MicrostockGroup
Other ways of making money => Print on Demand Forum => Topic started by: luissantos84 on July 20, 2013, 16:11
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This announcement was going to be made next week... but since the cat appears to be out of the bag...
We bought a new domain name (Pixels.com), and we're going to use it to expand our product offering (e.g. iPhone cases) and help our members improve their international sales.
Here is an announcement page with details about Pixels.com and how it's going to be used:
http://fineartamerica.com/announcementpixels.html (http://fineartamerica.com/announcementpixels.html)
Eventually, all of the new products that get introduced on Pixels will make their way onto your Artist Website, if you want them there. You'll have the option. The same thing goes for shopping cart widgets, etc.
Right now, the only new product on Pixels.com is iPhone cases. Don't worry - we'll be offering Samsung cases, shortly, as well.
If you don't want to sell iPhone cases on Pixels.com, that's absolutely fine. Just login to your account (on FAA or on Pixels.com), and use the "bulk edit prices" tool to remove the preset markup for the iPhone cases from all of your images. That will instantly remove iPhone cases from your product offering on Pixels.com.
Sean
source: http://pixels.com/showmessages.php?messageid=1332044 (http://pixels.com/showmessages.php?messageid=1332044)
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oh. I was uploading an image there and suddenly found a new price bar for iphone case. I thought missed their New announcement but from your post i came to know its a new feature. Thanks for sharing.
Is this a feature for only premium members or everyone ?
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Strange, but whenever I see the word "announcement" in a thread title I expect royalty cuts or some new kind of scam.
False alarm :)
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oh. I was uploading an image there and suddenly found a new price bar for iphone case. I thought missed their New announcement but from your post i came to know its a new feature. Thanks for sharing.
Is this a feature for only premium members or everyone ?
I believe it is for everybody but you need to open www.pixels.com (http://www.pixels.com) to buy iphone covers
at this exact moment they are having issues, iphone cover option vanished ;D
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at this exact moment they are having issues, iphone cover option vanished ;D
Maybe too many of us rushed over there to have a look!
I think this is a Good Thing, at worst neutral.
It was working about five mins ago. Several of my images there are strongly horizontal/panoramic, and really don't crop to the vertical format. Would anyone consider going through their files there and exclude those which don't really fit, or just leave it up to the customer?
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at this exact moment they are having issues, iphone cover option vanished ;D
Maybe too many of us rushed over there to have a look!
I think this is a Good Thing, at worst neutral.
It was working about five mins ago. Several of my images there are strongly horizontal/panoramic, and really don't crop to the vertical format. Would anyone consider going through their files there and exclude those which don't really fit, or just leave it up to the customer?
noticed that too, I believe the customer can work that out, actually if I was a buyer I would enjoy that, I am not going over them that is a fact ;D
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So far this looks half-baked. It appears I can't control the image placement, that's up to the customer.
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at this exact moment they are having issues, iphone cover option vanished ;D
Maybe too many of us rushed over there to have a look!
I think this is a Good Thing, at worst neutral.
It was working about five mins ago. Several of my images there are strongly horizontal/panoramic, and really don't crop to the vertical format. Would anyone consider going through their files there and exclude those which don't really fit, or just leave it up to the customer?
noticed that too, I believe the customer can work that out, actually if I was a buyer I would enjoy that, I am not going over them that is a fact ;D
+1
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I see a danger here of them losing focus and losing their way at the same time.
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I see a danger here of them losing focus and losing their way at the same time.
Already happened. The site is cluttery, distracting and dated-looking. I'm trying to sell wall art - my best photos - not iPhone covers for Pete's sake. If I wanted to sell funny cat stickers on Zazzle, I'd be doing that instead.
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So far this looks half-baked. It appears I can't control the image placement, that's up to the customer.
Same with the greetings cards. In general, I think that's a good thing: they get what they want. Just concerned about those which can't fit.
