No sales

papaw · May 23, 2010

I am sure some of my images are worthy, but I have zero sales. I know I have not uploaded anything in a while, but since I just paid for another year, I think I need to do something to get my photos sold. Any suggestions? I am no computer whiz, so it must be something I am not doing right.

My page- http://papawsimages.smugmug.com/

promoguy · May 23, 2010

I'm in marketing. And also not commenting on the worthiness of your pictures. I'm wondering why you would think that having any smugmug account, and that alone would generate sales from the site. You've got to do something that draws people to the site. My business site is on everything I send out. It's part of my email signature. It's on my business cards. It's on my quotes. I don't think the site alone will generate sales.

About three years ago I did sell some photos to a ad agency for three cruise lines. It was dumb luck that they did a google search and found the pix they wanted and as far as I was concerned it was dumb luck to get the money they sent. It happened on pbase.

papaw · May 23, 2010

Links to my Smugmug page are in every sig line on the many forums I visit, as well as the three I own. Business cards, postcards, personal contact, posted on the card that I send with photos bought, and talked up a lot in other situations.I have some sales through the site, but they are from people that I sent there to choose an image, then I fulfilled the orders myself.

timnosenzo · May 25, 2010

For starters, it looks like your header image is broken, which doesn't look terribly professional:

Screen-shot-2010-05-25-at-9.29.45-PM.jpg

Outside of that, if your intent is to sell photos as fine art, I think you need to really organize your best work and lead potential clients to it. Do you track your sites traffic? Are you targeting specific keywords? There are tens of thousands of photographers just on SmugMug alone, and many of them have some amazing work on their site, so I think if you really intend to sell prints, you need to target your customer and go after them--not just link people to your site and hope they're in the market to buy... and they they'll buy from you. It's all about being a little fish in a BIG ocean--how do you stand out and make people notice you?

Also, in the few galleries I looked at, it looks like you're showing a few different versions of the same photo--some cropped slightly different, some B&W, etc. My suggestion would be to make the as excellent as you can, and upload one version of it. IMO it shows more confidence in your work, which may translate better to potential customers. To me, displaying more than one version of the same photo sort of says "I don't know which is best--you decide".

Hope that helps, good luck.

Art Scott · May 25, 2010

I have not read all of the replies so if this has already been brought up.....I apologize now.
some of your galleris have not been updated since 2008.....that 2 years of the same ole offerings.....
get google analytics to track traffic see when traffic falls off.......also I would not mention my affection for
wrenches and other stuff on my "PRO" website.....it gives the possible client the idea that you are not dedicated
to the art you are trying to sell.............as was mentioned above.......put a link to your photo site on everyting.....
YOUR email sig....b-cards.....get a blog just for the photos....do facebook and twitter........
Simply put if no one knows of the things you have for sale......then no one comes to buy........
Good Luck.

denisegoldberg · May 25, 2010

I agree with the comments above about your missing banner image and the fact that you haven't uploaded photos to your smug galleries since the middle of 2009.

You are using the standard smugmug look and feel. This does not give a professional look to your site. Instead it gives the impression that you don't care about your image.

You have originals enabled on your galleries - which means that your photos can be easily grabbed for free. Yes, I know, you have right click protection turned on. That is merely a bump in the road; see ORIGINALS = a gateway to free photos, & right click protection is NOT PROTECTION.

--- Denise

Kibblelady · May 29, 2010

I also have had the same problem and I have been throwing the link everywhere I can including business cards, sigs on message boards ect and I still have no sales. Is it my photos can some of you take a look and let me know? Maybe I think more of them than I should? I have to renew my pro site next week so I need to know what type odf site I am going to pay for.

Cherri
www.cherri-pursell.smugmug.com

JillLang · May 29, 2010

Cherri,

You need to have your photos protected. I could right click and copy if I wanted.

Jill

caroline · May 29, 2010

Hello Cherri,
I've had a look at your site and pics and I'm wondering who you think your market is? Floral pics, landscapes, dogs there is no clear theme to your site.
Photography is a very tough market to sell in and you have to really WoW people with your images to get noticed. Look at the galleries of people who are selling images successfully to get a better idea of how to lay out your images, what to display and what to hide.

