To get your own domain name and website, first of all you need to have our Gold plan.

A domain name is like yourname.com . This has a clear advantage over yourname.gotartwork.com as it defines an established artist, is shorter and easier to remember.

To get your own domain name like yourname.com, first, you need to upgrade to our Gold plan.

After you upgrade your account, go to Premium Features >  Domain Setup.

Simply type whatever domain name you wish (like your-name) and click check availability. If the domain name is available, it will ask you to confirm. Once confirmed, the domain name will be registered and it'll be available throught the world within 24 to 48 hours.

If the .com domain is taken we also offer .net, .org, ,us, .info  Top-level domains (TLDs).  So you can also get your-name.info. We may offer more options in the future.

If you already have a Top-Level Domain with another artist community website, and you're tired of the dull and outdated website designs and features offered by them, we can help you transfer your domain. 

Compared to a Top-Level Domain name such as yourname.com, a sub-domain is slightly longer, but belongs to a top-level domain. 

For example.

GotArtwork.com is a Top-Level Domain. but your-name.gotartwork.com would be a sub-domain of gotartwork.com

• One month (approx. 30 days) prior to expiration
• One week (approx. 7 days) prior to expiration
• Five (5) days after expiration, if the domain name registration is not deleted 

You can register one top-level domain with your Gold plan. However, you can also point 1 external domain to our server IP address. An external domain is a domain name that you already have registered with a registrar such as GoDaddy.com

To point an external domain, please let  let us know the domain name that you'll be pointing.

With our gold plan you'll have two options.

1. Add an A Record to the zone file.
2. Transfer the domain to our holding account.

1) If you registered the domain by yourself with a registrar such as godaddy.com, you can simply point it to our server IP address (74.208.209.156) by adding an A Record. This may sound complicated, but it's actually very easy.

To do this with goadaddy.com go to http://godaddy.com
> My Account > Domains > Launch  then in the new page scroll down just a bit and click Launch under DNS manager. You can now click Add Record , select A(host) for the type and enter the IP address for your domain and save. This will update the zone file and it may take 24 to 48 hours for the record to propagate through the internet.

If you have your domain with another registrar, please contact their help team for instructoins. 

In the meantime, you must contact us so we can associate your domain name with your Got Artwork account.

2) Transfer the domain to our holding account. Please visit the domain transfer page or refer to domain transfer help topics here.

You can change the Title, Logo and the Menu of your web site. All your artworks, collections, blogs, events and links will be fed directly from your gotartwork.com account. You can also add and customize the contents of your own pages.

Once you get your gold plan and domain name, your home page will automatically be configured with a cool Flash slideshow of your artworks (with Ken Burns effect and possibly more effects in the future).

To start customizing your website, go to Premium Features > Customize Website under your My Account

You're free to put any javascripts, flash objects, images or texts using the html editor. Or you can switch to source view on the editor and get all nerdy typing the html code.

When you Log In, click My Account then see Premium Features > Subdomain Theme.

Here you can add a background image for yourname.gotartwork.com subdomain, change the title and select a theme. You can also customize the sub-domain menu and add your own pages.

We recommend that your header background image file do not exceed 960 x 110 pixels, and is saved in jpeg format for faster page loading.

Yes. With both Silver and Gold plans, customers can shop and add items to their shopping cart directly in your-name.com top-level domain or your-name.gotartwork.com sub-domain. 
The checkout page will seamlessly integrate with your shopping cart and your customers can securely checkout from your website.

Note: The address bar of the browser will not display the secure checkout icon. But, rest assured, it is securely hidden in the underlying frame of the checkout page (see illustration).