FineArtAmericaReviews 2,670

An artists perspective,

I have tried FAA three times now. The first time, I just felt uneasy and left, the second time I was banned for a year for confronting a moderator in the discussion forum about them breaking the there own rules consistently spamming every discussion with their images for sale.

Third time was the charm. I actually told myself to give it a real go and forget the past. I uploaded about 300 images. Sold a few from my Instagram posts, not from the FAA search that they brag about.

First of all, if your a new photog or artist that is coming there to sell, best of luck. The system they use is a pyramid structure. The more sales you have, the higher you move up in the search. So that means others who have been there for 3 to 7 years are on top, even if the work they sell is sub-par. *A lot of it is* What FAA and the frequent users will tell you is, if you want to sell online, you have to work hard at it. If you cant bring your own buyers here, your lazy. Where else can you get your own website for $30. They have this notion that $30 dollars is cheap to get your own site to sell.

First of all, you don't own anything or have a website there. Its a page that FAA owns that you use. Again, its not a website and its not yours. All the customers that come in to buy your prints are kept secret for FAA only. You don't get to have your own customers info, FAA does. They wont give you the info from your own sales.

Then they have promotions to help new artists and photogs sell. They don't work and haven't for years. In order to use the promotion, you have to put a link from FAA in a high traffic area in your blog or website, then they are suppose to reciprocate and have your image show on the third row in the first page of search results. For less savvy internet uses, you will say "it works, I see my images". Try signing out and looking. You wont show up, its a facade. They do however take your link. Nice huh. One of the moderators said for over a year that they are working on it, lol. They come up with new items to sell every week, but don't have time to fix important things that help the members. They do take your links though.

Customer service is null for both artists and buyers. FAA never gives any discounts, it has to come from the artists side. They charge a big flat rate because they have to pay a printer, then take their own cut. The artist is left with minimal payout.

The discussion forum is a bunch of groupies that sell pretty well. They will not let you know this at all costs, but eventually they cant hold back from bragging. They will suck you dry for any info you have about social media or other types of marketing that is new, that may help them other places. They will not give you any tips that are relevant, mostly will send you to their blog post from a link. It helps them rank better in FAA's search.

Another important thing to remember is that all those discussions they post can be made private, so only members can see them and anyone can make it private. Yes, so that means when a customer or artist has problems concerning bad workmanship or things not working right and makes a discussion, the regs make it private so no one outside FAA thinks they have problems. Everything is great.

I really don't blame them. Some of them sell a ton and don't want anything to ruin that.

I cant really say much about the printers, because I never ordered anything myself, or would ever. I do see customers that come in to the forum all the time complaining though.

Also, if you do join and pay the $30 for the year, you have to tell a moderator to cancel your membership before the anniversary date, or they will auto-charge you again. Their is no opt out. I'm sure that they hope you forget, because it was only $30 and many people do, until they see the new charge. Lots of those discussions too, but they turn private real fast, so you will never see them.

To me this place is a scam pyramid scheme with no regards for its members. I can only imagine what print labs they use.