Is SmugMug Really for Me?

chuckinsocal

Hi Gang,

Here's where I'm at: I bought the standard membership and set up my site with gallaries and photos that I thought people, meaning the general pubic, would enjoy and perhaps even purchase. Please feel free to visit http://chuckinsocal.smugmug.com and comment freely if you'd like.

I've entered my keywords, although I may have a little more work to do on those and started registering with some of the major search engines. Some more work to do there as well.

I've tweaked my photos to remove noise, etc so they are as attractive as possible.

I think I'm about ready to upgrade to the pro account and offer my photos for sale to the general public.

Now, I'm not a professional photographer so I don't have clients or customers who will order prints of their events or portraits that I have shot.

My portfolio is not huge right now which means I need to get up off my butt and get out taking more photos with image quality and marketability in mind.

My current portfolio consists mostly of outdoor scenes, wildlife, nature, etc that I have shot on various day trips and in my travels in and around town.

My thinking, or perhaps it's just fantacy, is that people will find my site and photos (assuming that I've optimized my keywords and tweaked the search engines properly), find something they like, and order prints or merchandise for their personal use (assuming prices are reasonable), and I get to make a few bucks every once in a while.

Is that a realistic scenario, or is it just too easy for people to download images from the internet for free? Do people really shop for and purchase photos this way? Is it a reasonable game plan or is it just wishful thinking on my part?

I understand there are lots of variables, such as photo quality, subject matter, gallery arrangement, etc etc etc. But assuming all that is reasonably acceptable, will this work?

This is not a SmugMug specific issue but is only about the feasibility of selling photos on line to a general public from any photo site.

Thanks in advance for your comments.

Chuck Cannova
http://chuckinsocal.smugmug.com

DJ-S1

Hmm, well I don't think that people are just waiting around for you (or any other photographer) to appear online so they can start buying your work. I think the people that do sell a lot of photos on smugmug work very hard at it and market themselves. I think that would be the same with any online service.

Pupator

Enjoy your photos, enjoy showing them off to friends and family, enjoy sharing them here, with us on Dgrin.

But don't expect to sell any, ever. You have some very nice pictures and galleries that I really enjoyed looking through - but I think you've nailed it here:

Is that a realistic scenario, or is it just too easy for people to download images from the internet for free? Do people really shop for and purchase photos this way? Is it a reasonable game plan or is it just wishful thinking on my part?

Free photos for personal use are everywhere. In my experience people (who rarely buy landscape photos anyway) buy from people they know or from people who are well-known. If you aren't a pro and ready to spend some money on marketing yourself I think you'll spend far more in smugmug fees for the pro account than you'll ever make back.

I don't say that to discourage you - I'm in the same boat! What I've found is that I get far more joy customizing my smugmug site for me and my family and friends than worrying about whether or not anyone ever buys anything.

In 5+ years of having pictures online I've sold one (to be used in a magazine actually) and the feeling was great, but it's not something I'm going to spend much time or money trying to duplicate.

Of course, your experience could be totally different. Either way, enjoy what you do.

Pupator

After looking through your galleries again I need to add something to my previous post.

There's an exception to every thing I said - and it's if you can find a niche. In your case, I realized this looking at your classic car photos. If you're willing to highlight that gallery and market yourself even a little bit to guys at car shows (especially if you do pictures like that of their own cars) I'd think you could sell a few of those. May or may not be worth it, but it's something to consider.

chuckinsocal

Thanks Paul
I appreciate your honesty. You've pretty much confirmed my suspicions that there are way too many images and photographers on the web for anyone to find mine by accident and purchase them.

The key may be external marketing of the site. I like the car club idea plus we have a lot of tourists come to our area and maybe market to them some how. Or other clubs or organizations. Some shoot ameteur sporting events and have the participants or parents go to the site and buy what they want, if anything. Or, buy prints and sell those. I need to develope a more comprehensive game plan.

In the mean time, I think I'll save my money for the pro account, upgrade to the power account so I can customize my site, take and upload more photos with marketing in mind, and work from there.

And, I thought this was going to be easy. HAH!!!!

By the way, you have a fine looking family and our birthdays are only two days apart. Mine's April 9th and I'm not giving away the year either.

Thanks again for your comments.

Chuck Cannova
http://chuckinsocal.SmugMug.com
chuckc@nethere.com

chuckinsocal

Thanks DJ
My reponse to Paul applies to you, too. I try to stay grounded in reality and you guys helped me do that. It's greatly appreciated.

chuckinsocal
http://chuckinsocal.SmugMug.com
chuckc@nethere.com

thehikingdude

chuckinsocal wrote:

Some shoot ameteur sporting events and have the participants or parents go to the site and buy what they want, if anything.

