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Other ways of making money => Print on Demand Forum => Topic started by: luissantos84 on January 05, 2013, 21:18

Title: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: luissantos84 on January 05, 2013, 21:18
just got an interesting email from FAA, the link below:

http://fineartamerica.com/newsletters/little-known-facts-2013.html?id=87262 (http://fineartamerica.com/newsletters/little-known-facts-2013.html?id=87262)

another interesting link, that you can find at the end of their email/newsletter:

https://www.facebook.com/fineartamerica/app_183192038389060 (https://www.facebook.com/fineartamerica/app_183192038389060)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Ed on January 05, 2013, 21:54
I know some people that attempt to sell through Fine Art America.  They are a VERY large art site....and everyone and their brother uploads to them (worse than the micros).  No different than Red Bubble, Trevillion, Cafe Press, Behance, etc...

If you want a good site, open a smugmug or a Zenfolio account and select a printing partner.  You can do your own SEO and get listed on Bing and Google - no different than Photoshelter.

Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: luissantos84 on January 05, 2013, 21:58
I do see many people selling nicely at least looking at what they report on FB, do you think they are lying? I am talking about daily sales some going over 100$ each..
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Ed on January 05, 2013, 22:35
I do see many people selling nicely at least looking at what they report on FB, do you think they are lying? I am talking about daily sales some going over 100$ each..


Take a look at this website...

http://www.johnfielder.com/ (http://www.johnfielder.com/)

This is one of the most widely known nature photographers in Colorado - his Calendars sell at the local Costco, he has an art gallery on the trendy side of town.  Take a look at the price of his prints...compare them to FAA.

This is what your own site can do for you...and yes, he sells images daily.

I get my prints done through Miller's here in the U.S. - they are absolutely exceptional.  This is not Mpix or Bayphoto, this is Miller Lab.  I ordered a 20x30 print for a client yesterday...my cost is $43.

Here's one of the cover images from FAA - very creative art....

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/lightninghead-frank-robert-dixon.html (http://fineartamerica.com/featured/lightninghead-frank-robert-dixon.html)

Look at the pricing...do you think he's making any money?

I think what you're looking at is similar to Alamy reporting - gross sale vs. net.  I know people that have experience with FAA and it's not that great.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: luissantos84 on January 05, 2013, 22:43
that's what I see and that's what you see, same goes with our own experiences in stock agencies.. lets hear more, thanks for sharing!
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Pixart on January 05, 2013, 22:46
Well, he sets his own prices Ed, he must be happy with what he is asking on FAA.

This is their POD price list and he added his own markup.
http://fineartamerica.com/printondemand.html (http://fineartamerica.com/printondemand.html)

Doesn't FAA also have a self-fulfilled option as well?  He can go ahead and print at Millers if he wants to!
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Sedge on January 05, 2013, 22:54
Sandralise posted in a similar thread about FAA that she does quite well there, with regular payouts.  She has some outstanding work.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Ed on January 05, 2013, 23:04
Well, he sets his own prices Ed, he must be happy with what he is asking on FAA.

This is their POD price list and he added his own markup.
[url]http://fineartamerica.com/printondemand.html[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/printondemand.html[/url])

Doesn't FAA also have a self-fulfilled option as well?  He can go ahead and print at Millers if he wants to!


There is no self fulfillment option.  In order to have more than 25 images on the site, you must pay $30 per month.  That's $360 per year.  Zenfolio does the same for $150 per year (if you use Bay Labs or Mpix) or $250 per year if you self fulfill and don't want to pay Zenfolio extra.  Smugmug is a little more expensive.

It's not that great of a deal.

You're better off working through Zenfolio (or Smugmug) and building your own brand and your own identity if you're selling Fine Art.  It's a different market than stock...in stock, you are anonymous by nature.  Fine Art - it's all about your name.

Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Pixart on January 05, 2013, 23:35
No, it's $30 per year not per month
http://fineartamerica.com/membershipplans.html (http://fineartamerica.com/membershipplans.html)

You are right, I couldn't find self fullfill option. 
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: luissantos84 on January 06, 2013, 07:49
Ed you are way too skeptical, have you even tried?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: BaldricksTrousers on January 06, 2013, 08:11
I put some stuff up there in order to have a store where I could order my prints. I didn't try to promote my work there in any way and I've had $800 revenue in sales in two years, so I've built up my portfolio there to about 400 files.
There are several ways to use FAA. One is simply as a printer (their printing is very good and really quite cheap a 20x30 print costs me $35 + postage, but it will cost you $170 to buy my work there because of my $135 mark-up), another approach is to market yourself online in various forums to try to whip up interest in your work, and a third approach is to make direct contact with people in your area who have an interest in buying art and direct them to your "artist webpage" as being your sales site.
However, FAA does not do anything much in the way of marketing.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: PaulieWalnuts on January 06, 2013, 08:31
Pretty amazing that the place was built and is run by one guy with two support people. He's an automation engineer and everything is automated. And the site works great, is stable, and performs well.

I get some sales but the people that do well there create original art. Madart does some really beautiful unique work and seems to sell quite a bit.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: RacePhoto on January 06, 2013, 10:02

another interesting link, that you can find at the end of their email/newsletter:

https://www.facebook.com/fineartamerica/app_183192038389060 (https://www.facebook.com/fineartamerica/app_183192038389060)

This link above should not get lost, very interesting reading and information.

Reminded me that when I cash out at Zazzle, I want to close my account. Maybe by 2020?  :) When I read that they closed the forum for the holidays I figured, that's good for them, they have a small staff and no one to watch the monkeys in the zoo, so they just closed it.

Friday, January 30th, 2009

Zazzle, the online shop that lets you order custom-decorated clothing, mugs, and a variety of other items, has laid off nearly 25% of its corporate staff and 15% of the overall company, which includes workers in its manufacturing factory.


More recently: (Zazzle Correspondent) We’re looking for more than 600 enthusiastic and talented individuals to join the Zazzle team. We have open roles in both our corporate office in Redwood City, California, as well as our manufacturing facility in San Jose, California. By December 2012, we anticipate that more than 1000 people will be working in both locations combined. Unfortunately, Zazzle does not disclose the total number of employees, but we can assure you, this is the largest we’ve ever been! (part time holiday jobs and other)

I'm beginning to like FAA more all the time. I need to add that to my list of things to do, with all my free time. (which I don't have, but if I did... I'd be adding FAA!)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: luissantos84 on January 06, 2013, 10:29
Pretty amazing that the place was built and is run by one guy with two support people. He's an automation engineer and everything is automated. And the site works great, is stable, and performs well.

I get some sales but the people that do well there create original art. Madart does some really beautiful unique work and seems to sell quite a bit.

3 full-time employees, its really amazing, how many does iStock have?

Quote
#7 - Most POD companies have huge employee payrolls to sustain.

FineArtAmerica.com has three full-time employees.   That's it.

We have the lowest overhead anywhere in the industry.

Art.com has more than 250 employees.

CafePress.com is getting ready to go public with an IPO and had to reveal all of their financials in a public filing:

[url]http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1117733/000119312511162782/ds1.htm[/url] ([url]http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1117733/000119312511162782/ds1.htm[/url])

They have 423 employees!

If you ever wondered why these companies need to convince their artists to lower their prices (see #1, above)... wonder no more.   They have huge payrolls to sustain.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on January 06, 2013, 10:33
Some posters here are posting stuff that isnt true and are talking gossip. At FAA you set your own price and you get a part of the material$. FAA also only cost 30 per year not per month as pointed out. And FAA does really well. There is thread on SS where basically a lot of people said they do well on FAA. Like Louis said, try it out and see. You might be surprised.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: luissantos84 on January 06, 2013, 14:15
what is the default print prices you guys have up there? I have asked them what they recommend and they told me to use whatever I want, what do you think?

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-A3-Q_8JLri8/UOnM3ToaJhI/AAAAAAAABfc/6MpMfoZYcNw/s1600/FAA.JPG)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on January 06, 2013, 14:52
My 108 inch goes for 350 dollar, my smallest goes for 10
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: luissantos84 on January 06, 2013, 15:22
My 108 inch goes for 350 dollar, my smallest goes for 10

thanks for sharing, I just adjusted mine from 20 to 245 and the cards a little lower than I had, anyway with only 25 pictures I believe it will be hard to get noticed..
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: luissantos84 on January 06, 2013, 15:55
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wB5ZEyOhxrU/UOnkoNR6hyI/AAAAAAAABgY/93zZROpwnV0/s1600/FAA_FORUM.JPG)

http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=871423 (http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=871423)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Mantis on January 06, 2013, 17:01
([url]http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wB5ZEyOhxrU/UOnkoNR6hyI/AAAAAAAABgY/93zZROpwnV0/s1600/FAA_FORUM.JPG[/url])

[url]http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=871423[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=871423[/url])


Lots of images.  That seems to be the common theme....MS'rs need to consider volume and link that to success....along with appeal, of course. I also find it interesting that one successful poster stated that general MS images do well too. 
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: luissantos84 on January 06, 2013, 17:14
in the case of Rizzuto, he never been in stock
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Mantis on January 06, 2013, 17:38
on FAA, what does "Dimensions and Price (Originals and Non-Print-On-Demand Prints)" mean and I would think that it would pick this data up from the camera. I certainly wouldn't want to put that info in manually for every one of my images. And it looks like you have to upsize if you want more money.  I'm shooting a D700, 12 mp.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: luissantos84 on January 06, 2013, 18:56
on FAA, what does "Dimensions and Price (Originals and Non-Print-On-Demand Prints)" mean and I would think that it would pick this data up from the camera. I certainly wouldn't want to put that info in manually for every one of my images. And it looks like you have to upsize if you want more money.  I'm shooting a D700, 12 mp.

I have a 5 MP picture that goes up to 22.00" x 24.00", have a few with 12MP and they go up to 26.75"x
40.00"

you don't need to put anything beside the usual title, description, keywords
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Newsfocus1 on January 07, 2013, 04:24
on FAA, what does "Dimensions and Price (Originals and Non-Print-On-Demand Prints)" mean and I would think that it would pick this data up from the camera. I certainly wouldn't want to put that info in manually for every one of my images. And it looks like you have to upsize if you want more money.  I'm shooting a D700, 12 mp.

To answer the first part - As I understand it, that is only needed if you are selling an original piece of work (for example a painting). You're telling potential buyers the physical size of the painting/sculpture etc and your price for selling it. Just ignore that bit if you are uploading images for print on demand.
Regards, David.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: gostwyck on January 07, 2013, 07:04
I put some stuff up there in order to have a store where I could order my prints. I didn't try to promote my work there in any way and I've had $800 revenue in sales in two years, so I've built up my portfolio there to about 400 files.
There are several ways to use FAA. One is simply as a printer (their printing is very good and really quite cheap a 20x30 print costs me $35 + postage, but it will cost you $170 to buy my work there because of my $135 mark-up), another approach is to market yourself online in various forums to try to whip up interest in your work, and a third approach is to make direct contact with people in your area who have an interest in buying art and direct them to your "artist webpage" as being your sales site.
However, FAA does not do anything much in the way of marketing.

Interesting, thanks for the details. What sort of stuff sells there? I see you've got quite a range of images in your portfolio, not just 'fine art landscapes'.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on January 07, 2013, 08:06
I put some stuff up there in order to have a store where I could order my prints. I didn't try to promote my work there in any way and I've had $800 revenue in sales in two years, so I've built up my portfolio there to about 400 files.
There are several ways to use FAA. One is simply as a printer (their printing is very good and really quite cheap a 20x30 print costs me $35 + postage, but it will cost you $170 to buy my work there because of my $135 mark-up), another approach is to market yourself online in various forums to try to whip up interest in your work, and a third approach is to make direct contact with people in your area who have an interest in buying art and direct them to your "artist webpage" as being your sales site.
However, FAA does not do anything much in the way of marketing.

Interesting, thanks for the details. What sort of stuff sells there? I see you've got quite a range of images in your portfolio, not just 'fine art landscapes'.
Check their recent sales list. It will give an idea, but my sales are mainly skylines.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: gostwyck on January 07, 2013, 08:18
^^^ Thanks! Excellent website. I'll look forward to uploading some stuff there.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: BaldricksTrousers on January 07, 2013, 08:56
My best sale was a rather bizarre experimental black-and-white photo of a green pepper, somewhat in the style of Edward Weston, someone bought a 5ft high print of that. I don't know if this link will work: http://fineartamerica.com/featured/in-the-raw-paul-cowan.html (http://fineartamerica.com/featured/in-the-raw-paul-cowan.html)

I've sold a picture of the architecture in Venice three times, an orange sunset, a Greek doorway, a couple of night scenes in Qatar - one of a museum another of an old dhow, so it's a mixture. A high proportion of those were shot on film rather than digital but that is probably just a coincidence.

I've just shot a series of classic cameras, using film for it to add to the retro feel. Maybe someday someone will want to decorate a bar or a studio reception area with something like that. Similarly with food: maybe that could find a place in a kitchen showroom or even in the home. Of course, there is a good chance that it will never sell - but that's the case with stock, too.

There's no inspection there, so you can post anything you like, which is quite refreshing.


Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: gostwyck on January 07, 2013, 09:05
^^^ Useful info. Thanks!
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: gemmy12 on January 07, 2013, 09:10
Interesting, So guys put same images in FAA what you sell elsewhere as RF RM in stock sites or your FAA port is completely different than your stock ports ? I do look  at the FAA recently sold items and those are mostly paintings.
Recently i came to know that in Zazzle also some people are selling  canvas and other stuffs for much higher price. Have a look-
http://www.zazzle.com/gifts?st=price (http://www.zazzle.com/gifts?st=price)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on January 07, 2013, 09:22
I am not sticking up isolated stuff on FAA, nor seniors doing stuff, LOL. But everything that can pass as art or normal photos such as scenes, archticture, landscapes, the lot, etc, goes up
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: gemmy12 on January 07, 2013, 09:30
Ok Poncke. So did you succeed in selling your photographs there? If images are also sold frequently then 30$ a year is not much, one can try.
 what about RM images ? do any of you sell RM also in this site ? AFAIK, RM can also be sold in POD sites if not exclusive anywhere, am I right ?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on January 07, 2013, 09:48
I made over 500 dollar in 6 months. Now at 200 dollar / month
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: gemmy12 on January 07, 2013, 10:10
its good earning from a POD site I would say.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: aeonf on January 07, 2013, 11:01
Has anyone found a more efficent way of uploading photos to FAA besides the "5 uploads at a time" ?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: jatrax on January 07, 2013, 13:57
Has anyone found a more efficent way of uploading photos to FAA besides the "5 uploads at a time" ?
None that I know of.

There was a thread awhile back on their discussion forum about someone wanting to build a Lightroom export plugin.  The answer from the moderator was that an API for FAA would not be published and that management preferred slow steady uploads rather than big portfolios being sent up.  AFAIK it never went any further.

http://www.zigzagmtart.com/ (http://www.zigzagmtart.com/)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on January 07, 2013, 14:44
Has anyone found a more efficent way of uploading photos to FAA besides the "5 uploads at a time" ?
Nope, and its dodgy as heck, I need to reupload 60% of my photos because of that dodgy HTML upload.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ClaridgeJ on January 07, 2013, 15:04
Has anyone found a more efficent way of uploading photos to FAA besides the "5 uploads at a time" ?
Nope, and its dodgy as heck, I need to reupload 60% of my photos because of that dodgy HTML upload.

True!  they need to do something about their uploading precidure,  its a total joke. However, I have made more then 15K during 2012 there so its not a bad place. Arty-farty, yes but not a bad place.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on January 07, 2013, 15:08
Has anyone found a more efficent way of uploading photos to FAA besides the "5 uploads at a time" ?
Nope, and its dodgy as heck, I need to reupload 60% of my photos because of that dodgy HTML upload.


True!  they need to do something about their uploading precidure,  its a total joke. However, I have made more then 15K during 2012 there so its not a bad place. Arty-farty, yes but not a bad place.


http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/christian-lagereek.html (http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/christian-lagereek.html)

Is that your port?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Elenathewise on January 07, 2013, 15:17
I had some sales on FAA but it's not something to retire on. If you compare it to stock sites, it would be in the "low earners" category (and on the lower side, too). I do like to have a place for my more artsy stuff, stock gets too boring once in a while.
Some people do better because they mostly create photographic art, which is more suitable for prints. Plain photos have to be outstanding or very original to be popular as prints.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: gostwyck on January 07, 2013, 15:21
Has anyone found a more efficent way of uploading photos to FAA besides the "5 uploads at a time" ?
Nope, and its dodgy as heck, I need to reupload 60% of my photos because of that dodgy HTML upload.

True!  they need to do something about their uploading precidure,  its a total joke. However, I have made more then 15K during 2012 there so its not a bad place. Arty-farty, yes but not a bad place.

That's amazing! You actually made more than $15K last year with no images in your portfolio and on a site that you only joined ... er ... yesterday? There is no beginning to your talent.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Elenathewise on January 07, 2013, 15:30
Here are examples of what I sold on FAA this year:
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/2-notre-dame-de-paris-elena-elisseeva.html (http://fineartamerica.com/featured/2-notre-dame-de-paris-elena-elisseeva.html)
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/waterfall-elena-elisseeva.html (http://fineartamerica.com/featured/waterfall-elena-elisseeva.html)
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/1-cityscape-of-saint-johns-from-signal-hill-elena-elisseeva.html (http://fineartamerica.com/featured/1-cityscape-of-saint-johns-from-signal-hill-elena-elisseeva.html)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on January 07, 2013, 15:33
Here are examples of what I sold on FAA this year:
[url]http://fineartamerica.com/featured/2-notre-dame-de-paris-elena-elisseeva.html[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/featured/2-notre-dame-de-paris-elena-elisseeva.html[/url])
[url]http://fineartamerica.com/featured/waterfall-elena-elisseeva.html[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/featured/waterfall-elena-elisseeva.html[/url])
[url]http://fineartamerica.com/featured/1-cityscape-of-saint-johns-from-signal-hill-elena-elisseeva.html[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/featured/1-cityscape-of-saint-johns-from-signal-hill-elena-elisseeva.html[/url])
I see more people using their name in the image name and then it gets embedded in the URL. Will that help with sale, or with name exposure?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: gostwyck on January 07, 2013, 15:37
Here are examples of what I sold on FAA this year:
[url]http://fineartamerica.com/featured/2-notre-dame-de-paris-elena-elisseeva.html[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/featured/2-notre-dame-de-paris-elena-elisseeva.html[/url])
[url]http://fineartamerica.com/featured/waterfall-elena-elisseeva.html[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/featured/waterfall-elena-elisseeva.html[/url])
[url]http://fineartamerica.com/featured/1-cityscape-of-saint-johns-from-signal-hill-elena-elisseeva.html[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/featured/1-cityscape-of-saint-johns-from-signal-hill-elena-elisseeva.html[/url])


Nice work! You even managed to sell an image of a waterfall too? I've spent hours sitting by waterfalls experimenting with various exposures ... but they never make any money in stock.

I like all the congratulatory comments too. Seems like a friendly and fun place to do business.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Elenathewise on January 07, 2013, 15:53
Here are examples of what I sold on FAA this year:
[url]http://fineartamerica.com/featured/2-notre-dame-de-paris-elena-elisseeva.html[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/featured/2-notre-dame-de-paris-elena-elisseeva.html[/url])
[url]http://fineartamerica.com/featured/waterfall-elena-elisseeva.html[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/featured/waterfall-elena-elisseeva.html[/url])
[url]http://fineartamerica.com/featured/1-cityscape-of-saint-johns-from-signal-hill-elena-elisseeva.html[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/featured/1-cityscape-of-saint-johns-from-signal-hill-elena-elisseeva.html[/url])


Nice work! You even managed to sell an image of a waterfall too? I've spent hours sitting by waterfalls experimenting with various exposures ... but they never make any money in stock.

I like all the congratulatory comments too. Seems like a friendly and fun place to do business.


Thanks!:) This particular waterfall actually did sell a few times as stock, but in my experience what sells as prints generally doesn't sell as stock. My stock bestsellers don't sell on FAA but some obscure travel images do! Maybe to increase my income from FAA I need to shoot some more obscure travel images... :) However as it's been pointed out here, the site's content is growing really fast, so good luck getting found there... my prediction is that eventually (pretty soon) the only way to make money through them will be self-advertising.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: steheap on January 07, 2013, 15:57
This thread has prompted me to get going on this site as well! I'm also the seller of a waterfall!
http://steven-heap.artistwebsites.com/saleannouncement.html?id=dc5063f6ca89b2ec779e5c51681e369a (http://steven-heap.artistwebsites.com/saleannouncement.html?id=dc5063f6ca89b2ec779e5c51681e369a)

I've just upgraded to the $30 package and am struggling (as have others) with their multiple file upload process. Glad it is not just me that has issues with this. Only 3000 images to go (at 1 minute each, that is around 50 hours I think!!)

Steve
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: luissantos84 on January 07, 2013, 16:05
the site's content is growing really fast, so good luck getting found there.

Fine Art America is home to 140,685 of the world's greatest living artists and photographers.   Browse through our collection of 3,869,997 images - all of which can be purchased as framed prints, canvas prints, greeting cards, acrylic prints, metal prints, posters, and more.   When you're ready, we'll deliver a museum-quality masterpiece right to your doorstep.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on January 07, 2013, 17:11
Here are examples of what I sold on FAA this year:
[url]http://fineartamerica.com/featured/2-notre-dame-de-paris-elena-elisseeva.html[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/featured/2-notre-dame-de-paris-elena-elisseeva.html[/url])
[url]http://fineartamerica.com/featured/waterfall-elena-elisseeva.html[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/featured/waterfall-elena-elisseeva.html[/url])
[url]http://fineartamerica.com/featured/1-cityscape-of-saint-johns-from-signal-hill-elena-elisseeva.html[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/featured/1-cityscape-of-saint-johns-from-signal-hill-elena-elisseeva.html[/url])


Nice work! You even managed to sell an image of a waterfall too? I've spent hours sitting by waterfalls experimenting with various exposures ... but they never make any money in stock.

I like all the congratulatory comments too. Seems like a friendly and fun place to do business.
It is to a certain degree, their forum is no different than any other forum with the same kind of population you have here or anywhere else  :)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: rubyroo on January 07, 2013, 18:07
I've spent hours sitting by waterfalls experimenting with various exposures ... but they never make any money in stock.

Hahaaaa... yes.  Best job in the world though isn't it?  ;D
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: aeonf on January 07, 2013, 18:44
How much do you guys price your pictures for sale ?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on January 07, 2013, 18:47
How much do you guys price your pictures for sale ?
  I priced from 10 (smallest) to 350 (108 inch)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: shiyali on January 07, 2013, 19:17
Has anyone found a more efficent way of uploading photos to FAA besides the "5 uploads at a time" ?
Nope, and its dodgy as heck, I need to reupload 60% of my photos because of that dodgy HTML upload.

I found that the upload system is more stable if you upload only three at a time. When you do five there are more upload failures.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: steheap on January 07, 2013, 19:39
Once you have uploaded and put into galleries, how quickly do they become available in the main site search engine?

Steve
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on January 07, 2013, 19:46
Once you have uploaded and put into galleries, how quickly do they become available in the main site search engine?

Steve
I always wondered about that, but still after months of images online, I can never find them with the search, even if I search with specific keywords. But I do get sales. Weird.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: steheap on January 07, 2013, 19:55
I can find the ones that were in the original 24 I had in the basic membership, but none of the ones I uploaded today are visible. I do seem to have had a lot of visitors so I suppose there is a "new uploads" section somewhere that people are looking at.

