Comments on: Marketing: A Review of Fine Art America

By: Ian Duncan MacDonald

Ian Duncan MacDonald — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 22:49:02 +0000

So you think that because the Better Business symbol appears in an advertisement that you won’t get ripped off? I always remember a local crook who was running the local Better Business Bureau franchise and ripping people off. I think he got caught and went to jail. The BBB have no money to do investigations. Their service is usually a laugh. They love to get anyone and everyone to give them money without offering much in return.

It amazes me the suspicion and anxiety over Fine Art America’s $30 fee. I have sold art and postcards through Fine Art America. They have made me shoot some photos of my paintings three times before they were satisfied with the image. Which is fine by me. I do not want to put out an inferior product and nor do they. I got paid exactly when and how much I was supposed to get paid. The giclee printing and framing was not good – it was excellent. The containers they shipped the art in were excellent.

I have been involved in building many computer systems for major companies. The best ones I have seen were programmed by one person with a vision of excellence and total control – just like Fine Art America. Over the last couple of years I have watched this site evolve. Brian is listening to any complaints and responding to them with constant upgrades and improvements.

Every day many people look at my FAA site. I think that is all you can expect or ask for.

IAN

By: Tav

Tav — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 19:28:10 +0000

[All comments by this poster have been deleted. Poster is banned.]

By: Zeana Romanovna

Zeana Romanovna — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 18:03:35 +0000

I am literally shocked at some of the statements that have been laid against FAA.
As a proud member of this site, I can vouch for the fact that members get paid as is stated by the site owner, Brian.
Members get a website they can do what they wish with. Members, if they do not know how, learn how to produce images that are of an extremely high standard – this brings pride to an artist.
Front page does not equate to sales. Neither did it on RedBubble or ImageKind.
Sales I have had are not of the image I had featured on the front page of anywhere. I care little about the front page as it is my marketing that will gain interest in my work, and not my expectations of FAA. FAA is not responsible for gaining me, or any artist, sales. FAA provides the means, and when I say FAA provides the means, I mean the site owner, Brian, goes above and beyond what I have seen on every other site there is period.

When I sold a very large print, it was of a painting I had done that was sold, and all I had was a scan, and a bad one at that – I didn’t realize it had problems, but I uploaded several copies with corrections before it was accepted. I then breathed a sigh of relief knowing that the client ended up with a beautiful print.
I learned much from that experience, and now I know how to produce extreme high quality images which are print ready, but throughout the process of e-mails with FAA I was treated with the utmost respect – and patience.

Please note I have no other associations with FAA other than as an every day artist struggling in the art world, yet enjoying every second.

I would recommend FAA to a best friend!

Regards,
Zeana Romanovna

By: Emily Michaud

Emily Michaud — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 23:43:01 +0000

I thought I’d offer my own input on this subject. I’ve been on FAA for just a couple of months and I’ve been very happy. I am an artist with a Fine Art degree but limited experience in the field of marketing my work. Although I’ve recieved some great feedback and an email of an interested possible buyer, I haven’t yet had a sale and I’m not sure whether I’ll need to improve the quality of my uploads if/when I do. I would be very willing to do so if need be though. I’ve just mostly been exploring the features of the site and other artists work, the discussions, graphs and contests to get a feel for how it all works. I’ve been quite impressed. Brian always seems available to answer questions and provide advice on the community discussions and each day there seem to be more than a few sales. I love being able to see my visitors and take part in and even create contests that many other far more experienced and masterful artists also enter their work in. As far as the standards go for accepting art, I’m glad the spectrum includes what some people might consider “crap art” up to incredible masterpieces no one can deny. I’m not that harsh and I enjoy viewing portraits of rock stars and even art that might be considered childish. Maybe I’m a crap artist myself. Sometimes that work sells and has lots of style and intrigue. I enjoy feeling that the administrators of the site recognize that and respect each artist for what he/she has to offer. Many of the historic great artists that I love have been considered unworthy by society and particularly other exclusive artists. Thank goodness they didn’t give up and today such artists have FAA to help them see their worth with the support of other creative people. That’s my rant. Good luck to all.

By: David Lane

David Lane — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 21:31:57 +0000

I am and have been a member of FAA for 18 months. It is bar far the best site for quality prints. It is an art site not a stock photo site. I has members who specialize in all aspects of digital art. The quality of the prints are superb. In order to maintain that quality the file they start from must be usable. They will do everything they can to make sure you can get a good print once they receive and order.

Its not up to them to ensure you upload a quality image its up to you. marketing is up to, you they don’t and shouldn’t do it for you. They do provide lots of tools to aid your marketing.

They have 30,000 thousand members and hundreds of thousands of images. How can anyone expect to be on the home page except by random chance? I repeat it is not primarily a marketing site. It is a service site for artist wanting to sell prints of there work on the internet. It is a place to send potential customers to see your originals.

It is the best damn art site on the internet.
.-= David Lane´s last blog ..Blown Glass by David Lane =-.

