FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?

[rubyroo]

Ack.  No.  We can't be having that.

Boo.

No seriously... congratulations on your first sales. 

[landbysea]

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."
I enter contests to help garner comments and get people to favorite it. Once I enter a contest I don't go back to vote or see who won. It's all about promotion and boosting the image rank by generating comments, image page votes and favoriting.  I also vote for my image on its file page, but not in contests, where votes don't count toward your search rank.

[ShadySue]

Got an email earlier today telling me they'd paid me into my PayPal account.
Oh, goody, I thought, I must have missed a sale.
Nope, they actually paid my 0.75c (sic, 75 cents) into my PayPal account.
Ah well, only $29.25 to go and I'll break even. 

[sharpshot]

I'm jealous, I've still got $30 to go to break even

[stockastic]

I started calculating what each page hit was costing me at $30 a year but it was depressing. 

[etienjones]

Update:
With 230 images I have 400 non bot views . . . .  in about 4 months.

Reality = -$30/no sales

[stockastic]

Update:
With 230 images I have 400 non bot views ...

How do you sort out the bots?

[ShadySue]

Update:
With 230 images I have 400 non bot views ...

How do you sort out the bots?

I'm not sure I'm sorting out them all, but sometimes as noted way above, you get bots visiting around the same time of day on different days. I have a suspicious number of 'hits' from Beijing and an Indian town, despite not having any relevant content. Also there's one photo I have which was getting a large number of US 'hits' despite being a British bird (for which there is a US equivalent) but eventually I decided that pic is uniquely getting repeately hit by two bots.

[etienjones]

Update:
With 230 images I have 400 non bot views ...

How do you sort out the bots?

Just by the variety of images clicked and the ordinariness of locations.

PS . .  Is "ordinariness" really a word?

[sgoodwin4813]

I started uploading there a couple of months ago after reading about them on MSG.  Last month had 2 sales, netting me a little over $60 with only 15 images online.  That's more than I made on most of the low-tier agencies combined with very little extra effort, so I think FAA is great!  I won't go with a paid account until I have over 25 images online, which may take a while as I'm in no particular hurry.  And I've got the first two years paid for.  Maybe I just got lucky, but hope to see some more sales there soon.

[Sadstock]

I'm also getting a huge number of hits from Beijing.

[luissantos84]

I'm also getting a huge number of hits from Beijing.

same here, hope they are loaded

[Antonio S.]

I joined in January, yesterday I,ve had my first sale: 36x24 canvas in limited time promotion 
http://fineartamerica.com/weeklypromotion.html?promotionid=106555

[ShadySue]

I joined in January, yesterday I,ve had my first sale: 36x24 canvas in limited time promotion 
http://fineartamerica.com/weeklypromotion.html?promotionid=106555

Woot! Congratulations! 
All I have sold is one greetings card and one 10.00" x 6.63" framed print.
Do you do a lot of your own marketing?
Looking at the work which is selling, a lot don't seem to have relevant keywords, or any description at all, so I don't think they're being found via a site search, therefore presumably are being marketed off-site.

[Antonio S.]

Thank you, ShadySue 
...No marketing, only post my works on Facebook

[ShadySue]

Thank you, ShadySue 
...No marketing, only post my works on Facebook

That could be marketing if you have FB friends (or whatever) who buy art, or at least would buy your art.

[borg]

How is going here!?

[Ron]

How is going here!?

http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=1582761

[KB]

How is going here!?

http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=1582761

From the first response in that thread:
99% of being on here trying to sell your work is marketing... the other 1% actually doing the art.

Sounds like a huge time waster to me, if accurate. No wonder I haven't had any sales (other than the perhaps "fake" postcard sale just days before my 30-day waiting period was over).

[Spray and Pray]

Just joined FAA and had my first sale within 12 hours! I will not mention the amount since I don't want to talk about compensation with all the financial restrictions but I didn't anything special - just uploaded my images (not too many either) - barely finish my biography and profile id photos when I got the sale...

[Ron]

How is going here!?

http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=1582761

From the first response in that thread:
99% of being on here trying to sell your work is marketing... the other 1% actually doing the art.

Sounds like a huge time waster to me, if accurate. No wonder I haven't had any sales (other than the perhaps "fake" postcard sale just days before my 30-day waiting period was over).

Its not a waste of time, upoading is pretty easy when you have your defaults set, it automatically posts the image on Twitter and Facebook, and I made close to 2000 dollar with a 60 dollar investment. The last 6 weeks have been slow, but I am also sure it will pick up again.

[Ron]

Just joined FAA and had my first sale within 12 hours! I will not mention the amount since I don't want to talk about compensation with all the financial restrictions but I didn't anything special - just uploaded my images (not too many either) - barely finish my biography and profile id photos when I got the sale...

Well, thats rather unique, congrats dude. Did you make your 30 dollar back?

[sharpshot]

I'll be dumping them in January, unless they actually sell something.  Total waste of time for me.  I sell regularly with Zazzle but for low prices.  Think I'll put more effort in to that next year.  Even Redbubble has outsold FAA who I would like to rename sweet FA

[borg]

Site looks nice, even upload is easy, but as Sharpshot put some bug in my ear, I will stay on free account!

[Ron]

25 images is not going to get you exposure. I dont understand why you dont want to pay 30 dollar for one year for the premium membership. I made that back 33 fold and my images suck/.