Artistwebsites, Zenfolio, Smugmug... And More

brian,...i think a concern for many right now is that their images are showing up on other people's artistwebsite pages.....

Brian, Marlene's probably summed it up best.
Just from me: thank you, and I'd gladly give bloody $30 to just be a member!!! I won't do pod because my pix are lousy repro's, but I'm still ecstatically happy. You do everything better than everywhere. And, I just love the company I keep here!

Marlene,

I'll fix that in the next 10 minutes. It's not an issue.

Brian

FAA (and recent forum discussions) has made me take a long and hard look at my images. Recently, I've spent hours redoing my images and I'm not even half-way through what has been uploaded here for the past 3 or so years. I've deleted so many images... I realized that I use FAA as the BENCHMARK for my online fine art and photography. Really... that's how much I believe in this site.

I only know of FAA and not the others, so Im happy.

I was wondering if there will ever be a feature where one can add different art products to artwebsites besides print option. In otherwords if I had a sculpture to sell but I wanted to feature it on here to sell separate from prints. Is that a future possibility?

Thanks Brian, we beleive in FAA. the main concern now as Marlene said is that others member`s artwork appears on others members websites.

$30 is a pittance for all this site offers I found it when I googled portraits prints celebrity To see if another wbsite I was on would show up never saw it FAA was first on the list and I was suprised I could become a member as easily and inexspensively as I did. So Thanks Brian.

Other artists' images appearing on your Artist Website is no longer a problem. I just fixed it.

Brian

brain,
you da man!

Brian, Thanks for pointing out how FAA keeps the high resolution images in a secure location and shows the low resolution pictures. that is comforting to know - i have uploaded 3 scanned images (high resolution) while the rest are from my digital camera (soon to be replaced by scanned images). i would like to get your opinion on the image quality (scanned vs camera) if possible

i am new to FAA but will soon exploit the other powerful features you discussed in your post.

Keep up the wonderful work - i love the excitement and sense of pride you show in your emails. i am not a geek but speaking to my husband i understand the powerful features of FAA.

Brian it is about time you came forward like this because too many don't seem to realize what a crazy good deal this is. The only thing I still use my other company for is to keep my domain site (my name) active, for quite awhile now everything I do is uploaded here first by several months.

While reading your description of the salient points of FAA I think I figured out a way to send folks directly to my artistwebsite.com site - I'll give it a try and see if it works.

Oh Yeah, thanks for being you.

1) Agreed with the good deal. FAA offers ALOT for $30/year!

2) Brian, did you apply the lesser compression to my galleries? I still see strong compression artifacts. Is this the top of the line minimum compression you can do? Example of an image with strong compression artifacts:

Thanks Brian, FAA just keeps getting better. I know of two artists that are thinking about joining FAA. I will forward them you excellent article and I think they will join. Before I found and joined FAA, I was going to build my own site. Your dedication to web placement is going to make FAA the top of the line of artist sites.

Dear Brian,

I'm probably one of your most aggressive promoters and many of the artists in Butte County and in Northern California and in many other parts of the country have been steered to join FAA as a result of my endorsements and by my advertising FAA. I would not go to this trouble unless I believed in everything you have stated above. I have my work on other sites as well with virtually no traffic other than the other artists who are also on the sites.

I have stated many times that FAA is simply BEYOND compare to other art sites in what you offer and for the most reasonable price to be found anywhere on the web! I have paid upwards of $400 for a small fraction of what you provide for FREE!

I will continue to steer my artist acquaintances and friends to FAA as it is simply the best that any artist could subscribe to.

Many Thanks!

Charles, I hope you can share with us, how to send folks directly to our respective artistwebsite.com sites.
And Brian, without a doubt this site is an excellent tool.

charles, is it time for a chorus of kum-baya?

Brian... at last! I have been waiting for a post like this for soooo long. I stand behind you all the way.

Brian:

Thanks for the explanation. I think Zeana and I were only pointing out what our CUSTOMER base is telling us. I think that part of the issue has been resolved with other's images not appearing under our sites. Thank you for that. Perhaps you should check out some other sites on Zenfolio since they don't look at all like Zeana's page which you selected to use as an example.That site, like many others, is very, very customizable and I hope we will all be able to enjoy some of those features soon here on FAA. I still have issues with the search engine and I am aware that you are diligently working on this. In all fairness, not all sites charge $100 unless you ELECT to pay for the professional level services. I think you give us a helluva bargain for $30.00. Sure, there are other things some of us would like to see: clearer, less compressed images, a slideshow option, options for turning on and off specific features, ability to use our own copyrights or watermarks etc., etc., etc.

I know you are working on these and various other problems which arise such as the recent visitor counters and the like. I do appreciate your efforts.

Rolf,

I just uncompressed that image you're referring to. Refresh the page and take a look.

Brian

Actually I do not belong to any other art sites other than FAA.

As stated prior---I was in the process of starting my own website with all its challenges---higher costs----search engines and printing I would have to out source.

When I caught wind of the personal website by just being a POD member---No Brainer----you do not have to be a mathemetician to see the costs for this site is a fraction of anything else I looked into and all you need is bundled into a tidy package.

This is my opinion: With the internet supersaturated with artwork--a collective entity such as this may be a focal point where confused buyers may find all they need in a one stop shopping arena----Different mediums/ reproductions / original work---quality talent.

Terrence

Hi Brian,

I totally agree to you that FineArtAmerica is the best artist webside on the internet right now. I am an expat from Germany and I live here in the US since 4 years now (that's the reason why my English isnt't perfect ;-) ). I also own an artist webside in Germany (http://shop37933.fineartprint.de/index2.php?PHPSESSID=5d85671fca3cc9eac3467e99609e8f07&page=image_katalog_sis.php&site=homepage) to cover the German market and FAA for the US market. I also created my own artist webside (http://www.fine-art-shot.com/). But with none of these two webside I am getting as many visitors as with FAA. And FAA is the only webside where I actually sold some pictures. So overall FAA is my favorite artist webside and I am really impressed about the features you are offering and how much work you still invest to improve this webside.

YOU ARE DOING A REALLY GREAT JOB!!!! Thank you for that!

Brian,

now this image looks absolutely perfect!!! - Same quality as the same image on Zenfolio. Can you batch-uncompress all of my images?

Rolf

I'm with Andreas Freund: YOU ARE DOING A REALLY GREAT JOB!!!!
The images I was "crying" about image look now absolutely perfect.

Thank very much you for that, and everything else.

Thank you Brian, for this great site at an unbeatable bargain.

Brian I think imperative to speak here, well aware that I may not represent your average member here. I am aka webmaster of my own site, online publisher, and have also had some bouts with Search Engine Optimisation and I am also an artist and an FAA member. I have two other accounts at two art portals that I have never ever visited after creating them. Also I have looked at the more famous ones but I just did not want to join.

I responded within less than an hour to the invitation to join FAA few years back.
This is not my habit. Usually I need days to decide.

And never ever have regretted that choice nor my decision!
I instinctively felt the potential of your site. I was not mistaken.

My judgement in the last end is this …

You are highly competent man in your field.
Enormously dedicated.
And you have integrity.
I trust you and would be willing to overlook some mistakes that you may inadvertently make _ they would be peanuts compared to what you have achieved in a positive manner.
.
Your whole career has an organic development _ FAA is that way your greatest piece of artwork and it was initiated by a simple need to help artists, who were in need!

And it all is reflected in and at FAA.

Clean layout, no clutter, wonderful page loading, absolutely high class SEO, fully functional streamlined navigation and an overall look that one could without exaggeration call decent _ unfortunately lacking at many famous sites, some of them quite overdone with excessive and uncoordinated use of widgets and gadgetry or flash.

It is one of the most user friendly sites that way.

And you and Beth are always somehow present _ which makes this site a Class for itself. Yes a class and I mean it!

I do not need to refer to all the advantages an artist here has as you mentioned them well yourself.

I received my card print that I ordered at FAA within just a few days here in Berlin Germany. Prompt I would say. And the quality was as I expected and am expecting from this site. Professional.

Of course we can not deny that is always a room for improvement and that there will be artists with very specific needs who may feel some shortcomings but here too the most important aspect is the responsiveness with which you react to all these almost countless inputs from the members. It is almost incredible, one would need a staff of dozens for that in the meantime. One has almost this feeling that one is calling a neighbour or family friend (includes also Beth) for help, someone strangely who is absolutely no stranger!

If all this is not unique!

And lastly the forums, think here too the artists have the possibility to expand their horizons, be it with technical aspects of art, art history or methodology or any thing concerning life and ideas, as well the opportunity to seek help or support each other as a community.

Thanks Brian, Beth and FAA and all folks I occasionally aggressively debate with and all those who have commented my work and supported me here!

Finally I hope your site does not also implement all that flash, Slide shows and crazy widgets _ if some one wants these features perhaps they should get it on their personal Sites against extra costs, in case it means we have to pay all more for POD service!
IMO Sleek Slide shows are for entertainment and not for serious buyers of prints or artwork!

Brian,
Thank you for the wonderful job that you doing! FAA is no doubt better than any other art site. And, as Vivian said, I'd pay $30 just for the membership.

As for the quality of images, could you please remove the compression of my "Purple Mountain"? Thanks!

Everyone,

Thank you for the compliments. I don't make these posts for compliments, but thank you.

I make these posts because I sometimes feel like FAA is overlooked. Articles get written about SmugMug, ZenFolio, and these other sites fairly often, and for some reason, no one pays much attention to FAA in the media.

I'm going to change that very soon.

In the mean time, I just wanted FAA members to see a side-by-side comparison so that you know what's out there versus what you have right here.

Brian

Sandra,

Here's one of your images from your ZenFolio site:

http://sandrabronsteinphotography.com/p868460045/h28dce613#h28dce613

Here's the same image on your Artist Website:

http://sandra-bronstein.artistwebsites.com/featured/huddled-for-warmth-sandra-bronstein.html

The same notes from my original post, above, apply to this comparison.

It's very hard to tell that you're selling anything on the ZenFolio site. That's not your fault... it's ZenFolio's fault.

If a visitor does notice that you're selling something... there is no way for the visitor to see what the image looks like on the actual product (i.e. stretched canvas, etc.)

Your ZenFolio page has 0 comments.

Your Artist Website page has 19 comments.

Your ZenFolio page has ??? visitors (I can't see the counter).

Your Artist Website page has 282 visitors.

If you do a Google search for "Sandra Bronstein buffalo", your FAA pages occupy the Top 3 positions (your FAA Artist Website pages will show up soon... they're only a few weeks old at this point).

Your ZenFolio pages don't show up anywhere in Google's search results.

If you do a Google search for "Sandra Bronstein waterscapes", the first few results are your Artist Website... the next few results are your FAA pages... and then come your ZenFolio pages.

These searches are actually somewhat irrelevant because I'm including your name in the searches and, as I mentioned above, you want people to find you without searching for your name.

So... let's do Google searches for:

bison canvas art - FAA is #1

buffalo canvas prints - FAA is #1

bison greeting cards - FAA is #1

ZenFolio isn't anywhere in Google's search results for any of these search terms.

It's very easy to create a website with FAA, ZenFolio, SmugMug, or any of these other companies. The hardest part is getting people to actually visit your site once you've created it.

With your FAA Artist Website... you're not all alone amidst billions of other websites on the internet... many of which are vying to be #1 for "bison canvas prints". Essentially, you already are #1 for "bison canvas prints" because FAA is #1 for "bison canvas prints". Your images and your Artist Website are part of the world's fastest growing online art community.

That means: more visitors, more comments, more ways to bring attention on your artwork... and hopefully, more sales.

All of the features that you're requesting (i.e. custom watermarking, etc.) will arrive in short order. The most important part is done - you've got a very powerful website that can put a lot of visitors in front of your images. In order to make it even more powerful, the next step is to start getting other sites to link to your Artist Website.

Brian

Liza my idea didn't work - I'm not a computer person - so what I did was right under the link I made on my front page of my domain site for giclee prints I made another for "new work"............that should get visitors to click to "my" artistwebsite.com here where almost anything I've done in the last year or so is posted.

You have it Marlene ---------- I do believe a round of Kumbaya is quite in order.

Thanks so much, Brian! I'm loving the new website and my recent sales here!

Thanx for responding Charles, I'm not a computer person either. Sounded like a good try.

This is the first art website that I decided to try and put my artwork on. I examined the other sites, what you get and what they charge. FAA was hands down the most clear, crisp, easy to use website I found. Which matters, because if it hard to use customers won't use it.
I have been thoroughly impressed time and time again with how hard you work to promote us. Most of the problems we have is not this website, it's us. We are mostly not businessmen and women, we are artists. Every tool you give us to help us sell our art more efficiently and get us exposure helps us grow as artists.
I wish I were more technically savvy but as I read and learn here in the forums my knowledge is increasing.
My own art website for being a member here at $30a year is beyond reasonable. The exposure here has made me earn more money than I ever earned on my own. I expect it to keep getting better.

Hey Beth - this sure could go on the sticky list - it is about the best run down of what FAA is about I've seen....what ya think?

I have a personal site on zen for my customers - hey, I'm a photographer - I take pictures of ladies cats, or machinery, or whatever someone will pay me to do - and that's where they order prints from - purely local business. There is a link to FAA there, and although some of my fine art work is there also, all of my fine art sales have occurred here on FAA. Had Ik for a year, lost cause. Looked at many others. This site works really good. Brian, you have done a marvelous job of putting this site together. You have my appreciation for your effort and abilities.

