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Other ways of making money => Print on Demand Forum => Topic started by: steheap on December 21, 2013, 13:21
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I don't know if this is happening to others, but my sales on FAA have really picked up this last quarter. All of 2012 (before taking the premium account) I made $27 in profit, but since September 2013, I've earned $416 in margin on the prints and accessories. It does seem to be that sales possibly generate more sales - either through the extra visibility of their sales announcement pages, or maybe the search has started to favor more popular images?
As I don't talk about Shutterstock earnings now on my blog, I decided to do a full review/explanation of how I use FAA, and how I price the images, so if you are interested, you can find it here: http://www.backyardsilver.com/2013/12/fine-art-america-increasing-sales-photo-prints/ (http://www.backyardsilver.com/2013/12/fine-art-america-increasing-sales-photo-prints/)
Anyone else seeing a recent increase? I'm definitely going to upload some more images as a result (which will probably destroy my run of luck, but who knows.) Beats uploading to Most Photos....
Steve
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Great Blog, Steve
I love FAA
Linked to it here, hope it is ok
http://qthecollection.com/qtalk/index.php?topic=248.new#new (http://qthecollection.com/qtalk/index.php?topic=248.new#new)
All the best
Gunter
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No increase for me and unfortunately FAA terminated the deal with amazon.com.
All my images except one are gone from amazon.com.
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No increase for me and unfortunately FAA terminated the deal with amazon.com.
All my images except one are gone from amazon.com.
I think it was the other way around, Amazon got tired of the poor quality of some images coming from FAA and limited every account to 5 handpicked images. I and most people have 5 on Amazon now.
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I think it was the other way around, Amazon got tired of the poor quality of some images coming from FAA and limited every account to 5 handpicked images. I and most people have 5 on Amazon now.
I don't seem to have even one on Amazon. :(
But there are still 237,283 files there, which would seem to indicate to me more than 5 per person for many contributors.
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How do you see which of your prints are available on Amazon?
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There is all sorts of confusion regarding FAA images on Amazon. At this point I'd say it really doesn't work, maybe give it some time and FAA/Amazon may get it together.
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I don't know much about FAA but I do have it bookmarked as one of the sites I'm going to be checking out soon.
I'm fairly new at this, but I clicked on your link, signed up to your newsletter, and bought your eBook over on Amazon so I could read it on my Kindle for iPad app.
Cheers!
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Thanks - hope it gives you some good information! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask me.
Steve
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Will do. At the moment, plans are on hold as it looks like a DSLR camera is not in the works for Christmas.
I may have to pick one up after the holidays. I'm trying not to spend a mint on a camera...hoping to start with something under $500. Haven't found anything yet, but still looking!
8)
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^^ You might get an OK body only for that price, and budget a lot more for a very good lens.
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^^ You might get an OK body only for that price, and budget a lot more for a very good lens.
That's what I keep hearing. I've got one daughter going to college next year and two more in private elem school, so I'm trying not to break the bank.
I'm hoping I can start with something small, then make enough to upgrade down the road.
Not sure that seems entirely possible looking at DSLR prices, though.
:P
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I'm hoping I can start with something small, then make enough to upgrade down the road.
I suspect these days are gone.
Look at what you're competing with already, i.e. check what the agencies have already, and consider what you can offer, which buyers will want to buy, that hasn't been done to death already, in higher res than you'll be able to offer.
Your competition already has a far stronger position on any site's algorithm.
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I'm hoping I can start with something small, then make enough to upgrade down the road.
I suspect these days are gone.
Look at what you're competing with already, i.e. check what the agencies have already, and consider what you can offer, which buyers will want to buy, that hasn't been done to death already, in higher res than you'll be able to offer.
Your competition already has a far stronger position on any site's algorithm.
All good points.
Perhaps it would be better for me to just save up for a few months and purchase something of higher quality.
Something to think about.
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How do you see which of your prints are available on Amazon?
Anybody know?
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A friend emailled them this week and was told that program has stopped though a few files may still be up there.
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This is good to hear Steve. I wonder if some of it is holiday gift buying for the arts community. I always have a spike at Zazzle in the last quarter too - totally different buyers, but unlike microstock, I would guess that gift buying factors in to both.
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How do you see which of your prints are available on Amazon?
Anybody know?
Try searching for your name or FAA account name.
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Set Home & Kitchen category and search your FAA user name
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dgarden&field-keywords=semmick%20photo (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dgarden&field-keywords=semmick%20photo)
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dgarden&field-keywords= (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dgarden&field-keywords=)USERNAME
For a space use %20
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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."
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I still haven't sold anything with FAA. Think I'll dump them, as I get some sales on several other art sites. Might as well spend the time working on sites that make me money and don't charge for their services. This is the third time I've paid a site and ended up losing money. Don't see much point in carrying on with that.
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I get some sales on several other art sites
Hi Sharpshot
Which Fine Art sites are you successful on? I've tried Smugmug without much success, but haven't ventured further.
I don't really understand why my sales have taken off in the past 3 months - most of them shots of Washington DC, funnily enough. Maybe I'll be back in 3 months saying that it was a flash in the pan and sales have dropped to zero!
steve
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I'm not really successful but I doing better than my zero sales with FAA :) Zazzle is the one I've put the most time in to and I've sold quite a lot now. Sold a few with Redbubble but I've spent no time on that. Got my first sale on Saatchi online with just a few uploads. Sold a few with Photocase with not many uploads. So I think I'll forget FAA and concentrate on the other sites.
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How does Saatchi work? Acceptance/Juried/inspected, or just pay-to-play?
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How does Saatchi work? Acceptance/Juried/inspected, or just pay-to-play?
Just open an account and submit. No IPTC and you need ITIN. No FTP. 70% royalty. But its not really geared towards digital work, as they ask for LxWxD which you need to put in for every single image manually. No batch editing.
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How does Saatchi work? Acceptance/Juried/inspected, or just pay-to-play?
Just open an account and submit. No IPTC and you need ITIN. No FTP. 70% royalty. But its not really geared towards digital work, as they ask for LxWxD which you need to put in for every single image manually. No batch editing.
Thanks. I'll forget about them.
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I get some sales on several other art sites
Hi Sharpshot
Which Fine Art sites are you successful on? I've tried Smugmug without much success, but haven't ventured further.
I don't really understand why my sales have taken off in the past 3 months - most of them shots of Washington DC, funnily enough. Maybe I'll be back in 3 months saying that it was a flash in the pan and sales have dropped to zero!
steve
Hi Steve . . . nearly 3 months along, how are things holding up for you on FAA? Still strong?
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Completely dead for me in terms of any meaningful sales since August 2013. Two sales since Aug. One for $4 and one for $15. Their search is whacked. All of my new uploads ended up on the last few pages so they don't get any kind of fresh content bump. And I cannot find any way for a buyer to search by newest first, so not sure if I am going to pay my fees this year.
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Completely dead for me in terms of any meaningful sales since August 2013. Two sales since Aug. One for $4 and one for $15. Their search is whacked. All of my new uploads ended up on the last few pages so they don't get any kind of fresh content bump. And I cannot find any way for a buyer to search by newest first, so not sure if I am going to pay my fees this year.
My experience is exactly the same. New uploads are landing at the bottom of the sort in my own port and on the site in general.
A buyer can search newest first if they do a search then choose 'newly added' from the sort dropdown (left-hand dropdown), but whether they'd bother is doubtful, unless they:
regularly make a particular search, hoping they'll find just what they want, not having found it before
or
are a serious collector of art of a particular subject, so always want to see what's new.
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Completely dead for me in terms of any meaningful sales since August 2013. Two sales since Aug. One for $4 and one for $15. Their search is whacked. All of my new uploads ended up on the last few pages so they don't get any kind of fresh content bump. And I cannot find any way for a buyer to search by newest first, so not sure if I am going to pay my fees this year.
My experience is exactly the same. New uploads are landing at the bottom of the sort in my own port and on the site in general.
A buyer can search newest first if they do a search then choose 'newly added' from the sort dropdown (left-hand dropdown), but whether they'd bother is doubtful, unless they:
regularly make a particular search, hoping they'll find just what they want, not having found it before
or
are a serious collector of art of a particular subject, so always want to see what's new.
Ahh thanks for that. It seems like after the Amazon deal fell apart that's when sales dried up.
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I think you really need to do your own selling and use FAA for the fulfilment.
Anything else is just random luck. I'm not even sure how many non-bot vistors I get - very few, I suspect.
I did get a $10.29 sale on Sunday (wow!), one of a series which has got me my only 5 print sales, all a US subject to US buyers.
They promised to have a European fulfilment deal by the New Year, but that seems to have gone by the wayside, though I don't look on their discussion boards often enough to keep up with everything.
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If you're dependent on FAA search placement for sales, you won't sell anything unless it's something a bit unique that a buyer finds by keyword search. I think that's how I've made the few sales I've had - unique subjects.
FAA, of course, won't tell us their search placement formula, but IMHO it's probably based almost completely on previous sales.
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Hi Steve . . . nearly 3 months along, how are things holding up for you on FAA? Still strong?
Only just seen this, so I'll fill in the latest. After my three sales in December, I got one more sale in late January (wrote about it on my blog here: http://www.backyardsilver.com/2014/02/where-have-i-been/ (http://www.backyardsilver.com/2014/02/where-have-i-been/). That was for $120.
Nothing since. I keep meaning to upload some more arty work, but I diverted myself into creating a new "fine art" site to replace one I have with Smugmug and once I am happy with that I will get back to FAA I think.
Steve
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I saw your image in "Recent Print Sales" lately :) Congrats again! :)
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[..misposted...]
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moved to the correct thread.
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Oops thanks, I'll move it.
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Probably the worst SEO on the Internet.
Nothing you do can help you to bring some exposure to your work.
I have sold my art on other POD websites and FAA is the only one that nothing I try works.
Its search engine only helps those that have already sold something.
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Probably the worst SEO on the Internet.
Nothing you do can help you to bring some exposure to your work.
I have sold my art on other POD websites and FAA is the only one that nothing I try works.
Its search engine only helps those that have already sold something.
Not sure how you came up with they have the worst SEO. From my experience they have some of the best. Whenever I search Google for my work FAA is almost always near the top on both Google web and also images.
Few people seem to understand SEO but everybody thinks they're doing it right and blame everybody else. SEO depends on how well optimized they have made their content. Especially on FAA where people seem to take an artsy approach to titles and descriptions. A picture of an apple on a plate will be "Sweet Red Love #2" or similar totally irrelevant content. I've also seen people saying they know SEO but when I check their site the images have titles like "DSC0123.jpg" and no description or keyword tags. Then they wonder why they get no traffic or sales.
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15 sales in the past year (i.e. in the past 12 months) - a mix of cards and framed, metal, canvas & acrylic photos - here's the latest from February:
http://fineartamerica.com/saleannouncement.html?id=49e5e664413f549b64fcc4786d817e1f (http://fineartamerica.com/saleannouncement.html?id=49e5e664413f549b64fcc4786d817e1f)
My stuff shows up in google searches and I treat keywords the same way I do for stock, though occasionally I'll go with a more esoteric title for my abstract work. I have a few photos that have sold 2-3 times in the past couple of years. Repeat sales seem to be months apart.
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15 sales in the past year (i.e. in the past 12 months) - a mix of cards and framed, metal, canvas & acrylic photos
Marianne, this is very good result, congrats! :)
Btw. beautiful name!
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I still haven't sold anything with FAA. Think I'll dump them, as I get some sales on several other art sites. Might as well spend the time working on sites that make me money and don't charge for their services. This is the third time I've paid a site and ended up losing money. Don't see much point in carrying on with that.
What he said.
Seems you have to make efforts to market your stuff there and, in my view, that is what the sites are for.
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I actually just signed up with FAA this weekend, have uploaded a few images, and am figuring it all out. It's pretty amazing. I have a broad-based "platform" so might be able to sell them myself, without depending on being found on the FAA site.
However... I'm having a hard time not putting a watermark on those large images! They seem to be begging to be stolen.
Does anybody have any "real life" experience with this on FAA? Do images w/o watermarks really sell better there?
Thanks in advance for guidance!
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To be fair, I think we have to always keep in mind that FAA is basically one guy, plus a customer support person or two. That one guy does all the code and database work, maintains the site, and makes all the deals with the printers and shippers, and everything else. There isn't going to be a lot of creative marketing effort.
Oh and yes Getty has thousands and thousands of images there. Anne Geddes just signed up and presto, she's featured on the main page. Small potatoes like myself are just needles in the mother of all haystacks. Even so, I've sold a few.
