[rsegoly]

Hi,


Does anyone have experience with selling pictures online?

[Hacker]

I've sold a few over the last few months but they have been the result of specific events, I use a company called Clikpic which has various templates for websites aimed at photographers and artists and has the ability to build in a Paypal payment processing facility.

There is more information here in article Dave put together after I had responded to some questions. I'm not sure if this is the type of info you are looking for as it is geared towards specific events. If, for example, you are looking to sell general images I should imagine that would be harder as there is no specific target market.

I hope this helps and let me know if you need any more info.

[rsegoly]

cheers

[Whipspeed]

I'd agree with Hacker that it is easier if you have a specific market. I run my site through Photium, which again is a template site. I mostly do cycling and rugby photographs, with a few still life & other shots thrown in.
As I know alot of local cyclists, the web site is well supported and through it I've been booked as an event photographer for a race next year. It's the same with the rugby shots, my son plays & I photograph the team and have been booked to do a team shot & from that one of the Mum's has asked me to photograph her children.

As for the still life, I've not sold any from the site yet, but having done a craft fair last weekend, I've handed out a few cards & am keeping my eye on my site stats to see if anything comes of it.

If you want to get the site out there, you need to add meta data tags so that search engines find you. The site I'm with, have a page for you to fill in with these and help & I found that within a month, if I search Google for my name, my site is on the first page near the top.

Make sure you're site is interesting and that photographs are rotated as it encourages visitors to come back if there is something new. Have info about yourself and a clear pricing structure.

Hope that helps, Oh, and nice site Hacker.

Sarah

Sarah Brooke - Cycling Photographer in Northamptonshire

[Hacker]

Hi Sarah, thanks for that. I just had a look at your website and I'm impressed! How do you find the Photium template to work with as I can find the Clikpic one a bit difficult at times, particularly when uploading - each image has to be done individually and that can be a real pain when there are 200+ pics from an equestrian event. There is a facility to bulk upload but then each image has to be manually assigned to a folder and it takes even longer!

[Dave]

Originally Posted by Hacker

There is a facility to bulk upload but then each image has to be manually assigned to a folder and it takes even longer!

Couldn't PS Batch actions help you there possibly , to get the shots in the seperate folders ?

[LadyStardust]

Hello there,

I've sold a few stock pics on Home Page. For ideas and inspiration on stock photography, I would recommend you look at this site:Incredipix - Photographer Jostein Hauge. If you click on SELL YOUR PHOTOS you'll find some recommended sites to sell your stock photography on.

Good luck!

Lucy

[Whipspeed]

Photium is pretty easy for bulk uploads, some cycle races I need to upload 100+ shots. As long as all the shots are 600 pixels max on longest side & under 100k there is a multiple upload box & you just browse, add them in & all done in around 5 mins, which is great. At the moment asI only started this year, I have the basic package costing £80.oo where I can upload 300 shots, which I rotate every week - 2 weeks, but considering next package next year for £150 & can upload up to 1000 shots. Seeing how things go at the moment.

[dod]

I made up my own sites, each specifically for a set market. Never done it before so it's perfectly feasible for anyone if I can do it.

enduropics quality equestrian photography and Dod's Pics - Motocross Photography

Both have been promoted in the relevant online communities and now bring in a fair amount of sales. Dodspics is getting roughly 20000 hits a month in the middle of the season so it's not bad. It's linked on all the main sites though so it gets decent publicity even though I still haven't got metatags etc sorted out. It's just about to be revamped for something a bit more stylish.

The most difficult thing was the integration of the shopping cart initially through paypal.

[Markulous]

Well, strictly speaking I don't sell my pics online; I display them for subsequent sale or publishing. People buy from/commission me, not an internet site! Hence the thoroughly unprofessional image repository!