Hi Brian:

Thanks for taking a peek at the images. The two you chose to view are not identical. What I asked was for you to remove the compression to see, as Rolf and Christine wished, if there was a noticeable difference. We need to look at apples and apples I think.

I refer a certain element of my clients to Zenfolio for specific reasons and one is the clarity of the viewer and the slide show feature which I mentioned previously. I also maintain many more images there due to the ability to use my own watermarks on my best selling limited edition prints. I also mentioned this previously. Frankly, I don't encourage comments on Zenfolio as it serves a different purpose than FAA for me. The majority of clients who buy through Zenfolio wind up purchasing the signed and numbered prints which I have custom printed and are in very limited editions. The contact me directly, Brian. Zenfolio doesn't print for me - they are done out of house. I understand that your prints are wonderful but having only purchased your cards as samples, I can speak only for them. I have never seen a print from FAA but I understand they are exceptionally well done. Zenfolio does, within the confines of the shopping cart, show you how your purchase will appear.

As respects the visitorship between the two sites, there is absolutely no arguement that FAA produces more hits. Now, I am not trying to be arbitrary but I get a voluminous amount of bots on this site (which isn't necessarily a bad thing). The visitor count, in my humble opinion, is not accurate as it counts hits from our own members. Having 19 comments on an image is terrific and I most assuredly appreciate my fellow artists taking the time to view and leave a comment on my work. However flattering, they are not "outside visitors" and shouldn't be counted as such if we are looking for accurate stats on viewership and potential sales.

With respect to your comments about Zenfolio they offer many types of comment setups. I think the only ones I ever activated (way back when) were for the first page. Can't help your stats on that one. I have had more visitors there of late than here and I agree with you, I think it has to do with Google since some of the time, Google will show the new artist website with a page rather than the bio page. Then, at other times, if I expand the Google page, it will show. That isn't driving any traffic my way and there is nothing anyone can do about that to my knowledge. I have already listed the URL with Google.

I am not sure that I agree with the way you present the "search criteria" but I am not going to address that in this thread. All I will say is that I have found "sandra bronstein bison" with a link back to Zenfolio. Brian, there is no doubt that FAA has more exposure on the web - no one is making that statement. I do not sell cards on any site but yours. There is a link on Zenfolio back to your custom cart feature as well. I do not have a large market for canvas prints since most of my work (sold privately or through galleries) are large-sized s/n-l/e prints. . Stock is stock and that conversation is irrelevant here. Since you mentioned it: my Zenfolio site for "fine art prints" is linked back to this site.

I agree that the searches are irrelevant to a point since most people do not search for a subject matter on the web with someone's name. That is generally reserved once within the confines of a site. That is where the search engines become critical issue.

This isn't and shouldn't be a litany on our parts about the merits of Zenfolio or FAA or any other venue for sales. We all know what FAA can do and that is why we are here. I do have concerns about "competing for sales" with 31,000 other people, all of whom have different mediums to offer. That is difficult for all when it comes to search engines since anything in print is actually a photograph.

I am very glad to hear that the custom watermarks are on their way. That is a welcome addition to our features. As I mentioned numerous times before, I am grateful for your efforts and I think you put forth an effort which is not common in today's art marketplace - commendable indeed.

If you are so inclined, I would still appreciate your peeking a the same image with and without your compression factor applied. Thanks.

Sandra

Brian:

Would you please turn off compression on the following images:

The Art of Slinging Digital Paint IV
Candy Colored World
Eyeing the Shoes


Thank you.

I think that's a great idea from Charles, Brian.

Brian,great pep talk. I LOVE this site. It is the greatest, even though I haven't had any sales yet. But they will come. I am sure of it.

Again, my thanks Brian. I Googled my name this afternoon and was very pleasantly surprised by the number of pieces of my work that were on Google.

Thank you, I am a little confused though. After reading another thread where there were images we could see showing how some of the images uploaded are not as good as they need to be for printing, I started deleting the ones that I thought were not up to the higher standard. I haven't completed this. My question is how can we tell if it is the compression or if we need a better file to upload? (Since removing the compression is making the image clearer.) I realize there is no way you can look at ever single image on here and tell us, so I was trying to look through mine, now I'm not certain if I should delete anymore or not. In my work, it is my paintings that cause me the most concern.
Example:


Looks too fuzzy to me. I plan to re-do the file as soon as I can go where the painting is and take new pictures with a camera with more megapixels.

Brian,

Thank you for all you do... about a year ago, I got back into doing my art. I was thinking about getting a website built..but then what??? I happened to stumble across FAA and couldn't believe my eyes...and the price!!!! I thought is this for real???It took me a while to figure everything out on my own...I've learned a lot because of FAA and it gives me the drive and education I probably would not have found elsewhere.
My son just joined. I have told everyone I know and...I have one artist friend join...soon there will be another......I have been doing some digital photography for a few of them to help get them started. I had to buy a new lens...just because I didn't want to start all over because my resolution wasn't good enough for FAA. I wanted to make it easier for you and for me and for our customers.
I know people who are spending money on building other websites...I say why would you do that??? Just join FAA it has everything you would need and some!! It is the best thing that has come down the pike!!! I haven't sold much as of yet but I am truely impressed with what I have ordered and sold. I have shown people the prints and they love them!!! All I can say is:" our job is to do the best we can with the art and marketing". You have given us a great tool to use!!!!!!!!

Thanks again,
Joy

Shery, compare e.g. the image on http://fineartamerica.com/featured/egret-sherry-holder-hunt.html or even the "green square" with your original image on your computer (look especially around the edges) and you will see immediately if FAA's compression hurts your image or not.

But don't forget what Brian said: The compression hurts BY FAR not all images.

Thanks Christine, I'll have to try to find the disk I have it on and do that. I have always tried to check them before I upload them. I'm just not certain now, and I want to make sure they will look as good as possible, especially if I happen to sell one.

Brian, my sincerest apologies. Never for one minute was I taking a shot at FAA. I love this site and what you do with it. On my images, it is the very, very rare few that will show that compression, in fact most times I have wondered what people were talking about.

It is me, and not FAA. Since all the talk about image sharpness etc, and all of us trying so hard to get quality images up, I admit I have become almost paranoid about image quality, and that if you saw my rose looking like that then you would send me to the bottom of the heap as a hopeless case. Ok, everyone can laugh but that's the truth.

As for said other Zen place, I turned off comments as some were just silly comments of one word like 'beautiful', 'great' - I can do without them. I also turned off visitor views, but if you run a search in google under my name, that place comes up quite high for me because like FAA, I market it. I actually market FAA far more than "other site". I like the other site as I can download my images if I lose one, and rarely I have done that. I also haven't bothered to set that site up completely as I inherited it through my family. But FAA is my place of choice because I like it here and I sincerely feel it will make me a better artist, and a better all round market person. It also feels like a home away from home :) and other places are just for business. I do do commissions, and they come through Zen as I was on there before here.

Please accept my apology if you thought I was comparing sites. I wasn't, but I can see how that could appear to be that way. I'm very sorry.

If you permitted downloads of files behind the scenes, I would never renew with Zenfolio!

Kindest Regards,
Zeana

Zeana,

There is absolutely no need to apologize.

I don't mind people mentioning other art sites, at all. In fact, I do comparisons to other websites fairly often because think that FAA is a great deal compared to the "competition", and I want people to see that.

Since you happened to bring up ZenFolio in the other discussion, I took the opportunity to do a comparison to the new FAA Artist Websites. That's it.

There's no need to apologize, at all.

Brian

Brian, well I felt there was a need for me to explain. But since this was all brought up, I am going to try to link an image to my FAA page; not sure if it will work, but I can try.

Thank you for being so kind.

Zeana

PS: There is now a link from my Lion image to purchase here,which I can do with all of my images. I will try to make a better link somehow, but I am not web savvy; just a beginner.

I believe in (Fine Art) America, (Fine Art) America has made my... :)
One question to who has seen the FAA print : FAA prints are with border or without?

Hi Brian,

I certainly join the others in congratulating you on a fantastic business tool that just keeps on surpassing itself (at I rate I can hardly believe possible).

Have started working on my FAA website and have a couple of requests for the future (listed in what I think is their importance). Possibly there are already ways to do these things which I'm not aware of:
1. Ability to include social networking buttons - ideally being able to choose a few from a big selection - like in the WordPress "Social" plug-in.
2. Some area on the page where any code allowed in a standard HTML page (e.g. javascript) can be entered. I suppose that would be a big can of worms?

I see that inline CSS works, so that's great!

Hello Brian,

well, I recently "re-did" my paintings here, converting into pngs and the Mb's exploded! so maybe they are slightly more worthy of printing now. I realised long since that I need to get a really good camera to re photograph the paintings which I still have, in order to obtain a much better resolution. I can't tell myself, which are not so good (artifacts, blurriness etc) though I know most of the ones I photographed are still inferior. I'd be interested to see them without the compression though. If you would have time? I need to know about this because the POD runs out soon...to renew or not to renew----??

I must say, I don't get many "hits" at all ( which could depend on the type of work I do) and would still like to know what "bots" are! I agree with Sandra, that the visiting by fellow artists at faa should be left out of the count completely, so that we really know what's going on.

Although faa is an art reproduction printing forum mainly, I would like to suggest that any exhibitions, shows etc. be made more prominent for everyone to see. My next exhibition, end of April here in Germany is impossible to advertise in the events section, because the location will not get recognised, so it doesn't function. I know it's fairly irrelevant, being so far off in Germany, but it's does reflect on my activities and status as an artist. My querie to support didn't get seen? (PS. It works now thankyou because Nürnberg has to be spellt in English which is Nuremberg without those dots)

Otherwise....I also think your attitude Brian, to communication and identification with your project is amazing.

Rosalind

Brian,

I think that the premise that you are working from is great... and thanks for the communication to us. I'm very satisfied and looking for a way to make my images that much better.

God Bless!

I have my website at ZF and you have certainly given me food for thought.

I've generally been pretty impressed with the way FAA has been developing. Another point I think worth mentioning is that ZF is specifically for photographers.. and there are references to photography on all of their templates. ZF is an photographers site with some artists using it.. FAA/AW appears to currently be the opposite. Beware the dreaded bulk uploader... that basically allows photographers to upload huge numbers of photographs and numerically dominate artists.

At present I would describe AW as the just about the best website service I've come across for those artists looking to get their own starter or basic site. I've always seen the way you are heading as a logical next step for POD's.. is the plan to ultimately offer "a complete online professional service for artists"

The questions I would welcome an answer to (because I am taking AW seriously) are..

Will we be able to get full domain name integration with Artistwebsites ? ZF offers a handy create a friendly URL with its domain name integration facility.

At present ZF offers a lot of different site templates and print products with partners based in Europe,etc to reduce shipping costs etc?
I suppose what I'm getting at here is how far do you intend to develop artistwebsites from a basic site service ?

The sale of originals ? At present I don't think any POD (or ZF for that matter) is really seeing the potential in sales of signed art works.. and therefore signed works generally get a lower status on POD lay outs than reproductions. To really make me take AW seriously as a professional service for artists I would like to see AW layouts giving equal prominence to the sale of signed works.. in additional to POD's. I think if you are careful to let the customer know that "the work will be shipped by the artist and therefore all contact and queries concerning delivery" should be directed towards the artist rather than FAA this should make it possible.. I for one would be quite happy to pay FAA a % for dealing with the money side of the sales of my signed works. I can't imagine it would take much to restrict this service to pro artists you are pretty sure are delivering works regularly anyway.. to save on headaches caused by artists not despatching delivering works. Its that professional or basic service question again ?

I certainly agree with you that FAA is generally much more commercially focused than ZF in its layouts etc..

I also think the mailing list feature here is another major plus point and potentially a very powerful additional tool.. i don't know of any other POD offering this service. Maybe I'm missing something here but I would like the ability to make FAA a little less obvious on mail outs.. not because I don't like FAA but I feel that an FAA mail is more likely to hit the recipients trash or be trashed on opening than something that looks much more like an email directly from myself with a less obvious FAA link (saying "this mail was delivered by FAA the complete service for artists")

I wouldn't say I am ready to switch to AW yet.. the main issues for me would be all the links pointing at various pages on my ZF site.. the thumbnail and slideshow facilities at ZF.. but it is certainly something I see as possible future move. I have ten months left on my ZF subscription and will continue to monitor developments with AW with interest.

I certainly appreciate the SEO efforts going on here..

The one aspect of this that really is a big plus for me.. is your active involvement and constant development of the site. I think you have caught up and overtaken the POD opposition.. and your personal and active involvement is critical in this respect. Many sites only change maybe once or twice a year but FAA is constantly being improved. The way you are developing is very much the way I want things to develop. I feel you are listening to suggestions and implementing the best of them.. and have drive, business savy and a vision for the site. So for me I am watching developments here with real interest.

I think despite our carping from time to time.. most FAA artists are "on side" and feel a part of FAA's development.

If you were to outline the plans for future developments for AW and potential dates for these improvements.. it would certainly help.

The key question is "Will AW remain a basic website service.. or is it at the core of a wider plan to offer a complete online professional service for artists ?"

If all this stayed at $30 per annum it really would be ridiculously inexpensive..

P.S If you are looking for a UK based printer please contact me.

