New Totals

I will just throw this out in ref to the business card.

I would recommend getting your own url or urls. It is a LOT to type in to get to your sites and many potential customers won’t even bother. IMO it looks more professional to have your name or business name as a url as well.

Mine is simply www.JCFindley.com. MUCH more simple than trying to type in my artist website but my site redirects clients to that very long url.

I agree. Long urls look amateurish. If nothing else, get "tinyurl.com/cassato" or something. www.edwardfielding.com

i 3rd that. http://www.MikeSavad.com simple. and i can redirect it if i had too. you don't want blue on blue and you don't want a mountain of text on that card. there is too much info, i see substrates but it really doesn't wring out you sell art prints. i'd leave off the blog as well. or at least make the blog a vanity and leave off the rest, putting all links on the blog.

because you didn't ask for a critique i won't. the advice i will give you is - increase your prices a bit, and lay off the saturation, add more keywords. the term HDR doesn't mean anything to buyers, and if it's not real it will just look garish. i reference hdr, but don't mention it. its like a chef explaining a process in french, if it tastes good then fine. some of the work in that folder isn't even printable.

your descriptions stop adding - this is an image. and don't say you took it as a tourist.

the low view counts on each one suggests your not really advertising each image. if you tweeted them you would have quite a few more visitors. your only in 7 groups and haven't entered any contests. so the people in here don't really know you exist. more natural activity you get the more people you get the higher you are in the search.


---Mike Savad

People get hung up over views here. And, really, I'm not much different. I look ast your view totals and your join date and wonder how you got 6000+/- views than I have in much less time. But it really isn't about the number of views as much as it is who views and ultimately buys your work. For example, this caboose shot has 60 views, but it almost makes me wonder who is viewing because it's not tagged as far as railroad or location.



My theory about my own railroad shots is that most of the rpospective buyers will look specififcally for that railroad. Consider this one



Which is tagged for current railroad, as well as previous owners of the engine as well as the passenger car. It's also tagged for location. Your caption is good for your caboose shot, but the keywords could be better. I know my tags work when I see visitors from the area visiting the pages.

I can't help with URL because, like you, I still don't have my own.

Even if you don't get your own domain name, /index.html is not needed on the end of your artistwebsites address

bots don't buy.

Lots of views may make you think that there is something going on. But sales tells you whether or not what is going on is good thing. Those represent QV's. (Quality Views)

"Bot deception" is a virus you must overcome. Very bad for the blood flow.

not all are bots, but they may be just looking through your window. compared to my sales, the views are way more.


---Mike Savad

Domain names are cheap and make it simple to send people to your site.

Are you all saying that you only need to purchase a domain, and that's it? Don't you need web hosting or any of that? I haven't pursued this because it seemed complicated.

all you need is a name and for it to be forwarded. so for like $6-15 you can get a custom vanity name that is forwarded to here. if you wanted to have your own page, then you would need a hosting for that.

http://www.MikeSavad.com this one forwards
http://www.suburbanscenes.com this one is a host

the second one is more expensive.

---Mike Savad

Where would i go to get my own domain name? And can i use the same name for more than one site?

name.com godaddy any place like that. no one name, one site. like an email, phone number etc.


can i use the same door for two houses. no.

---Mike Savad

Richard, you have some nice work but so few keywords! I know those must work, because I've had a few sales (not many, mind you), and I don't advertise. The only way I could have been found was through keyword searches. You get up to 500 characters! You should use them all. I like this one, particularly:



(Thank you, Mike!)

Thank you, Mike :)

All great feed back. I started to build a website with a custom domain name on Wix. As I started to think about it. I questioned the validity of starting and maintaining a website that has the only job of directing people to the FAA website. I started to think that this was a redundant job that would take more of my time. I agree that a personalized domain name would be more effective. Keywords. There are usually 10 or more keywords for each image. In addition I have created albums for certain topics or categories. Maybe I'm having a creativity block on keywords but I ideally try and think of as many keywords that would lead people to the image. In all my images where it may apply I list the letters HDR, Then High Dynamic Range so they can be searched by both terms. Bots. I have tried to contact FAA to see if they can give me any clue as to who or what is searching my images from New York, Beverly Hills, and Saint Petersburg - Russian Federation are. There are a lot of hits from those IP addresses. No response from FAA. I thought it may have had something to do with the Wholesale program for Interior decorators. So I opted out of that program and there was no change. So I opted back in again. I went through the agonizing task of listing all 744 images on Google + and Now I have a much wider group of people looking from a lot more cities and countries. In addition I am experimenting with Google Adwords. Some people suggested that was not a good idea. But I had to prove it to my self. So far nothing and I'll stop that in a week or so if it does not generate any sales. Prices. I think my prices are OK. I have a lot of work up on the site. I find it hard to believe that higher prices would generate more sales. I'm more about sharing my work for a reasonable price rather then selling one image and then going out and paying cash for a Lamborghini with the money from one sale. :-) If you were to google "Rich Cassato Canvas Prints" I usually come up in the first 8 hits. Especially the story that I have been featured in USA Today. I really have to get hooked up with a lot more interior decorators that buy in quantity along with collectors. I am also convinced that the economy is a little tough for now. The common person is concerned about paying house bills rather than putting a nice work of art on their wall. Time will tell. I really appreciate all the feed back and I look forward to more. :-)

most buyers won't know what HDR is or care what it stands for. its like when you julian something, i know it's being cut, but the shape doesn't interest me.

keywording can be an art in itself, but it's important to think of anything you can for each one, you want more than 10. all those places you mentioned are bots. its best to ignore locations, you'll never know who they are, just that they are not buyers or didn't buy. FAA, won't know who they are either. its just a domain ip.

adwords are expensive and not worth it. same with facebook that sends false hits to impress you.

the only real feedback i can give is about the work quality itself, but can't until you ask for a critique. often if the work isn't good enough or interesting enough. or if the effects ruins the flavor of the image. it won't matter if your giving the art away for free, they may not want it. and in an ironic truth, you could have nat geo quality items, things that are breath taking that wins international awards, yet not sell anything because the subjects chosen, no matter how well done, may not fit the decor of anyone's house or office. everyone needs to make items that would fit in those locations.


---Mike Savad