My "Artwork" menu item still shows 24 images, although the "art" part of the home page shows 250 or so. Perhaps there is a nightly update?

Steve
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ClaridgeJ on January 08, 2013, 02:35
Has anyone found a more efficent way of uploading photos to FAA besides the "5 uploads at a time" ?
Nope, and its dodgy as heck, I need to reupload 60% of my photos because of that dodgy HTML upload.


True!  they need to do something about their uploading precidure,  its a total joke. However, I have made more then 15K during 2012 there so its not a bad place. Arty-farty, yes but not a bad place.


[url]http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/christian-lagereek.html[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/christian-lagereek.html[/url])

Is that your port?


I was being ironic actually ( sorry if you didnt get it)  you cant even upload to the stupid place! so full of glitches its unbelieavable.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: BaldricksTrousers on January 08, 2013, 04:25
I haven't had much problem uploading - and I got another $54 there yesterday.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ClaridgeJ on January 08, 2013, 05:18
I haven't had much problem uploading - and I got another $54 there yesterday.

Its working now ok. Must say it looks rather exclusive once the images springs up. I hear your doing quite well there?  I can see your terrific santorini images selling well?

best.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: BaldricksTrousers on January 08, 2013, 06:59
not so far - probably too much competition with that subject
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: steheap on January 08, 2013, 08:43
Quote
Once you have uploaded and put into galleries, how quickly do they become available in the main site search engine?

Steve

To answer my own question - it appears to happen overnight. My new images are visible in the searches this morning. No sales unfortunately, but I guess I need to give it longer than one day! ;D

Steve
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: luissantos84 on January 08, 2013, 09:31
all new artists are free to drop a donation at my Paypal ;D
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ClaridgeJ on January 08, 2013, 09:51
all new artists are free to drop a donation at my Paypal ;D

You aint gonna believe this!  just had a sale!  and I havent been there 2 minutes. Now whats your PP adress?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: luissantos84 on January 08, 2013, 10:00
all new artists are free to drop a donation at my Paypal ;D

You aint gonna believe this!  just had a sale!  and I havent been there 2 minutes. Now whats your PP adress?

I am joking come on, enjoy your sale!
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ClaridgeJ on January 08, 2013, 10:11
all new artists are free to drop a donation at my Paypal ;D

You aint gonna believe this!  just had a sale!  and I havent been there 2 minutes. Now whats your PP adress?

I am joking come on, enjoy your sale!

Oh Luis I was joking as well!  still though how are you doing at FAA? I mean is it worth it?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: luissantos84 on January 08, 2013, 10:22
all new artists are free to drop a donation at my Paypal ;D

You aint gonna believe this!  just had a sale!  and I havent been there 2 minutes. Now whats your PP adress?

I am joking come on, enjoy your sale!

Oh Luis I was joking as well!  still though how are you doing at FAA? I mean is it worth it?

not worth but I think they (FAA) have a lot of potential, I believe the 25 free slots ain't helping much too, still thinking what should fit better there, I think the key to success is uploading pictures that people want very badly to hang on their houses, offices or restaurants (not exactly the most stuff created for microstock)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ClaridgeJ on January 08, 2013, 10:39
all new artists are free to drop a donation at my Paypal ;D

You aint gonna believe this!  just had a sale!  and I havent been there 2 minutes. Now whats your PP adress?

I agree 100%, thats it, what ppl want to hang on their walls, etc and thats a far cry from our micros indeed.

I am joking come on, enjoy your sale!

Oh Luis I was joking as well!  still though how are you doing at FAA? I mean is it worth it?

not worth but I think they (FAA) have a lot of potential, I believe the 25 free slots ain't helping much too, still thinking what should fit better there, I think the key to success is uploading pictures that people want very badly to hang on their houses, offices or restaurants (not exactly the most stuff created for microstock)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: wordplanet on January 08, 2013, 15:24
I joined the free site ages ago but didn't upload any pics until 2012 -  the uploading procedure is annoying but I got past the first 25 pretty quickly and tripled my $30 investment with my first sale. I have a small portfolio there but I know people with large portfolios who are making sales every month. I just see it as another outlet for my work.
I've made two sales so far - both photos I took as part of a news event - just to show you what sells - it's hard to predict:
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/in-the-eagles-rigging-opsail-2012-marianne-campolongo.html (http://fineartamerica.com/featured/in-the-eagles-rigging-opsail-2012-marianne-campolongo.html)
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/1-opsail-2012-festivities-marianne-campolongo.html (http://fineartamerica.com/featured/1-opsail-2012-festivities-marianne-campolongo.html)

I've been invited to show some of my work from that shoot in a local gallery so I may be raising my prices on those very soon.

My prices vary - stuff I have on the micros or stuff that seems less traditionally "art" I price for less. I haven't added any works that I've had in galleries there but may do so at a much higher price. I figured for a $30 investment - and my time of course - it was worth looking into. The nice thing too is you get paid the month after you make a sale, so a $65 commission in December means a $65 check in January.

I promote my work on my FB fan page but haven't done anything else - I do worry that the growing number of photos there will make it harder and harder to sell though I'm selling stuff I uploaded in 2008 on SS despite the millions of photos added since then, so I prefer to stay optimistic and hope 2013 will outperform 2012.  8)
 
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on January 08, 2013, 15:49
That about the commission is not true. It takes almost two months to pay out. Cut off is the 15th.

Quote
Checks and PayPal payments are issued on the 15th of each month for all sales completed before the 15th of the the previous month.   For example, on 01/15, you will be paid for all of your unpaid orders that shipped before 12/15
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ClaridgeJ on January 08, 2013, 16:22
That about the commission is not true. It takes almost two months to pay out. Cut off is the 15th.

Quote
Checks and PayPal payments are issued on the 15th of each month for all sales completed before the 15th of the the previous month.   For example, on 01/15, you will be paid for all of your unpaid orders that shipped before 12/15

Hi! You seem very familiar with the FAA. What puzzels me is this: it says original prints, etc. contact the artist. However I would rather see that the FAA did all the prints, dealings, etc. Is there a way to do this?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Pixart on January 08, 2013, 16:47
I was searching for the self fullfilled option a couple days ago, all I could find was that you can handle your own transactions but the potential client has to email you.  It's kind of a deal breaker making it that difficult - Zenfolio or Smugmug would likely be a better option if you were self fulfilling.  But I can print on metal and metal-canvas etc and die sub etc. that they don't offer.

But I think most of FAA's artist sell through them don't they?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: luissantos84 on January 08, 2013, 16:48
That about the commission is not true. It takes almost two months to pay out. Cut off is the 15th.

Quote
Checks and PayPal payments are issued on the 15th of each month for all sales completed before the 15th of the the previous month.   For example, on 01/15, you will be paid for all of your unpaid orders that shipped before 12/15

Hi! You seem very familiar with the FAA. What puzzels me is this: it says original prints, etc. contact the artist. However I would rather see that the FAA did all the prints, dealings, etc. Is there a way to do this?

as I read you can do that yourself too if you are lets say a painter and send the frame to buyer etc.. by default I believe they do all the job, pretty much you MARK UP (choose what you want to earn in each size) and then they will add printing, frames etc to the buyer..
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on January 08, 2013, 17:04
I do nothing, I just put my prints up there, I have my pricing and settings template set up, all  I need to do is upload and submit and FAA does all the rest. I get my own markup plus a commission of their material used and thats it. I believe they deliver quality stuff so I have no reason to do my own fulfillment. So far I had no returns.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ClaridgeJ on January 08, 2013, 17:28
That about the commission is not true. It takes almost two months to pay out. Cut off is the 15th.

Quote
Checks and PayPal payments are issued on the 15th of each month for all sales completed before the 15th of the the previous month.   For example, on 01/15, you will be paid for all of your unpaid orders that shipped before 12/15

Hi! You seem very familiar with the FAA. What puzzels me is this: it says original prints, etc. contact the artist. However I would rather see that the FAA did all the prints, dealings, etc. Is there a way to do this?

as I read you can do that yourself too if you are lets say a painter and send the frame to buyer etc.. by default I believe they do all the job, pretty much you MARK UP (choose what you want to earn in each size) and then they will add printing, frames etc to the buyer..

Ok!  cheers.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: wordplanet on January 08, 2013, 18:23
That about the commission is not true. It takes almost two months to pay out. Cut off is the 15th.

Quote
Checks and PayPal payments are issued on the 15th of each month for all sales completed before the 15th of the the previous month.   For example, on 01/15, you will be paid for all of your unpaid orders that shipped before 12/15

Hi! You seem very familiar with the FAA. What puzzels me is this: it says original prints, etc. contact the artist. However I would rather see that the FAA did all the prints, dealings, etc. Is there a way to do this?

Re: self-defense: My last sale there was on December 5th so I will be paid in January. Kind of splitting hairs there aren't you? I get it that you may not like the site, but in reality, half the time you get paid the next month and half the time it's two months, so I guess if we're being technical we're both wrong. The point I was making is that I've had a good experience so far and I like the fact that I get paid even if I only make $65 one month, I don't have to wait for a minimum amount to accrue, which is good since my portfolio there is small right now.

Let's agree to disagree on FAA. I think it's a viable option and I shared my sales data so people can make up their own minds. So please, don't jump down my throat and accuse me of lying. What I said about the commission was true - I really will get a commission in January for a sale I made in December. Did I need to add that if the sale had been made after the 15th I wouldn't get paid until February for you to find my post accurate?

Re: self-fulfillment: I also like the fact that I can upload and keyword images, and then they do everything else - gives me more time to shoot. Self-fulfillment is great if you want to have people contact you and then you discuss what size they want, what kind of frame, mat, etc - it seems very time-consuming. Easier to direct people to FAA where they can choose from plenty of options on their own . And when it comes to photography, what's an original print? I assume one printed by the artist. That was more important back in the days of going into the darkroom than it is now, IMHO. You can sell originals on the site by having people contact you directly. So If you want to print the photos yourself or use a different lab,  it's similar to painters selling their original works - although you can't really set one price as they do unless you only sell one size print. I do self-fulfillment from my own site, and I usually use Miller's - but it is much more time-consuming than selling through FAA. FAA makes a profit because they're getting someone else to do the work for you. You have to deduct the cost of printing, matting etc from your profit anyway and FAA's printing costs are not out of line.

If someone is local I like the self-fulfillment option - I'll even hand-deliver stuff. It's a good way to make a new client. But FAA is showing promise for me and there are people on there who are making decent amounts every month, including some photographers I know.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on January 08, 2013, 18:45
That about the commission is not true. It takes almost two months to pay out. Cut off is the 15th.

Quote
Checks and PayPal payments are issued on the 15th of each month for all sales completed before the 15th of the the previous month.   For example, on 01/15, you will be paid for all of your unpaid orders that shipped before 12/15

Hi! You seem very familiar with the FAA. What puzzels me is this: it says original prints, etc. contact the artist. However I would rather see that the FAA did all the prints, dealings, etc. Is there a way to do this?

Re: self-defense: My last sale there was on December 5th so I will be paid in January. Kind of splitting hairs there aren't you? I get it that you may not like the site, but in reality, half the time you get paid the next month and half the time it's two months, so I guess if we're being technical we're both wrong. The point I was making is that I've had a good experience so far and I like the fact that I get paid even if I only make $65 one month, I don't have to wait for a minimum amount to accrue, which is good since my portfolio there is small right now.

Let's agree to disagree on FAA. I think it's a viable option and I shared my sales data so people can make up their own minds. So please, don't jump down my throat and accuse me of lying. What I said about the commission was true - I really will get a commission in January for a sale I made in December. Did I need to add that if the sale had been made after the 15th I wouldn't get paid until February for you to find my post accurate?

Re: self-fulfillment: I also like the fact that I can upload and keyword images, and then they do everything else - gives me more time to shoot. Self-fulfillment is great if you want to have people contact you and then you discuss what size they want, what kind of frame, mat, etc - it seems very time-consuming. Easier to direct people to FAA where they can choose from plenty of options on their own . And when it comes to photography, what's an original print? I assume one printed by the artist. That was more important back in the days of going into the darkroom than it is now, IMHO. You can sell originals on the site by having people contact you directly. So If you want to print the photos yourself or use a different lab,  it's similar to painters selling their original works - although you can't really set one price as they do unless you only sell one size print. I do self-fulfillment from my own site, and I usually use Miller's - but it is much more time-consuming than selling through FAA. FAA makes a profit because they're getting someone else to do the work for you. You have to deduct the cost of printing, matting etc from your profit anyway and FAA's printing costs are not out of line.

If someone is local I like the self-fulfillment option - I'll even hand-deliver stuff. It's a good way to make a new client. But FAA is showing promise for me and there are people on there who are making decent amounts every month, including some photographers I know.

I love the site, you got that all wrong. I am just posting facts. I asked the question in their forum and the reply was 2 months for pay out, and I experienced it myself. I can agree to disagree. Just dont put words in my mouth me not liking the site. I like FAA. Making me good money.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: BaldricksTrousers on January 08, 2013, 21:17
I was searching for the self fullfilled option a couple days ago, all I could find was that you can handle your own transactions but the potential client has to email you.  It's kind of a deal breaker making it that difficult - Zenfolio or Smugmug would likely be a better option if you were self fulfilling.  But I can print on metal and metal-canvas etc and die sub etc. that they don't offer.

But I think most of FAA's artist sell through them don't they?

For photos they handle all the billing, printing and posting, and you simply get notified of how much you earned. It is only people selling original canvasses or sculptures who need to deal directly with buyers (and, of course, FAA makes nothing at all from that, beyond the annual $30 fee).
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on January 08, 2013, 21:28
Apologies if this has been answered, I only speedread this thread.
How do releases work here. Do you need releases for selling prints?
I'd hae assumed yes, but on this artist info page:
https://fineartamerica.com/tourfineartamerica/sell-prints-online.html (https://fineartamerica.com/tourfineartamerica/sell-prints-online.html)
   there's a photo of Sydney Opera House.
It may be that someone has a release, but it seems odd that it would be used as an illustration for potential artists without any further explanation (if one is needed).
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Ed on January 08, 2013, 21:50
Apologies if this has been answered, I only speedread this thread.
How do releases work here. Do you need releases for selling prints?
I'd hae assumed yes, but on this artist info page:
[url]https://fineartamerica.com/tourfineartamerica/sell-prints-online.html[/url] ([url]https://fineartamerica.com/tourfineartamerica/sell-prints-online.html[/url])
   there's a photo of Sydney Opera House.
It may be that someone has a release, but it seems odd that it would be used as an illustration for potential artists without any further explanation (if one is needed).


For "fine art", generally speaking, you are OK not being released.

http://asmp.org/tutorials/frequently-asked-questions-about-releases.html (http://asmp.org/tutorials/frequently-asked-questions-about-releases.html)

You could get into trouble if there is an argument the person is used to "enhance" another's business - magazines usually get around this by placing unreleased images on a second or third page rather then the cover.

Putting a calendar together for the purpose of raising funds for an organization is considered "enhancing" another's business.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: luissantos84 on January 08, 2013, 21:52
AFAIK there is no place to add/manage releases
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: LesHoward on January 08, 2013, 22:41
I spent some time looking over the FAA site and reading this thread because I have some photos that might sell very well as fine art. But I had one question I can't seem to find a direct answer for. If you upload a picture, you set the price at the same time. What happens if you decide later you want to change the price, either higher or lower? Can you change prices later? How?

The answer will probably be obvious if I join and upload an image but I haven't done that yet.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: luissantos84 on January 08, 2013, 23:12
I spent some time looking over the FAA site and reading this thread because I have some photos that might sell very well as fine art. But I had one question I can't seem to find a direct answer for. If you upload a picture, you set the price at the same time. What happens if you decide later you want to change the price, either higher or lower? Can you change prices later? How?

The answer will probably be obvious if I join and upload an image but I haven't done that yet.


http://fineartamerica.com/controlpanel/bulkeditprices.html (http://fineartamerica.com/controlpanel/bulkeditprices.html)

Behind the Scenes ; Bulk Edit Prices
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: LesHoward on January 09, 2013, 00:29
Thanks Luis. But selecting that link takes me to their home page, not the page you linked. It looks like I actually need to join to get the question answered.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: flotsom on January 09, 2013, 04:54
I spent some time looking over the FAA site and reading this thread because I have some photos that might sell very well as fine art. But I had one question I can't seem to find a direct answer for. If you upload a picture, you set the price at the same time. What happens if you decide later you want to change the price, either higher or lower? Can you change prices later? How?

The answer will probably be obvious if I join and upload an image but I haven't done that yet.

You can change the prices at any time by editing the picture.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: steheap on January 09, 2013, 10:20
A question for all the FAA experts out there! I noticed this morning that all my images had $0 as the price for both prints and cards. They were all set at normal prices last night.

Is it just my account or is everyone  seeing this issue?

steve
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on January 09, 2013, 10:53
Apologies if this has been answered, I only speedread this thread.
How do releases work here. Do you need releases for selling prints?
I'd hae assumed yes, but on this artist info page:
[url]https://fineartamerica.com/tourfineartamerica/sell-prints-online.html[/url] ([url]https://fineartamerica.com/tourfineartamerica/sell-prints-online.html[/url])
   there's a photo of Sydney Opera House.
It may be that someone has a release, but it seems odd that it would be used as an illustration for potential artists without any further explanation (if one is needed).


For "fine art", generally speaking, you are OK not being released.

[url]http://asmp.org/tutorials/frequently-asked-questions-about-releases.html[/url] ([url]http://asmp.org/tutorials/frequently-asked-questions-about-releases.html[/url])



Thanks for the info and link.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: steheap on January 09, 2013, 11:06
Quote
A question for all the FAA experts out there! I noticed this morning that all my images had $0 as the price for both prints and cards. They were all set at normal prices last night.

Is it just my account or is everyone  seeing this issue?

steve

Forget this - it seems to be back to normal. Must have had a technical glitch!

Steve
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: LesHoward on January 09, 2013, 11:41
Quote
A question for all the FAA experts out there! I noticed this morning that all my images had $0 as the price for both prints and cards. They were all set at normal prices last night.

Is it just my account or is everyone  seeing this issue?

steve

Forget this - it seems to be back to normal. Must have had a technical glitch!

Steve

From what I read in the FAA forum, prices show differently depending on whether or not you are logged in. If you are NOT logged in, the price shows what a buyer would pay. If you ARE logged in, the price shows what you would pay to purchase your own product.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: luissantos84 on January 09, 2013, 11:45
Quote
A question for all the FAA experts out there! I noticed this morning that all my images had $0 as the price for both prints and cards. They were all set at normal prices last night.

Is it just my account or is everyone  seeing this issue?

steve

Forget this - it seems to be back to normal. Must have had a technical glitch!

Steve

From what I read in the FAA forum, prices show differently depending on whether or not you are logged in. If you are NOT logged in, the price shows what a buyer would pay. If you ARE logged in, the price shows what you would pay to purchase your own product.

very well said and its 100% right!
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on January 09, 2013, 15:37
You can create a template with all prices and settings and that template will be applied to all images you upload, all you have to do is hit the submit  button ( considering you have all IPCT data on the image)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: sharpshot on January 11, 2013, 06:29
It's encouraging to read about some of the sales.  Just paid the $30 and I'll start uploading.
http://stephen-rees.artistwebsites.com/ (http://stephen-rees.artistwebsites.com/)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: gemmy12 on January 14, 2013, 08:24
so here i got my 1st sale in FAA. I joined them last week. 100 images 1 sale for 20$. 2/3rd of their annual fee has been recovered. Not bad :)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: steheap on January 14, 2013, 10:47
Gemmy12 - that's great! I had hoped to be the first to announce a new sale!  I've now managed to get 544 images online (from 25 last Monday!) but no sales so far.  ???

I did write a "how to do it" blog post to avoid newcomers to FAA having to pick through this long discussion:
http://www.backyardsilver.com/2013/01/fine-art-america-a-new-way-to-earn-cash-from-digital-photos/ (http://www.backyardsilver.com/2013/01/fine-art-america-a-new-way-to-earn-cash-from-digital-photos/)

Good luck with the race to the next sale!

Steve
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: gemmy12 on January 14, 2013, 11:04
Gemmy12 - that's great! I had hoped to be the first to announce a new sale!  I've now managed to get 544 images online (from 25 last Monday!) but no sales so far.  ???

I did write a "how to do it" blog post to avoid newcomers to FAA having to pick through this long discussion:
[url]http://www.backyardsilver.com/2013/01/fine-art-america-a-new-way-to-earn-cash-from-digital-photos/[/url] ([url]http://www.backyardsilver.com/2013/01/fine-art-america-a-new-way-to-earn-cash-from-digital-photos/[/url])

Good luck with the race to the next sale!

Steve

Yes steve. I follow your blog and have added you in my FAA watch list too. I like your photographs and posts also. Hope to hear soon about your 2013 FAA sales. Good luck.
Title: Re: A list of partner programs
Post by: Jonathan Ross on January 27, 2013, 13:43
Hi All,

 If you have some fine art style work., it can even be location stuff. We have seen very good sales through Fine ASrt America at Spaces Images and you can upload images as an individual there. I have spoken to severalm people that do well there with the right image. We have an image up there now that is selling really well every month. Here is the link to it. http://fineartamerica.com/featured/long-rope-bridge-skip-nall.html (http://fineartamerica.com/featured/long-rope-bridge-skip-nall.html)

Hope this helps,
Jonathan
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: steheap on January 28, 2013, 13:28
Nice image!

Your prices are quite a bit lower than I have set up in my account. Do any of us know the willingness of FineArtAmerica buyers to pay the pricing that we discussed earlier in this thread? I think the idea was to go up to $225 plus the actual cost of the printing.

Maybe if I reduced my pricing I would get a sale!

Steve
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on January 28, 2013, 13:59
 108 inch is 350 for me, going down to 10 dollar for the smallest. Incrementing by 25 dollars first half and 50 dollars second half
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on January 28, 2013, 15:30
I joined the free site ages ago but didn't upload any pics until 2012 -  the uploading procedure is annoying but I got past the first 25 pretty quickly and tripled my $30 investment with my first sale. I have a small portfolio there but I know people with large portfolios who are making sales every month. I just see it as another outlet for my work.
I've made two sales so far - both photos I took as part of a news event - just to show you what sells - it's hard to predict:
[url]http://fineartamerica.com/featured/in-the-eagles-rigging-opsail-2012-marianne-campolongo.html[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/featured/in-the-eagles-rigging-opsail-2012-marianne-campolongo.html[/url])
[url]http://fineartamerica.com/featured/1-opsail-2012-festivities-marianne-campolongo.html[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/featured/1-opsail-2012-festivities-marianne-campolongo.html[/url])



I looked at those photos, and I'm confused by all the "tags".  It seems endless:  "east greeting cards, coast greeting cards, lyme greeting cards, mccooks greeting cards, mccook's greeting cards, point greeting cards"... "opsail posters, opsail2012 posters, 2012 posters, ct posters, opsailct posters, operation posters, sail posters, park posters, ususa posters, united posters, states posters"... on and on and on. 

Are those auto-generated somehow or did you (God forbid) have to key them all in?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on January 28, 2013, 15:31
Auto generated, just let it read your meta data, up to 500 characters.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on January 28, 2013, 16:02
Auto generated, just let it read your meta data, up to 500 characters.

Thanks.

Does anyone make any sales from the 'free' sit or is all the traffic driven preferentially to the 'pay' sites?  I might consider a paid site - just wondering if I'd be wasting my time by trying the free site first, for a while.

Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on January 28, 2013, 16:07
Everything between free and paid is the same except for the upload limit. 25 vs unlimited. I paid from the start so I dont know if there is a difference in sales, but I dont think so.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on January 28, 2013, 16:17
How about upsizing?  Some of my images aren't large by today's standards, and some POD sites (I tried RedBubble) won't offer prints large enough to make it worthwhile.  I could upsize the photos myself - within reason of course - before uploading, and I'm confident the prints would be fine.  And while I don't think there's even a way the site could detect that, I don't necessarily want to violate their rules or policies.  Has anyone done this with FAA?

EDIT - I just checked FAA (I have one image sitting there) and it looks like they'll print quite large from the image I gave them, so maybe this isn't an issue.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: steheap on January 28, 2013, 17:13
I think you can upsize a little (although I haven't done that yet). As far as I can tell, the sales come because of interest in your images - I had one sale as a free member, but none so far as a paid member.

I think I will have to revisit my pricing though - perhaps too high!

Steve
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on January 28, 2013, 17:28
So how about the 'artist' sites?  Are they really extensively customizable?  I looked at the samples on the FAA promo page, and 3 out of 4 were totally blah.   Who has an example of an artist site with some unique style?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: sdeva on January 28, 2013, 18:09
Just set up a new account at FAA - their system looks great to me.. easy to upload, keyword etc - although haven't figured everything out yet.   ;D 

Loaded the first few pics just to try it and got one of their standard website:

http://sanjay-deva.artistwebsites.com/ (http://sanjay-deva.artistwebsites.com/)

Any comments/ critique much appreciated as is any guidance.. hope my pricing is in some kind of sensible range ? ???

Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on January 28, 2013, 19:26
It will take a while to get a lot of images online here.  Is there maybe a way to make yourself invisible to buyers until you have everything ready?

I'd rather not have a buyer find one of my images, then go to my page and find only a couple of others.  I'd like to get everything up there first.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: DC on January 28, 2013, 19:46
You can really only customize the header.  For the body of the page you basically have 2 templates to choose from.

http://jess-kraft.artistwebsites.com/ (http://jess-kraft.artistwebsites.com/)

I went with the dark one just so it doesn't look exactly the same as the FAA page.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on January 28, 2013, 19:55
You can really only customize the header.  For the body of the page you basically have 2 templates to choose from.

[url]http://jess-kraft.artistwebsites.com/[/url] ([url]http://jess-kraft.artistwebsites.com/[/url])

I went with the dark one just so it doesn't look exactly the same as the FAA page.


Can you turn off all that Events/Blog stuff?   I'd have no use for it.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: DC on January 28, 2013, 20:03
I don't think so.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on January 28, 2013, 20:53
Well, I'm all pumped up now.  Ready to spend hours and hours on something that's likely to make me $5 over the next year. Just like I did with Zazzle.   :)

And RedBubble.   :)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Jonathan Ross on January 28, 2013, 22:54
 Hi All,

 We make sales monthly there and they have grown every month since we signed. We have a lot of images there but still if it is the right image, Like the bridge I showed there is Fine Art America.

Best,
Jonathan
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: CD123 on January 29, 2013, 01:50
Is there a minimum payout amount which has to be reached?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on January 29, 2013, 02:33
no
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: sdeva on January 29, 2013, 07:09
Should one choose option to place watermark or not on the FAA site?  Any recommendations...  They say it can limit sales of file but I saw some works there with the fineart logo on a corner, so dont know which is better to do.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: MarcvsTvllivs on January 29, 2013, 09:53
Is there a minimum payout amount which has to be reached?

This is what really says "fair" to me about FAA.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on January 29, 2013, 10:47
OK, stupid question.
I found an image of one of my favourite photographers there, and it says she has 3885 photos on FAA; but clicking on her name or on View All (both near the top right of the page) doesn't take me to her collection.
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/gray-whale-eschrichtius-robustus-tui-de-roy.html (http://fineartamerica.com/featured/gray-whale-eschrichtius-robustus-tui-de-roy.html)
How can I find only her images?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: sharpshot on January 29, 2013, 10:55
There's a link under the photo.  Great portfolio.
http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/animalsandearth.html (http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/animalsandearth.html)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on January 29, 2013, 10:59
There's a link under the photo.  Great portfolio.
[url]http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/animalsandearth.html[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/animalsandearth.html[/url])

But they're not just her photos. Oh, but that must be a collective, as clicking on one of these photos also shows '1 of 3885' pictures.
Is there a way to show just Tui's photos, even though the others there are also worth a browse.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: sharpshot on January 29, 2013, 11:05
Try this
http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/animalsandearth.html?tab=artworkgalleries&artworkgalleryid=182516 (http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/animalsandearth.html?tab=artworkgalleries&artworkgalleryid=182516)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on January 29, 2013, 11:08
Try this
[url]http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/animalsandearth.html?tab=artworkgalleries&artworkgalleryid=182516[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/animalsandearth.html?tab=artworkgalleries&artworkgalleryid=182516[/url])


Thanks. That's great?
Was there an easy way of getting to that page via the first image I found of hers?
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/gray-whale-eschrichtius-robustus-tui-de-roy.html (http://fineartamerica.com/featured/gray-whale-eschrichtius-robustus-tui-de-roy.html)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: sharpshot on January 29, 2013, 11:08
Should one choose option to place watermark or not on the FAA site?  Any recommendations...  They say it can limit sales of file but I saw some works there with the fineart logo on a corner, so dont know which is better to do.
I always use watermarks and don't think it puts buyers off, unless the main subject of the photo happens to be under the watermark and that doesn't happen very often.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: sharpshot on January 29, 2013, 11:10
Try this
[url]http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/animalsandearth.html?tab=artworkgalleries&artworkgalleryid=182516[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/animalsandearth.html?tab=artworkgalleries&artworkgalleryid=182516[/url])


Thanks. That's great?
Was there an easy way of getting to that page via the first image I found of hers?
[url]http://fineartamerica.com/featured/gray-whale-eschrichtius-robustus-tui-de-roy.html[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/featured/gray-whale-eschrichtius-robustus-tui-de-roy.html[/url])

I just clicked on her name under the photo and her gallery was easy to see on that page.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on January 29, 2013, 11:14
Should one choose option to place watermark or not on the FAA site?  Any recommendations...  They say it can limit sales of file but I saw some works there with the fineart logo on a corner, so dont know which is better to do.
I always use watermarks and don't think it puts buyers off, unless the main subject of the photo happens to be under the watermark and that doesn't happen very often.

I think watermarks do discourage buyers, but that's just my feeling.  They detract from the image and sort of break the spell, I think.

FAA seems to have something of a customer base.  Right now, as I'm getting started, I think the limited customization of the 'pay' sites is a weak point.   Selling images as art requires a site with style and personality.  In particular, I think a clean look sells better than the traditional cluttered mass of tabs and links.   

Years ago, I tried SmugMug and set out to heavily customize my site, but it was way too hard - it's a huge mess of nested .CSS, and the guidance was pretty weak.   
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on January 29, 2013, 12:39
When you pay you get the artist website option if I am correct and although it looks simple and you cant customize much, it doesnt look cluttered or bad. Looks better than the FAA site.

Send me a PM if you want the link
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: donding on January 29, 2013, 14:22
I'm fairly new there, and haven't sold anything yet, but do all of you promote your images through facebook or twitter? I don't have a bunch of people, mainly just family, on my facebook page and I don't do twitter, so how do you get the traffic? I'm afraid my friends and family wouldn't like it if I used my facebook page.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on January 29, 2013, 15:04
Set up a business page on Facebook. I twitter, facebook everything. I blog an I am on Linkedin. Its all connected with each other. FAA also has a lot of marketing tools and they look quite professional.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on January 29, 2013, 20:45
Everything between free and paid is the same except for the upload limit. 25 vs unlimited. ...

I don't think that's correct, I just put 29 images on my free account.  Besides the 'artist site', it's not yet clear to me what you get for the $30.

[update]  It looks like the big things you get with an 'artist' site is appearance in Google search, and sales through Amazon.com.  Maybe worth the $30 right there, if you make a sale through either of those channels.  The slightly-customized site itself isn't that big a deal in my opinion, but you do get a domain.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: shiyali on January 29, 2013, 21:55
The $30 is certainly worth it. You get unlimited uploads, and if you just make one sale per year it will pay for itself. FAA is the only POD site that reads IPTC metadata as far as I know which is a huge plus.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Travelling-light on January 29, 2013, 22:02

I don't think that's correct, I just put 29 images on my free account.  Besides the 'artist site', it's not yet clear to me what you get for the $30.


You can put as many as you like up, but you shouldn't be able to price more than 25 at a time on a free account.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on January 29, 2013, 22:08

I don't think that's correct, I just put 29 images on my free account.  Besides the 'artist site', it's not yet clear to me what you get for the $30.


You can put as many as you like up, but you shouldn't be able to price more than 25 at a time on a free account.

Ouch! Now I get it.   So I already need a 'pay' account.   
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on January 31, 2013, 18:55
Thanks for all the info on this thread.
I've just joined up and have put my first photos up. Starting with the more pictorial of the photos I have on iStock and Alamy, but have ideas for things to try later.
Good to keep my out of trouble while I'm not uploading to iS.  ;)

A question: At the moment, I opted out of Fb and Twitter - I don't use these sites much anyway (read 'almost not at all'), but if you opt in, is your work watermarked even if I chose not to have the watermark on the main FAA site (a decision I may reverse soon).
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: CD123 on January 31, 2013, 19:27
@ ShadySue
Was in contact with a paying contributor living close to me. According to her the feedback is that you have to be on the site for about a year to two and be quite active in their forums to start seeing any real sales. Just a heads up on that.

I opened a free account just to monitor it. 
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on January 31, 2013, 19:33
@ ShadySue
Was in contact with a paying contributor living close to me. According to her the feedback is that you have to be on the site for about a year to two and be quite active in their forums to start seeing any real sales. Just a heads up on that.

I opened a free account just to monitor it.

Thanks for the info, I have the free account just now, only had time to set up my defaults and upload 7 pics, but I'll do more late Saturday or Sunday.
Got a fright when they said you had to put up a headshot before your work could be seen - that was nearly a deal-killer - but luckily it doesn't have to be an actual photo of me, so the world's monitors are safe.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: CD123 on January 31, 2013, 19:38
@ ShadySue
Was in contact with a paying contributor living close to me. According to her the feedback is that you have to be on the site for about a year to two and be quite active in their forums to start seeing any real sales. Just a heads up on that.

I opened a free account just to monitor it.

Thanks for the info, I have the free account just now, only had time to set up my defaults and upload 7 pics, but I'll do more late Saturday or Sunday.
Got a fright when they said you had to put up a headshot before your work could be seen - that was nearly a deal-killer - but luckily it doesn't have to be an actual photo of me, so the world's monitors are safe.

Normally the very nice looking ladies who can afford such jokes (I am sure no monitor would have been at risk) - ever wondered why I have the leopard head  ;)

I uploaded 25 a few days back. Had 9 views of 8 of them the first day and none the following 4 days so far. Will not put money into it unless I can get at least 1 proper sale or 3 small ones over the next 3-4 months. But that's just me.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on January 31, 2013, 19:52
I uploaded 25 a few days back. Had 9 views of 8 of them the first day and none the following 4 days so far. Will not put money into it unless I can get at least 1 proper sale or 3 small ones over the next 3-4 months. But that's just me.
I'll proably pay out once I get to 26 uploads - I pay for a Flickr pro account just for fun, so why not; also what else could I spend only $30 over a year that might make me some money - lottery tickets?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on January 31, 2013, 20:16
Guys, I have the most average portfolio and I made 520 dollars last year and joined them 1 May. 30 dollars is nothing.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: CD123 on January 31, 2013, 20:25
Guys, I have the most average portfolio and I made 520 dollars last year and joined them 1 May. 30 dollars is nothing.
Spent much time in their forums or promoting?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on January 31, 2013, 20:27
Nope, nothing, promoting stuff amongst contributors is useless. I promote on my facebook and recently my blog and on twitter.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on January 31, 2013, 20:30
Hmm, none of my three friends on Fb or the pervs who 'follow' me (doing nothing) on Twitter will be remotely interested.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on January 31, 2013, 20:32
I dont think I ever got a sale from promotion, its just keywording and having something somebody wants to pay for.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on January 31, 2013, 21:33
I just signed up and I now have 55 photos online.  Begin holding breath.... NOW....  [silence as I wait for a sale].
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: mtkang on February 01, 2013, 00:17
hi guy, i have a free account with some photos in it, however, i can't find a page that tell about sales?

How do i know i made any sales?

thanks a lot!
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: CD123 on February 01, 2013, 00:49
hi guy, i have a free account with some photos in it, however, i can't find a page that tell about sales?

How do i know i made any sales?

thanks a lot!
After you logged in, look to the right side of the "FineArt" logo. Your name is there + "Profile", "Behind the Scenes" and "Activity". Click on activity and you will have whole selction of reporting buttons (on last row is sales).
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: nicku on February 01, 2013, 03:19
Hi,

I just joined FFA.... I'm ''lost'' in the site... I have a few questions::

1. There is any review on the uploaded images?
2. WHERE CAN I SEE MY UPLOADED IMAGES??? after i keyword and set the prices ?????????
3. How could i edit my images?

Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: sharpshot on February 01, 2013, 03:38
I'm a bit put off by the shipping prices to the UK.  I've sold a few things on Zazzle and Redbubble but don't think anyone from the UK is going to pay the FAA shipping prices.  It's baffling why they wouldn't have a deal with a European printer, to reduce those shipping costs.  It leaves them open to competition and if they don't do something about that, they probably wont be the largest art site in the world for long.  I know the US market is huge but it can't be as big as the rest of the world.

I know some of the microstock sites have dabbled with selling prints but perhaps seeing how well FAA are doing might make them look at it more seriously?  It would be nice to not have to upload all my portfolio again.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on February 01, 2013, 03:48
Hey Sharpshot, I have added that suggestion to the suggestion thread. I am with you on this one. They have shipping prices of over 200 dollar and I questioned that as well. It seems they either making big money off that or they have the wrong courier. Other US based sites have shipping of 18 dollar to Europe. I think FAA current shipping prices is negatively affecting sales to the rest of the world so their market is reduced to the US and Canada only.

If you look up the suggestion thread you can back up my suggestion or add you own. Maybe we can start a new thread here, and rile up the troops to all suggest lower shipping cost or a EU POD printer.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on February 01, 2013, 04:35
I'm a bit put off by the shipping prices to the UK.  I've sold a few things on Zazzle and Redbubble but don't think anyone from the UK is going to pay the FAA shipping prices.  It's baffling why they wouldn't have a deal with a European printer, to reduce those shipping costs.  It leaves them open to competition and if they don't do something about that, they probably wont be the largest art site in the world for long.  I know the US market is huge but it can't be as big as the rest of the world.

I agree, and it is worrying when most of my content isn't of direct US interest.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on February 01, 2013, 07:00
There are loads of Americans that want art from the old continent on their walls ;)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: CD123 on February 01, 2013, 07:51
Hi,

I just joined FFA.... I'm ''lost'' in the site... I have a few questions::

1. There is any review on the uploaded images?
2. WHERE CAN I SEE MY UPLOADED IMAGES??? after i keyword and set the prices ?????????
3. How could i edit my images?
Login, go to profile, then images, then upload.  Use the single upload first, as they suggest. That will take you step by step through the process. After that things start to make more sense.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: BaldricksTrousers on February 01, 2013, 09:19
CD = There is no review, it's up to you to edit yourself. Needless to say there's a lot of dross on the site.

 To view your stuff go to the behind the scenes tab next to your name in the top-bar to get your control panel. Then click on the "artwork" tab to see your portfolio. There's not much to it as far as using the site goes.

When you open an image from the gallery in the artwork file, there is an "edit this image" tab below it.

For me, one great advantage of this site is that it encourages me to branch out and do something other than simple stock shots because there is a chance of stuff selling for a decent price which wouldn't make much of an impact on microstock.=
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: etienjones on February 01, 2013, 09:36

The way I look at it is simple, spend one day to organize your site and see what it brings at the end of the year.  I am much too lazy to invest a lot of time but who knows.  I have 9 Galleries with a couple of hundred images . . . .  that should tell me if I wasted $30 and a day's work.

As to a profile picture,  I am of the opinion that the more out of focus my picture is, the better I look.   :D

http://4-steven-jones.fineartamerica.com/ (http://4-steven-jones.fineartamerica.com/)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on February 01, 2013, 10:49
If you look up the suggestion thread you can back up my suggestion or add you own.

Where is that? All I see are "General Discussions" and none seem to be about the business per se.

Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: CD123 on February 01, 2013, 11:05
CD = There is no review, it's up to you to edit yourself. Needless to say there's a lot of dross on the site.

I know, I have my 25 images up there already. Was answering the "how do I see my uploads?" question.

Sure there is a lot of rubbish on the site. If I remember correctly, they said they have somewhere well over the 100 000 contributors. That should sound some big alarms already...

Will wait patiently for the next 4 months to see if anything happens with my 25  ::)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: sharpshot on February 01, 2013, 11:23
On the front page, they have 145,205 artisits and 4,028,438 images.  Luckily their artists are some of "the world's greatest living artists and photographers".  Didn't know I was that good :)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: CD123 on February 01, 2013, 11:40
On the front page, they have 145,205 artisits and 4,028,438 images.  Luckily their artists are some of "the world's greatest living artists and photographers".  Didn't know I was that good :)
At least we are in good company then  ;D
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on February 01, 2013, 15:35
On the front page, they have 145,205 artisits and 4,028,438 images.  Luckily their artists are some of "the world's greatest living artists and photographers".  Didn't know I was that good :)

Well I'm "living" anyway ...   with 145,000+ accounts, some of the people who created them have certainly passed on by now.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on February 02, 2013, 07:02
http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=254264 (http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=254264)

Suggestion thread
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: CD123 on February 02, 2013, 07:35
[url]http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=254264[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=254264[/url])

Suggestion thread

Your link changes into this:
http://fineartamerica.com/discussions.html (http://fineartamerica.com/discussions.html)
So can not see which you are referring to?

PS Sorry - just needed to be logged in first.  ;)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on February 02, 2013, 07:36
Probably members only then. I click the link and the thread opens for me.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: rimglow on February 02, 2013, 09:45
Is anyone concerned about how large the unwatermarked previews are?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: CD123 on February 02, 2013, 09:48
Is anyone concerned about how large the unwatermarked previews are?
Not only that, the watermark in the corner does not actually offer much protection either.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: luissantos84 on February 02, 2013, 10:47
have opened a topic at FAA (http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=1043494 (http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=1043494))

and emailed them too but I have heard their communication ain't the brightest...
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: sharpshot on February 02, 2013, 11:16
I doubt they'll change the watermark, as lots of people there won't want a watermark that could put buyers off.  One solution could be to change the image so much that if it's stolen, it's easy to know where they got it from.  Overly photoshopped images seem to sell quite well.  It would then be easy to spot if someone had stolen it from FAA.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: luissantos84 on February 02, 2013, 11:21
I doubt they'll change the watermark, as lots of people there won't want a watermark that could put buyers off.  One solution could be to change the image so much that if it's stolen, it's easy to know where they got it from.  Overly photoshopped images seem to sell quite well.  It would then be easy to spot if someone had stolen it from FAA.

I don't understand really, what is the issue about a big watermark on the middle of the picture? when a buyer buys a print/frame they take it away no? buyers can zoom in and check everything before purchasing it, hope that FAA isn't trying to get traffic by showing big pictures with ridiculous small watermark...
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on February 02, 2013, 11:43
Its art not stock. artists dont want a watemark defacing their image, it does take away impact of an image. i dont do it either because I want sales. If someone takes a screengrab of that image for a blog or facebook so be it, they can never get a 40*60 inch print from a screengrab. It might just be enough to stick it on a postcard.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: luissantos84 on February 02, 2013, 11:50
Its art not stock. artists dont want a watemark defacing their image, it does take away impact of an image. i dont do it either because I want sales. If someone takes a screengrab of that image for a blog or facebook so be it, they can never get a 40*60 inch print from a screengrab. It might just be enough to stick it on a postcard.

I am not very worried too but I don't see why not having an option for those who doesn't want that tiny watermark? they could introduce it to buyers also, like a checkbox next to searches, not worried if buyers that like to see art or stock without trademark don't see mine
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: rimglow on February 02, 2013, 12:14
If someone takes a screengrab of that image for a blog or facebook so be it, they can never get a 40*60 inch print from a screengrab. It might just be enough to stick it on a postcard.

The problem is that a lot of my sales are of the small size. The screen grab is bigger than the small size on most stock sites. So, if you can grab an unwatermarked "small" size, for free, why pay for it from a stock site?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: CD123 on February 02, 2013, 13:53
I will not upload my full port ever to this site. Your images are not protected at all. I will hand select a few which can be considered as art and know I am going to run the risk of getting blog images stolen from it. It is just a fact. 
So you either have to make your peace with it or do not upload. This is a different game than the one we are used to, with different rules and buyers. So personal choice, either get onto their scheme or do not get on altogether. We will not convince them to apply micro-stock principles here , to satisfy us.  ;)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on February 02, 2013, 15:43
How long does it take for images to be searchable?
My earlier ones have been up for 44 hours and don't show up in recently:added.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: luissantos84 on February 02, 2013, 15:47
How long does it take for images to be searchable?
My earlier ones have been up for 44 hours and don't show up in recently:added.

I have pictures from today, yesterday and Jan 31th still not showing up, from Jan 30th they are live, there is a topic at FAA about this matter, they had an issue a few days ago, believe the usual is 24h
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on February 02, 2013, 15:49
How long does it take for images to be searchable?
My earlier ones have been up for 44 hours and don't show up in recently:added.

I have pictures from today, yesterday and Jan 31th still not showing up, from Jan 30th they are live, there is a topic at FAA about this matter, they had an issue a few days ago, believe the usual is 24h
Thanks, haven't found their forums etc yet.
Just wanted to make sure I hadn't done anything wrong.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: luissantos84 on February 02, 2013, 15:50
Elizabeth Edwards (admin at FAA)

There are no plans to change the watermark as far as I am aware
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on February 02, 2013, 15:52
I see to my sorrow that spam, ignorance and careless copy-and-pasting is as bad there as it is at the stock sites.
It give such an unprofessional impression.
 :(
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on February 02, 2013, 17:05
I have 50+ images up there now, and I siigned for the $30/year so I can offer them all for sale at once. 

Impressions so far:  it all works reasonably well, given that you can only upload 5 at a time.  You can set pricing defaults, and change prices later for all your images at once (a big plus).  The visual presentation - of framed prints, canvas prints etc. of your image - is pretty good.  You get hit tracking, which at least shows you signs of life during the endless wait for a sale.  :)    They offer prints at reasonable sizes, given the size of your images.

The big letdown is the "artist web site".   It's way oversold in terms of customization - the reality is you can change the background color, upload a banner for the top, and write some introductory text.  And that's it.  The page isn't much different from the "free" version and is still cluttered with stuff you wish you could get rid of - like 'blog', 'events', etc.   The most grating thing is that it appends "Art" to the names of all your galleries (the free site does not) which looks pretentious and tacky.  For example, if you create a gallery named "Homeless in Manhattan" the site shows "Homeless In Manhattan Art". 

