Photography – Trying to make money from it
I have been thinking about ways I can make a bit of cash from my hobby of photography, it looks like I have two options, building a portfolio website or selling via stock photography website.
Portfolio Website
I could use this option to display my best work and hopefully sell some work directly and get offered work by publicising the site. The problem with this option is that I will need to get hosting for the site, select the right Content management system (CMS), get the design right, provide a purchase mechanism.
There are solutions out there that have all of this built into an overall solution such as Clikpic, but they have their limitations and associated costs. The other way is to approach this is to use a good CMS I am used to and like the functionality of by using WordPress, the issues I have there are the design, the hosting, and how to integrate a purchase mechanism that will allow people to instantly purchase and download copies of my work.
I think I prefer the second option due to the flexibility, I just need to overcome the associated problems for me, the main one being design as I am not a web designer, although initially I could use/purchase a template and work with that until I can learn the required skills. The other problem of purchase/download mechanism is one I will need to look into.
Stock Websites
I have been looking a few stock sites as recommended in this article on DPhotoJournal and have been banging on about it on Twitter for a while for some feedback on photos I should submit initially. So I did sign-up to IStockPhoto but as yet have not submitted any shots, and I have recently signed up to ShutterStock which to me looks a little more promising.
Now have to pick out 10 of my ‘best photos’ as they say, I am not totally sure which to submit though as the shots I like might not necessarily be what sells on stock photo sites. I think I have settled on the shots below for my initial submission and i would appreciate any feedback comments as to what people think of my choices and whether there are better shots on my Flickr Feed.
Hi Phil,
You have some nice strong images. Have you looked http://www.photographersdirect.com and have you thought about trying your local TIC office and shops to sell framed and mounted prints as a way of selling?
Cheers
Kevin
Cool, just looked at that site, not a bad idea to get some images up there I think. But what is a TIC office/shop?
LOVE the picture of the bus!
Thanks, I have an large acrylic of it on my wall, looks great!
Hi Phil,
Tourist information Center TIC), they often display and sell local products normally for a commission something like 10%
Cheers
Kevin
Looks like you know HDRI workflow. Why not look into real estate / architectural work?
The problem I think I face is getting a foot in the door, how to get into it, who to approach, etc. Any ideas?
I use dreamhost and have been very happy with it. I still use wordpress as a CMS. I found someone on eLance who converted everything over to my new site for mad cheap. You can post your project and check out the bids to see what the costs would be.