So, you're a photographer. You want to start selling prints or start selling more prints, and you are getting a bit overwhelmed by all of the choices that are out there. Of course, each choice also has people stating that their web hosting site is the best. Truth be told, most of the best know photography hosting websites are all really good, and they are all really similar. You pick one of them and the result is you are now one of the millions of photographers blindly floating around hoping someone finds you out of all the other photographers who are all using the same keywords and descriptions. It's not an easy gig. I know as I've been there. 

I've used SmugMug and Flickr, I've used Fine Art America and I've used Zenfolio. For me, Smugmug and Flickr were complete wastes of time. I would make a few sales each year on FAA. My first year on Zenfolio crushed it, then every year after got significantly worse. On all of them, I'd spend time trying to find what keywords were working best, and what descriptions were working best for other photographers. It was like throwing darts in a pitch dark room. 

Two years ago I made the decision that if I kept copying other's keywords and descriptions, that I would just be like everyone else. I needed something to help make me stand out instead of fitting in. As with everything else in selling art, I had no idea what that something was. Nor did I know how to find it.

I did find it though. I have no idea how it first came across my news feed, but I started seeing posts from a company called Art Store Fronts. Long story short, Art Store Fronts in now my web provider, and my teacher, and my guide and I can't do anything but praise them. Let me first say that it was a pretty good chunk of change to switch to them. They do have cheaper programs than the one that I took, but I wanted the ability to stand out, and so I went big. 

The thing that hooked me at the time was that they had the Facebook Pixel. If you don't know what the Facebook Pixel is, let me tell you that I'm not sure how you can grow sales without it. The pixel makes it so when anyone visits any part of my website, they will now start seeing my posts in their news feed. But the icing on top of that pixel was the information that I learned from their blog. Like most photographers trying to sell their art, I had previously just been guessing how to attract people to my website. These guys actually had the data and the knowledge of what works and they knew how to teach it. 

I made the very expensive plunge to be one of the artists using their platform to sell my art. The process of setting up my new website was daunting. It was challenging. It was time-consuming. It was also changing. Partway through setting everything up, they would send out a blog stating "stop doing this, and start doing this other thing because this is what we have found." It was all worth it. But not at first.

My first year on ASF was brutal sales-wise. It was another step back from my sales on Zenfolio and FAA. But I gained an immense amount of knowledge on how to set up an art selling business. They taught me how to set up each prints SEO title and Meta Descriptions. They taught me how to set up each gallery, and how to market to both warm and cold audiences. And they taught me patience, and that with my art, and their system, I would soon start seeing the right customers show up on my website. And they were right. 

My 2nd year with ASF just finished, and it was the best year I have ever had at selling my art. Let me show you how much things improved for me. I had 309% more visitors to my website. I had 329% more people sign up for my newsletter. I had 538% more orders, and 707% more sales. I owe all of that growth to my hard work and all of the teachings and the tools that they have here at Art Store Fronts.

***UPDATE***

I have now completed 3 years. My 3rd-year sales were 1,700% higher than my 1st-year sales. I honestly cannot say enough good things about how ASF works with us and helps us all grow our sales. 

***END UPDATE***

I already mentioned the Facebook Pixel, and how ASF dives into the data to find what is working and what isn't, and they share that info with all of us. We don't have to do guesswork like you have to do everywhere else. Let me now tell you about a few other fantastic tools that ASF gives us.

They have Augmented Reality for our websites. This means that any customer can use their cell phone or tablet, look at a piece of my art, and literally see how my art will look on their wall. We do also have a wall preview tool like a lot of others, but this is not a wall preview. It literally puts my art on THEIR walls via their mobile device. They can change the size of the print, they can change the media options, and the customer can find exactly the right size print that fits on their wall. 

As opposed to most of the other websites, there is one other thing that I love about ASF. When I get a sale, I get nearly all of the money from that sale. It's a much higher percentage that goes to me. In addition to that, I get ALL of the customers' information. I can then use that info for future marketing instead of just being thankful that I made 50% of my sales and none of the customer info. 

Art Store Fronts also teaches how to win at the Art Shows, even without getting the immediate sale. There are many other things that ASF does, but I'll let you discover them on your own. If you'd like to look into joining me as an Art Store Fronts artist, just click here to start checking them out for yourself. 

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