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Jess Williams

9 Years Ago

Shameless Request To Help Me Reach My "views" Goal

OK, so I had a goal to reach 1000 views on my profile before the end of summer. Since the first day of autumn is almost upon us, I was hoping some of you real live people (not bots) could take a look at my profile and help me reach my goal! I'm really close...

If you like Montana nature and landscape photography, maybe you'll even see something you'd like to comment on or favorite?

OK, shameless plea for visitors is now over. :)

Jess

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Barry Lamont

9 Years Ago

Done!... you have some lovely work Jess... I'm surprised your views are so few.. Do you enter contest etc... ? I notice my own views tend to jump up when participating in them or posting here..!

Edit: Is there a prize for the 1000th viewer?

 

Kelley Lee McDonald

9 Years Ago

Dear Jess,

It would be my pleasure to help you out. :-)

 

Jess Williams

9 Years Ago

Thanks, Barry! I have only just started participating in contests and entering groups, etc. Now I am addicted! Seriously, I think I spent more time looking at the amazing work of others today than I did processing photos...and I just returned with a full card from Glacier park! I am really loving the community and incredible talent here.

 

Jess Williams

9 Years Ago

Thank you, Kelley!

And Barry -- since I would never know who that person is, I can't give a real prize... but you all have my undying gratitude. :) AND I promise to go view the profiles of everyone who posts here. A view for a view!

 

Candy Frangella

9 Years Ago

I peeked and liked your pics very much. I love your water reflections. Looking forward to seeing more and many sales to you!

 

Barry Lamont

9 Years Ago

You can actually track your views from "behind the scenes".. doesn't give a name but you get the location, time and ip etc... (so I'll be watching for your visit :o)

Edit: WOW..that worked out well...you must have had 60 or so views in the past 10 mins...lol

 

Barbie Corbett-Newmin

9 Years Ago

OK, been there, done that. You are really close now!!
You need more inviting, explanatory descriptions. Add scientific names of each flower, where it was taken, etc. talk about the colors.
Social media usage will help. Have you tweeted each of your uploads? Do you add at least one of your images a day to at least one of the at least 8 art and/or promotion groups on Facebook?
Submit them to groups. Look at photos similar to yours, for example on my site, http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/barbara-corbett.html and take note of the groups you think would be good for your shots. Good luck!
Having said all that, the important thing is not to get so caught up in all this that you can't go out and get yourself displayed and in galleries, stores, restaurants, etc/ Yeah, I should take my advice. Ok, I'm off....

 

Deborah Berry

9 Years Ago

Took a look. Beautiful images.

 

Greg Norrell

9 Years Ago

Congrats Jess. Use social media and you can really increase views.

 

Vishwanath Bhat

9 Years Ago

Visited your port and looked at many images and commented on some. You have some very beautiful work.

 

Phyllis Beiser

9 Years Ago

Beautiful gallery!

 

Bill Swartwout

9 Years Ago

Wow, beautiful Montana landscapes. Montana is one of only six states I gave not (yet) visited. Your photos make want to head west tomorrow.

I see you also made your "views" goal tonight. CONGRATZ.

~ Bill
~ US Pictures .com

 

Jess Williams

9 Years Ago

Wow! Thank you all so much! I went to help my son with homework and came back to well over 1000 views and such helpful and kind comments.
Social media promotion is slowly getting there, but since I have a full time job and a family ... I am trying to spend most of my time shooting, processing and improving my technique.

But this is a marathon, not a sprint - so I will definitely keep pushing in that important marketing direction. :)

Off to view all of your profiles!

 

Katrina Dimond

9 Years Ago

Well done on reaching the goal Jess
Don't have a lot of time at moment but checked out some of your images and liked some.
Will definitely be back when I have more time. You have some great shots.
Following you :)

 

April McNett

9 Years Ago

Peeked and followed. ;)

 

Sharon Wood

9 Years Ago

I have had nearly 7000 views over the years and no sales. I live in Australia but that should make no difference. I have viewed many other works and believe that the site is a waste of time. My paintings aren't too bad if I say so myself. Views are great but not if you have no sales, whats the point. Check out some of the selling paintings, some are fantastic, others are in my view, very basic. All the best with your reaching 1000.

