Six Month Observation About Marketing

You make much sense, I have been doing all of the things I was told would help make sales, and still nothing after a year. I just started doing shows outside, hopefully something will come of it. Pinterest def seems like it may help, and I am getting a lot of followers daily. Thanks for this post,:).

Amen to all you say.

Commenting,etc, can and is a sincere thing to do.....but just for F/L..?...embarrassing! It's too time consuming,agreed.

Thanks for your thoughts....am thrilled you sell originals....that's where it's at for painters!

I think your summation about who sells is correct....rarely see those sellers in forum. To add to that, I never see visitors from the buyers' locations...strange!

Thank you for this great post, Rebecca. Just what I've been looking for. I'd like to hear from others what social media has helped them sell the most. I hate wasting my time as well.

I've even tried Houzz - dead end mostly. I'm almost to the point where I just do this for fun - as it's very frustrating when you have 6 or 700 images up and what you sell is two cards in a year. Thank goodness I'm not depending on this for any real income. There is only one thing wrong with selling digital art in person - the cost of printing it in a good size. Canvas, metal or acrylic would work best - because when you start adding frames and glazing - you bring the cost right up to those that don't require framing.

As for selling photographs - I guess I haven't found a niche - in JC's terminology - no Abilene.

Hi, Rebecca,

I agree with much of what you said, above, and congratulations on hanging in here for six months. :-)

However, while "commenting, like/voting, favoring other artist/photographers" many not improve my chance of sales, I'll continue to do those things on FAA and other sites where I participate.

I truly enjoy browsing the diverse art I find online, and when I see something wonderful, I believe the artist deserves my acknowledgment. Viewing so much amazing art is, to me, the equivalent of strolling through a museum or gallery, every day . . . for free. At my leisure. Sales or no sales, I hope I'm never too busy to say "Wow -- this is a beautiful piece!" or to click that 'Like' button.

We're privileged to have access to so much art, and are the first generation to enjoy the perks of this vast online art community. I find it inspiring and uplifting, and want to share those feelings with the artists -- I don't need one of the 'reciprocal' groups to convince me to do so.

Now, about those friends and relatives who have purchased your work . . . where can I get some of those? ;-)

I too have noticed that the big sellers are not doing a lot of commenting etc. I have cut way back on this as very time consuming. If someone comments on my work, I take the time to thank them. I am going to spend most of my time creating new art from now on and some marketing like twitter. Also, FAA is not sending out marketing emails about my work because they have over 200 comments and likes, they are sending emails out about work that already sells well.

I have sold six images in about a year and a half.

One of them was a print I arranged to do with someone I met in person at an art show. One was a card.

The others were just random sales.

I haven't done much of the suggested things for these sales. I have keywords, but probably not what people would consider enough. I post to my Facebook page but my friends there are only friends and family so I don't expect to sell to them and if I did it wouldn't "count" as a sale to me. I have a Twitter account but I haven't used it yet. I set it up to encourage people at the art shows I do to follow me. I don't want people I actually know to follow me, I want just potential art buyers.

How I made my sales here I have no idea. I guess they just found my image while searching for the obvious keywords I used.

I don't plan on earning much here. I am going the art show route next year. Yes, it is expensive and there is never a guarantee you will even be accepted into shows you apply to but I did a couple thousands in the three days I was in art shows this year.

This is a great place to use as a "shopping cart" for people that get introduced to my work at art shows. It is probably too competitive as a sole source of income from art for the vast majority of people. Even the ones that do well here could be doing more "real world" work than we understand.


I sure hope I don't fail...

There is no magic wand. Some folks think that waving one that has been mentioned will somehow get them attention. That could be keywords,vote and comment, watchlisting,favoriting,blogging,many groups,contests, etc.

They are possibly all essential. Some may not be essential at all if you produce and distribute your own work. Everyone has to find their own place. I notice not one mention of hoofing it into galleries with canvas in hand and notebook/tablet under arm.

Everyone seems to be looking for the easiest way. Some throw up 18 images and expect a windfall of business. You mention someone like Leonid... and I can tell you that someone over there hustles. He is everywhere! I even get e-mails from him... Kudos to him. Greg Olsen has been a known quantity for many years.

It all boils down to you having the right work and finding that right audience yourself. That's bottom line. Jumping on a certain group of people and the way that they do it serves absolutely no purpose. I can tell you that after having begun to network with folks through commenting and voting and the like that I have seen a change for myself. I have sold much more this year than in any other. I have also gained some very interesting friendships along the way... and with Wendy, I enjoy browsing through the work and traveling the world through the eyes of others. Get lots of ideas that way also.

