Why Won’t It Sell Even with ‘Visitors 1,658’ on FAA? What I Found When I Rechecked the Numbers [Overseas Side-Job Journal, Vol. 22]

Looking at my Fine Art America (FAA) profile, which I check regularly, I felt a little uneasy.

Visitors: 1,658

This is the cumulative number of people who have viewed my works on FAA so far.

More people had seen my work than I imagined.

But…

Sales: zero.

“People are looking — so why won’t anyone buy?”

This time, starting from that question, I decided to take another look at FAA.

First, I went back over several weeks of the “Weekly Update” emails FAA sends.

And I found something unexpected.

What the Weekly Emails Alone Couldn’t Tell Me

FAA sends me an email every week titled

Recent Visitors to Your Artwork

It introduces the works that were viewed most that week, but the featured works change from week to week.

“So which works are actually popular?”

Honestly, from this alone, I couldn’t really tell.

So I went looking for the “Visitors” item mentioned in the emails.

And in the left menu of the dashboard, I found an item called

ANALYTICS

Here was the cumulative data for each work.

My two-week battle to register on FAA (Part 1) is here

All 24 Works Were Being Viewed Surprisingly Evenly!

Looking at Analytics, the first thing that surprised me was this.

Most of the 24 works I currently have published were clustered in a similar range of

about 40 to 99 views.

There weren’t many works that were extremely popular, or completely buried, either.

In other words,

“It wasn’t that only a few works were being seen.”

That changed my thinking a little.

“Maybe my titles are too weak to get views?”

“Maybe because ‘Japan’ is too niche a theme?”

“Maybe because my art just isn’t good enough (lol)”

…I had been thinking all sorts of things.

But in reality, people were viewing my works.

Which means the problem lies beyond that.

Why do the people who viewed them not buy?

That seems to be what I need to think about.

I Also Rechecked the Words “Taisho Roman”

One more thing that caught my attention was my profile.

In it, I had been using the expression

Taisho-era romance

As I also wrote in my Fiverr article before, words that are obvious to Japanese people —

Taisho
Showa

— are not necessarily easy for people overseas to understand.

So this time, I changed the wording to expressions that convey the atmosphere of the works without using era names directly, such as

Japanese mythology

and

nostalgic beauty of early 20th-century Japan

What I learned last time — “the words I want to use” and “the words others can understand” are different —

I’ll try that on FAA, too.

Another Strength I Noticed: Being a “Japanese Artist”

I also looked at works related to “Japan” and “Vintage” within FAA.

Comparing prices, the prices I had set weren’t particularly high.

So how do I differentiate?

What I came up with was:

“A Japanese person living in Japan, drawing Japanese culture as my theme.”

Of course, you can’t judge nationality and the like from an artist’s name alone.

But among a lineup of works themed on Japan,

“a Japanese artist living in Japan”

— clearly conveying that information in my profile might have meaning.

So I added a sentence like this to my profile and to the descriptions of some works.

Created by a Japanese artist living in Japan, drawing on real cultural roots rather than a borrowed aesthetic.

Will this lead to purchases?

Well, that’s another thing to test from here (lol).

Next, I’ll Try “Collections”

What I learned this time was:

“My works themselves are being viewed, to a certain extent.”

Honestly, that made me a little happy (lol).

In that case, next — rather than individual works —

how about showing “the world of the artist”?

I currently have 24 works.

Themes like Taisho Roman, Japanese mythology, and imaginary armor statues have gradually grown.

So from here, I’d like to create “collection pages” that group works by theme.

Rather than lining works up separately,

“This is the world this person draws.”

— a presentation that conveys that.

And Still, Sales Are Zero (lol)

Visitors: 1,658.

Works: 24.

And still,

sales: zero.

That fact hasn’t changed (lol).

But this time, by finding Analytics, I learned that it isn’t the simple story of

“nobody sees them, so they don’t sell.”

Next, I’ll test

“after being seen, how do I make people want them?”

Once I’ve made the collection pages, I’ll report the results.

My overseas side business is still very much an experiment in progress.

The five overseas platform comparison roundup is here

Continued: How I opened my Zazzle store and broke through the confirmation email problem, is here