Crated - Share Links to your gallery and support each others work

[wordplanet]

I've had one sale so far, it was a while ago. I sell a lot more on FAA and redbubble. The site is still relatively new and their shipping fees are reasonable so hopefully they will gain some traction. I have a few friends who've had sales recently so there's still life there.

Here's my link:
https://crated.com/mariannecampolongo

Happy to follow back those who follow me. 

Hopefully with their current 25% off and free shipping deal they'll get some traction.

[stockastic]

Do you think following/collecting has any effect on search placement?

[kudalaoet]

Hi All

I just joined crated. 
Recently they emailed me stating that my profile has been upgraded and one photo is curated.
Will this new upgraded profile will help selling? I still have very small number of photos.
Here is my link:
https://crated.com/pramiogarson

[stockastic]

Crickets are chirping over there.

Does anyone know anything about the ownership of this site?   It began with lofty goals and PR, but at some point, activity ceased. 

[wordplanet]

Old thread alert - but to answer the recent question:

I've had work "curated" and a landscape gallery featured via their twitter feed @getcrated earlier in the summer. The most recently curated image just sold as a nice large print. Slow going there, but it's picking up. I think they just hit the two-year mark in May, so that's probably not bad. They have the best customer service of any of the POD sites I've dealt with - you can do a chat on the site and they actually read and understand what you've written and give you a workable answer.

With 343 images, I've had two large framed print sales to date, far fewer than FAA (539 images - 44 Sales) and redbubble (80 images - 116 Sales), one more than P4Me (>20 images - 1 sale). I get the most sales on redbubble, but the highest value sales on FAA.

As I said in my OP about 2 years ago LOL, happy to like your work and follow back.https://crated.com/mariannecampolongo/galleries

[stockastic]

Yes I deliberately awakened this old thread - seemed appropriate.   I've actually sold 1 print at Crated and if others are selling, great.  But I've noticed that 'curation' doesn't mean much anymore because all sorts of lousy, repetitious - and possibly some stolen - stuff is now turning up in their search.   Since there's no traffic statistics or view count, it's impossible to know if there's any significant activity. 

The main page is pretty much unchanging.  It shows a bunch of images, many of which have been there for ages, and many of which are IMHO not very good.

They sure aren't giving FAA any competition as far as I can see.   

[wordplanet]

They seem to be using social media more regularly, so maybe that will bring in more buyers. I think the quality overall is higher than FAA but there does seem to be a lot more dreck - stuff that might be okay as stock but not what you'd want to hang on your wall, if you go deeper into the site, but the images on the first pages that they have curated are all good - not all my taste but they make sense on an art site. I wish they were curating every piece so searches didn't bring up the dreck.

I've worked hard uploading there and have spent time marketing my work there on social media, so I would expect far more sales by now, but I know others getting sales recently too, so I'm hoping it's going to start taking off. New sites are at such a disadvantage, so I'm willing to give them some time.

I have a friend who orders all his show pieces from them via the wholesale program and loves the quality - framed prints and canvas. I haven't ordered anything from them, so can't vouch for it firsthand. I ordered a framed print and a metal one from FAA as well as cards and was very happy with the quality. Crated has much lower shipping fees.

[stockastic]

I guess we're using the word 'curating' two different ways.  AFAIK, if you just open and account and upload images, they won't show up in search.  You have to be seen and approved by the curator.   Mine initially sat there quite a while, finally I emailed them and asked about getting this approval, and they very promptly granted it.   Before they did that, I didn't appear in search; afterward, I did.   As far as showing up on the main page or being featured in some way, I don't know.

 At least, that's how it used to work. But within the last few months I started noticing really poor quality stuff turning up in searches.   Clueless snapshots,  in repetitious groups.   I could post examples here but that's probably not a good idea, because I'm not alleging anything fraudulent.

I've also seen a couple of portfolios of high quality images which are pretty obviously from multiple sources - not the work of one person - which is a red flag.


So, I'm left wondering what's going on.  Seems to be an honest operation so maybe I'm misunderstanding something.

[wordplanet]

There are two kinds of "curation":
1.When you join you need to be "curated" to have your work show up in searches and it seems as though they have lowered their standards IMHO.
2. Individual images can also be"curated" and end up high in search for a while and then fall lower as new curated works take their place.

Finally, there are featured collections on the front page which may or may not contain "curated" works.

Other random works end up on the front page if you hit the "discover" tab. 

They seem to be more active on twitter, at least I've seen them feature one of my galleries there about a month ago and I see other artists featured there fairly regularly now. In my experience too it seems as though FAA has cornered the market on POD framed prints - I earn the most there -  but there still seems to be room for other POD sites such as Crated and redbubble (where I get regular sales but mostly lower value iPhone cases, etc) - I've even had sales on Photo4Me, where I have a handful of images. It's just a random $100-200 here and there on these other POD sites, but it adds up over time. I've made more lately from actual gallery sales, but that's a lot more work framing my photographs, keeping track of inventory, etc. (though I love meeting people and discussing my work with them). I think the time spent uploading to the POD sites is worthwhile, but your experience may be very different. I do tweet and share my work on g+ and FB from some of those sites, though I've had random sales on sites I don't market at all. 

[stockastic]

RedBubble doesn't read IPTC data so it's a non-starter for me.   I uploaded a bunch to Photo4Me, although it's a pain - way too many clicks.  But when I look at "recently sold" it's 90%  UK tourist and landscape subjects, the remainder being mostly RAF planes, historic trains etc. so I gave up there.   On FAA, I sell a couple a month, sometimes more. 

I'm pulling for Crated because it's a better looking presentation than FAA.   I'll keep uploading there, but it would be nice if they gave us some visitor stats.