My 'artist' site got a domain name of "1-[first name]-[last name].artistwebsites.com" which no buyer could ever remember or type in correctly.  I do recognize the difficulty of assigning domain names but hey - this is an important feature if you're selling web sites to artists.  There has to be something better than "1-". 

I'll suggest changes via their "suggestion thread", but as with the other POD sites I get the feeling no development goes on here any more, and it's running on autopilot.

So, some good and some bad.  I'll give it a few months but if FAA isn't producing any buyers I'll probably drop it and maybe go to SmugMug, where I can at least (I think) create a site that doesn't embarrass me.

Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on February 02, 2013, 17:14
A smallish disadvantage is that the greetings cards are only in the 5x7 format, so if you have a square or panoramic format photo it gets cropped. There are controls so that the buyer can choose their crop and zoom, but it's a pity that some other formats aren't available.
Still, it is easy enough, and I'm tagging #50 right now.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on February 02, 2013, 17:26
A smallish disadvantage is that the greetings cards are only in the 5x7 format, so if you have a square or panoramic format photo it gets cropped. There are controls so that the buyer can choose their crop and zoom, but it's a pity that some other formats aren't available.
Still, it is easy enough, and I'm tagging #50 right now.

That's really a drag;  I have a bunch of images formatted at 4x6 because that worked well at RedBubble, which alse prints them at 5 x 7.5, which is the same aspect ratio.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: luissantos84 on February 02, 2013, 17:43
So, some good and some bad.  I'll give it a few months but if FAA isn't producing any buyers I'll probably drop it and maybe go to SmugMug, where I can at least (I think) create a site that doesn't embarrass me.

sorry to tell you (if I may) but that is your worst flaw, you haven't started and you are already with a foot outside, relax a bit ;D
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on February 02, 2013, 19:11
I dont get all the complaining, its a great site for only 30 dollar per year. I made it back 18 fold. Just make a template with all your prices and setting and load your images. Dont pull out in two montht. This site needs time. I waited for 4 months and then the sales started coming in. There is loads of stuff to be found on the site that can help you promote your art. Take your time to get to know the site and have fun.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on February 02, 2013, 19:16
Like I said, some good and some bad.  If I make some sales, my opinion will no doubt go up.  Unfortunately the "artist web page" isn't useful to me because it doesn't project the image I want, and I can't change it.  Other aspects of the site are pretty good.

I really don't want "Fine Artist" displayed after my name   :P   And getting rid of that was actually on the list of member suggestions, posted in their forum back in 2010.  So I'm not alone.


Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on February 02, 2013, 19:19
Who cares what they call you, its all about the $$$  ;D
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on February 02, 2013, 19:22
Who cares what they call you, its all about the $$$  ;D

You're thinking like a microstocker and not a "fine artist".  :)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on February 02, 2013, 19:35
Who cares what they call you, its all about the $$$  ;D

You're thinking like a microstocker and not a "fine artist".  :)
I am thinking like I am a business, LOL
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on February 02, 2013, 19:38
Who cares what they call you, its all about the $$$  ;D

You're thinking like a microstocker and not a "fine artist".  :)
Hahahaha!  ;D


Discovered another two things.

You can't (or at least I couldn't) fool the system by uploading two sets of five images in different tabs. I thought I was doing it OK, but it didn't work.

It doesn't 'hold' uploaded photos in store until you have time to keyword etc them. I accidentally went off the page after three uploads had completed and two were going through (because I wanted to check a scientific name) and all the files were lost when I pressed the forward button again. I read someone saying that you get timed out after ten minutes' inactivity. Haven't tested that, but if it's true, you'd better not get distracted while waiting for files to upload!

But oh, just look at 'butterfly' under recently added. Someone has clearly just put the same keyword set into a huge batch of files.  >:( >:( >:(
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: CD123 on February 02, 2013, 19:40
Who cares what they call you, its all about the $$$  ;D

You're thinking like a microstocker and not a "fine artist".  :)
I am thinking like I am a business, LOL

Seems like a bunch of "rough artists" found their way to the "fine artist section"  ;D
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on February 02, 2013, 19:43
Who cares what they call you, its all about the $$$  ;D

You're thinking like a microstocker and not a "fine artist".  :)
I am thinking like I am a business, LOL

Sure, but it's a different business.  People don't buy wall art because it "meets their needs".  They buy something because it says the right things to them, it fits into their self-image.   They need to look at it a while, bond with it, imagine it hanging on their wall and being admired by their friends.  It's an emotional, psychological thing which is why a big obtrusive watermark is a total buzz kill.  An artist's web site should play to the psyches of people who you think might like your art.

Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on February 02, 2013, 19:46
But oh, just look at 'butterfly' under recently added. Someone has clearly just put the same keyword set into a huge batch of files.  >:( >:( >:(

I think lots of microstock is flooding into FAA and unfortunately keyword spamming is coming with it.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on February 02, 2013, 19:52
I think the way to get over the greetings card size thing is to upload two versions of images which can't neatly be cropped into 5x7.

I thought I'd seen that you could restrict an image to poster only or greetings card only, but maybe I imagined that. Some of my square images can't be cropped without losing part of the actual subject, but I could probably - eventually - find find the originals and submit a different crop.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on February 02, 2013, 20:01
I think the way to get over the greetings card size thing is to upload two versions of images which can't neatly be cropped into 5x7.

I thought I'd seen that you could restrict an image to poster only or greetings card only, but maybe I imagined that. Some of my square images can't be cropped without losing part of the actual subject, but I could probably - eventually - find find the originals and submit a different crop.

I wish I could just turn off greeting cards altogether.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on February 02, 2013, 20:38
Everything between free and paid is the same except for the upload limit. 25 vs unlimited. I paid from the start so I dont know if there is a difference in sales, but I dont think so.
What's that bit under the second line of images,

"Fine Art America Members
Sponsor this page, and your artwork will be shown in the next row, below."

Since none of my images are searchable yet, when I click on the link it just tells me I have no contenct for that keyword.
Is that a 'pay extra for enhanced visibility'? Presumably only a few (four on my monitor) can be 'in the next line below'? And the 'best sellers', random, newly added etc only applies to the top eight images?

Hmmm, I just did a search on 'horse', bestsellers, simultaneously, on FF logged in and on IE logged out. The top eight images are the same, those below the top two lines under the 'Sponsor this page' message are totally different (filtered under All, Best-sellers and newly added)

Added: I searched 'sponsor this page' in the discussion forum, and none of the threads looked relevant by title and the top thread had nothing relevant. Seems the forum search must be similar to the iS one.  :(
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on February 02, 2013, 20:44
What's that bit under the second line of images,

"Fine Art America Members
Sponsor this page, and your artwork will be shown in the next row, below."


Where are you finding this?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on February 02, 2013, 20:45
If you look here, you will see 4 of my photos under that sponsor line

http://fineartamerica.com/art/all/chicago/all (http://fineartamerica.com/art/all/chicago/all)

Because I sponsored those keywords here at the bottom

http://semmickphoto.wordpress.com/2013/01/27/chicago-from-dawn-to-dusk/ (http://semmickphoto.wordpress.com/2013/01/27/chicago-from-dawn-to-dusk/)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on February 02, 2013, 20:46
What's that bit under the second line of images,

"Fine Art America Members
Sponsor this page, and your artwork will be shown in the next row, below."



Where are you finding this?
http://fineartamerica.com/announcement-artwork-page-sponsorship.html?announcement=true (http://fineartamerica.com/announcement-artwork-page-sponsorship.html?announcement=true)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on February 02, 2013, 20:51
These endless self-promotional games have now exceeded my capacity for understanding.   Not to mention my attention span. 
 :)
What I think I see in the FAA Discussion threads are people relentlessly trying to game the system, without coming out and saying so.

Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on February 02, 2013, 20:53
Forget about the discussion thread, thats just to show off work, like in the SS forum, and I dont believe it wont generate any sales. Just promote however you promote your other work. FAA is just a great POD site.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on February 02, 2013, 21:07
If you look here, you will see 4 of my photos under that sponsor line

[url]http://fineartamerica.com/art/all/chicago/all[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/art/all/chicago/all[/url])

Because I sponsored those keywords here at the bottom

[url]http://semmickphoto.wordpress.com/2013/01/27/chicago-from-dawn-to-dusk/[/url] ([url]http://semmickphoto.wordpress.com/2013/01/27/chicago-from-dawn-to-dusk/[/url])


So sponsoring just means you link to the page from your own website/blog. Do they really 'close' that keyword if four people 'sponsor' the page?

Thanks for the link: I couldn't find that info!

Oh, my pics are becoming live, so now I see the link for the code.
E.g. http://fineartamerica.com/art/all/ (http://fineartamerica.com/art/all/)Keyword/all?filter=recentlyadded" style="font: 10pt arial; text-decoration: underline;">Keyword art[/url]
(actual link removed and emphases mine)
So unless you wanted loads of links on your website/blog, you'd need to choose not only keyword, but which of the sort orders you'd target.

Also, doesn't it make a lie of 'recently added', 'bestsellers' or 'recently sold', for example?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on February 02, 2013, 21:11
Also, doesn't it make a lie of 'recently added', 'bestsellers' or 'recently sold', for example?

You're implying there might be some degree of corruption and pay-for-placement in this "fine art" site? I'm shocked. Shocked.

Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on February 02, 2013, 21:26
If you look here, you will see 4 of my photos under that sponsor line

[url]http://fineartamerica.com/art/all/chicago/all[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/art/all/chicago/all[/url])

Because I sponsored those keywords here at the bottom

[url]http://semmickphoto.wordpress.com/2013/01/27/chicago-from-dawn-to-dusk/[/url] ([url]http://semmickphoto.wordpress.com/2013/01/27/chicago-from-dawn-to-dusk/[/url])


I see that the 'sponsor this page' link is still there - not only that, but unless you're submitting there under two different names, Christopher Stauring (3) and Emily Stauring (1), your images are not in line 3 - and if you're posting under your usual name, your images aren't on the whole of the page you linked me to.
(I've got a screenshot, but my site seems to be down ATM, and as it's 2.25, I'm going to bed!)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on February 03, 2013, 03:17
If you look here, you will see 4 of my photos under that sponsor line

[url]http://fineartamerica.com/art/all/chicago/all[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/art/all/chicago/all[/url])

Because I sponsored those keywords here at the bottom

[url]http://semmickphoto.wordpress.com/2013/01/27/chicago-from-dawn-to-dusk/[/url] ([url]http://semmickphoto.wordpress.com/2013/01/27/chicago-from-dawn-to-dusk/[/url])


I see that the 'sponsor this page' link is still there - not only that, but unless you're submitting there under two different names, Christopher Stauring (3) and Emily Stauring (1), your images are not in line 3 - and if you're posting under your usual name, your images aren't on the whole of the page you linked me to.
(I've got a screenshot, but my site seems to be down ATM, and as it's 2.25, I'm going to bed!)
Thanks/


If I am correct, if more people sponsor the link, then they rotate the images on line 4. But everytime I check the page, I see my images on line 4. If they show the images because they know its me looking at the page then thats a freaken scam.

I will check that out using a proxy now
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on February 03, 2013, 03:32
Right when I use a proxy I dont see my images either, which is really not cool
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on February 03, 2013, 07:59
The blurb doesn't even say the image will rotate. It says:
"Each time someone visits one of your sponsored pages, your images will appear in the third row (in addition to wherever they would have normally appeared without your sponsorship).   It's a great way to ensure that your images are prominently displayed whenever someone searches for keywords that pertain specifically to your artwork."
http://fineartamerica.com/controlpanel/index.html?tab=searchenginesponsorship (http://fineartamerica.com/controlpanel/index.html?tab=searchenginesponsorship)
(probably a paid-members only page?)

@ponke - BTW, after 7 refreshes I found one of your Chicago pics on the third lilne, a very wide panoramic of the city. Nice  :)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on February 03, 2013, 11:34
Thanks Sue.

I posted on FAA forum, and Beth the moderator confirmed when I am visiting the sponsored pages I see my images on 3rd line. So they are using IP or cookies to show me a different result then the buyer.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on February 03, 2013, 11:43
Thanks Sue.

I posted on FAA forum, and Beth the moderator confirmed when I am visiting the sponsored pages I see my images on 3rd line. So they are using IP or cookies to show me a different result then the buyer.

Sounds pretty dodgy, when the result isn't what they promise.
Why do 'you' need to see 'your' images on the third line?
At least they don't charge money - yet - for this feature, but I'd bet they're intending to monetise it soonish.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: CD123 on February 03, 2013, 12:16
I guess they always got away with this type of false information working with the "fine artists". Now they will unfortunately find out that dealing with microstockers are a total different ball game. Not everything they dish up will now gladly absorbed without proper close scrutiny any more.  ;)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on February 03, 2013, 12:20
WHen I started explaining why we need a bigger watermark I got the reply from some woman only selling on FAA that that is only important for stock photographers since the images couldnt be used for large prints anyway. So I told her I was a stock photographer and that I am sorry to be one, Shame on me.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on February 03, 2013, 12:33
WHen I started explaining why we need a bigger watermark I got the reply from some woman only selling on FAA that that is only important for stock photographers since the images couldnt be used for large prints anyway. So I told her I was a stock photographer and that I am sorry to be one, Shame on me.
Yes, I had a look around other 'fine art' sites selling prints, and none of the US/UK sample I looked at use watermarks. One can easily get - by right-clicking - smallish copies of artwork by loads of famous living artists from big name gallery sites. I also found some well-known-to-me photographers selling via FAA not using the watermarks.  It's proably not an issue for artists as they're not simultaneously hoping to sell small sizes for web use, and someone who uses their pic on a blog wasn't going to be a print or card buyer anyway.
It'll be easier for files I'm not also selling on Alamy/iStock, as it will be clear if they were taken from FAA. I was trying to work out another way of showing myself if an image came from FAA, e.g. putting a 1px stroke around photos, but of course, when shrunk down to 800x400, it's difficult to see.
I'm not sure what the answer to this is, as it seems that print buyers would expect not to see a watermark.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on February 03, 2013, 12:42
Right when I use a proxy I dont see my images either, which is really not cool

This cheap gimmick reminds me of the days when smoking was still allowed in restaurants.  You'd go in and ask for a "non-smoking" table; they'd say sure, and seat you at any table, and take away the ashtray.

Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: CD123 on February 03, 2013, 13:46
With the large image giveaways they allow, it might be better to work under another alias here than with your stock images. Someone liking your stock images, searching under your alias will not then be able to grab some nice freebies at FAA.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: DrC on February 03, 2013, 14:57
They deliver prints, not digital files. Of course one could scan the print and use the image for any purpose but I don't think a buyer in FAA would buy a print having in mind scanning it. He could get a similar image searching online with google images... unfortunately for us, he would not have much difficulties.
In FAA be sure to allow watermarks. Full resolution previews are in image square sections and are watermarked. enabling them increases your chances to sell.

I've been in FAA since August 2011 with a payed account and now have 600+ images there, the best of my microstock portfolio. It's very easy to upload, the system reads iptc metadata, so all keywords and descriptions already in the images are utilized. I have very decent sales and receive monthly payouts of several hundred $$ with no marketing at all, other than post a recent sale in FB every now and then. I'm not active in their forums and I don't comment much on other artists images.
Overall, I can't complain. You should give it a try.  :)
http://carlos-caetano.artistwebsites.com/index.html (http://carlos-caetano.artistwebsites.com/index.html)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: CD123 on February 03, 2013, 15:15
Who is Pixtopin? Traced through Google images some images with Fineartamerica tag.

The images has their logo, but if you go to the page they are on you get to http://www.picstopin.com (http://www.picstopin.com)

Scroll down to the ones below the small images:
http://www.google.co.za/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1024&bih=631&q=ccaetano&oq=ccaetano&gs_l=img.12...2431.2431.0.3278.1.1.0.0.0.0.220.220.2-1.1.0...0.0...1ac.2.2.img.bu3uPqRiFxU#hl=en&tbo=d&site=imghp&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=ccaetano+fineartamerica.com&oq=ccaetano+fineartamerica.com&gs_l=img.3...107870.137635.0.138229.19.19.0.0.0.0.243.3936.1j1j17.19.0...0.0...1c.1.2.img.4v1b4sf3eXk&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&bvm=bv.41867550,d.d2k&fp=7c3726083d4281bf&biw=1024&bih=631 (http://www.google.co.za/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1024&bih=631&q=ccaetano&oq=ccaetano&gs_l=img.12...2431.2431.0.3278.1.1.0.0.0.0.220.220.2-1.1.0...0.0...1ac.2.2.img.bu3uPqRiFxU#hl=en&tbo=d&site=imghp&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=ccaetano+fineartamerica.com&oq=ccaetano+fineartamerica.com&gs_l=img.3...107870.137635.0.138229.19.19.0.0.0.0.243.3936.1j1j17.19.0...0.0...1c.1.2.img.4v1b4sf3eXk&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&bvm=bv.41867550,d.d2k&fp=7c3726083d4281bf&biw=1024&bih=631)

Now try the one with the waterfall and yellow flowers in front with Fineart watermark and follow to origin page.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: DrC on February 03, 2013, 16:10
That particular image is not mine, as many others in that search result aren't. Anyway, I'm yet to understand the purpose of that Picstopin site... I noticed large images in there (1200x795 - the two fisherman photo is mine) are only enlargements of much smaller thumbnails. I'ts impossible to do anything serious with those.
At least in every thumbnail of that site is a button to delete it... it promps a popup with a question on why should that image be deleted.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on February 03, 2013, 16:29
Oh, they really need to do something about that watermark.
This looks like some sort of careless smudge (bottom right)
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/snowy-panorama-liz-leyden.html?newartwork=true (http://fineartamerica.com/featured/snowy-panorama-liz-leyden.html?newartwork=true)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: CD123 on February 03, 2013, 18:11
Oh, they really need to do something about that watermark.
This looks like some sort of careless smudge (bottom right)
[url]http://fineartamerica.com/featured/snowy-panorama-liz-leyden.html?newartwork=true[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/featured/snowy-panorama-liz-leyden.html?newartwork=true[/url])

Did you not hear, they will not let a dirty old watermark infringe on the viewing pleasure and experience of their fine art customers. Can you imaging a picture of the Mona Lisa with the words "Copyrighted by Leonardo Da Vinci" printed all over it?!!!  ;)
Just don't know why the heck they then actually go to the trouble to ask if you want one?  :o
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: CD123 on February 03, 2013, 18:17
Should indicate on their front page: "Watermarks are discreetly placed in the corner of the images, making sure that it does not deface it in any manner and spoil your viewing pleasure"
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on February 04, 2013, 07:28
I think the way to get over the greetings card size thing is to upload two versions of images which can't neatly be cropped into 5x7.

I thought I'd seen that you could restrict an image to poster only or greetings card only, but maybe I imagined that. Some of my square images can't be cropped without losing part of the actual subject, but I could probably - eventually - find find the originals and submit a different crop.

I wish I could just turn off greeting cards altogether.
I'm not sure if I've fully understood what you meant, but if you don't want your images to be sold as greetings cards, you could price them out of the market.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on February 04, 2013, 10:17
I think the way to get over the greetings card size thing is to upload two versions of images which can't neatly be cropped into 5x7.

I thought I'd seen that you could restrict an image to poster only or greetings card only, but maybe I imagined that. Some of my square images can't be cropped without losing part of the actual subject, but I could probably - eventually - find find the originals and submit a different crop.

I wish I could just turn off greeting cards altogether.
I'm not sure if I've fully understood what you meant, but if you don't want your images to be sold as greetings cards, you could price them out of the market.

Well I'm selling these as - if not 'art', at least 'artistic' and the cropping is part of the composition.  I don't really want them cut down to fit on cards.

They're apparently priced out of the market already, anyway :-)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: steheap on February 04, 2013, 13:13
Quote
I've been in FAA since August 2011 with a payed account and now have 600+ images there, the best of my microstock portfolio. It's very easy to upload, the system reads iptc metadata, so all keywords and descriptions already in the images are utilized. I have very decent sales and receive monthly payouts of several hundred $$ with no marketing at all, other than post a recent sale in FB every now and then. I'm not active in their forums and I don't comment much on other artists images.
Overall, I can't complain. You should give it a try. 


Carlos - some great images there - and a very interesting blog - I love the way you composite different parts together to get a striking image!

I'm new on FAA with my artist site and I've loaded it up with a collection of my photos - would you mind sharing what sort of images sell as prints from your portfolio?

Steve
http://steven-heap.artistwebsites.com/ (http://steven-heap.artistwebsites.com/)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: landbysea on February 04, 2013, 13:27
If you don't want to sell cards, just don't put a price on them and they will not be offered for sale. Also if you do not think your photo would look well printed at 85 to 100 DPI, then just remove the price from the largest size. I do that for some, but also have sold some huge prints with no complaints.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on February 04, 2013, 14:10
If you don't want to sell cards, just don't put a price on them and they will not be offered for sale.

Thanks, didn't know that.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on February 05, 2013, 12:06
I think prominent watermarks kill sales of 'art' photo prints and I'm willing to take my chances without them.  But people who want to watermark their images should be able to do so.   It is interesting  that FAA's suggestion thread now has a number of angry posts from contributors (I still can't say "artists") wanting better watermarks - it's obviously an issue. 

Unfortunately reading that thread  reinforces the perception that nothing is happening at FAA, no ongoing development, no response to suggestions or requests.   

There's also a thread from someone claiming they made a sale for which they didn't receive payment, and that FAA hasn't responded to emails.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on February 05, 2013, 12:38
Yeah, I saw all of that, I am posting in both threads. LOL. But I am getting worried now as its a 3 man operation, and they dont seem to care about genuine concerns. Its almost if they dont care about infringement and just care about raking in the cash.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on February 05, 2013, 14:10
Yes, not to put down what they've accomplished, but it's obviously not going anywhere - it is what it is.

What are the alternatives? On SmugMug or ZenPhoto (dumb names IMHO) you can create a good-looking web site, although it's a pain.  But apparently you don't get any sales through SmugMug unless you market yourself - whereas FAA has some number of buyers who search by keyword, color, topic, and you might get a sale that way once in a great while.   



Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on February 05, 2013, 14:18
Yeah, I saw all of that, I am posting in both threads. LOL. But I am getting worried now as its a 3 man operation, and they dont seem to care about genuine concerns. Its almost if they dont care about infringement and just care about raking in the cash.
I'm sure like has been said above it's because they probably weren't expecting the issue of microstockers. It seems to be normal in the fine art world for reasonably large thums without watermarks, even of very well known contemporary artists. Artists aren't really expecting to sell small digital copies of their work to bloggers, and in some cases, being featured on a blog is extending their exposure, and could even be beneficial.

I wonder what the optimum size for a company is. iS is far too big, and nothing gets done. I was shocked last night to discover that if you make a change in keywording or descriptions on an iStock file, you still have to go back into the file and save again to make the change 'stick'.

The scary thing about a three-man company is what happens if one becomes seriously ill or loses interest.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on February 05, 2013, 14:34
I wonder what the optimum size for a company is. iS is far too big, and nothing gets done.

In 30 years in the technology business I worked for companies of every size, including tiny startups that grew.   I think the bad stuff begins when everyone in the the company no longer knows everyone else in the company on a first name basis.  This is typically the point where an "HR Department" is created.  After that, things get weird.  And I think this happens at around 100 people if not fewer.



Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on February 05, 2013, 15:00
Actually, even fine art photographers have largeish previews: again, they're not in the business of selling thumsized images.
http://www.peterfetterman.com/artists/sebastio-salgado (http://www.peterfetterman.com/artists/sebastio-salgado)
Seems a bit compressed, but not even right-click disabled and he's my number one top favourite photographer.