Chuck Cannova
http://chuckinsocal.SmugMug.com
chuckc@nethere.com

If you can get hooked up with a site representing the team or sport you are focusing on it can work great. That's what I did and it has worked wonderfully.

chuckinsocal

Thanks Dude
That's a great idea and an angle I need to look into.

Thanks again.

Chuck Cannova
http://chuckinsocal.SmugMug.com
chuckc@nethere.com

Bill_M

DJ-S1 wrote:

Hmm, well I don't think that people are just waiting around for you (or any other photographer) to appear online so they can start buying your work. I think the people that do sell a lot of photos on smugmug work very hard at it and market themselves. I think that would be the same with any online service.

Very well said.

justus

Key Word "Niche"
I think the key word here is "niche". Find a subject you are passionate about and know better than most photographers. In your case, it's classic cars from what we are seeing on your website. In my case, it's horses.
All my sales come from events related to horses that I shoot. It takes years to build up contacts, but it's worth it if you care to sell photos outside your (pardon the pun) event arena.

Having said that, selling photos to horse magazines, books and calendars is a rush! That comes in time providing you've MARKETED yourself to that group of people. When I started shooting horses, I went to the little open shows around my part of the state, took photos, mailed out proofs, etc. In your case, maybe showing up at a few car shows in the area and handing out business cards with your Smugmug page on them so people can go to Smugmug and see what you took that day...If I was into classic cars I would treasure a great photo as much as I do of one of my horses.

The hardest part for me was the step outside the doorway the day I decided to try photography for profit. A rejected photo never means a personal rejection (took me a long time to get that!) I was six months into the business before I sold my first photo to a magazine. Had LOTS of rejections until that day, but they all taught me something about selling for publication...hang in there. If you want it bad enough......

chuckinsocal

Thank You Linda
You have re inspired me.

I'm not actually "into" classic cars. Those photos were taken at a couple of local shows that I just happened to randomly attend. But that's not saying I can't get into them, at least from the photography stand point. I just need to find out where and when the shows are. That should be easy enough. Custom motorcycles are also a big thing around here so that's another niche to look at.

I'm not sure how to market to magazines, calanders, etc. That's something I need to figure out.

Thanks again and please know that your response is greatly appreciated.

Chuck Cannova
http://chuckinsocal.smugmug.com
chuckc@nethere.com

jfriend

chuckinsocal wrote:

My thinking, or perhaps it's just fantacy, is that people will find my site and photos (assuming that I've optimized my keywords and tweaked the search engines properly), find something they like, and order prints or merchandise for their personal use (assuming prices are reasonable), and I get to make a few bucks every once in a while.

IMO, the best way to think about this is to think of Smugmug as your storefront. Once you open your storefront, absolutely nothing will happen until you generate some traffic to your storefront (marketing, awareness generation, etc...). Smugmug will provide you with the mechanism to showcase your products to the people that you cause to come to your site and their infrastructure will make it easy to accept orders and process those orders, but they don't find customers for you - that is your job.

And, like any storefront, you've got to have some sort of unique product that appeals to the kind of buyer you brought to your storefront and you've got to offer a decent perceived value once they get there.

Think of Smugmug as online infrastructure that is required to showcase your products and to accept orders for them, but everything else that a new business would normally require is up to you.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is "stock photos". You submit your works to a stock photo company. If they accept it, they put it in their catalog and you sit back and do nothing after that (except create more good photos). People looking for photos they can use in their work often go to these stock photo sites to buy/license photos for their work (brochures, ads, graphics, etc...). The downside of stock photos is that you get paid very, very little per purchase. Why do you get paid so little? It's because somebody else did all the work of finding the customer and convincing them to buy something. If you do that part yourself, you get paid a lot more.

chuckinsocal

Thank You John
Your response is consistant with the others and my current mind set. That is to find a market for my current portfolio, if one even exists, and, more importantly, to deveope a product line of sorts (niche market) and draw people from that market into the web site.

It's not going to be an overnight thing but rather a long term building process.

To paraphrase and old saying, I guess "there's no such thing as an easy lunch".

Thanks again for sharing your wisdom. It's greatly appreciated.

Chuck Cannova
http://chuckinsocal.smugmug.com
chuckc@nethere.com