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I actually just signed up with FAA this weekend, have uploaded a few images, and am figuring it all out. It's pretty amazing. I have a broad-based "platform" so might be able to sell them myself, without depending on being found on the FAA site.
However... I'm having a hard time not putting a watermark on those large images! They seem to be begging to be stolen.
Does anybody have any "real life" experience with this on FAA? Do images w/o watermarks really sell better there?
Thanks in advance for guidance!
If you look at what's 'recently' sold (just keep refreshing to change the sample, but don't believe these were all sold 'yesterday'), you can get an idea of how many sell with watermarks. OTOH, there have been reports on their discussion boards about images being lifted.
But just look at real (curated) Fine Art sites or the sites of well-known artists, and you'll see that they (almost?) never have watermarks on images, because they're not also trying to sell little images as stock. They'd probably be happy if a blogger 'stole' an image and wrote an article about their work, positive or negative (any publicity is good publicity). Probably with a big name they have money to go chasing after anyone who may steal their image to use commercially.
That said, I do have a watermark on my photos. For a while, I didn't put them onto my images which are not straight photos and which are not available as stock, on the grounds that I could easily establish that they were stolen from FAA, and I could chase them up. But since I read about abuses, I now watermark all new uploads.
You should do well there, Martha. The market seems to be hugely North American (judging by random forays into what has been selling).
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"real life" experience with this on FAA
Hi Martha
I decided not to watermark mine. I take the view that my images (if they are also on stock sites) are all over the internet anyway and someone who doesn't want to pay can pick one up on any site. So why bother particularly about FAA? I took down my very obvious stock shots - isolated cats - and tried to make my portfolio more artistic. Even so, I saw that someone had sold three big prints of isolated red wine being poured into a glass : http://fineartamerica.com/featured/red-wine-pouring-into-wineglass-splash-dustin-k-ryan.html (http://fineartamerica.com/featured/red-wine-pouring-into-wineglass-splash-dustin-k-ryan.html). I immediately thought - I have some shots like that, but of course, not on FAA!
I keep uploading ones that I think would be nice on a wall somewhere - it isn't hard work if they are already keyworded.
Steve
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An FAA forum moderator, claiming to speak for FAA, said their data show conclusively that watermarks reduce sales. It's in old FAA forum threads somewhere.
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An FAA forum moderator, claiming to speak for FAA, said their data show conclusively that watermarks reduce sales. It's in old FAA forum threads somewhere.
It's hard to make that statistically relevant, as it's impossible to compare like with like.
For example, probably microstockers are more likely to watermark their images than fine artists, but how do we know that fine artists' work wouldn't sell better in that market anyway? I.e., do prints of oil paintings or watermarks sell proportionately better there than prints of photos?
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I actually just signed up with FAA this weekend, have uploaded a few images, and am figuring it all out. It's pretty amazing. I have a broad-based "platform" so might be able to sell them myself, without depending on being found on the FAA site.
However... I'm having a hard time not putting a watermark on those large images! They seem to be begging to be stolen.
Does anybody have any "real life" experience with this on FAA? Do images w/o watermarks really sell better there?
Thanks in advance for guidance!
I have always watermarked mine and I sell plenty through FAA. Would I sell more without it? Don't know, don't care. Google indexes FAA images at over 1,000 pixels long side which can be easily right clicked and saved on Google Images. It bypasses FAA's no right click security. I have found a ton of my images from FAA on other sites where the FAA logo is still on the image or they cropped the pic where you can still see a tiny bit of the FAA watermark. IMO, the watermark should have the contributors name not FAA. If someone is going to rip off my work it should at least have my name on it. And I think the watermark should be in the middle so nobody can crop. If someone wants to steal my images they will. But is it necessary to make it totally easy?
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Thanks so much… Sue, Steve, Stockastic, and Paulie!
I really do appreciate hearing of your experiences and suggestions. FAA is quite appealing to me, since I've sold hundreds of prints over the years (people do love birds and critters!) but always had to produce the prints myself, have them matted and/or framed, packaged up and shipped out. Way too much work for an old timer!
So, if one watermarks images there, I gather there's no option but to have the FAA watermark in the corner. It doesn't look bad at all, but I do wish they included a note that the wm will be removed when the print/card is produced. How hard could that be???
I have a lot of images that were slides originally but later were drum-scanned and professionally printed. If I post those on FAA, I'll know for sure if I ever see them "lifted", because they won't be available anywhere else online.
Anyway, I'm going to give it a try and see what happens. I'll come back with a report sometime in the future. Thanks again!
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So, if one watermarks images there, I gather there's no option but to have the FAA watermark in the corner. It doesn't look bad at all, but I do wish they included a note that the wm will be removed when the print/card is produced. How hard could that be???
They do say it somewhere on the site, but I also write it into the description if I remember.
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They do say it somewhere on the site, but I also write it into the description if I remember.
Interesting!
Sue, I arrived at that same "solution" too. The link below goes to one of the first images I uploaded there, with that notice in the description. The wm is barely visible on this image, but I hope it provides a wee bit of protection.
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/two-backlit-snow-geese-martha-marks.html (http://fineartamerica.com/featured/two-backlit-snow-geese-martha-marks.html)
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I've had a huge June so far. I've been on there for three years now. Sales lead to more sales as it moves you up in the search, so it takes time and promotional effort to get a foothold. Don't expect sales to just come in. Took me about two years to get the ball rolling.
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I've had a huge June so far. I've been on there for three years now. Sales lead to more sales as it moves you up in the search, so it takes time and promotional effort to get a foothold. Don't expect sales to just come in. Took me about two years to get the ball rolling.
How are you promoting?
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I would if I could ever bl**dy upload. The last 4 times I've tried, only one image has actually uploaded. I uploaded 7 images to Crated in the time I got that one to work.
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I notice that there's no longer any discussion, on the FAA forum, about that long awaited "major upgrade" to the so-called Artist Web Sites. I think it's pure vapor at this point. The last time I made a sarcastic comment about this on the FAA forum I got a nasty lecture from the moderator and the thread was immediately closed - that was a couple of weeks ago, and nothing since.
I really hope that someone, somewhere, is creating a new POD site that looks good, lets us set our own prices, has keyword search, and finds some way to filter out all the cr@p without being an artsy hipster fantasy like Crated.
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I notice that there's no longer any discussion, on the FAA forum, about that long awaited "major upgrade" to the so-called Artist Web Sites. I think it's pure vapor at this point. The last time I made a sarcastic comment about this on the FAA forum I got a nasty lecture from the moderator and the thread was immediately closed - that was a couple of weeks ago, and nothing since.
I really hope that someone, somewhere, is creating a new POD site that looks good, lets us set our own prices, has keyword search, and finds some way to filter out all the cr@p without being an artsy hipster fantasy like Crated.
Well stated.
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without being an artsy hipster fantasy like Crated.
+1
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Wow - they can't even take helpful bug reporting.
I noticed that Art Deco / art deco returns no results, though "Art Deco" returns many, as expected.
(http://www.lizworld.com/FAA-AD.jpg)
I posted that info on the discussion board, affirming that e.g. New York (not in quotes) is findable. Obviously, I have no way of knowing whether/which/how many other searches might be affected.
This morning, I see my post has been 'disappeared', but as I just took the screenshot a couple of minutes ago, the issue is still there. (I guess it might take a server update, but surely a better way of responding would have been 'thanks, fixed' rather than disappearing the post.
The real worry is what caused the bug and how many searches it affects. Maybe they don't even care. (?)
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Their search function is very crude compared to the microstocks - for example you have to add your own plurals, and all the variations of "black and white", "b & w", "black & white" etc. The search knows nothing about synonyms. Coincidentally I added a photo yesterday with the phrase "art deco" and obviously many if not most buyers wouldn't know they had to put it in quotes.
The search is cut off after about 25 pages so new photos of common subjects have no chance anyway.
But hey - iPhone cases! And image licensing!
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Their search function is very crude compared to the microstocks - for example you have to add your own plurals, and all the variations of "black and white", "b & w", "black & white" etc. The search knows nothing about synonyms.
And both Proper English and American English spellings. Total PITA, like Alamy.
But yes, new files going to the end is going to stymie anything in large searches.
Also, I noticed in one particular popular search, all of the first page and much of the second, was by one particular contributor, except the three 'sponsored' searches, one of which was also his. Nothing wrong with his work, and by coincidence I noticed a sale the very day after finding this search, but it makes submitting in that search a bit pointless (unless someone specfied photo in the dropdown). Also doesn't show any variety of styles to the buyers.
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It seems that using the word art as a first word confuses the search unless the phrase is in quotes. The search will however return results for a search for deco with all the files with the tag "art deco". New files do not go to the end. They are ranked by an unknown algorithm. If the artist who uploaded it is a big seller and has recently sold works with that keyword the piece will go right to the front of the search. There are also various ways to change the sort. You can sort by age so Mr. stocktastic's new file is right at the top. ;-). You can also do a random sort. I doubt many use these options except experienced buyers. The sort options buttons are a bit glitchy also and will lock if any of the search terms is also a term for medium as in "art'
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Art Nouveau works without quotes.
But yes, there are many glitches.
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The main factor in search placement is previous sales, and maybe that means all sales by a particular artist - we'll never know, but it's probably more accurate to say that all your images go to the end of the list until you make some sales. And with the search results now capped after a limited number of pages, new artists probably won't have much of a chance unless they can jump start some sales through their own marketing efforts.
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There was some date when things changed. My older images there are generally around the middle of the search, with some about 1/4 way down. My newer images are generally towards the very end.
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And, despite the above, I just got a sale, so 8)
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And, despite the above, I just got a sale, so 8)
Saweet.
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Trying to see where my recently sold image came in the most likely search term (two words) I was it was very low, below probably hundreds of images (unrelated to the subject) by a guy whose surname was one of the words in the keyword phrase.
For example, if your artist name on FAA was Joe Mantis, then your images might be bunched together in a search for Praying Mantis, with many actual Praying Mantis images below that.
Crude and unhelpful, when there's an option to search for artist.
I'm guessing my buyer used an extra qualifier, such as 'insect' in the Praying Mantis scenario, though putting "Praying Mantis" in quotes works, as would the scientific name.
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We can discuss all the shortcomings of FAA until we're blue, and it's just a waste of time. All the problems with search have been brought up on the FAA forum many times and the response is always "it's not going to change".
McDunn apparently has no interest in updating the site, it's just a cash cow. Obviously his attention is elsewhere (a week ago there was a joyous announcement of the McDunns' new baby) and he's the only technical guy behind the site - it's a one man show.
It is what it is. It works, sort of - I make an occasional sale - but it's frustrating because it could be so much better. I don't mean to beat up on Sean McDunn, he's done an amazing thing with FAA. It's just a shame we've all ended up depending on a company that doesn't have the motivation to move forward. All we can do is hope for some meaningful competition to emerge.
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I have 875 images/art on FAA but haven't sold anything except one small postcard about a year ago. I have absolutely no clue why I don't sell when I see what does but I must do something wrong.
http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/patricia-hofmeester.html (http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/patricia-hofmeester.html)
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ShadySue, the search is very literal. a search for praying mantis will not show a Joe mantis. There has to be an exact match. Although it will pull off the 'mantis" and match it up with "praying" if there are no other results to return. Putting in insect does not help. There are no categories. It a straight word for word match.
Stockastic is correct in saying that sales by a particular artist count in the algorithm. I figure there are other parameters in the algorithm related to sales.
There is a relevancy function to the algorithm. The search is not static and will eventually push back irrelevant files.
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Sorry, this is long, and doesn't reflect what a buyer would probably do; just demonstrating what I said above the workings of FAA's Search in one specific. Also I apologise profusely to Ms Swan. I didn't want to bring her into this, but as my hypothecial was refuted, I had to give a real life example.
ShadySue., the search is very literal. a search for praying mantis will not show a Joe mantis. there has to be an exact match. Although it will pull off the mantis and match it up with praying if there are no other results to return. Putting in insect does not help. There are no categories. It a straight word for word match.
OK, I'll demonstrate by the actual subject I sold, which was a Black Swan.
Searching for Black Swan (not in quotes) the top image is two wee girls at a piano with a painting of a white swan on a wall in the background. (Swan and black are both in the keywords, seemingly black after swan - it's interesting to see how different minds work. I wouldn't have keyworded black or swan on that image.)
Today, my own three Black Swan images are showing very highly - because I 'sponsored' Black Swan last night in a rolling programme of sponsorings. Yesterday after my sale when I checked, all three were very low. Bracketing that ...
