Selling Fine Art on FineArtAmerica
I’m asked whether it is worth having a paid subscription to Fine Art America from time to time. With a free account, you can upload 25 images only. For $30 a year, you can have unlimited images and more analytics tools. I currently have 760 images as I find that I have no real idea of which of my many files will actually sell! So I upload all the ones that I personally like and hope they will get some traction. So this post is all about which of my images has actually sold – perhaps to give you an idea of what their buyers are looking for. You can also look at their site for recent sales. One thing that intrigued me is the number of vertical shots. My portfolio is lacking in those, so an action for the future!
November 2, 2018: Sunset over Ventura harbor in California – Acrylic 36 x 24 inches – Profit $87.27
I always liked this one because of the colors, and I think it would look great if you lived in Ventura! The next sale was more local:
October 29, 2018: Fall colors on Cheat Lake, Morgantown – Print 14 x 11 inches – Profit $35.45
August 27, 2018: Casino in Avalon on Catalina Island – Canvas 36 x 28 inches – Profit $77.41
23 August 2018: Panorama of Hanalei Bay on Kauai – Framed 52 x 26 inches – Profit $105.17
May 4, 2018: Moon rising in Washington DC – Print 12 x 10.25 inches – Profit $20.30
This one has sold several times before. Easily my most popular image on Fine Art America.
November 21, 2017: Women’s Vietnam memorial in Washington – 10 x 7 inch metal print – Profit $16.95
This image of the Vietnam memorial was modified using the painting programs I have talked about before. This one is by Jixipix and is the Impresso plugin for Photoshop. I extracted the statue and painted the background, getting rid of an annoying lamp post and chain link fence that spoiled the view.
Finally, that Washington DC image sold again:
November 4, 2017: Moon rising in Washington DC – metal print 10 x 7 inches – Profit $16.95
You can see the rest of my sales on Fine Art America on this previous post listing all the sold images.
So, for me, paying $30 for the opportunity to earn all these sales in 2018 has been a no brainer. All told, my sales have totaled $324 this year. I don’t know if it will continue, and I wish I knew how to boost my sales with Social Media, but for now, I will continue to pay and add more images over time.
Thanks for that. I had an account there last year but did not make enough to pay for the subscription. I also did not make much sense out of what sells. My sales were mostly small items like mugs and T-shirts. I’m considering coming back but on the fence.
Yes, I can’t really explain what sells to be honest. I do tend to expand the descriptions a bit as I read somewhere that people like to know a bit more about the picture before buying. But it has been good to me!
Very good post! I just made a sale there this past week – it was, of all things, a shower curtain! I can’t believe it! To think that someone’s bathroom now has a shower curtain in it with my image on it! I haven’t figured out what kind of profit I should be trying to get per item, but I look at it as extra money. I linked my Fine Art America store as a link on my website menu – I think that may help to get some traffic.
Hi George. Good to hear from you! I did once sell a shower curtain with a buddha statue on. Not much profit from what I recall. I do have a post somewhere about the pricing I apply to Fine Art America. Someone told me it was too low, but it is hard to say!
I’ve restarted with my symbiostock site now I am on my new VPS – added a few images today. I will add my FAA account to a page there, I think, as you have done. Makes sense!
Steve
Hi Stve. Great Post.
I would like to know if you don’t think it takes too much time to specifically upload the images to Fine Art America. I mean, it’s something out of your usual workflow with StockSubmitter and that requires its own process. In your opinion, does it economically compensate for the time spent?
You are right – it is totally outside my normal process for stock images. I tend to wait until I have finished all my uploads and then think about which (if any) of the new images are worth uploading. The images are already described and keyworded and so it is then a matter of uploading them one by one (although their multi-image uploader isn’t too bad these days) and selecting a category. I sometimes change the description to make it more arty, but can then copy and paste to other similar images. I sometimes do these in the evening when I’m maybe doing something else and doing a few FAA ones isn’t much of a hardship. So if you worked out the hours that I have spent, then I probably admit that it doesn’t make financial sense, but I do get a warm feeling thinking that someone has my print on their wall! The financial analysis assumes you are doing something more productive in those hours, and if the answer was watching TV or YouTube, then perhaps the time spent doesn’t count for much!
Steve
Hi Steven, thanks for your post. I would like to know if you invest much time in engagement with other artists in Fine Art America: follows/likes/comments. Is it worthy for increasing sales?
I don’t do that very much. I see people who always comment when I have a sale and perhaps that gives them a boost in the rankings? I’ve no idea really. I have written in the forum from time to time, but there seems to be no link at all between that and a sale. It would be nice to interact with buyers but I suspect buyers just come to the site to find a particular sort of artwork but rarely come back just to “chat!” Why would they?
Steve