Denise's comment below applies to some of your images:-

You have originals enabled on your galleries - which means that your photos can be easily grabbed for free. Yes, I know, you have right click protection turned on. That is merely a bump in the road; see ORIGINALS = a gateway to free photos, & right click protection is NOT PROTECTION.

Some of the pics of your adorable dachshunds aren't sharp where it matters, and while they are cute pics this doesn't look professional if you want to sell your work.

People most likely won't just come across your pics and buy them without much more effort on the marketing side - perhaps making cards and selling them at a craft market would give you an idea of what works for you.

Hope this helps :-)

Caroline

denisegoldberg · May 29, 2010

Kibblelady wrote: »

I also have had the same problem and I have been throwing the link everywhere I can including business cards, sigs on message boards ect and I still have no sales. Is it my photos can some of you take a look and let me know?

Cherri -
I agree with everything that Caroline said. I see some other things as well that could use some attention.

First, you have included many of your galleries in communities. That means that those galleries lose the look of your site - which does nothing for your image. A pro's site should have a cohesive look and feel; yours doesn't.

Your homepage is pretty much the standard smugmug home page with the addition of a banner. Again, not the look I would expect from a professional site.

On my laptop screen, your banner image takes up just under half of the vertical space of the screen. That's enough to send me away - I find it quite annoying to need to scroll to see photos. See The purpose (and size) of a banner image.

You have posted quite a few shots that are out of focus. Why?

--- Denise

justus · May 30, 2010

Cheri, the first thing I noticed is in your Bio. You state that in a perfect world you would have been a professional photographer, but alas, it's only a hobby. That makes me think two things immediately: 1) You're not willing to put the effort into making your photography a profession, or 2) You've already given up on yourself...neither of which sends out a positive message. I also noticed that your photos are not right-click protected, (done in the Settings bar of each gallery) so anyone could "lift" a photo off your site and print it for free. You can still make money from photography without doing it full time, if that's your goal...I say...do what you love. Period.

papaw · June 1, 2010

I appreciate the responses and will see if I can make some changes that will help. Probably have to find someone to lead me by the hand on some of them.
I fail to see why mentioning my other interests, such as wrenches, would turn anyone off, but I can appreciate that if it chases even one person away, then maybe the wrenches need to stay where they are, in my vintage wrench business.

I have replaced the header image, but don't know how to get rid of that white square left behind when the original header image got broken.

cmason · June 1, 2010

The ugly truth is that the line from "Field of Dreams" is categorically UNTRUE in the world of photography: Build it and they will come.

They will not come. Almost no one is searching the web for your photos. There may be some looking for photos, but those looking for photos and willing to pay for them is an even smaller set. There are hundreds, thousands of places to find photos, like Flickr. Equally, there are many places to BUY photos, for specific purposes, like iStockphoto. To expect your little Smugmug site to be somehow not only found but to be a magnet to untold riches is very misguided.

Have your friends and family purchased your photos (have you?), and have them hanging proudly in their homes? Do you get asked often about getting a print of an image? If you think about this, put on a non-photography hat on, you will realize that most people are not out looking to buy photos, if only they could find that one magical image they have been missing all these years.

OK now that I have dashed your dreams :cry, lets use this to decide how to go about actually making money on this.

As you might guess, in order to make money selling photos, you need at least one of these approaches: 1) a photo business that brings clients to your site, or 2) images that fill an unique or unmet need in the market that bring customer to your site. In other words, #1 is where you have a photobusiness taking photos FOR customers, who come to Smugmug to purchase the images you took FOR them. #2 is a photobusiness where you take photos designed to bring customers to Smugmug looking for images that they can find no where else and are in demand.

Frankly, #2 is the lower cost, but most difficult. #1 is far more traditional, where you are a photographer, you book photoshoots and you sell time and images to clients. It sounds as if you intend to go after #2, where you take photos and hope others find them worth paying for. This is where you are going to be competing with Flickr, iStockphoto etc, so therefore you need to plan ahead and find your niche.

Photos of your dog and flowers are not particularly in demand these days. You need to find some angle, some 'thing' that you do, that others do not. I recommend that you log onto iStockphoto, and have a look around. Search for some things that you have on your website, see what kind (and #s) of photos you find. This should show you where you are.