By: Pod

Pod — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 21:12:12 +0000

Here is my experience as a POD with FAA:
- FAA is not an equal apportunity for artists, very few have the priviloghe to be on the front pageand be featured based on the excuse of quality image.
- Artists artwork mostly do not appear on the search engine under the excuse of tags.
-30 Dollars a year is money , yes it is money, while there are others website free like redbubble .
- i criticised once FAA front page, i`ve never been on the front page anymore since then.
- artwork prints are very mostly purchased by the artists members themselves not art collectors.
-FAA does not give importance to what`s art , they just display good quality images.
-FAA groups and forum are not very active.
-FAA gives always statistic about traffic with schemas comparing to other websites, but NEVER gives schema about monthly or weekly sales.
-artistwebsites , get you stuck to pay a 30 USD each year, if you are not a POD anymore, you`ll loose your website and then you`ll need to re-do your business cards and everything to change the address and keep your clients.so always have your own website better than FAA website.
Finally the best online website for selling your artwork prints or orginals is Ebay or Redbubble as they are trusted by millions since long time and gives you equal apportunity.
Thanks.

By: Kurt S

Kurt S — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 19:37:34 +0000

I will just quickly reiterate as I think it is important in terms of the actual site value relative to others.

1) The site quality seems good. $30 is quite the bargain for many people…BUT it does depend on what you are looking for as well.
2) I have not taken issue with the quality of the prints as I have nothing to base anything on in that regard.
3) My main point was that the reality of the # of prints sold compared to the number of art pieces available makes the probability of an actual sale similar to winning the lottery…but yes somebody does win the lottery. I recognize the number of visitors is large but ones excitement must be tempered by the number of actual buyers.
4) My personal customer service experience was less than desirable as detailed above.
5) If you are a MAC user, know they do not support Safari.
6) I am and was well aware of the arguments made why FAA is better than others which is why I gave it a shot….personally I think some arguments are more valid than others…everyone has different needs.

I look forward with interest to the matrix Bob Nolin plans on putting together for a complete comparison of the many options,prices, etc. that are out there….and there are many. I just learned of another that is indeed more expensive but looks very powerful and complete in terms of website customization….http://www.photoshelter.com/ It is admittedly for photographers so not something for all artists that would be selling on FAA.

All done….enuf said, etc.
.-= Kurt S´s last blog ..Gallery of Giving =-.

By: Jim Coe

Jim Coe — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 18:59:36 +0000

Fine Art America is a wonderful service. It might seem to be “too good to be true” but in fact it’s all true.

I’ve been on there for over 2 years, sold work and uploaded many photos and 3D modeled scene renders for sale through FAA’s POD service.

It’s true that one man (Brian McDunn) owns FAA and perhaps does all the programming. There is no mystery about Brian and he does publish and respond to his support email address. In fact, he’s very helpful and responsive.

He does not personally do the super-high quality POD printing at FAA and relies on his master printer person for the most technical image detailed advice (colorspace issues and such). Not that Brian is any dummy about images, he’s just smart enough to use his expert’s advice.

Brian is also expert at online marketing and usually gets your artwork high rankings on Google and the other search engines.

FAA is a totally honest site and pays on time (but there is a well documented and necessary delay so that buyers have a chance to get refunds via the FAA sales warranty).

While it seems amazing that one guy can do all that and also keep adding great new features every month – it’s true.

Check out the FAA discussions and the stats – you’ll see just how happy most everyone is and the fact that FAA is the ONLY POD sales site where buyers outnumber artist members among the site visitors.

Is there a lot of “crap” art available on FAA? Sure is – because there is no there decides what’s “goo0d art”. That’s up to the buyers. There is also a lot of excellent art – including photographs.

By: Tony Weatherman

Tony Weatherman — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 13:23:21 +0000

I have been on FAA for several years and I only have one gripe with the company that has been brought up here on this forum. They take your $30.00, have you download your prints for sale and never respond in any way as to the quality of your prints for sale or the key words you use for there search engine. Unfortunately they also seem to have certain artists that are always on the very front of their searches.

If they can ever get these things fixed I would immediately go back to there POD membership.

It is a well designed site and the artists there are on the most part quite good. The quality of their work simply can’t be beat.

By: John

John — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 17:45:48 +0000

Kurt, As part of the $30 annual fee, FAA gives each member their own website. For example: zeana-romanovna.artistwebsites.com There's an extensive article written about why these websites are so useful: http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=202233 I see from your link that you have a site with zenfolio.com. You're paying them $30 or more per year, and you're only getting a fraction of the features that are offered by FAA and their websites. Take a look at this page: http://artistwebsites.com/artistwebsitesfeatures.html I find it very odd that there are so many people who don't see the value in $30. For $2.50 per month, you get a company that will: - process all of your orders for you - deal with your customers for you - give you a website - advertise your artwork on Amazon.com for you - provide you with an e-mail marketing tool - provide you with a FaceBook marketing tool - get your artwork to appear at the top of Google searches There is no other site out there that comes even close to offering what FAA offers. $30 is an absolute bargain. John