Trying to increase Fine Art America Sales
I’ve been spending time adding more “fine art” images to Fine Art America recently, adding perhaps 40 or so in the past month. My latest images can be seen here. But how to “goose” those sales? I decided to try Facebook advertizing for an image that I created in black and white of San Francisco:
The image itself needed a bit of work as it was taken using a 200mm lens (on a tripod) from the Marin Headlands near the Golden Gate bridge
and from the position I chose, the bridge was in the way. This makes a nice enough image in its own right, but for a wall print I thought the bridge structure was a distraction. So it needed quite a bit of Photoshop work to remove those elements. As it is 7500 pixels wide, I was able to really zoom in and carefully replace the areas of the photo that had significant details along the water front.
I then decided that the cranes around the central building would also spoil the impression and so those had to go!
Now how to get those sales? I decided to create a new post on my business Facebook page, Backyard Stock Photos, and then created a profile of the potential buyers. There are many, many options to focus your promotion, and I decided on people who lived close to San Francisco (within 25 miles) with an interest in Fine Art and in Art collecting. I did try for a while to also include people who owned expensive houses, but the site suggested that I wasn’t getting the right bang for my buck with that choice. I set the budget at $30 and it is planned to run for a week using that budget.
So far? No sales! I have had a big increase in “likes” from people I don’t know, with 14 so far after a full day of promotion. I’ll let it run for the week and will certainly report back if I get a sale in that time. I should also be able to see from the weekly FAA email how many views I have had of this particular image as well.
If you have any other ideas for promoting images on FineArtAmerica, please let me know!
That’s a beautiful shot. I have no experience with Facebook advertising but your targeted marketing sounds logical. I’m a bit skeptical about some of the likes on FAA as they’re just bots.
Lately I’ve been putting posts on my LinkedIn in feed. Since I used to work in law firms in the U.K. I built up some contacts and they may be interested in some prints for their office.
Good luck!
Alex
Good idea about LinkedIn. I have 500+ contacts and some of those might want a print of something.
Steve
I hope this isn’t too much of a downer, but I have pretty much stopped looking at Facebook due to all the ads coming through. How do other people feel about this? Is it just me, or is FB in danger of killing the goose?
I do wish you luck though, and look forward to hearing of your success!
Yes, I don’t look at my personal page at all, so I don’t see ads. I have got a little traction on “likes”, but the test will be a sale. I’m trying LinkedIn as well now.
Steve
Hi Steve
Do you use any other sites that sell prints such as Red Bubble, Zazzle or Cafepress? I have a few photos on each with limited success. I also have 25 on FAA but have not sold anything. My original thought was that if I made a sale I would join but that has not been the case. I am thinking of replacing the 25 with newer photos and having another go although I am really not that convinced. I know you have had several sales on FAA but they seem to have been few and far between. Is it really worth the effort? I do admire your attempts to drum up business!
regards
Kevin
Hi Kevin
I’ve a few things on Zazzle, but I find it a difficult site to work with and I get very few sales. I did OK with calendars, but they are out of date now. I do have 550 images on FAA so I should get more sales and I listed them all out in a post a month or so back. I think it is worthwhile as it isn’t that hard to upload to, and I certainly get more than my $30 worth of profit. I’m on Photo4me in the UK and have had 3 sales there.
Steve
Good luck with your ad! I hope it does work out in the end.
I got some sales there after I started tweeting my photos. Its tedious and a daily commitment but somehow I believe, though I am not certain, that it helped.