Need Landscape Selling Advice

Tom Potter

Hey Guys,

Can I please get some advice on how to sell my landscape images? Been on SM for a few years, have only put part-time effort in shooting landscape photos. How do I get Web sales and local
sales? I give out biz cards every chance I get, have done mailings, emails.

Thx,

Tom

Hikin' Mike

How do I get Web sales and local sales?

Does your <title> page list some of the local area/towns/cities? (no)

Does your home page list some of your local area/towns/cities? (no)

Take a look at my website(s). I decided about a year ago that 'California' was too broad. I wanted to try and focus on area (central valley) to include some of the specific towns. Six months ago I received an e-mail from an art consultant. His client wanted some large prints to show the local landscapes. They bought two 18 x 36 prints....because they found me on the web.

Looking at your site, IMO it needs some "refining". The 'Comic Sans' font has to go. Your 'About Me' page doesn't match the rest of your site.

For local sales. Ever try showing your work at one of the Arts and Craft fairs?

Hope this helps.

Art Scott

Selling locally....a lot of communities have started having Art Crawls...here in Wichita ours are every "Final Friday" of each month...hence the name..Final Friday Art Crawl....to utilize this a lot of Artists hook up with a business in the crawl district or just outside of the crawl district and hang their work (photos in your case) and the artist is there is greeat people and talk about their work...larger prints are more impressive than small ones.......out main crawl district is our "Old Town" section...but you find shows in nearly every side of town.......

Also you could be setting up a tent booth at Farmers Markets on the weekends.....you may not sell much but it is a chance to get our name out and be seen by the community.....it is a lot of work but in the end can pay off big for you.

Cygnus Studios

Tom Potter wrote: »

Hey Guys,

Can I please get some advice on how to sell my landscape images? Been on SM for a few years, have only put part-time effort in shooting landscape photos. How do I get Web sales and local
sales? I give out biz cards every chance I get, have done mailings, emails.

Thx,

Tom

To begin with you are in the most saturated market of photography. Just about everyone who owns a camera wants to be a landscape photographer. To top it off, you only have 26 images on your website. That isn't giving the potential buyers a whole lot of options.

Relying on sales from your website is certainly not the way to go. How many non friends/family are visiting your website each day?

Get a few hundred prints hanging around the towns in your area and you will have a better chance to see sales.

Tom Potter

Hikin' Mike wrote: »

Does your <title> page list some of the local area/towns/cities? (no)

Does your home page list some of your local area/towns/cities? (no)


Take a look at my website(s). I decided about a year ago that 'California' was too broad. I wanted to try and focus on area (central valley) to include some of the specific towns. Six months ago I received an e-mail from an art consultant. His client wanted some large prints to show the local landscapes. They bought two 18 x 36 prints....because they found me on the web.
Looking at your site, IMO it needs some "refining". The 'Comic Sans' font has to go. Your 'About Me' page doesn't match the rest of your site.
For local sales. Ever try showing your work at one of the Arts and Craft fairs?
Hope this helps.

Really appreciate your help with this Mike. OK, I understand about naming specific areas, but, I plan to expant to surrounding states over time. SO, with that in mind, should I perhaps list the various I have the most of; like "Colorado State Parks", "Rocky Mountain National Park". Assuming I have images from all over Colorado, how would I come up with a suitable phrase on my Tile Page to indicate that?

So, you ARE saying to add these town / area names right on my Home Pag where visitors will see it, correct, and NOT in the coding somewhere, correct? In other words, adding it as part of my Home Page will help search engines to find me, correct?

Forgive my ignorance, what is "IMO"? So, use a better looking font rather than comic sans??? When you say my "About Me" page does not match the rest of my site, do you mean just the font does not match??
I am in the process of looking into craft shows.

Thanks so much for your advice....Tom

Tom Potter

Art Scott wrote: »

Selling locally....a lot of communities have started having Art Crawls...here in Wichita ours are every "Final Friday" of each month...hence the name..Final Friday Art Crawl....to utilize this a lot of Artists hook up with a business in the crawl district or just outside of the crawl district and hang their work (photos in your case) and the artist is there is greeat people and talk about their work...larger prints are more impressive than small ones.......out main crawl district is our "Old Town" section...but you find shows in nearly every side of town.......

Also you could be setting up a tent booth at Farmers Markets on the weekends.....you may not sell much but it is a chance to get our name out and be seen by the community.....it is a lot of work but in the end can pay off big for you.

Great info Art!...I will look into this stuff....Thanks!

Tom Potter

Cygnus Studios wrote: »

To begin with you are in the most saturated market of photography. Just about everyone who owns a camera wants to be a landscape photographer. To top it off, you only have 26 images on your website. That isn't giving the potential buyers a whole lot of options.

Relying on sales from your website is certainly not the way to go. How many non friends/family are visiting your website each day?

Get a few hundred prints hanging around the towns in your area and you will have a better chance to see sales.

Hey Steve,

Thanks very much for your input. Regarding the landscape photography market being saturated. Yep - I do realize that. What I have going for me, though, is the fact that, when I make up my mind to achieve something, I never, never, ever........EVER :O) give up until I reach my goal. Giving up is just a foreign concept to me.

Also, I will indeed get a lot more quality images up on my site. I absolutely need to shape-up my site so it gets seen by search engines (I need help with this) and work local markets.

Thanks again Steve! Appreciate the help :O)

Tom

JimKarczewski

Tom-

Please don't take this the wrong way, but, you need to get some better lighting conditions in your photos. There is no drama to them, honestly, I didn't see anything on your site that my 74 year old mother couldn't take with her point & shoot. You need to work on Sunrise and sunset photos.. or days where there are dramatic clouds if you are going to shoot during the middle of the day. I can't tell you how many weeks in a row I get up at 3AM to get somewhere before sunrise, and go back an hour or two before sunset to start shooting again. Mid-Day photos, like I said, unless you are storm chasing and get some dramatic stuff, are a dime a dozen..

Tom Potter

JimKarczewski wrote: »

Tom-

Please don't take this the wrong way, but, you need to get some better lighting conditions in your photos. There is no drama to them, honestly, I didn't see anything on your site that my 74 year old mother couldn't take with her point & shoot. You need to work on Sunrise and sunset photos.. or days where there are dramatic clouds if you are going to shoot during the middle of the day. I can't tell you how many weeks in a row I get up at 3AM to get somewhere before sunrise, and go back an hour or two before sunset to start shooting again. Mid-Day photos, like I said, unless you are storm chasing and get some dramatic stuff, are a dime a dozen..

Thanks for your input Jim.

Hikin' Mike

IMO = In My Opinion

To understand about SEO, I wrote a short article called SEO for the Photographer. The link is in my sig.

I would include as much text (keywords) on your home page without sounding spammy. No special coding, just plain old text. People and search engines like words. On each of your galleries add a description about where, what etc. Make sure you also include a description on each individual photo. People may find you from one of your galleries, it doesn't have to be from your home page....as long as you're found.

Yes, ANYTHING but 'Comic Sans'. I recently started using Google Web Fonts for my website and my matching Smugmug site.

Your 'About Page' lacks the banner/logo, as well as the same navigation structure. It's all about consistency.

Tom Potter

Hikin' Mike wrote: »

IMO = In My Opinion

To understand about SEO, I wrote a short article called SEO for the Photographer. The link is in my sig.

I would include as much text (keywords) on your home page without sounding spammy. No special coding, just plain old text. People and search engines like words. On each of your galleries add a description about where, what etc. Make sure you also include a description on each individual photo. People may find you from one of your galleries, it doesn't have to be from your home page....as long as you're found.

Yes, ANYTHING but 'Comic Sans'. I recently started using Google Web Fonts for my website and my matching Smugmug site.

Your 'About Page' lacks the banner/logo, as well as the same navigation structure. It's all about consistency.

Cool Mike! Thanks a lot - I very much appreciate the great advice. I'm going to implement these changes in the very near future. You've been a tremendous help!

Hikin' Mike

Tom Potter wrote: »

Cool Mike! Thanks a lot - I very much appreciate the great advice. I'm going to implement these changes in the very near future. You've been a tremendous help!

Glad to help.

BTW reference the PM, My dad insisted on using 'Comic Sans' for his site. I wasn't going to argue with him....!

Tom Potter

Hikin' Mike wrote: »

Glad to help.

BTW reference the PM, My dad insisted on using 'Comic Sans' for his site. I wasn't going to argue with him....!

hehehe - you truly ARE a wise man! :O)