The first page of the Black Swan (not in quotes) search throws up a lot of Black Swans, and a lot of images connected with the movie (no CV). At this point, a buyer would probably either put Black Swan into quotes (won't get rid of the movie-related images) or add bird, which deletes the movie images, but elevates a lot of non-black swan images with black also as a keyword (e.g. on the front page of Black Swan unmodified there's a white swan with a black beak) If it were me, I'd switch immediately to Cygnus atratus, because experience with micros has taught me that many fewer people bother to spam the scientific name, or get it wrong (though it happens).
Bracketing what a buyer might do, and sticking with Back Swan, unmodified, no quotes (to demonstrate how the search works) ...
Page 2 has a few more white swans (various) with black in the keywords, and by page 5, there's a much higher number of white swans, often against a black background.
Towards the bottom of page 6, there are a lot of 'black' and white drawings by an artist called Kelli Swan, not of swans (mostly horses and/or dogs). Her work is very good, and presumably sells well and is almost half of the images shown on pp7 and 8, tailing off on page 9, at which point, we get a lot more white swans and black-necked swans.
Page 10 has some real Black Swans appearing again, mixed in with white and black-necked swans, and some more of Ms Swan's work. Pages 11 & 12 have few, if any actual Black Swans, but they appear again on p13, presumably from new contributors or those who have not sold. Last night, just after notification of my sale, and before I sponsored 'Black Swan', I had one on the bottom of p10, 1 on the top of p11 and one I couldn't find.
The preponderance of actual Black Swans on p14 is much higher than on pp 7-12.
Added: I just sponsored 'Victoria Falls', and noticed that my pic of Murchison Falls had gone into the sponsored slot rotation - because MF is on the Victoria Nile. ::)
iS's CV has problems, but it's better than anything else, if it's used properly by contributors (not spammed) and updated as necessary.
Added x2: And a cartoonist called Kim Niles (apologies again, not criticising her or her work, only the system) has files higher in a search for Nile (no s) than actual images of the Nile.
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I have 875 images/art on FAA but haven't sold anything except one small postcard about a year ago. I have absolutely no clue why I don't sell when I see what does but I must do something wrong.
A lot of people who have regular sales market outwith FAA and just use them for realisation. FAA don't do any promotion that I've ever seen or heard of (of course maybe some I don't know about [?]).
That has been said often in their heavily-moderated discussion forum, but is also apparent from seeing sales of images with 'artsy' titles and no keywords or description, so they're not findable from within the site.
I don't promote and have no fans or followers, so my sales there are sporadic. Still, it's fun for me, as I can return to work which would be considered 'over-filtered' on iS, so had been out of making for a while.
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Thanks for the reaction Shady Sue. I don't like to put my images on Facebook too much (or on other social media) as I read that every image put on Facebook then belongs to Facebook. I never understand why so many just give their images away like this. How did you do you sponsering?
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Thanks for the reaction Shady Sue. I don't like to put my images on Facebook too much (or on other social media) as I read that every image put on Facebook then belongs to Facebook. I never understand why so many just give their images away like this. How did you do you sponsering?
I just follow the instructions for 'sponsoring' on the site. It's a PITA and takes ages, really tedious, but I only started a couple of weeks ago so can't say if it's worth it. Even things that work in the search don't work with sponsoring, so you have to 'sponsor' e.g. 'street Miami' and 'Miami Street'. Although the search seems to bring up the same search, if you only 'sponsor' the first, it won't have a 'sponsor rotation position' for the second.
I don't promote on Fb, I'd have 25 unfriends in a couple of days! I see people use Pinterest and/or LinkedIn, but any sales I've get have just been random people somehow finding my images in the search.
BTW, the photos don't belong to Fb. IIRC they tried to push that last year sometime, then backed down after a stooshie. I only put facebookish pics on Fb, only my 25 'friends' can see them, they're only 720px wide, and they're watermarked (unless they come directly from my phone. I must learn how to downsize and watermark phone pics, but they're really just 'happy snaps'.
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We can discuss all the shortcomings of FAA until we're blue, and it's just a waste of time. All the problems with search have been brought up on the FAA forum many times and the response is always "it's not going to change".
McDunn apparently has no interest in updating the site, it's just a cash cow. Obviously his attention is elsewhere (a week ago there was a joyous announcement of the McDunns' new baby) and he's the only technical guy behind the site - it's a one man show.
It is what it is. It works, sort of - I make an occasional sale - but it's frustrating because it could be so much better. I don't mean to beat up on Sean McDunn, he's done an amazing thing with FAA. It's just a shame we've all ended up depending on a company that doesn't have the motivation to move forward. All we can do is hope for some meaningful competition to emerge.
Good to know. In mid-may I ULed 262 photos. No sales. I have a series of a woman playing tennis. So I searched "woman, tennis". None of my images in there. AND what did show up was mostly NOT woman playing tennis. Blown away. FAA is a joke.
I sent an email to support about it today. If not hear back with a great explanation, all images are coming down on friday... ::)
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They'll no doubt say you should be doing your own promotion.
In any case, why not leave the images there, at least until your next $30 is due?
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They'll no doubt say you should be doing your own promotion.
In any case, why not leave the images there, at least until your next $30 is due?
true. been reading the forums there about that. not really what i had in mind when submitting. don't like having large unwatermarked images available... and not even showing up in search. the more i read on the forums the more i dislike FAA. it may work well for mike savvad and a few others but just seems an ineffective way to sell work now that it is so loaded with junk images and no site promotion.
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You can watermark your images - though depending on the pic, it might not show up that well, or be easily removed. (You can bulk add the watermark via default settings 'behind the scenes.)
Of course, you've got to do what you think best.
Wait a minute - did you say you've uploaded 262 pics around six weeks ago and you're disappointed you've had no sales? I think you had inflated expectations. It's not SS.
FWIW, I persuaded a friend to join several months ago, and he's been mentioning the 'wasted $30' for a while, until this very week he got a big print sale netting him $170. (Ha, if someone had bought one of my images at that size, I'd have made $55, and I think that's a huge price by UK standards, not to mention matting, framing and shipping.)
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You can watermark your images - though depending on the pic, it might not show up that well, or be easily removed. (You can bulk add the watermark via default settings 'behind the scenes.)
Of course, you've got to do what you think best.
Wait a minute - did you say you've uploaded 262 pics around six weeks ago and you're disappointed you've had no sales? I think you had inflated expectations. It's not SS.
FWIW, I persuaded a friend to join several months ago, and he's been mentioning the 'wasted $30' for a while, until this very week he got a big print sale netting him $170. (Ha, if someone had bought one of my images at that size, I'd have made $55, and I think that's a huge price by UK standards, not to mention matting, framing and shipping.)
Nope I am not expecting sales now... just mentioned in passing
my concern is the search issues... you may have talked me into letting then ride longer.
thanks
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Steve
Thanks for the info about FAA, I am just starting to upload images as another way of getting my images seen and hopefully create some extra revenue.
I was most interested in the link to your blog and the discussion about how you price your images on FAA and I thought I would look you up on FAA, to see the sort of images you sell etc. I also looked at your pricing and got the site to show a breakdown of the costs and I could not find any realtionship to the prices you say you sell your images for and what they are selling for on FAA, have you done this on purpose or and do you price your images individually.
I'm a little confused, can you please clarify?
Tahnks
David May
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I remember the last time I sold a photo of a particular lighthouse on Cape Cod (certainly a well covered subject on FAA), I decided to see where I came up in the search. I found pages filled with pix by an artist who had many photos of the same lighthouse, followed by many other photos without the lighthouse in them at all. I finally got tired of looking and hadn't found the image I sold or the few others of that lighthouse I have on the site. Nor did I find other images of lighthouses and nautical subjects from Cape Cod that I'd sold in the past few months before that, which surprised me.
Meantime, when I search the lighthouse name on SS it seems well placed and even searching Google with the name of the lighthouse, one (and sometimes more) of mine show up on page one (and I have less than 10 photos of it in total anywhere online), so I have no clue how FAA's search works. I have seen my FAA images show up well placed in Google searches but rarely have the patience to go through the pages required to fined them on FAA.
I haven't uploaded there or even been on the site in over a month. When I was active on the forums and all the voting and commenting there I averaged slightly more than one sale a month. While my sales more than cover my site fee for quite a few years, they didn't seem commensurate with the effort I was making. (I was also tweeting and retweeting my FAA stuff and that of other FAA folks, posting on pinterest, FB and G+ and probably boring people to death).
Aside from a couple of card sales to acquaintances, everything I've sold (canvas, metal, framed and matted prints), have been through random searches as far as I can tell-and at least one was via google, not via FAA's search engine. My first sale was to someone who contacted me through my Photoshelter website to buy a photo she'd found via a google search as a Christmas gift for her husband. I sent her to FAA since I had recently joined the site and didn't have a cost-effective way to get a framed print to Virginia.
I did a bunch of those canvas discount photos for a while but only sold one, my lowest profit other than on cards - and have no idea if that was someone searching the site or who found it via my then daily posts of my FAA deals on twitter.
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When Google decides to change their algorithm, FAA could be in for trouble as they are heavily relying on their good placement with Google. The owner of the site is very much promoting the fact he has good Google placement. When they lose that placement, they could get into difficult times.
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When Google decides to change their algorithm, FAA could be in for trouble as they are heavily relying on their good placement with Google. The owner of the site is very much promoting the fact he has good Google placement. When they lose that placement, they could get into difficult times.
A few weeks back, I noticed a page on FAA which claimed they have #1 Google positioning for certain very popular keywords. I checked it out, and it wasn't #1 for any of them (after paid ads), though usually in the top 10. I can't actually find that page just now. Maybe it was that thing whereby Google takes your previous browsing history into account which made the keywords 1 there. Still, even #10 is impressive for these particular keywords.
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There have been several recent threads on the FAA forum regarding problems with the search, for example what wordplanet noted: first few pages stuffed with one (presumably) 'big selling' artist, and lots of unrelated junk. The search is mostly weighted by previous sales for a contributor, and it gets totally out of hand. Add in the fact that the search is cut off after about 25 pages, and the situation becomes hopeless.
The only response from FAA's increasingly rude and defensive moderator has been "that's the way it is".
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Steve
Thanks for the info about FAA, I am just starting to upload images as another way of getting my images seen and hopefully create some extra revenue.
I was most interested in the link to your blog and the discussion about how you price your images on FAA and I thought I would look you up on FAA, to see the sort of images you sell etc. I also looked at your pricing and got the site to show a breakdown of the costs and I could not find any realtionship to the prices you say you sell your images for and what they are selling for on FAA, have you done this on purpose or and do you price your images individually.
I'm a little confused, can you please clarify?
Tahnks
David May
Sorry I missed this question. I went back to my default pricing and it is the same as I originally showed on my blog post http://www.backyardsilver.com/2013/12/fine-art-america-increasing-sales-photo-prints/ (http://www.backyardsilver.com/2013/12/fine-art-america-increasing-sales-photo-prints/).
However, when I look at the site for a standard print, I see the price is higher. Although I haven't spent much time on FAA recently, I think the approach was that I was setting the mark-up over and above the price of the printing itself. So for a 14inch print, I set the markup at 45.00. The site show that same size print as $57.00 - $50 for the print and $7.00 for the type of paper. However, there is no cheaper paper option than this $7 one. I suppose they are saying that the print costs $12.00 for glossy or luster at that size.
Is that the discrepancy you are seeing?
I would have to dig some more to come up with a better answer.
This is one I uploaded most recently and it seems to have followed the same pricing logic as my earlier ones, so nothing seems to have changed. I tried to make this one more painterly to attract the FAA audience, but no luck so far!
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/beautiful-early-morning-jefferson-memorial-steve-heap.html (http://fineartamerica.com/featured/beautiful-early-morning-jefferson-memorial-steve-heap.html)
I did get one sale earlier this month from FAA - so although my best period was December/January, I still get occasional sales.
Steve
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ShadySue, I tried your sponsoring tip, and at first it seemed to work : my photos appeared on the 3rd row when I searched for the exact word. A few hours later however I tested it again, only this time I was not logged in ... NOTHING! Have you tested your sponsoring results logged out ?
The placing of links on your own website is a great way to get super-high SEO results on Google, but if no one but me can see the results, why would I help FAA?
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I don't really understand what should I do to sponsor images? Can anyone tell in short words please? :)
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ShadySue, I tried your sponsoring tip, and at first it seemed to work : my photos appeared on the 3rd row when I searched for the exact word. A few hours later however I tested it again, only this time I was not logged in ... NOTHING! Have you tested your sponsoring results logged out ?
The placing of links on your own website is a great way to get super-high SEO results on Google, but if no one but me can see the results, why would I help FAA?