Artists don't only hang around with artists. Many artists prefer not to.

Bottom line, find what works for you and tout it. I see no no need to put others down in the process.

Duplicate

My critique of your Six Month Observation: Pretty much right on the money.

I joined FAA about 15 months ago and since then I have come to the same conclusions. v/f//comments and all of that stuff
is a nice warm and fuzzy to both give and receive. But, imho, a total waste of time.

I also think that all of the Social Media is a shot in the dark, lacking any real date that shows us that it is really working. Until that
data is available, I am spending more time on marketing methods I can track and very little time on FB and even less on twitter
and the others. I am not eliminating them, but cutting way back.

Groups and contests are crazy. I am trying to run a bit of an experiment on FB with the Q-Collection images I have but have
not really gotten into it yet. Will report back what the results are.

I firmly believe that unless you are one of those artist with a high profile in the art world, way beyond FAA, that you are going to
have to get way beyond FAA, Facebook, twitter and al the rest of the Social Media.

Social Media works for "FAA" really well. If just 10k of the 170,000 members use their Facebook page to advertise FAA
that is going to create a lot of traffic to FAA If they sell just one piece a moth for each of the 10k artist, that is a lot of money
to FAA. But it is nothing at all to FAA artist that wants to make decent sales. And then those same artist with their FB and Twittering
are creating sales for others, on occasion, as people shop around once the get here.

There is nothing wrong with that, it is their business model but it doesn't have to be yours. If you want to sell more art you
are going to have to go beyond Social Media, imho.

FAA is a great place to be and I am very happy with the level of success I have achieved so far. But there is still a lot
more room for me to grow sales if I just wasn't so dang lazy! :-)

I wish there was a 'like' button because I've noticed the same in the short time here. I've tried all the same avenues with same results. I love the recognition and what I've learned, but patting each other on the back isn't generating sales, and this is the goal here, right?

Rebecca;

Could you send your friends and sister to our sites? Some fo us could also use some sales. Haha. After being here for close to 18 months, I decided to dig deeper and try harder since posting the files and hoping others would fine them wasn't working.

I've had more sales through Flickr than here and that's just not right.

As far as commenting, I don't leave comments to on other peoples work to generate sales for myself or them. I do it to tell them I like their work. It is much appreciated when someone takes the time to comment on my own work as well.

So what were you expecting in a "short time" Vinka? With all due respect 2 months worth of time is not very much. That really is the key "time". Of course you have to produce work that is also in demand or at least liked.

"It takes time, no matter what avenue you decide to roll on". Dues always need to be paid.

I find it incredulous that folks don't want to take the time, but they want a windfall. Typical it seems of this day and age. Unreal expectations.

I think it works but not as fast as people expect. When I upload my images do not go on the last page. I think its because I do all those things. Does it help to not be on the last page? Only time will tell. I say if you have nothing productive that you could be doing then yes go ahead and do those things. If you are slacking like I do sometimes and justify that doing those things is part of the business I say stop and do something more productive. Because FAA will never disclose the formula 100 percent. Of course sales boost you more than anything you can possibly do so if you are selling off site why not buy your art under a pseudo name to get credit? You will be paying yourself in the end but if its a really nice work of art why not give it a power boost!

Glenn, there was no challenge here to make this into an argument. I agree with you and Wendy about posting the comments for art's sake - I do that quite frequently and have favored several pieces of art I like. That wasn't the point I was making.

And there was no put down, I didn't scold anyone for doing it another way. Part of the end of the post said "AGAIN, this is my 6 month observation. You may learn something from it, you may not care, or it may be different for you." I never used the word "windfall".

I think going to a gallery is a good idea. I forgot to mention that I had a piece chosen for a juried artshow. I'm not challenging you or anyone else. Please ease up.

many people started gaming the system by commenting and voting on each other in little clubs. but this won't help them because they will move up together, and only a tiny bit. add comments when you want to, not because you think it will make you sell. it won't. i don't comment on anyone's stuff and only vote on my own. do it because you want to. many others do sell here without doing the other things. they may have a good advertising thing, they may really like the work, or they have friends that buy. hard to say.

---Mike Savad

I see a common denominator.

People doing the same thing.

However, a person who has been doing this for several years will have a very different result today than a person who started 6 months ago.
And the people who have been doing this 10-15 years+ would have a different result today than someone who has been doing it for several years.