 

April McNett

9 Years Ago

Sharon:
This site does everything for you... except uploading and marketing.
You've taken care of the basic uploading (more is better, but that varies by artist).
Your issue seems to be marketing.
Let me put this into perspective for you:
There are several members here on FAA that joined within the same time frame that you did, and they have over a thousand followers and over a million views.
If that doesn't seem feasible to you, let me use myself as an example.
You've been here since March of 2011. You have 6 followers and 8,000 views, culminated over 42 months. No sales.
I've been here since July of 2014. I have almost 100 followers and over 13,000 views, culminated over less than 2 months. Four sales.
The difference is that I've marketed the CRAP out of myself the past 2 months. I'm on Twitter and Facebook every day, pushing my work, talking with people, following, conversing, PROMOTING.
I WISH I had joined 3 years ago... I'd be in such an amazing place right now... but I came late to the game and I know I'm going to be playing catch-up for years to come.
I'm okay with that because I've got the dedication to push myself all the time, every day, endlessly, regardless of the fact that I have a job and am a full time college student (I've been up for 19 hours today alone, on my day off).
If you can't stomach having that kind of ridiculous drive, you're going to have to put up with not being seen.

 

Gary Fossaceca

9 Years Ago

Peeked, followed AND commented! Nice work, Jess....

Gary

 

Nicole Whittaker

9 Years Ago

I looked and commented, gorgeous photos.

 

Edward Fielding

9 Years Ago

So I have to ask, was there something you wanted beyond views? Sales perhaps?

Views from non-buyers are easy to get. Just join a bunch of groups here on FAA and swap views back and forth. Tweet and get the bots to visit.

To get views that count - i.e. from potential buyers - you need to be active outside of FAA.

 

Val Arie

9 Years Ago

Very nice gallery Jess...and you reached your goal!!!

 

David Bridburg

9 Years Ago

Jess I like your work. I left a comment on Dahlia Light. Beautifully done.

Dave

 

Martin Davey

9 Years Ago

Views are totally meaningless. I get just under 7000 views a week on this site and don't sell anything now days.

 

Jess Williams

9 Years Ago

Thanks, everyone! I have visited all of your profiles -- you all have fantastic work.

April -you and I joined at the same time and I am very impressed with your dedication! I also believe that marketing outside of this site is the only way to get sales. Thanks for sharing your numbers with us -- you are proving that marketing really works.

Edward -- Yes, right now the simple goal was to reach 1000 views by the end of summer. I joined in July and I have only just begun entering contests, joining groups, participating in these discussions, etc.

I also created a website, FB account and Twitter account for my niche -- Montana landscape and nature photography.
Website: http://scenicmontanaphotography.com
FB: https://www.facebook.com/scenicmontana
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scenicmontana

I'm working hard in the evenings to balance my time between shooting, processing, promoting, and.... spending time with my husband and kids. ;)

The real goal is obviously to make sales. I hope to have my first sale no later than Christmas.

 

Floyd Snyder

9 Years Ago

Sharon, with all due respect, April has got it right.

But you also have some things going on in your gallery that are not the norm.

Some of your images are only available in very small sizes for one thing. You have images with no descriptions or very short and lack search terms, or they are nonexistent, you have very few key words, your originals are listed in cm instead of inches and you have them big ugly watermarks on your very beautiful images.

You need to read my blog: A Few Reasons Y U May Not Be Selling http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/fasgallerycom.html?tab=blog

Then you need to learn how to "sell" your work via what ever methods you chose.

And with all due respect to everyone, views mean nothing here. Most of those views are meaningless bots. Bots serve a very important purpose, but they are computers scanning for images for indexing search engines any other techy stuff. They have nothing to do with real people and real buyers. You would be a lot better off ignoring the views on FAA and pay more attention of getting views on FB or Twitter or anywhere OUTSIDE of FAA and let the views take care of themselves on FAA.

 

Kerri Mortenson

9 Years Ago

Beautiful photos... we moved from Kalispell and makes me want to move back.

Click on the social media links on each photo and share them that way... you will see more views for each photo as well.