Next step is to find a niche: perhaps there is some unique location or objects nearby that you could focus on. For example, some have abandoned factories nearby, and take lots of images of old decaying steel, equipment etc. Some have an airport nearby, and get permission to take images of airport support items, aircraft, etc. Again, this is focusing on a specialty area. One cool idea I saw was someone who specialized in neon signs, including hundreds are variations of neon letters to be used in ads.

Next you need to market your images. Create an iStockphoto account, and post your images. Get a custom domain name (maybe similar to your niche or specialty?) and point it to a custom gallery on Smugmug. Turn on digital downloads and price it accordingly, making it easy to purchase. Tag your images for Google search. Advertise in specialty websites, buy Google Adwords, Add Google Analytics or Statcounter, and analyze the data to see where your customers are coming from, what search terms etc.

But, in order to make money from this, you need to understand your customer and your market. For example, I know from Google Analytics that photos of cruise ships on my site bring in hundreds of visitors. But not one of these visitors are in the market to buy a photo. They just want to see pictures of the ships (or steal them for their own purposes). Cruise ship images are a dime a billion (not dozen) and to really do it right, you need a significant travel budget, so I have dropped the idea that all these great numbers of visitors means I can make money. I might be able to, but not selling photos to visitors.

In other words, you need a plan, and you need it to be flexible. You don't have to be a professional photographer, but you do need to act professionally for your idea to succeed. Treat it like a business and you will likely find your way into one, even though it might not be the one you thought it would be.

Good Luck!

jfriend · June 1, 2010

papaw wrote: »

I appreciate the responses and will see if I can make some changes that will help. Probably have to find someone to lead me by the hand on some of them.
I fail to see why mentioning my other interests, such as wrenches, would turn anyone off, but I can appreciate that if it chases even one person away, then maybe the wrenches need to stay where they are, in my vintage wrench business.

I have replaced the header image, but don't know how to get rid of that white square left behind when the original header image got broken.

To fix the broken image, remove all this from your custom header:

[B]<[/B]meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="en-us"[B]>[/B]
[B]<[/B]meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=windows-1252"[B]>[/B]
[B]<[/B]meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft FrontPage 4.0"[B]>[/B]
[B]<[/B]meta name="ProgId" content="FrontPage.Editor.Document"[B]>[/B]
[B]<[/B]title>PapawsImages[B]<[/B]/title>
[B]<[/B]/head>
[B]<[/B]p >[B]<[/B]font face="Arnprior">                      [B]<[/B]/font>[B]<[/B]font face="Times New Roman"> 
[B]<[/B]/font>[B]<[/B]font face="Arnprior">[B]<[/B]img border="30" src=[URL="http://www.dgrin.com/view-source:http://papawsimages.smugmug.com/photos/302213268_p98jL-L.jpg"]http://papawsimages.smugmug.com/photos/302213268_p98jL-L.jpg[/URL]" width="710" height="110">[B]<[/B]/font> [B]<[/B]/p>

papaw · June 2, 2010

Thanks jfriend, that cleared that issue up for me.
Thanks for your comments cmason, I will take them to heart. I do not run a photography business per se, but I do sell a few prints now and then, usually from people I have sent to my Smugmug so they can choose the photos they want. This will never be my livelyhood, just a way to make a few bucks now and then. I suppose this makes me NOT a professional photographer, and if so, OK by me.
I have just about come to the conclusion that I never really needed a SmugMug site in the first place, so if I don't realize any sales from it other than the ones I personally send there, I will not renew next time. I just paid for another year, so I will try to improve it by following suggestions here. I can find a place to store my photos that doesn't cost me as much.
I have considered many of the stock photo sites, but wonder if even that is worthwhile for me. Guess I will have to try one and see, maybe my images are not good enough.
As you can see, I am not looking at this through "rose colored glasses", thinking my stuff is top notch and just being out there is enough to make them come to the site and buy.

cmason · June 2, 2010

I should note that I originally got my Smugmug site (Pro account btw), because I figured it would be easy for the site to pay for itself with only a few sales. When I started, it seemed that it would be no problem to sell a few photos...I mean who doesn't like photos, right? And I have a few talents, better than the average guy.

Then reality set in. Without the time to take any of this more seriously than a hobby, I changed my account to a Power account, and focused on using the site as a place to share my hobby. I get to tinker with CSS, and someday perhaps I will transition to more than a hobby. I still value my Smugmug account, but I drastically changed my motivations.