There are many things at play. Skill level, confidence, marketing savvy, computer literacy, program understanding, etc.

I say it again and again, this isn't a sprint...it's a marathon. This is a long haul of learning to market, be a business person, and perfect the art.

Anyone expecting a lifetime of work to be rewarded in a 6 month effort is going to be disappointed.
Anyone expecting a big return on minimal effort is going to be disappointed.

And if the effort I am making is getting NO return, it's on me to figure out what direction to focus my effort.

I pretty much agree with your observations, Rebecca. Here is one example of "no magic wand" (as Glenn says): I know someone who joined in July and only has maybe 14 paintings up. He just sold one out of the blue with no marketing, no watch list, nothing. He doesn't market anywhere nor does he even log into FAA -- just parked his paintings here.

Not disappointed, Angelina, just more clear in my mind about which way I want to go. Never said I was disappointed, can't speak for the others. Actually, I'm quite pleased. You just can't remember to put it all in the OP.

Patricia, I've seen that happen quite frequently, you just never know.

Everyone has to find their own market. if social media isn't cutting it, then a person might have to advertise elsewhere. When I started here, many people said "vote, like, favorite, comment, etc". So I did all that. Made a sale or two, and that was it. About a year ago due to various reasons I backed off on all that. I've sold far more this year than the previous one. And I do almost nothing to market my work. Granted I'm not selling like hotcakes or anything, but I do make sales. So the vote/favorite/comment thing does nothing to drive sales, and I now reserve that for stuff I think really deserves it.

I think groups and contest do have some value. Not so much in sales but as way to easily look at groupings of similar art and subjects. As a learning tool, and for my personal pleasure. One of the early things I learned about photography was to study the work of others.

The advice being given out isn't bad, for the most part.

Use social media. Ya...we ought to be doing that.
Join contests, be in groups. Eh, I try to do groups...I can't. I run one, and I'm in the group for group administrators. I have noticed some sales coincide with contests.

What about?
Reaching out locally, to develop clientele?
Marketing work to specific people and business's? Flyers, meetings, etc.

FAA is one tool, we need a toolbox full of tools that we are using.

I used the "windfall" word. Being that I have been part of the FAA system for quite some time I find that there are those who sign up and think that there is a magic formula to success. Being here 6 months only works against you because it's not lots of time. I could point out Joan Carroll,Lynn Bauer, and quite a few others who sell pretty regularly and they are pretty involved in groups of networking. It isn't "patting each other on the back", but tilling the ground. Tilling the ground is work... and sometimes not very fun.

I am not arguing (with malice) anything except that everyone is geared a particular way. To say that there wasn't a prejudice against a particular avenue in the conversation and in the general discussion boards against voting, commenting , favoriting,FB ing etc. would not be correct. It exists.

Many who participate in that activity are too busy networking there and find little time for the discussion board here.

My mistake, I believed that OP was conveying your disappointment.

So your OP was making it clear what way you want to go?
Ok...I didn't get that...but then, what way is that? I don't see it. Unless you mean using Pinterest? That is a good idea...but it's still only 1 tool.

I'm in agreement...ditto what Floyd said. I'm feeling down and like... I don't know what I'm good at. I cannot find a niche or Abilene either. But for some reason I haven't given up...yet.

Melissa, it's my estimate based on sales before and after I started sharing my FAA store on my portfolio site. Most of the traffic there is from business cards and personal networking.

So, it's completely unscientific, but the more I actually get out there and promote myself and share the convenience of FAA, the better I do.

"The only way is to try stuff and find out. Keep what works, ditch what doesn't, keep moving forward."

Loree, sound advice.

@Cynthia, your work is pretty spectacular, I gotta say!

Thanks Melissa!

Cynthia, my experience has been the opposite. I have some pieces in a local gallery and also in a local hotel. Nada, zip, nothing. They've been there for nine months. Both establishments have my business cards on their counter, but I have yet to get one sale from either location. (I have discount codes printed on the cards, so I can track if someone buys from them) I have numerous other offers to put my work in restuarants, other hotels, etc., but I'm not willing to invest any more money in prints unless it returns sales to me.

OTOH, I have had sales from facebook and from my blog. I know this because they contacted me to let me know.

And that was exactly my point. Maybe my work sells better online. Maybe my personality works better with social media than it does in person. Maybe my audience doesn't live near me. I don't know the answers to why it works for you and doesn't for me, I just know to keep doing what DOES work and stop wasting time and money doing what DOESN'T.