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1 - opt in/out option ? (don't think there is)
2 - mark-up ? zazzle lowest base price at 35.95$ (http://pixels.com/controlpanel/index.html?tab=tabdefault (http://pixels.com/controlpanel/index.html?tab=tabdefault))
3 - editorial / commercial ? wondering about all the trademarked pictures online now available for iphone cases
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So I got the email a couple of days ago saying my site on pixels.com was now live and people could buy iPhone covers there.
But I can't see where a buyer could order iPhone cases:
(http://www.lizworld.com/pixels.jpg).
Can someone point me in the right direction?
Tx
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You need to opt in to phone cases in your pricing options
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I can't see them too
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I thought the FAA original post implied that they were 'in' by default, but we could opt them out:
"If you don't want to sell iPhone cases on Pixels.com, that's absolutely fine. Just login to your account (on FAA or on Pixels.com), and use the "bulk edit prices" tool to remove the preset markup for the iPhone cases from all of your images. That will instantly remove iPhone cases from your product offering on Pixels.com."
Anyway, just in case I had opted them out, I went into 'Bulk Edit Prices', and it has totally changed since the last time I was in there, and I can find no way to 'bulk edit prices' or opt in or out iPhone cases:
(http://www.lizworld.com/bulk.jpg)
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Go to your Default Settings, enter a price in the Iphone Cases field and I think that should automatically opt you in.
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Go to your Default Settings, enter a price in the Iphone Cases field and I think that should automatically opt you in.
that won't change anything once I have that since the first day (when they announced the iphone covers) so I say it must be a bug, still nothing on forum though
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Yup I did it and it's still not showing.
It's moot anyway. They charge $30 as a base price on iPhone cases, with the artist's markup on top of that.
I can go to Vistaprint and get an iPhone case with one of my own photos on it for £7.49. Virtually no-one (in the UK; the US seems to be a totally different mrket and I offer no opinion on that) will pay the pixels.com price for someone else's photo.
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Yup I did it and it's still not showing.
It's moot anyway. They charge $30 as a base price on iPhone cases, with the artist's markup on top of that.
I can go to Vistaprint and get an iPhone case with one of my own photos on it for £7.49. Virtually no-one (in the UK; the US seems to be a totally different mrket and I offer no opinion on that) will pay the pixels.com price for someone else's photo.
I know a guy that sells very well iphone covers at Zazzle so I believe there are buyers without much love in terms of spending their money ;D
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I recently made 36 euro on a phone case of someone who paid 72 euro for it on Zazzle.
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No insult to the relevant photos intended, but if my sister read that, she'd say, "Toffs are careless".
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I dont care what they are or who buys my photos, I only care about the money
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I dont care what they are or who buys my photos, I only care about the money
Fair enough. ;D
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Anyway, just in case I had opted them out, I went into 'Bulk Edit Prices', and it has totally changed since the last time I was in there, and I can find no way to 'bulk edit prices' or opt in or out iPhone cases:
([url]http://www.lizworld.com/bulk.jpg[/url])
Bulk Edit:
Click Behind the Scenes/Bulk Edit prices
Click 'Show All Images'
Select the upper left checkbox (above the single image checkboxes).
A new check box appears, saying
'Select all x images on all y pages.'
Click it, and you can change for all images in one go.
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it worked out but this doesn't make any sense, I have made this right after their announcement regarding pixels / iPhone cases, does this mean we need to do such once in a while? ::)
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Tx, that worked. :)
There are definitely bugs in the pixels.com setup - when I'm logged in, and can see/access/change all my personal settings, I still see 'login' at two places at the top of the page, but 'logout' in the white box next to Fine Art America at the very top left of the page. Also, depending on what I do, I seem to find myself back in FAA from pixels.com without too much difficulty. (I know they're one and the same, but we shouldn't get switched.)
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As a software developer I can imagine all sorts of problems in trying to maintain one site on 2 domains, depending on how the site code was originally written. It might be a while before they get this all fixed.
