Fine Art America Review

At the end of each section, the last paragraph will always be my personal thoughts on that question.

Here are the questions I will be answering in this article:

-What is Fine Art America?

-What can I sell on Fine Art America?

-How do I sell on Fine Art America?

-How much does it cost to sell on Fine Art America?

-How and when do I get paid?

-Where can I see my sales?

-How do I upload my artwork?

-How do I edit, delete, or change the position of my artworks in my shop?

-How much do I make for Print-On-Demand products and how to I set my profits?

-What is “Behind The Scenes”?

-What are the marketing options through Fine Art America?

-What is the Fine Art America “Community”?

-Where can I see my statistics for my shop?

-Have I sold my artwork on Fine Art America?

If you are interested in a quick pros and cons list, here it is:

Each of these will be talked about more in-depth in the article below.

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What is Fine Art America?

Fine Art America is a platform from which artists can sell their artworks to customers from across the world. Fine Art America was started in 2006. They have become one of the largest online marketplaces to date. Over 100,000 artists are selling their work here. They have 16 manufacturing centres located in 5 different countries to cut down on shipping time and costs for your customers.

I believe Fine Art America to be a reputable source to sell your art. This is important as buyers want to purchase art from a company/website they can trust. Fine Art America does this. Having your art listed on this site will not hurt your reputation at all. Many big name artists sell on Fine Art America.

What can I sell on Fine Art America?

On Fine Art America you can sell paintings, photographs, drawings, digital art, and mixed media. 

You can sell the originals of your art and reproductions of you artwork. If you plan to sell originals, the customer is directed to contact you to set up payment, shipping, etc. If you are selling reproductions, you can sell your artworks as the following products:

• Museum Quality Prints
• Greeting Cards
• Throw Pillows
• Duvet Covers
• Shower Curtains
• Tote Bags
• Phone Cases
• T-Shirts
• Beach and Bath Towels
• Yoga Mats
• Notebooks
• Blankets
• Chargers
• Carry-all Pouches
• Coffee Mugs
• Tapestries
• Face Masks

I love the number of products that can be sold on Fine Art America. Though it takes a little time to go through each of them, it allows your art to be presented in ways which might pique the interest of more customers. Through the sales I have made, I have never heard any complaints about the quality of the products.

To read more about their products, follow this link: https://fineartamerica.com/tour/products

How Do I Sell On Fine Art America?

It’s as simple as filling in the registration form on their website!

Follow this link to start: https://fineartamerica.com/sell-art-online.html

Fine Art America has a very simple registration which is always nice.

How Much Does It Cost To Sell On Fine Art America?

There is a free account as well as a premium membership on Fine Art America. There are some marketing tools only available to premium members, such as being able to integrate your Fine Art America gallery directly into your own website, but the biggest difference is the number of images/artworks you are able to post. With a free account, you are only able to upload 25 pieces. With a premium account, you can upload unlimited pieces.

The premium account costs $30 USD a year. Which compared to some premium memberships on other websites is actually pretty good. Many have a monthly fee which adds up to way more than $30 a year. I used this for one year, I sold enough prints to pay for it but not anything extra. If I had more art, it might be more worth it. After the year was up, I just deleted some of my older works and kept the newer pieces. I have some of my photography up as well. If I was to get more into posting my photography, it might be worth it for me to get a premium membership again.

I also used the premium membership so I could integrate my Fine Art America gallery and printing options directly onto my website. It worked great and looked great, however, I find prints from Fine Art America can be quite pricey. Since then, I have found other means to selling prints so I no longer use the integration available to premium members. This was another reason I cancelled my premium membership.

I can see that for some, choosing premium is well worth it. At this moment, for me, I do not find it worth it in my personal circumstances.

If you want to see all the differences between free and premium memberships, follow this link: https://fineartamerica.com/membershipplans.html

How and When Do I Get Paid?

Fine Art America has a 30-day return policy on all of their products. After the 30-day period is up, you will get paid the 15th of that month.