The sponsoring thing is essentially a way to help FAA. The 'three available sponsor places' are just a means of persuading us to do it. It all depends how many people are sponsoring your chosen keywords. With a popularly-sponsored keyword, you might have to refresh thirty, fifty ... times before your image comes up. With a keyword which hasn't been 'sponsored' often, you might actually have all three available slots - I can see that on some of the keywords I tested.
They do actually admit to this one on the sponsorship page:
"There are only three featured positions available per page. If multiple artists have posted links to the windows 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."
Added: seems to me to be four positions: ##9-12.
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I don't really understand what should I do to sponsor images? Can anyone tell in short words please? :)
When you are signed in, do a search on one of your keywords.
Scroll down a few lines (depending on your window size) and you'll see a message 'Sponsor this page'. Click on that link, and it'll give you instructions. Essentially, they provide you with a cut-and-pastable link to put on your webstite/blog and when the link is 'live', you go into the rotation of images in three slots on the first page for that keyword. As has been said already, without a CV, this is a long, drawn-out process, as there is a separate 'sponsoring slot' for alternate spellings, plurals, word order, language ...
It's tedious and best kept for 'free time'. My theory was to use the time I otherwise waste on CandyCrush (!), but it's so tedious, I have to reward myself for each page (20 links) by having a game ... (butterfly mind :-[)
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Hi ,
I am also with FAA , thank you for your price list. I was selling mine for far too low, I might now update it.
Regards Dani
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The sponsoring thing is essentially a way to help FAA. The 'three available sponsor places' are just a means of persuading us to do it. It all depends how many people are sponsoring your chosen keywords. With a popularly-sponsored keyword, you might have to refresh thirty, fifty ... times before your image comes up. With a keyword which hasn't been 'sponsored' often, you might actually have all three available slots - I can see that on some of the keywords I tested.
OK, got it, thanks! I tested it and yes, after 5 refreshments one of my images popped up on row 3. Better only sponsor keywords for which I have lots of photos on FAA then.
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I don't really understand what should I do to sponsor images? Can anyone tell in short words please? :)
When you are signed in, do a search on one of your keywords.
Scroll down a few lines (depending on your window size) and you'll see a message 'Sponsor this page'. Click on that link, and it'll give you instructions. Essentially, they provide you with a cut-and-pastable link to put on your webstite/blog and when the link is 'live', you go into the rotation of images in three slots on the first page for that keyword. As has been said already, without a CV, this is a long, drawn-out process, as there is a separate 'sponsoring slot' for alternate spellings, plurals, word order, language ...
It's tedious and best kept for 'free time'. My theory was to use the time I otherwise waste on CandyCrush (!), but it's so tedious, I have to reward myself for each page (20 links) by having a game ... (butterfly mind :-[)
The problem with this is that not all of us are tech savvy. We don't have blogs or websites and couldn't begin to figure this out. All FAA is doing is trying to force the contributor to do their marketing, so in essence you have to be more than an artist to be successful there. Pitiful place.
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Someone asked - "how am I promoting?" How am I not promoting is the answer - blogs, social networking, Tumbler - I spend hours per week on it.
The reason agencies get a commission is because they do all of the promotional work and bring buyers to you. FAA is the opposite. Its just a fulfillment house for your art business. Don't expect anything else except for the occasional random sale.
When has an artist not have to be a promoter? Andy Warhol was just as good as PT Barnum.
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As regards watermarks, once you upload you can't always change your mind and just go do an edit and check the watermark box. You have to change out the image, because it is in that process that the watermark is added. As for the smaller thumbnails, they might not get the watermark even if you re-upload. Tech support will add the watermarks for you if you have uploaded without checking the watermark box.
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FAA is a big con, there are more contributors than customers. We are just making the owners rich through subs. I've sold hundreds of mobile phone cases on zazzle and none via FAA. And I've sold hundreds of prints via other POD agencies but just a few via FAA. I won't be renewing my sub once its up for renewal.
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FAA is a big con, there are more contributors than customers. We are just making the owners rich through subs. I've sold hundreds of mobile phone cases on zazzle and none via FAA. And I've sold hundreds of prints via other POD agencies but just a few via FAA. I won't be renewing my sub once its up for renewal.
I have been thinking the same thing and am strongly considering not renewing as well
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FAA is a big con, there are more contributors than customers. We are just making the owners rich through subs. I've sold hundreds of mobile phone cases on zazzle and none via FAA. And I've sold hundreds of prints via other POD agencies but just a few via FAA. I won't be renewing my sub once its up for renewal.
I have been thinking the same thing and am strongly considering not renewing as well
It is a giant con. I am not renewing in a month or so. Really a joke.
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I'll renew, only if it's a positive transaction for me. This year it is, though I had 0 in August. One good sale in July more than paid for the sub, and a few smaller sales add to the total.
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FAA just desperately needs competition. They do some things well, but other things badly, and they're frozen in time, going nowhere. It's time for a new POD site with clean, modern design, that isn't loaded with repetitious junk.
But don't even get me started on Crated. They are definitely not going to be the one.
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FAA is a lemon for me. I've sold 4 prints in two years and 0 phone cases. Compared to zazzle where in the same time I've sold dozens of prints, 150+ phone cases and 1500+ other products. I will not subscribe again because I think that's all FAA is now, a subscription collecting site that doesn't sell much.
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In my weekly update email, one of the upcoming local events is "40 minutes with a mystic" 200 miles away. They must be desperately taking in adverts from all comers now.
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I've made almost double the membership fee this year, so that's OK. I don't make any effort there, just occasionally upload stuff. I made a few hundred bucks in both 2012 and last year. If it actually starts costing me money then I'll probably drop it after a year or two.
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I renewed by default in March and not a single sale. They are dying.
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They arent really. still selling well there.
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They arent really. still selling well there.
How much promotion work are you doing via social media, blog, website, etc.?
I'm sure artists with a personal following who are mostly using them for realisation can do well.
Just out of curiosity, how competitive are their US prices (with other providers in the US)?
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I use their automated twitter and facebook announcements, thats it.
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I have sales - this month is actually pretty good, although you can't count on it to be consistent. But then it's not microstock, so it is to be expected. I have only carefully selected and processed images there, not my entire portfolio.... http://elena-elisseeva.artistwebsites.com/ (http://elena-elisseeva.artistwebsites.com/)
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disagreeing with me having sales on faa. lol. what a silly forum. dont envy, shoot better. its not my fault you dont have sales.
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I have sold well there since the first month 20 months ago. I never had a sale of prints on any other POD.
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Joined FAA in January 2014. So far, I have earned twice as much there compared to SS this year. But my paintings sell better than my photographs there.
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As the original poster, I thought I should update my experience as well. I've sold four prints this year in June, August, September and now October. Last year, it was definitely better towards the end of the year. I've just updated my blog with the latest sales.
Steve
http://www.backyardsilver.com/2014/10/fine-art-america-still-good/ (http://www.backyardsilver.com/2014/10/fine-art-america-still-good/)
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I renewed by default in March and not a single sale. They are dying.
Maybe you haven't done the minimum needed to get your work seen. Maybe your subject matter is overdone. Maybe your quality is poor. Maybe you just have boring work.
The site has steady growth. It is certainly not dying. You just can't compete.
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I renewed by default in March and not a single sale. They are dying.
Maybe you haven't done the minimum needed to get your work seen. Maybe your subject matter is overdone. Maybe your quality is poor. Maybe you just have boring work.
The site has steady growth. It is certainly not dying. You just can't compete.
What I don't do, I'll admit, is promote myself in any way. When I started there I got very nice sales. This year I haven't had any. Here is a sample of the kind of work I have there. It sells quite well through other outlets besides micro stock, just not at FAA. There are a lot of people here who have had the same experience so you are making a broad brush statement that those people can't compete, either. You "SAY" you're doing well but it's just words. If you are, then congrats you are doing something right. I will say that I don't do any "marketing" on FAA, but that aside (which is probably my kiss of death) I would put my work up against yours any day. You have an arrogant tone, which speaks a lot about your character. I am sure you have a few nice images so why don't you post a few like me?
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I could see the first two images hanging on my wall, for the last two images I dont see it. But thats just personal taste and opinion.
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I could see the first two images hanging on my wall, for the last two images I dont see it. But thats just personal taste and opinion.
You're right. Everyone has their own taste. I will say that the most popular one of the four above is the walking octopus, so that totally supports what you are saying. But I have hundreds of shots both topside and underwater from around the world on FAA. The selling factor I am certain is my lack of marketing/promotional efforts on FAA, not the images. Here's a few more popular shots, they just don't sell on FAA. I will also go as far as saying that there are solid, competitive images to mine on FAA, just not tons of them so I believe there's room for this niche.
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I'm on FAA too and while I do get a sale once in a while, the intervals are getting longer. If you pay attention to what's going on at FAA (what's being announced, anyway) it's obvious that the guy is increasingly focusing on promoting the proven sellers via search placement, "Collections" and "Subjects". Take a look at some of the "Collections" - most contain the work of only one contributor.
Watch for more Collections to appear over time, until all the popular subjects are covered. Increasingly, buyers will be looking for a Collection on the subject they think they want, rather than spending time searching by keyword.
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I'm on FAA too and while I do get a sale once in a while, the intervals are getting longer. If you pay attention to what's going on at FAA (what's being announced, anyway) it's obvious that the guy is increasingly focusing on promoting the proven sellers via search placement, "Collections" and "Subjects". Take a look at some of the "Collections" - most contain the work of only one contributor.
Watch for more Collections to appear over time, until all the popular subjects are covered. Increasingly, buyers will be looking for a Collection on the subject they think they want, rather than spending time searching by keyword.
Great feedback, stockastic.
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I agree that the sales are decreasing the second half of 2014, although I had fantastic experience in the first half.
I don't do any self promotions, no facebook, no blog, no nothing.
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I can foresee a lot of sub non renewals.
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the name of the topic is misleading can it be renamed (or at least year 2013 added)
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Its not about having nice pictures. Its about:
1. Getting people to see them. There is plenty of amazing stuff on FAA that no one ever sees because its not promoted and marketed.
2. Having what they want. Its a wall art site. People are looking for something that they can hang on their wall and look at for years.
I've seen stock photos targeted at business (plumber, dentist) sell. Things people might buy to put in the lobby or waiting room of their business.
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Love your work Mantis, always have, so I am not criticizing your work. Interesting that the most popular of them 4 is the one I would not pick. My pick was just based with those images in mind as wall art.
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Its not about having nice pictures. Its about:
1. Getting people to see them. There is plenty of amazing stuff on FAA that no one ever sees because its not promoted and marketed.
2. Having what they want. Its a wall art site. People are looking for something that they can hang on their wall and look at for years.
I've seen stock photos targeted at business (plumber, dentist) sell. Things people might buy to put in the lobby or waiting room of their business.
I totally agree with you. It's obviously more than nice pictures. My frustration (and others) is that for me last year I made $600-$700 doing nothing. That was, as I recall, 6 images. This year, nada with my same do nothing marketing effort. That's the confusion for me. Stochastic made a good point, too.
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I renewed by default in March and not a single sale. They are dying.
Maybe you haven't done the minimum needed to get your work seen. Maybe your subject matter is overdone. Maybe your quality is poor. Maybe you just have boring work.
The site has steady growth. It is certainly not dying. You just can't compete.
What I don't do, I'll admit, is promote myself in any way. When I started there I got very nice sales. This year I haven't had any. Here is a sample of the kind of work I have there. It sells quite well through other outlets besides micro stock, just not at FAA. There are a lot of people here who have had the same experience so you are making a broad brush statement that those people can't compete, either. You "SAY" you're doing well but it's just words. If you are, then congrats you are doing something right. I will say that I don't do any "marketing" on FAA, but that aside (which is probably my kiss of death) I would put my work up against yours any day. You have an arrogant tone, which speaks a lot about your character. I am sure you have a few nice images so why don't you post a few like me?
Ok so your work is not boring. I prefaced all my statements by maybe, because these are reasons you might not be selling. You gave the reason why. I am not arrogant. I am straight forward and honest and trying to help. Saying the site is dying is a way of escaping the reality that there is something going on you have to address. The site is quite obviously growing in sales and members. Look at the stats on the front page under "today". I won't post my images because you have better work. As a marine biologist that is unable to dive I only wish I had your portfolio. But I am selling better than ever. And I am falling back in the default search. Two artists have flooded me out. A sort by most popular on a certain word will bring my files to the top. But in the default search many new images with no sales are ahead of mine. I do have a good Google presence. I also have excellent keywording skills. I do other things to make sure my work is visible. I make more money on stock but I work harder to sell prints. Actually I have applied some of my new marketing skills to stock and it helps there also.
The site is becoming increasingly competitive, but it is possible to sell and even thrive without being promoted by the site.
