Selling your photos

bmattock

bmattock

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I was just thinking of this from another thread. People often complain that they don't get the views or comments on their photos. Without making any judgments about the quality of the photos in question, I can say this - selling photos is much more about selling than it is about photos.

When I have sold photos on Flickr, it has been because a buyer found them by searching. Flickr is well-indexed by Google - often a photo I put on Flickr will show up in a Google search within minutes.

Think about things from the buyer's point of view. They are not going to go to Flickr and start browsing. They're going to search for photos of the specific thing they have in mind.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wigwam/2598477867/

The key to being found is to describe your photos. The event, the location, the time and date, anything that you can think of that adds specificity to the photo. In the case of Flickr, you can add descriptions and 'tags', both of which are searchable.

In the case of the photo I linked to, I licensed use of it to someone looking for a photo of this specific tugboat - the JW Wescott. The name is seen in the photo, but if I had not entered it in the description, no one would have found it by searching for the name. I also licensed some other photos from this race that were found by searching for 'tugboat race' and other similar terms. Again, if I had not put in the descriptions, no one would have found them in a search.

One thing I really like about Flickr is that they offer 'stats' that show you not only what photos are being looked at, but how they are found. This is important if you want to see how people are finding your photos.

For example, in the case of the photo above, I can see that on June 11, the photo got three views from someone who searched for the name of the boat, from Yahoo's 'Image Search'.

This advice, of course, isn't really applicable if you're trying to sell fine art photos. But if you have any interest in selling photos as stock, this is one way to go, which doesn't cost much (Flickr Pro is $24.95 a year) and definitely works.

Remember, as much as we concern ourselves with the photography itself, the truth is that buyers can't buy what they can't find. In terms of selling your photos, it's all about selling, not about photography per se. Lots of people take nice photos. If you put them where they can be found and then make it easy to find them with a search, you have a leg up on better photos that no one can find.
 
MCTuomey said:
unless you're a well-known photog, why wouldn't this be true of fine art images too?
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I suppose it might - but a fine art buyer might be more interested in seeing the photo itself as opposed to finding a photo about a specific thing. So I tend to think this lends itself more to stock than fine art. However, all marketing helps - getting eyeballs on your work is what it's all about.
 
"I can say this - selling photos is much more about selling than it is about photos".

It is always ttrue of any selling activity - marketing sells. Good advice.
 
Brian Sweeney said:
Really good advice.

Of course, it being a really good photo clinched it!
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Thanks, Brian, but you know, I don't think it's that great a photo! I cut the stern end of the boat off accidentally - I nearly didn't post it.

However, I have learned that some of the photos I like the least are the most popular. Photos I take and fall in love with - nobody seems to care for. Life goes on, eh?

And there's another couple of points I just thought of...

First, my sales are casual sales. This is all passive marketing, if you will. I would not depend upon it for my livelihood, it's a part-time thing. It took me a year or so before I was approached to license my first photo.

I also post a huge amount of photos, and I tend to take photos of events or items I find interesting, so already that's a bit 'stock photo' in that sense. I notice that most of the photos I sell or otherwise license for use tend to be photos one might not ordinarily take - I just like taking photos of a factory, or a power plant, or a bridge, or a parade, etc. And then I trouble myself to look up their names and use that name in my descriptions. Detroit People Mover, for example, or "John E. Amos Coal Plant" (a big seller for me). Just Google for "Amos Coal Plant" and you see I'm near the top of the search. Others have found my photos the same way, according to Flickr 'stats'.

http://www.nowpublic.com/tech-biz/fred-way-john-e-amos-coal-power-plant

http://theenvironmentshow.com/2009/02/emissions-trading-what-the

So my strategy might not work for everyone - it really depends on what you're trying to do and what you take photographs of. But for me, it works. And I'm having fun - I would take these photos regardless, even if I never sold a one of them. However, the fact that my past two DSLR cameras were bought and paid for with money from my photos - that's what makes me smile.
 
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I agree with Bill, if you want your work seen use the tags. I've noticed alot of photographers on flickr don't use tags or when they do it's only about the gear used. I do this too, but also try to also add some detail about the photo. I was contacted by someone wanting to use my photo of the statue of John Coltrane to use in a travel book. Sent me a SASE for a release form to sign & all, so I know that it does work.
 
