I know a number of you advertise prints of your photos for sale from your nature photography websites...but I'm intrigued - how many of you have actually made any print sales that way? (I'm talking specifically about prints of landscapes and Natural History subjects, and not about "stock" sales to magazines etc.).
Probably only a handful over a couple of years on the web, I did some images of roe deer in poppies and these sold well to people in the area where the roe deer were,People seem happy to spend £50 on a frame but want the image for free
Nick,
A few to friends of friends at Christmas time and Birthdays.
One of my local solicitors found my site on the web and bought a few canvases to cheer his office up a bit, this brought in some follow up sales from other companies in town.
.
Local landscapes always seem to sell better than any other type of shot.
Then there's the karting site................well that generates some sales from the natural history site too.
On the whole I wouldn't like to rely on web sales of my own stuff to feed my family and myself though.....we'd be pretty thin
Hi Nick,
I reckon I sell about 4 a month though my site, I always ask how they found it and most of the time the answer is saw my picture somewhere and looked at the website from that.
Odd ones come out of the blue not very often though.
Other orders all come through word of mouth.
I see a few people are doing a direct order thingy with Photobox, where you can order straight away and have it sent direct to the customers house, but I must admit I always like to check the prints before sending them off!!
Although I have a order on-line 'album' on my website that redirects to Photobox my website is more of a scrapbook of images that I maintain, if that makes sense. Most of my print orders come via the gallery email link where people are looking for specific images with a small percentage ordered via the photobox links. In the last twelve months the website has generated 37 print sales so it has just paid for the webspace and domain name Most of my corporate sales for electronic images seem to be almost random emails but that is where the money is
Just as well I repair nuclear reactors for a living don't think I would like a real job like a photographer it's much too hazardous !
Hello Nick
Good question, and judging by the answers not many sold from the web at all. I know I have only sold a handful from my web and it is no 2 on google bird photographs search! (mind you, that could be for other reasons ). I have a lot more success selling my images in local galleries and restaurants, I think they are much more of a saleable item once framed and hanging up.
Best wishes
Phil
I sell about 10-15 per month - tigers mostly - and that's mainly because of the WPOTY thingy. I rarely sold much in the way of retail prints before then. The website is more of an advert than anything else. Don't bother investing in online c/c purchasing and shopping carts and all that... its really not worth the cost.
Thanks for the replies - I'm not thinking of selling nature prints - I was just intrigued as it seems to be something that everyone does/advertises and I felt it was time to try and get us to discuss a few more things in the Nature world . Unfortunately, it's not quite so quick and easy these days for us to arrange polls on these sort of things - hence the question!
In the 3 or 4 years I've had the website up, I've only ever had one enquiry and that was simply someone who seemed to be fishing for prices more than anything . (Not surprising really as I don't display or advertise any prints for sale ).
What sort of stuff seems to sell? Obviously for Elliott it's tigers . Landscape stuff or portraits of animals/flora?
I probably make about 10 print sales per year from my website these days. When I first started about 5 years ago it was considerably more. But as more and more people have set up personal photography websites over the years the market has become more and more saturated.
Most (if not all) sales are out of the blue. People tend to buy landscapes and 'studio florals' from my site, but I've got more of those images than anything else, so that's to be expected I suppose. Of all sizes I offer (from A4 upwards) most people tend to buy the larger sizes. My biggest website print sale was from a ward manager at a hospital down in the south east. The wanted bright, vivid floral prints for their ward, and they ordered 10 prints 30"x20" in size - that was quite a money-spinner (no wonder the NHS is in crisis if they spend that much on photos for their walls!!!!).
This thread has been interesting. It pretty much ties in with my views on selling images from your website. I have advertised that images are for sale but had no takers (mind you I'm not surprised). It is better to get yourself known in your local area through shops and other outlets. I have some Landscapes that do well through B&Bs in my area.
Discussion
9 repliesA few to friends of friends at Christmas time and Birthdays.
One of my local solicitors found my site on the web and bought a few canvases to cheer his office up a bit, this brought in some follow up sales from other companies in town.
.
Local landscapes always seem to sell better than any other type of shot.
Then there's the karting site................well that generates some sales from the natural history site too.
On the whole I wouldn't like to rely on web sales of my own stuff to feed my family and myself though.....we'd be pretty thin
John
I reckon I sell about 4 a month though my site, I always ask how they found it and most of the time the answer is saw my picture somewhere and looked at the website from that.
Odd ones come out of the blue not very often though.
Other orders all come through word of mouth.
I see a few people are doing a direct order thingy with Photobox, where you can order straight away and have it sent direct to the customers house, but I must admit I always like to check the prints before sending them off!!
Just as well I repair nuclear reactors for a living don't think I would like a real job like a photographer it's much too hazardous !
Good question, and judging by the answers not many sold from the web at all. I know I have only sold a handful from my web and it is no 2 on google bird photographs search! (mind you, that could be for other reasons
Best wishes
Phil
I sell about 10-15 per month - tigers mostly - and that's mainly because of the WPOTY thingy. I rarely sold much in the way of retail prints before then.
Thanks for the replies - I'm not thinking of selling nature prints - I was just intrigued as it seems to be something that everyone does/advertises and I felt it was time to try and get us to discuss a few more things in the Nature world
In the 3 or 4 years I've had the website up, I've only ever had one enquiry and that was simply someone who seemed to be fishing for prices more than anything
What sort of stuff seems to sell? Obviously for Elliott it's tigers
Most (if not all) sales are out of the blue. People tend to buy landscapes and 'studio florals' from my site, but I've got more of those images than anything else, so that's to be expected I suppose. Of all sizes I offer (from A4 upwards) most people tend to buy the larger sizes. My biggest website print sale was from a ward manager at a hospital down in the south east. The wanted bright, vivid floral prints for their ward, and they ordered 10 prints 30"x20" in size - that was quite a money-spinner (no wonder the NHS is in crisis if they spend that much on photos for their walls!!!!).
Michael S
Rob