Driving customers for photographic sales?

[M38A1]

Let's assume one has some nice collections of photographs they would like to offer for sale. What are the business model components of driving potential customers to say, a PRO smugmug account whereby the items can be purchased at a rate the photographer sets per picture?

In simple terms, how do you drive customers to a site to make purchases? How do you build a customer base for your photographic product?

I would imagine building a following on the various photography sites would be a component, but they might be too full of photographers of all levels interested in review/praise/critique of their own work. I could envision business cards or craigslist on a smaller and limited scale. Quite possibly attending photo expos with a booth and prints of your work. I don't know the validity of keywords for search functions on a site like that, nor do I know how many people would go to a site such as that for a print of something.

I have no aspirations of doing this myself. Yet a friend has asked if I could do a little legwork on this for him. I'm also curious enough to want to know how this might work.

Thoughts? Ideas?
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[tricepilot]

I would imagine building a following on the various photography sites would be a component, but they might be too full of photographers of all levels interested in review/praise/critique of their own work.



My gut reaction would be to suggest to your friend to have his/her own website, one that tells a story along with the photographs, to make it compelling, interesting, and desireable. Skip Hunt and Elzi come to mind. You're on track with Smugmug, as that site allows a customer to purchase not only print photography, but odds and ends such as mouse pads, mugs, and t-shirts with the photograph applied as well. Good luck to your pal.:thumb:

[gixxerjasen]

What kind of photos? If it's like stock photography, then there's lots of sites out there that do this. I have used http://www.dreamstime.com/ to purchase some stock photography for some websites I've done.

[NitroRoo]

I was a pro photographer full time for the last 6 years, but I never tried to make money on stock photography. There's just so much out there - it's a tough field to really make a living at (not saying it can't be done). There's way too much info to post in a thread, but I'd highly recommend checking out Dan Heller's website www.danheller.com He has a stock photography/travel photography business and lots of info on the business side of things as well.

[bushwhacker]

I havve a friend who has a store in Galveston called Local Color.

He sells local art on consignment.

He is a photographer and sells his own stuff in the store but I am pretty sure he is willing to stock any local art that he thinks will move.

I can check with him and see if he is interested putting some of your stuff on the shelf to see if it will move.

Let me know if you want me to find out.

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[Tim Kreitz]

You might see if companies such as Corbis and iStockPhoto are interested in selling your work and what kind of deals they offer to contributors.

[gotdurt]

As for trying to sell photography as art on the internet, it's pretty much a lost cause unless you have the time and ability to market the heck out of it. I've tried myself and known many very good photog's (better than me anyway) that have worked it from every angle they could, with dismal success; over the last 4 years, I've sold 6 photos online (3 orders were taken and were filled by an online store, 3 were taken/filled myself). I've also tried selling in and artist's market like craft shows, etc with much better success, but this yields a very low profit to time ratio, and involves prohibitive overhead costs as well. I know a few who still do the shows just because they enjoy it, not necessarily for the money, and even trying to use the contact at shows to generate online sales was unsuccessful; buyers were more interested in purchasing signed prints directly from the artist. Another problem with online sales is that you have no control of quality, as you never see the final print... I don't like this and much prefer to examine the product before I ship it out or deliver as I've had to have prints redone for various flaws... not common, but it does happen.

As for other products such as magnets, mugs, etc, don't bother; every artist I've heard of that tried that didn't sell any. There's a yahoo group called "Artshow photo" that is a great resource, and you'll find lots of threads discussing all of these topics.

Something I do want to try is finding some local restaurants & cafes that will let me display, and maybe I can generate some web traffic with that... but I still want to fill the orders myself, plus that way I can sign/number the prints, which seems to be important to customers.

As for stock, I do know a guy who claims to be making money from the stock sites, but he has a wealth of stock and the time to upload it to seemingly countless sites. I haven't tried it myself.

There a lot of people out there on the net trying to sell their "fine art photography", so to be even remotely successful, you've got to be pretty danged creative and dedicated to it. I've come to find that there's a lot more money in commercial/ commission, seniors, weddings, etc... not "a lot of money", but "a lot more" than art ;)

[Tim Kreitz]

Yep. This is why I have never bothered to market my photographs in a similar way. If a client wants me to take specific photos for artistic or informational purposes, I'm always happy to do so. But in a day and age when the average neophyte can pony-up $199 for a digital point-and-shoot camera and effortlessly take good photos, marketing photos as art is a losing proposition for all but a select few.

[M38A1]

Thanks for the suggestions for my buddy. Honest - It's NOT me.... I have a hard enough time trying to get one good shot let alone trying to hawk a portfolio of average works.

The artwork in a local restaurant or cafe seems like a nice approach if you have the contacts to do so.

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[gotdurt]

The artwork in a local restaurant or cafe seems like a nice approach if you have the contacts to do so.

I know some that had done it and it's a matter of figuring out the areas and venues that would work best for you, then spending a lot of time visiting each one with a portfolio. It will be time consuming to say the least. Some say it's worth it, some say it's pointless. I'd like to give it a try though, since it doesn't cost much other than my time.

[Memnoch]

I've bought a domain name "wheelsntexas.com"but have yet got the chance to build the page itself.What I do alot of is hit the autoshows motorcycle shows(rallys) and offroad events in and around Houston.Then pass out bussiness cards at these events with my e-maill adress so people can contact me and request a sample disk or actual prints.For a fee of course.

You may see us up on 149 outside Montgomery sometime on the side of the road then to Drifters and Yankees to pass out some cards then on to 3090.My partner has some of our photos at Art and Art Not in Montgomerey a few motorcycles a few rods and a bit of great Tezas lanscape.
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[jhansen]

Scott...have your buddy look at Beemerchef's web site. He's got it linked to smugmug I think for his work.

[M38A1]

Scott...have your buddy look at Beemerchef's web site. He's got it linked to smugmug I think for his work.

I'll do that. There's actually a few folks on the board here that have smugmug inside their site.

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[xtnomad]

I can say that I have made some $ 0000.00 with a Pro Smigmug account and know it can be done. I have paid for most of my equipment that way. I only shot motor sports and do not know how art photos could be marketed but think it would be a lot harder for sales. As with all sales it would be a return on his effort in his work and marketing. :coffee: