FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?

[Travelling-light]

I agree, those are brilliant. I really envy your creativity!

[Gunter Nezhoda]

I just started in February of this year there. No sales so far, but would would love some input if you want to look at some.




http://gunter-nezhoda.artistwebsites.com/featured/carousel-horse-gunter-nezhoda.html
http://gunter-nezhoda.artistwebsites.com/featured/1-fairy-tale-cabin-gunter-nezhoda.html
http://gunter-nezhoda.artistwebsites.com/featured/circle-of-trust-gunter-nezhoda.html
http://gunter-nezhoda.artistwebsites.com/featured/step-out-gunter-nezhoda.html
http://gunter-nezhoda.artistwebsites.com/featured/pin-up-cars-3-gunter-nezhoda.html


Thanks for looking

[grsphoto]

I decided to put up a few images to "test the waters"

These are images that I would like to put on a RM site.... but there is a problem with the model releases.  They are locked in a file cabinet 1000's of Kilometers away.  I will see if I get any interest in these before I put any effort into this site.

Will they sell?

Time will tell

http://fineartamerica.com/art/all/glenn+specht/all

Glenn

[shiyali]

I think a lot of buyers must also be companies, who look for something to hang up in their offices and reception rooms. Quite a few of my sales have been industrial images rather than pretty landscapes, etc. Such as

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/vintage-gears-yali-shi.html or
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/large-air-conditioning-cooling-tower-yali-shi.html
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/industrial-concept-yali-shi.html

[stockastic]

shiyali, thanks, that's interesting.

[zeamonkey]

Has anybody checked their stock sales on images that they also have on FAA? I have, and after the new Google Image search, none has sold as stock. Im taking down all images from FAA that are on my stock sites too.

[steheap]

I wondered about the impact of showing reasonably big files on FAA together with the Google Images change. I thought it may have been behind the recent drop on Single downloads from Shutterstock.

Interesting to hear another view of it! I think I'll delete my popular stock ones from FAA and see if things change on the SoD front.

Steve

[luissantos84]

Has anybody checked their stock sales on images that they also have on FAA? I have, and after the new Google Image search, none has sold as stock. Im taking down all images from FAA that are on my stock sites too.

no, not happening, its a lovely theory anyway

[ShadySue]

Has anybody checked their stock sales on images that they also have on FAA? I have, and after the new Google Image search, none has sold as stock.

Funnily enough, the opposite.

[stockastic]

I've pretty much concluded that the contests are a waste of time.  An ordinary snapshot wins in a runaway, the next 3 aren't much better - it's just a "Facebook Friends" game.   I suppose FAA thinks some of those friends might eventually buy prints, but I'm  not about to annoy people by pestering them to play this dumb game.  Does this really benefit FAA in the long run, or does it promote photos that are never going to sell?  Again, crowdsourcing isn't a solution for everything.

Some contests are juried, although the list of active contests doesn't distinguish them - you have to read the descriptions.

[jatrax]

I've pretty much concluded that the contests are a waste of time.

Maybe I don't understand them but I never thought they were intended to be a sales tool directly.  If you win a contest then you can brag about it on your blog/email list or whatever.  Just gives you something to blog about.

I guess you could sell something to someone looking at the contest, but since those folks are trying to sell their own stuff I don't think that is going to happen very often.

The point (I think) is generating more web traffic either to a specific image or to FAA in general.

[stockastic]

I thought I recalled the FAA forum admin posting a list of things that boosted your search ranking, and winning a contest was one of them.  That's why contests frustrate me, because they're so obviously being 'gamed' and I felt like I didn't have a chance of ever winning one no matter how good my photo might be.

 But other FAA posters have told me that you might as well enter just to get your photo seen in the context of a contest.  Seems like a real long shot, but I continue to put photos in contests. 

[Gunter Nezhoda]

They are gamed, but if you have a good image, there are only so many votes someone can solicit and people will actually vote on yours.


Just won one today
http://fineartamerica.com/contests/the-cafe-or-coffee-shop.html?tab=leaderboard

[ShadySue]

They are gamed, but if you have a good image, there are only so many votes someone can solicit and people will actually vote on yours.


Just won one today
http://fineartamerica.com/contests/the-cafe-or-coffee-shop.html?tab=leaderboard

Congrats!
BTW, I looked at some of your images (from your post above); they look super and hopefully it's just a matter of time. I saw a pic come through as a large, matted, framed sale from someone I vaguely know of online, and that was its first sale after almost 3 years.

At least, I'm hoping it's just a matter of time. I don't suppose many people buy artwork on a whim - they probably have to involve the whole family in the decision.

[stockastic]

I was wrong about the contest list; it does indicate if a contest is juried.

One guy who seems to sell quite a bit posted in the FAA forum recently, claiming you have to set your prices high to make sales.  He says buyers come in expecting and wanting to spend $200 and up, maybe it's a gift or they want to impress someone; setting your prices low and making them "affordable" doesn't work because people who only could only afford $60 aren't shopping for art anyway.