Personally, while I think "Fine Art America" is a real loser of a name, I think there are much more important things the guy could be doing with the site than spending time trying to make it all work across 2 domains. The whole site looks cluttery and dated, and the presentation of photos leaves a lot to be desired. They're going to be left in the dust pretty soon, by new sites with a real 'designer' look.
Just my opinions, which are those of an aging crank.
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I just had another 105 dollar sale, so I really dont care how the site looks :)
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I just had another 105 dollar sale, so I really dont care how the site looks :)
I had a $150 sale today, my fourth one in a few months. I need to start uploading there more often.
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Yup I did it and it's still not showing.
It's moot anyway. They charge $30 as a base price on iPhone cases, with the artist's markup on top of that.
I can go to Vistaprint and get an iPhone case with one of my own photos on it for £7.49. Virtually no-one (in the UK; the US seems to be a totally different mrket and I offer no opinion on that) will pay the pixels.com price for someone else's photo.
ditto re: australia as shipping kills us. but i love that i can sell to americans. :)
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And another one:
"Do you want to offer your images for sale on DesignerPrints.com so that interior designers and corporate art buyers can purchase your prints at discounted prices for large-scale design projects?"
Full details/explanation when you log in.
Unlike certain other sites, the default is that you are opted out; it's all in or all out; you can change your mind at any time.
Our call ...
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I just joined and got my site, customized it (was able to make it quite swanky with their options) and added some of my art :)
My only concern is the 528x701 no watermark preview, you can't right click but there are other ways to scoop a free image... Has any found this to be a big deal.
Congrats to you two making great sales!
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To me, this DesignerPrints thing seems like a non-starter. You agree to huge cuts in your prices in exchange for the possibility of big quantity purchases. But the 'big quantity' might include only one of your images - it's probably pretty unlikely that some designer will want 100 copies of one image. So it's a quantity discount - except you don't get the quantity, only FAA does.
There's nothing stopping some reseller from buying hundreds of images at a deep discount, then reselling them for a nice markup.
I think a lot of the people opting in think they're signing up for chance to sell 100 copies of something. But all they're doing is letting FAA sell their stuff at wholesale prices. Nothing else is guaranteed.
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@stoctastic. I agree 70% off... Not interested... I have "microstock" sites for that kind of thing :)
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It's (mostly?) only microstockers who are bothered about the watermark - though I have a watermark on my images there (I thought that was available also on the free trial?). There are some big name photographers selling via FAA who do not have any watermark, and indeed, when you visit their own website they often have really big unwatermarked images on their galleries there.
But that's because they don't sell RF, so as soon as they find a usage they don't know of, they can be onto them in an instant. Once we sell RF, we really make it difficult to track abuses, as people can - and do - lift our unwatermarked image from sites which bought our image from the micros, often just with a right-click save.
Also, if most microstockers find a misused photo in a blog, we want to get our few cents for its use. A Fine Artist is probably happy enough for someone to blog, "X is a fantastic artist. I really like their use of light and shade in this image ..." It's all publicity. Even if the blog is unflattering, "How can Z even call themselves an artist? The proportion in these figures is totally wrong ...", it's still publicity, subjective and probably comes under the heading of 'fair use - criticism'.
"...quite swanky with their options" oooh, I'll have to revisit, there were hardly any options when I started in Feb. But to be fair, not having any buyers of my own, people will never visit my 'own' subsite - that's really for people who have followers/fans they can redirect from Social Media or an email list/newsletter.
Good luck!
I just joined and got my site, customized it (was able to make it quite swanky with their options) and added some of my art :)
My only concern is the 528x701 no watermark preview, you can't right click but there are other ways to scoop a free image... Has any found this to be a big deal.
Congrats to you two making great sales!
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The owner of FAA doesnt give a flying feck about stolen images, he doesnt care, and made that clear, in not so many words, in a thread I opened on FAA.
People dont even know their images could be stolen from FAA with direct links to the image on the FAA server, 1000x1000, until I proved it to them and stuck the proof in their faces.
Even then they didn't seem to care, as I was selling to stock, so the problem was only for me, instead of people who only sell POD.