I say this with no malice intent what so ever.

As I have mentioned more times then anyone wants to hear, I have been selling art for 40 years.

I can not honestly say that there is a direct connection between quality and what sells. Not in my experience.

In fact, I can't tell you how many times when I was running the galleries, that a person would pay more for a lousy piece of art,
hanging right next to a great piece of art, for less money, simply because the "picture" matched their drapes better.

Most art is not bought as art, sorry to say. It is bought as a decorator item.

Half the stuff that hangs in the most prestigious galleries in the world would be rejected by the average person cursing the internet
to buy something to hang on the wall.

So even when someone does stumble in or gets drawn in to FAA there is nothing saying they are really looking for great art.
They are just as likely or maybe even more likely looking for something that matches the wall paper or the throw rugs.

Here's a term that I used to just make me want to scream. "Well that is not as nice a "picture" as this one and I don't like it as well,
but I'll take it because it matches (my couch, or chair, or drapes or what ever)."

I do agree that to some degree the cream will rise to the top. But not often enough.

As artist, you have to be able to accept that because it is what is and there is no changing it. But you can sell into that. In fact, you must,
if you want to sell art because that is the market.

Let's face it, sales generates sales. Social media, advertising, local or online are just a way to get the eyeballs to take a look and get the ball rolling. When you want to value your work it's all about sales. When others value your work it's all about sales. The more first sales you can get, the more 2 or 3 it can generate. It's very tough to get the ball rolling, but once it starts it's hard to get it to stop. It's all about getting the first one into a group of people that share a common interest to share your work.

Big Gold Star to Cynthia!!

"I have keywords and descriptions and all that. Over half of my sales here are people who have seen my work in person, or to whom I have given a business card or a link to my website."

"it's my estimate based on sales before and after I started sharing my FAA store on my portfolio site. Most of the traffic there is from business cards and personal networking. "

Going beyond the FAA marketing scheme. Cross promoting. Getting out and beyond the FAA market and into the greater art market!

Good stuff...

Of course the fact that she has amazing art work dose not hurt a bit!

I have been on FAA 2 years in January and have 32 sales. I have tried contests, groups, message boards, press releases, blogs, joining cross-commenting processes, and have dozens of artwork page sponsorships. I have cross-linked all my FAA images on Flickr and ViewBug and many (but not all) on Mpix and my own web site (grandmemories.us). I have tweeted and auto-tweeted, I have a Facebook business page and personal page, I blog on my own website and send them here.

I agree with Floyd - it isn't the quality of the art that is always sought. But marketing is huge. Here at FAA, my 450+ images get lost among the millions of others. I have good tags, titles, and descriptions, I believe. All those tags, titles, and descriptions are identical on the other sites where those images appear so that the images will show up on Google searches - and many times they do. But still, not many sales here.

Locally, I promote like crazy. I have business cards and leave them everywhere. I have tri-fold color brochures and leave them wherever possible. I meet people in galleries and other places face-to-face. I apply to galleries on-line using their forms. I write articles (free) for magazines that include my photos and reference my pages. I enter competitions.

Currently I have six 20x30 canvas prints on display at the local airport as part of their art gallery. I have one in a restaurant as a competition winner. I have 3 in another restaurant because they were redecorating and I sold them 3. I have 10 in a medical facility lobby and am in negotiations with another. I have had my art displayed and sold in Visitor Centers on the Blue Ridge Parkway. And I have a one-man gallery show scheduled for Nov-Dec 2014.

I have had three different photo books (15 x 11.5, hardcover) printed - the last one with 134 color images. I show these whenever prudent.

But sales? Not many here at all. Eleven this year and 21 last year. So even with all my work, and tripling the number available for sale here, I sold half as many this year.

I get rave reviews on my sites and my art from around the world: http://grandmemories.us/reviews-feedback-and-comments/ but that doesn't translate to sales. Like Floyd said, it isn't about the quality...

I will stay with FAA because they are the best place for on-line sales. But my best sales will always be the face-to-face meetings with people at events and in galleries.

I've been on here for just over 5 months and made around $500 and close to $300 locally. I'm not bragging but am happy and proud of those numbers in a short time frame, especially considering I just started everything in June. It has been far from easy, I've tweaked work, deleted work, spent hours starting pages on fb/twitter/pinterest/tumblr, and just about everything else I can think of. I've Approached, called, and emailed businesses, newspapers, and even magazines, which is extremely difficult for me being more of an introvert. I've found that the more you push yourself to do the uncomfortable parts, advertising yourself, the more success you can have. The more success you have the more interest you gain from people outside of other artists. I actually love doing the art part as I'm sure most people do but approaching people in the "real world" is far more difficult than online. I think to have some sort of success it is important to do both though. Just my 2 cents from a newbie!