On the other hand, if right clicking is disabled, and someone screendumps an image, it's immediately orphaned. Did I say that above? I'm rabbiting ... again ...
(irrelevant anyway, I right-click-saved it and there's no EXIF data there. It's clearly a totally different market and mindset.)

also:
http://www.magnumphotos.com (http://www.magnumphotos.com)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on February 05, 2013, 15:22
Guys, there is an automatic distribution to Amazon on FAA, but thats broken. So if you want your images on Amazon under the Home section, you need to email support and ask them to manually synch your account on Amazon. They will up the price by 15% procent to cover the take from Amazon. Every two weeks you can ask them to sync (if you added new content to FAA). It will probably be fixed at some point.


Just so you know.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on February 05, 2013, 17:43
^^ Tx.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Fran on February 05, 2013, 18:21
Thanks for the heads up!
I just tried and got this answer from the customer service.

Quote
I have now synced your images over to the Amazon site. They only appear on Amazon.com and are set at around 15% higher in price due to Amazon wanting money if you sell. The 15% is theirs.

It takes around 4-5 hours for them to appear in the HOME category from when I have synced them. You can find them by putting your name in search, on Amazon

We cannot pick or choose which images go up and they only place canvas prints on the site, not any of the others.

Until this is again automatic (we had to make it manual for a while) please contact me in a fortnight if you have made changes

Hope this helps and, if you need anything else, please do not hesitate to contact me
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on February 05, 2013, 18:33
Yup, I got that same response
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: luissantos84 on February 05, 2013, 18:37
Yup, I got that same response

thanks for letting us know ;)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on February 05, 2013, 18:42
Any idea if they're set up to deal with tax for non US artists? All I can find is their tax page for US residents.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on February 05, 2013, 19:01
Only canvas prints?  What's up with that?

Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on February 05, 2013, 19:08
So they send your images uploaded in a two week timeframe, and amazon chooses which ones they will sell?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Fran on February 05, 2013, 20:59
So they send your images uploaded in a two week timeframe, and amazon chooses which ones they will sell?

If I understood it correctly, they send all the images, Amazon will only sell canvas for those images, and apply a 15% commision on the price.
Theoretically it should happen automatically every two weeks, but for some reason they disabled this procedure and the synchronization needs to be done manually by FAA.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: gemmy12 on February 06, 2013, 13:10
But dont You think Amazon is charging much higher than 15% of FAA price ? I see my 36"x 23" canvas with gallery wrap has FAA price around 255$ and same is for about 475$ in Amazon. Can anyone correct me if i am doing some wrong math?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: luissantos84 on February 06, 2013, 13:17
But dont You think Amazon is charging much higher than 15% of FAA price ? I see my 36"x 23" canvas with gallery wrap has FAA price around 255$ and same is for about 475$ in Amazon. Can anyone correct me if i am doing some wrong math?

I believe my pictures aren't showing up so far there but looking at other it looks like 17.6%, aren't you making any mistake with currencies?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on February 06, 2013, 13:58
But dont You think Amazon is charging much higher than 15% of FAA price ? I see my 36"x 23" canvas with gallery wrap has FAA price around 255$ and same is for about 475$ in Amazon. Can anyone correct me if i am doing some wrong math?
Just checking - are you sure that $255 isn't the price that 'you' see when logged in, rather than the price a customer sees?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: gemmy12 on February 06, 2013, 14:01
But dont You think Amazon is charging much higher than 15% of FAA price ? I see my 36"x 23" canvas with gallery wrap has FAA price around 255$ and same is for about 475$ in Amazon. Can anyone correct me if i am doing some wrong math?

I believe my pictures aren't showing up so far there but looking at other it looks like 17.6%, aren't you making any mistake with currencies?
No Luis both were in USD. But i wrote an email to FAA support few hours back and i see that now they have been priced correctly. FFA+15%=Amazon.
Do the prices in FAA get changed automatically due to some glitch or something? Because time to time when i update my prices i see price for some of sizes of some of my images are blank...!
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: gemmy12 on February 06, 2013, 14:03
.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: gemmy12 on February 06, 2013, 14:06
But dont You think Amazon is charging much higher than 15% of FAA price ? I see my 36"x 23" canvas with gallery wrap has FAA price around 255$ and same is for about 475$ in Amazon. Can anyone correct me if i am doing some wrong math?
Just checking - are you sure that $255 isn't the price that 'you' see when logged in, rather than the price a customer sees?
Aah.. you are right Liz. There are different values when we see the price when see logged in and out state. Thanks for the correction :)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: rimglow on February 06, 2013, 17:28
I started a thread about watermarking in the FAA forum. Feel free to join in. Maybe the owners will notice.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on February 06, 2013, 17:49
Saw that and been posting in it as well ;-)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on February 06, 2013, 18:56
I think you'll find that requests for changes or additions are pretty much a waste of time.  Look at their "suggestions" thread - back in 2010 someone compiled a list of current requests.  As far as I can see, none have been implemented.   The only responses from the forum moderator are "I'll pass that on" and "there are no plans as far as I know".  She's already stated several times that the watermark isn't going to be changed.



 

Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: sharpshot on February 06, 2013, 19:00
I don't think they're going to make changes for a bunch of stock contributors.  Especially when one of us brags about how hard it is to get accepted on the stock sites :)  It's an art site, so why not alter your stock images so they look more "arty" and it will be obvious if anyone has stolen the big preview image?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: rimglow on February 06, 2013, 19:28
  Well they certainly won't make any changes if nobody asks for it. They have to be made aware of what people want. Maybe generate a buzz. Get people talking.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: luissantos84 on February 06, 2013, 20:05
  Well they certainly won't make any changes if nobody asks for it. They have to be made aware of what people want. Maybe generate a buzz. Get people talking.

indeed, nice of you to start a new thread ;)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on February 06, 2013, 20:06
  Well they certainly won't make any changes if nobody asks for it. They have to be made aware of what people want. Maybe generate a buzz. Get people talking.

Although I personally wouldn't watermark images that I'm hoping to sell as prints, the issue is obviously not going to go away.   But I don't think the problems is that they just don't get it, or don't care - it's that there's no "they".   It's a very small operation - maybe just a couple of people - and the site is on autopilot. 

A nice money machine, with no active developers behind it. 
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on February 06, 2013, 20:08
I doubt if you'll get any improvement on the watermark. They're just not common on fine art / gallery sites.

I'm more concerned about the dishonesty re the 'sponsor this page and every visitor will see your image on the third line' (if they're dishonest in this, can we trust them?).

Can I repeat the question as to whether they are geared up for non-US taxpayers? If no-one knows, I will ask on their forum, just wanted to check it wasn't already common knowledge.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on February 06, 2013, 20:16
Those of you who want big watermarks in the center of your images might consider RedBubble instead of FAA.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: luissantos84 on February 06, 2013, 21:20
It's a very small operation - maybe just a couple of people - and the site is on autopilot. 

A nice money machine, with no active developers behind it.

funny how you keep on talking without ANY knowledge.... I have emailed them 3 times this week and got replies in less than 2 or 3 hours.... do some work instead of complaining!
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on February 06, 2013, 21:50
Interview entitled "Doing $5 Million A Year With Three Employees: FineArtAmerica CEO Sean Broihier":

http://www.sramanamitra.com/2012/03/22/doing-5m-a-year-with-3-employees-fineartamerica-ceo-sean-broihier-part-1/ (http://www.sramanamitra.com/2012/03/22/doing-5m-a-year-with-3-employees-fineartamerica-ceo-sean-broihier-part-1/)

A quote from Sean: "The entire company has three people on payroll: me and two individuals who cover customer service and technical support."
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: luissantos84 on February 06, 2013, 22:00
Interview entitled "Doing $5 Million A Year With Three Employees: FineArtAmerica CEO Sean Broihier":

[url]http://www.sramanamitra.com/2012/03/22/doing-5m-a-year-with-3-employees-fineartamerica-ceo-sean-broihier-part-1/[/url] ([url]http://www.sramanamitra.com/2012/03/22/doing-5m-a-year-with-3-employees-fineartamerica-ceo-sean-broihier-part-1/[/url])

A quote from Sean: "The entire company has three people on payroll: me and two individuals who cover customer service and technical support."


they can even have 1, sorry but I don't consider auto pilot a business that reply with REAL answers and in a short period of time, what would you say about Fotolia? the number of people on the payroll means jack as you should know.....
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: XPTO on February 07, 2013, 05:03
I'm more concerned about the dishonesty re the 'sponsor this page and every visitor will see your image on the third line' (if they're dishonest in this, can we trust them?).

How do you know the sponsor page program is dishonest?

If someone gives me specifics keywords you've used to sponsor searches, I can make those searches and post print screens of my results to see if they are being dishonest or not.

But please consider the keywords you're giving me. Don't give the keyword "flower" for example because it's possible that a ton of other contributors are sponsoring it too, and as mentioned in the conditions the sponsored results will vary to show all the people that are sponsoring this term. So, there might be a chance that I don't get your image in this "lottery".

Also, don't give me keywords that only bring a few tenths of results because it's possible that your images come up on the third row simply because there are no sponsors and they filled the space.

So, if you have sponsored a term that gives a few hundred results of a subject not as popular as flower, or sea, or sunset post here and I'll post a print screen of the third row for you to see if it's a scam or not.

Or sponsor a random couple just for the test, since the results are immediate if the process is well done.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on February 07, 2013, 07:00
I'm more concerned about the dishonesty re the 'sponsor this page and every visitor will see your image on the third line' (if they're dishonest in this, can we trust them?).


How do you know the sponsor page program is dishonest?



We established it back here on page 8 of this thread, e.g.
http://www.microstockgroup.com/product-resale-forum/faa-the-largest-art-site-in-the-world/msg296050/#msg296050 (http://www.microstockgroup.com/product-resale-forum/faa-the-largest-art-site-in-the-world/msg296050/#msg296050).

http://www.microstockgroup.com/product-resale-forum/faa-the-largest-art-site-in-the-world/msg296059/#msg296059 (http://www.microstockgroup.com/product-resale-forum/faa-the-largest-art-site-in-the-world/msg296059/#msg296059)

NB, I only refreshed 7 times, so I don't know whether that's '1 in 8 of visitors will see your image on the third line', or many more, and I was lucky to find one on the seventh refresh.

At very best, it's bait and switch.
The announcement page which pops up (rotating with the recent sales announcement page) whenever I log into the site proper and not my own personal subsite, and says very clearly "Each time someone visits one of your sponsored pages, your images will appear in the third row (in addition to wherever they would have normally appeared without your sponsorship).
There is NOTHING on that page about the third line being rotated.

However, it is true that when I clicked on the 'sponsor this page' link on a page of 'zebra' images, it says as 'additional information: 2"
There are only three featured positions available per page.   If multiple artists have posted links to the zebra art page, then the three featured positions will be randomly filled with images from those artists.   The images in the featured positions will change each time that the page is refreshed or visited by a new visitor.

So, definitely a 'bait and switch' from the vaunted announcement page.
Also the link under the second row of results says:
"Fine Art America Members
Sponsor this page, and your artwork will be shown in the next row, below."
Nothing about 'will be shown to 1 in {however many people sponsor this link}'.

Also, as that invitation to sponsor to receive preferred positioning appears on, for example, 'recently sold' and 'most recently added', clearly the placement is not according to the filter description and so is dishonest to visitors.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: gemmy12 on February 07, 2013, 07:23
Does anyone (who synchronized his FAA gallery with Amazon) see traffic coming to FAA from Amazon ?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: XPTO on February 07, 2013, 07:45
Quote from: ShadySue
At very best, it's bait and switch.
The announcement page which pops up (rotating with the recent sales announcement page) whenever I log into the site proper and not my own personal subsite, and says very clearly "Each time someone visits one of your sponsored pages, your images will appear in the third row (in addition to wherever they would have normally appeared without your sponsorship).
There is NOTHING on that page about the third line being rotated.

However, it is true that when I clicked on the 'sponsor this page' link on a page of 'zebra' images, it says as 'additional information: 2"
There are only three featured positions available per page.   If multiple artists have posted links to the zebra art page, then the three featured positions will be randomly filled with images from those artists.   The images in the featured positions will change each time that the page is refreshed or visited by a new visitor.

So, definitely a 'bait and switch' from the vaunted announcement page.
Also the link under the second row of results says:
"Fine Art America Members
Sponsor this page, and your artwork will be shown in the next row, below." Nothing about 'will be shown to 1 in however many people sponsor this link'.


Also, as that invitation to sponsor to receive preferred positioning appears on, for example, 'recently sold' and 'most recently added', clearly the placement is not according to the filter description and so is dishonest to visitors.

I just think that classifying it as dishonest is a bit strong.

It's possibly badly worded because, as even you quoted, the program is very clear for anyone that bothers to read the explanation! I never had any doubts how it worked!

Unless you want to have 10 "third" rows to accommodate all the sponsoring members I don't think it's either dishonest or "bait and switch". ???

As far as I'm concerned it works according to the explanation.

I've accessed the site under a proxy site so I'd mask my IP and with a browser that I haven't used to access it so there's no cookies to be used by FAA, and not only the search results are similar to those I see when I'm logged in, but when I clicked on my images those views were recorded in the stats as being from visitors from US cities, which are located several thousands of kilometers away from my real location.

So I don't know what's wrong.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on February 07, 2013, 08:32
I guess it depends where one falls in regarding bait and switch as 'sharp practice' or dishonesty.
I'm sure they're going to switch to actual pay for placement soon, else why call it 'sponsor'?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: XPTO on February 07, 2013, 09:20
I guess it depends where one falls in regarding bait and switch as 'sharp practice' or dishonesty.
I'm sure they're going to switch to actual pay for placement soon, else why call it 'sponsor'?

Well, when I look at the decisions taken by micros in the last few years it takes a lot more than bad wording to classify a company as dishonest... If I had to call FAA dishonest because of this I would need to invent a new vocabulary just to be able to insult the micro agencies...  ;D

I also don't see any evidence of paying for placement in FAA since the sponsor program has been there for years if I'm not wrong. I think that you "pay" FAA for this benefit by advertising FAA with the links. It's how I understand it, at least.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on February 07, 2013, 12:11
Maybe the keyword sponsoring thing just isn't working as intended.   Yesterday I noticed something else that didn't work.  I had looked at a couple of my photos from a mobile device and later, when I checked my 'views', I saw that my location wasn't reported correctly. (I'm in Minneapolis but it put me in California and Missouri, on subsequent hits).  This used to work because I can still see my previous views.

Like I said earlier, FAA is one guy plus a couple of support people.  As a former software developer, I'm absolutely staggered by what he's put together and by how well it works overall.  And by how much money it's pulling in!   There is absolutely no way that one guy can be running this business, making deals with Amazon etc, dealing with printing shops, shipping cloud storage, web hosting, 2 employees, 100,000+ contributors, and who knows what else - while at the same time implementing requests and changes on this big complicated site. 

My hat's off to this guy.  But we just can't expect much to change on the site, unless he wants to expand.  Changes, features and fixes will appear very slowly if at all, because he just can't afford to break anything.

Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on February 07, 2013, 12:38

I just think that classifying it as dishonest is a bit strong.

It's possibly badly worded because, as even you quoted, the program is very clear for anyone that bothers to read the explanation! I never had any doubts how it worked!

Unless you want to have 10 "third" rows to accommodate all the sponsoring members I don't think it's either dishonest or "bait and switch". ???

As far as I'm concerned it works according to the explanation.

I've accessed the site under a proxy site so I'd mask my IP and with a browser that I haven't used to access it so there's no cookies to be used by FAA, and not only the search results are similar to those I see when I'm logged in, but when I clicked on my images those views were recorded in the stats as being from visitors from US cities, which are located several thousands of kilometers away from my real location.

So I don't know what's wrong.


Erm, I did the same thing, masking my IP and my results were significantly different.

I have also received several PMs on the matter and there is loads of fishy stuff going on on FAA with the search, best sellers get higher ranking but thats not advocated, shipping cost are 60% higher on average then on similar sites, and the sponsor pages are not doing what they are supposed to do.

Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: XPTO on February 07, 2013, 13:44
Erm, I did the same thing, masking my IP and my results were significantly different.

I have also received several PMs on the matter and there is loads of fishy stuff going on on FAA with the search, best sellers get higher ranking but thats not advocated, shipping cost are 60% higher on average then on similar sites, and the sponsor pages are not doing what they are supposed to do.

But the keywords you've sponsored were from a very popular nature like, Paris, New York, cat, dog, etc., or did you sponsor words that made only a few hundred images come up?

Because if you are sponsoring a very popular keyword the chances are that many other people have done it too and the available slots cannot show all members sponsoring. In this case each time a search is done the members shown will rotate.

From what I could test I couldn't see any problem with the sponsored pages and my images came in the third line. In many cases they were the only ones filling that line, in others I was sharing the line with others members and in a case or two I had to make a couple searches until I could see my images because of the rotation.

As for best sellers getting higher placements in the basic searches (when a filter hasn't been used) I cannot understand what's the surprise. I think it's something pretty logical.

I cannot pronounce about the shipping costs, but if the problem is the price being 60% more than other similar sites I can't see anything fishy there. Maybe a bad price policy, or a blind trust that buyers will buy anyway since they cannot find that image they want so much anywhere else...

I confess I'm having a lot of difficulty understanding the animosity towards FAA when most of the comments cannot point anything concrete that something "fishy" is happening.

But there seems to be a lot of misinterpretations.

For example, people are saying here that FAA is on autopilot. As another member mentioned, I too have written to support, not only to clear doubts but to make an important change in my account and in a few hours I received not only an answer but the requested change which could only be made by someone putting the hands in the database since I asked to have my account name changed which impacted the url of my account and of my artist website.

Sure, they are not the most advanced website out there or seem to be very open to suggestions, but saying they are fishy...

But I'm open to test some searches of sponsored pages and post the results form other people. Then we may be able to confirm if the sponsoring is fishy or not since I'm not logged in in your accounts and thus act as a normal buyer and see the real search results. I have all the interest in knowing it.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on February 07, 2013, 13:51
I don't do social media or blog so can't sponsor a page (I guess I could put a link page on my moribund domain personal website but I'm sure that's not what's wanted).

However, I'm willing to try out your searches and screendump and publish the results, if you want: but I'm just going out for c3 hours.

Hey, I'm not negative; I've just noticed a couple of possible 'issues'.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on February 10, 2013, 08:09
Hey, we were all wrong - they're going to sort the watermark thing!
Great for them, especially since it's an optional feature.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on February 10, 2013, 08:14
Earlier I posted that some searches were as badly spammed as at the micros, but I've had many searches where I can't see the offending keyword anywhere, and neither can FF's 'search' feature.

So I got one myself. One of my own photos taken in France turned up in a search (within my own port) for USA. Here's what I have:
Description
View of the Louvre museum in Paris with the river Seine in the foreground and Pont Royal.
Keywords:
louvre museum, architecture, paris, france, europe, french, museum, european, art gallery, river seine, seine, pont royal, bridge, musée du louvre

Anyone see why that would turn up in a search for 'USA'?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on February 10, 2013, 08:18
They add a lot of keywords themselve I think.

Where can you see the watermark announcement?

I wish they did somehting about shipping cost.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on February 10, 2013, 08:29
They add a lot of keywords themselve I think.
Oh, sh*t. We're dooooooomed.
Are these added keywords invisible?
I just went to the file's homepage (not my 'edit' page) and a FF search turns up nothing for USA, so it's not even in the middle of a visible word.

Quote
Where can you see the watermark announcement?
It was emailled to me via the request forum.
Ouch, I went to retrieve it from my email trashcan, but for some reason, I seem to have purged it. I guess it is on the request thread that I posted on last week. There seemed to be several threads with the same request.

Quote
I wish they did somehting about shipping cost.
One day, maybe.

Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on February 10, 2013, 08:53
Sue, I think its a problem with your word Museum.

THis is what FAA does to your keywords

Quote
louvre museum framed prints, architecture framed prints, paris framed prints, france framed prints, europe framed prints, french framed prints, museum framed prints, european framed prints, art gallery framed prints, river seine framed prints, seine framed prints, pont royal framed prints, bridge framed prints, musée du louvre framed prints, louvre museum greeting cards, architecture greeting cards, paris greeting cards, france greeting cards, europe greeting cards, french greeting cards, museum greeting cards, european greeting cards, art gallery greeting cards, river seine greeting cards, seine greeting cards, pont royal greeting cards, bridge greeting cards, musée du louvre greeting cards, louvre museum prints, architecture prints, paris prints, france prints, europe prints, french prints, museum prints, european prints, art gallery prints, river seine prints, seine prints, pont royal prints, bridge prints, musée du louvre prints, louvre museum posters, architecture posters, paris posters, france posters, europe posters, french posters, museum posters, european posters, art gallery posters, river seine posters, seine posters, pont royal posters, bridge posters, musée du louvre posters
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on February 10, 2013, 08:58
Sue, I think its a problem with your word Museum.

THis is what FAA does to your keywords

Quote
louvre museum framed prints, architecture framed prints, paris framed prints, france framed prints, europe framed prints, french framed prints, museum framed prints, european framed prints, art gallery framed prints, river seine framed prints, seine framed prints, pont royal framed prints, bridge framed prints, musée du louvre framed prints, louvre museum greeting cards, architecture greeting cards, paris greeting cards, france greeting cards, europe greeting cards, french greeting cards, museum greeting cards, european greeting cards, art gallery greeting cards, river seine greeting cards, seine greeting cards, pont royal greeting cards, bridge greeting cards, musée du louvre greeting cards, louvre museum prints, architecture prints, paris prints, france prints, europe prints, french prints, museum prints, european prints, art gallery prints, river seine prints, seine prints, pont royal prints, bridge prints, musée du louvre prints, louvre museum posters, architecture posters, paris posters, france posters, europe posters, french posters, museum posters, european posters, art gallery posters, river seine posters, seine posters, pont royal posters, bridge posters, musée du louvre posters
Sh*t, thanks.
I thought it would be useful to have just the main subject in French as well as English, as a French person would naturally type the accent. Wonder why FF's 'find' didn't throw that up. Looks like they have a similar problem to iStock's editorial caption, which really messes up accents (and even apostrophes).
Wonder if this issue has been brought up with them. American English isn't the only language. H*ck, e-acute is in Latin 1, what's with these people?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on February 10, 2013, 09:02
I dont know how the search works, its apparently an algorithm of 30 odd pieces of data. And their suggestion thread is only a carrot on a stick as they implement only what benefits FAA most (which is their right) but it does frustrate some people I think.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on February 10, 2013, 09:10
I dont know how the search works, its apparently an algorithm of 30 odd pieces of data. And their suggestion thread is only a carrot on a stick as they implement only what benefits FAA most (which is their right) but it does frustrate some people I think.
Certainly makes sense to prioritise on what will benefit their overall business.

I just tried a sitewide search on musée du louvre and it turns up 0 hits, so I guess I can take it out of my keywords, and tough on French potential customers, and those from the many other countries whose language has accented characters.

At the prices, I'm sure the US is their primary market.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on February 10, 2013, 09:14
Here Sue, musee du louvre, that does work.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on February 10, 2013, 09:18
Here Sue, musee du louvre, that does work.
True, I'll put that in, but I bet a French person will automatically put in the accent and not think to take it out if they get no result.
Thanks for the suggestion, definitely can't do any harm!  :)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Maui on February 10, 2013, 11:14
Did you mean Paris in Arkansas,  in Idaho, in Illinois, in Iowa, in Kentucky, in... ? :P

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_%28disambiguation%29 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_%28disambiguation%29)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on February 10, 2013, 21:12
I just tried finding some of my own images (while logged out) by searching keywords.   With some, I succeeded - by searching for several very specific keywords I knew where there.  With others, I failed, they didn't turn up at all and might as well not even be on the site because no one will ever see them.