Brian, first let me say that since I found FAA I cancelled all my other POD portfolios like IK, RedBubble and Mygall because FAA is so much better...and what I appreciate most is that I can set individual prices instead of an percentage on the paperprice :-)

I LOVE the new Artist Website and am currently working hard on keywording, descriptions and linking. To see how it works I did some research on google. My new Artists Site doesn't show up yet but that should change in the near future because nearly each image on my own homepage is linked to the preview image on my new Artists Site or to my FAA-Portfolio.

I had the following results with
abstract art + fine art prints

web

place 9 for my own homepage where each image is linked back to my new FAA-Site or to my FAA-Portfolio
http://www.google.de/search?hl=de&newwindow=1&q=abstract+art+%2B+fine+art+prints&start=0&sa=N

and
place 19 for my FAA-portfolio
http://www.google.de/search?hl=de&newwindow=1&q=abstract+art+%2B+fine+art+prints&start=10&sa=N

Fine Art America itselves is on place 61
http://images.google.de/images?hl=de&newwindow=1&q=abstract%20art%20%2B%20fine%20art%20prints&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

regretably they are linked back to my standard shop...you may think why is she unhappy about that?
Well the standard shop site has no statistic...for that I have no idea how many visitors I get out of this and additionally there is nowhere a copyright statement visible and the images are without watermarks because they are directly linked to the sales pages. For this reason I never used the shop.

A search for
fractal art + fine art prints
is even better:

web

place 1 for my own HP
place 4 for my FAA-Portfolio with nearly every other fractal on here

On getting the word out about FAA, is there any plans to add a Twitter button?

This not for Brian, I assume he knows it all too well. But this I think should be made public here.

FAA has now members spread about the world. Not all of them have sophisticated hardware nor high speed connections as those in USA, sometimes the way to the servers can get real clogged seen from other parts of the world. There are probably members still using outdated OS or old versions of browsers. And I do not possess any updated great hard and software either _in fact it is almost primitive comparatively.

In this regard my preference for page loading over high resolution pictures is hopefully understandable.

However an option to preview the image at high resolution separately (print preview in High Res.) as a Pop Up or in a new tab would perhaps resolve this issue. That way a person would know it may take time. This my second reason why I am not in favour of too many widgets and gadgets and fancy enhancements.

Brian,

Thanks for changing the incorrect link in your original post from last night for the image comparison.

One thing I did forget to mention was - if you elect to change the visitor count, would you be changing it to reflect only NEW visitors? I know of two other sites which operate that way and do not count repeat visitorship. That does seem to give one a sense of how much new traffic is driven to AW/FAA. Or, would enabling Google Analytics be possible. I do find it difficult to create marketing strategems not really knowing my target audience.

Mushtaq: I don't think anyone was considering a 100 image slideshow presentation on their site. I think the original concept presented was simply to have perhaps a "catcher" of 10 or so showing the variety of work or similar. I wouldn't want to see a major "flash" presentation either. After all, the average adult can only visually take in about 75 images before losing interest completely. It would be nice if it was an option and each artist could then elect to use it if they so desired.

I personally would not want any of that flashy stuff on my site....no slide show for me. Visitor counts are fine by me since my major targeted demography is those I interact with. I do not develop new markets by sending them cyber stuff. My contacts come personally, or through facebook and general media things like the newspaper, the local NPR, giving talks to groups, etc.

Activities like this Saturday when I do my regular downtown plein air at the Farmer's Market (we close off downtown streets and make it a "scene") and then become an attraction for one of the team's display areas for raising funds for breast cancer research in another part of town by hanging framed paintings and doing plein air and sketch portraits to raise money for the event. Oh Yeah, I am the Organ Grinder's Monkey for the Sheriff's Deputies Tent. I will hand out handfuls of cards with my website on it. I am kind of a "homegrown" type.

While I think FAA is the best site around I do think other sites have better features for displaying and managing gallery's. I have dropped my membership in all but FAA and Zenfolio.

Well put Charles. I am still grinning. I don't particularly like slide shows either but there are a lot of people out there that enjoy looking at them and having the ability to pause on a particular image. When you have gorgeous big murals such as you do and,your Saturday markets with its activities, it is easy to draw attention. Most photographers have a business plan which may or may not include stock photography, fine art prints or signed and numbered, custom printed and very limited edition prints. It is a bit more difficult for us particularly in large cities. Mind you, I am not complaining, I do well but have always played things from the business plan side. Just my upbringing I guess! I deal a lot with galleries and they wind up handing you page after page of people wanting your "latest and greatest" email posts so, unfortunately, I have to deal with a lot of that cyber stuff so seeing accurate visitation numbers for specific images becomes important.

As far as the slideshow, a small one or an option to link to one (as many already have in place) is personal choice.

Brian - thanks for the email. I agree with you, the images are fine and "print ready". Thanks for the review!

if you want a video, use picasa. it's easy enough to create and upload.

brian..artwanted has widgets available..i'd so much rather use faa's...PLUS, you can embed those widgets everywhere ...if faa offered them, we could be advertising even more in lots of other places for you..just a thought.

I am with Charles I am afraid. I seriously do not want slideshows and flashy widgets either. Fine Art should be viewed one at a time as you would in a gallery in the real world. Slideshows tend to make people just look at loads and see none.

However, this is my personal opinion which has been known to be wrong.

That's why there's chocolate and vanilla, Beth! I, sadly, like both!

Seriously, I am not a big fan either because I have seen some dreadful presentations on the web. But, on the other hand, I recently saw one very professionally done and only 6 images which, I have to admit, caught my interest. It was a button so it was elective - the customer didnt have to click on it if they didn't want to.

My point though - I had no idea of the caliber of work until I saw the slide show and then I entered the site and went through 5 galleries - normally I would peek at one. The slide show took less than 12 seconds and, thank goodness, didn't have music!

yes, those slideshows that have 50 images and music are the pits! Perhaps that is what has put me off them for life.

I am extreemly pleased with the services FAA has to offer. It was nice to hear from one friend who commented that my images were well protected. She must have tried to make a copy of one of my images. I have another website that I set up prior to joining FAA and I became concerned about those going to that site as it was unprotected. Since then, I have learned how to add watermarks to each image, which is a very timely process. The ease of this site is wonderful, the printing quality is stellar, and I love that I can communicate with other artists from all over the world. I too have guided artists to join FAA. Thank you Brian for your dedication!

beth, you have some control...music, no music to record, music, no music to listen to....the speed of changing images and how you go from one to the next.....each artist can decide how to best set his up. i like to do mine in series...so the amount is not overwhelming. you can also add commentary...which is pretty col when you think about the artist talking you through each piece....

and the'res no accounting for individual tastes...i once made one of all my available work..put some very quiet, tasteful music on..like what you'd hear at a massage....the client hated the music and wouldn't look at the art!

well said Sandra, yes I have chose a place where my preferred style can be orchestrated rather easily (and is charming to the eyes) - I do realize my system is not likely to give positive results in large urban centers thus there will be need for other types of marketing, by the way, I wish you good fortune with your efforts.

I spent too many years doing point of purchase signage so I am stuck with the kiss principle and follow it almost religiously - oops, treading on sacred ground here ;-]

Slide Shows can be a good way to get some people view you works who might otherwise not but as Marlene and others have expressed they turn a lot of people off especially if the music does not suit their taste. Giving a link to one is fine but forcing you visitors to sit through one is just nuts.

Brian,

I have to tell you — I am not new in the art experience, but am new to the art online one. I researched many of the other sites (some you mentioned) before joining any. By that research I found FAA. I read the features, knew your site was new, and I made my choice. I found FAA easy to follow, easy to read, most artist's work looked very good (though be it really a mixed bag of art overall) and the cost to the artist to join....FREE, if they want, or the yearly $30 was very affordable for most anyone. As for problems with how an image looks.....I knew that those images have different color and appearance depending on the computer and monitor used, plus the compression given. So forgivable to some extent.

I will say I am a happy artist having joined. There is much more for me to learn...marketing wise and per the image quality uploaded. That does worry me for it is difficult to be sure that my image is actually going to be OK....for print making at the time I upload it. So hope to see improvements, plus learn more for them to be better. Anyone has to know that if their image is blurry, too small of pixel, out of focus, shadows everywhere or shiny when enlarged, then that image is NOT going to make a good print!

So Brian, all I can say you have taken on a huge endeavor to give artists an opportunity to SHOW their art or photography to the world. You constantly are looking at improvements, you answer the artist's questions and this "art home" you have created is one that artist's should praise. Yes, it is by asking questions that improvements are made, so it is good to ask.

All I can say is thanks, I am happy, I want to learn more, I want my art to improve, making a sale is important and yes, gratifying in so many ways and does takes time. The interaction with other artists is both fun, sometimes funny and a learning time, too. I love having my art seen and hopefully enjoyed. And yes, keep on making your improvements. Those who criticize need to learn to be criticized. Criticism is one of the early things an artist learns....if he/she cares to be an artist!

THANKS for what you are doing for all of us.
Mary A.

I use to tell everyone I knew that was connected to the art world about this site. I directed everything I had to it, Encouraged other artists to join, and challenged every negative I could find on the web about FAA. My dissatisfaction came when I finally realized no matter how hard I worked or tried if you wasn't one of the cozen you would never be recognized by the searches here.

What is the cozen, Tony??

Mountain William for the ones.

Que?

@ Sandra

First of just to clear the situation a bit: I read your detailed post and feel you have very well expressed your case. And I find your arguments and explanations absolutely legitimate and as photographer your wishes for improvement absolutely praiseworthy. I think precisely this aspect, the needs of a professional should be important to Brian, if he just does not only want numbers but also professionals.

But I think it worthwhile pointing out, that Brian is also helping artist _ of all cadres and in between all nations and some of them may not be really professionals in that sense!

I therefore felt in a way obliged to express the two other sides. The one that makes this site in a way unique and interesting for me and the other as a representative of those who may not possess sophisticated hardware, bandwidth, software, technical know-how etc. etc. and who probably also make the bulk of FAA around the Globe and are increasingly flocking in.

In comparison my own personal views should not count. Actually I don’t think I am at FAA for any real need _ except it being a source for links (at my website) to my Print-Shop _ that is less for marketing reasons and more as an enhancement for my own website. I always felt I should be able to offer this to my visitors and the ideal solution available considering my budget and for reasons mentioned in detail in my first post here was Of course FAA. No I don’t actually need personal website, nor the Google ranking or the visitor counts but I have nevertheless begun to love this place and thought it appropriate to emphasise those aspects that for many albeit “non-business” reasons I admire this site for. It is the reason why I mentioned to Brian; that I may not represent the average member of his.

This was meant to counterbalance those other absolutely more important aspects that a career and profession oriented members should legitimately and fervently demand.


As far as Slide show is considered (simple one or the one with more options) all I can say it should be available as an option at your own website.
And would certainly when well done and integrated within a theme only enhance the presentation _ in fact become an artwork itself. It does happen, albeit rarely. Most of the people generally tend to forget the forest for tress and may even get obsessed with it or worse not be able to manage it well!

At FAA it may even degrade the whole site!??

In fact if Brian gave too many options to us, including other widgets, it would mean:

1) A reorientation for the visitor every time he or she switched from one artist to another. I will bet on that each artist here will start cooking his/her soup just to be different from the others!

2) A improper use by the vast majority with just a few showing some star performances.

Think one of the greatest assets of FAA is just this User Friendliness and something bordering well on egalitarianism!

And I suspect that this aspect may be lost _ and along with it probably mar FAA’s uncluttered clean and free-from distractions look, if we had too many options.

However considering you as a photographic professional with legitimate professional needs, I do sincerely wish that you get all that you need _ that I well believe you would manage well with great artists sensibility so evident in your photography. Think I have talked about that before! Wishing you luck…

Yes perhaps we get the best of the all the worlds _ which means a viable compromise (chocolate with Vanilla)! :)

Mushtaq:

Like many of us here on FAA, multiple websites are maintained containing different features for different needs. I think the majority of folks here want the visitor numbers, comments and the options we currently enjoy.

If someone wants a slideshow on their bio page, it can easily be done now and many already have this. If Brian, however, wanted to enable his own slide show feature as an option, he has the ability to limit the amount of space available so that, as I posted above, perhaps only six images would show. For the people who are in multiple categories, I personally think it would be a benefit if done tastefully. It would have to be a "click" not an automatic start - on that point I definately agree with you. There are many artists here who could show their various talents in mutiple mediums which certainly is a bonus for them. For the photographers on this site, they could show their specialties as well as their graphic abilities. When you say it should be available at your own website - remember - for many artists on FAA their website is the new artistwebsite.com. I will agree, I don't care for widgets in particular but, again, that is just my personal opinion.

It's Brian's business and he has the option to afford certain features or not. It is not for us to decide what will work and what won't.

Yes! I'm with Brian 100%, he is absolutely right on everything he said. I'm relatively new here, maybe two month..but I've been on all websites he mentioned plus some more. Although I haven't sold any of my images yet, but just one feature that really stands out and has an enormous motivational power is "prints sold today (or recently)". To see this every time we visit FAA, is truly powerful and encouraging. All other websites hide this info. Not only that, the clear and simple layout where everything is simple to navigate, makes it most attractive to visitors. All others are cluttered with all kind of things. So, Thank you Brian! You really know this business and the art of SEO.

WOOW...

@ Sandra…

Of course I meant the artist website at FAA not the personal ones.

And of course it is for Brian to decide, don’t think I need to be reminded about that.

But he did want our opinions!

