Anyone with SALES

jasonvosper

Hi, I have never had a sale......... HELP!!!
Give me suggestions please..... i'm desperate!

3 years on Smugmug

orljustin

jasonvosper wrote: »

Hi, I have never had a sale......... HELP!!!
Give me suggestions please..... i'm desperate!

3 years on Smugmug

Shoot images people want to buy?

denisegoldberg

You've asked a very broad question without supplying any context or a link to your site. Unfortunately for all of us, just posting photos online doesn't drive sales. You really need to work at that.

How are you promoting your photos?
Do you take photos for events, portraits, weddings? Pets? Landscapes?
Is there something special about your images that would entice folks to buy copies?

--- Denise

SimpsonBrothers

First find customers, then get sales.

jasonvosper

ok, i'm sort of getting this.
I sell on stock sites, but my Smugmug photos are more landscape / general, not aimed at stock sales.
I thought people would buy these photos for private use. Correct?
My site is www.jasonvosper.com
Thanks so far to everyone.

Angelo

Jason

Stock sites have their own following among art directors, etc. You prpbably don't need to do much to drum up business there.

But what's driving people to your Smugmug site? If they're not seeing your images...


.

denisegoldberg

jasonvosper wrote: »

ok, i'm sort of getting this. I sell on stock sites, but my Smugmug photos are more landscape / general, not aimed at stock sales. I thought people would buy these photos for private use.

Again, how are you promoting your site?

People will not just stumble on your smugmug site. Do you have a blog with inbound links to the site? Do other sites reference your site?

If I search using your name plus one of your keywords I do get some hits on your smug site - but unless someone is specifically looking for your photos I doubt that they would include your name in the search. So relying on keywords just isn't good enough.
http://www.smugmug.com/help/search-engines

I looked at the prices in one of your galleries. Are your galleries set to default pricing? At one point I know you wouldn't be notified of sales unless you had prices set above the smug default. I don't know if that's true any more, and I don't know if you've priced you galleries or not. It's probably worth checking though.

--- Denise

Cygnus Studios

jasonvosper wrote: »

I thought people would buy these photos for private use. Correct?

I visited your site and a few things jumped out at me.

1. Your prices are set at default.

2. You allow me to share these images via a link.

3. Some images are watermarked some are not.

4. You allow me to see original size.

5. The galleries are arrange haphazardly. I have no idea by glancing what is for sale to the general public or personal use.

6. By having all the galleries on your home page, this looks more like a personal photo sharing site than a business site.

7. There is no way for anyone to contact you to get information.

8. There is nothing that tells me whether you are some form of business or someone who simply owns a camera.

9. If these images are for people who hired you to take the images, they should be in a private gallery, instead of available for the world to see.

10. Your galleries seem kind of random to me. Your general gallery has some that lean toward being commercial shots and some that seem very personal.

My suggestion if you want sales is to revamp your website so that it looks like a photography business, then arrange your galleries in some order that makes sense.

Wiren

jasonvosper wrote: »

ok, i'm sort of getting this.
I sell on stock sites, but my Smugmug photos are more landscape / general, not aimed at stock sales.
I thought people would buy these photos for private use. Correct?
My site is www.jasonvosper.com
Thanks so far to everyone.

Not so... I do many a landscape myself... give out cards, talk to folks, offer prints... people just do not purchase prints very often anymore to hang....

My website name shows what I feel... "On the Wall Photo". I have been in talks with a few MD's over the last couple of years, even given an 8x10 intro shot and offered nice pricing, framing, and personal delivery of their new office art to their office. They all say they're interested, love the work, talk to me at length and ........ never buy

It does take a lot of work, I won't give up, one of them will fall one day, I just know it. But I would never just post my pics on the web and expect sales to follow - like all things in life, success is bred from hard work.

Talk to many professionals.. take an insurance agent for example... mine was in the business for 7 years and nearly broke before the flood gates opened and he was successful, but it was enduring 7 years of hard work day in and day out without giving up. I am in year 3... had some minor sales (enough to keep the site going basically and for 1 lens purchase) I am not able to commit to photography full time, so I can't expect to put in as much time as I want.... this equals, longer success time and harder work needed to get my name out there. People now recognize me (shooting sports around town) and know my site, traffic is continuallyl going up, it will pay out sooner or later.

Keep at the advice given, make the needed changes to your site, market yourself to those you are targeting (something I need to work on too) and hopefully you will see some improvement, just don't look for it tomorrow.

Be sure to keep enjoying your photography though.

Cheers

buy2ls

Hey I was looking for some suggestions, I have over 80,000 views in 30 days and have not sold one image. Is it that most people want to buy images of thier stuff or family? Just recently I have begun to promote that downloads are available from as low as $3.50. I have been driving traffic to my site from two Boating forums, facebook as well as the Canon users forum POTN. Is there anything you can suggest other than getting paid to shoot an event and having the images for sale on the Pro Acct.?
Jeff

www.jeffbolletphotography.com

idiotabroad

I post photos on local news websites with a link to my site. Just sold a download yesterday because someone saw one they liked, for a lot more than 3.50 so price is not the issue. As stated before keep spreading the word about your site. If it's not seen nobody will buy.

stirinthesauce

For me, the purpose of driving traffic to my site is to boost my search-ability with google to promote my business, ie, portraiture and weddings. For instance, right now in my locale if one is to do a local search for "wedding photographer" I come up as #2 or #3. I know if I am below #3 they probably won't come to my site and l lose the opportunity of booking a client. As for selling images, I do that in galleries. Those sales are sporadic and not consistent. The only sales I have had online are from the weddings and portraits I have done ordered by the clients and family members.

