Fine Art America Tips For Sales

Hi Karen, that's great. You may like to share on Chance's open thread just below yours :-)

https://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=5335233

Edit... Actually I just made his thread a sticky

Many have found this list helpful:
Checklist for Success in Print Sales

Marketing 101 by Mike Savad
Why Your Work May Not Be Selling - By Mike Savad
Evaluating Your Own Work To Sell – By Mike Savad
How To Critique And Edit Your Own Work For Better Sales
The importance of Descriptions and Keywords by Mike Savad

----Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

Promoting????
I try to think of it as "advertising" my images, because in all reality, that is exactly what you need to do to create the possibility of a sale.
Fine Art America is my retail store where I sell my merchandise. Therefor, the first thing I have to do is to get visitors to come into my store.
I not only "advertise" my images, but I advertise the store, the main thing is to get them in the door so there is a possibility to find your product.
I do this thru social media such as face book, google etc...
Of course like anything else, you must have a product worth selling, so time must be spent on quality of work, title (so important), and descriptions and keywords to lead the masses to your product...

Karen Wiles
http://karen-wiles.pixels.com

Hello Karen. Good to see you again. Yes, over the years the artists who make the sales I find have the one thing in common, and that is to get people to see your stuff, and it doesn't matter how pretty the site is (within reason) and you don't need a custom domain name and all that.

By the way, I really like your new avatar .. and always like to see the power of the color red in a photograph.

Thanks Karen for your great tips on sales.

I went and looked at your images and descriptions and one thing struck me right away. I've always thought that it was better to have a short succinct description.

However, I see that you favor longer more detailed descriptions that tend to "paint a picture" in words to go along with the image itself.

Although it obviously takes longer and much more ruminating to do that, one can't argue with your success and I will begin to follow your example.

Thank you again.

Stay safe. Stay healthy. Stay home.

Bill Tomsa

https://bill-tomsa.pixels.com

Thank you so much Abbie, Bradford, Mike, Frank and Bill!! All these are great responses and very helpful!
A lot of artists express their inability to describe their art when trying to submit their descriptions and keywords. You may try to study your image for a few moments, now describe what you see to someone who cannot see the image at all. Include the colors, but more importantly, how the image makes you feel inside, such as emotions and then put those words together in your keywords and descriptions....

http://karen-wiles.pixels.com

Beautiful photographs!

Karen this should all probably be put into chances post...

The secret is that there is no secret to this. Long descriptions are necessary to success and while some may get sales in spite of having no description or maybe by flooding in the site with 4,000 images that are really 800 images with 5 different color variations.
(I will maybe do a B&W variation but my work doesn't go beyond that)

Writing a backstop for each image will balance the odds by giving Google something to chew on.

I also don't mean telling people why this is made for their walls. You have to inspire them to read the paragraphs about the day or night 🌙 that you took or created this image.
Help Google understand what this image is about. Write about the vibrant colors or the sultry texture of the sand on this beach...
Whatever it is, you need to tell the story.

If you made a great image it deserves a great story so people can fall in love with it. You 💘 it and you have to help Google and visitors to do the same.

Jeff "Foliage" Folger

basically a description should describe what's going on in this picture. why maybe you took it etc. it shouldn't say - this is a picture of a duck is saw. this is a shot of a chicken. this is a shot of a horse. it should go into depth, what kind of duck, why is it there etc. and if you can't think of a reason or a good description, the picture may also be boring.

it should never have copyright death threats, and as said, there should be no sales pitch what it can be used for. it shouldn't say i really hope you like it, or it shot it by accident, or be depreciated in any way. and ideally it shouldn't say anything about the watermark, because if you have to say it, its probably not worth keeping up there.


only upload your very best, things you would buy yourself, things that would make other people jealous. things that you would turn a head if you saw it in another store. if you go on vacation and shoot 1000 pictures, you don't upload a 1000 pictures. you upload the 20 best of that bunch. the image should be refined, and not just a shot you saw on a walk. i've seen so many pictures of historic name plates, the you are here signs, just total randomness. if you have a shot of an animal from the zoo - don't make it look like a zoo shot. do something about the background or foreground if zoo stuff shows.

and the keywords are super important people. you can just say PORTRAIT and expect to get traffic. or Animal or something like that. and likewise you can't add spam words or cut and paste even if its easier. it won't help anyone.

learn how to clone things out, look at the image from a distance and see where your eye gravitates towards, does it go to some strange sign? or something distracting, and it doesn't go to the main subject? clone out whatever is in the way. your work has to look polished if you want people to stay in your folder.

and lastly, always post your very best, because that is the image that will take people into your site and keep them there. if its a snap shot they will look and leave without even entering. every image you make should be your best, take an extra step to be the best it can be. don't ever post for volume, add it as you make it, and make it the best.


----Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

I love all of the good advice here!

Thank you so much Mike and Jeff for your input, all great advice!

Karen,thanks.

Mike, Jeff, Bill, and Karen,
I would love for each of you to read through some of my artwork DESCRIPTIONS and give me some constructive, concrete criticism. Are they useful, Google attracting, the right length, etc.I am making sales, but would like to increase them.
Thanks, everyone, for your tips.

https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/1-nina-silver

Hi Nina:
You might want to find another discussion area, probably offered within some FAA groups that deal with the critique areas and to get advice upon your individual images. I am not qualified to critique another individuals image and this particular discussion is simply to post tips for more sales versus critiques of actual artworks. I will say I love your description etc. on your "Tulips On Vintage."

Same as what Karen said, "I am not qualified to critique another individuals image."

Bill Tomsa

https://bill-tomsa.pixels.com

Meh.

Does including Facebook with your social networking help you here on FAA? If you dropped Facebook would it affect your sales here?

Kip,

I do not sell well.

There are some very good sales people here who swear by FB.

The management sees many sales coming from Google.

There is no one answer. If you see a clear shot at making sales, do it your way.

Dave Bridburg
Bridburg.com
Post Modern Gallery

my facebook friends, don't buy from me as far as i can tell. i think it has to do with me not interacting with anyone. if i talk to them, they see my posts, if i don't they don't. but i can't find their posts unless i look, its a pain. in the end i see posts that are days old and no one see's my new posts. it used to be that everyone saw every post then FB changed it. on the other hands put your work carefully in the right group and you may get sales from that. i've made quite a few sales using facebook groups. but finding them and making sure there isn't anything against spamming, that's the hard part. and not everyone knows your selling unless you tell them to click the image, but you don't want to be over the top either, or you may get kicked from it, rule or not.

google does look to see if your active on social media and counts it against you if your not. or that's what i read. basically you want to be everywhere you can fit yourself into.


----Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

Kip, most Ll my sales one through my followers on FB. One business page and one personal artist page. Between them I have @46,000 followers...

I have definitely had more sales by far from Google versus Facebook. I tend to agree with Mike on trying to promote on Facebook.
I sell about 2 sales for every 800 views on average...

http://karen-wiles.pixels.com

Thank you for the fine post.

I do not have the expertise to offer advice on marketing.

While I consider myself a competent photographer with enough skills and knowledge to produce some fine work, when it comes to the 'business end' of photography I 'STINK'.


I simply wanted to enter the thread so as to express my gratitude for those here that are willing to share their knowledge.

I will now sit back and attempt to learn.

Thanks,

https://walter-holland.pixels.com/

Karen, I would like to mention that how you describe in your original post using keywords and descriptions is another way of using your profile account like a blog. Especially if you reply to comments like it's an extension of your description, or 'blog post'.

Said another way, I used to have a separate blog as well as a Flickr and ipernity account. But then I read in a book about blogging that if you are a photographer you can use a photo site like a blog. If you think about it when you have a photo blog, you have to share a post - usually a picture and a short paragraph - to get it ranked on the internet. Yet here on FAA we do the same thing. So its just repetitive work to be sharing our content from another site, especially since Google works much different today than in blogging heyday.

This is what I see you doing, Karen, with your keywords, descriptions, and comments. Make sense to you?

awesome Karen, a great tip I did not know. A big thx!

I am wondering what sales. Everyone has different taste for art and design that is understandable. But if we were to create to sale, what is in demand and what people (collectors want). Any advice will be nice for my new projects.

Thanks muchly Karen for that Behind the Scenes tip to recapture your Keywords,.....I type with one finger,....slowly,....saved me much typing and recalling.

Hi DIPALI:
There are several groups which post monthly sales in their discussion areas, Grand Greeting Card Group, HOTEL LOBBY ARTWORKS GROUP, SOLD ON FAA, etc...
Also in the main discussion area on Fine Art America, Abbie has a post called "POST YOUR SALES HERE" and it is a splendid place to look at all the artists and artworks that are selling every single day on FINE ART AMERICA!!!

So glad to contribute Marty...Hope everyone else will contribute a tip here as well and keep this discussion thread going.
There are always new things to learn on Fine Art America!!!

http://karen-wiles.pixels.com

Thanks for the tip Karen!

