Ok, So I have a few people telling me that a photo of mine (the bullfrog at a waterfall) has potential to sell and make money off of it .. I've only been shooting for 6 months or so .. So I'm fairly new to it .. How would you suggest going about marketing your photos? What precautionary actions should I take to ensure that its copyrighted? ect ect
First and foremost, make a good website. Doesn't have to be fancy, just has to showcase your images well. It can then be your brochure, your portfolio, your calling card, your photographer identity. It's by far the easiest thing to do to get you going on the business side of things.
Are you big on social networking? You may want to hook yourself up with a photoblog, Facebook page (preferably a business page where people can "Fan" you), as well as a twitter account.
There are a number of photoblogging sites out there that enable you to grab images from your Flickr account, so you can still use your Flickr account as a backbone.
As for copyrighting I would check out copyright.gov. You can submit your images in an electronic batch to be copyrighted.
And buy a copy of "Best Business Practices for Photographers" by Harrington as it has a number of useful marketing strategies.
If you live in a city that has a lot of coffee shops or restaurants that display and sell photography, you may want to contact the owner of the business to see if he would let you sell your photography there. Usually you can put a couple of business cards or at least your business name near your displayed photos. Not to mention some potential profit can be made from selling those photos.
A bit of reality....a single picture will rarely make you much money, unless it is a picture of Rush Limbaugh in bed with another man or something equally fantastic.
You need a fairly significant portfolio to get people to look at your work. I don't know anything about your ability/skills, but anyone can manage to get one great photo. You don't get work or much interest (beyond the papparazzi value) from just one picture.
nathanlake wrote:
A bit of reality....a single picture will rarely make you much money, unless it is a picture of Rush Limbaugh in bed with another man or something equally fantastic.
Actually nathan, Rush in bed with another man? Please, even if he were in bed with a female model beauty I personally wouldn't want to even be aware of it. OK I know you were joking, but yuck.............
Well said.