FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?

[ShadySue]

Even I have more than doubled my investment; and when I see what sells in general, I'm not supplying it. I'll certainly resubscribe next year, and take it from there.

[etienjones]

I've with them one year with zero in my bucket.  My idea was to give them 2 years to prove themselves, so one year to go.  I only have ~300 images up, maybe that's the problem.  From the quality that I see that sells, it seems like its a place where Uncle Eddy buys from a family member.

have a look and tell me what I'm doing wrong . . . . .

http://4-steven-jones.fineartamerica.com/

[ShadySue]

From the quality that I see that sells, it seems like its a place where Uncle Eddy buys from a family member.

A very rich Uncle Eddy - and one who would pay a family member.
Can I adopt one?!

[etienjones]

From the quality that I see that sells, it seems like its a place where Uncle Eddy buys from a family member.

A very rich Uncle Eddy - and one who would pay a family member.
Can I adopt one?!

Wasn't Uncle Eddy the dirty old man in "Tommy" by The Who?

[Ron]

I've with them one year with zero in my bucket.  My idea was to give them 2 years to prove themselves, so one year to go.  I only have ~300 images up, maybe that's the problem.  From the quality that I see that sells, it seems like its a place where Uncle Eddy buys from a family member.

have a look and tell me what I'm doing wrong . . . . .

http://4-steven-jones.fineartamerica.com/

Does it matter who buys what? Isnt the point that there are sales?

I dont care if it was Uncle Eddy boshing two grand my way.

[etienjones]

True indeed.

[ShadySue]

I've with them one year with zero in my bucket.  My idea was to give them 2 years to prove themselves, so one year to go.  I only have ~300 images up, maybe that's the problem.  From the quality that I see that sells, it seems like its a place where Uncle Eddy buys from a family member.

have a look and tell me what I'm doing wrong . . . . .

http://4-steven-jones.fineartamerica.com/

Does it matter who buys what? Isnt the point that there are sales?

I dont care if it was Uncle Eddy boshing two grand my way.

The point is that if a lot of the sales we see are from people's family and friends, that may be a clue for those of us with no personal buyer base.

I've said before I've often seen sales of files with no keywords, so can't be found by searching within FAA. There is no problem with that, but it's a consideration.

Clearly sales are being made by people with no personal buyer base, and no means of self-marketing (I've discovered that if you blog 'into the vacuum', nobody cares) - my paltry sales were to strangers, found within FAA.

[Ron]

Ok, let me rephrase once more. I dont care if Uncle Eddy, Lord Sugar or Mahatma Ghandi buys my stuff, all I care about is that I have sales. How and why, I dont know, but its good money. Maybe I should stop raving about it and prevent more competition.

[karkozphoto]

I paid 30 dollars about month ago, uploaded 695 photos, but still no sales... More than 10000 views, but probably most of it is a work of bots... Lately I have discovered that search results promote local "artists" so that I switched my location to NY and it seems to me that I have more traffic from US now Now let's wait and see what will be.
http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/karol-kozlowski.html

[stockastic]

FAA is a giant gigawatt generator of 'views'.    50% are bots and 49% are other FAA photographers.  Of the remaining 1%, most are brainless scammers who think they can resell your preview iimages, and the rest just want free images for their kids' school projects.

I've sold 3 prints and 2 cards since February.  I have zero outside promotion. 

[Jo Ann Snover]

I've with them one year with zero in my bucket.  My idea was to give them 2 years to prove themselves, so one year to go.  I only have ~300 images up, maybe that's the problem.  From the quality that I see that sells, it seems like its a place where Uncle Eddy buys from a family member.

have a look and tell me what I'm doing wrong . . . . .

http://4-steven-jones.fineartamerica.com/

To the best of my knowledge (and based on the cities involved in purchases to date) none of my sales at FAA has been to family or friends.

I took a quick look at the first several pages of your portfolio and I think you haven't tailored what you've uploaded to the likely market - things people hang on their walls. The food shots have potential for restaurants or stores, but the colors are very flat. Food pictures don't sell, IMO, unless things look fresh and appetizing. For the landscapes, the places aren't landmarks and the images are not the sort where you go "oooh" even if you haven't a clue where it is. 

I'm not sure that there is anything "wrong" about any sort of uploads, but you just sell fewer and more slowly if you don't appeal to to a wide audience.

[stockastic]

My handful of sales probably aren't representative - but I think 2 were for commercial establishments, probably stores.  In one case, a buyer bought 5 prints of watch interiors (i.e. the cogs and gears in mechanical watches) at one time, one of which was mine.  No doubt they did a keyword search.

I have an uncle, but unfortunately he's broke.

On the positive side, I see my 'views' increasing over time and I'm accumulating 'likes' and occasional group 'features', so maybe - in a few years, or after I'm dead - my search rank will be high enough that I'll get some sales.