Retagger · June 7, 2010

Turn Off Originals
Your originals are still active on your photos. If you want to sell them, turn off access to your originals.

Just my 2cents..

papaw · June 8, 2010

I have turned off originals and begun checking and adding more keywords. I do have a bunch of new images to add soon.

The 48th Ronin · June 8, 2010

Marketing is our responsibility, I don't believe it is promised anywhere that SmugMug will be promoting us. However I have noticed on Twitter the guys will tweet news on some of the members which is cool. We could use all the help we can get and anything at all is great! It takes a lot of hard work and commitment on our part to get our work out there!

Keep plugging away!
Brian Carey
http://briancareyphotography.com/

Kibblelady · July 15, 2010

denisegoldberg wrote: »

You have posted quite a few shots that are out of focus. Why?

--- Denise

Sorry I am just getting bck to this thread guys, I forgot I posted it.

1. I thought that variety was a good thing? No? I sould not show different areas of my photography?
2. I did not realize I have photos that are out of focus? Can you help me out in identifying what you mean or least one of them ? I did just recently go through and pull a bunch and add some as well but I do not recall "quite a few" shots out of focu?

I did go ahead and get a job of a shot of a kennel and a website redo that paid for my smug pro so I am happy buut of course would like to improve it.

I did remove the ugly banner. I did not like it either but I am not very well versed in photoshop and in how to make one. I have a web site now as well maybe some advice or thoughts on that as well? Comments on the fees too please (I will be adding more photo content to it also.) It is www.eastgsd.com

Thank you for all the interest and comments. I will now read the rest.

Cherri

Kibblelady · July 15, 2010

justus wrote: »

Cheri, the first thing I noticed is in your Bio. You state that in a perfect world you would have been a professional photographer, but alas, it's only a hobby. That makes me think two things immediately: 1) You're not willing to put the effort into making your photography a profession, or 2) You've already given up on yourself...neither of which sends out a positive message. I also noticed that your photos are not right-click protected, (done in the Settings bar of each gallery) so anyone could "lift" a photo off your site and print it for free. You can still make money from photography without doing it full time, if that's your goal...I say...do what you love. Period.

Naa I just had a different career due to finances that was all, I started my family very early in life so I had no choice really. But, now I am disabled from that job and am jumping into the world of photography with much seriousness. I am purchasing equipment and taking NYIP's course to improve my tech and business knowledge.

I LOVE photography and alwasy have. I really thought I had protected my photos I will fix that today.

Cherri

Kibblelady · July 15, 2010

cmason wrote: »

The ugly truth is that the line from "Field of Dreams" is categorically UNTRUE in the world of photography: Build it and they will come.

They will not come. Almost no one is searching the web for your photos. There may be some looking for photos, but those looking for photos and willing to pay for them is an even smaller set. There are hundreds, thousands of places to find photos, like Flickr. Equally, there are many places to BUY photos, for specific purposes, like iStockphoto. To expect your little Smugmug site to be somehow not only found but to be a magnet to untold riches is very misguided.

Have your friends and family purchased your photos (have you?), and have them hanging proudly in their homes? Do you get asked often about getting a print of an image? If you think about this, put on a non-photography hat on, you will realize that most people are not out looking to buy photos, if only they could find that one magical image they have been missing all these years.

OK now that I have dashed your dreams :cry, lets use this to decide how to go about actually making money on this.

As you might guess, in order to make money selling photos, you need at least one of these approaches: 1) a photo business that brings clients to your site, or 2) images that fill an unique or unmet need in the market that bring customer to your site. In other words, #1 is where you have a photobusiness taking photos FOR customers, who come to Smugmug to purchase the images you took FOR them. #2 is a photobusiness where you take photos designed to bring customers to Smugmug looking for images that they can find no where else and are in demand.

Frankly, #2 is the lower cost, but most difficult. #1 is far more traditional, where you are a photographer, you book photoshoots and you sell time and images to clients. It sounds as if you intend to go after #2, where you take photos and hope others find them worth paying for. This is where you are going to be competing with Flickr, iStockphoto etc, so therefore you need to plan ahead and find your niche.

Photos of your dog and flowers are not particularly in demand these days. You need to find some angle, some 'thing' that you do, that others do not. I recommend that you log onto iStockphoto, and have a look around. Search for some things that you have on your website, see what kind (and #s) of photos you find. This should show you where you are.