I have NOT in this specific case expressed mine, believe me, (that way I have a real flash on my front page more heavy than your proposed mini slide show _not opposed to that personally ) but did feel the need to voice the concerns (perhaps ungrounded but nevertheless viable) of those who may not be participating in this discussion nor be so well versed in English and of those who residing in countries with poorer digital infrastructure or in possession of of outdated hard- and software. Just to counterbalance as I explicitly mentioned. And the concern was entirely expressed in regard to the FAA website, not the personalised sites at FAA!

I do not think you have misread my post but I was bit surprised from your response. But then I may be guilty of having let things open to misinterpretation... Cheers! :)

I wasn't looking for an argument. I was only expressing my opinion, AS YOU WERE. Some things should not be discussed I guess.

I for one want to Thank Brian, For all the work put into this community and staying on top of problems.... Keep up the Great work !!!!! THANKYOU

Or discussed well and with more precise terms Sandra!
I realize I have not used the terms FAA website, personalized website at FAA and personal website very distinctively. The latter two should be none of my business. My concerns were specifically directed to the FAA website. Genuinely sorry if this created misunderstanding! Entirely my fault _ apologies!

Brian or Anyone,

Is there a sticky anywhere on general guidelines for uploading images?
Large JPEG or TIFF?
Dimensions?
File sizes?

I can't seem to find it anywhere.

Thanks !

There is William but I don't know where it is - the person to ask is Beth Edwards and her email can be found on the sticky discussions tab (or in various discussions she contributes to)...she is our 'official" answer person.

Brian please, may I ask you to remove the compression of the following pieces:

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/toy-box--fractal-art-karin-kuhlmann.html
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/double-loop--fractal-art-karin-kuhlmann.html
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/1-perpetuum-mobile-karin-kuhlmann.html
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/meeting-karin-kuhlmann.html
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/windmill-karin-kuhlmann.html
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/symphony-in-red-and-gold--fractal-art-karin-kuhlmann.html
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/changes--digital-painting-karin-kuhlmann.html
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/approach-karin-kuhlmann.html

William, go to upload your art and it is on that page, under the browse area.

I found it Beth, thanks !

Hi Brian I would like to have the compression taken off my images as well just to if it helps... my thumbnals just don't pop the way they do on my screen and my other sites, one of the sites is... http://nzphotographyprints.blogspot.com I have written an article on this same blog (Selling Photography Prints Online) pushing FAAs virtues - and for good reason you offer a great online selling platform

What I would like to see as an option on our personal sites is the choice of changing page colours - like we can adjust the header and font colors etc, my choice of course would be black which helps pop the dull thumbnails

As I mention in by blog post FAA is the best deal on the net - it will even better if we can get my thumbnails to POP hhmmmm :)

Regards Ian

Brian,

This vehicle has been the greatest of exposure to me. It has challenged me and I have learned much from the discussions and tips from everyone. Thanks again.

The one question I have is about Watermarks. I realize that they can be misunderstood by the buying public, but my concern is really more about being pirated easier because my offerings are usually in Black and White. The Watermark feature does not show up when turned on for these pieces. Is there a way that watermarks can be made to accomodate Black and White?

Thanks.

Glenn, that is a good point and am sending your question to him direct as he may miss it here.

I have hesitated to post anymore of my black and white images for the same reason. One showed up fairly recently on a site overseas which had been lifted from FAA. I was able to get it taken off the web in minutes but...the concern still remains. Thanks for bumping Glenn's concerns to Brian. I think it needs to be addressed as well. Like your new avatar Beth...

Thanks Sandra :)

Brian, I really like everything you have done on FAA. I am pointing all my new sales or promotional brochures, etc to my website here on FAA. Thank you. Monika from Canada.

Brian (or Beth?!) I take your advice very seriously, and I have really been trying to touch up and brighten up images in photoshop since you have been stressing the quality, and I have many more images to touch up, but I'm getting there. I'm just afraid I'm getting paranoid at this point, and I'm wondering if I'm brightening them too much. In photoshop they look good but when I upload they often seem too dark, so I'll go back to photoshop and brighten more until they seem bright enough on the site... If anyone has a moment, could you let me know overall if you see anything that is too dark or washed out? Like I said, I'm still doing what I can, but I don't want to overdo the brightening.

To me the brightness is just right. Is your monitor calibrated? Sometimes the auto brightness setting of the calibration system or the computer can throw things off. You do wonderful work and they all look very good both as to brightness and color in my humble opinion. I looked at one or two in each collection so may have missed one but even the thumbnails look good.

Angelique - I just looked at your work on two different computers, and I have to agree with John. I think it appears perfectly fine. Of course, I cannot see the original. My work appears a tad darker on this viewer also so I understand how you feel about lightening the images. Perhaps an email to Brian directly would help alleviate your fears. IMHO also.

It is exciting that Brian is into SEO and that the FAA artist website is focused on this. I can't wait to dig deeper into the artist website features.

As a owner of a tiny web design firm, Flint River Web Design, LLC, and a painter, I want to point out a few important facts about your art, your brand, and your website.

1. Nothing can replace having your OWN website, in your OWN name. Period. Relying soley on another company, like FAA or Fine Art Studios online to your web presence is a mistake. Remember the now defunct Boundless Gallery?

Like when Tina Turner divorced Ike, ALL she asked the judge to award her was HER NAME.

2. SEO is more important, in my opinion, than

Brian,myself Richard Brooks and fellow San Antonio artist Monique Montney are not showing up when we go to artistwebsites.com I was on there until 2 days ago. Appreciate your looking into this.

Brian your hard work and dedication are what has kept me loyal to FAA. Anyone asks me about my work I send them here. I know my customers will get the best prints. And you've made it so that our representation here looks ultra professional. I don't know what else we could ask for except possibly a meet up in New York once a year -- air fare and meals included. :-D (heee)

I agree with Debi

And thank you John and Sandra for taking the time to look at my images. I really appreciate your input!

debi has the idea... a shin-dig in N.Y... that would be interesting and has enormous marketing potential...

Who else is from NY?

Hi Brian,
Ive been on FAA for almost four weeks and love it here!

Have also played around with my personal website, presented by you folks and blog on it as well.

Am delighted with what I'm getting here and dont belong to any other artist websites.

Keep up the great work and many thanks.

Hi Brian,

Yes agree with you that the FAA website offers something that other websites don't and that is the excellent originals/prints for sale facility. There is no doubt that the service you provide in bringing artists together equals none other.

However, whilst I risk being stoned for what I'm about to say..... I'll say it anyway because it's done in the spirit of wanting the best, and in support of this website in becoming the best in all aspects

Firstly it's all very well being on a site that has more than 33,000 (?) artists, but in terms of promotion of an individual's artwork, that is a questionable, particularly when a customer arrives wanting to buy a work, and yours is probably 33 pages down the line......

Naturally I understand that there are many reasons such as the tags artists place on their work, which can be confusing, but the search facilities don't seem to work that well, and it's also unclear how the first piece of art is chosen to appear. As each time you do the search the same artists show, I'm presuming that's because they do most of the sales, which some can argue is fair, whilst others will disagree.

I've not found the search engine on the site to be that effective, in that when I enter a search for a painting, that is mixed media, the results are digital and fractual photography. When I click onto those paintings, they don't even have the tags that I search for.

I'm hoping this is some kind of system glich that can be put right...... it would be extremely useful to have suggested tags as well as personalised ones when loading a pic, as I think that would help us all immensly.

In competing with 33k of artists I personally don't hold any hope of a customer finding me on this site to purchase my work. However, in terms of self promotion and that of the galleries I use, I believe this site will become an unrivalled asset, especially if I get my wish of an RSS or HTML link that will make the purchasing side look like it belongs to my site rather than have to go to another website which doesn't suit my needs. For this I would willingly pay more than $30............

I am now ducking.................... xx

Dear Brian, thank you for your most interesting post.

Have I thanked you personally for giving me my very own artistwebsite ? if not, may I please take this opportunity to thank you personally.

I'm hoping to learn to personalize my personal website, as i learn, it will take time, but i want you to know how very much i appreciate everything you have done and all that Fine Art America offers its Print On Demand (POD) Members/Artists and how much I am growing to love this website and to be a part of it each and every day :))

Karon Melillo d'Vega
03 June 2010

Anna, don't duck from me: I couldn't agree more, and most of us have noticed and said the same things, and I think you know by now that this issue is being seriously addressed by Brian as we speak, and I too am patiently waiting for the changes to occur.

Out of curiosity, I went to Home Page, "Shop for Fine Art", then "Medium".."Paintings", .and what used to be there were mostly pages of computer art,as you say, all of which extremely beautiful, but hardly a cross-section of the Mediums available.

Well, now when I go there, to Paintings, after Medium (above) there is a wonderful change towards a much much bigger cross section of Paintings to include many many more "original for sale in POD" as well as computer generated artworks. I was very pleased and surprised. What's so interesting is that this proves that our discussions, replies, posts are being seen and acted upon, AS PROMISED. Well done, Brian, et al.

< ( ^ __ ^ ) >

Hi Karon, glad of your thoughts about the quality of uploads, they add to what already's been said, but personally, and lol, I'm glad you just got here, because until recently I was an embarrassment to faa and myself, but through this topic/this thread and the help of lots of Honest people who explained what to do better, I now am much better able to present the photos of my work to be almost good enough for POD....it was and is a struggle for some painters to get better photos....but this thread tells it all as well as all the comments....I think you're work is lovely and beautifully presented. I'm about to buy a TRIPOD, lol !!! Who'd have thought!!! That's the priority instead of another new brush.All in the name of FAA/Premium/FineArt. . Cheers, Vivian

< ( ^ __ ^ ) >

Hi Karon, enjoy your visits and your times away. Must say, I've searched everywhere for a time when I spoke to YOU without correct spelling, and just cannot find that "mistake" anywhere. Never mind. Glad you're happy in your life.

Dear Vivian, i truly enjoyed reading your post thank you for sharing with me how people have helped you, photography of our work is most challenging, i find it much more comfortable to paint than to photograph my paintings, i am so glad you write your thoughts on photographing your artwork, ... and I want you to know how much I appreciate your feedback on this subject .... Thank you very much for your kind words

< ( ^ __ ^ ) >

Hi Karon, you are such a gregarious girl, it's lovely to hear from you again. Re the tripod: I've found one that fits my Sony camera, and am waiting for the right time-slot re the credit card bill, lol, to do the damage...it willhelp enormously and has been told to me to do by most of the regular wonderful photographers here, who are always helping we painters to obtain better images, because I have a hand tremor which works really well in my artwork, but reduces photos to a blur. I get one out of twenty tries on my shots, even with a good camera. Good luck, back to topic now.

thank you Vivian for your reply

Oh goodness, you do make me giggle. Yep, I'll change that v.soon, lol. It's an oldie, one of the worst ins tock. It's so bad, thanks for your thoughts, I'll go now find one a bit better (in every way)xxxx

EDIT: This is it! The last and only avatar for a while, till my birthday, maybe, or my 50th anniversary next year....still won't be gray: it's in the genes.

omg that is so funny!! you changed your avatar again! and now suddenly you edited your image to display a paintbrush! ahahahaha
did you paint that paintbrush? ..... i'm just asking .... :))

OH!! and as quickly as i typed my response, your new avatar OH wow~ we should call you the chameleon

I wouldn't mind that name, compared to some others I been called here, lol.....won't bring out the list !

All sounds good to me... I opened a separate artist website and find the time it takes to maintain it detracts from my time making art. I will shut down mine and come over to the full features of FAA. Thanks... quite a good sales pitch there... whether you intended it to be or not.

Am concerned about size of image upload limit (25MB) and ability to match the 300 dpi print resolution you do on your prints, cards, etc. I would like to be able to upload 100MB images and get them printed to 4 ft x 3 ft (original painting size). I think most of my images thus far are only workable in the first smallest 1 or 2 print sizes.... Surely it can be good for a customer to order a print and get a 70 dpi version because the artist uploaded something less than optimal.

An area I know I need some work is in creating good digital reproductions to upload... I am getting there though. Thanks much Brian.

wow! dear Jay ~ i wish i knew how it's possible to even TAKE an excellent quality image in the size you project of 100MB ~ i'm wondering how this is possible?

Yes, there is a lot of competition for sales on this site. However, everyone is different and looking for various forms of Art. The more we all promote, all the more people that will talk to other people and click on a few different Artists' sites. Your idea Brian of getting this site to the top of the rankings is an excellent way to promote everyones work. I am amazed as to how many people from different parts of the world have viewed my photographs and drawings and I am fairly new to the site. I have even been lucky enough to actually sell one of my images, and I am hopeful that more sales will come. Thanks for all the hard work you put into this.

Thank you Brian. Love every thing about this site. We are also lucky to have such a great moderator who does the work of 6 people. Thank you also beth.

awww thank you Thomas!!

Thank you Brian for all your hard work and dedication to all of us. I am fairly new here but think the site is fantastic and even if I never sell anything I love viewing all the wonderful art work and the great people associated with FAA.

I wish that my blog readers could post their comments on my personal sit. Is this possible? I think it is good. What do you think?

Your blog visitors off this site? This was answered over on the suggestions thread Andrey.

on my personal site on artistwebsites.com

ok, i undestand

I agree with everyone that having our own sites is wonderful. I do have a couple questions and perhaps I'm just to new to the whole thing that I'm not fully grasping the editing of the site. I noticed when editing my site I'm given only 3 font options to choose from however I've seen some of the example sites where the fonts are quite different from what I can actually select. I also wanted to know is there a way to change the background color from the standard white. I'm only seeing options to change the tab colors only. Thank you in advance.

