Update on how people find fine art prints online
As I’ve written before, people rarely just browse through a portfolio of images until they find one they like and then buy it as a print for their home. Just imagine the sheer number of images that are available on Fine Art America, or Pictorem. And how did they find your portfolio if not through marketing of some type.
I was contacted last Thursday morning via the artist contact page on Fine Art America by someone looking to create a retirement gift for a colleague. She already had the image in mind, but the retirement was the following Tuesday, and in no way could she get something printed and shipped via a PoD site. I was able to solve her problem (more later), but I was intrigued as usual by how she had found my portfolio.
It turns out that she was looking for something that celebrated both West Virginia University and also the state itself. She had a vague memory of a picture or painting of the WVU Mountaineer statue against some rolling hills, and so she had entered “WVU Mountaineer statue picture” into Google and she saw this view of results:
It is interesting that Pictorem comes up first in the sponsored section, although I would imagine that the results there change with each search. It is also a little more difficult to see how to contact the artist on Pictorem (the email is hidden behind an @ symbol.) Fine Art America has a clearer “Contact” button. As a result, the contact email came via FAA.
The end result of this story, is that I have a printer at home and a box of 13×19 inch (Super A3) luster paper, and I also had bought a couple of impressive gold frames at a local antique shop – one on my wall, which I was able to use to show the lady what it would look like, and one that I could use to complete the project. With a new mat cut to the right size, I was able to complete the job later that day, and it was picked up in time for the retirement party:
Pricing is always a subject that we struggle with – especially with a rush job like this. I decided to use the retail price of a similar sized print and ornate frame on Fine Art America ($250) and that was acceptable to the client.
Incidentally, I would really like to hear from anyone who has bought (and read!) my latest book about selling Fine Art Photography online. If you have purchased it from my site, please do me the favor of adding a comment to the sales page. If you purchased it on Amazon, please leave a review there – it all helps. If you were not impressed with the book, please contact me directly so that I can see how it can be improved. Thanks!