I agree, an intern at WSJ Magazine contacted me about using one of my photos he'd found through a Flickr search for an article. I generally don't do a thorough or consistent job of tagging my photos, but this just happened to be one of them. It wasn't a particularly great picture, but it fit the subject of the article quite well. I do some photography at my job but it was my first direct commercial sale. When I get some downtime, I'm planning to go back through my Flickr and do a bunch more tagging, as well as organizing things better.
 
ethics_gradient said:
I agree, an intern at WSJ Magazine contacted me about using one of my photos he'd found through a Flickr search for an article. I generally don't do a thorough or consistent job of tagging my photos, but this just happened to be one of them. It wasn't a particularly great picture, but it fit the subject of the article quite well. I do some photography at my job but it was my first direct commercial sale. When I get some downtime, I'm planning to go back through my Flickr and do a bunch more tagging, as well as organizing things better.
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Sometimes it comes down to things that we as photographers would never think about - but an editor does. For example, background colors, or the use of space - magazine covers and full-page spreads need to have room around the main subject for text and the title of the article or magazine, etc - and ours just happen to fit with the layout the editor is looking for - not as much to do with how wonderful our photos are as we might think!

Off topic, but I sold a big framed photo of North Carolina barn once, and I was just thrilled, until I heard the purchase telling his wife how well it matched the fabric in their couch. Oh. Well, a sale is a sale...
 
Thanks for the good points. It seems logical, but comprehensive tagging does make a lot of sense. I'm starting to do a fair bit of event photography, so I think I'll try to get some better tagging done.
 
More on this. Tags, tags, tags.

I was approached today by a museum in Germany (The Deutsches Hygiene-Museum) today with reference to this shot:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wigwam/3393659944/in/set-72157616043534946/

I would have never found them in any photo market I'm familiar with, and they never would have found my photos if I didn't obsessively tag everything I post online.

So tag those photos! If you're not posting on Flickr, use whatever the equivalent of tags happens to be for the system you use. Failing that, embed the Exif 'keywords' tag with your tags. You want your photos to be found via an online search, either by a search engine or on Flickr itself.

According to Flickr 'stats' the person who found my photo was searching Flickr for 'muscle'. That's all it took.

Best of luck to everyone selling their photos!
 
Tagging the images and a good description is the key for selling images either trough a general photo site like Flickr or specialized ones like the online stock sale sites. Imagine that somebody has to get to your image out of millions. How could he do that ? Now, that person is searching for something in particular, and tags and descriptions that are resolved by the search mechanism he uses are the best ways to get him to your image. It is like gear : the best camera is the one that you have with you, not the one left at home. The image that sells is the one that is found, and not the best photographically that nobody gets to see. Now, I know it is har to make good detailed tags and descriptions of the images you take, but it is something worth a little effort if you want to help with the financial part of the hobby.

Regards,
Stefan
 
Thanks for the great tip on tags.

But how do you prevent unauthorized used?

Do you have to do something special with the picture copyright, or do you rely on the fact that human being are naturally honest? :rolleyes:

Any other tip for the Luddite on Flickr use?
 
Luckily, he didn't search "bikini" or he wouldn't have found your pics... ;)

Ok, I should go more often to the gym :D

Ben.
 
sanmich said:
Thanks for the great tip on tags.

But how do you prevent unauthorized used?
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As Al points out, there is virtually no way to prevent unauthorized use. I've known a few people who obsess over that fact, and in the end, they've decided to only put reduced-size photos on the 'net or to refuse to put their photos online at all. Whatever works for them, I guess. I'm not that paranoid or narcissistic - I don't think the world is in love with my photos or determined to steal them.

Do you have to do something special with the picture copyright, or do you rely on the fact that human being are naturally honest? :rolleyes:
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I don't lose a lot of sleep over it. I use the Creative Commons copyright notice on my photos - people are free to use them with attribution for non-commercial purposes. If they want to use them for other things, they should contact me and work out an arrangement. Perhaps someone has used a photo of mine without my permission. Oh well.

Any other tip for the Luddite on Flickr use?
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Personally, I think that geo information is nice to have on your photo as well, but probably not a big deal for sales purposes. Just make your photos easy to find and people will find them. Tags do that.
 
Do you have a standard release?
Can they use the image more than once.
How do they pay your fee and confirm the release, and do track the purchases as to where they are used?
 
oldoc said:
Do you have a standard release?
Can they use the image more than once.
How do they pay your fee and confirm the release, and do track the purchases as to where they are used?
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If I were in the business of selling photos, I would get a standard release. However, for me, it's a hobby that sometimes pays me back. So I don't worry about it. The customers I've had so far have told me how much they want to pay for the rights to the image and what it will be used for - for example, a magazine cover, one-time use. I either agree or not, and then I send them an invoice and generally have to fill out a W-9 so that they can send it to the IRS - I do have to pay taxes on my extra revenue at the end of the year.

I have also given away the rights to my photos for free, if asked and I feel like it. In either case, I track usage only by asking them to send me a copy of whatever it is they're using it for, such as magazine or pamphlet. I'm in a couple of text books, but they're a tad expensive, so I didn't ask them to send me a freebie, nor did I buy one.

For websites that want to use my photos, there is a nice place where you can monitor those who use links back to your original photo on Flickr:

http://bighugelabs.com/dna.php?username=wigwam+jones

http://technorati.com/search/http://www.flickr.com/photos/wigwam/
 
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