Scott

Because of the progressive moves that FAA is constantly making, I cancelled my Artspan website last week. Keep up the great work FAA!

Scott there are two custom sites.

One is based here. On that you have more options but you share the search with everyone else on FAA, you have FAA mentioned everywhere and it is basically FAA with colour

That is in your behind the scenes area here under premium membership > custom shop

Your other site is on the artistwebsite domain

That one has less colour options but you do not share that site search with anyone else. It is yours.

that is over on yourusername.artistwebsites.com

Your username is the name you see in the browser, ie mine is elizabeth-edwards

This is only if you have paid the annual fee

Scott, different fonts in the header are created as an image. White background it is.

Cool.....Thanks for the quick responses. Much appreciated. Wasn't sure if I was missing something but now I know. Thanks again!

Check out my blog and let me know what you think!

http://janellesantner.blogspot.com/

Thankyou so much! :D

I think FAA/AW is a great site & a great deal for the money. However, I also use Zenfolio & sorry, but in using Google Analytics to track traffic to both sites, I get MANY more hits on Zen. I've also sold prints through Zen, where I've sold nothing here. (I've had them both for about the same amount of time.) I'm not trying to slam FAA, it's just the facts in my case. Again, as I said, this is a great site, but others have a lot to offer as well & I don't see the need of making comparisons & slamming the other sites on here. And you could be doing yourself a disservice by doing so. Here's an analogy: When I first got married my then husband & I were looking to buy a small truck. Every dealership we went to compared their trucks to Toyota's, trying hard to convince us how much better theirs were. That just told us Toyotas must be pretty good if everyone else is spending so much effort to convince us otherwise. We bought a Toyota...had it for 15 years.

Spend more time working on the wonderful upgrades you keep implementing & less time talking negatively about other sites. It's not needed & casts a bad light. Let FAA stand on it's own merit.

I think they are all different, but I like FAA. I think Zen is for photographers and digital artists, whereas Fineartstudio is for painters. I think. FAA is for everyone, but maybe moving toward or leaning toward digital (correct me if I'm wrong). If you search for Floral Paintings, for example, at least 30 percent of it on the first few pages is digital. By sheer number, and sponsorship pages perhaps, it could become hard to find oil paintings or acrylic paintings.

I'm going out on a limb here, but what if digital art was called Modern Art instead of Digital? I think a lot of people don't like the word digital, and I can understand - televisions are digital, digital anything perhaps doesn't sound artsy. It's just an idea, just a thought, but maybe if the category was Modern Art or 21 century digital art, or something, then for sure it would get a lot of hits and searches, but not overwhelm. I hope you don't mind my sharing this thought. I appreciate your openess to ideas and respect all you've done to make such an awesome site.

P.S. I put a few of FAA prints on Etsy.com It's a way to promote my originals, and prints from FAA.

I think some things look a lot better when people can see it framed. So, I picked out a couple of FAA frames, screen shotted them, and have them there. My page needs work, but here it is: http://www.etsy.com/shop/pattycleasby

Maybe it's a way to use them both to everyone's best interest.

How I can verified my own website andrey-soldatenko.artistwebsites.com to Google, Bing and Yahoo. I do it with my blog on wordpress. But I do not know how I can do it with my site on artistwebsite. Please, help me.

Add your URL to Google
Yahoo! Directory Suggest a Site
Submit your site to Bing

Do not use your own domain name that you are forwarding, if you are.... use the actual artistwebsite URL direct

Beth, the second - yahoo link - is broken. Thank you so much, I just added my url, sweetness:)

Sean - FAA is the best deal far and wide. I wanted a professional looking site, with an excellent page layout, clear shopping cart, pricing and printing information. A site that is easy to navigate for myself and my visitors.

FAA is all that and more - love all the marketing tools like your new pdf for printing a quick brochure for a potential client and the potential to license/sell my work to Disney was definitely a coup!

You have taken all the website worries away so we can concentrate on selling our work. The best part is a responsive owner dedicated to the sites success and continually involved with improvements!

Thank you Beth I do it. It is not verified but it is enough to achieve the goal, probably

Thanks Rose :) Just altered the Yahoo link

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post about problems, but here are my two biggest concerns as a newish user looking at signing up the for new deal and putting effort into uploading all my pics to fineartamerica:

1) The performance of the search on the main site is atrocious. Enter a search term on the home page of fineartamerica and perform a search and you will see what I mean. While members may well put up with this, your average surfer looking to buy will soon give up on the site. End result - a members-only site where sales are virtually non-existent.

2) The much admired http://www.artistwebsites.com/ is also hopeless for REAL users. Go to the home page and perform a search on 'abstract', for example, and you get this: "There are no images that matches the search term abstract." Try clearing the search and click on one of the products in the product list - again you get nothing.

I'm sorry but to me it looks very much like fineartamerica is promoting itself ONLY to artists, and not to art buyers.

Kevin,

The search on the homepage of http://artistwebsites.com does not work - that you for notifying me.

There is no artwork on that site. I'm probably just going to remove the search.

If you want to see how search works on a real artist's website, try some of these:

http://skip-hunt.artistwebsites.com
http://scott-listield.artistwebsites.com
http://barbara-keith.artistwebsites.com

Sean

Sean,

Thank you for the reply. I wonder if you have any comments about my other issue:

1) The performance of the search on the main site is atrocious. Enter a search term on the home page of fineartamerica and perform a search and you will see what I mean. While members may well put up with this, your average surfer looking to buy will soon give up on the site. End result - a members-only site where sales are virtually non-existent.

Thanks,

Kevin

Kevin thereis a major conversation about this My Faa Search Experiment: So What Is Going On?

Beth,

I believe you have totally misunderstood my concern. The thread you pointed me at is about where artists' works appear in the fineartamerica search results.

My point was that the speed of searching is poor. I can imagine users waiting patiently for search results to load when it's their own artwork they are looking for. Art buyers will, I suspect, simply hit the back button and go find another website to buy art from.

Kevin

ah sorry, I have never found it slow at all but I misunderstood, I apologise :)

thank you Sean,
you made this announcement in April 2010 and since that time, i have been striving to take advantage of these beautiful benefits you have given us

everyONE thanks you, You Sean, are so generous in all you DO and all you give us, especially me!

dear Beth, please forgive my late opinion and input as i read a previous post which prompted my response to tell you what Sean have given us is a beautiful
gift and has absolutely nothing to do with speed of internet server, the person complaining about speed of internet service really has no grief with this site as ... after all ... one would think in the United Kingdom there are many opportunities for high speed internet service, and speed of internet really has only to do with one's service provider and not with faa

http://www.cbs.com/late_night/late_late_show/

it's a............... great day for America.........
paranormal activity ......................

in your pants!
be careful when you google the words,....by careful i mean......

Is it Friday there? Thought so.

.............................................................................................................................................................In your pants??

Search works really well on my artist website....

Romanovna Fine Art

Does anyone use www.wix.com

? I'm starting one, and wanted to see if anyone has any experience to share.

and you started that on this post...because...?

because I didn't want to start a new thread for one question. I can if it matters.

Sorry doll, yeh why not x

well I searched discussions and this came up with the closest title. It's free websites, and so far, so good, I think.

www.wix.com/beasly/gallery major work in progress, but I just found this site half an hour ago.

Aloha Sean,


I am sure I have commented here before a couple of months ago ...... I saw this posting is at the top of the discussion thread again today and opened it to read the updates... You already know how much I appreciate the many benefits, features and options you have provided us with here on FAA.

I was having a look at the comparative links you provided on the very beautiful Lion painting by Romanovna Fine Arts, however, and on the other website the image is quite large, the pricing is clearly posted for sale on the right column of the page and I LOVE the black background. Most of all, the purchase link is a direct link back to her FAA portfolio. Perhaps it has changed since you first published this as it looks good to me. But I can tell you this, I very much appreciate what you are doing to optimize the power of the Google search engines. That is a very good thing and I appreciate all the help I can get :)))

I am wondering, is it possible that you could offer us more options for personalizing our portfolios?
I don't like the white background we have currently.

I would love to have a black or dark chocolate brown background. I believe the gradient black background has a much more professional appearance, the viewer's focus is directly on our image, the colours are vivid and really pop and our work looks so much more beautiful and vibrant when it is displayed on a dark background.

Mahalo, thank you so much for your kind consideration :))


Aloha kaua, I wish you a sparkling day.
E pili mau na pomaika`i ia `oe, Aloha au i� 'oe, a hui hou.

Sharon Mau
07 November 2010

Sharon Mau Photography Fine Art America Pro Account

It would be good, if "price default options" could be applied at any time and prices would change once all the works in the gallery. What do you think? I want to reduce all prices (my part). After a while I would have raised. It would be cool if it could be done with one button

I thought I changed the look of my artistwebsites page to have a black background and not a white one. Now I am confused, because I can't find all of those changes. It was a page that allowed me to add my logo to the top and change the colors of the background, fonts and navigation bar. This should be available for all pages, not just that one. (wherever it went)

We need to be able to change the background of both the fineartamerica pages as well as the artistwebsites pages so that we can personalize them more for our liking and to fit in with our regular personal website and fit with our artistic interests.

You can change the custom shopping cart you get on FAA site but not the one on the artistwebsite, this is because it already has a java background that changes with the images. Not the white background just behind the images but the actual main background.

Thanks. I finally found what I was looking for. http://fineartamerica.com/customshop/christine-hauber.html I like how this looks and would like FAA to eventually move in the direction of being able to modify each artist site so that we have custom options of colors and logo. In the meantime I will just keep working on getting more artwork up and available.

Also, is there a way to make the canvas 3d images be the ones that show up in the galleries rather then just the flat 2d version?

No, however, if linking from another site just send direct to the page you prefer

Aloha Sean,

I am moving your discussion thread to the top of the forum to make it more easily visible because I have private inquires today from new members who are unable to open/view/access their personal FAA website. I am also sending her a link to your profile so she may communicate with you directly.

I wish you a bright and shiny day :)))

Aloha 'oe,

Sharon Mau

Sharon Mau Photography Fine Art America Pro Account

Well you know what? Get this! I’m not happy. I use a 12.5 mg pixel camera for all my images. I also use professional lighting equipment. All I wanted was a simple greeting card and was turned down because the person that makes the decision that the resolution of the image was not good enough. Well guess what, the image was just fine. In fact, it was sent to me with no problem, except for one thing, I cancelled the order because the text was wrong. When I re-ordered it , it was turned down. Dawn Smith said that my image was imperfect and that I should re-shoot the painting or cancel the order. I cancelled the order. Today I received the first greeting card, and it was just fine. Of course I can’t use it because the text is wrong. Why was the second attempt not acceptable and the first was?

We are going to Mexico on Saturday. I wanted to take the greeting card there for everyone to sign. Unfortunately, I don’t have a greeting card for everyone to sign because It was turned down. I do have a greeting card that is perfectly beautiful, but the text is wrong. The man that I wanted to send the greeting card to is going through chemo and may lose the use of his arm. He has made a living for over twenty years serving food and beverages in this restaurant. Now he may never work there again. All I wanted to do was to make someone feel good, but because my image was not acceptable to Dawn Smith, I will never be able to express my true feelings.

Don't blame Dawn, no matter what you think, she is a brick and has seen me through from start to happy ending with courtesy, a smile and encouragement. I don't know who actually 'passes' the image for print. Do you??

Vivian, try to read my message from start to end. She was not fair.The print passed the first test when she was absent. It failed when she was there. Wait till it happens to you, then tell me to smile and be encouraged..

It did happen to me...and it was explained exactly what was wrong, but, I just don't understand any better than you do, how the first image passed and the second order of exactly the same didn't pass.....I'd want an explanation too...it's just not logical, but from my experience, Dawn surely isn't the problem, and you are casting aspersions and making assumptions, and I did read it through, that's why I answered intelligently with commiserations. Sheesh..

Vivian, I know you are intelligent, but don't fall for the oldest trick in the world. Dawn does not exist. She is there so that you have someone to blame. Dawn is the bad guy, so that you can't blame Sean or anyone else. She is the fall guy.

You and I face life so totally differently, Debra: You get on here with the attitude, I get on here with calm, sensitive...we're never gonna agree...poles apart...it would never occur to me that Dawn is a front from Sean....I just couldn't distrust like you do, and heck: what proof do you have of what you say?
EDIT: Just 'cause Brian is really Sean

PS: tAKE the good one round to the local print-it place and make a new card there

Viv, Love you!

Opposites attract,...mutual..!!! Always look forward to your posts: I mean it ! I do!!

PS: Get it done on a nice big card stock, so lots of room for signatures. and I'm really sorry about your friend, that's the important issue...hoping for the best possible outcome...you're just upset, and rightly so. x

It's too late to get another greeting card. We have to be there in a few days. Thanks anyway. This is not the first problem I have had in the name of Dawn Smith. Don't get me wrong, I like this site and the features that it offers. But let the truth be told, it is not perfect. I am not trying to cast aspersions, just assumptions. All I can say is that any transactions I have made have not gone smoothly and I have had to resort to contacting Beth or Sean Himself. If Dawn Smith were a real person, she certainly is not doing her job.

To Sean

Aloha, in reference to my Facebook account.... I have taken the leap and linked my FAA portfolio to my facebook account.
I am trying to add my FAA shop tab to link to my work, and the application settings tab does not appear in my FB account or profile drop-down menu.

When attempting to access application settings either through the privacy page or from the applications button I find there is no applications button. I have followed the directions you have provided, yet Fine Art America does not appear, there are no applications at all. It is simply not there.

