FineArtAmerica

Basics:

FineArtAmerica is a print-on-demand site that allows artists to upload images and sell their art on prints, puzzles, greeting cards, pillows and other products

Expected pay: Set by you

Husl$core: $$$$$

Commissions & fees: Vary by product

Where: Nationwide (remote)

Requirements: Original art and/or photographs to sell

What is FineArtAmerica?

FineArtAmerica is one of the oldest and largest print-on-demand operations in the U.S.. Launched in 2006, the site now represents roughly 500,000 artists, who sell their drawings, paintings and photographs on everything from prints to puzzles.

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FineArtAmerica Review

Like most print-on-demand shops, all FineArtAmerica asks artists to do is upload their images. Once you do that, you get to choose what types of products you’d like those images to decorate.

FineArtAmerica will do all the work — producing the products; marketing them; and sending them off to buyers. You simply sit back and collect royalties. Sweet.

Pricing

With most products, FineArtAmerica sets a base price that represents the cost for the site to produce and ship the product to the customer. The artists adds a mark-up — that’s your profit as the artist — to come up with a final price.

The site suggests standard — and relatively modest — mark-ups. For instance, it suggests you set your mark up a 36″ x 27″ print, which will sell for $208, to give yourself a $10 royalty. But the mark-up is up to you. If you want to earn $50 on that sale, the print will cost $248.

Other products

FineArtAmerica also offers a few services that don’t involve putting your art on a product. These include digital art licensing. With digital licensing, the artist sets the base price and FineArtAmerica adds a 30% commission for the use of its licensing services.

In addition, it offers artists the ability to make their art available for digital streaming. This service sends art to “digital frames” that subscribers can view much like they view movies on Netflix.

If the artists agrees to provide their art for these frames, they’ll earn royalties based on the number of minutes their art is viewed. The royalty rate is minuscule. But the only downside to clicking “yes” is if you think these digital frames might cause you to sell fewer prints. Our guess is that the opposite is true. If someone likes your art enough to view it regularly, they’ll probably buy.

Payments

Payments are made on the 15th for sales made in the prior month. Artist get paid after 30 days have passed to accommodate FineArtAmerica’s 30-day return window.

Commissions & fees

Artists can set up on the site for free. However, if you want some premium services, such as your own artist website, the site charges a $30 annual fee.

Recommendations

We love this site for the many ways it helps artists earn money for their work. The site also encourages you to connect your social media accounts and help you set up your own site with their premium membership. If art is more than a side hustle for you, we think this site’s premium membership is well worth the modest cost. You can see the difference between free and premium memberships and sign up for either a free or premium membership here.

This site also stands out for offering an extraordinary smart-phone app that allows customers to see your art on their walls.

That said, there are several fine print-on-demand sites, including Society6 and RedBubble. None of these are exclusive. We suggest you sign up with all of them. You can sign up with Society6 here.

9 responses to “FineArtAmerica”

Lisa Lee Pearce

July 14, 2021

I was never paid for the sales I made!

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1. Erin
  
  July 21, 2021
  
  Well shoot. I was about to join till I saw this. Was your issue ever resolved?
  
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Cindy Fox

July 26, 2021

Thanks for the review. I also was thinking about selling some of my Photography with them.

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Jesse

August 25, 2021

Do NOT use these guys… terrible company. Untrustworthy as can be. At this point I’m worried they may have even stolen my images. Still waiting on payment from them too.

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Catalina Decaire

November 3, 2021

Nobody manning the website. I’ve asked eight times for help. Totally sucks.

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1. Misty Cochran
  
  May 20, 2022
  
  So I set up my page but how does one know someone is using your art? I’m new and a friend suggested I post my handsome dogs pic. I’m kinda lost. Where does payments come in at. I see some of yall said Paypal but where do you set this up at? Just little confused. Thanks for all the help.
  
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Gary Blackman

March 3, 2022

I’ve been a premium member for years and have sold some artworks. My current complaint is a complete lack of technical support. I’ve submitted a question about a feature that hasn’t been working correctly for a while and I keep getting unsatisfactory answers to the question. You can only contact them through an online form. Member support seems almost nonexistent.

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Ralf

August 9, 2022

Has anyone posted on their twitter page. Most companies do check their plateform for trends and activity at times. This is important to analysis and marketing going forward. Also, there is the FTC-Federal Trade Commisdion. They accept complaints and comments about any business, online or brick and morter that operate and sell a service or product within the United States air space or boundary. Peace in the mind to all.

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Jeff at JSJ Photography

March 12, 2023

I’ve been a premium member with Fine Art America (FAA) and their digital sister site “Pixels.com” since 2012. I don’t do much volume (about $100-$200 per year for 5-15 items including everything from framed/unframed fine art prints, facemasks, mugs, fleece blankets, T-shirts, and digital downloads–but also been asked for my artwork on book covers and educational materials just for “photo credit”) but have been paid consistently on PayPal the entire time–it just takes until the next month to hit my account.

In over a decade, I’ve only had 2 returns that I know of and one of them was my fault since I was new to the Print-on-Demand (POD) scene for photographers and my “Copyright” tag in the lower right corner was HUGE when printed for a friend of mine in Australia–he got a new one shipped out for free without the tag and it is proudly displayed today in his living room down under.

As a photography side hustle, I think FAA is a good way to business if you don’t have your own website and professional print capability. I also like that I can just set my price per photo based on size/pixel quality. Customers can also choose to have my artwork professionally framed and shipped to them where I get a small commission on the materials used. I REALLY like that FAA protects my intellectual property by making “right click – save as” or “bot-scraping” nearly impossible by using a technology that displays online as a series of small squares without the original artwork downloadable without the customer paying first. When I was first starting out in digital photography in the early 2010’s, I had the Chinese “scrape” my entire site and are currently selling my artwork illegally–so protecting my intellectual copyrighted material is a BIG thing for me.

I like the “community” of artists and photographers on FAA where we can join topic-based groups or enter contests. At the end of the tax year, I can easily see all my sales and it’s interesting to see my visitor stats weekly in an e-mail.

The one drawback I had recently was they will not frame two pictures together since each photo is sold separately–but this was a unique situation where I wanted separate male and female hawk photos together in one matted frame.

Technical support was just okay for me. I usually got a service technical “ticket” via e-mail and resolution took 24-72 hours in most cases.

Although there are other POD photography companies out there, I think Fine Art America does a good job advertising for me to get a sale. I also like the sense of community with other talented artists–and can learn techniques from them–with valuable feedback on what I post. To be honest, I would recommend FAA/Pixels.com as a side hustle if your digital artwork is high quality, but mainly due to the pandemic and lack of time to process pics because I work a real job, I have not been posting much and hope to “step my game up” when I retire/retire in 2033 to make photography my main income source in my retirement years.

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