This interview was conducted over email with the Founders of Artyii.com, Shannon & Cai Lin, over the past weeks.

The Artyii idea, where did it come from?

It started off in the classrooms of the Singapore Management University where we were previously students at. We share a passion of arts, business and technology, hence marrying the 2 together was really a natural progression. As Asians, we decided to focus on Asian art, creating a sales platform for asian based artists to put up their artworks and paintings for sale for free. We market their artwork as affordable original wall paintings to first time home buyers and corporates. I mean, why get a print at the same price when you can get a gallery grade painting?

How do you get started with Artyii.com?

Once we got the necessary funding from various parties, both of us left our jobs to pursue this passion and as they say, the rest is history.

What are the necessary stuff to prepare when starting a web 2.0 site?

It requires a lot of planning to start a good web 2.0 site. From the site architecture, user-interface, to the placement of action buttons, to optimizing the site for SEO and planning for future modules. Its actually a lot of effort but its rewarding when you see real users interacting with what you’ve built for them.

What are the difficulties you’ve encountered when you are starting the company?

For everyone who’s started a company before, you’d know that everyday is a challenge. You wear different hats everyday – from top level strategising, to managing operations, to being a lawyer, accountant, webmaster and HR manager all at the same time. That being said, the experience you get is truly amazing.

What are the basic cost of starting and running a web 2.0 site? What do you advise a student who has no money to start a web 2.0 site?

Well, it depends on what the objectives of your site will be. Will it be an innovative platform, social site or a simple shopping cart type site? It can range from SGD500 – 15,000.

Consider your hosting cost or ask around if you can host with a friend who already has a server. Use open source frameworks such as Joomla to build your site if you don’t require complicated and customised functions. Chances are, what you’re doing has already been done before and all it takes is finding the template for it.

Keep your costs low, you’ll definitely start spending more once you learn more. Hence, it would do well to work with someone experienced when building your site

How does Artyii differentiate from its competitors?

To our knowledge, its the only sales, information and community driven art sales site in english speaking asia. Artists are able to request an invitation for free and Artyii helps faciliate the sale all the way – logistics, framing, payment, liaising. We have art professionals that provide comments to these emerging artists’ work as well. So, if you’re looking to buy art online, Artyii is the only place in the world where you can get quality, original Asian art at great prices direct from the artist.

What are the directions of Artyii.com and where you want to go from here?

We are continuing our efforts to reach out to artists as well as to buyers in the states and U.K. We are also looking for corporate buyers here in asia that are looking for bulk orders of original art for their hotels and F&B outlets.

What is the most important element to make a web 2.0 site successful?

Everything plays a complementary role – User Interface, SEO, Efficiency, Branding, Content and the value proposition of your core product/service.

To know this takes a good team – hence I would say the people behind the site are still the greatest asset.

No business can survive without the best promotional and advertising strategy. You cannot reach the market without specific targeted promotions that will keep your product upbeat among the market audiences. You need to release some bucks to get your market updated with what you are doing.

Before you do necessary promotional actions, take time to check if you are in the right track. It is important to have the right niche market that you want to reach. Can you readily supply to their needs? The need of the market is the priority to create products that are sellable and usable by the market audience. It is important to have marketing plans that can supplement your publicity.

Now that you know your marketing strength, it is important to draw near to the market by creating a name. Reputation and credibility wrap up the most important aspect of marketing. You can find people using the integrity of the company to make a household name. You can use promotional lines. Hallmark Cards use the line: When you care enough to send the best.

After some time of targeting the market, you will soon create a name and people will view your company worth the trust. Using several promotional and advertising means will create a story line among the people and will put you among the reputable organizations. Your newsletters, ads, and emails sent to customers will soon pay and you will reap the best returns.

There are advertising agencies that you can rely on to do the job for you if you are doubtful what to do to kick off some publicity.

The following marketing tools are used to draw your market:

1. Newsletters. A simple newsletter is a combination of photos, paragraphs and several graphics to get the attention of the people. As you send these mails to your clients, you will soon grow credibility among them and sooner you will find other clients drawn by stories of your costumers.

1. Brochures. Brochures are good tools to reach new costumers who don’t know your product. You can easily wrap up the services that you offering with the use of graphics and images combined with detailed paragraphs. It is very important to pass brochures on the right market to ensure its productivity.

1. Press Releases. One of the best tools to reach the market if you have new products on the line or you have new offers that you want to implement is through press releases. You should take time to write a good press release that will talk about the company and will present success stories. People love to read those stories and those can build your name.

1. Events. It is very important to create a link with the market. You can easily get a product sold if you can create a connection that will build your name. You can create activities that will hold the name of the company or product line. You an also partner with several organizations in creating a lead that will get the people around the system know your company and product.

1. Ezines. Ezines do usually present helpful tips and information for your costumers. It will build trust between customers and you. The market will know that you are not just for money but you are for their welfare giving you better grab on the market.

Getting the right tool to use in marketing is a good thing but working with these tools for them to be workable elements in business to draw market is another big thing to deal with.