Posted by Matt Bonner on November 28, 2006 at 5:42 PM
I'm doing market research to determine the profitability of marketing
my images through an expansion of my current website (adding a shopping cart,
Verisign, etc.) Can anyone comment on their success (or lack of) in trying
to sell their images (prints) through their websites?
Thanks for any feedback you can provide!!
Matt Bonner
For starters - you have a very nice web site with a great collection of fine image.
Selling and marketing are two different things. All things considered the amount of effort required to set up a web store these days is so minute that I don't see a reason to not do it. Your first couple of sales will likely offset your investment so my advice is - by all means do it.
Whether or not you can make a full time living off selling nature images on the web is another matter. I don't know of anyone who does.
Guy
Posted by Ronnie Gaubert on November 28, 2006 at 6:56 PM
I'm with Guy, I don't think you can make a living selling prints from a personal website. Unless you already have a large clientele, I don't see a personal website getting much traffic. The question you have to ask is how will new potential buyers find your site. There are many thousands of photographers from professional to amatuers out there with websites trying to sell their art.
But for what it cost to setup a website, what would it hurt to give it a try.
Ronnie Gaubert
Posted by Steve Foss on November 28, 2006 at 9:31 PM
To those comments I would add that prospective customers, once they find your Web site, even if some of the images move them, won't know you at all, nor will they know whether you have high printing standards or the quality of your work, whether you fill orders in a timely way, etc.
I've had my Web site out there for a year, and have only sold a handful of prints to people who didn't already know my work. That's starting to increase, however. My spouse is a Webmaster wizard, and has embedded key words to my site on all the big search engines, so people who know my name and my type of photography will find me, and some who don't know my name but just do a search for nature photography and Ely and BWCAW and such will still find it. I've actually had several months with more than 5,000 separate visits, not just hits.
I have a built-in advantage in that I'm the editor of a weekly color newspaper here in Ely, and have been for going on four years. It circulates all over northeastern Minnesota, and as editor of the local Ely pages, sports and, most importantly, outdoors, I design all the pages that contain my photos, so am able to feature my work in color on the outdoors pages, which got me known faster in this part of the state.
Ely also has become something of a mecca for artists, with two large art festivals yearly, and I have one or two shows locally of my own work each year.
But, alas, print sales aren't that hot unless you're already really well known, and most of my online print sales have come from people who've already seen my work published in the paper or other magazines.
However, I've had several excursions booked through the Web site, which are advertised there, and a number of portrait, commission and wedding gigs as well, which are not yet advertised there (we're working on those updates soon).
I'm told by several Web gurus that testimonials are a pretty big help, and I've gotten quite a few testimonials from clients in all the categories and will be mounting them soon.
To make ordering easier, we've gone through PayPal, which now offers a shopping cart for a piddly amount per transaction, so people can simply place their order directly on my site, and PayPal calculates shipping, transfers the money to my PayPal account and generates an order e-mail to me. So all orders are paid for up front, and all that's left is for me to print, sign, pack and ship. Fewer touches for the customer means more impulse buying.
Hope any of that helps, and good luck!
Posted by Dan Borzynski on November 29, 2006 at 8:14 AM
I have had my website up for about a year now. Sales through it - not all that much. Enough to pay for the site, but to individuals who knew me or of my work.
I did recently have someone contact me to photograph an orchid her grandfather had raised. Without the site, I would have never been contacted.
Overall, the site has paid for itself, but I am not getting rich off of it. It is another marketing/publicity venue which, given today's sales environment, you need in order to be taken seriously. Plus it is good for the ego
Posted by Richard Ennis on November 29, 2006 at 10:22 AM
I've had my site up for almost two years. I look at the site as more of a portfolio than anything else. I did add the paypal cart and I do get some sales, but I've learned not to count on them. Other than notecards, all of my website sales have been from people that had already seen my work at an exhibit, or art show.
Posted by Matt Bonner on November 30, 2006 at 9:57 AM
Thank you everyone for your helpful replies. Really appreciate the great and candid feedback.
Another question for those of you who have put your sites out there - How much have you spent on marketing and search engine optimization? Or have you just put it out there and referred existing customers/friends/family/co-workers to it? My impression is that ROI is low, but want to verify.
THANKS!!!
Posted by Guy Tal on November 30, 2006 at 10:39 AM
Actually ROI had been excellent - my investment in search engine marketing is 0.
I have my site out there because I want people to be able to look me up if they see my work elsewhere (online, in print, exhibits etc.) and want to see more and/or buy it.
That said, I'm not in the stock business so I rely on people looking for me by name rather than generic search terms.