You can receive your payment by check or by PayPal.

This is very standard for any platform that sells art. I have always received my payments on time right to my PayPal account. 

You can set up your payment method in the “Behind The Scenes” tab under “Accounting” and “Payment Information”.

Where can I see my sales?

In the “Behind the Scenes” tab, scroll down to “Accounting” and click on “Sales”. This will show a list of the artworks you have sold, where the buyer is from, and how much your commission for each of them will be. 

If you click on “Balance”, this will list your sales, purchases, and anytime you have been paid by Fine Art America. A nice feature on this page is the option to “Export to Excel”. I like to keep a spreadsheet of my earnings and this option allows me to easily keep a record of what I have sold on Fine Art America.

How Do I Upload My Artwork to Fine Art America?

Watch the video above at 9:40 to see how to upload your art.

I find the upload feature on Fine Art America to be quite user friendly. It is all on one page and is pretty self explanatory.

How Do I Edit, Delete, Or Change The Order Of Artworks Listed On My Shop?

Click on your name in the top right corner. This will take you to your default profile screen where your artworks are listed. Hover over any of the artworks to see a pencil box show up. Click on that pencil box. From here you can click “edit”, “delete”, or change the position number to change where the artwork is listed in your shop.

You can see this in the video at 9:40.

How Much Do I Make For The Print-On-Demand Products I Sell and How Do I Set My Profits?

Fine Art America sets a base price on all products to cover the cost of production on their end. Afterward, you are able to set your profit above and beyond that base price. So, in the end, you decide how much you make from these print-on-demand products.

You can set these profits individually each time you upload a new artwork, or you can set a default price. This can be accessed while you are uploading a new artwork, from your profile page beside the “upload image” button, or in the Behind the Scenes tab under the General section and Default Settings.

I love how you can set your own profits for the print-on-demand products. Some websites I have been a part of other websites that just have a percentage that you get of a price set by the company. In that same breath, however, I find the prices of some products to be very high. I am able to sell some products (such as giclée prints) produced by local companies at a much cheaper price on my own. I do enjoy the print-on-demand though because I don’t have to do any of the printing or shipping of the products.

What is “Behind the Scenes”?

Behind the Scenes is your dashboard to access everything you need on Fine Art America. Once you have created your account, just hover the mouse over your name in the top right corner and you will see one of the drop downs named “Behind the Scenes”.

Here you will find where you can update your profile and artworks, check your statistics, view your sales, view your marketing options, and much more.

I like how everything is in one place. 

What are the marketing options through Fine Art America?

Linking to social media:

You can link your Fine Art America account to your Twitter and Facebook accounts. This will allow you to auto-post on your pages any new artworks that you add to your gallery.

Slideshows and Logos:

Fine Art America allows you to build slideshows and logos that you can code into your personal website or blog. These slideshows and logos will link back to your Fine Art America gallery. There are a few different options which allow you to choose what fits best for you.

Email Campaigns:

Create an email list of your followers to whom you can send updates.

Limited Time Promotions:

You can create custom promotions which will allow your work to be seen more for a limited time. You can set time limits for promotions and number of sale limits as well. Time promotions will add some excitement to your customers.

Ordering Catalogs:

On each artwork page there is a PDF button that allows you or your customers to view all of the options available for the artwork in one place. This is a great tool if you want to sell your prints at a local show or customers want all of this information. You can simply download it, and forward it to them.

Here is an example of one:

Discount Codes:

Similar to limited time promotions, you can create discount codes to give a percent or dollar amount off of customers orders. You set the start and expiration date for these.

Shopping Cart Widget (Premium Member Feature):

This widget allows you to show your gallery and sell directly from you personal blog or website. There are a few different styles of widgets that you can code into your website. You can also customize the colors to fit your theme.

Sharing Buttons:

You can choose which sharing buttons you would like displayed with your artworks. (Just choose all of them, that is the best!)