Has it been disabled by FB?
Please advise

Aloha 'oe,

Sharon Mau

Sharon, http://apps.facebook.com/fineartamerica/. Check it is enabled.

Then you can go to Account (top of your page) > Privacy Settings > bottom left Applications > Edit Settings > Make sure it can post to your wall etc.

Then on your artists page, go to edit page, browse applications if FAA is not there, (bottom of page for browse) find FAA and add to your page. Then you can enable on your tabs.

Profile shops were stopped by Facebook on Nov 3rd. We cannot have them there now.

Please, tell me. how to use Discount Codes? If I put 50% discount, what amount will this discount (my price? producer price? transfer?)? What is the maximum discount I can set?

Sean, I want to sign up for POD, but am concerned that my paintings are not print ready. My knowledge of photography and computers is limited.
I have 12 watercolors uploaded. If I should be so lucky to have one purchased I don't want you to have a problem printing from bad photographs.
Also if I sign up for POD and then close my POD account later, would I still be able to keep my uploaded paintings on FAA. or would they be deleted.

Andrey, the discount code comes off your markup only. So if you wish to set 100% then it means you make no money off that sale. However, the buyer still has to pay for the framing and canvas etc. It is ONLY off your markup price.

Maryann, you can open or close a POD account and it will not affect your already uploaded images.

As for print ready then best to email support direct and ask them to take a look for you. support- at - fineartamerica.com

Beth, Thank you for your help.

Still having problems loading up Images for press releases. There is no place after loading showing up on the bottom of the page. Can this be remedied? Has it been disabled?

Please get back to me on this... Christmas is here!

Thank You.

Just a note to let you know that my problem has been resolved. Don't know why it happened except it must have had something to do with the Image itself. Thanks.

Thanks for letting me know, I had notified support but thankfully its ok now :)

For me, having FAA along WITH other sites is not an either/or thing. Some of these other sites you're mentioning simply do not fulfill the same needs or perform the same functions as the FAA. There are so many ways in which they're hardly even comparable that I don't even know where to start. Yes, I'm here on FAA. I love what I have here, and it's a great place where people can go to see what my work might look like framed or in a mat, on a card, etc. (although RedBubble does that too, and some of the others can be set up that way). The tools have gotten better & better. However, I have a much more comprehensive & huge site on SmugMug that fulfills needs I simply can't fulfill here, so I truly love SmugMug as well & will probably never give that up. As far as SEO, it depends a whole lot on many things you might do on SmugMug or elsewhere to improve your SEO. If you name galleries, caption photos & add keywords, your chances of getting noticed go way up. There are some things FAA does that Smug can't do -- this site has way more options for other artwork besides photography. Also, I would have to customize to get an events calendar on Smug. Here it's already set up for me.

Here are some of the things I do on SmugMug that are very important to me & can't be done just anywhere, & here you can see my site in action: http://www.winsomeworks.com
1. Full customization - I've tweaked & tweaked my site in ways that few such sites are able to allow.
2. Slideshows that are fully embeddable, have loads of customizable parameters, can be used on homepages, etc.
3. Family photo/snapshot galleries where I can allow my family to download freely if they want, or password if I desire. Also, they can buy small loads of small prints at reasonable cost & terrific quality with my choice of two labs. I can print-mark them, specify TONS of possible sizes, proof-delay, allow cropping, and do many types of post-processing directly on the site. Many products are available too: puzzles, etc.
4. I can also apply custom watermarks when & where I want them, & decide which galleries should have them.
5. I'm much less limited in my keywords. SmugMug will accept 30, and I often need them when I get into scientific/ plant names. Here on FAA, the number of keywords is character-limited, so if I come from a state such as Pennsylvania (which I do), I'm then severely limited in how many other words I can add once I've added Pennsylvania. That part is a real bummer here. I really hope it will change. Sometimes it's a deal-breaker on certain shots.
6. My galleries and also captions on Smug will accept apostrophes & other keystrokes which are illegal here. Sometimes I hardly know what to do when I can't name something with the logical name here simply because no apostrophes are allowed!
7. I can usually find out the precise contact info. for people who have bought my work.
8. I can make galleries public, private, passworded, or unlisted-- this is hugely important and means I can use the site as extra back-up.
9. I've got categories, sub-categories, & galleries-- great tools for organizing my displays.
10. I can get a Google Maps key & mark my photos on a map.
11. I have keyword pages, recent photos & popular photos boxes, search boxes that I can place where I want, and many pages I can add. I even have my blog integrated with SmugMug so that it's a seamless transition.
12. I have all kinds of sorting & arranging powers within galleries, sub-categories & categories that are too numerous to even list.
13. There are now virtual galleries and virtual copies that are really helpful in some circumstances.
14. I can upload videos, and also enjoy a partnership with Animoto to create videos from my photo galleries.
15. There are huge & amazingly comprehensive forums on SmugMug for info. on almost anything photo-related.

Gotta stop there. You catch my drift. There's a time & a place for all kinds of sites on this great internet. FAA is one, but it can't do everything!

Just to say hello from France ;¬) and how I feel fine with FAA, Sean's work and Beth support ...

The first important feeling I had here is that the place is alive ! You can compare your work with other artists, make friends, watch tendencies and challenge yourself ... One could say, especially photographers (and I am ;¬), that interfaces are not «flash» enough, diaporama needed, etc ...
For me it's the other way, the other multimedia graphic philosophy and if you want it at the same level of clarification, with a shop, a good simulation of the final product, a print, it's more expensive ...

Sean, one tiny thing is preoccupying me is the grey shade behind images in the personal sites when you choose the black background option ...
I prefer black than white background but I think there must be an option for that shadow to be chosen or not if you don't like it ...

An other thing I find awkward is that if I sold a print, there will not be my name here, may be it's a question of the additional cost of a back print or a sticker, but my name had to be on the print even if it's not a signature ...
I'd like to have the contact with the buyer too, is there a problem with that ?

The buyers privacy is very important Phil. Not many buyers like to be contacted. I know that I buy art a bit and I would hate to be contacted by the artist afterwards. If they wish to talk to the artist they can easily contact you. 99.9% of the time they do not want to. They can also subscribe to your newsletter if they wish.

I will let Sean know about the shadow on black background for you and the name on prints.

@Beth - whatever about being able to contact the purchaser, what is of concern, is whether or not the artist/photographer's name along with the copyright symbol is printed on the back of prints. Unless the artist/photographer signs the piece, then it leaves the piece of art/photograph totally unprotected. I know this isn't difficult to do, since smugmug provide this on all prints, so I see no reason why it can't be done here.

Yes, Philippe is saying the artist's name (or, I would hope... whatever the artist chooses) should be on the back of the print. And about buyer privacy... when I mentioned SmugMug, this is sometimes an option depending on the type of account. But you gotta realize-- if you're a pro selling on your own, you would typically always know who is buying from you anyway, right? (Otherwise, how would you send their prints or whatever to them??!) So if you have a "SmugMug Pro" account, it follows suit that you know this as well, if they want you to. Whether they want to contact you depends a LOT on exactly what you're selling. With photography, since what is being sold is generally prints (reproductions), there is often necessary contact between the buyer & photographer, about things such as crops, formats, finishes, you name it. In my case, EVERY person who's bought something from me on SmugMug has wanted me to have their contact info. Giving buyers the option CAN be very helpful. I sold a piece here that had a whole story behind it that was quite fascinating. In fact, the day they bought the piece I sat there staring at the order with my mouth open for about 10 min. I sure wish I could tell the buyer the story (IF they wanted to hear it) but we don't have that option, & it's a shame. If someone absolutely doesn't want the artist to know who bought from them, that's one thing. But the assumption shouldn't be that they don't.

It makes no sense to keep the buyer info from the artist. It's more than likely its to prevent artist from removing FAA as the middleman in future sales. As to Artist name and copyright they should be on the print somewhere!

It's only my opinion, but I agree with Beth that the buyer's privacy should be respected and that they can easily contact the artist if they choose. I also believe that FAA is not the middleman but THE man as they drive the buyers to your page, make the print, ship it and pay us our markup. We don't have to do a thing. To me that is all worth it. I can make and sell my own prints at any time if I want to. I choose to be on this site because it is effortless and I have other things to do like create new images.

Our name and copyright should definitely be on the back of all prints and cards as well. On the back of the card the name of the image is larger than our name and there is no copyright line. I would like to see it reversed.

david, it makes perfect sense, actually.
most galleries do not divulge this info because the business transaction is between the buyer and the seller and the artist is neither.
i have hundreds of buyers out there somewhere, and unless they do their own search online and contact me, i have no idea who they are.
can you imagine what would happen if greedy artists contacted established clients of a gallery and offered their wholesale prices?

on faa, you are not the buyer or the seller.

I've only been here a couple of weeks or so, and I'm still getting the lay of the land, so to speak. But it's keeping me very busy, with the many offerings for artists on this site, the groups and discussions, and learning what all one can do here. Very impressive. User-friendly, too. I'm happy to have been lead to FAA. After looking at a few other sites of similar type, I can agree with all of you about the positive aspects of this site. Thanks!

I think my concern is that my artistwebsite is not showing up in any search engines. FAA shows up and so do the other websites i am researching (i have several websites that i am using at the moment because i am researching just exactly how beneficial each one is to the average selling artist from an artist's perspective) , but that one.. well i can't seem to find it anywhere on the internet so no one goes to it unless i send the link directly. Could you fix that for me so it appears in the search engine? That might make it actually better than just having customers go to the main FAA site to see my work.

Reb, Google will start to recognise it the more you link to it from elsewhere. Also have you submitted it to Google yourself to hurry the proces up?

Add your URL to Google

Reb - Beth is correct. Just submit your site to Google, and it should show up within 5 - 10 days.

Beth - I noticed that your site isn't showing up either. I just submitted it for you. Had you submitted it before?

Sean

i do believe that i did submit it previously Beth, but it never showed up... but thanks for the suggestion. i will go back and do it again and maybe something will happen this time around.

No. I hadnt done that myself too busy telling other people what to do LOL

I realise that linking from other sites is just as important. I have not done a lot of that either so will get on with that too :)

Well Beth, i can tell you that your site seems to be there.. all four pages of it.. however my site did not come up and i still have to put it in manually. Perhaps its for the best since when you click on it, you get a full page advert for Fine Art America.. instead of being able to see my work..
Looks like a job for Sean.. I did check someone else's site as well and found a full discussion page on their site page...
When someone goes to my site, I'd prefer that they see my work and not the advert please..

Also, Sean, I've noticed that a few of my watermarks are not functioning, even though i clicked the box in the edit section and saved the page. Can you make sure that function is working appropriately because last week i had 13 of my works stolen by the same person.. from FAA, Amazon site and another site... so i will be watermarking all my work from now on..
And I would need your help on one other thing. On many of my paintings that i entered amounts of payment for specific sizes and thought they were saved.. but....... the amounts seem to have shifted, leaving all sorts of blank spots...here and there.. I don't know why it happened.. but I'd like to know if you can make sure it doesn't happen any more. This affects my payments for specific sizes.. so its serious stuff.. if i put in an amount like 50.00 and then the program deletes that info or moves it to another size frame... then it will look as though my work is not available in that size..!! Not good...
Thanks

Just a quick mention, My default for the watermarks is on, but I still am missing watermarks on many of my works.

http://reb-frost.artistwebsites.com/

Where is the FAA advert? Letting Sean know about your watermarks

Hey Sean.....just wanted to say thanks a million......I have thousands of hits on my artwork on FAA and it has led to sales! No other artistwebsite can compare for sure.... I am on a few others and must say they pale in comparison in every way. One, and I will not mention the name, is so confusing, I spent 3 hours trying to figure out how you upload my images....I never figured it out.... Thanks again for your tireless work!

Beth, I just read this post from Reb re: watermarks. I just checked on my pieces and several are also missing in my portfolio. I have the default set for watermarks and they were there earlier. Could someone check for me, please? Thanks.

When someone has an serious issues re their artistswebsite not showing up at all, or leading to other pages, or the watermark default system not working, or their price default tab not working properly, or a laundry list of other serious issues and glitches, it seems to me that we could stick to trying to resolve these issues here ,and perhaps use a different thread to thank faa for all their good work... Thanks.

Thanking Sean here for his work and letting him know that someone is having no issues, is as correct as saying if there are issues. No need for another thread as the subject is the same, the service provided.

OK Beth, good to know, because I was just going to open a new discussion to thank Faa for returning my Weekly Updates to me.
Yesterday I received them, for the first time again in about 6 months..Thank you Faa
and yesterday as well, my artistswebsite on google, finally led to my name, instead of to the Big Chat., Thank you Faa..Saturday was good!!
I realize that with 52,000 artists here, all our issues can't be resolved overnight, but it is important to have an unbroken thread where people can archive their issues, perhaps leading to a speedier resolution...again just my opinion, and again I thank Faa for resolving these 2 of mine.

Its here Beth http://reb-frost.artistwebsites.com/announcementartistwebsites.html
The first page that is now listed on google (if you look it up) is here:
http://reb-frost.artistwebsites.com/art/all/+city/framed+prints?page=2
It actually goes straight to the Prints page???
and the other page goes the link above and the last link to my name at that site went here:
http://artistwebsites.com/showmessages.php?messageid=350393

this is what is posted on Google
Fine Art Discussions - Fine Art America
View and post messages pertaining to the fine art, artists, galleries, and the fine ... Art Prints. Posted by: Reb Frost on 01/28/2011 - 2:41 PM. Reb Frost ...
artistwebsites.com/showmessages.php?messageid=350393 - Cached
but it goes to Viet Trans art discussion... LOL!!! how screwed up is that?

