what do you think about fineartamerica.com?

[Greg Long]

Originally Posted by bcr8tive

Aside from being a central forum where shoppers can shop for art in one place, the service doesn't provide anything - from what I can see - that I cannot do for myself - except of course, to make an annual rate of the $30 or whatever it is - per member. Eager artists will certainly help them make some very good money, they don't even have to be concerned with sales - just hopeful members.... Yep, been there - did that and not doing it again. =/

Artist's with 50+ images would have to lay out a lot more than the $30 subscription fee to set up the images for printing, or have them printed in advance. POD sites take the high up-front costs out of reproduction sales. While this area doesn't realy interest me, and I'm an advocate of promoting your own domain name rather than a page at a group site for original work, $30 a year is very little above the cost of running and hosting your own website. I feel that possibly where your problem with these sites is that you fail to realise you also need to promote the works yourself elsewhere, and help drive traffic to your own work.

[Horsa]

FAA RedBubble, etc do also offer a free level of membership. FAA has over 100,000 member artists and over two million images. What this means is that simply posting your work and hoping for sales is not going to pay off.

Like any sales venue you have to make sure your potential customers see *your* work. You still need to do the marketing and publicity. FAA is really just an order fulfillment service.

[bcr8tive]

Originally Posted by Greg Long

Artist's with 50+ images would have to lay out a lot more than the $30 subscription fee to set up the images for printing, or have them printed in advance. POD sites take the high up-front costs out of reproduction sales. While this area doesn't realy interest me, and I'm an advocate of promoting your own domain name rather than a page at a group site for original work, $30 a year is very little above the cost of running and hosting your own website. I feel that possibly where your problem with these sites is that you fail to realise you also need to promote the works yourself elsewhere, and help drive traffic to your own work.

The cost of printing must come out of the ROI on the print, averaged out of course. Rationalizing taking these kinds of risks because you can't afford to invest in yourself is a poor excuse for ignoring that you can be taken for a ride .. but hey, once bitten, twice shy. Some people have to get bitten and can't take helpful, experienced advice until they do - so, it is what it is....

Also, you're assuming that I don't or haven't promoted my work Gregg and trying to analyze a problem that I don't have. Read my previous posts. I posted in response to a question, coming from a place of my own personal experience, which is long. Take it for what it's worth and make your own decisions.

bcr8tive~

[captcook]

Originally Posted by CSForest

I'm trying out FAA but so far not happy. Every link I click on their site is infuriatingly slow. I have been absolutely unable to upload any hi res images for prints. I only seem to be able to upload small images, like 500 pixels or less. Hi res images suitable for print just won't complete the upload. They are the proper jpg format and well below the 25mb size limit at about 3.5mb. The upload progress bar completes but then just sits there forever. I never get the edit page. I've waited up to 20 minutes. I go to my gallery and the image is not there. I've tried different images and all failed to up except super small ones I can't use for prints. Anyone else have this trouble and know what's wrong?

Sounds very much like a connection problem. I suggest you have your upload/download speeds tested. Contact your service provider and they should be able to walk you through the process. These times can vary at different times of the day, depending on traffic in your area and depending on the type of service you are using (DSL, wireless, cable, phone, etc).

[jbart]

I joined FAA about three weeks ago and am impressed with the ease of uploading images and navigation of the website. I needed a good way of selling internationally and FAA does that. I paid the extra 30 to upload more images than the free 25 program and glad I did. I haven't had a sale yet, but I have started using some of their features to promote my work and linked to my own sites. Time will tell. The competition is stiff, especially since there is so many fine artists and photographers on the site.

[RCharleston]

I've had the paid membership with FAA for a few months now, have put in a moderate amount of self promotion, and my impressions are that it's worthwhile as a sort of online portfolio to aid sales of work in the face-to-face world.....very nice layout/user interface and the individual website feature/blog/stats all make for an interest holding experience. That being said, FAA is the home decorator's version of DeviantArt.com, IMO.....full to the bursting point with trend analysists photoshopping subjects with time-proven-mass-appeal to this week's latest "hot sales" color/tone template. Artwork created without the "decorators' appeal" factor, first and foremost, is probably going to have approximately lightning strike odds of selling. FAA'ers that are merely "good" at crowd-pleasing-images-plus-promotion-promotion-promotion seem to rake in enough profit, annually, to chip in on an average beer run a couple of times a year. There seems to actually be a half-handful of true prodigies on the site that pull in enough to snag the occasional '94 Honda Civic with the plaid left rear quarter panel. All these observations are taken from lurking about the FAA discussion forum since early this spring and viewing the "prints sold" upon logging in to FAA most days and I'm not exactly the most optimistic dude to come hitchhiking down the turnpike so YMMV. Bottom line: Nice, attractive site worth the $30/yr strictly as an online gallery of one's work....Probably good self-preservation psychology to view any sales made there as unexpected pleasant bonuses...

[EyeSpy]

Interesting FAA analysis, RCharleston! I also lurked in the fourm for several months before 'going live' at FAA, last summer. That seems to be the best way of getting a real feel for a site, before deciding whether to invest time and/or money on them.

My own analysis -- FAA has as many problems and shortcomings as any POD site I've ever tried, and I'll never make a living selling only on FAA.

