Looking for design inspiration? Browse our curated collections!
Discussion
8 Years Ago
Has anyone else had a DRASTIC drop in views during the past week or so, or am I just the lucky one? My views have dropped from 150-300 daily range down to 14 each of two days, 25 on another, 32 yesterday and 28 today. Has Sean figured out a way to block the bots and these are the REAL views my photos get, or am I just the unpopular one lately?!?!? Anybody?
Reply Order
8 Years Ago
How do you know how many you've had in one day? I only know how to see how many per picture and I don't know how to see how many overall.
8 Years Ago
The bots are still here (80 % of my views, most from Moscow).
I had this effect in the beginning of July down to 4 (!) a day. Since last week I have the old numbers of 40 to 60 per day.
8 Years Ago
Back to School time? I had an amazing sales weekend last week. This weekend nothing. Summer's over, figure people are busy getting back to the daily grind. Anyway soon enough the holiday season will be here.
8 Years Ago
Marian you are doing much better than I am. I have only had 30 views over last week. The only time I get views is when I upload some images.
8 Years Ago
my views have increased actually. it really depends what your selling and how your marketing.
---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com
8 Years Ago
derek if your only get a few views a day - you have to advertise your work. no one will be looking otherwise. my views, i checked them, are about 1400 views a day, but that's down from 3000, so i guess its less. but my sales are returning so it doesn't really matter. i find everyone has a season when their stuff sells best.
---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com
8 Years Ago
I popped a couple of new images onto Facebook last week and saw a nice uptick in views - and some of them were from "real people" and not just bots.
---------------
~ Bill
~ US Pictures .com
8 Years Ago
Susan
Go behind the scenes and click on visitors. It will show you the overall image views you have. You can record that and see how many you have a day or just look at it and get a rough estimate.
The bots seem to lighten up on the weekends in my case so I go from around a thousand a day down to a few hundred.
8 Years Ago
If you only get views when you upload a new image then most likely you are only getting bot views. A tweet will trigger 10 - 20 instant views.
Time to do some real marketing.
8 Years Ago
My views have actually increased. Sales are another matter meaning that when folks say views don't always mean much, they're right.
8 Years Ago
go to behind the scenes, check the visitors, you can see on the right top "Total Visitors" numbers...
8 Years Ago
Thanks everyone. I wish I could say my sales have increased, but only had one last month and that was after a year of thousands of views and no sales. Hope they will increase for the holidays. Haven't done as much marketing in the past week; wouldn't think that would affect the bot activity...maybe they're just tired of my stuff! Getting ready to add some new images soon so we'll see what happens.
8 Years Ago
every time you tweet or do anything like that, you get bots. people looking at google images and such, you get bots ahead of them. you want bots. if your not getting even those, then you have to worry. its like saying people don't like bees because they sting. but if your not getting any bees at all in your area, the plants don't grow.
you have to market yourself constantly. it does accumulate, but it takes a long time to do it. just tweeting can put 20-30 hits down just like that.
constantly add new work. don't enlarge your work, i saw quite a few images with the bright backgrounds, that were either too noisy or blurry to print.
---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com
8 Years Ago
Can you give me some specific examples of what images you consider unprintable, Mike? A lot of my photos have a combination of filters on them that may create what looks like a blurred image, but it's the filter contributing some of that. Just curious.
Marian
8 Years Ago
this may not, because its rather rough looking
this one was enlarged by at least twice.
you can see the stair steps on the diagonals.
mostly these look like enlarged crops. this one slight, but hard to say. the block letters for the name should be more of a cursive.
---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com
8 Years Ago
Thanks, Mike for taking the time to show me some examples of what you mentioned.
The Custer image has a posterized filter on it which does give it the effect you see. I use it a lot. This one and the tiger image both were extractions from their original images to use on t-shirts on pixels. I'm not crazy about the background colors for either of these, but the color choices offered on pixels are not the best for these. Pixels automatically sets these t-shirt images (with no color background) for sale as prints, too and the color backgrounds just aren't the best possible for print backgrounds for these.
As for enlarging, I am guilty of taking a smaller jpeg image out of my finished edited Photoshop Elements program and putting it into a Publisher document then saving it as a larger jpeg image. The "enlarged" image depends on what size page the document was. But, yes, if that is considered enlarging the image, I am guilty of that. Many times I'm using the image for a poster and enlarge the size in the poster.
