Comments on: Why You’re NOT Making Photo Sales

By: David Langdon

David Langdon — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 02:20:17 +0000

What I wonder, is Chris Lupetti on borrowed time? Isn't he in violation of Flickr's TOS?

"Don’t use Flickr for commercial purposes.
Flickr is for personal use only. If we find you selling products, services, or yourself through your photostream, we will terminate your account."

By: Erick @ DSLRBlog Photo Business Blog

Erick @ DSLRBlog Photo Business Blog — Sat, 02 May 2009 01:49:53 +0000

This is a great article. The only thing I'd add is that I think direct stock photo sales (any time YOU sell a photo you've already taken) are often relationship based. And while networking with other photographers is great, the people you most need to be networking with are photo buyers.

The other thing I guess I'd add is that this article is about stock sales (ie, selling PHOTOS). That's often a very different game from getting clients and assignments. And often I think that for starting photographers, it's actually easier to get certain kinds of assignments (portraits, engagement sessions, etc) than it is to sell photos to photo buyers.

To Lou Gonzalez: That's a great tip.

By: Delme

Delme — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 18:21:30 +0000

Awesome article, helps a lot as we go on the journey of trying to sell images. Thanks for sharing

By: Lou Gonzalez

Lou Gonzalez — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 03:25:30 +0000

I'm a Wedding Photographer. One thing that helped me dramaticly increase my sales to (guest and client family members) was marking down my print price for short period of time and creating a deadline. This created a sense of urgency. Once I started doing this my sales went from next to nothing to $4,000 in less than a year. I do this by creating cards with a link to my on-line galleries, and put them on every table at the reception. When they go to the site, it says all prints are 25% off for 2 weeks. It's been a huge success. People love a sale. Once you create a sense urgency, things happen. Once those people have bought, I then add them to an email distribution list that I market further.

By: Dave

Dave — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 14:02:03 +0000

That's what it all about...having a product that people want, and marketing yourself. And Fotoviva was right about the competition...so many people want to be photographers nowadays, that only the SALESPERSONS will be the successful ones. You gotta sell yourself to sell your work.

By: Harry Nowell

Harry Nowell — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 02:18:40 +0000

Well said - many photo students aspiring to work in their fields never learn more than the basics of business! The reasons Yousuf Karsh, highly successful portrait photographer, was so successful include his networking, hard work, sales, and drive to create a need for his work.

On our blog we are currently highlighting some posts about stock.
A successful photo business requires better business skills than photo skills.

I have seen brilliant photographers failing and mediocre photographers succeed in the world of business!

Nice work.

Harry
HarryNowell.com

By: Neville Lobo

Neville Lobo — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 00:59:10 +0000

Great post here! I remember when Isold my first few photographs how excited I was but then I realized that a few sales isn't going to help. I needed to market myself and make sure that I could get across to as many people as possible. So I've just now started on that p[ath by making my own website, next is going to be making some business cards that'll make it easir for people to remember me too!

By: Fotoviva

Fotoviva — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 15:10:51 +0000

The trouble is that digital cameras are so good and so cheap these days that so many more people are taking photos that the competition is much stronger than say 5 years ago. But competition can be a good thing!

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 12:03:46 +0000

Great blog, and great post! I think stock photography attracted a lot of people who thought they could "set it and forget it" by uploading and waiting for the cheques to come in. The success stories are certainly inspiring, but we can't just sit on our behinds waiting to be discovered magically. If you want it to pay like a business, you need to work like it's a business!