John Haldane,

I thought the thread you stated was one of the most, fair and accurate critiques of FAA I have seen. Thank you for doing that.

Same thing for the one we are reading. Thank you Bellsouth.

Link to John's thread: http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=1601732

Rebecca, thanks for posting..I learned a lot..as usual!

I also think it is harder to sell photography because it's largely undervalued by the viewing public these days. With the proliferation of cameras, people incorrectly think that they can take spectacular scenic pictures themselves. Of course, 99.95% of them can't. There are also a LOT of photographers on this site, and elsewhere on POD. It's a lot bigger pond than traditional media, like paint. I both of those factors make selling photography on POD a more difficult, more competitive endeavor than other mediums.

I'm not a photographer, so I may not know what I'm talking about, but that's never stopped me before. :)


John Haldane, you're in Asheville! Me too. We are lucky that we live in such an arts-centric town, and in one that is a tourist destination. Lucky or smart. Yea, let's go with smart.

Everything said about selling photography is true. And add another aspect of it that has been around for years.

Photography is reality. People are not really looking for too much reality. They are looking for some sort of rendition
of what the wish reality was, something romanticized or molded into something that fills their dreams.

Here is an example of.

This is one of my best selling images here and elsewhere. Below it are two paintings of the same subject. Hell, even I like
the paintings better! lol

Floyd, yes, the paintings are more to my liking. While the photo is beautiful, it reminds me of a professionally edited vacation shot. I think that's why a lot of photos that are digitally painted or have textures added to them to give them a painterly effect seem to sell well.

The open minded might want to check into this, it is only 2 weeks old, but endless possibilities for promo outside FAA

http://qthecollection.com/qtalk/index.php

Gunter Nezhoda
Portfolio   Facebook    Gunter Nezhoda Photography

"Abilene" is already taken. I'll try "Avalon" and see what happens. :)

LOL!!! @ Ricardo

Let us know if you find the Excalibur. ; )

Carol!

You are 100% correct, that is exactly what it is. That is pretty much what all of my photos are, vacation photos. I go on
vacations and take a lot of pictures and the ones I think will sell, I offer them for sale. Been doing it for years and years
and have selling and making nice money doing it for years and years.

That is exactly why I am saying, with authority gained from experience, it is NOT about the quality.


What people should be saying is; "Hey, if that stuff sells then my stuff should sell for sure".

So bottom line is a skilled salesman with superior marketing ability and limited artistic skills will sell better then a skilled artist,
with no marketing or salesmanship skills.

Most community colleges have a Salesmanship class and or a marketing class. Every artist should take at least
one if not both of them, IMHO.

Any one that is selling anything should learn about impressions and how create high quality impressions based on your product
and Top Of The Mind Awareness, and the Product Mix and the Hierarchy of Needs as they apply to selling. Things like client control,
qualifying the customer and closing the sale. Anyone know the relationship between a problem solver and a salesman and how it relates
to the Hierarchy of Needs? If you don't, you should.

Sorry, didn't mean to get on my soap box... again! lol

but the theory falls apart quick, where it takes convincing of people to buy plain photos. where as better quality - sells itself.

while you might get lucky on a typical vacation shot, it's a lucky shot. my images are from vacations as well. the location and the reason your there doesn't matter, it's how it's presented. things with blown skies, things without detail, crooked, noisy, etc - won't sell. it doesn't matter how good you are at selling. and there's a chance at it returning as well.

it really comes down to - what else did you buyers see previously before yours? if there are images that are poor, and they have seen better, you lost the customer.

---Mike Savad

Floyd, let's be honest. You are selling a lot of (what you call) "OPA". Which means other people have done a lot of the marketing for you.

In all the people that have come to my booth at art shows only ONE talked about color. She even had a paint swatch with her. But that was it. Every other person that commented talked about the SUBJECT, not the colors.

And OPA isn't allowed at any art show I have been a part of or applied to. It has to be original work by the artist. I imagine people that go to such shows are looking for original art, not OPA.

John! Your jealousy of other people's success has you picking fights with people that you don't know anything about!!

Man that is funny stuff.... ROFLMAO!!

Lot of artist members in here are looking to people to sell their work for them in Galleries.