 

Jess Williams

9 Years Ago

Hi Martin,

I think views help in two ways:
1. It makes visitors to your profile feel as if your work is "seen".
2. If the views are from FAA folks, they may come into your galleries and comment, fave or like your work -- which helps your work in the search ratings.


And for me, it helps motivate me to keep marketing. I love seeing numbers rise...even if most are from bots. :)

 

Floyd Snyder

9 Years Ago

Jess, I would not argue with any of those things. However, it will take years to get enough faves, likes and comments to have any meaningful impact on the FAA search. And then, the people you are trying to catch up to,

The search you want to make impact on is Google, not FAA. You do that with marketing and with with seeding the descriptions, your titles and keywords. I pay no attention what so ever to the FAA search and can't remember the last time I even looked at my views of followers. I have no idea how many of either that I have.

If you take people directly to your AW or specific images by advertising outside FAA , You bypass the FAA search all together. I sell nearly every day, some times multiply images.

If you drag enough people in from outside FAA the views, faves, likes, and comments will come and they will be from prospective buyers, not bots and FAA members that do no buy all that much.

I now have three Facebook groups to hep FAA member to do exactly that. Help each other get seen outside of FAA with a broader reach then they can get on their own.

Everyone is welcome to join.

FineArtAmerica is for any FAA members and only FAA members. https://www.facebook.com/groups/WesternArtBuyersAndSellers/

I also have: Western Art Buyers & Sellers https://www.facebook.com/groups/1403150156590398/ This group only allows Western/Native American art and because of the narrower focus is open to anyone selling West/NA art.

The other one is Seascape Art Buyers & Sellers: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1403150156590398/ It too is open to a everyone selling Seascape art.

I also have a group on FAA called Seascape Photography Only http://fineartamerica.com/groups/seascape-photography-only.html?tab=overview

The FAA group is designed to work hand in hand with the FineArtAmerica and the Seascape Art Buyers & Sellers Facebook groups.

All of these groups are designed to help FAA members get seen outside FAA, including the FAA seascape group.

Everyone here is welcome to join. If you have both West/NA art you should join both groups and share you posts for cross promoting. Same thing for seascape photogs. and if you have both, joint them all and get a bigger bang for you buck.


 

Martin Davey

9 Years Ago

Jess, the search here does not work. There are plenty of previous discussions about this, which as you are a newcomer you will not be aware of. You only get seen in the search if you have sold an image, that takes priority. Again there has been plenty of discussion on this. You should be promoting your work outside of the site rather than worry about the internal search results.

 

Miroslava Jurcik

9 Years Ago

Love your photography Jess !! I followed you and commented on few shot ! And yes I think its nice to have few comments under your pics !! And I be looking at those groups as well :) I didn't had a sale on here yet, well one postcard so we see ! I actually got on and gave up after couple of months and few months back I restarted again. I was on redbubble where it seem easier, and I was getting like 500 views there but they stuffed it up as they sell now mostly pillows and cussions and tshirts !! So that's why I came back here. The internal search works best for people who been here the longest I think, bec they are making sales on here.

I spend every day at least an hour on here commenting and promoting

 

Diane Mintle

9 Years Ago

Took a look...followed...nice work...best of luck to you!

 

Angela Rowlands

9 Years Ago

Just been to your site some lovely work, I'm also new to FAA so have been trying to enter contests discussions and groups to promote my work. Visitors numbers are slowly building up but I would love people to just take a couple of minutes to make a comment on anything that they visit. I would also love to know how others go about promoting their work via social media.

 

April McNett

9 Years Ago

Jess:
No problem! I know four sales seems like nothing (maybe even laughable) to some of the consistent sellers here, but I think it's great for someone that's only been here 2 months.
I'll get there someday....

 

George Buxbaum

9 Years Ago

Really nice work. Enjoyed your images.

 

Jeffrey Campbell

9 Years Ago

Well done, Jess, keep up the wonderful motivation!

 

Jess Williams

9 Years Ago

Floyd and Martin - thank you for the tips and the lesson on the FAA search.
April - that's 4 more sales than I've had. :) Keep it up!

Thanks again, everyone! I appreciate the views and I really enjoyed looking at all of your profiles, as well! :)

 

This discussion is closed.