So far I'd say the Unabomber, while hiding out in a cabin in the back country of Montana, probably got more visits than my photos are getting at FAA.

I don't expect to ever get a single sale through FAA.  I'm putting photos up there just in case, someday, I find  buyers for prints; at this point I don't know how that might happen, but who knows.  With 100,000+ contributors and who knows how many million images, I don't think one should expect sales through keyword searching.  It's just a fantasy.  But I'll be happy to be proven wrong.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on February 10, 2013, 21:21
I don't expect a lot of sales from there, and for sure, no-one in my aquaintance would pay that much for a photo print even before shipping was added. But it's using the time I'd normally be shooting/prepping/uploading to iS, so no problem. So far, I've been trawling my archives, but I intend to shoot more 'arty' stuff, down the line when I get myself into that frame of mind.
While trawling the archives I've found loads of old pics I can delete, so I'm freeing up space on my oldest HD, so all good.  ;D
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on February 10, 2013, 21:27
Same with me - setting up at FAA has gotten me to finally pull together a lot of my good images from the past, organize them, brighten them a bit for printing, title and keyword.  Now if a better POD comes along, I'm ready; or I could even do a show or art sale.

You're right about the prices.  Yeeessh.  I could never send a friend to FAA for a print.

Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: trek on February 10, 2013, 21:37
They sell nice looking web sites for $30- a year.  It felt good to upload and organize galleries aesthetically... without consideration for what may get past a reviewer.  I couldn't stop at 25 images so I payed for an account.  Maybe it will break even someday.   
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: etienjones on February 11, 2013, 03:14
I kind of agree with you.  With 200 or so images and one or 2 visits a day this is one of those sites you don't want to check every day . . . . .  I'll drop in once a month and wait to be surprised.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Sandralise on February 11, 2013, 14:27
I'm coming a bit late to this thread but I like FAA a lot. I've with them since 2010 with over 500 images online.
I make a very good payout every month with very little effort...it's a great additional income at the end of the month and would recommend it to anyone! :)

http://sandra-cunningham.artistwebsites.com (http://sandra-cunningham.artistwebsites.com)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: luissantos84 on February 11, 2013, 14:28
I kind of agree with you.  With 200 or so images and one or 2 visits a day this is one of those sites you don't want to check every day . . . . .  I'll drop in once a month and wait to be surprised.

they send you an email if you have a sale ;)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Sandralise on February 11, 2013, 14:38
I kind of agree with you.  With 200 or so images and one or 2 visits a day this is one of those sites you don't want to check every day . . . . .  I'll drop in once a month and wait to be surprised.

they send you an email if you have a sale ;)

It's always so nice to receive that e-mail!  :)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: sharpshot on February 11, 2013, 19:15
I'm sure I'll be more keen when I do get a sale.  Not sure much of my stuff is arty enough and I need to work on that.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on February 21, 2013, 07:57
OK, I'm still at the stage when I check to see if I've had any visitors. I noticed a suprising number of my fairly slow flow of visitors came from Washington DC. No 'followers', and not following in a gallery or by order of upload or any obvious pattern, then I noticed the times, e.g.:
(http://www.lizworld.com/DC.jpg)
Other than a timed bot making random finds (? I just made that up just now), is there an even simpler explanation? Anyone else see the same?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: mtkang on February 21, 2013, 08:25
I can't see anything about amazon in my account, do i need to activate it?

thanks.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Sadstock on February 21, 2013, 09:10
.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: luissantos84 on February 21, 2013, 09:39
also have many views from DC and yes many at XX:23 ;D
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: rimglow on February 21, 2013, 09:54
I'm seeing the same thing. Here's FAA's explanation:

http://1stangel.co.uk/fineartamerica/2011/06/25/what-is-a-bot-or-search-bot/ (http://1stangel.co.uk/fineartamerica/2011/06/25/what-is-a-bot-or-search-bot/)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on February 21, 2013, 09:56
Tx.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: luissantos84 on February 21, 2013, 09:58
oh I see, I would love to have those views taken away ;)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on February 21, 2013, 10:47
I can't see anything about amazon in my account, do i need to activate it?

thanks.
You dotn see amazon on your faa account.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on February 21, 2013, 10:47
oh I see, I would love to have those views taken away ;)
i think they were going to remove bot views at some point
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: mtkang on February 21, 2013, 11:00
so is it be default our portfolio will be available in amazon?

i tried to search related info in faq, but got nothing.


I can't see anything about amazon in my account, do i need to activate it?

thanks.
You dotn see amazon on your faa account.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on February 21, 2013, 11:02
Further back in this thread it says that the link is broken and if you want to be on amazon you need to contact them to do it manually, maybe once a month.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: rimglow on February 21, 2013, 11:07
Further back in this thread it says that the link is broken and if you want to be on amazon you need to contact them to do it manually, maybe once a month.

Contact FAA or Amazon?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on February 21, 2013, 11:08
Contact FAA, tech support and ask them to synch your acc with amazon
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Sadstock on February 21, 2013, 11:14
oh I see, I would love to have those views taken away ;)
i think they were going to remove bot views at some point

According to the FAA link on bots rimglow provided, you can contact support to have the bot visits not show up under visitors.  I think I'll do that, as it is a huge chunk of my visits.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on February 21, 2013, 11:18
oh I see, I would love to have those views taken away ;)
i think they were going to remove bot views at some point

According to the FAA link on bots rimglow provided, you can contact support to have the bot visits not show up under visitors.  I think I'll do that, as it is a huge chunk of my visits.
Oh, right. I wonder why they're not 'off' by default?
Tx
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on February 21, 2013, 11:51
That 'bot in DC really likes my photos but hasn't bought anything.  I wish I knew what sort of subjects appeal to 'bots. Maybe shots of big server farms?  Or sleek, high end new laptops? 

BTW I doubt it's actually in DC - I don't think the locations are remotely accurate.  On the FAA forum, several people have asked for the ability to add Statcounter to their pages - no response from FAA.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on February 21, 2013, 12:49
oh I see, I would love to have those views taken away ;)
i think they were going to remove bot views at some point

According to the FAA link on bots rimglow provided, you can contact support to have the bot visits not show up under visitors.

Where are you seeing this?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Sadstock on February 21, 2013, 13:13
oh I see, I would love to have those views taken away ;)
i think they were going to remove bot views at some point


According to the FAA link on bots rimglow provided, you can contact support to have the bot visits not show up under visitors.


Where are you seeing this?

http://1stangel.co.uk/fineartamerica/2011/06/25/what-is-a-bot-or-search-bot/ (http://1stangel.co.uk/fineartamerica/2011/06/25/what-is-a-bot-or-search-bot/)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Jo Ann Snover on February 21, 2013, 17:08
Regarding amazon.com showing my FAA portfolio, I contacted support this morning and within an hour I got an answer back that the port had been included (it's a manual process and you have to request it) and that it could take 4-5 hours to show up.

I just checked and it does - I search for my name and Fine Art America. Who knows if any sales will result (it's canvas prints only) but can't hurt
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on February 21, 2013, 17:14
oh I see, I would love to have those views taken away ;)
i think they were going to remove bot views at some point


According to the FAA link on bots rimglow provided, you can contact support to have the bot visits not show up under visitors.


Where are you seeing this?

[url]http://1stangel.co.uk/fineartamerica/2011/06/25/what-is-a-bot-or-search-bot/[/url] ([url]http://1stangel.co.uk/fineartamerica/2011/06/25/what-is-a-bot-or-search-bot/[/url])


I emailed support and got this reply:

"Most of the bots are filtered out. However they are always changing their IPs so it is not really possible to keep them filtered all the time"

So, we're stuck with all those views from Washington DC.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Sadstock on February 21, 2013, 17:44
oh I see, I would love to have those views taken away ;)
i think they were going to remove bot views at some point


According to the FAA link on bots rimglow provided, you can contact support to have the bot visits not show up under visitors.


Where are you seeing this?

[url]http://1stangel.co.uk/fineartamerica/2011/06/25/what-is-a-bot-or-search-bot/[/url] ([url]http://1stangel.co.uk/fineartamerica/2011/06/25/what-is-a-bot-or-search-bot/[/url])


I emailed support and got this reply:

"Most of the bots are filtered out. However they are always changing their IPs so it is not really possible to keep them filtered all the time"

So, we're stuck with all those views from Washington DC.


Along with all the other stuff that comes out of DC...
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: mtkang on February 22, 2013, 00:14
I can't find any information about amazon channel in FAA..

where you guys know there is a way to get portfolio on amazon?

Regarding amazon.com showing my FAA portfolio, I contacted support this morning and within an hour I got an answer back that the port had been included (it's a manual process and you have to request it) and that it could take 4-5 hours to show up.

I just checked and it does - I search for my name and Fine Art America. Who knows if any sales will result (it's canvas prints only) but can't hurt
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Jo Ann Snover on February 22, 2013, 01:39
I read about it here, then did a google search that took me to this page

http://fineartamerica.com/tourfineartamerica/amazon.html (http://fineartamerica.com/tourfineartamerica/amazon.html)

I searched the FAA discusssions for amazon and found this thread

http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=759678&order=newestoldest (http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=759678&order=newestoldest)

I contacted support as noted in the previous post
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: trek on February 22, 2013, 08:37
My photos automatically transferred over to Amazon.  Maybe they fixed the link. 
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on February 22, 2013, 08:46
My photos automatically transferred over to Amazon.  Maybe they fixed the link.
How did you find your photos? I just checked amazon.com for two uusual keywords and I didn't see them there. (I haven't asked yet for them to be ported over.)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: luissantos84 on February 22, 2013, 08:58
I can't find any information about amazon channel in FAA..

where you guys know there is a way to get portfolio on amazon?

you just need to email them telling you want your portfolio up on amazon, not that hard...
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: trek on February 22, 2013, 09:00
My photos automatically transferred over to Amazon.  Maybe they fixed the link.
How did you find your photos? I just checked amazon.com for two uusual keywords and I didn't see them there. (I haven't asked yet for them to be ported over.)

I searched my FAA account name. 
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on February 23, 2013, 16:28
Another bot from Tolleson, AZ? (a very unsystematic one!)
I don't think I'm getting many 'real' views.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Sadstock on February 23, 2013, 16:35
I don't get many real ones either, though nothing from Arizona.  I've taken to resetting the counter when I get a bot search so I don't have to look at it again.  Tedious, but gives me a tiny sense of control.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on February 23, 2013, 16:47
I have to believe it's technically possible to filter these bots.  They're clearly recognizable in StatCounter, with names like "Facebook Bot", "Microsoft Corp", "Yandex" etc.   In Statcounter I never seen any hits that aren't either apparently real, or obvious bots.  The IPs may change, but the bots do identify themselves in a seemingly consistent way.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on February 23, 2013, 17:08
Any changes to the site that are not benefiting the owners dollarwise are at the bottom of the list.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on February 25, 2013, 03:40
I just sold a single greetings card, so I'm up and running, with 75c  8)
(Within 24 hours of the image being uploaded.)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: mtkang on February 25, 2013, 04:10
i notice we are given by two portfolio address sites..

are these two address can be changed as we like?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on February 25, 2013, 11:08
Someone just posted on FAA's forum, regarding that "keyword sponsoring" thing.  The poster said that if she wasn't logged on she wasn't seeing her stuff.  FAA's admin responded:

"When you are not logged in, you are viewing your work along with everyone else who sponsored that same keyword. Depending on the word that could be just one person or many thousands. [...] However, the chances are raised for you to be seen on that front page, than if you do not sponsor the keyword."

Sounds like a waste of time to me, unless you have some totally unique keywords.

Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on February 25, 2013, 13:56
i notice we are given by two portfolio address sites..

are these two address can be changed as we like?
If you want another prefix to their standard link, i.e. a different name then your own, then you need to email tech support.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on February 25, 2013, 13:57
I know its a 13 page thread, but loads of stuff people are now reporting, is duplicate and has been addressed in this thread already.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: oboy on February 25, 2013, 14:11
Do we have to write support for any other services that we like to be included or activated?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Sadstock on March 02, 2013, 20:26
A bit out of my price range.
http://www.amazon.com/Double-Lines-Above-Canvas-Art/dp/B006BS8XVI/ref=sr_1_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1362273748&sr=1-1 (http://www.amazon.com/Double-Lines-Above-Canvas-Art/dp/B006BS8XVI/ref=sr_1_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1362273748&sr=1-1)


http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_st?qid=1362273734&rh=n%3A1055398%2Cp_4%3AFine+Art+America&sort=-price (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_st?qid=1362273734&rh=n%3A1055398%2Cp_4%3AFine+Art+America&sort=-price)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on March 02, 2013, 20:43
A bit out of my price range.
[url]http://www.amazon.com/Double-Lines-Above-Canvas-Art/dp/B006BS8XVI/ref=sr_1_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1362273748&sr=1-1[/url] ([url]http://www.amazon.com/Double-Lines-Above-Canvas-Art/dp/B006BS8XVI/ref=sr_1_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1362273748&sr=1-1[/url])


[url]http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_st?qid=1362273734&rh=n%3A1055398%2Cp_4%3AFine+Art+America&sort=-price[/url] ([url]http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_st?qid=1362273734&rh=n%3A1055398%2Cp_4%3AFine+Art+America&sort=-price[/url])


Hey, maybe I can do that stuff!
What random prices.  ::)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Sadstock on March 02, 2013, 21:01
For $25 million, I'm certain you could learn.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: noodle on March 02, 2013, 21:01
I;ve had a few from Pakistan about 5 of them for the same image from between 11:57pm to 11:59 pm... weird
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on March 02, 2013, 21:04
I;ve had a few from Pakistan about 5 of them for the same image from between 11:57pm to 11:59 pm... weird
Sales?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: noodle on March 03, 2013, 07:44
I;ve had a few from Pakistan about 5 of them for the same image from between 11:57pm to 11:59 pm... weird
Sales?

I wish.  No they were views, and so many together maybe it was a bot? I get bunches of views like this from time to time
I had sold a nice big print when I was on the free plan, then I thought I would join the paid plan in hopes of better exposure/sales, but that has not panned out like I hoped it would  :(
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on March 03, 2013, 07:49
I;ve had a few from Pakistan about 5 of them for the same image from between 11:57pm to 11:59 pm... weird
Sales?

I wish.  No they were views, and so many together maybe it was a bot? I get bunches of views like this from time to time
I had sold a nice big print when I was on the free plan, then I thought I would join the paid plan in hopes of better exposure/sales, but that has not panned out like I hoped it would  :(

Yeah, maybe a bot. I think a lot of my visitors are bots - as on my personal website.

I'm being patient. I was eight months on Alamy before I got a sale, and I've paid the money, so I might as well keep uploading.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Mantis on March 03, 2013, 08:37
Of the things an artist CAN control (who is not a blogger) on FAA, what are the critical value adds you must learn about how to interact with FAA in the best way possible? i.e. are there tricks within our control we should know or is it just upload, keyword and pray?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: luissantos84 on March 03, 2013, 10:48
Of the things an artist CAN control (who is not a blogger) on FAA, what are the critical value adds you must learn about how to interact with FAA in the best way possible? i.e. are there tricks within our control we should know or is it just upload, keyword and pray?

pretty much! sure you can promote it, I don't even know where to start, just to think of all the hard work I am tired already, believe I will have to wait for buyers from searches, have views everyday but not much luck, still have hope but won't dream too much, microstock is a lot more stable but its a different market as we know
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: rimglow on March 03, 2013, 10:59
  Here's what I discovered. I've been on the site about three weeks. After two weeks, I could go to Google images and type in my name, and boom, there were about 10-15 FAA images linking back to my portfolio. So, that's pretty cool.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on March 03, 2013, 14:37
With over 4 million items online, no 'curation', a weak keyword search and no controls on keyword spamming,  one's odds of making a sale through FAA's channels have to be microscopic.  Every time you log on you get to see a sample of recent sales, and it can be depressing; dogs, horses, docks, classic cars, celebrity portraits.  Most photos that sell are heavily overprocessed.   

I spent some time polishing and uploading 140 photos and so far, some nice 'bots have been coming by to say hello, and that's about it.   Maybe I can do something with this in the future but for how it's a hobby farm.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockmn on March 03, 2013, 16:55
A bit off topic but I just searched Pinterest with my name and a bunch of my images came up from Fine Art America.  A few had FAA watermarks but MANY large images did not.  The image without watermarks say they were pinned from FAA.  Not sure how these full page images of mine without watermarks came from FAA.  Maybe when you pin something from FAA there are times where a watermark is not applied?

As of right now I'm thinking that the chance for an occasional sale at FAA is not worth my work being made available like this.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on March 03, 2013, 17:03
You have the option to add a watermark to your images on FAA.   I feel watermarks kill sales of 'art' and if you're trying to sell on FAA, you have to accept the risk.   But, I have doubts about this because the images are big and some people are going to grab them.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on March 03, 2013, 17:13
A bit off topic but I just searched Pinterest with my name and a bunch of my images came up from Fine Art America.  A few had FAA watermarks but MANY large images did not.  The image without watermarks say they were pinned from FAA.  Not sure how these full page images of mine without watermarks came from FAA.  Maybe when you pin something from FAA there are times where a watermark is not applied?

As of right now I'm thinking that the chance for an occasional sale at FAA is not worth my work being made available like this.

Do you have to be a member of pinterest to search the site now?

BTW, I just searched google on pinterest and my name, and have found my iStock pics almost certainly legitimately purchased, with pinit links right underneath. These are unwatermarked, obviously, and the size depends on the size on the site.

I don't think we can win against this pin thing.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on March 04, 2013, 06:08
I have my FAA pics watermarked by default. However, some of my more recent work I don't have on Alamy or iS so I left unwatermarked, as Art (as opposed to stock) is not generally watermarked and it looks amateurish on a 'fine art' site. Also if I find the pics 'in use', I'll know for a fact that they weren't legitimately purchased anywhere.
So I unticked 'watermark', but the default choice to have the watermark 'on' seems to over-ride the individual change.
Am I missing something?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: epantha on March 04, 2013, 10:50
Okay guys and gals, joined Friday night and spent hours over the weekend uploading 103 images, including some old digital paintings. Also scanned some pen and ink and graphite drawings and slides, and some original watercolors, but haven't uploaded the images for those yet (lot of cleaning up to do). Also have some stained glass ornaments I could try to sell, who knows? Seems like the site is right down my alley.

I like all the features available on the site and hope to research those when I have free time.
Here is a link to the galleries I have so far. :D

http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/melinda-fawver.html?tab=artworkgalleries (http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/melinda-fawver.html?tab=artworkgalleries)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: etienjones on March 04, 2013, 11:17
Okay guys and gals, joined Friday night and spent hours over the weekend uploading 103 images, including some old digital paintings. Also scanned some pen and ink and graphite drawings and slides, and some original watercolors, but haven't uploaded the images for those yet (lot of cleaning up to do). Also have some stained glass ornaments I could try to sell, who knows? Seems like the site is right down my alley.

I like all the features available on the site and hope to research those when I have free time.
Here is a link to the galleries I have so far. :D

[url]http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/melinda-fawver.html?tab=artworkgalleries[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/melinda-fawver.html?tab=artworkgalleries[/url])


Nice seeing a few photos from Knoxville,  my brother went to U of T and my father grew up in Rogersville. 
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Smithore on March 04, 2013, 16:03
Do you think it's better to send the pictures in Srgb or adobe rgb, as the destination is printed support???
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: etienjones on March 05, 2013, 03:23
Use sRGB color profile.  The fact is unless you are having prints made at a Speciality Printer with on site color proofing and pay high prices for a print, then large volume printers, whether inkjet prints or C-Prints (Fuji Frontier, Océ Lightjet, or Durst Lambda), are set up for the “common man” who has no idea of color profiles.

I recently had a few Art Prints made through WhiteWall and for a test printed the same image twice, one using a jpeg/sRGB and one a Tiff converted to Kodak Endura Color profile which is the paper used for a Lightjet Print. Results:  Absolutly none that I could fine.  Both Prints were printed at 45x30 cm which was a 50% resized file coming from my 10 mp Nikon. Quality was excellent. At WhiteWall, it is stated that unless you convert a file to a Color Profile, then they assume the file has a sRGB Profile.

I would recommend WhiteWall for personal printing.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on March 05, 2013, 11:58
Do you mean WhiteWall or White House?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: etienjones on March 05, 2013, 12:51
Do you mean WhiteWall or White House?


Based in Berlin, they have sites in many languages.  Here in the UK:

https://uk.classic.whitewall.com/? (https://uk.classic.whitewall.com/?)

White Wall, get it . . . .  "lets put something on that white wall", I guess.

They do all the printing for the Lumas Photo Galleries.

http://www.lumas.com (http://www.lumas.com)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Lizard on March 05, 2013, 14:49
Hm I signed up yesterday i uploaded some paintings i start doing recently.

So when do images show up after u push them , is there a review or something ?  I dont even see a pending folder o something and in uploads there is nothing also ?

Thanks
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Poncke on March 05, 2013, 14:54
You upload and thats it
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on March 05, 2013, 16:34
There's no review, no rejections, no restrictions.  But, no sales either :-)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: luissantos84 on March 05, 2013, 16:54
There's no review, no rejections, no restrictions.  But, no sales either :-)

not very accurate, sure you and me a few other but the recent sold doesn't show that, many stock contributors (Elena, Sandra as a few examples) have many sales too
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on March 05, 2013, 16:56
Funnily enough although I've only been there for a month, I've happened to notice three sales coming through from people posting earlier in this thread, and as people don't usually use the same name here as there, I could have missed plenty.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: luissantos84 on March 05, 2013, 17:18
Funnily enough although I've only been there for a month, I've happened to notice three sales coming through from people posting earlier in this thread, and as people don't usually use the same name here as there, I could have missed plenty.

you got 3 sales?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on March 05, 2013, 17:29
Funnily enough although I've only been there for a month, I've happened to notice three sales coming through from people posting earlier in this thread, and as people don't usually use the same name here as there, I could have missed plenty.

you got 3 sales?
No, one single greetings card.
I happened to 'catch' sales from three OTHER people who posted earlier in this thread.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Lizard on March 05, 2013, 17:40
You upload and thats it

Ok I uploaded 2 days ago , in upload page i named files, put  categories bla bla...

In my profile I see no images , I dont see pending folder or something , when do images usually start to show up in search or in gallery or in profile or anywhere ?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on March 05, 2013, 17:44
You upload and thats it

Ok I uploaded 2 days ago , in upload page i named files, put  categories bla bla...

In my profile I see no images , I dont see pending folder or something , when do images usually start to show up in search or in gallery or in profile or anywhere ?

They usually show up in your gallery instantly, but sometimes take a couple of days to become searchable. Sometimes my named (paid for) gallery lags behind if I upload to the general faa site and vice versa, but not by even an hour, and sometimes it's instant on both.

Added: while I was typing the above, a file was uploading. I just keyworded and described it and it's showing on my own name site and FAA. One that I uploaded early afternoon UK time (about ten hours ago) is searchable.