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@Mantis. I found it hard to find the images on FAA using keywords. Not even similars. I did a reverse image search and i found the images on stock sites but not FAA. So you have a visibility problem.
Then by amazing coincidence i was looking a recent sales and I saw a sale by a guy whose name i recognize but not from FAA. I clicked through to the portfolio and there is this diver guy and a search on that port led to the images above. Well congrats on your sale! Your keywording looks fine, but you really need to put your work in galleries. That would be a minimum thing and you will sell more work and more multiples if you have your portfolio organized into galleries and also in the default order, which is not as hard as it may seem.
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I renewed by default in March and not a single sale. They are dying.
Maybe you haven't done the minimum needed to get your work seen. Maybe your subject matter is overdone. Maybe your quality is poor. Maybe you just have boring work.
The site has steady growth. It is certainly not dying. You just can't compete.
What I don't do, I'll admit, is promote myself in any way. When I started there I got very nice sales. This year I haven't had any. Here is a sample of the kind of work I have there. It sells quite well through other outlets besides micro stock, just not at FAA. There are a lot of people here who have had the same experience so you are making a broad brush statement that those people can't compete, either. You "SAY" you're doing well but it's just words. If you are, then congrats you are doing something right. I will say that I don't do any "marketing" on FAA, but that aside (which is probably my kiss of death) I would put my work up against yours any day. You have an arrogant tone, which speaks a lot about your character. I am sure you have a few nice images so why don't you post a few like me?
Ok so your work is not boring. I prefaced all my statements by maybe, because these are reasons you might not be selling. You gave the reason why. I am not arrogant. I am straight forward and honest and trying to help. Saying the site is dying is a way of escaping the reality that there is something going on you have to address. The site is quite obviously growing in sales and members. Look at the stats on the front page under "today". I won't post my images because you have better work. As a marine biologist that is unable to dive I only wish I had your portfolio. But I am selling better than ever. And I am falling back in the default search. Two artists have flooded me out. A sort by most popular on a certain word will bring my files to the top. But in the default search many new images with no sales are ahead of mine. I do have a good Google presence. I also have excellent keywording skills. I do other things to make sure my work is visible. I make more money on stock but I work harder to sell prints. Actually I have applied some of my new marketing skills to stock and it helps there also.
The site is becoming increasingly competitive, but it is possible to sell and even thrive without being promoted by the site.
All relevant points. Thanks for the feedback. Honestly, it's helpful.
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I do other things to make sure my work is visible.
Well, that sounds interesting...?
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Curated work are things hand picked by the staff, it's formed by magic i think and its hard to get into. mostly it's a topic. the rest is a search. and when it goes to the search it all depends how well you sell over all if you'll be seen. the collections have always been there - but hidden. now you trip over it, every time. fills the page.
its not the issue that you won't sell because it's there. it's bad because the customer might stop there because if they do a search inside of that, they won't find anything at all. and then they might just leave.
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the thing about selling at FAA is that you need to advertise yourself - constantly. if you sell you get into the top of the search but you need to sell the same things quite a few times. people that sell stock and sell there - usually don't do well. presumably because the stock wins in the searches in google, or that buyers just buy the stock.
usually on fine art you have to get lucky. if you sell a dozen things at once, you'll end up in the search much higher much faster. usually the mistakes people make are:
selling snap shots
not giving it a good description
not having any keywords at all - or very few
not giving it enough time
comparing it to zazzle - where zazzle will change how the search works on an hourly basis, more people see it over all, and there are more products to be seen. they might come across your cup, but you may sell it as a poster.
they don't have enough images in there
or they expect the site to sell their work for them - and it just doesn't work that way.
its hard to make a site that has to figure out a way to sort junk from good stuff. and it makes sense the way he has the search set up. even though its not that fair.
to sell there you can't have many large broad categories, you have to specialize in many small niches. and sell them to many different people. its a lot of work, you need a lot of work, and it has to be well received. so many there want to sell, but can't because the places people put art - they may not want on their walls.
zazzle - i think of dorm rooms mostly. faa, livingrooms, houses and offices. so many stock things won't work there. and the rest are snap shots. or some are really nice but don't really fit in well.
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the thing about selling at FAA is that you need to advertise yourself - constantly. if you sell you get into the top of the search but you need to sell the same things quite a few times. people that sell stock and sell there - usually don't do well. presumably because the stock wins in the searches in google, or that buyers just buy the stock.
usually on fine art you have to get lucky. if you sell a dozen things at once, you'll end up in the search much higher much faster. usually the mistakes people make are:
selling snap shots
not giving it a good description
not having any keywords at all - or very few
not giving it enough time
comparing it to zazzle - where zazzle will change how the search works on an hourly basis, more people see it over all, and there are more products to be seen. they might come across your cup, but you may sell it as a poster.
they don't have enough images in there
or they expect the site to sell their work for them - and it just doesn't work that way.
its hard to make a site that has to figure out a way to sort junk from good stuff. and it makes sense the way he has the search set up. even though its not that fair.
to sell there you can't have many large broad categories, you have to specialize in many small niches. and sell them to many different people. its a lot of work, you need a lot of work, and it has to be well received. so many there want to sell, but can't because the places people put art - they may not want on their walls.
zazzle - i think of dorm rooms mostly. faa, livingrooms, houses and offices. so many stock things won't work there. and the rest are snap shots. or some are really nice but don't really fit in well.
What does my $30 get me then? If I have to PAY THEM for me to do all the work, screw FAA. Don't get me wrong I believe that you are right. But shouldn't FAA explicitly divulge how their site really works before we plop our credit cards down? The answer is no. Because if they did they would have a flood of account cancelations and they can't have that nowcan they. So the rule is to deceive.
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the thing about selling at FAA is that you need to advertise yourself - constantly. if you sell you get into the top of the search but you need to sell the same things quite a few times. people that sell stock and sell there - usually don't do well. presumably because the stock wins in the searches in google, or that buyers just buy the stock.
...
usually the mistakes people make are:
selling snap shots
not giving it a good description
not having any keywords at all - or very few
not giving it enough time
I've noticed a lot of the images which sell have no description or keywords, and a 'cutesy' or 'clever' title, which suits art but doesn't help getting found.
So I can only conclude that these artists are just getting FAA to do fulfilment for them and are actively 'selling' elsewhere.
So indeed, if you have nowhere to market and no exisiting buyers, FAA could be whistling down the wind.
Oddly having had my best two sales in early summer, I've had none since, and the few times I've checked, it seems to be an even higher proportion of bots visiting than before.
Certainly no rise in visits from genuine-seeming UK/European sources than before they started printing/despatching from the UK - Possibly as I said before, because it's still quite a bit more expensive than going into shops here and buying prints from even well-known artists. - or possibly just because although FAA's SEO is second to none (I totally disagree with your statement that 'stock wins in the searches on Google), they don't really promote the site other than that.
Despite the two much better sales, I probably won't renew if I don't get any more sales before my renewal date.
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What does my $30 get me then?
It gets you the right to have more than 25 images posted for sale. And a clunky-looking 'artist web site' on which you can put a banner.
If you're new, or haven't sold a lot, none of FAA's promotional efforts will benefit you because you'll never be seen in their search.
There's a recent thread there on which contributors were asking questions about why sales were declining, how the search really works, why the site is filling up with stuff from Getty etc, how the tons of junk might be filtered out, why the featured artist Collections are now being heavily pushed, etc. The response was "you have to promote yourself more". Then the thread was closed.
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What does my $30 get me then?
It gets you the right to have more than 25 images posted for sale. And a clunky-looking 'artist web site' on which you can put a banner.
If you're new, or haven't sold a lot, none of FAA's promotional efforts will benefit you because you'll never be seen in their search.
There's a recent thread there on which contributors were asking questions about why sales were declining, how the search really works, why the site is filling up with stuff from Getty etc, how the tons of junk might be filtered out, why the featured artist Collections are now being heavily pushed, and other complaints. The response was "you have to promote yourself more". Then the thread was closed.
I fall into the "don't sell much" category and probably into the "not been on there too long" category since it's only been two years when I joined. In any event the credit card they have on file for me has expired and my relationship with them will also expire in March.
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You know what, I'd be fine with all that if there was an answer to "how do I promote myself?" that was more than some vague hand-waving about Twitter.
Despite having no promotion, I've made some sales there in the last 2 years, which should be boosting my search rank, but things seems to be declining nonetheless.
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Slower for me there this year than last, just a handful of sales lately, but mostly nice big ones. Most recent was for $495 (buyer's total) earlier this month - 95% of my sales there are to strangers - no clue how they've found me most of the time, though I do send the occasional person who contacts me via my Photoshelter site asking for framed prints there, so I don't have to worry about packing breakable artwork. I do some twitter and G+ and also some of the groups. I seem to have more sales there when I'm active on the site and doing some promoting, than when I'm not.
My photos that have sold there range widely from travel to more artsy black & white. For $30 a year it has always more than paid for itself with the first sale of the year since I joined in 2010, so I figure it's worth sticking it out. (My account renews in December). Having more sales (volume-wise) on redbubble lately where I haven't added anything new in ages and do no promoting, but one sale from FAA generally earns me way more than several from there.
I like that FAA pays you within 30-45 days of your sale no matter the amount, and after all the work of uploading there, plan to keep my account.
I do wish that my images that have sold multiple times there would show up higher in searches. Not sure how they pick the images they feature (FAA, that is - I have many featured in groups there). I wish I knew if the promoting made a difference since it's time-consuming.
Anyone else notice an uptick in sales when they're promoting vs. when they're not?
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@mantis - $30 gets you:
customer service more or less - you don't have to deal with them anyway
they take care of returns
you get a free website
and unlimited uploads.
many sites charge 3-5 times that amount.
it wouldn't be a sales pitch if it said - you might or might not make sales.
it would be totally impossible for that site to advertise you, and if you have so-so work, even harder. they have a ton of people, and especially at $30 - you won't get any site that will advertise you. this is your store, you have to do some of the work.
@shadysue - unless you saw those images on the sales page then its moot. if you saw it there - no they didn't push that person (unless it was geddes), that person sold it in person and sent them right to that page. if you do that you don't need the other stuff.
every image search i've ever done in google - stock was first. and it covered the entire length of the page. many people will get a sale or two at first, because of how the search works there. but you still have to market yourself. and build up a client base of sorts.
advertising is hard. free advertising is tricky. but not hard. find followers on twitter and the like, and put stuff in your stream with hash tags. if they like your work they will look at more and maybe buy something. if the work isn't that good, or not interesting you won't get sales. if you leave the title - untitled, or give a weak description, bio etc, then you may not get the sale. there are no promises. yes the search is a bit of a pain. and the DP site sucked away the biggest buyers. but there are plenty of new people that are selling things only having been in there for a few months. they sell because they have nice work.
@wordplanet - hard to say. because advertising returns aren't instant. its a build up. a few a day, add up. and they spread out. so what you pushed last week may have returns this week. once you sell enough and your at the top of the search, its a siphon. there are dead people selling just fine on there.
the main thing there is - diversify the portfolio and get many niches. and don't be afraid of people pinning and such. there are some people out there that will chase down and practically murder people for taking and giving credit to the images they took. if they give credit - keep it there. every one with a link back is an advertisement point.
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@mantis - $30 gets you:
customer service more or less - you don't have to deal with them anyway
they take care of returns
you get a free website
and unlimited uploads.
many sites charge 3-5 times that amount.
it wouldn't be a sales pitch if it said - you might or might not make sales.
it would be totally impossible for that site to advertise you, and if you have so-so work, even harder. they have a ton of people, and especially at $30 - you won't get any site that will advertise you. this is your store, you have to do some of the work.
@shadysue - unless you saw those images on the sales page then its moot. if you saw it there - no they didn't push that person (unless it was geddes), that person sold it in person and sent them right to that page. if you do that you don't need the other stuff.
every image search i've ever done in google - stock was first. and it covered the entire length of the page. many people will get a sale or two at first, because of how the search works there. but you still have to market yourself. and build up a client base of sorts.
advertising is hard. free advertising is tricky. but not hard. find followers on twitter and the like, and put stuff in your stream with hash tags. if they like your work they will look at more and maybe buy something. if the work isn't that good, or not interesting you won't get sales. if you leave the title - untitled, or give a weak description, bio etc, then you may not get the sale. there are no promises. yes the search is a bit of a pain. and the DP site sucked away the biggest buyers. but there are plenty of new people that are selling things only having been in there for a few months. they sell because they have nice work.