Fine Art America does a good job at bringing many marketing options to the table. I use a few of them but not all, however, I see the use of all of them. As an artist, you need to decide what type of marketing you would like to focus on and use those options.

What is the Fine Art America Community?

Fine Art America does a great job of bringing artists together to create conversation and community. As artists, a lot of our work is done independently. There isn’t always an opportunity to work with others or even have conversations about art with someone at work.

On Fine Art America, there are contests, forums, and groups that you can join. Each of these allows you to connect with other artists from around the world. I paint a lot of wildlife, so I have joined groups that have other wildlife artists in them.

On the forums, there are discussions created by artists. Maybe you have a question about the composition of one of your works in progress, or you’ve sold a piece internationally and you need advice about how to pack it. The forum on Fine Art America is a place you can go to ask these questions and get answers from other artists.

There aren’t many other websites where you can sell your art that also create a community for the artists. This is an awesome feature on this website.

Where Can I See My Statistics For My Shop?

If you go to the “Behind the Scenes” section and scroll down to Statistics, you will see three options, “Analytics”, “Visitors”, and “Comments”. 

In the “Analytics” section, you are able to see how many people have visited your shop over different durations of time. You can also select specific artworks to see their performance over a certain amount of time.

The “Visitors” section shows how many visitors have visited each artwork overall and where the last visitor was from.

The “Comments” section simply allows you to read the comments posted on your artworks.

The “Analytics” section is quite new and is much more useful than the other two sections. Before, it was just “Visitors”, and “Comments”. I find the “Visitors” section to not be very helpful.

If there is one area where Fine Art America could improve on, it is the statistics category. Now, with the new “Analytics” section, this has improved slightly, but I have seen much better statistics/analytics pages on many other websites.

Have I sold my artwork on Fine Art America?

This is the questions everyone has been waiting for. Yes, I have sold artwork on Fine Art America. Has it been my most profitable website? No, it hasn’t. As I mentioned before, Fine Art America is full of artists. Getting your artwork noticed may not be easy. If you put in more effort to being connected and updating your shop, maybe you will have more success than me. However, each transaction I have made has gone very smoothly. 

I have also been contacted by people for commission work who found me on Fine Art America. This means that even the emerging artists can be found!

Final Opinion and Thoughts:

Fine Art America is a worthwhile website if you are looking to sell your art online. I have talked with many artists who are looking for websites with a  solid Print-On-Demand feature. Fine Art America definitely has one of these. You don’t have to sell originals through Fine Art America, in fact, you can’t sell them directly through their website. I look at this as both a positive and a negative. Customers may be reluctant to purchase without the promise of the websites “30-day Guarantee”, but at the same time, no commission fee for originals is taken when you sell them.

The fact that there are thousands of other artists on Fine Art America is also a positive and a negative thing. As a result, it means that Fine Art America is reputable and a solid website for artists, but it also means that it might be more difficult for your artwork to be found.

I enjoy the fact that they have built a website that encourages conversation between artists from around the world.

Here are the two things I wish they would improve on Fine Art America:

1. Being able to list more than 25 artworks with the free account
2. Continue to improve their analytics and statistics pages.

These are minor complaints though to a well made website.

If you are wanting to sell through Fine Art America, follow this link to get started: https://fineartamerica.com/openanaccount.html

And if you have any further questions, don’t hesitate to contact me!

My email is brian@briansloanartist.com

Make sure to check out my reviews about other websites where you can sell your art below!

ArtPal – https://www.briansloanartist.com/artpal-full-review-what-is-it-how-to-use-it-what-i-think-of-it/

Artfinder – https://www.briansloanartist.com/artfinder-review/

Artmajeur – https://www.briansloanartist.com/artmajeur-review/

Etsy – https://www.briansloanartist.com/etsy-review/

Redbubble – https://www.briansloanartist.com/redbubble-review/

Saatchi Art – https://www.briansloanartist.com/saatchi-art-review/

Society6 – https://www.briansloanartist.com/society6-review/

Traderspace – https://briansloanartist.com/traderspace-review/

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