Online or brick and mortar it is the same thing.

Lot of museums and galleries in the world selling OPA online and brick and mortar... it is the same thing....

You bring that up a thousand times and it will not be your decision who does and who does not make that decision.

Given what you just reported as you sales, or lack there of, I would be careful not to put Sean into a position where
he has to make a choice. There are some huge galleries in here selling a ton of artwork, making Sean a lot of
money. The have been here for years. Sean is not going drop them.

7000 Museum and Gallery members here selling a ton of artwork. You don't like it and every chance you get you take
some sort of cheap shot at them. You really need to get over it!

Mike, I want to agree with everything you said, but the examples I gave are not theory, they are real life experience.

I have showed you before one of my best selling photos (actually I have not sold one in a while now) and we have bot
agreed it is a really bad image. But it sells and for al the wrong reason. The first one was a total fluke were the gal happen
to see the proof and had to have it because she had once lived in a house with nearly the same view. Then her friend had to
have on. So I put it on my websites and people still find it an buy it.

But you are right, you can't put photos with noise and totally out of focus or with your thumb over the lens...

I used to do an art show in Pismo beach. There was an artist that was at all of the shows. Everyone was shocked
at how well here stuff sold. She did nothing but Pismo Beach and the immediate area, 9x12, 12x16 and 16x20s
Here thinning was to keep the price low and keep the piece small so they could walk away with it with no problem.

All of them in the same cheap frame and the same scenes over and over again. She would sell one and stick another
one up on the display. Bad stuff, I mean bad.

She used to buy all of her frames from me and constantly was after me to hang her stuff in one of my galleries that
had an area for local artist. Finally because I didn't want to lose the frame business I put up several of here pieces.

They sold fairly well.

Have you ever gone to Michaels and looked in the back room where they have painting classed? You can take five
classed and you come out of there with an original painting you did yourself. That's is what her art looked like.

People will buy anything.

There are tricks to sell, let's call it, less then great photographers.

Here is one them. I sell this one here and off my eBay site. The key word search phrase according to eBay data is "To The Crazy Ones", (go figure)
but is it a great image or is Steve Jobs doing my marketing and selling for me?

I'm a slow learner. It took me a year to come to the same conclusion. I wish I had all the hours back I wasted sitting and voting and commenting on art in the hope that it would advance my images in search. I'm still new to this business and happy with the progress I've made. I will continue to try new avenues for promoting myself and if I don't get results I'll move on to another.

What was Edison's line? "I haven't failed, I just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

I gave up the internet.
I just spend my time to update my website and improve its look some times and that's all. Of course I publish on social medias when I have something new since it doesn't take much time but I know that barely no one cares it doesn't matter how many followers I have.

I actually only have my website because I like playing with it (change its look, update things, write on my blog, etc) and not because it has any real use since it doesn't matter how I try not many people visit it. And I have spent a lot of money and time with marketing online and in the real world.

I have some negatives to develop but I don't get motivated to work with them. I just enjoy photograph and right what I like to talk about on my blog and I don't give a $%*& about sales to don't get more frustrated.

Believe me, I have thought and tried everything I could to get no result at all. I mean ZERO. I would have to sell several prints to compensate the time and money I spent. And doing the maths it is nearly impossible.

For those who do it as a hobby and fun, not minding if they are losing money even if selling, specially elders who doesn't need to worry about money and have a lot of time, or those who have good day jobs, it may be worth the time and money spend to play as artist, to play as art seller, etc. For people like me who have not money and have to work a lot to pay the bills and even give up better work oportunities just to have a bit more time to do what enjoy doing (photo and art), spending time and money on marketing in the internet and outside is not worth at all.

I just don't find any rhyme or reason as to what causes sales and what doesn't. I've done all that is said to do, and still have either famine or feast sales, but one huge thing that caused a famine for me was Amazon going down and almost all my images gone. Because I am unwell, I read a lot and have come to know quite a few authors - I kept my work public in my wish list. But I can't control FAA or Amazon and I sure don't lack followers anywhere.

I changed my marketing and now target a more commercial side where I license images from my own website. I make more doing that than I could in 10 years with sales as they are now. I never wanted the commercial side - it was less appealing, but it is what it is. Maybe when Amazon is sorted again, things might look better here.

I can't type a lot; some days are better than others, so if I comment, vote and tweet someone's work - it's because I love it. Not to get anything in return.

Marcio, your work is beautiful, and it's sad to read how hard you tried.