1000x1000 makes great postcards, in fact it can even be blown up to 2000x2000 and get a great canvas, or be submitted to agencies to sell as stock.
All I asked for was a customizable watermark, which has been a request by many people, and FAA just categorically refuse to implement it. Why they refuse to that is beyond me, but for sure they only care about FAA and couldn't give a hoot about their contributors concerns.
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I discovered there is a referral scheme, whereby we get $5 for referring a new artist. Apparently when they open an account, the money instantly goes into our balance and we get an email.
All the banners they provide are to set up a free trial site, and there is nothing in their details which says it has to be a paid-for site (after all, if they sell something from a free site, they still make money).
A friend used my referral link to open a free site yesterday, and nothing is in my balance and no email. I will have to contact them about it.
This is what they say:
"Artist Websites Referral Program
Do you know any artists or photographers who might be interested in a new website?
Have you ever wanted to earn income from the traffic that you receive on your website / blog / Facebook page?
Now you can! Take a look at the advertisements, below.
Beneath each of the advertisements, there is HTML code that you can copy and paste onto your website, blog, Facebook profile, Twitter feed, etc. Simple copy and paste the code, and the corresponding advertisement will appear. When someone clicks on your advertisement and then signs up for a new website on artistwebsites.com, you'll instantly earn $5.00.
Yes - it's really that easy. You'll receive an e-mail notification whenever a new member signs up via one of your advertisements, and the $5.00 will instantly appear in your online balance. Balances are paid on the 15th of each month for all transactions that occurred before the 15th of the previous month.
How does this work? Each of the advertisements has your affiliate ID embedded in the HTML code. Your affiliate ID is (XXX). When visitors click on your advertisements, they'll be transfered over to artistwebsites.com, and the embedded ID tells us that the visitors were referred to us by you. We can then track the visitors each time they return to artistwebsites.com, and if they sign up for a new website within 30 days of their first visit, you'll earn $5.00 per sign up. It's that simple."
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@ron they have an option tic box for watermark I ticked it and no watermark .
What is strange is they have a statement next to it saying that buyers are les likely to buy if they see a watermark ????
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What is strange is they have a statement next to it saying that buyers are les likely to buy if they see a watermark ????
I've heard that said often on CreativeLIVE too, and I've checked the websites of the people who said it, often major-award-winning photographers, and they have large, unwatermarked images on their sites.
Fine Art / Commercial and Stock are totally different markets and mindsets.
I've seen occasionally people on FAA who write in their description in great detail about how they have registered their image with the US copyright service thingy, and if you abuse their (watermarked) images they'll drag you through the courts etc etc. It looks really unprofessional, unwelcoming and neurotic; tellingly, their work is seldom of the best quality (IMO).
Think about it this way. Imagine you were shopping in a quality store and there were signs everywhere warning you about how you'll be prosecuted if you shoplift, and the store detective keeps following you around. Even though you have no intention of shoplifting, it detracts from the 'buying experience', which is as different at Walmart from Jimmy Choo, say than micros (buy it quickly and get on with the job) are from Fine Art (can I live with this on my wall for the next n years?). I can't find any fine art sites which watermark their images, and on these you can often zoom to larger sizes than FAA.
That said, I do have watermarks on the images I have on iS or Alamy; but not on many of the others, because as they're only on FAA, I can track their usage.
Of course, like Flickr etc, disabled right-click-saving means I can't just do GIS reverse checks to see if they are being misused somewhere.
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@shadysue I just sent my cousin a referral link, I will let you know how it goes for me
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I know they have a watermark, its a tiny little FAA watermark in the corner. I want a customisable watermark text, which I can place in the middle of the image.
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@shadysue I like that shopping analogy ;) it helped me understand and explains peoples good sales.
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@shadysue I just sent my cousin a referral link, I will let you know how it goes for me
Thanks, Kim.
I wrote first on the discussion board, and got a peer reply, "I don't know how the whole thing works, I don't think it works at all, at least not with a banner. I know there are certain programs in place for that, but that's it.