@wordplanet - hard to say. because advertising returns aren't instant. its a build up. a few a day, add up. and they spread out. so what you pushed last week may have returns this week. once you sell enough and your at the top of the search, its a siphon. there are dead people selling just fine on there.
the main thing there is - diversify the portfolio and get many niches. and don't be afraid of people pinning and such. there are some people out there that will chase down and practically murder people for taking and giving credit to the images they took. if they give credit - keep it there. every one with a link back is an advertisement point.
The point is that they don't tell you any of this other than you get unlimited uploads. It's really a joke of a site and I will be glad to exit stage right. I hate misleading agencies like FAA
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there isn't anything misleading about the site. its a print on demand site. any site your on you have to advertise to be seen. its just a known. there are no promises that you'll sell. you pay, you got what was shown on there. if you can't sell, then too bad for you.
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I don't think I'd call FAA 'misleading', but it's a bit of a letdown to find out you don't show up in search results even when you feel like you have a direct keyword hit. They used to cut off the search after 25 pages of thumbnails, which meant that for most newbies, there was zero chance of ever being seen. I think they've removed that limit now.
And you many not notice at first that the main page leads buyers to the featured 'Collections', which you can't get in - or at least, there's no clearly defined way - and when buyers see a collection of the subject they were looking for, they may not bother with a keyword search.
The only thing I'd call 'misleading' is the name. 'Fine Art' it is not. They have zero interest in promoting 'new artists'. It's really just another POD site with keyword search. I'm pretty sure Redbubble's search results heavily favor past sellers too, but Redbubble sells so little by comparison to FAA that there isn't as much discussion about it - hardly any action on their forums.
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I have been a member of FAA since January. I have got some sales, and it seems the buyers have found my paintings and photographs via keywords. I got my first sale within two weeks. But my paintings sell much better than my photographs there. I have earned more there than on SS so far this year. FAA is my best earner. I am a hobbyist with a quite small portfolio (around 300-400 images), but I have been seeling microstock for some years. I do wish I had found FAA earlier.
Many of you seem so disappointed because you do not get sales there, maybe it is because you only sell photographs, and photographs maybe do not sell as well as paintings?
The photographs I have got sold there are both flower photographs, and I wonder how the buyers found them, they are not that special.
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there isn't anything misleading about the site.
OK, how about the artists' referral scheme:
"When someone clicks on your advertisement and then signs up for a new website on artistwebsites.com, you'll instantly earn $5.00.
Yes - it's really that easy. You'll receive an e-mail notification whenever a new member signs up via one of your advertisements, and the $5.00 will instantly appear in your online balance. "
http://fineartamerica.com/announcement-artist-websites-referral-program.html?affiliateid= (http://fineartamerica.com/announcement-artist-websites-referral-program.html?affiliateid=)
In fact, what happens is that the $5 appears in your balance 30 days after they signed up.
Now actually, this is NOT unreasonable. The referee has 30 days to close their account for a refund, so FAA could be at the end of a scam team.
However, the text on that page says "instantly" - over a year after I questioned this with them (and noted it on msg http://www.microstockgroup.com/general-stock-discussion/any-alternatives-to-agencies-for-non-direct-selling/msg349051/#msg349051 (http://www.microstockgroup.com/general-stock-discussion/any-alternatives-to-agencies-for-non-direct-selling/msg349051/#msg349051)), pointing out that 'instantly' wasn't true.
Semantically, you could argue that this isn't 'misleading', it's a downright lie.
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So I should start painting I guess... :(
I'm on FAA since Jan. too and sold nothing (huge zero) still. My 300 files just doesn't work, it doesn't earn on itself. Keywords and descriptions should be fine, I tweet it, share on Facebook and get quiet in reply. Waste of money in my case and $30 is a lot.
Btw, I sell pretty often on RB and if they costed me $30 I would pay with a smile :) Something is wrong with FAA for me.
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i do agree about the fine art part, i'd say 50% is now stock. 20% are snapshots. and the rest is fine art. and while the collections seems like an ok idea, it will only confused customers. especially if they can't find anything.
it is a let down that the search is ordered the way it is. and the new stemming thing he does, where it now understand plurals, also chops into other words making it more spammy as a result - cow - you get cowboy and vice versa. people have to use google because its much easier to use google. this search only works well if you have something no one else has much of. but they did fix the search, you can view all 1000 pages now if you want. i think that's the other reason they made pixels, it doesn't conjure up that fine art notion.
redbubble was super slow. then they made it possible to change prices globally and now they have more products. because of that i'm getting more sales. that, and they are in google shopping (a place faa doesn't seem to be), and i'm getting sales there. but even though i have more images there, have been there for 7 years or more, i still only get like 10 sales a month at RB. mostly because the site doesn't have any kind of organization.
i never used the ref program. i doubt it works, many have complained. i wouldn't worry too much about that one. the only thing that bugs me about the place is the customer support. they either drag their heels too much. or don't reply. many have had complaints about that.
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Someone needs to put "September 2013" in the title of this thread. It sounds like the opposite is true in 2014!
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I sell there, and this year was quite good with 24 sales so far.
I do not promote except the occasional twitter and Facebook stuff directly from the site (but not for every new image). And I have a link to my portfolio there on my Homepage.
One of my Images made it into the Collection, a long time ago ... maybe this helps with exposure.
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/cat-and-sunflowers-nailia-schwarz.html (http://fineartamerica.com/featured/cat-and-sunflowers-nailia-schwarz.html)
As somebody said somewhere in this (or another FFA thread), don't set your prices too low - it will not help sales, maybe even hinder it.
Not counting Greetings Cards, my average is about 50-60$ per sale.
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I can't figure out Redbubble. I've had stuff sitting there for years, racking up more total views than FAA, and never sold anything.
If RB would read IPTC keywords I'd upload more stuff. But it looks like they'll never get that together.
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bubble is starting to get better. but it's such a mess there. they tried to organize it but it was futile and hard to use. they tried giving you your own website, but it was junk. and only recently am i making sales there. i'm not sure how it happened. i just wish they would add new ideas to a list and not to the group where it could take years to do.
things like - new products? put my stuff on them. if others don't like that, i don't care, give me the option to do so. the blanket looks dumb, stretch my image to fit it. makes little sense that i need an image 12,000x12,000 or so pixels to make it fit. i'd like to stretch other things to make it fit on there. and there are other tweaks.
i don't know how they find my stuff. i've sold thing that i first uploaded 7 years ago. i forgot i made it.
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I think RB is really pushing the iPhone cases and t-shirts these days. I don't have any of those products enabled and I'm not pounding in keywords on sites that don't do IPTC. And I'm not selling my photos on things they don't fit. I have my pride.
I once spent a lot of time creating some beautifully sized images for coffee cups on Zazzle. They looked really cool. Guess how many I sold.
Neither RB nor FAA are going anywhere from my point of view. FAA makes a lot of money, but one guy keeps it all and isn't interested in taking the site anywhere, and he has it tuned just the way he wants it. RB seems to be a bigger company but I don't think it's doing well and seems to be running out of steam.
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I have sold products on Zazzle, CafePress, RedBubble and Imagekind. Meaning that I know how to use tags and be found and sell. And that proves the "theory" that no one should put all eggs in one basket.
Fine Art America is a different story.
Rotation is not a priority. It's a forbidden word there. It's the same people selling the same images with a few exceptions.
The newbies have to fight against the search engine that is tweaked in favor of some artists.
There is a thing that irritates me: I see Disney/Marvel, DC Comics and celebrity images sold there. That's not honest. I'm not blaming the company, anyway I think it should find a way to disable that kind of image.
Visits by bots inflate the view count. What's the point? Who needs to know how many bots visited the images?
I like the community there. They help you when you need!
All IMO.
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In one year of basic account I have sold only three original (BW silver gelatine Fine Art print, signed numbered and certified), then I have decide to invest 30$ and upload some color digital. I cannot sell low price because I'm represented by Saatchi art, too, and other "non web" places. The price could be a reason why I don't sell through FAA, but is the reason why I get money from Saatchi.
To be honest, when I open the account, and see the page of "What was sold today", I cry. Really. I can believe that they are selling so horrible paints and photographs (few). There are just a small percentage of artists, all the others are happy amateurs. I'm not artist and not amateur, but a reporter: niche of a niche of a niche....
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Recently Sean the owner spilled the beans on how the collections are done. If the office ladies see something they like, they make a collection. That's why you'll have weird things like "abstract concrete walls" or a certain artist's name as a collection. I wonder if they have any arts backgrounds or are they some one's niece who need a job?
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I can't say I'm against 'curation' of some sort. Part of the problem at FAA is the huge number of low-quality and derivative images. But that's not what their Collections are addressing. It's one thing to say - here is some work we think is good, or even to promote it in search, within reason. But what they do is create a Collection for a particular subject, and then push that out in front of all the other search results for related subjects, thus effectively killing that niche for anyone else, no matter how good their work is. And those Collections seem to be permanent, there's no rotation within them.
And after the Collections, the rest of the search results are often so bad that many people wouldn't even bother paging through them.
For example, go to FAA and enter "kitchen" in the search box. You get a couple of Kitchen Collections, which is not surprising. But after that, it's just chaos; many of the images on the first page (including the very first one) have nothing to do with 'kitchen' and don't even have that keyword. They're just works by featured sellers that FAA hopes you will buy, after you forget what you were looking for in the first place.
Obviously there's little motivation to improve the search results if what they really want to do is herd buyers into the featured artist Collections.
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Many of you complain about the search, but there are many ways to search, by recently added, recently sold, featured etc. I guess buyers might check collections, but if they do not find anything they really like they will search, and I guess many will check for latest uploads also. That is probably how I got my early sales. If you want to buy something for your wall, you will probably check around until you find something you really like, you will not buy the first best you see.
But I wonder about the difference between "featured" and" recently featured in groups". I think "featured" still means featured in groups by other members, not by FAA staff. FAA is very much a community, they let the members do the featuring, and members' actions and sales is what counts for the search if you search for "featured" etc. But still, buyers are always able to search for recent fresh uploads.
I have read there somewhere that the keywords are important when buyers search on the site, and the description is important for the internet search engines.
Some people on FAA seem to be very active with groups and contests and commenting etc on the site, I guess they would not if it would not increase sales. So FAA lets the members do the curating, and those who do seem to get more sales, at least I guess so. That curating is of course not professional, but sorts out the really bad images.
I guess most people on this forum are primarily photographers, and when you look at recent sales on FAA, the most part are illustrations, not photographs. I guess that is the main reason you do not get sales, there are so many good photographs on the site, but few buyers buying those.
I got new sales this week, once again paintings, not photographs. My best selling paintings at FAA have also sold OK as microstock.
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At one point I'd been selling pretty regularly - then got involved in a bunch of groups and lowered my prices because mine were a lot higher, and the sales slowed down, so I raised them again and figure that way I don't have to sell as much and don't have to worry that I'm underselling what I have in galleries.
Paintings and drawings seem to sell more than photos, but I think some people who do art shows get their own stuff printed via FAA which would increase their "sales" that show up. Photographers are not as likely to use FAA to print their own work - too costly, though early on I ordered some of my own cards to check the quality and they showed as "sales." (I like redbubble's cards better - cheaper and better quality - they don't show as sales if you buy your own). I'm just glad to see their sales increasing - I've had a couple there in the past month. I'd given up on them, got a payout after selling a poster, and then sold a sticker the next day (made 35 cents so it'll be a while before the next payout, LOL). I joined redbubble because I loved the iPhone and iPad cases and originally bought some as gifts, it was a bonus when strangers bought them. They do take time to design right but I like that better than the randomness of the FAA cases.
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FAA has become a complete sham. Just a subscription based site of hundreds of thousands of photographers buying memberships. There are just not enough print buyers to go around, and not all photographers get an equal chance on this platform.
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FAA has become a complete sham. Just a subscription based site of hundreds of thousands of photographers buying memberships. There are just not enough print buyers to go around, and not all photographers get an equal chance on this platform.
Very well stated.
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One of the moderators there said today that they're trying to cut down on "negative threads". :D
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FAA has become a complete sham. Just a subscription based site of hundreds of thousands of photographers buying memberships. There are just not enough print buyers to go around, and not all photographers get an equal chance on this platform.
They seem to give search preference to images, and maybe even people, that have repeat sales. That's the same thing every micro site does.
Not sure what you mean by equal chance. How are some people not getting a chance? I agree there probably aren't enough buyers to support the quantity of images and contributors.
I like FAA. It's not perfect but I think it's pretty amazing what one guy and a couple of support people have accomplished. Some other sites with dozens or hundreds of employees can't seem to keep a site running or add a feature without blowing something up.
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FAA was originally made for selling paintings. My paintings sell well there, my photographs do not. It all depends on what the buyers want to buy, and how big the competition is for different kind of images. Buyers may search in many different ways.
