asyncritus

Hi guys

I'd like to try selling some of my photos, but dunno how to start. Isn't that always the way!

Any advice most gratefully received!

Capture48 Loc: Arizona

Let's see your website.

sr71 Loc: In Col. Juan Seguin Land

Yeah lets look at your website

russelray Loc: La Mesa CA

Here's how I got started, in detail: http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-327835-1.html

GDRoth Loc: Southeast Michigan USA

How much do you plan to sell them for?

Rongnongno Loc: FL

First question first...

Most basic one:
Is your work salable?
What is your intended market?

If you cannot answer these two simple questions, there is no point to answer anything else.

Note that by salable I am not referring to the Oooh!!! Ahhhh! you may have in private or in a forum.

BHC Loc: Strawberry Valley, JF, USA

Have you begun to draft a business plan, even a rough draft identifying:
Target market
Advertising
Methodology of delivery
Licensure
Insurance
Taxes
Legal issues (other)
Reserves

Those who fail to plan, plan to fail. (Paraphrased from B. Franklin{?})

cmc4214 Loc: S.W. Pennsylvania

How is one to know if their work is salable until they try ?

Jcmarino

Do you want to sell online or outright? I started going to local arts and craft shows and festivals. Sold 8x10 matted prints for $25.00 . They went like wild fire. Also advertise for the type of photography you like to do at the same time. The more artsy the festival the better they sell. On line I use Fine Art America for portraits and such I use Smugmug. I live in a university town soooo Homecoming, football season, graduation, parents weekend and the start of school is an awesome time to sell local prints, and advertise for graduation photos. I also raise my prices then too.

GDRoth Loc: Southeast Michigan USA

Lots of good info here for our OP.

Where is he/she with feedback on responses to the original question

Rongnongno Loc: FL

Try selling rotten potatoes and you will now.

Caribou Loc: St. Louis, MO

There are sites where you can sell photographs. Imagekind and FineArtAmerica are two, plus Etsy is a crafts site where photos are also for sale. Plus setting up at art shows is a way. I've seen some great photos at art shows.

The drawback to the online sites is that you are competing with a LOT of other people to get your work even looked at. And your profit margin is pretty thin. If you do art shows you need a large inventory and a lot of time to spend at the shows. I've put some of my work up on FAA but I haven't sold anything yet but I'm not surprised. Even on those sites you have to be pro-active to get your work seen among the many, many thousands of other photographs on display.

Bottom line, it seems to take a lot of work which I haven't been willing to do. But people out there must make some money at it. It seems to depend on the quality of the work, whether it appeals to enough buyers, and the amount of time you want to invest.

Good luck.

ole sarg Loc: south florida

Take worthwhile photos is a good first step

DaveHam Loc: Reading UK

There are two basic routes.

1. You have a collection of images you want to try to sell; use a stock site which does the marketing for you. Quality is not the prime concern of a lot of these stock sites. Keyword carefully and wait and see what happens. Selling through your own web site is a lot of work; you have to market it and have relevant content which takes a lot of time and effort.

2. You identify a particular requirement from a publishing house or agency and shoot specifically for that, offering them the license to use any material that they select. This is the route adopted by a lot of freelancers when they are not working specific assignments. Here your quality will need to be in the excellent bracket.

You can combine the two as well; most do.

This is not the road to fortune; there are literally tens of thousands of photographers trying to sell their images. The market is saturated with endless images which are marketed without artistic and in some cases quality control by a lot of the stock agencies, hence the very low prices a lot of images achieve.

You can get more income from a single shoot for a client that you would probably generate from loading a thousand images onto something like Shutterstock if income is your aim.

Kuzano

Get This Book!

Note this is the thirty eighth edition, published every year. For a while I bought this book almost every year.

Good starting place... covers the Photographers Marketplace nicely, all manners of selling:

http://www.amazon.com/2015-Photographers-Market-Burzlaff-Bostic/dp/1440335672