Just driving hits to your site isn't going to sell images. If the work is extraordinary and marketable I don't see why they wouldn't sell. But who is the client? Stock buyers? Landscape enthusiasts? People in your locale? Who are you marketing your images to? If 80000 people click/view your images on an external site and they have little to no interest in the shots you are showing then I don't see how you will get any sales.

Good luck and I wish you the best in your endeavor.

-Jon

Mark Dickinson

Since I've had smug mug, vie done 11k so far in profit in 2 yrs. Search me, www.mdpstore.com

I give coupons all the time and I give disc away with hi res files. Sell yourself, and invite them to buy, give them sales, guarantees for prints and love your work

kathiemt

Great info Mark. How do you use the coupons?

Mark Dickinson

Kathie,

http://www.smugmug.com/help/coupon-codes

This is a good tutorial.

There are some 'black hat' techniques, even though its not that its just shady sales techniques where photographers give 7 days to order or they LOSE all their images. We give clients a 3/6 month gallery. There's benefits to both sides though. Usually ordering happens moderately since I give my clients a cd/dvd. I do this so that I do not have to hold on to them and they are liable after they receive the disc. The reason why I mention this is because most people shutter on it, but we do so many weddings, and other events that I don't want to have to archive them and hang on to them.

That being said I still consistently sell at least my payout each month with and without coupons. When you meet with clients you have to be confident in your work. Use the features that smugmug gives you (guaranteed prints, fast delivery, EASE of ordering, and COUPONS) I restrict printing at walmart, walgreens, CVS, Costco and other places that are substandard point and shoot printers. My turn around time being 3 months for wedding, cd, dvd, album, prints included gives the client the need to order before they receive it.

For my galleries that I shoot freelance and go do architecture, scenery, and other shots that I try to keyword a get sales with are VERY low, 3 print sales in 2 years, so its not going to be my realm of work as of right now.

Be social,
www.facebook.com/markdickinsonphoto (7k friends on here)
http://www.facebook.com/pages/mdpstorecom/154132114622936 (25 friends, usually the people who are pending upload) they can watch the status.)

If you have twitter post a coupon on there, then retailme not will pick it up: Google mdpstore coupon (our store site)

I think that will help but be confident in your sales, and make the sales YOUR sales not smugmug consumer confidence is a big must so believe in your work. For the freelance, and people trying to sell architecture, landscapes, etc it might be difficult keyword everything make your pages public with descriptions and hope for the traffic.

(sorry if I am all over, going on 4 hrs of sleep and trying to stay awake ha)

Mark Dickinson

OH YES! If coupons are being used...... MAKE SURE YOUR PRINT PRICES ARE HIGH! This way they feel your giving a nice discount which you are..... othewise you will eat the cost and profit for the print if it dips below the bottom line price (cost)

kathiemt

Thanks Mark, that's helped heaps. I am freelance with nature and landscapes so don't have clients as such. Although, the local bank has just enquired of me doing shots of their 4 branches in this region. I'm just waiting to see if the board accepts my quote. I was a winner in their calendar competition last year and that led to a couple of local paper stories, one small job of some birds in a guy's backyard and a photography exhibition for a month in a local cafe. I now have my photos on display in another shop in the region. So I've been working at getting exposure. I live in a tourist region so they're really my target market. I have business cards on display in different places, I do have a facebook page http://www.facebook.com/KathiesPhotos/ (only just under 300 at the moment) and Twitter with over 4,000 followers. So I'm moving in the right direction I think - just still in the early stages.

I'll go through what you've told me and learn how the coupons work over the weekend and then review the pricing I've set up. Thanks heaps for the tips.

Mark Dickinson

Definately. You should be good. "Ponce Inlet Light House" is near where I live thats the only one I've sold photos of. So try googling "ponce inlet lighthouse photos"

See if that returns the same results it does me. "mdpstore.com" is my site.

Some tips that I think work...

Be descriptive with your photos "img10230.jpg" is BAD for instance: Lighthouse-Ponce-Inlet-Daytime.jpg works well.
My description on smugmug will be: "beautiful photo of the ponce inlet lighthouse in the day time. Daytona beach offers a beautiful landscape from the ocean for a clean view of the historic lighthouse"

johng

buy2ls wrote: »

Hey I was looking for some suggestions, I have over 80,000 views in 30 days and have not sold one image. Is it that most people want to buy images of thier stuff or family? Just recently I have begun to promote that downloads are available from as low as $3.50. I have been driving traffic to my site from two Boating forums, facebook as well as the Canon users forum POTN. Is there anything you can suggest other than getting paid to shoot an event and having the images for sale on the Pro Acct.?
Jeff

www.jeffbolletphotography.com

Jeff - I took a look at your site. I have to ask - who are you expecting to buy your photos? The owners of these boats? A boating enthusiast? I have to say, to the owner of a boat I don't see anything compelling about your photos - they've likely got hundreds of snapshots of their own that look similar. For a non-owner, there's nothing really compelling about them. Again, nothing really compelling about them. Nothing compelling composition wise - it looks like you just walk around the yacht club and take some pictures. Given the context of the shots I don't see the benefit for advertisement work either - shots at sea would work much better. I know this sounds harsh. But I just don't see the target audience. Again, some people might like to look at them but I just don't know who the audience would be that would buy these types of photos.