I do think people get an equal chance.
I made a try and paid the fee, and it really was worth it for me. I guess the fee somewhat prevents some bad images to ever get uploaded. And the fee gives artists a website for showing and promoting their work, I guess it is worth it for some artists, even if you may do it for free on Behance for example. Painters may also sell their original paintings via FAA.
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Just out of interest, does anyone know if paying the fee gives you any search advantage at all, or is the main benefit just being able to upload more files? I've had the free account for a while but have seen very few views - though that could be that I need to think more about the right type of photos/illustrations for FAA.
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Just out of interest, does anyone know if paying the fee gives you any search advantage at all, or is the main benefit just being able to upload more files? I've had the free account for a while but have seen very few views - though that could be that I need to think more about the right type of photos/illustrations for FAA.
hellllllll nooooo.
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I decided to try FAA in January 2013 and figured that it'd be worth $30 to see if it was a useful site for me. If there was nothing sold, then I wouldn't renew. I renewed in Jan 2014 because the first sale had covered the $30 cost and it made sense to continue.
I don't sell a ton there, but, with a few exceptions each sale beats a month's income at a low earner like CanStock so I figure it's worth it.
I'll never get rich there, but I've made enough this year to renew in Jan 2015 (assuming things don't implode between now and then in some way). I sold one license via pixels.com not long after it went live, but nothing since, so I'm not looking to that for anything, but again, thought it was worth a try (and I priced it so it was approximately equal to the license prices on my own site).
I don't promote my portfolio there in any way, and other than one purchase as a gift, I don't do print fulfillment though them. If they stop earning their fee, I'll stop paying, but so far so good.
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That makes a lot of sense Jo Ann, thanks. The $30 fee is quite reasonable so might be worth giving it a shot.
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As with the microstocks we have no way of knowing whether the search is 'fair'. When Ann Geddes joined, an "Ann Geddes Collection" immediately appeared, and I know that didn't happen when I signed up. :-)
It may be that I compete on an equal basis with this other guy named Getty, and that it's all based on previous sales, but he sure rose to the top of the searches in a hurry.
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The thing with an Anne Geddes collection is that it says a lot that she is exclusive with FAA and for mere mortals having a name brand helps to bring more buyers.
Every buyer who has a good experience buying the name brand stuff might come back and buy something from you.
The bigger issue is the reliability of the system which seems to have a lot of glitches and strange bugs from time to time.
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The thing with an Anne Geddes collection is that it says a lot that she is exclusive with FAA and for mere mortals having a name brand helps to bring more buyers.
Exclusive? Not unless she has exclusive images on FAA.
http://www.allposters.co.uk/-st/Anne-Geddes-Posters_c24598_.htm (http://www.allposters.co.uk/-st/Anne-Geddes-Posters_c24598_.htm)
http://www.art.co.uk/gallery/id--a1674/anne-geddes-prints.htm (http://www.art.co.uk/gallery/id--a1674/anne-geddes-prints.htm)
http://www.postershop.co.uk/Geddes-Anne-p.html (http://www.postershop.co.uk/Geddes-Anne-p.html)
http://www.nurseryposters.com/anne-geddes-baby-photos.htm (http://www.nurseryposters.com/anne-geddes-baby-photos.htm)
etc
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The actual wording of it is this: "Fine Art America is the official partner for Anne Geddes framed prints, posters and canvases. " Not exclusive.
Partnering with FAA marks a turning point for Geddes - the exclusive partnership extends both the reach of her work and her fan base. Effective immediately, Anne’s portfolio of iconic images can be purchased as canvas prints and framed prints by consumers all over the world via her FAA portfolio page. All prints ship within 3 – 4 business days and include a 30-day money-back guarantee.
http://www.ecommercebytes.com/pr/?id=793869 (http://www.ecommercebytes.com/pr/?id=793869)
But still a nice deal that most here won't ever get.
The thing with an Anne Geddes collection is that it says a lot that she is exclusive with FAA and for mere mortals having a name brand helps to bring more buyers.
Exclusive? Not unless she has exclusive images on FAA.
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My husband and I both offer our work on FAA.
I've been there about 1.5 years, offering nature photos, with no sales. No big surprise, actually. I renewed last summer but may not do so again. It will depend on how things go between now and next summer.
On the other hand, my husband set up his FAA "shop" last May (with my help) and has had several good sales this fall. The pace of his sales is accelerating, so something in the search algorithm must have kicked in for him. It will be a no-brainer for him to renew next spring, because in only half a year he's already made back the $30 investment many times over.
The difference, I believe, is that my husband is a very fine painter of iconic American scenes, offering unique works. He seems to be a really good fit for FAA.
If you'd like to see his FAA gallery, here it is:
http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/bernard-marks.html (http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/bernard-marks.html)
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"share, promote, and interact with customers directly." from the article. Geddes got the share part right and maybe FAA promotes her work. Not so sure about the "interact with customers directly" part unless that just means selling them something. The artist has no connection with the customers other then seeing the city they live in.
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"share, promote, and interact with customers directly." from the article. Geddes got the share part right and maybe FAA promotes her work. Not so sure about the "interact with customers directly" part unless that just means selling them something. The artist has no connection with the customers other then seeing the city they live in.
Right. FAA is a smoke screen.
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From the Anne Geddes site: "Fine Art America is the official partner for Anne Geddes framed prints, posters and canvases."
Anne Geddes drives traffic to FAA via her own web site. Artists and galleries that do that and have a large following seem to get some preferential treatment. They could just as easily offer the same products and more by linking their sites to Society 6 (or other PODS)and many do. Off course FAA is going to offer incentives to high selling artists that direct traffic to FAA. That does not mean she is FAA exclusive . It means her web site exclusively uses FAA for order fulfillment. Some are fickle and will link to FAA for a while and then flip a switch and link to another for better deals or more variety of product.
I would rather them use FAA and build the brand recognition.
http://www.annegeddes.com/prints-and-posters/ (http://www.annegeddes.com/prints-and-posters/)
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Someone posted on the FAA forum today, asking about the 'collections' and why there was no way to submit photos for consideration, etc. An admin came in and issued this proclamation: "The site's owner is aware of the various suggestions about the collections. He will implement any changes he deems good for his business". Then he closed the thread.
Wow.
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Someone posted on the FAA forum today, asking about the 'collections' and why there was no way to submit photos for consideration, etc. An admin came in and issued this proclamation: "The site's owner is aware of the various suggestions about the collections. He will implement any changes he deems good for his business". Then he closed the thread.
Wow.
Yup, it's his ball and he makes up the rules.
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Someone posted on the FAA forum today, asking about the 'collections' and why there was no way to submit photos for consideration, etc. An admin came in and issued this proclamation: "The site's owner is aware of the various suggestions about the collections. He will implement any changes he deems good for his business". Then he closed the thread.
Wow.
Yeah, in the past few weeks I've been checking out their forum I've noticed the FAA admins can be a bit abrupt. But I've also noticed they seem to be addressing the same topics over and over again from a lot of the same people. The people who don't sell anything are always looking for advice and a magic bullet but don't want to hear they're doing something wrong. They have an art degree, win ribbons at fairs, and have been an artist for a long time so they know they're not the problem. But they don't sell anything online. Or maybe they sell .50 cent refrigerator magnets at Zazzle and that means they should be able to sell $500 canvas wraps at FAA. "If I just got some work in the collections that would fix the problem". Maybe. Probably not.
FAA's magic formula is pretty simple and it's not much different from stock. Sell stuff, get benefits. That's it. Produce sellable work with good technical quality and good content. Work that sells gets a boost in the search and gets included in other stuff like collections, Amazon, etc. And artists who consistently sell probably get an overall boost in benefits. Stuff that doesn't sell gets pushed down in search. Artists who take blurry, noisy, pictures of telephone poles that have SEO titles like Wowzer#6 and no keywords will probably never sell anything but will think FAA is the problem and create posts like "What am I doing wrong"?
So they're not overly diplomatic but I'm not sure I can blame them.
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I dont understand that reasoning. In my first 6 months I sold nothing, then my sales started to pick up, and I was dong well at 300 USD/month, until end of last year my sales started to decline. According to the theory, I should have gone up in the search because I was selling, yet I got less and less sales.
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I dont understand that reasoning. In my first 6 months I sold nothing, then my sales started to pick up, and I was dong well at 300 USD/month, until end of last year my sales started to decline. According to the theory, I should have gone up in the search because I was selling, yet I got less and less sales.
Same thing for me. I submitted 10 of my better images to try it out. First several months no sales. Then I got one sale. And another one a couple months later. It paid for itself so I upgraded and got the $30 account. I submitted a few hundred images and also changed my stock to be more artsy. It took a while but things slowly picked up and I now have ab out 1,300 images with good regular sales. I did notice that when I stop submitting regularly sales seem to slip after a month or two. So maybe that's what happened in your situation (?).
Like any other agency type of business, they're not perfect and have their quirks. But they seem to have potential.
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Interesting point, I was uploading more regularly before than this year. Maybe that is an explanation. I have a backlog of a couple of hundred. I will see to it that I get these online and see if sales increase again.
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I dont understand that reasoning. In my first 6 months I sold nothing, then my sales started to pick up, and I was dong well at 300 USD/month, until end of last year my sales started to decline. According to the theory, I should have gone up in the search because I was selling, yet I got less and less sales.
Same here. I guess this is my frustration with them. I did roughly $500 in a few months now nothing in 12 plus months. Really doesn't matter I guess since I am going to let my subscription expire and not renew....but, I would much rather stay if I could make some doe like I used to.
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Yes, newbies are always asking why their sunsets haven't sold but lately there are a lot of people complaining bitterly about the search. The first time you actually try some searches and study the results, it's a shock to realize you're never even going to be seen, even if you have a perfect keyword match. Its really frustrating to see images at the top of the search that don't even have those keywords.
The admins have been getting increasingly rude in dismissing those complaints and shutting down negative threads.
Like some of you, my sales have been declining.
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Yes, newbies are always asking why their sunsets haven't sold but lately there are a lot of people complaining bitterly about the search. The first time you actually try some searches and study the results, it's a shock to realize you're never even going to be seen, even if you have a perfect keyword match. Its really frustrating to see images at the top of the search that don't even have those keywords.
The admins have been getting increasingly rude in dismissing those complaints and shutting down negative threads.
Like some of you, my sales have been declining.
I don't think it's much different than stock. If you shoot stuff where the search shows 1,000,000 results you probably won't be seen. Neither would I. If you have subjects where the search shows 100 results then you have a better chance of getting some sales and boosting yourself. More and more with any of these stock or art sites it's critical to have a strategy than just spray and pray.
If their search is wacky it's their game. The only thing you can do is figure out how to make the wackiness work for you.
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I have done their keyword promotion, only to find out I could see my own images on the 3rd line in the search when logged in. As soon as I logged out, that whole thing didnt work at all. Carrots, stick and all that.
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I don't think it's much different than stock.
PW, go there right now and search on 'kitchen'. The 1st and 3rd images are paintings of trees, they don't have 'kitchen' in their keywords, titles or descriptions. They're just works from a top seller. No microstock would do this.
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I don't think it's much different than stock.
PW, go there right now and search on 'kitchen'. The 1st and 3rd images are paintings of trees, they don't have 'kitchen' in their keywords, titles or descriptions. They're just works from a top seller. No microstock would do this.
They do have kitchen in the tags. Click on 'Show All'.
I made some tests with the search, I don't think its whacky, results are good so far, I was able to find everything I was looking for (and sometimes - or all of the time :) more, but that's more to do with the keywords used).
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I don't think it's much different than stock.
PW, go there right now and search on 'kitchen'. The 1st and 3rd images are paintings of trees, they don't have 'kitchen' in their keywords, titles or descriptions. They're just works from a top seller. No microstock would do this.
They do have kitchen in the tags. Click on 'Show All'.
I made some tests with the search, I don't think its whacky, results are good so far, I was able to find everything I was looking for (and sometimes - or all of the time :) more, but that's more to do with the keywords used).
I see what you mean. And that painting also has tags of 'living room', 'vibrant', 'joy', 'spain', 'california', 'garden', 'field', 'vibrant', 'tranquil', and a lot more. Not seeing much real connection to 'kitchen', but they forgot 'Santa Claus' so that leaves an opening.
Is that spam, or do people really search on 'joy' and 'painting'? Should I be adding 'living room' to everything I have up there?
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The difference, I believe, is that my husband is a very fine painter of iconic American scenes, offering unique works. He seems to be a really good fit for FAA.
