Groups, Likes, Etc... New Member Looking For Help

Most people that join FAA take much longer than a month to make their first sale, don't get discouraged, you have a long way to go and a lot of marketing to do. I don't really know anything about the relationship of FB and FAA, seems like all you can do is automate posts to your FB page when you upload something new to FAA, I don't believe FB likes have any bearing on FAA. As for groups, I've joined ten of them and have grown frustrated with them. I recognize that it's just volunteers that own and manage them but when half the groups I join seem to have been abandoned by their owners so I can't get my images accepted then it makes me not want to bother with the system at all. Seems to me some serious culling needs to be done.

I've noticed that too. I tried adding a couple images to groups I joined and they sit there pending. What go me is when I saw new images added and mine stayed pending and I figure mine just aren't good enough or they have a lot they are going through. I have been minimally sharing my work on my fb cause I don't want to drive my friends crazy but I thought if the likes help my images be seen more I would write a post and let my friends know that.

David - Start your own group and accept the images you think should be in it.

:)

lol Maybe I could call it the no image left behind group ha ha

groups are another way to get people to look at your work, comment, view, fav, watch etc, helps a little bit to be found in the search. plus there are more places it will show up in google or just be seen by nosy coworkers.

facebook or any other place your work can be seen is important. you might get sales from that. every like goes to facebook into their stream

you have to advertise your work to be seen. you've only been here a month, it may take months or years to be seen depending how aggressive you are.


only upload your best work and work that you think you can market to particular people. art that you would buy yourself and hang in your own home. things like this will confuse people, i'll be honest here. basically it will be really hard to market it.


where as images like this may sell, if you tell people where you shot this. locations are very important, as is explaining to people what we are looking at. don't leave that description box blank. it helps the buyer and google.

you didn't ask for a critique but just be aware that there are many people with bird shots, sunsets etc, so it has to be as good as theirs. birds with branches crossing over them, i wouldn't bother posting. only post the best of the bunch. if you have too many of the same thing buyers may not be able to decide which they like more and may leave.

in any case advertising is your key to success.

Marketing 101 by Mike Savad
Why Your Work May Not Be Selling - By Mike Savad
Evaluating Your Own Work To Sell – By Mike Savad
How To Critique And Edit Your Own Work For Better Sales

these are my blogs.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

How does starting my own group fix the fact that so many other groups are not managed promptly or at all?

pending only means the group op is lazy, dead or doesn't realize there is actual maintenance needed to run the group. others open up like 80 groups and claim they have no time. i joined many of them and get in by numbers.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Thank you Mike and I get what you are saying. I guess I have read to many different group discussions. I only included the minion pic to add variety cause I do have so many bird pictures. I will try and put descriptions on the ones I haven't and may just delete the minion lol. Guess I just need to get some better work to upload.

' What is the benefit of joining groups? "

Here is my thread on the topic: http://pixels.com/showmessages.php?messageid=2048106

Also look for my follow-up thread farther down on the page.

Hope this answers your question. Enjoy your day.

only add variety if the pictures are perfect and look like the rest. painters do that all the time, they have 5 paintings and a bunch of snaps from a vacation, just to fluff it up. but if someone is looking for your name, do you want that one to be the Representative of the rest of your work?

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

If you find an inactive group, I'd suggest first messaging the admin directly first. Or at least seeing how active their profile is. At some point, you may want to message Frank. There's also a page for groups and contests admins here

http://fineartamerica.com/groups/group-and-contest-administrators.html?tab=overview

Frank the link opened a bunch of discussions... I will have to search and Mike thank you, I will be updating things.

Jan -- here is the link for the FAA site if you're not on Pixels ... it should open to a thread ' What's The Big Deal About Groups '.

http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=2048106

Cool thanks Joseph

Thanks you Frank.. that link worked :)

Oh and I will have to share this one. I have a friend actually wanting to buy this piece from me even with the branch in front of the Cardinal. I think it may be a preference of the person buying the photograph. That and it shows the characteristic of the subject. Cardinals like to hide.

i suppose, however it doesn't make for a good picture. if the friend wants to buy it - sell it. but as a whole i would clone out that branch because there are 1000's of others that aren't hidden.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

"As for groups, I've joined ten of them and have grown frustrated with them. I recognize that it's just volunteers that own and manage them but when half the groups I join seem to have been abandoned by their owners so I can't get my images accepted then it makes me not want to bother with the system at all. Seems to me some serious culling needs to be done."

David -- What Mike said. If you come across any of these dead groups please send me a direct message with the link, as I am groups moderator. Any admin who does not move the images page at least every 30 days gets a notice from me. Likewise, there are over 3700 groups and I delete an average of fifty each week who are inactive for four months or longer. You should also notice newer groups more active as I send new admins an email with how to work their groups and delete the 'vanity' groups. Thanks!

Thank you for all the help and while worrying about this I made my first sale :) lol

I'm part of a lot of groups. As you'll see in some of Frank's discussions, if your photo is featured, it shows up on the recently featured page and could help with a sale. There are several new groups that I joined since December that haven't not been active since they started the group or was only active the first couple weeks. No images were even accepted so I just quit them. Likes on FB do not total up on FAA. It only helps share your image on FB. They would have to click on the link to take them to FAA. I'm with you on not wanting to post a bunch and aggravate my friends. I have a separate public page for my photography which I use mostly for portraits, but I do post a few FAA links there. I opened a Twitter account and that's where I do a lot of my marketing, along with being a part of other sites.

I think I've told you this in another discussion, but don't get discouraged that you haven't made a sale. Today is my year anniversary with FAA and I sold my first one Monday. Keep your head up. Join active groups, and participate in contest and discussions. Visit other artist and comment on photos your like.

Thanks Jennifer.... While I was writing in this discussion these sold.

http://holdenthemoment.com/saleannouncement.html?id=fb57326a1fb141f63856c956ea57b358
http://holdenthemoment.com/saleannouncement.html?id=8da550cfacb522a4cd9cb34e1cdad7cd
http://holdenthemoment.com/saleannouncement.html?id=84c97d94fe71bce7cc847dd02d4a4a37
http://holdenthemoment.com/saleannouncement.html?id=584d7473fa1389d1588ccbdec01e157c

I was surprised by these ones that were sold. The Mallard in flight is one of my favorite pics but the others I don't really feel are my best work. So it was a nice surprise. I may have to look into different groups. I tried a bird group and one with Ohio pictures and my images are just pending but it's only been a couple days.

Well I redid the picture. However I still kept the other one because I have others that seem to like the original.

Now I and wondering why the second picture looks darker in the comments?

did you save it as a CYMK? i can't see it large, but i would assume it had something to do with that.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

I will have to check. I have always use lightroom for everything but put this through ps to remove the branch.

That last one is from editing in light room and uploading it like all the others and the preview still shows dark so I don't have a clue. I know the color space is sRGB in lightroom but since I don't use photoshop much I couldn't even find where that is set.

Been trying to improve my work and wanted to add one of my latest photographs to this thread. No branches here and maybe one of my best detailed shots to date. Still a work in progress but hopefully I am creating work that is sale worthy. Only time will tell.