Question About Contests And Groups

barely if ever

Are free members prevented from joining groups or contests?

I have the free site and I belong to several group, but have never entered any contests. Somewhere on this discussion area, it gives the pros for joining the paid area of FAA. i.e. free website, Facebook page, etc. I may look into that.

If you want to make sales you have to put in the effort of promoting your work outside this site; social media,etc. It also helps to be able to upload a lot more images to FAA

I would go premium, even with only 10 pictures! The marketing tools alone are worth it.

Going premium you get the AW. Even with ten images you want to deal with setting up the AW as you like it now. It
can take some time to work and rework.

Dave

What is AW?

Suzanne,

It really depends on how much work you want to put into marketing your images and increasing your quantity of images. FAA is just a shelf, in a giant store, filled with hundreds of other shelves. YOU need to get people into that giant store and "find" your shelf and that ain't easy!

There are NO guarantees here, whether you are here free or as a paying artist.

If this is a "hobby" and you enjoy keeping it as such, then take your time and add images and enter a few contests and see how you do,

Good Luck,

Rich

"how do these contests, groups help boost sales."

Little or none, imho.

You will be seen mostly by the other members of FAA in those groups and contests and they can be very time consuming, time much better spent advertising out side of FAA. And FAA members do not buy art at any significant rate.

You need to consider becoming a paying member. It is $30 a year. You are trying to start a business. Even if it is only a part time business. You need to have the confidence and willingness to invest in yourself. $30 is nothing. Skip a few stop off at Starbucks and you have it paid for.

Read all of the articles below. Read the first one and watch for the 75/25 rule and then read the rest of the articles and then go back and apply the 25/75 rules. This is significantly more likely to lead to sales then spending time in contests and groups.

Response to new FAA member looking for advice
Another Response To A New Member Seeking Help
A Few Reasons Why You May Not Be Selling
Work Smarter Not Harder To Beat The Big Guys
50 Effective Tips to Help You Sell You Art

The AW is the FAA supplied ArtistsWebsite you get when you go premium.

It is yours and only yours. No other artwork but yours is on that website. It is your own online gallery. It alone is worth way more then $30 a years.

Thanks all for your quick responses. I will upgrade at my earliest convenience.

its difficult to prove one way or the other. but i think groups will lead more eyes to your work, and contests i have gotten sales from. but i don't have the data totally where they come from. if they are members or not. but i use them like a tool and enter them because its easy enough to do.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

you'll want a lot more keywords as well as more images. be sure to use a commas but no spaces in the tags (they count).


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com