Instagram - Instaprint

Hi Anna,

I consider it a different market, but I haven't sold anything on that site.

I'm not uploading my work here to instagram.

In response to your question, Angelina, is anyone else doing this:

http://annaporter.instaprints.com
@annaporterartist on Instagram

Been on Instagram and Instaprints for over a year. Sold almost nothing. Interesting that since Instaprints.com and Pixels.com are both owned by Fine Art America that they make you completely re-upload and re-tag all of your photos that are already on Instaprints, many of which I would also like to have on Pixels. com. I mean who cares how I took the photo, if it is a good photo (iPhone 5 vs. Canon DSLR - they each have their advantages and disadvantages). So Fine Art AmericaÕs reasons for creating a new site, I am certain, has more to do with splitting away from the Instagram feed and the square format requirement and the ridiculous tags that get brought across that you have to completely replace one by one on every single photo that comes directly from Instagram to Instaprints.

The problem with the automatic feed between Instagram and Instaprints is that to get your photos seen on Instaprints, you have to tag them with descriptive words about what they are. Makes sense, right? You want to see duck photos you type duck. But Instagram is a Social Media site. To get your photos seen and ÒlikedÓ on Instagram, you have to tag them with the tags created by the groups that run photo contests or have large numbers of followers (invariably these group names/tags have almost nothing to do with a search term that someone might actually use to find a photo that they are interested in buying). So while it is great that the instant you post a photo to Instagram it appears on Instaprints too, that photo may well have a bunch of garbage inserted into the tag and descriptive fields. What is interesting is that even when you include most of the descriptive search terms that you would use to find a photo as tags on your pics on Instagram, if you tag that photo with any of the tags for groups/photo challenges on Instagram, those are the tags that get transferred over to Instaprints and not the descriptive tags. And when they do put in the descriptive tags they get put in the wrong fields in Instaprints to do any good as search terms.

So unless you go in and delete every single one of those Instagram tags (and there can be up to thirty per photo) and also re-title your artwork because Instaprints.com has a much shorter field available for captions and cannot handle special characters, your Instagram photo sits on Instaprints in a giant void of anonymity. Because no one can find it. And because Instagram is FUN, people are clicking photos with their iPhones at alarming rates, and also uploading DSLR photos, and filling up the Instaprints database with great photos that have junk for tags. Not only can no one find your work on Instaprints. It never shows up in a Google search either. Because no one searches for a duck photo on Instaprints or Google with the words Òheyfred_lookathisÓ or Òinsta_crewÓ or Ònothingisordinary_ or "floralstylesgfÓ and Ògang_familyÓ as the search terms (to name but a small fraction of the group/photo challenge tags used to get your pics seen and liked on Instagram).

Still, if Fine Art America spent a little on their software development, they could create a transfer program that could move the images and strip the garbage. But they donÕt. And so many artists (myself included in the beginning), think that they have their work somewhere where it might actually be seen and sell and it never does. Until they replace every single word of text that comes across with the photo from Instagram.

Quite frankly, I just do not have time to re-upload, re-tag and re-describe all 800 of my photographs and paintings. It was a nightmare just doing that for a fraction of them that automatically transferred from Instagram to Instaprints. Who does have that time, and still has the time to actually do the photography and the painting?

Anna Porter
Anna Porter Artist
Fine Art and Digital Photography
http://annaporterartist.com

Harry, thanks for your insight to my question. I've set up my Instagram account and inluded my InstaPrint in the website link. We'll see what happens.

I don't bother with it much anymore, because it does seem more applicable to folks to get prints of their own images. With a cell phone they can do whatever you do if you are limiting your uploads to phone work. I don't think marketing will make much difference there. It isn't working too much on FAA. I doubt if any of my sales came from networking.

Thanks for your insight Kay. I'm in a Fine Art group on LinkedIn and there was a huge debate if prints from Instagram could be considered fine art. I think the concept is pulling many of us out of the box so to speak.

I put a handful of images on instaprints after Angelina started this thread. Don't really market them, so not surprisingly, I have no sales there...LOL. I actually think it's a better mechanism for people to print their own instagram prints, than a market to sell ours.

Yeah, I just noticed that "for sale" toggle. Thanks! Very different vibe on Instaprints. I'm thinking of keeping my pricing low to get some footing. We'll see. ....

LOL, how funny. Sorry, I have no tips...I show different type of things there than I do here and I haven't made a single sale. ;) I would recommend checking the site occasionally and being sure anything you posted is actually for sale, sometimes it glitches and doesn't show as being for sale.

You have to have a smart phone Melissa. Instagram is about taking photos with your phone.

Okay, how to do this without a cell phone. How to sign up with the computer? I didn't see a way on instagram to do this?