You would have to ask contact about it."
Which I will do after I've heard from you.
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Your welcome, I sent a simple raw ref. link and I put a banner on Facebook and a banner on my FAA site in ats. "Blog" we'll see :)
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@ron I think I saw it in a "zoom square" of my image? The zoom square needs no wmark
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All I asked for was a customizable watermark, which has been a request by many people, and FAA just categorically refuse to implement it. Why they refuse to that is beyond me...
They won't implement it because there is no "they" behind FAA. It's just one guy, and as you know, he's currently busy with things like signing up Ann Geddes, and pursuing big volume discount deals that pay the artists next to nothing.
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Yay! I've been "live" 48 or less hours and just had my 1st sale!
Well what's there works... And I can see why, FAA makes it very easy for a person to pick art and accessories that go with it, flawlessly with out tricky measuring.
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Meant to say "less than 48hrs"
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Wow! Congratulations!!!
Added: very cute image!
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Thanks Sue! :)
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@shadysue I just sent my cousin a referral link, I will let you know how it goes for me
Hi, Kim ~
How did it work out?
To recap, a friend took out a FAA site using my reference code and I didn't get the $5.
I wrote to them and got the reply that it was not a paid for site.
I replied to that, with a screenshot of their referral system as it was explained on their site, which at no place indicated that it had to be a paid for site.
I got no reply to that email.
I have now heard from my friend that he upgraded to a paid for site several days ago, well within the 30 days, and again the money did not 'immediately appear in my balance' as promised in my screenshotted referral scheme.
I will follow this up again. However, if their system does not work as promised in this instance, how can we know if it works properly in other areas. It's not the $5 I'm really concerned about, though that is a Principle.
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Anything I need to know about for submitting as an exclusive at iStock.? Any options or restrictions, like selling prints of the same work on FAA and licensing them on iStock. that might be prohibited?
No, you can sell the same work. FAA are not (currently) selling RF, only print-on-demand which is allowed by the EASA.
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Anything I need to know about for submitting as an exclusive at iStock.? Any options or restrictions, like selling prints of the same work on FAA and licensing them on iStock. that might be prohibited?
No, you can sell the same work. FAA are not (currently) selling RF, only print-on-demand which is allowed by the EASA.
Sounds good, I guess I'll give it a try.
Choose someone else to get their referral code from, and that'll be another check.
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@ron they have an option tic box for watermark I ticked it and no watermark .
What is strange is they have a statement next to it saying that buyers are les likely to buy if they see a watermark ????
I don't think that's entirely strange. if buyers think the final print will have a watermark on it, who would buy it?
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@shadysue I just sent my cousin a referral link, I will let you know how it goes for me
Hi, Kim ~
How did it work out?
To recap, a friend took out a FAA site using my reference code and I didn't get the $5.
I wrote to them and got the reply that it was not a paid for site.
I replied to that, with a screenshot of their referral system as it was explained on their site, which at no place indicated that it had to be a paid for site.
I got no reply to that email.
I have now heard from my friend that he upgraded to a paid for site several days ago, well within the 30 days, and again the money did not 'immediately appear in my balance' as promised in my screenshotted referral scheme.
I will follow this up again. However, if their system does not work as promised in this instance, how can we know if it works properly in other areas. It's not the $5 I'm really concerned about, though that is a Principle.
Hi Sue,
My cousin has not signed up yet, I will be visiting her at the end of the mo and I will help her with it.
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*Watermarks*
I am realizing its a different world at FAA :)
And I will remove them.
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I just had this reply:
"Liz,
X just signed up on 09/26/2013. He has thirty days to cancel his premium
membership. The $5 won't be credited to your account until 10/26/2013.
Sean"
Again, that's NOT what it says on their referral page. That needs to be spelled out. I realise that trading standards are almost non-existent in the USA, but that same site is FineArtEurope and FineArtEngland, inter alia, so they need to conform to UK/EU laws.
I'm sure they don't have the huge international legal team that iS seems to have, to enable them to dig below the law.
