mike being so busy with other ventures.
This is the order I check the blogs now: Mashable.com –> Valleywag –> and maybe Techcrunch if I feel like it.
Yeah, DeviantArt is an obvious competitor. I can’t even count the number of times DA members have been dugg to the homepage.
My way of looking at TC — is to see find players and new buzz in the market - not to read TC’s analysis and predictions.
In this instance, it is silly to miss out DeviantArt but I applaud their effort keep the reader posted with all the latest happenings in 2.0. There is so much things happening at such a rapid pace, there are tens or 20s of new startups trying to shapeup as I write at the moment.Tough to keep up the pace.
Even then missing out DeviantArt, seems like a major player in the category ,is really silly and only supports the argument from few that quiality is degrading.
But that does not stop me visiting TechCrunch.
Cruncher,
You’re absolutely right. TechCrunch is still a great way to find out about all the new things popping up.
-david
I think the main difference here is that the site is focused on illustrators where as dA is really broad - any style of art, craft, poetry, song, etc. etc. Overall I think it looks good. Competition in the illustration space would be illustrationmundo.com, artdorks.com and drawingboard.org - all having well established communities.
The thing I think they really need to work on is integration between the current platforms they are using or moving over to something more robust. I see wordpress is powering the articles, PunBB the forums and Coppermine for the galleries.
There are a ton of design communities out there - most of the better ones are not based in the US. I think Amatuer Illustrator looks great but has some room to grow.
The thing interests me is about the social networking model are still been hyped, including the TechCrunch writers.
How many social networking are really going to made a dime these day? Yea, you can try to seed the network by paying some seeders to shore up the user base. But eventually others will see thru and move on to the “next” thing.
B.O - Completely agreed.
Primarily the point about creating niche social networking sites still stands and is what I will take away from this review.
Yeah sites like Deviant art seem to get forgotten these days with focus on newer trendier sites. There is also gfxartist.com which has been going for years, in the elite galleries section they have the quality of work is exceptional.
http://www.gfxartist.com/
Is this ‘Michael Arrington’s TechCrunch’ or ‘Marshall Kirkpatrick’s TechCrunch’
as it seems that Marshall is the only one writing the reviews these days. Sure ‘Michael may have newer commitments’ but I’ve stayed loyal because Michael was writing?
No longer so……….?
To be fair, MobileCrunch covered Deviant Art quite some time ago, so CrunchNet didn’t miss this boat completely.
Oliver
Is this ‘Michael Arrington’s TechCrunch’ or ‘Marshall Kirkpatrick’s TechCrunch’
as it seems that Marshall is the only one writing the reviews these days. Sure ‘Michael may have newer commitments’ but I’ve stayed loyal because Michael was writing?
No longer so……….?
The real crux of the site is of course social networking for illustrators who upload galleries of images. Anyone can rate individual works of art and leave comments. Registered users can send each other messages, upload art and participate in the forum. Membership is free and if the site can build an audience then the advertising that’s already present will solidify I’m sure. Given the topic and focused audience of the site, advertising is likely to see higher worth and conversion rates than many general interest, ad-driven sites. I’m sure the founders would like to take the site to the next level, make it a business and that will bring a whole new layer of challenges - but it looks good so far.
Is this ‘Michael Arrington’s TechCrunch’ or ‘Marshall Kirkpatrick’s TechCrunch’
as it seems that Marshall is the only one writing the reviews these days. Sure ‘Michael may have newer commitments’ but I’ve stayed loyal because Michael was writing?
No longer so……….? aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Is this ‘Michael Arrington’s TechCrunch’ or ‘Marshall Kirkpatrick’s TechCrunch’
as it seems that Marshall is the only one writing the reviews these days. Sure ‘Michael may have newer commitments’ but I’ve stayed loyal because Michael was writing?
No longer so……….? aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
It’s not that similar to DeviantArt, which is far too full of furries and anime nerds. From the style of AmateurIllustrator, I would guess that this won’t be the main demographic.
Hey - lay off of my man Marshall. He’s doing a very good job! Not much connection, either between amateur illustrator and deviantart.
Nice site but isn\’t it just a modified version of Coppermine Photo Gallery?
Perhaps Deviant Art covers a lot more topics and isn’t quite as focused. But one site that is quite focused on Illustration is the following. It has a decent following, and a large gallery of art posted by the commuity
http://www.illustratorworld.com/
This is great, but I don’t really see the networking aspects of it. http://www.mojizu.com has all the social networking + Contests and prizes and the ability to market your illustrations on merchandise. It’s growing rapidly also with over 6000 submissions in a short while. Mr. Arington covered it a few months ago when it was just starting… http://www.techcrunch.com/2006.....gn-mojizu/
Articles, a forum, and the ability to “rate” the contributions of other members…this is noteworthy and innovative enough to warrant a review in TechCrunch?
I love TechCrunch and find it invaluable in keeping up with the relentless pace of change in the Web 2.0 landscape, but come on guys, this is getting a bit ridiculous. I’m not bashing on Amateur Illustrator… it looks like a neat little website for illustrators, and with any luck they’ll have a vibrant community in the not so distant future. But nothing about this site warrants the review you gave it in this publication.
Don’t get lost in the hype guys. It’s hard enough staying up to date with the real innvovation that’s going on out there.
Amateurillustrator.com is a good site. On 100bestsocialnetworksites.com it is listed as the 16th most popular site globally with a focus on art & design (based on web usage stats). See 100bestsocialnetworksites/artdesign.html
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