Do you have your own direct Fine Art America URL link listed within your description?
I'm not positive about this particular tip, however it certainly can't hurt.
I always try to remember to list mine, usually right after the title of the image.
I would think this might encourage a potential buyer to click on the link if they are not quiet sure about the image and want to see more.
This would keep them viewing on my site versus losing them to another artist site.

http://karen-wiles.pixels.com

I try to put a link under every image on my blog so by providing good information that people are looking for, I'm bringing people to my blog and they will see all the images on my blog which leads them to my AW pages.
This page is not as pretty as I would like but all the images have a link in the description that will take them to the image on my AW
https://www.jeff-foliage.com/fall-foliage-photography/fall-gallery-vermont/

In some cases the images open into their own page but some of them will take them to the image on my AW. You always want to lead the customer to your AW and not pixels or FAA because there are too many opportunities to click to other artists on those pages and if you get them on your AW, it will keep them on your AW better...

Jeff
https://www.jeff-foliage.com

New to Fine Art America. Thank you for this discussion, many helpful tips.

What about those of us who get brain and writer's cramps and are just at a loss when it comes to trying to generate all the apparently needed flowery prose for our image Descriptions??

i find its easier for me to make a general outline of what i want to say. then later on, when i'm not doing creative stuff, add a description of some kind. i find i can't do both at the same time.

the description doesn't have to be flowery though, descriptive, historic, informative, all that is fine. often i find what other people said on wiki or some page and reword it. not everything has a funtime story that goes along with it.


----Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

In looking back over my sales, I see that they tend to be landmarks of some sort. Perhaps not famous ones but those known locally. The sales tend to come when I'm sleeping or out of town, so I should probably sleep and travel more often. :-) It has taken several years to build some interest in my work, and I usually take the time to post recent sales to certain groups that share my interests and caliber of work. I write detailed descriptions and really pay close attention to keywords. It's rare for me not to use every single possible keyword slot. I can't say that the shutdown deterred sales for me. One week I had three, and last week I sold a nice-size framed print. Sometimes I'll post to my Facebook fine-art page, but I no longer advertise. That proved time and again to be a total waste of time and money. Knowing that friends need encouragement and some beauty, I've been posting more to my regular Facebook page, and I've noticed that friends are more apt to praise my work. The most recent large framed print sale appears to have come from the reminder that my gallery is available for friends to enjoy. There's no magic formula, and if I could put more energy into it, I'd likely have more sales.

Tatiana said:
"One of the main things when it come to having our work seen is of course the results in the SE's (Search Engines). It has been mentioned here that we better insert our keywords and descriptions the right way in the first place. That's true, because once we post it, the image will stay there in the SE's listings forever. It takes a VERY long time for our images (keywords, etc.) to be indexed again..."


I was curious about this so did a little digging and found this 2016 article: https://www.seroundtable.com/google-image-indexing-21533.html

Pretty disappointing if it takes months at the least for images to be re-indexed by Google for updated descriptions and keywords.

Yes - descriptions & keywords should be done right the 1st time. However I suspect many contributors are always trying to make improvements to their Descriptions & Keywords in efforts to claw our way higher in external search engine results. Not sure how often FAA's internal search re-indexes but hopefully more often than every few months or more.

Some great tips here....

I get on avg three sales a month. Nothing to break the bank about but it is pretty consistent. At least is has been for the last 3-4 years.

I stick to twitter. I tried Facebook(i got too political to that wont work), I started on Instagram also and that didnt work, then someone here said Pinterest was the
way to go. That didnt work.

So, I went back to twitter. That works for me.

Point being:
Stick to one social media marketing tool. Get great at that. Dont spread yourself too thin.

Same with different POD websites. I started on 10-12 different ones. Spread myself too thin thinking more sites would mean more opportunity to make $$$.
Wrong! Stick to one or two if you want. Again, dont spread yourself too thin.

Dont spend your whole day marketing. Create art.Have fun.

Also, on Twitter, i use buffer and hipplay to automate my tweets. I havent touched it physically for weeks. I dont need too. its automated to tweet at specific times and refill that buffer que automatically.

Oh, one last thing i did was use Wikipedia. You can cut and paste and there is no Copyright infringement. I dont, but you can.. I reword their description of a specific location to make it my own.

Thanks Karen for starting this discussion thread. Very informative. Thank you to all who shared all this information. I learned many things, and I am always open to improving how I do things. Making time for it where I can.

https://janet-marie.pixels.com/

Thank you so much for all of the tips, suggestions, and for posting this discussion. I have so much to learn about promoting my own work. It seems that there is a world of help out there, I simply need to take advantage of it and be much more active.

Thank you everyone for the useful tip and suggestions. The breakdown of how key words and descriptions are used was veru insightful.

Can you suggest any keywords to sell reproductions of oil and watercolor paintings?