Next step is to find a niche: perhaps there is some unique location or objects nearby that you could focus on. For example, some have abandoned factories nearby, and take lots of images of old decaying steel, equipment etc. Some have an airport nearby, and get permission to take images of airport support items, aircraft, etc. Again, this is focusing on a specialty area. One cool idea I saw was someone who specialized in neon signs, including hundreds are variations of neon letters to be used in ads.

Next you need to market your images. Create an iStockphoto account, and post your images. Get a custom domain name (maybe similar to your niche or specialty?) and point it to a custom gallery on Smugmug. Turn on digital downloads and price it accordingly, making it easy to purchase. Tag your images for Google search. Advertise in specialty websites, buy Google Adwords, Add Google Analytics or Statcounter, and analyze the data to see where your customers are coming from, what search terms etc.

But, in order to make money from this, you need to understand your customer and your market. For example, I know from Google Analytics that photos of cruise ships on my site bring in hundreds of visitors. But not one of these visitors are in the market to buy a photo. They just want to see pictures of the ships (or steal them for their own purposes). Cruise ship images are a dime a billion (not dozen) and to really do it right, you need a significant travel budget, so I have dropped the idea that all these great numbers of visitors means I can make money. I might be able to, but not selling photos to visitors.

In other words, you need a plan, and you need it to be flexible. You don't have to be a professional photographer, but you do need to act professionally for your idea to succeed. Treat it like a business and you will likely find your way into one, even though it might not be the one you thought it would be.

Good Luck!

In my case I am going with number 1 and yes I have purchased my own photos and have them hanging in my home AND have others that are going to be purchasing similar pictures for theirs when they get their apt. (some of my black and whites) I have a site but the domain name is what it is and has been for a long time and people associate it with me so I chose to leave it as is, it has a statcounter (www.eastgsd.com). As for what is on my Smugmug it is the photos I like that is how it started. I thought others may like them too, that is how it started and I had a job at the tiome to pay the pro fee. Now mponey is tighter so I would like to see the site potentially pay for itself if possible so advice is welcomed. I do like pictures of flowers. And dog photos are in demand for many companies, outlets and web uses; just depends what the buyer is looking for. I did remove many of my GSD lack lustre shots that were just very unprofessional snapshots that did not need to be there as well as some doubles due to some trouble I had with the uploader a couple of times.

Cherri

denisegoldberg · July 15, 2010

Kibblelady wrote: »

...I have a web site now as well maybe some advice or thoughts on that as well? Comments on the fees too please (I will be adding more photo content to it also.) It is www.eastgsd.com

I'm afraid this will be a bit blunt, but you did ask. Your web site looks like it was thrown together using a template with no thought about the design of the site. If you are trying to put yourself out there as a professional this site doesn't cut it.

If you're looking to present a professional image I believe your two sites (your web site and your smug site) should present a uniform look - and they should highlight your best work. Step back and look at the sites as if they belonged to a photographer you were thinking of hiring. Do they work for you?

As far as the out-of-focus shots go, there are still some there. I saw a few in the first two galleries I wandered through.

--- Denise

Kibblelady · July 16, 2010

denisegoldberg wrote: »

I'm afraid this will be a bit blunt, but you did ask. Your web site looks like it was thrown together using a template with no thought about the design of the site. If you are trying to put yourself out there as a professional this site doesn't cut it.

If you're looking to present a professional image I believe your two sites (your web site and your smug site) should present a uniform look - and they should highlight your best work. Step back and look at the sites as if they belonged to a photographer you were thinking of hiring. Do they work for you?

As far as the out-of-focus shots go, there are still some there. I saw a few in the first two galleries I wandered through.

--- Denise

Yes I threw the site together to get it up there...I will be improving it. I am just starting out, okay? Not everyone has extreme web knowledge but I have a decent program and I will be improving it however, I believe that simple is best. That website was not just slapped up either and yes it was a template is there something wrong with using a template? Isn't that what they are for? I have built a number if sites from the bottom up and just did not feel like doing that so I used a template no harm no foul.

I'm hoping to get most of my work from referrals. I already have some lined up I was waiting for equipment but a family member was ill and she died this early am

It would help me if you would at least tell me what albums these out of focus shots are in. They are not motion shots are they?

*** Denise I also breed Doxies

gotta love em'

Cherri