How are your sales going?

bjcoolphoto · September 1, 2010

Hi, new to dgrin, but have been uploading to smugmug for nearly 2 years.
So far no sales at all and i'm wondering whether I'm expecting too much, or if I've got my set up wrong, or if my images are just not good enough.
Would really appreciate any comments, especially if you are prepared to tell me something about your sales.

daylightimages · September 1, 2010

Here's the bottom line -- putting your photos on your website is about 5% of the battle. With thousands upon thousands of photographers selling photos online, you have to draw people to your site -- marketing yourself is the other 95%.

A good start would be to let people know what your website is by --- ummm --- actually telling people what your website is. In your post above, you didn't include your website so we have no way of giving feedback regarding things like site appearance, navigation, etc., which are all things that can influence whether people buy from you or not.

Other marketing tactics would be to join forums that relate to whatever your specialty is, get involved in those forums, and put your website with your signature every time you post.

Putting your photos out there and expecting them to draw attention on their own usually doesn't work -- the numbers are against you. Given them a little help by pointing people towards them.

bjcoolphoto · September 2, 2010

How are your sales going?
Thanks so much daylightimages. My site is www.brianscantlebury.com
Sorry about that oversight. I do "a little" to point people to my site by things like having it on business cards and bottom of all email messages. Obviously not enough. The stats show I am getting some views.
Any other comments would be welcome. Thanks again

daylightimages wrote: »

Here's the bottom line -- putting your photos on your website is about 5% of the battle. With thousands upon thousands of photographers selling photos online, you have to draw people to your site -- marketing yourself is the other 95%.

A good start would be to let people know what your website is by --- ummm --- actually telling people what your website is. In your post above, you didn't include your website so we have no way of giving feedback regarding things like site appearance, navigation, etc., which are all things that can influence whether people buy from you or not.

Other marketing tactics would be to join forums that relate to whatever your specialty is, get involved in those forums, and put your website with your signature every time you post.

Putting your photos out there and expecting them to draw attention on their own usually doesn't work -- the numbers are against you. Given them a little help by pointing people towards them.

justus · September 3, 2010

Website
Just a couple of suggestions also...I would "kill" the "favorite photos and "most recent photos" part of your website. Looks (for a professional) IMO a little unorganized. Your galleries are showing under those photos and are not easy to find...

Also, you might want to leave out the description of your galleries and simply put their subject names on the gallery titles. For example, you can describe how to order your photos on the "description" part of your gallery (inside the gallery) instead of having it try to be part of the gallery title.

You have some images from places most of us won't get to...get a copy of Photographer's Market book and try marketing your work to some magazines and book publishers. That's how I got started selling in the beginning.

Just my thoughts....

denisegoldberg · September 3, 2010

I agree with Linda's suggestions - but I think you should go beyond that. In my opinion just throwing up a standard smugmug page does not look professional.

You have a banner, so that's a start. I would recommend changing the vertical size of that banner though - it's a bit tall given that the focus should be on your photos, not on the banner. You should also remove the smugmug header, and change to using the mini footer.

It looks like you are using galleries as your organization method. Group your galleries into logical categories and change to showing by category. That is much less overwhelming to your viewers. If presented with an overwhelming list of galleries, my instint is usually to leave the site. Given some organization so I can find the things that interest me, then I would have more of a tendency to look around.

You might consider changing to the 4-across method of showing your categories / galleries. See # 10 in the advanced customization FAQ at http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=52811.

Unfortunately, the look of your site won't attract viewers, although it might convince people to stick around a little longer. Attracting viewers is harder. Leaving a trail to your site in all web postings might help. Also - have you considered adding a blog? Photos that link back to your smug site can be helpful.

--- Denise

bjcoolphoto · September 3, 2010

Gee, thanks thanks so much Linda & denise.
You've given me a lot to work on and do. Really appreciated your suggestions, and hope one day i might reciprocate.
I'll now get on with your suggestions. I'm not much on the system side, but yur leads will help.
Say, I'm interested (not nosey) to know whether sales are generally occuring. Do you make regular sales through your smugmug site?
Cheers
Brian
www.brianscantlebury.com
brian@brianscantlebury.com

How are your sales going?

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