Angelina, it seems time for me to join InstaPrints. My 14 year old son just announced he left Facebook to follow his friends on Instagram. I instantly remembered your post here. So how is business. ... Any tips on what you've all learned? Once I get thins going ill send you the link. I've hesitated in Instagram because I live on Flickr, but God k ows how to tug at my stubbornness through my son!

Thanks for posting Frank...very interesting article. More signs of the times?

Interesting article related to the theme of this thread:

http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/are-professional-instagrammers-photographic-visionaries-or-just-hacks/

With Instagram the images reside on my phone, and as Angel said transferring them to the computer is simple. However I upload to Instagram from the phone and Instaprints receives them automatically, but I edit them with the computer to add keywords and any lengthy descriptions.

Angelina - Reply to your statement: "No...it doesn't take up a lot of room, but if you get a lot of files, you can always transfer them onto your computer and delete them off your phone". Don't know anything about the Instagram app, but when you use the Flickr app all of your photos upload to your Flickr site not on you mobile device.

By the way, keep an eye on Yahoo! on Monday 5/20. There is said to be a big announcement that they may ( at least for the short term in the social media war ) dominate the category from Instagram and Twitter and Facebook. If you invest, now would be a great time to buy in Yahoo! ...

Flickr is the hub for all my pix on the web. I have always had more faith in Yahoo for digital images than Instagram ( or Google for that matter ). Because, Flickr has the greatest platform for online photo sharing, organization, and storage, etc. ... And now they have what many photographers are calling the greatest photo app to date, over Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

I only wish that FAA would have made their Instagram print site connected with Flickr instead. Time will tell. ....

No...it doesn't take up a lot of room, but if you get a lot of files, you can always transfer them onto your computer and delete them off your phone.

Thank you Lynn, for the info! =)
~Genevieve

Hi Genevieve, I only transmit photos when I have wifi service available. This way I'm not using expensive data minutes to upload photos.

Does Instagram take up alot of data on your smartphones? Just curious.
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thank you! =)
~Genevieve

I finally figured things out. The problem was getting an account with Instagram without having an IPhone or Android set up. I found a way, and I don't need an Iphone or and Android.

Once I got registere on Instagram, I was able to start setting things up on InstaPrint. You were very helpful in pointing out that you could browse from you PC. What' s interesting is that I now have the ability to run the APPS usually found on the IPhone and Android.

Thanks everyone for you help; I'm a slow learner.

Harry the Lamb

Harry, don't know anything about the login / join problems (maybe you can try to contact support) but you just can upload any photo from your PC to Instaprints. Just use the button "Upload Image from PC". Works very well, I just uploaded this one direct from my computer:

Tried to join, but the site is broken already. Everytime I click on "Join" I get the same page, and everytime I click on the big green button "JOIN NOW" all I get is the SIGN IN PAGE. Have tthey stopped taking applicants?

@Matthias - This sounds workable. Will I have to shoot all images on my phone and load them onto my PC, or can I process some 2 or six MP images and size them to 2448 PPI X 2448 and save them as JPG. Then can I upload via the imagges tab on My Instaprints. I hven't used my phone for anything except emergency call so I'm not sure how the images is saved on a phone - i.e. JPG or some other format.

Thanks for your sharing Matthias, and thank you Angelina for starting this thread!

Harry the Lamb

@Harry: Sean is right - of course... ;-) But: in the images tab of my InstaPRINTS account (not Instagram!) I have two buttons: "Import Images from Instagram" and "Upload Image from PC". First I did the Instagram-import for my pics, then I discovered that the pictures where not full size on Instagram, the Instagram app seems to import a reduced size. Since then I upload my pics from the phone to the PC and from there to Instaprints (I mainly use the Hipstamatic App and the pics are 2448 x 2448 Pixels which is quite o.k.). Just login to Instaprints and give it a try! :-)

Just checked it out; Only way to submit images to Instagram is via phone. That was straight from Sean. Oh well.

It is interesting. I'm using mine in a biographical way...daily life.

Not a habit for me yet...but I hope it becomes one. Not obsession though...;)

Angel, I'm kind of spurty too when it comes to instaprints. I'm much more dialed in here on FAA. I guess I haven't made instaprints a habit yet or is it obsession. LOL

I figured, if I'm taking and sharing photos anyway, why not make them available for prints? I think it's a great idea, and considering how awesome FAA is, I had no problems signing up for InstaPrints. I have yet to make any sales, but I do have a couple leads from people. I don't think it's dangerous to us artists at all - it's just instagram photos, after all :)

@Matthias - That is interesting. This seems like a way to start selling the digital stock I have that is between two and four MP.

I don't want to get involved with the Phone Ap as it would mean another fee for using the net from that point. To me tha is more cost, I think there is another charge for uploaing images fromj the service provider. When I simply text, they charge me twenty cents for each one in adddition to my monthly bill. Plus there's more Fed and State taxes etc.They also bill me if someone sends a text message to me.

If I can load the images from my computer, I will check it out.

Harry the Lamb

I hope I can add to the conversations there. =)

I have spurts where I get on the internet a lot...then I don't. It depends on how bored I am and how much work I have to do.

I love Instaprint

Matthias, good to see you here. You work hard on instaprints, I enjoy your promotional discussions. I think between you, Angel and I, we can get some interesting discussions going over there. There are way to many "Hi I'm new" type posts.... LOL

I'm with Angelina - the Smartphone is always with me and I captured lots of things with it. I uploaded some of the shots to FAA, for example this one:



When Sean started Instaprints I was very happy and uploaded some of my stuff, this is my portfolio: http://instaprints.com/profiles/matthias-hauser.html

No sales for me at Instaprints up to now but I don't give up too fast... It's very quiet over there so I started some promo threads, feel free to take a look:
http://instaprints.com/showmessages.php?messageid=1137922

@Christy: Welcome to Instaprints! :-)
@Darice: Congrats on your sales!
@Judy: As far as I know there are two ways to get your photos to Instaprints: Via Instagram-App or you can upload a photo directly from your Computer.

That's awesome Darice...congratulations! =)

I know what you mean MM...I'm just giving it some small efforts. The more I get myself out there, the more I have a chance to get my work in front of the eyes that someone may want to buy.

I'm sorry Judy, I have no idea. I do it straight from my phone.

Just a question...I send photos from my Sony Cybershot camera/cell phone via Blue Tooth to Google+ on my tablet....I edit them there ...Can those photos that are in my file on google+ be sent via my tablet to Instagram? or do you need to send them directly from your smart phone?

I can barley keep up with it all too MM LOL

I don't know if I can handle one more thing :-( I have no idea how it works.

I just got a notice from instaprints that this image sold today. It's a photo of one of my 4X4 miniature paintings.


When an image sales on instaprints it is added to your FAA balance and sales pages. And you are paid by FAA.

Cool Christy...=)

It is a well to sell photos taken with your phone Minnie...lol.

I don't know how it works LOL Is it like social networks? I got no smarts to give.

I saw your post and decided to join too. I've used Instagram for a while and it seemed pretty easy. If I sell something, great! If not, oh well, I had fun looking through my photos again :)
Here is my link if you want to see.
http://instaprints.com/profiles/christy-beckwith.html

Oh really? Hmm....seems like the sites aren't completely divided then?

Cool Darice! =D

I wouldn't be surprised if I end up with a bunch of ferret pics on there...lol.

Here is my link to my profile on instaprints http://instaprints.com/profiles/darice-machel-mcguire.html
Oh and I should mention, when you get an email message from someone on FAA it shows up in your instaprints and vice versa.

Thanks for the feedback Darice...yes I did check out the forum there. Much different indeed.

I have S artist in my phone that I can use with instagram as well, but I am not planning on taking my art photographs here and converting them to instagram work...too complicated and not the vibe I am aiming for with it.

I will be careful with the crossing paths part.

I understand Pamela...me too...I'm just think of building more of an online presence.

I don't use Flickr Frank, so I don't know much about it. The Flickr app sounds impressive but instaprints is set up with instagram itself. Sounds like I should learn a bit about Flickr as well.

I doubt they would do a greeting card only site because they sell cards here. But...I have heard no word on such an idea.

Looking at your link, Angelina, makes me think FAA should do a like sister site for greeting cards. Do you know if there is such a thing yet?

I'm not on instagram but am willing to learn about it. Though, I live on Flickr ( when I"m not here ) and I'm told by those on Instagram that the iPhone camera in the new Flickr photo ap. blows away instagram. With the new CEO at Yahoo!, who owns Flickr, I think this will be something to watch. She hired a former Nat. Geo. photographer to make Flickr dominate the category and compete with Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. You can also make prints directly from Flickr, just can't sell them like we do here on FAA. I have not heard of Instaprint, so you're teaching me something.

No Angelina, I am not doing that. I am already stretched to the limit marketing what I have here, but good luck with it.

I was the eighth person to sign up on instaprints. It's fun to show my Instagram photos. I'm not a photographer but I do photograph everything that interests me. I started a couple of discussions and created a group and a couple of contest on instaprints. The one thing I've noticed is there are a lot of twenty something year olds on there. It's a very different community. Go check put the discussions, you'll see what I mean. I had one sell and think that was pretty good for not being a photographer. Oh and another thing to watch for is sometimes FAA and instaprints cross paths. For instance, I get email notices from someone posting in a discussion on instaprints when I click through and try to click on the person's profile it won't be there cause it (the discussion ) crossed over to FAA. I then have to sign into instaprints to find the discussion. It gets a little confusing.

Hmmm...nobody is doing this?