I don't have the guts to set my prices where he suggests.  :-(

[Gunter Nezhoda]

They are gamed, but if you have a good image, there are only so many votes someone can solicit and people will actually vote on yours.


Just won one today
http://fineartamerica.com/contests/the-cafe-or-coffee-shop.html?tab=leaderboard

Congrats!
BTW, I looked at some of your images (from your post above); they look super and hopefully it's just a matter of time. I saw a pic come through as a large, matted, framed sale from someone I vaguely know of online, and that was its first sale after almost 3 years.

At least, I'm hoping it's just a matter of time. I don't suppose many people buy artwork on a whim - they probably have to involve the whole family in the decision.

Thanks for your kind words, I know it is not easy, takes a lot of promo work, but I have so many Stock images that I can doctor with and I really enjoy doing it, and mnay of those images would never be accepted in stock.


People do buy art tough, it's a huge market, but you need more than a good image, your name and visibility matters too.

[jatrax]

I thought I recalled the FAA forum admin posting a list of things that boosted your search ranking

If you can remember where you saw that can you post a link?  I think my search placement is 'last'.

I have some waterfall images I think are good enough to sell so I checked last night to see where they would rank.  A search on 'waterfall' returns 10,000+ images.  I looked through the first 5,000 before I quit.  Nope, none of mine.  I went to bed kinda discouraged after that.

Not sure if anyone looking for a nice dreamy waterfall is going to look at 5,000 images before they pick one.....

[Lizard]

I think a lot of buyers must also be companies, who look for something to hang up in their offices and reception rooms. Quite a few of my sales have been industrial images rather than pretty landscapes, etc. Such as

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/vintage-gears-yali-shi.html or
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/large-air-conditioning-cooling-tower-yali-shi.html
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/industrial-concept-yali-shi.html

If this is something u consider industrial photos, especially the one with orange pipes, then I would really want so how your bit more artsy stuff look ?

I believe  it doesn't have to be flowers to be art, and I wouldn't be surprised to see it hanged somewhere.

[stockastic]

If you can remember where you saw that can you post a link?  I think my search placement is 'last'.

The forum admin was kind enough to repeat her original post for me - it's below.  As you can see there is nothing in it about contests, so I got that information somewhere else.


"Search takes into consideration many different factors when determining the sort order of the images.

It takes into consideration:

1. the relevance of your image keywords
2. the number of times an image has been sold
3. the number of times an image has been favourited
4. the number of times an image has been commented on (by others. Your own comments on your work do NOT count)
5. how long an image has been on the site
6. the number of times an image has been featured in a group
etc...

There are more than 25 different criteria that the search engine evaluates."

[ShadySue]

I thought I recalled the FAA forum admin posting a list of things that boosted your search ranking

If you can remember where you saw that can you post a link?  I think my search placement is 'last'.

I have some waterfall images I think are good enough to sell so I checked last night to see where they would rank.  A search on 'waterfall' returns 10,000+ images.  I looked through the first 5,000 before I quit.  Nope, none of mine.  I went to bed kinda discouraged after that.

Not sure if anyone looking for a nice dreamy waterfall is going to look at 5,000 images before they pick one.....

They said there were quite a large number of factors which affected placement, but I guess previous sales by the contributor factors into it. Certainly any I upload into smaller niches are usually second bottom within 48 hours. (I guess having sold one greetings card keeps me off the bottom slot  )

[stockastic]

One FAA poster told me that votes are a big factor, and that you should routinely vote for your own photos (surprisingly, you can do that, once).  I verified this by experiment - it does move you up by the next day.   Comments are supposed to raise you, too.

So naturally, on FAA there are "voting clubs", groups that exist just for the purpose of voting for, and commenting on, others' work whether you like it or not.   And they're openly allowed by FAA. Again, I suspect the reasoning is that people - even contributors - who are active every day on FAA are likely to generate business regardless of their material.

Yes it's depressing to see a "fine art" site being gamed in dumb and obvious ways, but FAA really can't prevent it and may think they profit by it. 

[Sadstock]

.

[grsphoto]

When I search for "pin-up" my some of my images appear in the second row.  Is this because the site "knows" it is me (cookies)?

Haven't made any sales yet.

I have sponsored links for this page... which is how the site keeps it google ranking.

[stockastic]

When I search for "pin-up" my some of my images appear in the second row.  Is this because the site "knows" it is me (cookies)?

Yes.  They do that to sell you on the concept of sponsoring links.  The reality though is that if you check the site while you're not logged in, you'll see that you end up sharing that row with every other contributor who has 'sponsored' the same keywords.  So, you don't really get the boost you might have expected.

[Sadstock]

Not to get all Woo Yay, but I just got my first sales, 2 greeting cards for $4.