But, like my other POD sites, FAA has become a productive, viable income stream which contributes to my bottom line. My first FAA print sale covered my membership fee for several years to come, and sales have continued, since then.

I see all online sites as big, blank walls where I can hang my work -- sometimes for free, sometimes for a modest fee. Just hanging my art on those walls increases the potential for sales. If I also make a reasonable attempt to deliberately direct people to those walls (which I do) my chances of success increase.

I've always used the 'eggs in multiple baskets' method of showing and selling my art. FAA is quickly becoming one of the more productive 'baskets' in my network.

[shadow-painter]

Hi All!
was reading through the whole thread.... and am stunned about some of your successes, cuz am at FFA since Feb 2012 and haven't sold a thing yet, all in all nothing online no matter where (included a few American and German art sites), though I've got over 200 true Facebook fans by now, all I hear: "oh I love it, and if I would be rich I would buy it" ... sold some tiny inexpensive pieces this spring locally thanks to a tiny gift shop, and 5 commissions in 2 yrs .. I blamed non-interest in my work, not-good-nuff-work, too many artists with same subject deal, and whatever all... still can't really figure it out, maybe cuz it is a free account? I upload all the ones which I think are good enough to be called art. Maybe am even to impatient, who knows... I started to participate in contests at FFA, if it fits my subjects, won 1 thanks to FB fans, not FFA, participation is low everywhere I've noticed... clicks count, right?!

Will try the sponsor a page suggestions by Lloyd (Immeriam) and maybe I should get a paid account, too.
My problem seems too.. am not a full time artist, I'm investing a lot of time in my business, the lil free time I got goes into painting.. so, what time I got left for marketing? not much.. and what or how would a self promo look like, no matter where? everyone talks about, but no real hints and tips to be found (yet) still gotta read a lot of threads in the marketing forum.... I do wonder how others manage, truly!
If you like to find me on FFA, that's the user name: IMC Brown
and any suggestions to cheer up my lil sad soul would be awesome, actually am getting quite frustrated again, not long ago I was close to just paint for myself again and shut down everything "outside" for crying out loud

[shadow-painter]

little update: I just followed the instructions by FFA to sponsor a page:
"You can sponsor as many pages as you like. There are millions to choose from. To get started, just do a search for your most important keywords, and when the search results appear, click on the link above the third row of images."

the link behind the word "search" doesn't even work... leads to a page called "Photos > Brooklyn Bridge", nothing to see about keywords nor clicking on a link above, as the link isn't available either ... skip this for now, until they have fixed it...

[onefinepint]

This week I needed some blank note cards and figured it would be a good idea to use my own artwork on the front. I signed up, uploaded a few paintings, and ordered the note cards. I can see there will be a big learning curve and plan to take my time. The biggest challenge for me will be getting good photos of my paintings. A few I uploaded were not good--shiny spots and glare--so I deleted them and will try again. Also, I used some photos that had been taken with an older camera. The size of the .jpg was so small that only a couple of small size prints were available. I left three photos on my page, but will take new photos. I will start marketing it when I've got better photos and more of them. Looks like a pretty good site to me. Once I build up some inventory and learn my way around, I might even go for the $30.00 upgrade. I appreciate reading about everyone's experience.

[surreal]

Originally Posted by onefinepint

This week I needed some blank note cards and figured it would be a good idea to use my own artwork on the front. I signed up, uploaded a few paintings, and ordered the note cards. I can see there will be a big learning curve and plan to take my time. The biggest challenge for me will be getting good photos of my paintings. A few I uploaded were not good--shiny spots and glare--so I deleted them and will try again. Also, I used some photos that had been taken with an older camera. The size of the .jpg was so small that only a couple of small size prints were available. I left three photos on my page, but will take new photos. I will start marketing it when I've got better photos and more of them. Looks like a pretty good site to me. Once I build up some inventory and learn my way around, I might even go for the $30.00 upgrade. I appreciate reading about everyone's experience.

Good luck to you!

[Diane Cutter]

I've used this site for notecards, too. Last year's Christmas cards came from my art there as well as my plan for this year's. Since you can have messages printed inside, it can make it very professional. I like it better than getting a run of postcards, usually more than I need.

Diane

[Mechey]

I have been on FFA for 2 years. Never had a sale, but the personal web site is worth the $30 fee. I have business cards with that web address on it, and it is very useful to me to order my own flat canvas prints that I myself put on stretcher bars and sale at my shows. It does have benefits for the $30 yearly fee. Their printing ability is awesome, and their work is guaranteed.

[ladeedah]

I know this is an old thread, but I'll put in my comment anyway. I have been on FAA for about six months and have definitely sold enough to pay for the $30 annual fee, plus some. Before the Holidays, I sold several a week on there. It's only spending money, of course, because the mark-ups have to be fairly low, I would think, to sell anything at all.

It kind of gives me the creeps being there, but I create and sell prints elsewhere myself, so I guess it's no different. Someday, I hope to sell only original paintings, so at that time I will drop FAA - and sell only originals on my Etsy site as well.

[CSForest]

I made many times my annual fee just over the past holiday season so it's been well worth it for me. But I do link to my FAA pages from my own site, blog, and Facebook. I'm sure sales would have been much lower if I'd relied on people just finding my art randomly through FAA. Just like any of these sites you have to make a little effort yourself to let people know about it.