If you are wondering about selling photography online the first thing you need to do, is decide exactly what you are trying to attain. You do have a lot of options and there's good money to be made selling photo images, but if you select the wrong system to do it, you won't make any money and you may probably suck all the joy out of your photography also.
Deciding what you need to do with your photography isn't straightforward. Clearly everyone would like to sell a heap of photos and make a lot of money, but you need to be pragmatic. You need to temper what you need from all this with what you are prepared to do about it.
If you need serious money from selling your photography you need to approach it as proper business. If you need a bit of small change from your photography, then there's a few easier ways in which you can go at it, but if you are looking for career changing cashflow, you're in for plenty of work.
You'll have to invest time and effort and cash, and you shouldn't be expecting to quite the real job any time soon!
That said , a job in photography is as much about the lifestyle as the cash for most pros, so do not let that put you off if it's your passion. I only mention it to keep things pragmatic.
As tempting as a photography career might appear, it is a business like any other. It's going to take long-term time and effort, and like every other business, success is rarely guaranteed.
The good news is, it is one business that's particularly well suited to being developed part time, so a proficient and persistent photographer probably stands a better chance than somebody relying on their new business to put food on the table.
So what's the right option for you? Well obviously that is something you'll need to decide, but here are the 3 main ways folks are earning from photography right now.
Selling Stock Photos:
For the main part, this is best left to the more talented photographers. It is a super- cutthroat industry that has been completely deluged by average pictures lately. Unless you're bringing something new to the table, there's little point just adding more of the same.
That said , if you are gifted and creative, and prepared to work at it, there's a great opportunity emerging to stand out from the group and build a rewarding & viable business. To do that well you need to constantly look for new markets, identify potential purchasers, inspect their photograph wants and provide fresh and new material.
Stock photography is no longer a matter of submitting thousands of random photographs to a library and waiting for sales. Those days are well past.
In the new market, you need to service specific clients needs better than anybody else with an ongoing supply of high quality original pictures. And if you are making that kind of investment, the smart photographers are walking away from the Microstocks and demanding fair and reasonable payment for their work.
Photo Prints & Products
If you're not so driven to make life-changing income from your photography, photo prints and products can be a far better option. There are some glorious photo-product and fulfilment services online now that make this a breeze.
Essentially you upload pictures, select product types and create a 'shop'. A few of these websites offer a variety of print sizes, posters, canvas prints and all sorts of paper products such as gift vouchers and calendars. Most also include present items, office supplies and even clothing items, anything at all that your photos can be written on.
When the shoppers buy your items the internet site accepts payment, prints your image on the mandatory item, and then handles delivery.
For the non-professional photographer looking to make money from photography, this is the ideal platform. Once you upload photos and set up your store, you can chill out and wait, or it's possible to get proactive and plug your shop to drive even more focused visitors to view your offerings. If you're searching for where to sell photography, check for our fulfilment service suggestions at the end of this article.
Photography as Content
A last option that most folks overlook is by using your photography as website content, and this is a nice option for the web-savvy photographer looking to make some money online from their photography.
The unlucky fact is, most photo web sites don't make a cent, because most photography internet site owners never stop to think about who their visitors are. The reality is, most visitors to photographer internet site are photographers themselves and they are never going to buy prints or other photograph products. Sadly though, photo prints and photography products are the sole monetisation most site owners implement.
So when I talk about photography-as-content, I am suggesting you use your photography to draw in visitors to your Site, and then use other methods to generate revenue from your internet site, in particular important affiliate marketing programmes and advertising options.
So how does one decide where to sell photography?
If you are a gifted and creative paparazzo, and you are prepared to work long-term to build a serious business, you can't go past stock photography. It's no longer a hands-free submit and wait business, but the rewards are much better than ever for those photographers prepared to do the hard yards.
If you're just looking for some extra cashflow from a pastime you love, I would have to recommend selling stills and photo products thru a fulfilment service. You can grow your earnings by adding more photographs and more products. And you can send it into over-drive by sending targeted internet traffic to your shop.
And if you are a burgeoning webmaster and a snapper, I'd have to recommend the Instant Photo Web Sites approach using photography as content.
However you choose to start selling photo images, always remember why you're doing it. You got into this because you love making great photographs, so take care you never let the commercial aspects over power your enthusiasm for great photography.
In other words, whichever approach you take, don't forget to switch the computer off frequently and get out to make some hot new photographs!