If you'd like to see his FAA gallery, here it is:
[url]http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/bernard-marks.html[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/bernard-marks.html[/url])
Your husband has done lots of good paintings, not surprised he sells well at FAA!
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They do have kitchen in the tags. Click on 'Show All'.
I made some tests with the search, I don't think its whacky, results are good so far, I was able to find everything I was looking for (and sometimes - or all of the time :) more, but that's more to do with the keywords used).
I see what you mean. And that painting also has tags of 'living room', 'vibrant', 'joy', 'spain', 'california', 'garden', 'field', 'vibrant', 'tranquil', and a lot more. Not seeing much real connection to 'kitchen', but they forgot 'Santa Claus' so that leaves an opening.
Is that spam, or do people really search on 'joy' and 'painting'? Should I be adding 'living room' to everything I have up there?
I looked at one of mine, and it has > 500 tags, about 95% of which I didn't add. But not 'kitchen' or 'living room'.
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Yes, newbies are always asking why their sunsets haven't sold but lately there are a lot of people complaining bitterly about the search. The first time you actually try some searches and study the results, it's a shock to realize you're never even going to be seen, even if you have a perfect keyword match. Its really frustrating to see images at the top of the search that don't even have those keywords.
The admins have been getting increasingly rude in dismissing those complaints and shutting down negative threads.
Like some of you, my sales have been declining.
I don't think it's much different than stock. If you shoot stuff where the search shows 1,000,000 results you probably won't be seen. Neither would I. If you have subjects where the search shows 100 results then you have a better chance of getting some sales and boosting yourself. More and more with any of these stock or art sites it's critical to have a strategy than just spray and pray.
If their search is wacky it's their game. The only thing you can do is figure out how to make the wackiness work for you.
Their search engine at FAA does have some serious flaws. If you type the keyword search "Glacier National Park" you will get any images containing the keywords "Glacier", "National" and "Park". The search will contain images from Glacier National Park but many others that are totally unrelated. Their keyword search needs some ability to narrow the result from a previous search. Istockphoto does a pretty good design for keyword narrowing but even theirs often doesn't work.
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That is because sales by search results are not their priorities. Kind of a proof - the popup which comes randomly and only after user started his search, stopping the process. Popup forces or to search for close button or abandon your search and look at their collections/categories. On mobile devices popup closes entire screen and it is very difficult to close it. Last time i use my site at photodeck to show the portfolio. One of clients told that he has the same impression and he does not like when website dictates what to do. Same situation at Zazzle with popups and failing searches.
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Yes, newbies are always asking why their sunsets haven't sold but lately there are a lot of people complaining bitterly about the search. The first time you actually try some searches and study the results, it's a shock to realize you're never even going to be seen, even if you have a perfect keyword match. Its really frustrating to see images at the top of the search that don't even have those keywords.
The admins have been getting increasingly rude in dismissing those complaints and shutting down negative threads.
Like some of you, my sales have been declining.
I don't think it's much different than stock. If you shoot stuff where the search shows 1,000,000 results you probably won't be seen. Neither would I. If you have subjects where the search shows 100 results then you have a better chance of getting some sales and boosting yourself. More and more with any of these stock or art sites it's critical to have a strategy than just spray and pray.
If their search is wacky it's their game. The only thing you can do is figure out how to make the wackiness work for you.
Their search engine at FAA does have some serious flaws. If you type the keyword search "Glacier National Park" you will get any images containing the keywords "Glacier", "National" and "Park". The search will contain images from Glacier National Park but many others that are totally unrelated. Their keyword search needs some ability to narrow the result from a previous search. Istockphoto does a pretty good design for keyword narrowing but even theirs often doesn't work.
When I search "abstract textile" I do not get all abstracts, only those that also have the keyword textile. When I search "Glacier National Park" I get 5073 hits, and the three keywords Glacier National Park without quotating marks gives 9073 hits.
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I think they really want to make keyword search obsolete over time, and direct buyers to their 'collections' and/or featured artists.
With no inspection of uploads, they're open to keyword spamming - they only act if it's reported by someone. And many of their contributors don't do a good job of keywording anyway. So they've been creating their own collections of works by proven sellers, tying them to keywords and pushing them to the front of the searches. I think that's their long-term plan - to have a 'collection' for every common search, and show that first. And following the collection, show works by proven sellers even if the keyword match isn't very good.
The have millions of amateur photos of sunsets and squirrels, and lots of low-quality, repetitious and legally questionable stuff, no inspection and virtually no staff. They can't possibly deliver a good keyword search today, and could probably greatly increase their profits by completely bypassing it. Of course they'll never remove it entirely because it generates sales of 'niche' subjects, landmarks, etc. And, it draws in thousands of contributors paying $30 a year to be on page 1,000 of the search. :-). But I expect them to continue building out the 'collections' as a superhighway to the top sellers.
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One of clients told that he has the same impression and he does not like when website dictates what to do. Same situation at Zazzle with popups and failing searches.
Suggest to your client that s/he installs AdBlockPro or similar.
I had no idea what 'collections' people were talking about here, but now I see that I must have the 'collections' pop-up blocked.
If I ever found that sort of thing on a selling site, I wouldn't visit it again.
FWIW, I had a little Christmas flurry at the end of Nov and beginning of Dec, 1 card, 2 phone cases and 2 prints, so I guess I'll pony up for another year (so long as they're not refunded, I'm still within the 30 days) when my renewal comes up.
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FAA do not have a lot of staff, and therefore you earn much more as a contributor. People have found my art by the search, and I am not famous and have not made any promotion except to my quite few Facebook friends. I have earned more on FAA than on Shutterstock this year, it is really worth the 30 dollars for me.
I think the collections are for people who do not know what they are looking for. Those who want a certain kind of picture searches for it. People who want to buy art but do not really know what they want, have good use for collections. It is not like microstock when the buyer wants a certain kind of picture. Buying art is like buing clothes. You might look for something new in general, or you might have a certain picture in your head of what you want to buy. Nothing wrong with collections on a site like FAA, but of course it is better if it is professionally curated.
I do not think people that do not sell anything will continue to pay for a premium site. Think of how it would be if it was free to upload as much as you want, then you really would see a lot of crap there, much more.
Searched again for Glacier National Park without quotation marks. 236 hits for paintings, 8479 hits for photographs. The two top photographs in that search are said to be from the Glacier National Park. Maybe paintings have a priority in the search, because they sell more? Or because the site originally was made for painters?
As I have written before, FAA is mainly suitable if you sell paintings. It works well for paintings, but if you want to sell Fine Art photography I guess a curated site would be better, because there are so many more photographs. If you only sell photographs, FAA might not be for you, unless you have really stunning stuff or do promote yourself.
What I dislike most with FAA is that there are so much legally questionable stuff there.
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Collections themselves are not a bad thing. The bad is that the site tries to push visitor to use them even he started already with search. Pop-up comes after you typed key words in search field. As i mentioned, it is very difficult to close this pop-up on mobile devices. Not pleasant on laptop/desktop too because it is very big.
ShadySue thank you for the advise i will suggest this in suitable situations. Greetings with sales and coming celebrations!
About search enhancements - this is effective only with curation of submitted art, and curations is not a priority there too.
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I'd be happy to be on a curated site. But I actually don't know of any that really make sense. Forget Crated - who knows what's up with that one, you might as well be dealing with North Korea. What I'd like to find is a site that sells photos, and accepts only quality work BUT doesn't enforce their own ideas of 'art' or maybe I should say 'artsiness'.
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Collections themselves are not a bad thing. The bad is that the site tries to push visitor to use them even he started already with search. Pop-up comes after you typed key words in search field. As i mentioned, it is very difficult to close this pop-up on mobile devices. Not pleasant on laptop/desktop too because it is very big.
ShadySue thank you for the advise i will suggest this in suitable situations. Greetings with sales and coming celebrations!
About search enhancements - this is effective only with curation of submitted art, and curations is not a priority there too.
I have blocked pop-ups on my computer, so I do not see them there. Tried on my Iphone, and there it was. Easily removed by tapping on it, or tapping on the "close window " box. Very irritating though, but seen at so many sites today, especially if they want you to sign in or sign up. I am not that sure FAA wants to force anyone to use collections, I just think it is bad programming, maybe a bug. They do not have a huge team taking care of such things...FAA is not working well on the phone, many other sites are not either. Canva doesn't work there at all yet. But I would not by prints via my phone, If you buy art you want to see it in larger versions.
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Canva is a site where you design your own work using our images. Not sure if that concept would work on a mobile phone ever. People dont design stuff on their mobile phone, they use big ass monitors for that.
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I'd be happy to be on a curated site. But I actually don't know of any that really make sense. Forget Crated - who knows what's up with that one, you might as well be dealing with North Korea. What I'd like to find is a site that sells photos, and accepts only quality work BUT doesn't enforce their own ideas of 'art' or maybe I should say 'artsiness'.
The problem with curation of art is that it has a lot to do with taste. I have got one painting curated at Crated, and I also had a sale on that one, my only sale there so far. Maybe because that buyer mainly looked at the curated collection. That painting is not selling well at other places. The curation at Crated are done at two levels, I think the first curation is to look at the overall quality level, when you get accepted to the site. I think the second curation has a lot to do with the owner's taste.
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Canva is a site where you design your own work using our images. Not sure if that concept would work on a mobile phone ever. People dont design stuff on their mobile phone, they use big ass monitors for that.
True. Canva has an Ipad app for buyers now, but it would be hard on a phone. But I do not think anyone buys images via a phone, you want to see them on larger monitors. That is applicable to all sites, not only Canva.
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I am not a fan of mobile interfaces at all. But why to loose a client which wants to do an offhand gift for somebody? Yes there are situations when client will be satisfied by mobile size presentation accomodated with explanations about quality of image, even some postprocessing stories.
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I am not a fan of mobile interfaces at all. But why to loose a client which wants to do an offhand gift for somebody? Yes there are situations when client will be satisfied by mobile size presentation accomodated with explanations about quality of image, even some postprocessing stories.
The answer to many questions about FAA is: "it's just one guy". One person runs the business and does all the code. Until that changes, FAA is going to keep falling behind in terms of presentation.
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Falling behind who?
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Falling behind who?
Take a look at Crated.com on your phone.
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I am not a fan of mobile interfaces at all. But why to loose a client which wants to do an offhand gift for somebody? Yes there are situations when client will be satisfied by mobile size presentation accomodated with explanations about quality of image, even some postprocessing stories.
The answer to many questions about FAA is: "it's just one guy". One person runs the business and does all the code. Until that changes, FAA is going to keep falling behind in terms of presentation.
I think "it's just one guy" also is the answer to why the commission is so high at FAA. When you get sales there, it is not a question of how many cents you get, it is a question on how many dozens of dollars. FAA is not perfect, but they do sell.
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Has anyone sold anything on Crated?
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Has anyone sold anything on Crated?
No, unfortunately. I ended up deleting my images.
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Has anyone sold anything on Crated?
I haven't sold anything either and I have a few hundred of my best sellers there. But I also jacked up my prices because by default they have them set to compete with the cheap places like Art.com and Getty's Photos.com. There they sell large canvas for $200. Selling directly I can't even buy a high quality canvas from a print lab for that low of a price. And I'm not interested in making $10 or $20 on $200 low sales volume prints.
So they're just competing on low price. And from what I've found decreasing my print prices as a whole has no positive affect on sales volume.
So not sure what the deal is with Crated. Maybe no buyers. Or their buyers aren't looking for my type of work.
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Has anyone sold anything on Crated?
Sold one print of one painting.
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Two sales so far.
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I had a flurry of sales on FAA the past couple of months - everything from a large acrylic print to cards and pillows. Also had a nice sale on Crated - have work featured in their collections and curated, but the image I sold was not.
Even my first year when I just had a few sales on FAA, my first sale paid the $30 yearly fee for several years, so I'll continue renewing. I have nearly 60 of my photos available via Amazon from FAA - not necessarily what I'd choose as the best of my work, but it's another outlet. I wish FAA's search worked as well as shutterstock's but the expectation on FAA is that we do the marketing of our own work, unlike the stock sites that do it for us and take the lion's share of the profits.
Most important, FAA and Crated both give the photographer/painter a fair share of the proceeds so I'm happy to support them.
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The difference, I believe, is that my husband is a very fine painter of iconic American scenes, offering unique works. He seems to be a really good fit for FAA.
If you'd like to see his FAA gallery, here it is:
[url]http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/bernard-marks.html[/url] ([url]http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/bernard-marks.html[/url])
Your husband has done lots of good paintings, not surprised he sells well at FAA!
I just spotted your comment, Painter. Thank you for the compliment on Bernie's work. I'll pass it on. :D