Guy
Posted by Dan Borzynski on November 30, 2006 at 1:30 PM
I have paid a bit of attention to the search engine optimizations, but not much. I have added keywords, looked at what other high ranking sites have done in the code and design, and tried to keep it simple. Beyond that, I just don't enjoy that type of thing enough to want to spend hours and energy on it. I know I am being found by people, either through searches or by work of mouth, so I am not too worried about that end. As I said above, I view it more as a marketing tool than anything else, and for me, an underutilized one.
Hi,
I am new to this forum. I also have been wondering about marketing ideas for a website. I have recently revamped my website to make it search engine friendly. I am also pursuing links to directories. Any other suggestions?
Thanks!
Peacemaker
Posted by David Senesac on December 31, 2007 at 1:22 AM
If one is selling small inexpensive images like the typical small art fair offerings, there is a thriving market for those that can attract a web audience. However there are few knowledgeable potential customers that would be so stupid to plunk down a few hundred bucks for quality larger prints from anyone with less than a major reputation without seeing actual prints first. Thus as many at the game have been saying for years, a website's purpose is to complement exhibiting. In other words people buy on a website mainly what they have actually seen exhibited whether that is in a fancy gallery, hanging on a art fair booth wall, or up on the wall at the local pizza parlor. Its certainly continues to be one of the biggest misconceptions for those with ideas of opening up business websites. ...David
Discussion
10 repliesmy images through an expansion of my current website (adding a shopping cart,
Verisign, etc.) Can anyone comment on their success (or lack of) in trying
to sell their images (prints) through their websites?
Thanks for any feedback you can provide!!
Matt Bonner
Selling and marketing are two different things. All things considered the amount of effort required to set up a web store these days is so minute that I don't see a reason to not do it. Your first couple of sales will likely offset your investment so my advice is - by all means do it.
Whether or not you can make a full time living off selling nature images on the web is another matter. I don't know of anyone who does.
Guy
But for what it cost to setup a website, what would it hurt to give it a try.
Ronnie Gaubert
I've had my Web site out there for a year, and have only sold a handful of prints to people who didn't already know my work. That's starting to increase, however. My spouse is a Webmaster wizard, and has embedded key words to my site on all the big search engines, so people who know my name and my type of photography will find me, and some who don't know my name but just do a search for nature photography and Ely and BWCAW and such will still find it. I've actually had several months with more than 5,000 separate visits, not just hits.
I have a built-in advantage in that I'm the editor of a weekly color newspaper here in Ely, and have been for going on four years. It circulates all over northeastern Minnesota, and as editor of the local Ely pages, sports and, most importantly, outdoors, I design all the pages that contain my photos, so am able to feature my work in color on the outdoors pages, which got me known faster in this part of the state.
Ely also has become something of a mecca for artists, with two large art festivals yearly, and I have one or two shows locally of my own work each year.
But, alas, print sales aren't that hot unless you're already really well known, and most of my online print sales have come from people who've already seen my work published in the paper or other magazines.
However, I've had several excursions booked through the Web site, which are advertised there, and a number of portrait, commission and wedding gigs as well, which are not yet advertised there (we're working on those updates soon).
I'm told by several Web gurus that testimonials are a pretty big help, and I've gotten quite a few testimonials from clients in all the categories and will be mounting them soon.
To make ordering easier, we've gone through PayPal, which now offers a shopping cart for a piddly amount per transaction, so people can simply place their order directly on my site, and PayPal calculates shipping, transfers the money to my PayPal account and generates an order e-mail to me. So all orders are paid for up front, and all that's left is for me to print, sign, pack and ship. Fewer touches for the customer means more impulse buying.
Hope any of that helps, and good luck!
I did recently have someone contact me to photograph an orchid her grandfather had raised. Without the site, I would have never been contacted.
Overall, the site has paid for itself, but I am not getting rich off of it. It is another marketing/publicity venue which, given today's sales environment, you need in order to be taken seriously. Plus it is good for the ego
Another question for those of you who have put your sites out there - How much have you spent on marketing and search engine optimization? Or have you just put it out there and referred existing customers/friends/family/co-workers to it? My impression is that ROI is low, but want to verify.
THANKS!!!
I have my site out there because I want people to be able to look me up if they see my work elsewhere (online, in print, exhibits etc.) and want to see more and/or buy it.
That said, I'm not in the stock business so I rely on people looking for me by name rather than generic search terms.
Guy
I am new to this forum. I also have been wondering about marketing ideas for a website. I have recently revamped my website to make it search engine friendly. I am also pursuing links to directories. Any other suggestions?
Thanks!
Peacemaker