Deciding what you need to do with your photography isn't straightforward. Clearly everyone would like to sell a heap of photos and make a lot of money, but you need to be pragmatic. You need to temper what you need from all this with what you are prepared to do about it.
If you need serious money from selling your photography you need to approach it as proper business. If you need a bit of small change from your photography, then there's a few easier ways in which you can go at it, but if you are looking for career changing cashflow, you're in for plenty of work.
You'll have to invest time and effort and cash, and you shouldn't be expecting to quite the real job any time soon!
That said , a job in photography is as much about the lifestyle as the cash for most pros, so do not let that put you off if it's your passion. I only mention it to keep things pragmatic.
As tempting as a photography career might appear, it is a business like any other. It's going to take long-term time and effort, and like every other business, success is rarely guaranteed.
The good news is, it is one business that's particularly well suited to being developed part time, so a proficient and persistent photographer probably stands a better chance than somebody relying on their new business to put food on the table.
So what's the right option for you? Well obviously that is something you'll need to decide, but here are the 3 main ways folks are earning from photography right now.
Selling Stock Photos:
For the main part, this is best left to the more talented photographers. It is a super- cutthroat industry that has been completely deluged by average pictures lately. Unless you're bringing something new to the table, there's little point just adding more of the same.
That said , if you are gifted and creative, and prepared to work at it, there's a great opportunity emerging to stand out from the group and build a rewarding & viable business. To do that well you need to constantly look for new markets, identify potential purchasers, inspect their photograph wants and provide fresh and new material.
Stock photography is no longer a matter of submitting thousands of random photographs to a library and waiting for sales. Those days are well past.
In the new market, you need to service specific clients needs better than anybody else with an ongoing supply of high quality original pictures. And if you are making that kind of investment, the smart photographers are walking away from the Microstocks and demanding fair and reasonable payment for their work.
Photo Prints & Products
If you're not so driven to make life-changing income from your photography, photo prints and products can be a far better option. There are some glorious photo-product and fulfilment services online now that make this a breeze.
Essentially you upload pictures, select product types and create a 'shop'. A few of these websites offer a variety of print sizes, posters, canvas prints and all sorts of paper products such as gift vouchers and calendars. Most also include present items, office supplies and even clothing items, anything at all that your photos can be written on.
When the shoppers buy your items the internet site accepts payment, prints your image on the mandatory item, and then handles delivery.
For the non-professional photographer looking to make money from photography, this is the ideal platform. Once you upload photos and set up your store, you can chill out and wait, or it's possible to get proactive and plug your shop to drive even more focused visitors to view your offerings. If you're searching for where to sell photography, check for our fulfilment service suggestions at the end of this article.
Photography as Content
A last option that most folks overlook is by using your photography as website content, and this is a nice option for the web-savvy photographer looking to make some money online from their photography.
The unlucky fact is, most photo web sites don't make a cent, because most photography internet site owners never stop to think about who their visitors are. The reality is, most visitors to photographer internet site are photographers themselves and they are never going to buy prints or other photograph products. Sadly though, photo prints and photography products are the sole monetisation most site owners implement.
So when I talk about photography-as-content, I am suggesting you use your photography to draw in visitors to your Site, and then use other methods to generate revenue from your internet site, in particular important affiliate marketing programmes and advertising options.
So how does one decide where to sell photography?
If you are a gifted and creative paparazzo, and you are prepared to work long-term to build a serious business, you can't go past stock photography. It's no longer a hands-free submit and wait business, but the rewards are much better than ever for those photographers prepared to do the hard yards.
If you're just looking for some extra cashflow from a pastime you love, I would have to recommend selling stills and photo products thru a fulfilment service. You can grow your earnings by adding more photographs and more products. And you can send it into over-drive by sending targeted internet traffic to your shop.
And if you are a burgeoning webmaster and a snapper, I'd have to recommend the Instant Photo Web Sites approach using photography as content.
However you choose to start selling photo images, always remember why you're doing it. You got into this because you love making great photographs, so take care you never let the commercial aspects over power your enthusiasm for great photography.
In other words, whichever approach you take, don't forget to switch the computer off frequently and get out to make some hot new photographs!
About the Author:
Brad Stephens uses all of the methods in this article to sell photography online. He contributes to and recommends GlobalEye Photo Stock Agency, he likes to sell prints and photo products through Zazzle and he swears by the Instant Photo Web Sites approach using photography as content.
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