Added2: I wonder if it's slower on the free site (you don't say if you're still using the free uploads.) When I was on my first 25, it took a couple of days to be searchable, but they were still instantly visible.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Lizard on March 05, 2013, 17:51
You upload and thats it

Ok I uploaded 2 days ago , in upload page i named files, put  categories bla bla...

In my profile I see no images , I dont see pending folder or something , when do images usually start to show up in search or in gallery or in profile or anywhere ?



They usually show up in your gallery instantly, but sometimes take a couple of days to become searchable. Sometimes my named (paid for) gallery lags behind if I upload to the general faa site and vice versa, but not by even an hour, and sometimes it's instant on both.

Thank you ,

Then I guess I have a problem , whatever I upload vanishes with no trace after i submit , and there is nothing in my portfolio
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on March 05, 2013, 17:54
You upload and thats it

Ok I uploaded 2 days ago , in upload page i named files, put  categories bla bla...

In my profile I see no images , I dont see pending folder or something , when do images usually start to show up in search or in gallery or in profile or anywhere ?



They usually show up in your gallery instantly, but sometimes take a couple of days to become searchable. Sometimes my named (paid for) gallery lags behind if I upload to the general faa site and vice versa, but not by even an hour, and sometimes it's instant on both.

Thank you ,

Then I guess I have a problem , whatever I upload vanishes with no trace after i submit , and there is nothing in my portfolio
After you hit the big blue button, you should be taken to the file's home page, where you see the big thum of the image and the print options and cards down the right hand side. That's as soon as you hit the blue button at the bottom of the upload page.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Lizard on March 05, 2013, 17:57
Hm I will try now to see what happends because i forgot what happend last time when uploading....
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Lizard on March 05, 2013, 18:35
Now its working before it didnt get me to that page Maybe Im wrong but I think I did all same as now...

anyway thanks for your help again....


Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on March 05, 2013, 18:45
Now its working before it didnt get me to that page Maybe Im wrong but I think I did all same as now...

anyway thanks for your help again....

IIRC, you have to hit the blue arrow at the bottom of the page. I think if you hit one of the other ones, it doesn't work. There was definitely some 'oddness' at the beginning which I noticed.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on March 05, 2013, 20:05
There's no review, no rejections, no restrictions.  But, no sales either :-)

not very accurate, sure you and me a few other but the recent sold doesn't show that, many stock contributors (Elena, Sandra as a few examples) have many sales too

I have 140 images up there and the only views I get are from occasional 'bots.

So far it's just like RedBubble, except it costs $30  :)

YMMV.   
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: etienjones on March 06, 2013, 03:04
There's no review, no rejections, no restrictions.  But, no sales either :-)

not very accurate, sure you and me a few other but the recent sold doesn't show that, many stock contributors (Elena, Sandra as a few examples) have many sales too

I have 140 images up there and the only views I get are from occasional 'bots.

So far it's just like RedBubble, except it costs $30  :)

YMMV.

Exactly.
The Pyschology of selling over the Internet - doesn't it feel good when we get Views!!
With 230 images I have 190 non bot views . . . .  in about 2 months.  It feels so good, but . . .
Reality = -$30/no sales
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: sharpshot on March 06, 2013, 04:09
488 views, -$30 for me as well.  Still early days but not encouraging.  I should of checked the shipping costs before joining.  Most of my photos are of the UK and I don't think anyone from the UK will pay their shipping costs.  Can't think of a reason why they wouldn't have a printer in Europe to cut shipping costs.  I think it wont be long before another site sees the huge flaw in their business and takes over for the places that FAA can't compete in with their shipping prices.

FAA seems to of proved that there is a market for selling prints online, it appears they sell a lot in the US and are doing better than sites like Red Bubble but I think they need a Fine Art Europe and all the other continents or they're only going to be for the US and countries that don't have big shipping fees.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Smithore on March 06, 2013, 04:50
I've just started yesterday to upload some stuff and also paid the 30$, just try for one year and see what will happen.
I'm also in Europe, but I think American people like landscapes from other countries, no?? And many subjects are not depending from specific countries, like nature landscapes and sceneries, animals, abstract...
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Sadstock on March 06, 2013, 09:08
I'm thinking about "sponsoring" some search terms.  It says in exchange for their additional promotion of my images, I need to post links to my sponsored search somewhere on the internet and let FAA know where it is.  I don't have a webpage where I'm promoting my work and don't really want one. 

My question is where are people posting these links?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: rimglow on March 06, 2013, 09:20
I'm thinking about "sponsoring" some search terms.  It says in exchange for their additional promotion of my images, I need to post links to my sponsored search somewhere on the internet and let FAA know where it is.  I don't have a webpage where I'm promoting my work and don't really want one. 

My question is where are people posting these links?


Open a blog using Wordpress. It's free. Here's what I'm using: http://rimglow.wordpress.com (http://rimglow.wordpress.com)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on March 06, 2013, 10:41
I should of checked the shipping costs before joining.

Even for domestic (US) shipment, the cost is a killer and like you, I didn't even think of that when I signed up.  At these prices, I can't even tell my friends about the site, it would be embarrassing.  To be fair, FAA aggressively defends their shipping charges as being in line with similar services, so  I guess the whole idea of online sales of framed prints is a bit of a fantasy.

But I like my fantasy, so I'll  let them charge me the $30 and give it a year before I face reality. 



Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on March 06, 2013, 13:05
The $30 also gets you a "fully customizable artist web site" .  It's a big letdown because all you can really do is change some colors and fonts and add a banner - otherwise it's identical to your FAA page with lots of unused junk and clutter, and some embarassingly ditsy text.

There has to be something better.  Does SmugMug have keyword search and significant marketing to buyers, or it purely a fulfillment site for your own marketing?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: landbysea on March 06, 2013, 17:48
I should of checked the shipping costs before joining.

Even for domestic (US) shipment, the cost is a killer and like you, I didn't even think of that when I signed up.  At these prices, I can't even tell my friends about the site, it would be embarrassing.  To be fair, FAA aggressively defends their shipping charges as being in line with similar services, so  I guess the whole idea of online sales of framed prints is a bit of a fantasy.

But I like my fantasy, so I'll  let them charge me the $30 and give it a year before I face reality.
My first sales came a few weeks after joining last July. Someone in Australia bought 3 prints shipped in a tube. I have sold a few framed prints since then as well as many unframed. I can see how international shipping could kill framed sales but Americans buy all kinds of art, and that is a big market right there.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Sadstock on March 16, 2013, 19:11
Just found a bunch of weird bot visits today for about 15 of my images overnight.  First a visit from NY, NY then 13 to 21 minutes later a visit from Guangzhou, China.  Why would an image be cataloged twice by the same bot system half way around the world within 20 minutes?  If they want to mirror the data, wouldn't make more sense for them to visit once then share the data with the mirror? 
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: tab62 on March 16, 2013, 20:29
I saved the $30 by just submitting to CreStock which I have no sales...
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on March 16, 2013, 22:37
The only rational way to think of FAA is as a "hobby farm". 

Over 4 milllion "works" for sale,  no inspection, no quality standards.  The thing that most affects your search ranking is past sales, and there's no boost for new contributors like there is on (some) microstock sites, so as time goes by, newbies are just buried deeper and deeper.

You can boost your ranking by winning contests, getting comments, or getting featured in groups, but it's open to anyone - like, maybe, your friends and relatives - and it too often seems like the winner of a contest is a very unexceptional photo with a suspiciously large number of votes.   

Keyword search is the only way your needles would ever be found in this haystack.  Typical searches  would seem to be "Michael Jackson", "beautiful sunset", "funny cat", "classic car" and "mystical pony".

They tell you over and over: you have to market yourself outside of FAA.   And like many people I freely admit I have no clue how to do that.  So, it's a hobby farm - a way to get myself to process a lot of photos, and get them ready for sale, in case some opportunity comes along.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: jatrax on March 16, 2013, 23:04
Quote
The only rational way to think of FAA is as a "hobby farm". 

Perhaps but I find it forces me to think in different ways.  Shooting for stock (especially microstock) I think trains you to shoot bland, evenly lit images.  I've looked at some of my older images and find them more 'creative' than what I've shot the last couple of years.  MS is a brutal training ground and I have adapted so I get most things accepted.  But that does not make those images particularly creative.

But on FAA regular 'stock' images do not sell, or only rarely.  There must be enough creativity in the image for someone to hang it on the wall.  Dark shadows or edgy lighting are just fine, it allows you to do things that would never get accept on MS sites.

That said there are a number of artists whose work seems to do fine in both stock and on FAA, but I freely acknowledge they are far better photographers than I am.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on March 17, 2013, 06:28
Totally agree with jatrax.
On a different note, clicking on any of my images in the main site is giving a '502 Bad Gateway' error message this morning. My own 'fully customisable' site is OK, but that will never be found randomly - AFAICS, it's just a web address for giving out to people or putting in links.

Also agree with stockastic - looks like the contests are just a measure of how many facebook 'friends' you have (I have 3, and I wouldn't go crawling to them or anyone else to ask them to vote for me.) I thought that email we got about his wife's fitness DVD was totally irrelevant to selling images on FAA. If my real life friends and family wanted a photo, I'd print it out for them and leave them to get it mounted and framed, if they wanted. Expecting them to pay FAA prices would be a rapid way to end a friendship

BTW, anyone know how to make a live link in the description? I must be missing something, because I can't get an HTML or UBB link to work, nor even their own link they give you for posting in blogs etc. I have some files I've uploaded with quotes, but also without quotes, and I'd like to be able to link them, since the search function is so random. Particularly from the 'quotation' images to the ones without the quotes.

Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: sharpshot on March 17, 2013, 10:54
555 views now and zero sales.  Hope I get one sometime, as I've lost motivation to upload more.  There's too much to do that does make me some money.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on March 17, 2013, 11:19
While many of the contests are bogus, some of the groups are (IMHO) run by people with good taste, and I've had a little success there.   I've calculated that I should get a sale in roughly 2,082 years. 

Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: nailiaschwarz on March 17, 2013, 12:11
I started with FAA at the end of 2010. I think it takes a year or so until you start to see any sales.

I had 3 sales in 2011, 38 in 2012, and 9 in 2013 so far.

I do not participate in contests, I am not a member of any group, and I do no marketing at all, except the automated Facebook post of new images.

You really need patience (and some pictures people would hang on their wall :)), it's not Upload-and-sell-instanly like Shutterstock …

Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: steheap on March 17, 2013, 12:55
Hi Nailia

You have some very nice "arty" shots on FAA! Do you find that your flowers sell best? It definitely isn't as easy as uploading your standard stock photos and hoping for the best!

Steve
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: nailiaschwarz on March 17, 2013, 14:12
Hi Steve,

I sold a few flowers there, but most sales are from Still-Life images.

Here are a few examples of pictures that sold several times:

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/cat-and-sunflowers-nailia-schwarz.html (http://fineartamerica.com/featured/cat-and-sunflowers-nailia-schwarz.html)
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/simple-things--sisyphos-01-nailia-schwarz.html (http://fineartamerica.com/featured/simple-things--sisyphos-01-nailia-schwarz.html)
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/simple-things-12-nailia-schwarz.html (http://fineartamerica.com/featured/simple-things-12-nailia-schwarz.html)
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/bad-weather-02-nailia-schwarz.html (http://fineartamerica.com/featured/bad-weather-02-nailia-schwarz.html)
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/1-encounter-nailia-schwarz.html (http://fineartamerica.com/featured/1-encounter-nailia-schwarz.html)

But on other print sites, flowers are about 50% of sales, I think it depends on the audience - you never really know what will sell before it sells :D

Nailia
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: luissantos84 on March 17, 2013, 14:27
Hi Steve,

I sold a few flowers there, but most sales are from Still-Life images.

Here are a few examples of pictures that sold several times:

[url]http://fineartamerica.com/featured/cat-and-sunflowers-nailia-schwarz.html[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/featured/cat-and-sunflowers-nailia-schwarz.html[/url])
[url]http://fineartamerica.com/featured/simple-things--sisyphos-01-nailia-schwarz.html[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/featured/simple-things--sisyphos-01-nailia-schwarz.html[/url])
[url]http://fineartamerica.com/featured/simple-things-12-nailia-schwarz.html[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/featured/simple-things-12-nailia-schwarz.html[/url])
[url]http://fineartamerica.com/featured/bad-weather-02-nailia-schwarz.html[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/featured/bad-weather-02-nailia-schwarz.html[/url])
[url]http://fineartamerica.com/featured/1-encounter-nailia-schwarz.html[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/featured/1-encounter-nailia-schwarz.html[/url])

But on other print sites, flowers are about 50% of sales, I think it depends on the audience - you never really know what will sell before it sells :D

Nailia


you should have kept that for yourself ;D
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: steheap on March 17, 2013, 14:28
Interesting! Those pieces of old worn wood have paid for themselves many times over!

Nicely composed and photographed!

Steve
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on March 17, 2013, 15:27
Hi Steve,

I sold a few flowers there, but most sales are from Still-Life images.
...
Nailia

Naila, these are such super, imaginative images.
Hopefully you'll get many more sales.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Snufkin on March 17, 2013, 15:34
Hi Steve,

I sold a few flowers there, but most sales are from Still-Life images.
...
Nailia

Naila, these are such super, imaginative images.
Hopefully you'll get many more sales.

Yes. Also the technical execution is brilliant. Excellent.
 :)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Travelling-light on March 17, 2013, 15:40
I agree, those are brilliant. I really envy your creativity!
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Gunter Nezhoda on March 17, 2013, 15:50
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/carousel-horse-gunter-nezhoda.html)
http://gunter-nezhoda.artistwebsites.com/featured/1-fairy-tale-cabin-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/circle-of-trust-gunter-nezhoda.html)
http://gunter-nezhoda.artistwebsites.com/featured/step-out-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 (http://gunter-nezhoda.artistwebsites.com/featured/pin-up-cars-3-gunter-nezhoda.html)


Thanks for looking
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: grsphoto on March 17, 2013, 17:28
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 (http://fineartamerica.com/art/all/glenn+specht/all)

Glenn
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: shiyali on March 17, 2013, 18:31
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 (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/large-air-conditioning-cooling-tower-yali-shi.html)
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/industrial-concept-yali-shi.html (http://fineartamerica.com/featured/industrial-concept-yali-shi.html)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on March 17, 2013, 19:12
shiyali, thanks, that's interesting.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: zeamonkey on March 18, 2013, 10:46
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.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: steheap on March 18, 2013, 11:04
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
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: luissantos84 on March 18, 2013, 11:05
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
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on March 18, 2013, 11:12
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.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on March 18, 2013, 13:43
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.

Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: jatrax on March 18, 2013, 19:29
Quote
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.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on March 18, 2013, 19:52
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. 
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Gunter Nezhoda on March 18, 2013, 20:13
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 (http://fineartamerica.com/contests/the-cafe-or-coffee-shop.html?tab=leaderboard)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on March 18, 2013, 20:21
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
[url]http://fineartamerica.com/contests/the-cafe-or-coffee-shop.html?tab=leaderboard[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/contests/the-cafe-or-coffee-shop.html?tab=leaderboard[/url])


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.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on March 18, 2013, 20:30
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.  :-(
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Gunter Nezhoda on March 18, 2013, 20:33
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
[url]http://fineartamerica.com/contests/the-cafe-or-coffee-shop.html?tab=leaderboard[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/contests/the-cafe-or-coffee-shop.html?tab=leaderboard[/url])


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.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: jatrax on March 18, 2013, 20:38
Quote
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.....
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Lizard on March 18, 2013, 21:02
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

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




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.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on March 18, 2013, 21:04
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."



Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on March 19, 2013, 04:13
Quote
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  ;))
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on March 19, 2013, 10:10
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. 

Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Sadstock on March 19, 2013, 11:52
.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: grsphoto on March 19, 2013, 12:13
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.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on March 19, 2013, 13:56
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.

Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Sadstock on March 20, 2013, 06:14
Not to get all Woo Yay, but I just got my first sales, 2 greeting cards for $4. 
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: rubyroo on March 20, 2013, 06:22
Ack.  No.  We can't be having that.

Boo.

No seriously... congratulations on your first sales.  ;D
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: landbysea on March 31, 2013, 12:24
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.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on April 15, 2013, 17:45
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.  ;)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: sharpshot on April 15, 2013, 18:11
I'm jealous, I've still got $30 to go to break even :)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on April 15, 2013, 18:28
I started calculating what each page hit was costing me at $30 a year but it was depressing. 

Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: etienjones on April 16, 2013, 01:46
Update:
With 230 images I have 400 non bot views . . . .  in about 4 months.

Reality = -$30/no sales
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on April 16, 2013, 09:02
Update:
With 230 images I have 400 non bot views ...
How do you sort out the bots?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on April 16, 2013, 09:14
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.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: etienjones on April 16, 2013, 09:33
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?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: sgoodwin4813 on April 16, 2013, 09:39
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.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Sadstock on April 16, 2013, 11:22
I'm also getting a huge number of hits from Beijing.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: luissantos84 on April 16, 2013, 23:03
I'm also getting a huge number of hits from Beijing.

same here, hope they are loaded 8)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Antonio S. on April 28, 2013, 02:50
I joined in January, yesterday I,ve had my first sale: 36x24 canvas in limited time promotion  :)
http://fineartamerica.com/weeklypromotion.html?promotionid=106555 (http://fineartamerica.com/weeklypromotion.html?promotionid=106555)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on April 28, 2013, 03:06
I joined in January, yesterday I,ve had my first sale: 36x24 canvas in limited time promotion  :)
[url]http://fineartamerica.com/weeklypromotion.html?promotionid=106555[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/weeklypromotion.html?promotionid=106555[/url])

Woot! Congratulations!  ;D
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.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Antonio S. on April 28, 2013, 04:04
Thank you, ShadySue  :)
...No marketing, only post my works on Facebook
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on April 28, 2013, 04:30
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.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: borg on November 27, 2013, 16:46
How is going here!?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Ron on November 27, 2013, 18:01
How is going here!?


http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=1582761 (http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=1582761)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: KB on November 28, 2013, 00:31
How is going here!?


[url]http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=1582761[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=1582761[/url])

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).
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Spray and Pray on November 28, 2013, 00:51
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... ;)

Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Ron on November 28, 2013, 03:27
How is going here!?


[url]http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=1582761[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=1582761[/url])

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.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Ron on November 28, 2013, 03:32
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?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: sharpshot on November 29, 2013, 07:08
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 :)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: borg on November 29, 2013, 09:00
Site looks nice, even upload is easy, but as Sharpshot put some bug in my ear, I will stay on free account!
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Ron on November 29, 2013, 09:10
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/.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on November 29, 2013, 09:13
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.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: etienjones on November 29, 2013, 09:40
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/ (http://4-steven-jones.fineartamerica.com/)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on November 29, 2013, 09:42
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?!
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: etienjones on November 29, 2013, 09:48
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?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Ron on November 29, 2013, 09:52
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 . . . . .

[url]http://4-steven-jones.fineartamerica.com/[/url] ([url]http://4-steven-jones.fineartamerica.com/[/url])
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.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: etienjones on November 29, 2013, 09:55
True indeed.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on November 29, 2013, 10:24
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 . . . . .

[url]http://4-steven-jones.fineartamerica.com/[/url] ([url]http://4-steven-jones.fineartamerica.com/[/url])
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.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Ron on November 29, 2013, 11:44
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.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: karkozphoto on November 29, 2013, 12:17
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 8) Now let's wait and see what will be.
http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/karol-kozlowski.html (http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/karol-kozlowski.html)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on November 29, 2013, 13:30
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. 
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Jo Ann Snover on November 29, 2013, 13:42
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 . . . . .

[url]http://4-steven-jones.fineartamerica.com/[/url] ([url]http://4-steven-jones.fineartamerica.com/[/url])


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.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on November 29, 2013, 13:53
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.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: etienjones on November 29, 2013, 14:11
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 . . . . .

[url]http://4-steven-jones.fineartamerica.com/[/url] ([url]http://4-steven-jones.fineartamerica.com/[/url])


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
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: borg on November 29, 2013, 14:44
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...  ;)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Gunter Nezhoda on November 29, 2013, 16:46

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/ (http://gunter-nezhoda.artistwebsites.com/)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: DF_Studios on November 30, 2013, 17:25
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 (http://fineartamerica.com/featured/moonrise-over-airstream-edward-fielding.html)


Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on December 02, 2013, 15:17
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?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Elenathewise on December 02, 2013, 15:18
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 (http://elena-elisseeva.artistwebsites.com/featured/4-wooden-dock-on-autumn-lake-elena-elisseeva.html)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: wordplanet on December 02, 2013, 19:52
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/ (http://marianne-campolongo.artistwebsites.com/)

Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on December 02, 2013, 20:25
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.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on December 02, 2013, 20:31
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.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on December 02, 2013, 22:37
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.



Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: karkozphoto on December 07, 2013, 07:30
First sale! I'm really proud of it!  :) It was good to invest $30.
http://fineartamerica.com/saleannouncement.html?id=f5b8cf12db910664c3dda81db26ae0f5 (http://fineartamerica.com/saleannouncement.html?id=f5b8cf12db910664c3dda81db26ae0f5)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on December 07, 2013, 07:37
First sale! I'm really proud of it!  :) It was good to invest $30.
[url]http://fineartamerica.com/saleannouncement.html?id=f5b8cf12db910664c3dda81db26ae0f5[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/saleannouncement.html?id=f5b8cf12db910664c3dda81db26ae0f5[/url])


Yaaaay! Nice pic - Congrats!
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: wordplanet on December 07, 2013, 20:08
Great photo - congrats on your sale!
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: epantha on December 13, 2013, 15:45
I joined in March and have sold 2 cards, 1 iPhone case and 4 prints (3 this month). All of the prints were landmarks or cityscapes of Knoxville and Chattanooga and were purchased from 4 different cities in Tennessee. I have entered a few of their contests but haven't done any other type of marketing. I have 370 images online.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: DF_Studios on December 14, 2013, 08:37
My advice - concentrate on uploading a good number of appropriate works - i.e. things people would want to display in their homes.  Spend time on keywording and descriptions - people search for places.   Social network.  Plan for the long game as it takes time for search engines to find you.

Keep in mind that previous sales figure into the search engine.  Market outside of FAA.  Soliciting votes and comments from other members is a waste of time.  I've sold more the less I spent on FAA and the more I've spent creating work.

Looking at a four figure check from them this month.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on December 14, 2013, 08:50
If you look constantly at what sells, there are trends. In 'recently sold' photographs, I notice a large preponderance of US places and celebrities. even what might seem 'generic' is styled in an American way.
Of my meagre 5 sales, 4 were of US locations and one was a bird photographed here, but also found in the northern US (all bought by people located in the US). Also within my port, at least 80%, probably nearer 90% of what is searched on 'apparently' not by bots is of specific US relevance (not 'generic') despite only 1/6 of my port having that content.
Other subjects do sell, of course.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Ariene on January 22, 2014, 16:26
One more person on board there :)  (http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/ariene.html)
I've read everything you wrote on the forum about FAA and decided to take my chance (thanks for help!)... Lets see how it works :)
I was missing that thing a lot... First impression is great! Site is so friendly, products and prices are encouraging. Now, time to work! :)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on January 22, 2014, 16:53
I've forgotten how to do something, if I ever knew - can someone point me in the right direction?
I decided I was fed up with single sales of greetings cards, so yesterday, I upped the default price for a single card considerably, as I see several others have done.
So my default amount is showing with new uploads; when I go to the default page, my new amount is showing, but my older files still have the old price. Is there any was to make my new default apply to the older files?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Beppe Grillo on January 22, 2014, 17:25
I've forgotten how to do something, if I ever knew - can someone point me in the right direction?
I decided I was fed up with single sales of greetings cards, so yesterday, I upped the default price for a single card considerably, as I see several others have done.
So my default amount is showing with new uploads; when I go to the default page, my new amount is showing, but my older files still have the old price. Is there any was to make my new default apply to the older files?