So far, I think the 29 face mask I have sold have come from my promoting them on Facebook and Instagram.... not from people already on FAA...

So how do I find keywords that get people to buy other things that are already on FAA?

"So far, I think the 29 face mask I have sold have come from my promoting them on Facebook and Instagram."

And that is what you should keep doing and not over worry about trying to find the "magic keywords". There are over 10,000,000 images here and unless you think you can come with with keywords that have not been used tens of thousands of time, you are not going to get found infront of the large sellers here.

The "key" is not keywords, it is getting your image seen OUTSIDE of FAA.

Do the best you can with keywords and descriptions but then let the search take itself and don't over worry it. Most sales are made by being found by Googly and they are found by Google most often by advertising outside of FAA, not FAA keywords.

" Not sure how often FAA's internal search re-indexes but hopefully more often than every few months or more."

Not sure if that is even what happens on FAA internal search, but I can tell you that the highest priority regardless how well you use keywords or description is always going to the go to the top sellers. So unless you are one of the top sellers, I would suggest you read the post just above this one and focus less on the internal search and more on advertising outside of FAA.

I agree with Floyd, trying to game the FAA search engine is a losing game. Sure, put in all the relevant keywords but don't sweat it too much, focus on promoting outside FAA.

@catherine - there are no specific words to sell oil paintings. you need to list what is in each scene. but you cannot spam it.


clayton neuse jogging walking biking hiking canoe kayak fish fishing kayaking watercolor hand-painted framed silver frame north carolina spiral notebook

adding words the products won't help you sell those things.

but listing things like - walking, biking, and all the other things you can do at a park, is spam. because people looking for fishing won't see anyone fishing in this. and joggers will look for joggers...

and leaving out words like - seaside, beach, sand, river and whatever else this is no one will find it because you didn't add those things.

as said there are no magical keywords, you can only list what you have and hope people can find it. but if your selling direct, then do that. i can never get people to buy direct, its a rare event. just keep to the script, list only the things we can see plus one point out. like if its a barn, you can list farmer. if its a beach you can say vacation or travel, or rest. but can't list all the other activities you can do at the beach.

if people like your work they will want to see the rest. and as long as its your best, people will buy it without seeing the words.


----Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

As pointed out marketing outside FAA is what's needed and just let FAA's internal search do whatever it does.

With the emphasis on marketing outside FAA the external non-FAA search engines are really important. I believe it's correct that external search engines (Google, DuckDuckGo, etc.) do not "see" or index keywords of an image. The internal FAA search probably does.

That being the case an image's keywords become important for FAA's internal search but ignored by Google, DDG, etc search when they index images.

An image's Description is what Google, DDG, etc search "see" and index.

With the uncertainly of future re-indexing by any of the search engines of either keywords or Descriptions it appears pretty unproductive to attempt to update/enhance them and we'd better get 'em right the 1st time.

Hi all, I'm new to FAA. I enjoyed reading all of your advice and found it very helpful. I will be adding more to my description area. Thank you. Stacy and Sandy Williams

I sell a lot, but not if you only count FAA. If you only count FAA, maybe it is dismal, although I fulfill some of my own orders from here, especially designs I'm running out of, or to fulfill a wholesale order in a hurry, so in that way, I'm doing fine here.

For me, selling is a combination of galleries, co-operative galleries, gift shops, art center shows, wholesale orders, book stores, a number of on-line venues, local holiday art shows, tourist spots, and a few art fairs too.

As for how: going to art shows, introducing myself and my work, a combination of a brochure for customers I have in some of the galleries I show in, some direct marketing, some marketing to co-op gallery buyers who ask about my work, twitter, blogging, on-line buyers I have had over the years and keep in touch ...

When Google Plus was going, I could swear I got so much more traffic to my shops. Facebook is not very productive unless I pay for the advertising, and even then, they are more fans than buyers.

Since Covid, things have changed. So many of the businesses where I have my work have decided to remain closed (a lot are tourist shops and there are no tourists this year). Some have opened up, but looking at my paychecks, I think it is only a tenth of the foot traffic they used to have. So I've been spending my time ramping up my FAA site.

One thing I have wanted to sell for several years now is home decor. FAA seemed like the perfect place to start that, especially when the realization hit that my life wasn't going to be the same with this coronavirus making the rounds. I hope to have many buyers for that, and have had some, but now is the time for making the art and worrying about the selling later. I do advertise a little, and I think I got a sale from one of the advertisements, but for the most part, it's my turn to make some things!

Thank you Mike Savad. That was great advice you gave to Catherine and all so true!!!

Karen Wiles

http://karen-wiles.pixels.com