[etienjones]

I've with them one year with zero in my bucket.  My idea was to give them 2 years to prove themselves, so one year to go.  I only have ~300 images up, maybe that's the problem.  From the quality that I see that sells, it seems like its a place where Uncle Eddy buys from a family member.

have a look and tell me what I'm doing wrong . . . . .

http://4-steven-jones.fineartamerica.com/

To the best of my knowledge (and based on the cities involved in purchases to date) none of my sales at FAA has been to family or friends.

I took a quick look at the first several pages of your portfolio and I think you haven't tailored what you've uploaded to the likely market - things people hang on their walls. The food shots have potential for restaurants or stores, but the colors are very flat. Food pictures don't sell, IMO, unless things look fresh and appetizing. For the landscapes, the places aren't landmarks and the images are not the sort where you go "oooh" even if you haven't a clue where it is. 

I'm not sure that there is anything "wrong" about any sort of uploads, but you just sell fewer and more slowly if you don't appeal to to a wide audience.

Thanks for the Critique

[borg]

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/.

Hi Ron!

Isn't problem in 30 dollar, but I am on some way tired of uploading on multiple low earning sites...
But if you say so that it is worth a try (33 fold..) I will activate premium acc... 

[Gunter Nezhoda]

It's not my best earner, but it is for fine art, self promotion is a must, different than stock agencies


Gunter Nezhoda
http://gunter-nezhoda.artistwebsites.com/

[DF_Studios]

My top earner.  FAA has been cranking for me.  4x Shutterstock.  But I create Fine Art type images, not just repost stock shots.

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/moonrise-over-airstream-edward-fielding.html

[ShadySue]

Did anyone NOT have at least a single greetings card sale in their first 30 days, i.e. while you could still cancel your subscription?

[Elenathewise]

I have sales on FAA, but I also didn't just upload my regular stock. Most images I had to re-process to be suitable for Fine Art. Some of my stock images do work without re-processing, like this one - sold a couple of times:
http://elena-elisseeva.artistwebsites.com/featured/4-wooden-dock-on-autumn-lake-elena-elisseeva.html

[wordplanet]

My average profit per print sale on FAA is $80, median is $121. These would be higher but for some huge discounts I gave on one Special Promotion where I only netted $17. I've had 16 sales in 2 years, about an equal number of prints and cards, and aside from a handful of cards purchased by a friend, all of the sales have been to strangers. I have 215 photos online there, over 100 of which I've added in the past several months, so I think it's a viable site though I have spent a fair amount of time marketing my work via various groups there (to gain visibility) and via twitter, facebook and google +
Some of it is regular stock and some is stuff that is not on the stock sites, or images I've re-processed as fine art.

I've sold more cards on redbubble and also sell prints via my website (which usually requires some back and forth with the buyer - then I order the prints from Millers - so each sale there is more time-consuming though my profits are higher); however, I find FAA a very convenient way to get my work out there and see it as one more portal for strangers to find my work.

It takes time and effort to start getting regular sales; I'm not there yet but I feel pretty confident that I'll get there. As more and more people join, sales have slowed down; the economy probably hasn't helped matters either, so it takes work. 

Here's my site - I have a wide variety of work and I've sold everything from travel & landscape to editorial to mixed media - the market is very diverse. http://marianne-campolongo.artistwebsites.com/

[stockastic]

Did anyone NOT have at least a single greetings card sale in their first 30 days, i.e. while you could still cancel your subscription?

Me.

[ShadySue]

Did anyone NOT have at least a single greetings card sale in their first 30 days, i.e. while you could still cancel your subscription?

Me.

OK, thanks. A few of us suddenly got one card sales towards the end of our 30 days, and no cards since, and it seemed perhaps not to be coincidental.

Oh, I see my question was ambiguous. Did you get another sale during that initial  30-day period? I should have made clear that I was asking whether anyone got no sale at all in the inital 30 days, whereas it looked as though I was asking particularly about cards.

[stockastic]

Did anyone NOT have at least a single greetings card sale in their first 30 days, i.e. while you could still cancel your subscription?

Me.

OK, thanks. A few of us suddenly got one card sales towards the end of our 30 days, and no cards since, and it seemed perhaps not to be coincidental.

Oh, I see my question was ambiguous. Did you get another sale during that initial  30-day period?

Nope.   I don't think they're that devious, or that attentive.  The guy behind FAA actually seems to pay very little attention to contributor issues and is currently focused on making 'big deals' like the recently announced 'designer discount' giveaway - er, I mean sales opportunity program.   I don't think the $30 from a small time contributor means much.

[karkozphoto]

First sale! I'm really proud of it!  It was good to invest $30.
http://fineartamerica.com/saleannouncement.html?id=f5b8cf12db910664c3dda81db26ae0f5

[ShadySue]

First sale! I'm really proud of it!  It was good to invest $30.
http://fineartamerica.com/saleannouncement.html?id=f5b8cf12db910664c3dda81db26ae0f5

Yaaaay! Nice pic - Congrats!

[wordplanet]

Great photo - congrats on your sale!