I've been doing a lot of research lately on art websites for an article, as i figure i will do a write up on them from the artist's perspective, with regards to sales, service and function ...but thus far, having dealt with over 10 sites at the moment (and counting) , I have never come across something like this...
payment amounts being deleted or rather...shifted.. website page links going all over the place, watermarks not working..... wow... whats up with that?
and you should see what is on this page: ganesh-barad.artistwebsites.com/showmessages.php?messageid... - Cached
or this site: http://ganesh-barad.artistwebsites.com/showmessages.php?messageid=271354&moderatorclosediscussion=true
Certainly not Ganesh Barad.. lol..in fact.. it is a nice article on FAA (by TEd Hebbler) haha.. So poor Ganesh is out of luck..

and if you go to this site dave-pattinson.artistwebsites.com/graphs.html - Cached which for some reason has my name in it the Google search as written here:..:

FineArtAmerica.com - What's Hot
by Reb Frost. 126. Summerlands Dragonfly. by Elemental Changes Art by Jennifer Stone. 92. I Choose To Live A Life Of Pur... by Laurie Maves ...
It will bring you to a bunch of other artist's works but not Dave Pattison's work or mine.....hmmmm? am i missing something here?
I've been checking a lot of the sites (while researching) and they seem to lead all over the place..but nowhere in particular...
So my question to Sean is... why is my name all over the place.. advertising FAA, FAA discussions, and other artists works, but not me?
Check this one out:

http://lolly-owens.artistwebsites.com/onlinemembers.html Its not Lolly Owens fine art page, its actually Who's online" page... hysterical...
I actually found Marilyn Smith in there... So Marilyn you are getting some solid advertising...on Lolly's page.. LOL

Okay.. I've had my fun here.. but the sad part is.. that i could go on and on... with pages like that leading nowhere..
So here's my point.. for Sean
I want my page to lead to my work and no one else's. and i actually want it to show up on the Google search appropriately... like the page you showed me Beth.. and not joined to discussion groups or other useless pages.
I want my work to be OFF of Amazon a/ since i did request this a while back in an email directly to Sean and B/ since it depreciates the value of my work and advertises for other artists as well each page.
I have no intention of using my credible name as an artist to sell other artist's (photography) works for them and my clients are not interested either.. In fact, they are appalled by it and have contacted me about it... So i started keeping notes on it...
So if Sean could fix the watermarks, the Amazon thing, the website pages, the shifting amounts, (and of course block that guy who sells garage doors who often uses my photo that links to FAA) then yes.. I'd be happy..
I realize it is quite a chore to undertake an online business as I've done it before myself.... but hey.. you have to control what you are doing with paying customers especially in this industry where many artists make their living from their work..
Thanks for your help Beth... I'm sure Sean will check it all out...

I have a my own web site, but was thinking about having one on FAA also. I am glad this is posted and I can read the feedback! Thanks everyone for your comments.

Brian/Sean you don't have to preach to me, I know it's an old post. I love it here!! I have almost ever internet thing available and only focus on the strongest which is HERE ,zazzle,facebook and bluecanvas. many of the others suck aren't user friendly,cost for crap they do and don't make sense how it's set up. So I say to all the people I refer to you to try out the free aspect first to see before committing and all love it!

Reb, that post was much more helpful, thank you. Making sure he sees this.

The watermark issue started when people asked for the shopping cart watermark to be removed. Something happened there to remove some others but not all. He is putting them back for people that lost theirs. It was all very strange. I have not checked mine yet.

Hi Beth, I checked my Default Edit Print Pricing once again,
but its still NOT working, the old prices still clearly show there along with some missing prices, and because it told me that my changes had been saved, I believed that my old prices had all been changed,they had not.
and in addition to incorrect prices.I still have the missing prices, though I certainly filled everything in. Can Sean repair this ,or do I really have to make these changes by hand?
Thank you Beth,..can you please make Sean aware of this too.

Wondrful Job Well Done!!! We really appreciate what you have done!!!


I Just wanted to point out that when you google artist's name (Mine for example) it takes you to the login page of an artist 's website (password protected), not the home page, please change that if possible...

The default pricing only makes the new prices default. It does not change old pricing. Only the edit bulk prices changes the old prices in one go.

Thanks Beth, I look forward to having this straightened out. You ought to probably check your work as well Beth, just in case. I will have to spend some time today, going through all my work and straightening out the dollar amounts that have shifted. I don't want to use the default as it may have the same problem as the watermark default.. Perhaps when Sean fixes the one issue, it will fix the other one as well.

and Leah, if it works for you and you are enjoying the site, then that is great..I am not here to deter people from using this site, I am just here bring some issues to light about certain aspects of the site that are not functioning appropriately (in case you didn't read what i wrote above)
Chat discussions should not be linked to the artistwebsites on the front page of their site.



This is an example:

Fine Art Chat - The Big Chat
Chat with other artists, gallery owners, collectors, and art ... 12:42:57 PM. fred have you had much success selling your art? ... Leah Saulnier ...
joe-bonita.artistwebsites.com/chat.html - Cached

It doesn't link to Joe Bonita directly, it links to a Chat discussion in which your name appears in the Google search on Joe's site . (The Big Chat)...Joe's work is behind it if you click on the upper bar.. but most people would look at that page and just leave because it is only showing who is online at the moment and some comments from people in the chat.. That is my point Leah..... among other things...


As members of this site, we should always bring anomalies to the attention of Sean to prevent further problems in the system.

Hi Olga, yes after just checking olga-hutsul artistwebsites.com, I found 4 listings there, for your artistwebsites, while the top header was yours, the rest of those pages were not, this is what I found, but not your own artistwebsite..
Admininstrator Login, Forgot your Password?, Fine Art Discussion,and Crave Color Group

PS..Beth, I would like to know if Sean will be working to fix and make fully functional, my Default edit my print prices..so I can update all my prints at one time...this is very important for me, as I have been advertising my prints on Facebook, to several hundred of my clients..
and plan on releasing more images later this week on Facebook... Thanks again.

ok..thanks Beth,..i will check the edit bulk prices right now...thanks again..

I'm just wondering - if Google's search results are generated automatically from the pages their spiders have happened to index, maybe the strange results Reb has found are beyond FAA's control?

They probably are Jane but it wont hurt to take a good look at why :) There may be something to stop it happening so much in the future.

Beth, you just said 'The default pricing only makes the new prices default. It does not change old pricing. Only the edit bulk prices changes the old prices in one go'. Where is this "edit bulk prices" tab located.?.

I just submitted my updated prices in 2 locations, Behind the Scenes in the Default Print Prices
and previously what I was referring to, the Edit Print Prices, located there on my public page,
along with the tabs for Upload new artwork,upload mulitiple, default upload settings,EDIT PRINT PRICES,edit greeting cards..

Beth,Neither of these 2 systems are changing my OLD prices. Is there a 3rd tab that you have referred me to,, the Edit Bulk Prices, that will perform that function for me, and where is that one located? Thanks again, would love to get this resolved today if possible.

Beth, i just figured out the problem with the prices shifting around in my edit page. For example.. if i post amounts in the first sections like these:

6.375"x8.000" e.g. $10.00

7.875"x10.000"

9.500"x12.000"

11.125"x14.000"

but lets say for example, i leave the rest blank because i don't want to sell in a larger size.... like this one

12.750"x16.000"
then the amounts i originally posted under these first sizes, shift down one spot...to an empty spot on a larger size leaving a blank spot where i had originally posted an amount. The only way to prevent this that I can see, is to put an amount in every size box. But that is not good because if i have a small artwork, even at high res, then I don't want to necessarily post it for 47.625"x60.000". Do you see what I mean? So now I must post amounts in every single box to ensure that the amounts remain as I originally posted them.
This is problematic and I'll have to go through all my works on here to check every one of them as I've already found several with this problem.

Bulk Pricing

Behind The Scenes > Artwork



Reb, adding that to the extra notification I am sending Sean now about all the issues

Thank you Beth.

BETH, thank you for your diagram..yes, what you just pointed out there on my Behind the Scenes page,is the one and the same
edit my printing prices that I have been telling you does NOT WORK for me, ...the bulk edit printing price as you call it ...
Please inform Sean that the 'bulk edit printing prices" is not working for me, I don"t have the time to change each price listing manually.
I have tried over the last several months to get this bulk edit of my prices to work, for my old pricing,
I submit my updated prices there, fill in each blank, but nothing changes.
waiting for you to inform me that you are passing along my problem to Sean as well as for the other people with issues..Thanks..

Hi Reb,

Regarding Google - it will take some time for Google to index all of your pages properly. Give it another week or so, and all of your pages should start showing up correctly. Here's a list of Karin Kuhlmann's pages, for example:

Karin Kuhlmann in Google Searches

She has 3,000+ pages listed. Your pages will start showing up like that soon, as well. Unfortunately, we can't control what or when Google does things.

Regarding watermarks - I have watermarked all of your images for you.

Regarding prices - yes, follow Beth's diagram, above. That's how you edit your prices in bulk.

Sean

Carole.

Go to that section

Put the price in for a size.

Click Apply

Do that with all the sizes, waiting for each one to complete (scroll down and you will see the prices changing...it takes a while.)

Once you have done all your prices and all have changed below, then click SUBMIT

Beth, yes thank you, I had already successfully edited the prices a few minutes before receiving your faa email re this discussion.
This time thankfully it worked!..Have a great day and thanks.again..

i was just checking and i did do what you recommended Beth with the edit procedure for my amounts, then i uploaded three photos, but there was not any amounts showing by default.. so i put them into a category, (photographs) and added amounts in the default and then saved... i then went back to check the other two photos to ensure the default amounts were there..but they weren't ....but it appeared that one of my photos had picked up all the information from one of my paintings already posted on FAA and saved like that!!! I'm still trying to figure that out... its weird.. but i have to delete that photo now completely ... This can be frustrating and time consuming sorting all this out... lol..

Reb,

The "default settings" affect all future uploads. To change your default settings, login to your account, click on "behind the scenes", and then click in the "default settings" icon.

In order to change prices on existing uploads, go to your artwork tab, and click on the button the says "edit print prices".

Everything should work exactly as expected. If you still encounter any problems, please let me know.

Sean

I will add to the HOW TO shortly about defaults and bulk pricing

http://1stangel.co.uk/FAAFAQ

I'm going back to read all these posts, but I'll say, I am extremely happy to be a member of FAA, thanks to a friend and fellow photographer, Lana Trussell, who started posting her images on her facebook which got me curious. I didn't even waste time and immediately paid for membership. That's only been a couple months, and I've already sold two greeting card images in January! Sure, it's not much, but it's more than I EVER sold through SmugMug and after five years? Need anymore be said!

I originally loved my SmugMug but it has become labor intensive and I never saw one sale, not even from the events I was covering which was odd. In fact, I had so many hits I worried. Then my son told me my images were easily lifted as he tried it. I also talked with other photographers who have full pro accounts and they too get no sales.
So for what I pay over there, I'll probably let it go, with such a tough economy, it's really not worth outlaying that cash and time.
So if anyone is in doubt, that should be testimony enough.
Thank you Brian and FAA!

Now I'm heading back to bed, some kind of stomach bug. Just sitting up was work.

Thanks Sean, i had already set the default prior to uploading though. But I am uploading more later today so I'll check and see if it comes up as you said... and Beth, thats a good idea to post that so other people with problems can troubleshoot it...
Toni I hope you feel better soon! Sorry to hear about your SmugMug experience.. I'll make a note of that!

Okay.. just to let you know, the defaults now worked when i uploaded.. thanks.. I will let you know when the artist.website thing begins to function properly (in a week) though it should have functioned like that from the beginning since its been sitting there for months like that.....I just wanted to ask,... Does the site get set up faster if you are a photographer rather than a painter?.... or perhaps does it work faster for someone who sells more on FAA than for someone who sells less.?
I'd like to know please.

If you are talking about Google, there is no difference at all in the speed. It is entirely down to how it is marketed by the artist and when Google starts to see it being linked to.

The more links to the site the faster it gets seen by them.

Hello Sean, I'm a new member and working out the kinks. First, I'm trying to sponser a page, I posted the link on my web site but your still telling me that they can't find my site. When I confirm my site, i'm there and I see my link to you. What am i doing wrong?? Next I want to direct my home web page to you as well how do I do this? My web page is desireeroseartist.com. Thank you Desiree Rose

Hi Desiree, as this is an issue not with the artistwebsites but the search here in this site, could we discuss this in this thread New Search Feature

Thank you. I will go there and try and help

No Beth, i was referring to FAA.'s protocol . lol Have a nice evening..

Ohhhhh I dont think so to be honest.

Well this is all sweet and nice but I've been on that faa artistwebsites.com and am not being sen by anyone since I started it and paid for it.

No url. Beth rtells me it will be 3-5 days before I am on it(the web) but I paid for it many months ago.

I have had business card, flyers and brochures printed in time for this coming weekend's(Feb. 25th)big home show where I have a display of art. If my
websites acsite is not available I will not be able to sell any prints.

Vincent. You are on the web now. Anyone going to your site will find you. You say you have business cards made? But you asked me today to send to support for a site name change. This means those cards are useless anyway then as they will be pointing to the wrong address.

