I’ve also looked over some of the other sites that you have mentioned and their corresponding EE reviews. Overall, I agree with a lot of the points that have been written, both positive and negative. I am not surprised that EE offered reviews for some of their advertisers, but I still think they were fair. And after looking over the sites myself, I believe the negative points made about Saatchi and ArtWanted were deserved.

I also don’t think it’s all that strange that DeviantArt has not been reviewed. Again, EE is targeted to a specific group of gallery artists and painters, whereas DeviantArt skews more toward fantasy and amateur artists. If there are other sites you want EE to review, I would suggest you send them a request.

Also remember that EE offers a lot more than reviews. They also have tutorials and articles. Overall, I believe the site to be a helpful influence, not a corrupt one.

That is my opinion, anyway. And in full disclosure, EmptyEasel has never paid me for an advertisement, the above review, or this comment.

A friend recently told me about Emptyeasel(www.emptyeasel.com) a website that offers tips for artists and art site reviews. I was surprised to find that the review of Saatchi Online and the Saatchi Showdown were overly negative. I decided to investigation so that I could find out if the site gave honest feedback about art sites. I started by searching Emptyeasel for a review of http://www.etsy.com. Sure enough the review was also negative. I then found a review for http://www.artflock.com which was overly positive. I then noticed that Artflock had apparently bought ad space on Emptyeasel. The plot thickened.

The Emptyeasel review for Artflock mentions nothing overly negative about the site and anything that hints at being negative is quickly rebounded with reminders that the site is new. Oddly enough Artflock has ad space on Emptyeasel and they did a joint competition with them as well. Emptyeasel did not do that for their review of Artbreak (www.artbreak.com) a site that was just as new at the time. Isn’t it strange that one relatively new site is given a positive review when another is given an overly negative review? Sure enough Artbreak does not have ad space on Emptyeasel!

Another example, Redbubble (www.redbubble.com). The first review for Redbubble on Emptyeasel pointed out several negative issues about the site. But apparently once Redbubble bought ad space the review was edited so that it is more positive. I also discovered that issue over Redbubble and the sudden change in opinion by Emptyeasel had been discussed on a few art forums.

I then looked at the Emptyeasel review of http://www.artwanted.com. It was all negative even though the site has bee around nearly a decade and has a strong community. And guess what! Artwanted does not have ads on Emptyeasel. Shocker? Does this suggest that the only way an art website or community can obtain a positive review on Emptyeasel is to buy ad space? Maybe. It sure looks that way.

Another strange thing is that as near as I can tell Emptyeasel has never done a review of http://www.deviantart.com which is hard to understand since it is one of the most popular art communities on the net. Yet Boundlessgallery (www.boundlessgallery.com) is reviewed and guess what! Boundless has also bought ad space on Emptyeasel. It just seems fishy to me. And I think it is something artists selling online need to acknowledge just in case the site gives bogus reviews.

I understand that sites like Emptyeasel need to sell ad space in order to function but I think it is lame to give positive reviews only to sites that have ad space on the site. They have not even reviewed other popular sites like http://www.artnet.com and http://www.myartspace.com. Keep an eye out for Emptyeasel.