I came across a really good (albeit brief) post on The Business of Photography blog which talked about the importance of “promoting yourself”. It got me thinking about just how guilty I am of doing the exact opposite of this. As a self-described “geek” I have this wild thought in my head (it drives my girlfriend crazy by the way) that if I simply just build a website that I’ll start selling images. Man, that sounds ridiculous when you see it in print! Trust me, that’s not just not going to happen. I’ve said in earlier posts about the type of visitors that you’re typically going to get to your blog (other photographers) and my feeling is that although it’s nice to see your website’s hit count increase that these type of visitor aren’t really the ones you want/need visiting.
As much as the Internet has changed the game, for the most part I feel that marketing is still pretty much the same. You have to get out there and put your face (and in this case, your images) in front of as many people as you possibly can, and than a few more!
What exactly are the best methods for self-promotion? Well I have touched on a few that I have thought off before, but remember you’re talking to a self-professed “Build it and they will come” geek here (man, I love that movie and baseball) so I am not really sure. But I would love to hear what other folks have been doing.
BTW, if you haven’t seen the polls yet, make sure that you check them out!
6 responses so far ↓
Reading the article I also saw the “site poll” regarding how many prints get sold per month. Personally I think the 1-5 for 17% (as currently stands) are kidding themselves. I suspect zero is the answer for most and therefore this mean a much higher percentage than the 33% that voted this way.
@Rob:
I wish that we could get a few more voters in order to average it out better…we’ll have to see. I think that for the most part the traffic that photoblogs receive is from other photographers but does this mean selling images to them is impossible? I am not sure at this point.
Brett
Hi Brett! Found your site because of your interview with Miles. Nice work you’re doing here!
There aren’t many professional photographers who earn a living selling prints, and I’d wager there are ZERO photobloggers in that category!
The ability to sell prints through a website has little or nothing to do with talent, quality, pricing, promotion, site demographics or site traffic – it’s really about supply & demand. There’s an extremely small market for photographic prints, and tractor-trailer-truckloads of photographic prints available to buy, from the finest museum quality to the stacks of work you see at street fairs.
A photoblogger who wants to earn real money might try thinking of his or her photoblog as a portfolio rather than a print warehouse, because the big money in photography – if that’s your goal as a photographer! – is in commercial work and licensing. There are plenty of photographers with Flickr accounts who’ve gone Pro just because an Art Director or Photo Editor found their work there and liked what they saw – and either licensed images outright or hired the photog for a commercial shoot.
So if an Art Director found your photoblog, would he or she see a body of work that shows your capabilities, your style, your tenacity, your independence, your ability to work hard and take chances? Would they want to work with you? Put yourself in the hiring person’s shoes and build your site — your on-line portfolio — accordingly.
For photobloggers who just want to sell prints, are there ways of making your printed work stand out from the billions of other digital photo prints available? I don’t know the answer to that question, but I can recommend subscribing to Seth Godin’s blog at http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/. It’s not about photography – but it is about marketing.
Keep up the great job, Brett!
@Kathleen:
What a great comment and thanks for sharing your opinions with us.
I agree with your for the most part, that selling images via your photoblog is a very tough thing to do, but is it impossible? I am hoping that the community can help us with that answer. I am eternally optimistic, and really believe that the Internet has truly changed the game. The issue is making your photoblog stand out from all the others, and combining it with a conventional marketing plan (great idea about Seth’s blog).
Promotion always comes down to how much effort you are willing to put into it… and networking – I have made a lot of contacts through photoblogging which have turned into either a print being sold or some type of photographic work.
As well as my photoblog I have three other photo websites which I sell images from which do a good job of promoting my work work, luckily my day job is as a search engine optimiser, so some might say that gives me an advantage over other photoblogger’s wanting to sell images as my websites do fairly well in the search engine results.
I would say that with out a decent website that works hard for you then your not getting the most out of being a photoblogger (that is if you want to sell prints)!
I agree…so please check out my book I am promoting, I feel it will help any photographer get their business going in a successful manner.
http://www.amazon.com/Why-Starving-Artist-When-Rich/dp/1419656635/ref=tag_dpp_yt_edpp_rt