Back in the Seventies and Eighties I founded and ran several Fleet Street photo agencies specialising in stock images of celebrities from pop stars to politicians. These were syndicated to the National and International press and Television. These days I am active in the Microstock world and this blog charts my journey as well as, hopefully, providing inspiration and ideas to others. Image buyers should also find this blog useful with links to my portfolios and regular updates on new uploads. Unless otherwise stated all images are my copyright and may not be reproduced or copied. Comments are very welcome but will be reviewed before publication. Enjoy your visit. Regards, David.

Wednesday 24 April 2013

Paid account at FineArtAmerica:

As I said on my previous posting about FineArtAmerica I was always pretty sure that I would upgrade to the  paid version. The basic free account allows unlimited uploads but you can only have a maximum of 25 images for sale as prints and posters at any one time.
I finally upgraded a while back and paid the $30 annual fee. In the UK this converted to around £18 so did not represent a huge investment.
The main advantage of the paid account is that there is no limit to the number of images you can offer for sale. They also give you your own artist website to help market your images. If I'm honest I am not sure how useful that is compared to just having your images on the FAA site itself. I assume it may help generate more traffic having the images in two places. There is some scope for customising your artist website and the facility to post blog messages and news items. Thankfully, you only have to upload once to either site and the images automatically get mirrored on the other.
Other perks of the paid version include a $5 referral commission should anyone use your link to sign up for a paid account. Here is my referral link for anyone interested: 4-david-fowler.artistwebsites.com.
You also receive 5% commission on materials and accessories (frames etc) should you sell an image.
So, how it all going? I'm now up to 253 images online and over 5000 views (though these include an unknown number of automated visits from search engines) but, as yet, no sales.
That said, I wouldn't expect many sales on that number of images on regular stock sites, so I will just keep uploading and be patient.
One feature I didn't discover at first is the Limited Time Promotions. This is accessed from your control panel and allows you to have up to three images at a time on a special discounted promotion. You set the duration of the offer (up to a limit) and how many copies are available at that price (up to 25). Most importantly, you still choose how much money you make from each sale (whatever you like). These promotions are available on both the free and paid for version, so are well worth trying.
As I said before, I have no idea what images might be purchased so I am just uploading a whole variety from archive celebrities through to Greek islands ones such as the chapel of Agios Kosmas on Alonissos (pictured). I am looking forward to posting about my first sale there, hopefully fairly soon. Regards, David.

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