What Sean meant in the email about 5-6 days was that is how long it will be before people can put your name in GOOGLE and find you. Not how long before your site is up on the web and can be linked to.

He has already changed the name as you requested and the new url is http://vincentvonfrese.artistwebsites.com/

If you want it found on Google you must link to it on other sites and submit it to Google which Sean did for you.

Mystical Art by Pauline Ross

that Url I post for FAA on that page, does not lead to me on FAA..........why?

When I google the other one, pauline-ross.artistwebsites.com, it also does not lead to my webpage on FAA. It brings up a blog page and chat page in the search. ?????

I am relocating soon and will be reprinting all my marketing info..............Can you fix this issue with google? And what about the older Url on my personal webpage?
I have most likely LOST sales for here, because they cant get here using google or from my webpage. Now what?

Pauline, if you look at your url here you will see you have put the wrong link on your page. There is no www in your page address.

As for Google. No-one can fix searches on Google as has been mentioned in another thread.

now Im really confused.

Beth on my personal webpage not related to FAA, I had the original link placed to my FAA page I started off with over a year ago pre-artistwebsite days. When clicked, it goes to FAA main page and not my FAA webpage. So there should be NO www on it ya mean? Oy.

Beth,
A question about watermarks. Quite some time ago I went through all of my images and placed watermarks on them, and I have continued to check watermark for images uploaded since then. Now I am finding that a good share of the old watermarks are missing, and when I have tried to check the watermark box to replace the missing ones nothing happens. The recent ones seem to be fine.

I would like everything to be watermarked in all sizes possible. Is there anyway that can be done once and for all for everything?

Thanks,
Ann

Yes Ann, I am asking support to do your images for you now. (May take a little while for them to get to my mail but they will do it once they get it)

So this watermark thing has affected many people.. perhaps it would be wiser to post a major note on it on the main discussion board.. that way people who previously had watermarks can let Sean know if they went missing like mine and Ann's.

Not everyone would see it or search for it Watermarks not displaying

Beth,
Thanks for sending my request on to Sean. Very much appreciated.
Ann

So now Im checking for watermarks and found MANY images so far missing them. I tried editing again and still no show of watermark.
Ok now what..

What is going on?

Watermarks not displaying I will let support know you have some missing.

Beth,
Just checked my images and am pleased that the watermarks are back and the images are really sharp and clear! That is great!
Thanks to Sean and you too!

Glad you got sorted :)

Beth and Sean, bit of a dilemna for me. I changed all my existing prices, as per your instructions, checked the first couple of pages and all seemed fine,,the prices had changed..
However this evening I was contacted by someone interested in purchasing a print here,he needed some advice, so I went to view the painting in question, and all the old prices were still showing on that piece..checked a lot of others, they too were showing the old prices.
I am very upset by this, I need to count on having those new prices in place when a customer is interested .
I can't change the prices now,because this man will consider me to be rather dishonest, which I am not.
But if I dont hear back from him by the weekend, I will attempt once again to edit ALL my existing prices.,.the procedure is simple and understandable,,,problem is.,.it didn't work.. .

Beth,
Will you please thank Sean for me for redoing my watermarks? Every page I checked looks just fine, and therefore I am confident that that is the case with them all. Thank you, too, for being the go-between. I appreciate you both.
Ann

Carole, I suggest you contact support direct support- at - fineartamerica.com as I have not heard of this before and they can work with you direct.

You are welcome Ann, glad everything is ok now :)

Hello Brian,
I've been trying to figure out how I customize my website???
I am feeling a bit stupid here. I have been trying to follow what appear to be simple directions. For example, "To customize the appearance of your website, simply visit the site and login using your FAA username and password." I am not seeing where I log in on this site. I am also not finding a "control panel" HELP!!!!!!!!!
Julie Jensen :-/

the login is on the menubar for your personal page...2nd from the left i think. then you use the same account information as here.

@ Julie

Go to http://julie-jensen.artistwebsites.com/

Log in



It is all on the top row :)

Sean... My weekly update had no pics in it at all.. just text ... I never had a problem with it until now... Could you fix it for me for next Sunday's weekly update please. :)
Thanks

Sean, I received my weekly update on Sat.Feb.19 and Feb.25 , just fine, but this past Sat. March 5th, I did not receive my weekly update.
Would you please reinstate this feature for me,I have not changed a thing on my computer or my account, I am receiving all other Faa emails, there should be no reason why I received the Weeklies Feb 19 and 25th, and then they abruptly stopped....
Could you fix it for me for next Saturday's weekly update please.
Thank you.

hello Beth,

I am new to Artistwebsites, edited keywords and titles of my 25 artworks as good as possible, but so far not too many people visited my page, what is the reason?

Pete

Hi Pete,

Unlike FAA, where they do all the promoting to get the site high on Google, etc, the AW site is a promotional tool for the artist which means you are as responsible for marketing it.

You need to link to it everywhere you can, submit it to search engines, and basically promote it yourself using your tools provided.

Sean, I wanted to report here and to thank you, I just got my Faa Weekly Updates back this morning, thanks again for sending them .

Hi, Just sent an email regarding URL but am not sure what to expect or if I should have posted the information here. I have not found a way to update/change the URL that was automatically created when I signed up for your paid service. Can you please advise me as to what process to follow to have this updated?

Thanks you.

Andy

Hi Andy, you have done the right thing if you want the actual name changed in the URL. support- at - fineartamerica.com can normally do that for you.

Hi, I'd like to know why.... when i post pics in my gallery (new ones) they don't show up on the "Todays new Artwork Page"? I just posted one a little while ago and i noticed it never showed up.. nor did some of my other ones in the past.. Could you please check out why that is happening for me. Thanks..

Heres another one for you... hope i get a response to this one..

I just found my paintings on a site called BlackPearl Sims. The paintings are being used in a virtual realm.. Now i would really like to know how these paintings that are "ONLY" on FAA got to be in the hands of a virtual reality community used as decor in a SIMS house. (along with paintings by other artists) since mine are all watermarked on FAA??? But i don't see any watermarks on them on this site...??

http://www.blackpearlsims.com/showthread.php?40925-October-2010-Simple-Life-Sims-3-Downloads

But i thought i had better let FAA people know that there are a few other paintings on there as well.. possibly from other FAA artists being used. So if you do country scenes, or roosters, or cows, rolling hills with round trees or anything like that.. you should have a look at that page and scroll down it.. If my works ended up there so easily , then I wonder how many other artists works are being used in the virtual homes of SIMS and Second Life etc..?

While i find this somewhat amusing, (mainly because these SIMS seem to hang more of my paintings in their house than i do in mine) lol.. I also find that my work is not sufficiently protected.

Notified support of your post.

Thanks Beth.

Looks like the categories have been cleaned up a lot. I only found a few Digital art pieces displayed under Abstract Painting. A few months ago it was the first ten pages.

But the Mixed Media still has a lot of Digital Art, I guess a mouse and keyboard could be considered Mixed Media. Or are we just playing favorites?

As a fairly new member here at FAA I am honestly thrilled with the user friendly site; I am showing my work on several sites and find FAA to be a notch above those on many levels.....KUDOS Brian and Beth for all you are doing to make this an enjoyable site!

In the subject search area, why do my small pics in there all look blurry? When i click on them, i have high res images on my pages.. but the little pics all look kinda fuzzy?? For someone looking for a subject, they wouldn't chose one of mine based on that pic, because it does not look appealing when its not clear.
I am always working with either 12 or 14 M pix camera.. so why would the little pix be all messed up like that Sean? And I've noticed that not everyone's pics are like that.. so why are mine?

Beth,

Perhaps you could give me some advice. This afternoon I opened an image to add it to another gallery. I thought I had done so and submitted it, but instead of the newly corrected page showing, I got some kind of a strange page, an error page I guess. And now I find that the image, entitled "Timeless," is nowhere to be found on the site. Is it possible that it will show up later, or would you advise me to upload the image again?

Thanks for your help in this.

Ann

Ann, this normally can happen if you have more than one tab or page open when you edited.

I am not sure where the image is and when it has happened to me, (because I forgot to close tabs), I have had to re-upload.

Oh hi there ... Do you think Sean could answer my question about the blurry stuff..that i asked earlier on today.. or fix it.. or explain it? I really would like to know why it looks like that, what causes that and how its going to get fixed.... and of course Beth, i never got an answer on my SIMS virtual heist of my pics... I suspect AMazon played a key role in that... because i find that some of my pics are still on there... even though I requested (twice) that they not be put up on there... Thanks and have a good evening.

Reb, all I can do is let him know of your post which I have done when you added it.

Thank you, Brian.
I'm new to FAA and became a member only a few weeks ago. I also signed up for the artist website.
It doesn't take long to realize this is a fantastic site and venue for artists, and how easy and user friendly everything is here. It is obvious to me that a lot of thought and work and care have gone into the development of FAA, and I am extremely pleased to be here. I'm really glad I picked FAA over some of the other sites. So kudos to you, Brian. You are doing a fantastic job.

Thanks Beth..I know its up to Sean to respond really and , not you.... Lets hope i get a response. or at least the pics fixed.. You know.. I really have a laugh when i post anything on here that needs fixing and the next person who comes on is always praising FAA... lol.. Its too funny ... and it happens all the time.. (leverage? ) lol...

Thanks, Beth. I'll go ahead and upload the missing image. No problem.

Aloha Sean .. choose an image . any image . in anyone's portfolio and you may have noticed the greeting card display is askew ....

I would like to see the greeting card display of our images rotated back to the way they are supposed to appear ... several weeks ago I noticed that for a landscape image the greeting card display is appearing vertical .. and for a portrait style image the greeting card display is appearing as a landscape horizontal image .. so if we could have this minor glitch repaired it would be wonderful for the way it is now the greeting card rotation is all wrong and causing our images to appear out of proportion and stretched .... Aloha mai e :))

Sooooo.... once again (since this was not answered on Friday) ...... I ask.. could you tell me why.. in the subject area, the small pics of my paintings are blurry when other pics are not? My paintings on my site pages are fine.. but in the search, they are all blurry.. and icky looking...
I'd like to know why they are like that and if you can fix them please... when you get back from your weekend Sean.. Thanks

Hello... I noticed today that the New Artwork for Tuesday, May 17th, 2011 is fuzzy... could you check on that pleez :) Its the fuzzy little pics.. when you click on them, they are fine.. but in the New Artwork.. they all look fuzzy...(like they are growing fur!!) LOL..

Also.. there was a freak glitch... When i clicked on one of my pics (in card form) it took me to another page... which advertised cards BUT NOT MINE.. lol.. Whats up with that? If a client looks at my work, I would hope that if he clicks on the card thingy.. that it shows my work on the card and not a search engine asking him to choose a pic from the horredously large database.....!! The second time it worked.. but not the first time... so lets not confuse customers please..

Brian, thans so much for a great website, you're the best available. I only wish I knew more about marketing on a website.
Jack Brauer

Sean, i didn't receive my FAA update for the week..IT usually comes on Sunday.. but it never showed... can you fix that please.. :) and there are some glitches with receiving the comments in discussions too.. i don't always receive them and the other day, i got them a day later....

@@
__

Reb, that has nothing to do with this post. Anyone else not receiving Faa emails re these discussions? is the post dealing with the email problem.

Well i don't always get my emails from discussions and lately i was not getting my FAA thingy or getting it a day later..... and i don't really know where to post problems like that unless i go on the main board? Like just today, i found this...in Google search under my name..... When you click on it, it does take you to my Montreal Lanes pic, but why is Pat Stevens website associated with it? And where should I post about stuff like that?

Montreal Lanes Stretched Canvas Print / Canvas Art By Reb Frost
www.pat-stevens.fineartamerica.com/.../montreal-lanes-reb-frost-can... - Cached
Buy Montreal Lanes by Reb Frost as a stretched canvas print / canvas art.

Then of course there is this link that has been using my photo to advertise spiral staircases since forever!!!.. for advertising purposes..

Verdun Stairs Canvas Print / Canvas Art – Artist Reb Frost Reviews ...
www.spiralstairkits.info/verdun-stairs-canvas-print-canvas-art-artist-... - Cached
Verdun Stairs Canvas Print / Canvas Art - Artist Reb Frost Gallery Wrapped on 2.5 Stretcher BarsIncludes Hanging HardwareAvailable in a Variety of.....

and then i come across this one which associates Karin's name with my work... in the search engine...:

The Garden Of Eden Framed Print By Reb Frost
www.karin-best.fineartamerica.com/.../the-garden-of-eden-reb-frost... - Cached
Buy The Garden of Eden by Reb Frost as a framed print.

and of course i still have works sitting on Amazon as well, just sitting there... though i don't know why as i was pretty specific about not wanting it on there..

Crazy stuff I tell ya! Why are these things still showing up? I thought that all got fixed a while back? So if you'd let me know where in here i should post about this stuff..so the powers that be will read it and deal with it,... I'd greatly appreciate it... thanks :)

Do what everyone else does and post in the main discussions by opening a thread dedicated to a single issue.

Or email support technicalsupport- at - fineartamerica.com

Do what everyone else does and post in the main discussions by opening a thread dedicated to a single issue.

Or email support technicalsupport- at - fineartamerica.com

Okay Beth, thanks for the advice... I just thought i was supposed to post it under "Help" on the discussions board.. since it is a question.. and I do require help.

No, just in the main discussions. You cannot post under help as that is just for stickies

OOps! sorry Beth.. i didn't know.. I just posted in the main discussion group thingy...as you suggested.. thanks :)