Go to your artwork tab, there is a button "Bulk Edit Prices"
Select all images
Click on the button "Edit Checked Images Simultaneously"
Then you can choose what prices change (prints, cards, phone cases) 


Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on January 22, 2014, 17:44
Thanks - that's great!
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on January 22, 2014, 19:21
Just discovered that the files I've been madly uploading recently are even lower in the default sort order than earlier uploads - three I checked have been right at the bottom of all the relevant searches on the search term. Weird and discouraging, as there is no indication of what the default sort is. I know there are other sorts, so I just tried 'random' on one two-word search, which mixes the relevant and non-relevant searches (non-relevant in this case being files which return only one of the two keywords). Impossible to know how many buyers use other than the default sort.

Also, looking at 'visitors', only the bot from Kiez, Germany is 'visiting' newly uploaded files. Almost 100% of the 'visits' to my files (other than 'visits' by people I know and the Kiez bot) are to files uploaded last Jan/Feb/March, especially March. That's on the last 5 pages of 'visitors' views (250+ 'visits'). Why would bots be visiting only files from these three months, sometimes several times in one day, but ignoring files uploaded since? Just weird.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on January 23, 2014, 10:58
I've seen some weird ups and downs in image views - I don't think that information is accurate.  But some other people have been complaining about search order on FAA's forum.  It's pretty discouraging.  But like the micros, FAA can't resist fiddling with the search rules, and people find out they've wasted time and effort because the rules have changed.

Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: LesPalenik on January 23, 2014, 20:28
deleted



 
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: borg on January 29, 2014, 15:27
What a f...!?

I found this my photo on Amazon, but I was deleted it from FAA and now image is unavailable!!!
Should I upload it again or what!?

No one has informed me from FAA about it!  :o :P
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on January 29, 2014, 15:35
What a f...!?

I found this my photo on Amazon, but I was deleted it from FAA and now image is unavailable!!!
Should I upload it again or what!?
No one has informed me from FAA about it!  :o :P

I'm slightly confused about your issue. You have deleted a photo from FAA, but now find it on Amazon? Maybe it was sent to Amazon before you deleted it (?)
Apparently they're not now sending to Amazon, but some photos previously sent there are still there.
You should take it up with FAA if you want it removed from Amazon.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: borg on January 29, 2014, 15:44
Yes they were sent on Amazon before I deleted them!

I have there free account from last month, just to see how is going there... So I delete photos to upload new because space is limited!

I don't want to delete them from Amazon, especially they are still there but unavailable...
I asked their support how to bring them back in life there...

I've heard that is good to have photo from FAA on Amazon, is it true?

P.S.

Another one:
http://www.amazon.com/Fall-fog-Canvas-Print-Art/dp/B00H3B4YI8 (http://www.amazon.com/Fall-fog-Canvas-Print-Art/dp/B00H3B4YI8)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on January 29, 2014, 15:50
I've heard that is good to have photo from FAA on Amazon, is it true?

I couldn't say, none of my prints made it over, as far as I know.

From my post in another thread here:
"The official announcement that the deal with Amazon is over is here:
http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=1600312 (http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=1600312)
Scroll down until you find a post by Isabella F Abbie Shores on 12/15/2013: "I am sorry but, Amazon and FAA no longer have the arrangement for premium members, so we have removed the Amazon link from our premium package http://fineartamerica.com/membershipplans.html (http://fineartamerica.com/membershipplans.html)
We are sorry for the inconvenience this has caused."
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: borg on January 29, 2014, 16:17
It seems it's over!
But my photos are there, I uploaded them in December, but I don't know which date exactly...
Weird!
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Mantis on January 29, 2014, 20:36
It seems it's over!
But my photos are there, I uploaded them in December, but I don't know which date exactly...
Weird!

Agree.  I was getting fairly regular sales but its all but dried up.  I think I had a $4 download for a post card last month and that's it.  Oh, and FAA Paypal'd me the 4 bucks last week.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on January 29, 2014, 20:40
It seems it's over!
But my photos are there, I uploaded them in December, but I don't know which date exactly...
Weird!

Agree.  I was getting fairly regular sales but its all but dried up.  I think I had a $4 download for a post card last month and that's it.  Oh, and FAA Paypal'd me the 4 bucks last week.
I've just put the price of a single greetings card base up to $4, but I previously had them at 75c, and FAA paid out one 75c payment, if applicable. I forgot to check how much I have to pay PayPal for them - maybe I'm out of pocket!
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Ron on January 30, 2014, 02:35
It seems it's over!
But my photos are there, I uploaded them in December, but I don't know which date exactly...
Weird!

Agree.  I was getting fairly regular sales but its all but dried up.  I think I had a $4 download for a post card last month and that's it.  Oh, and FAA Paypal'd me the 4 bucks last week.
I've just put the price of a single greetings card base up to $4, but I previously had them at 75c, and FAA paid out one 75c payment, if applicable. I forgot to check how much I have to pay PayPal for them - maybe I'm out of pocket!
There are no PP fees on FAA. I once had a 3 doller payment and got it in full
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: DF_Studios on January 30, 2014, 21:57
Sales of late seem to have slowed down but I did have 14 sales this month.  Some $5 phone cases, some $40 prints.

No doubt Nov and Dec are their biggest months with holiday sales.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Ron on January 31, 2014, 05:22
My sales between December and March plummet to zero. No idea why that is.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Ariene on January 31, 2014, 07:28
Sales of late seem to have slowed down but I did have 14 sales this month...
Wow! That's something!
But nothing wonder if you have over 1300 interesting images here, congrats :)

Btw. could you please help me, how do you guys add FAA gallery into your symbio sites? I'm stuck with that and can't find help...
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: DF_Studios on January 31, 2014, 07:36
It was so long ago.  Wish I could remember the exact method but basically you get the code from FAA under "Behind the scenes"  and then "marketing" and then "shopping cart widgets"

...

I was getting used regular sales several times a week.  Seemed like I was on gravy train.  Now the train is stopped in the station.

BTW - It takes a lot of time, outside marketing and a good amount of quality images to get the ball rolling.  Catch 22 is that sales get you higher in the search.  You can't rely on FAA to do any marketing for you.  People who just post 20 images and sit back and wait for buyers to magically find them are disappointed.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Newsfocus1 on January 31, 2014, 09:51
Yes they were sent on Amazon before I deleted them!

I have there free account from last month, just to see how is going there... So I delete photos to upload new because space is limited







In case anyone doesn't know - the free account limits you to 25 images for sale at any one time. There is no limit to the amount of images you can upload. I assume you can change which 25 are for sale when you like (I never actually found this out as I upgraded to a paid account when I hit 25 uploads). In other words, you do not need to delete anything if you want to put new images up for sale. Regards, David.
Title: Re: FAA - keyword search?
Post by: Uncle Pete on January 31, 2014, 10:44
No I didn't know! That was interesting if I care to upload something new, because I've been rotating things in and out, like some other people, by deleting and filling the holes.

In case anyone doesn't know - the free account limits you to 25 images for sale at any one time. There is no limit to the amount of images you can upload. I assume you can change which 25 are for sale when you like (I never actually found this out as I upgraded to a paid account when I hit 25 uploads). In other words, you do not need to delete anything if you want to put new images up for sale. Regards, David.

Can someone explain the Amazon thing. Gone for everyone or just pay accounts. One message seems to say one thing, another message says, "removed from pay account features".

I liked the plan to boost card pricing, so they either don't get sales or they are a fair return. Nice strategy.

Here's my question about searches at FAA. I tried to find the answer, and before I go through the testing with dummy words in titles and descriptions. (otherwise I'll have to go do it myself)

Does FAA only search Keywords? When I looked for the location Starved and the word Waterfall, one of mine didn't show. However the word waterfall was in the Title and so was Starved.

Anyone know for certain what of the three fields is searched. Or if there are others like Artists name that are searched. Looking for specifics, and this could help everyone here, get it right.

Thanks
Title: Re: FAA - keyword search?
Post by: ShadySue on January 31, 2014, 11:01
Anyone know for certain what of the three fields is searched. Or if there are others like Artists name that are searched. Looking for specifics, and this could help everyone here, get it right.

If you look at the search, you can see that the default is keyword only.
Options from the dropdown are 'Title', 'artist', 'Title+artist', 'Keyword+artist'.
(http://www.lizworld.com/KW.jpg)
Title: Re: FAA - keyword search?
Post by: Newsfocus1 on January 31, 2014, 12:08
No I didn't know! That was interesting if I care to upload something new, because I've been rotating things in and out, like some other people, by deleting and filling the holes.

In case anyone doesn't know - the free account limits you to 25 images for sale at any one time. There is no limit to the amount of images you can upload. I assume you can change which 25 are for sale when you like (I never actually found this out as I upgraded to a paid account when I hit 25 uploads). In other words, you do not need to delete anything if you want to put new images up for sale. Regards, David.


Like I said, it was an assumption you could do that which I never got to put to the test. There may be an easier way to switch images on the free account (which I don't see anymore) but just did some digging in the forums there and found a thread saying that if you hit edit on an image and make all your "mark up" boxes blank the image is removed from sale -thus presumably freeing up a slot for a new image. Reverse the process anytime if you want to. Regards, David.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Ariene on January 31, 2014, 12:09
... you get the code from FAA under "Behind the scenes"  and then "marketing" and then "shopping cart widgets"

Thank you!!  :-*

Oh lord... I've spent few days looking for that little thing, and it's that easy! lol :D
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on January 31, 2014, 12:21
I've seen some weird ups and downs in image views - I don't think that information is accurate.  But some other people have been complaining about search order on FAA's forum.  It's pretty discouraging.  But like the micros, FAA can't resist fiddling with the search rules, and people find out they've wasted time and effort because the rules have changed.

Well, still apart from the Kiez bot which is picking up most of my new uploads, all my other recorded visitors, which mostly seem to be bots, are showing only on files uploaded last Feb and March. If the visitor information hasn't been accurate for weeks (at least), it's hard to be confident about any of their figures.

Just uploaded an image which only has 15 files returned on its main keywords. In default order:
9 from contributor A
3 from contributor B
1 from me
2 from contributor C.
Nothing to worry about on a search with only 15 files (it's from Scotland so hardly likely to sell from FAA), except that it shows a pattern; far more worrying on searches with pages of hits, and I've been noticing my new uploads have been landing firmly on the last page or two of those.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: wordplanet on February 03, 2014, 19:09
I've even had photos that had over 100 comments & likes and sales show up way back several pages in the search just days after the image was sold. Sales were moving along nicely for me and  my stuff was showing up, then around October/November it seemed like the search algorithms changed. I tweet about my work, blog, use g+, but it's not paying off at the moment. Then again, out of the blue I'll make a $200 sale, so it's worth keeping the stuff I have on there as I easily make back the $30 each year.

I've heard that soon comments, likes and favorites will no longer boost image placement. Can't confirm if it's true.

Had a couple hundred on Amazon. Seems like they are now all gone.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on February 03, 2014, 22:42
I've heard that soon comments, likes and favorites will no longer boost image placement. Can't confirm if it's true.

That wouldn't surprise me.  It seems like the guy that owns FAA (it's a one man show) is taking it in an ever more commercial direction and eventually it will be just like the micros, except that it's selling prints instead of downloads.   Let's face it, he obviously isn't too concerned about the site's "Fine Art" credentials.   Search will be based on keyword matching and past sales (not necessarily in that order) and all the commenting, 'liking', contests and groups etc. will probably fall by the wayside.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: grey1 on February 04, 2014, 01:43
You said it^  and too true. The problem as I see it is that just anybody can upload and without the slightest bit of control and editing, just green light all the way. People throw in some of the worst keywording I have ever seen.
How could you possibly promote Art in a place like that?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on February 04, 2014, 11:17
FAA itself, being a one man operation, is also an obvious candidate for acquisition. 
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Chico on February 04, 2014, 12:16
I put some images for sale just for fun.

But, when randomly surfing the website, i found an "artist" which put an image for sale and warned:

"THIS IS NOT DRAWN BY ME THIS IS MADE BY AN ARTIST. I JUST UPLOADED THIS PHOTO, THIS PHOTO IS FOR FREE SO I SELL IT."

Looks like a place with very flexible rules...
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on February 04, 2014, 12:18
I put some images for sale just for fun.

But, when randomly surfing the website, i found an "artist" which put an image for sale and warned:

"THIS IS NOT DRAWN BY ME THIS IS MADE BY AN ARTIST. I JUST UPLOADED THIS PHOTO, THIS PHOTO IS FOR FREE SO I SELL IT."

Looks like a place with very flexible rules...

Seem to be no rules, and most 'dubious' sellers aren't even as honest in their description.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: grey1 on February 04, 2014, 12:28
Yes Sue and this is the problem. No checks, control, editing or anything. Spam like crazy. The search also favors American artists. I am actually doing well there but I am withdrawing. Not a very healthy environment at least not for photographers.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on February 04, 2014, 13:06
It's like a lot of things on the web - starts out as a neat idea, a cool concept; interesting and talented people get on board - it's fun - then it starts generating some serious money - fast forward a couple of years and it's just another thoroughly corporatized 'outlet mall' running on autopilot.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on February 04, 2014, 15:22
The most intriguing question to me is - why is someone minus-ing these posts?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Goofy on February 04, 2014, 15:27
Since it is close to Valentine's day I gave out Hearts to balance the scales... :)


Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Liatris on February 04, 2014, 15:33
The most intriguing question to me is - why is someone minus-ing these posts?

could it be that you have stated many times you hate stock photography  now and stated you were going to be here less, but each day you continue to post all your typical negativity.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on February 04, 2014, 15:36
The search also favors American artists.
Presumably because the price heavily favours American buyers1, even without the huge shipping hike, then the taxes EU buyers would need to pay on receipt. Their promise of having a European printer available from 1st January came to naught, like other promises.

1The vast majority of sales are to buyers in the US, which isn't suprising at the prices.

Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: grey1 on February 04, 2014, 15:53
The search also favors American artists.
Presumably because the price heavily favours American buyers1, even without the huge shipping hike, then the taxes EU buyers would need to pay on receipt. Their promise of having a European printer available from 1st January came to naught, like other promises.

1The vast majority of sales are to buyers in the US, which isn't suprising at the prices.

I suppose that makes sense. Should be some sort of control/editing though. Just too wide open for everything and anything.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: stockastic on February 04, 2014, 16:04
The most intriguing question to me is - why is someone minus-ing these posts?

could it be that you have stated many times you hate stock photography  now and stated you were going to be here less, but each day you continue to post all your typical negativity.

I have to say, you're surprisingly familiar with my history, given that you registered a month ago and have made 3 posts (including this one).
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: luissantos84 on February 04, 2014, 17:47
It's like a lot of things on the web - starts out as a neat idea, a cool concept; interesting and talented people get on board - it's fun - then it starts generating some serious money - fast forward a couple of years and it's just another thoroughly corporatized 'outlet mall' running on autopilot.

have you ever considered opening one of those cool concepts? maybe you should!
Title: Re: FAA - keyword search?
Post by: Uncle Pete on February 06, 2014, 02:30
Nope, never even saw that there was a drop down selection. Thanks for the definitive answer for FAA. Now I need to go figure out some of the real Microstock sites.

Anyone know for certain what of the three fields is searched. Or if there are others like Artists name that are searched. Looking for specifics, and this could help everyone here, get it right.

If you look at the search, you can see that the default is keyword only.
Options from the dropdown are 'Title', 'artist', 'Title+artist', 'Keyword+artist'.
([url]http://www.lizworld.com/KW.jpg[/url])
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Chico on February 06, 2014, 12:17
Seems that our getty friends are selling some posters too

http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/gettyimages.html (http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/gettyimages.html)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: munrotoo on February 06, 2014, 12:33
Seems that our getty friends are selling some posters too

[url]http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/gettyimages.html[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/gettyimages.html[/url])


they probably do that to flood the search results.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Chico on February 06, 2014, 12:49
Seems that our getty friends are selling some posters too

[url]http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/gettyimages.html[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/gettyimages.html[/url])


they probably do that to flood the search results.


Seems funny. Getty, the largest in the industry earning a few bucks selling some prints? Why?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on February 06, 2014, 12:52
Seems that our getty friends are selling some posters too

[url]http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/gettyimages.html[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/gettyimages.html[/url])


they probably do that to flood the search results.


Seems funny. Getty, the largest in the industry earning a few bucks selling some prints? Why?


"Extra income channel"
Why not?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Chico on February 06, 2014, 13:06
Seems that our getty friends are selling some posters too

[url]http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/gettyimages.html[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/gettyimages.html[/url])


they probably do that to flood the search results.


Seems funny. Getty, the largest in the industry earning a few bucks selling some prints? Why?


"Extra income channel"
Why not?


They can sell prints of my illos? (not selling there, but they could?)

Perhaps some photographer is with their work being sold without being aware.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on February 06, 2014, 13:37
Seems that our getty friends are selling some posters too

[url]http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/gettyimages.html[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/gettyimages.html[/url])


they probably do that to flood the search results.


Seems funny. Getty, the largest in the industry earning a few bucks selling some prints? Why?


"Extra income channel"
Why not?


They can sell prints of my illos? (not selling there, but they could?)

Perhaps some photographer is with their work being sold without being aware.


It could be written into their contract very vaguely (they are great at writing the contract vaguely), or those chosen could have been asked.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Ariene on January 07, 2015, 05:52
A year ago I paid $30 for my account on FAA and sold nothing, zero so I'm not going to renew it in 2015. How can I do this? I mean FAA takes the money from my card. Is it enough if I delete card number or shall I contact them to cancel paid account. I understand all my images stay in gallery but they just will not be on sale (except 25 files), right?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on January 07, 2015, 07:34
I'd start by cancelling my payment method first, then I'd tell them.
I noticed last year that they just took the payment before informing me in advance. I guess the rules are different in the US.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Difydave on January 07, 2015, 07:55
I've had the same thing happen with one or two companies here in the uk. They seem to think that having a card number gives them a sort of "direct debit" There's usually something in the small print though about automatically taking payment etc.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Maximilian on January 07, 2015, 07:58
watermark is still a joke..
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on January 07, 2015, 08:09
I've had the same thing happen with one or two companies here in the uk. They seem to think that having a card number gives them a sort of "direct debit"
Yes, I was actually quite shocked when FAA took the money off for the second year. I would have renewed, but I didn't remember giving them any sort of authority to renew automatically. I'm pretty sure I didn't as I was just testing them out in the first year, and didn't have much confidence.

But like you say ...
Quote
There's usually something in the small print though about automatically taking payment etc.

Tangentially, I'm about to contact FastHosts. They took the money off for my husband's domain over a month early, and a week later they sent me two emails to tell me payment was due and would be taken within 30 days (which was correct) umless I cancelled.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Mantis on January 07, 2015, 08:22
I got lucky because my cards were stolen so I have new ones. FAA has my old number. You unfortunately can't go in an delete your number. If I recall correctly, Joann Snover contacted them and they told her that it was a third party company who processes payments and she'd have to contact them to yank her credit card. FAA makes it VERY difficult for this exact reason....so they can keep hiding behind the 3rd party cloak and continue to bill your card. FAA is a borderline scam site in my opinion. Anyhow, my cards are obsolete and when my account expires I am done with them.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on January 07, 2015, 08:25
watermark is still a joke..
True, but how many fine art (not stock) sites can you find with obtrusive watermarks? It isn't normal in that business.

(Of course, the watermarks are no better on pixels.com.)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Ariene on January 07, 2015, 10:18
...  they told her that it was a third party company who processes payments and she'd have to contact them to yank her credit card. ...

It's hard to believe!  :o  ::) This is just unacceptable that agency site gets money from our cards and gives no option to opt out! I wish I new earlier...
Btw. I was just testing FAA paid account - in conclusion it was not worth the effort in my case. They say all this beautiful words how great they are etc... but it doesn't work for me and as I see, for many people in internet (photos).
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Difydave on January 07, 2015, 10:30
I've had the same thing happen with one or two companies here in the uk. They seem to think that having a card number gives them a sort of "direct debit"
Yes, I was actually quite shocked when FAA took the money off for the second year. I would have renewed, but I didn't remember giving them any sort of authority to renew automatically. I'm pretty sure I didn't as I was just testing them out in the first year, and didn't have much confidence.

But like you say ...
Quote
There's usually something in the small print though about automatically taking payment etc.

Tangentially, I'm about to contact FastHosts. They took the money off for my husband's domain over a month early, and a week later they sent me two emails to tell me payment was due and would be taken within 30 days (which was correct) umless I cancelled.


I'm not that keen on any company having my card details to "keep" in that way for their convenience. I have one small monthly payment that's made that way, and that's fair enough. I know they'll take the amount monthly. I don't like this "we will take the amount when it's due" thing though. Particularly when they don't give prior notice. And through a third party! Great! Card numbers in some other unknown hands!
The one company I mentioned above got quite high handed when I told them I wanted to know about any money being taken beforehand. "That's the way we do business" Not with me they don't any more! :)
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Difydave on January 07, 2015, 10:41
Looks like in England at least you can cancel a "continuous payment authority" by telling your card issuer to do so. (The Scottish page looks as if it has the same info pretty well)
http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/debt_e/debt_banking_e/stopping_a_future_payment_on_your_debit_or_credit_card.htm (http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/debt_e/debt_banking_e/stopping_a_future_payment_on_your_debit_or_credit_card.htm)

Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: ShadySue on January 07, 2015, 11:08
Looks like in England at least you can cancel a "continuous payment authority" by telling your card issuer to do so. (The Scottish page looks as if it has the same info pretty well)
[url]http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/debt_e/debt_banking_e/stopping_a_future_payment_on_your_debit_or_credit_card.htm[/url] ([url]http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/debt_e/debt_banking_e/stopping_a_future_payment_on_your_debit_or_credit_card.htm[/url])

Absolutely. That's why I suggested that as a first move in #501.

I'm going to quit the FastHosts payment via PayPal. First, so that it won't get taken off twice, Second so that we can reconsider next year and thirdly because when I tried to get into their support, the system told me my password had been changed (which explains why I couldn't get into his email) and they would send me details in an email, and the email hasn't come, almost two hours later.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Difydave on January 07, 2015, 12:31
Ah yes! I didn't read it properly! :)
Bit too convenient the password getting changed like that?
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: Semmick Photo on January 07, 2015, 15:01
I have been with FAA since June 2012, paid them $90 in total and made over $3000, well worth the money. But I sometimes dont understand that some portfolios, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyy better than mine, dont get sales there. I honestly do not understand that. Like Mantis, you should be selling like hotcakes there IMO, your work is great.
Title: Re: FAA - The Largest Art Site in the World?
Post by: pkphotos on January 07, 2015, 15:58
Companies like FAA that keep your credit card details so that they can automatically renew your membership are a scam. Since renewals are their primary source of income it's in their best interests to have this feature, so that many members simply forget their renewal date and have it done automatically, thereby renewing members who may have otherwise cancelled if they were sent a membership reminder prompt. Thankfully my credit card has changed so they won't be able to slyly go under the radar and process my membership renewal next week. And I won't be wasting another $30 even though I've managed to cover that expense in the past. FAA is now a waste of time for me, I have much better POD sites that are free and generate far superior sales.