"Roar" is an image that has a poster edges filter used which enhances the linear images on a photo. It can be overdone sometimes, so I do try to watch that. When using that filter it also adds an element of posterization to it, which again can create a somewhat blurred effect while adding another color element and enhancing the lines. "Roar" also has a comic filter - sunny day effect that really brightens the image bringing out the colors in the tiger's mouth much more than the original image. Those are the effects you're seeing on this image.
Posterization is also used for the Norman's Pool Hall and Six Familiar Airs images. I don't remember for sure if I put them into a Publisher document or not and saved again as a larger jpeg. This poster was done in Publisher, though, so I'm sure it more than likely was enlarged somewhat when laying it out. As for the font used, I rather like the more squared off one in keeping with the blockiness created with the "plaid" background...so, to each his own!
But,I do appreciate your taking the time to point this out to me. I'll have to be more careful about going to Publisher and saving a larger jpeg image there. Didn't know it was causing a problem.
Thanks again.
Marian
8 Years Ago
you can't stretch them - they won't print that way. you have to leave the small size a small size. there is no real way to fix that. ideally, the only people you have to convince is the customer service dept at the time of the fail/sale. they take a long time to respond and you only have 3 days to fix it, if that. during that time, the amount of time it takes to tell them its this or that effect, may simply cancel the sale. something to think about. the blur i see, i'm not looking at posterizing, i look at the edge, diagonals and curves. when you enlarge, it will stair step those and make it blurry.
if your name looks like watermark - they won't print it. that's why i said what i said. especially with the copyright symbol there. always look at the work at a 100% it should look sharp and clean. or they won't print it.
---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com
8 Years Ago
"Drop In Views"
If you wish, I can direct you to a guy who makes a living giving websites "hits". Infact, by week's end you can have over 1 million hits for only $1000. It is completely legit. And I can guarantee you won't make any sales from his services.
8 Years Ago
Thanks, again, Mike. Question. Does the customer service dept contact the artist if they find a problem in the printing process...this fail/sale time you mention?
One of my images sold last month as a rouglhly 18x20 size(finally! after a year long drought). "The Circus" is a posterized image, and I haven't received payment yet. Don't think that is due till next month, though, waiting till the 15th to come. I haven't heard of any problem from customer service, so have assumed it was printed and shipped out, oddly/happily enough to someone in my hometown here in Mobile. Wish I knew who it was who made the purchase so I could contact them in case anything did go "wrong" with the purchase, or just to send a personal thank you note for the purchase. I have printed this image as an 11x17 size and it printed fine. I'm assuming the slightly larger size is ok, too.
As for what you said about the copyright on the poster. Why would that be considered a watermark? I only tend to put it on the more involved posters; things that I've put a lot of time and effort into. I don't understand why that would be a bad thing in terms of printing the image. Clearly, I'm on this site to make sales, so FAA definitely has my permission to print these items or I wouldn't be here. And, the copyright doesn't interfere with the main image. So, I don't get that attitude. Can you enlighten me?
Again, thanks for your feedback. It is appreciated.
Marian
8 Years Ago
Monsieur Danl:
Thanks for the offer, but I'm already not making any money to speak of on here! Really don't need to spend a $1000 for all these hits, and be guaranteed no sales! Already have no sales!
Did a little promotion yesterday, and got more views today. Just need to get back to posting more images and doing more promotion. Thanks anyway.
8 Years Ago
if you make a sale, and its bad, you'll get the dreaded letter. it will comprised of 5 images taken from the center and 4 corners with maybe message telling you why it failed. however, if you have comcast, aol, and maybe yahoo, they filter the mail there and you may never get the message. and even if you do, you have about 3 days to fix it. you can try explaining its supposed to be like that but it takes a long time for them to get back. so its better you have the best quality now. many people on the site look at these before it gets to customer service and they all have to be convinced that the image is ok to print.
you would hear from them about an hour or two after its been sold. however it may take 24 or more hours to find out if your fixed version was any good.
we don't know who orders things so there is no note. unless i got an email from them or something.
i think they frown on block letters being a signature, large names, block letters, placement of it, size of it, if its cut off (painting), are all looked at. its not about it being yours. its about being an eye sore, on someone's wall. i always keep mine small and faint. people want to buy the art and not a large name at the bottom.
---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com