(Again, it's not the $5, it's the principle and the honesty.)
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My point is that their ad needs to say that the person has to take out a Premium Site and that you have to wait the 30 days.
That is NOT what it says, no matter how much sense it may make.
http://fineartamerica.com/announcement-artist-websites-referral-program.html (http://fineartamerica.com/announcement-artist-websites-referral-program.html)
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That is NOT what it says, no matter how much sense it may make.
[url]http://fineartamerica.com/announcement-artist-websites-referral-program.html[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/announcement-artist-websites-referral-program.html[/url])
Here's what it says:
When someone clicks on your advertisement and then signs up for a new website on artistwebsites.com, you'll instantly earn $5.00.
Yes - it's really that easy. You'll receive an e-mail notification whenever a new member signs up via one of your advertisements, and the $5.00 will instantly appear in your online balance.
Here's what it meant to say:
When someone clicks on your advertisement and then signs up for a new website on artistwebsites.com, you'll instantly earn $5.00, if they also sign up and pay for a premium account, and after 30 days pass.
Yes - it's really that easy. You'll won't actually receive an e-mail notification whenever a new member signs up via one of your advertisements, and the $5.00 won't instantly appear in your online balance, but rest assured you will be paid, eventually.
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Update: The previous reply from FAA (above) was, "The $5 won't be credited to your account until 10/26/2013."
So as my friend's account passed the 30 days on 26th without being cancelled, I emailled them on Monday (28th) when the money didn't appear in my balance. I got an email yesterday telling me the $5 has now been added.
As of this minute, their referral programme page still says:
" When someone clicks on your advertisement and then signs up for a new website on artistwebsites.com, you'll instantly earn $5.00.
Yes - it's really that easy. You'll receive an e-mail notification whenever a new member signs up via one of your advertisements, and the $5.00 will instantly appear in your online balance. "
Note that I never got the 'email notification', so if I hadn't known about the sign-up, and followed it up three times, I wouldn't have got the $5.
Again, it's not the $5, it's the principles of honesty and technical reliability I'm concerned about.
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Sue, Sean is basically an automation geek. The site has hardly any staff, ordering happens automatically. So you can be pretty confident in his technical skills. I've never seen the slightest suggestion of any dishonesty in the way FAA operates. It's a pleasant relief from microstock in that regard, so I'd put down any minor deviations from the published terms to oversight rather than malice.
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Sue, Sean is basically an automation geek. The site has hardly any staff, ordering happens automatically. So you can be pretty confident in his technical skills. I've never seen the slightest suggestion of any dishonesty in the way FAA operates. It's a pleasant relief from microstock in that regard, so I'd put down any minor deviations from the published terms to oversight rather than malice.
I do know that; but you'd think they'd change the stated terms on their referral page - I've pointed it out three times now. I don't think that it's unreasonable for them to want a paid for site and for that to be confirmed or they'd get all sorts of abuse, but that must be stated up front.
I know, I know - I live in a country which has relatively robust trading standards and advertising regulations, but still ...
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Sue, Sean is basically an automation geek. The site has hardly any staff, ordering happens automatically. So you can be pretty confident in his technical skills. I've never seen the slightest suggestion of any dishonesty in the way FAA operates. It's a pleasant relief from microstock in that regard, so I'd put down any minor deviations from the published terms to oversight rather than malice.
I do know that; but you'd think they'd change the stated terms on their referral page - I've pointed it out three times now. I don't think that it's unreasonable for them to want a paid for site and for that to be confirmed or they'd get all sorts of abuse, but that must be stated up front.
I know, I know - I live in a country which has relatively robust trading standards and advertising regulations, but still ...
I fully agree with you Sue. That statement is false, its not an oversight, its just plain wrong. Its also not an unfortunate misunderstanding, or open for interpretation. Its false advertisement.
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I think the real problem with FAA today is that it's just one guy, and that is a pretty hard limit on what it can do or become. And apparently that isn't going to change. It's screaming for competition but so far, no one else really does what they do.