You may have noticed from the photo posts all over this site that I like to take pictures. I wouldn’t call myself a photographer by any stretch of the imagination but I like to think I have a decent eye for good photos. A hobbyist if you will.
I carry my Canon 550D with me frequently which is a big reason I get some good shots. It’s not because I’m a great photographer, it’s not because I have the best equipment. It’s because when I see an opportunity, I can act on it there and then with my camera to hand, instead of trying to recreate those same conditions later.
Helping photographers sell their photos
I might not consider myself to be a photographer, but one thing I do now about is the web, digital / online marketing and ecommerce. I’ve helped brands like Fat Face with this in the past. I know that its hard to stand out from the crowd when selling online. It’s hard to drive customers to your website with social media. And if you’re skilled in one trade, then working out a new one just to sell your images is hard work.
So when Digital Photographer magazines Editor, Amy Squibb, approached me to answer some reader questions about selling photos online, I jumped at the chance. It’s the perfect mix of something I’m good at and something I really enjoy – that doesn’t come along very often (although it did once before when I wrote for One Thing I know). Working in the digital agency world, I spend my time helping other businesses successfully sell their wares online. But rarely are those products also related to my hobbies or interests.
I spent a bit of time considering each question and how best to respond. After all I don’t want to make any faux pas when I’m supposed to be the expert giving advice. We chose three main questions but thank you for all those that submitted them… I could have filled the magazine with advice on all of them.
Some of the key advice points were around focusing on email more than social media because it has a much higher response rate and its more direct. Campaign Monitor is my email platform of choice because their platform is great and their reports are awesome. They also have a super helpful team there to support you. Another was about setting up nearly free ecommerce stores with systems like WordPress and WooCommerce… it’s a lot easier than you think and the pre-built template designs are really rather good these days.
Tracking and knowing your results
The thing that stood out for me in the questions we received, was the lack of questions about evaluating, tracking or measuring your efforts. It’s so easy online, compared with the offline world, but it still gets overlooked again and again.
Without this evaluation of your efforts how do you know what you will spend money on next time around? How can you tell if you or your agency are generating more money than you spend?
We did a special section on measuring results with tools like Google Analytics, Google Alerts, email marketing reports and social media campaign stats. We even looked at tracking link clicks with Bit.ly. I’ve also written about similar topics before.
To all businesses out there (not just photographers)… this is the most important snippet of advice I can give you… know, don’t just guess, which marketing activities are working for you.
Sell more photos online with free help along the way?
Yes you heard me correctly, free help. No payment, no sell. I’m proposing an exchange to anyone who’s interested. I already said I’m not a photographer but I am an online marketeer. So, if any photographers out there want to teach me to become a better photographer, I’ll personally help you sell more photos on your website. Now I can’t say fairer than that can I? Contact me if you’re game.
Here’s the finished thing… and the magazine if you want to buy it while you still can.
And just in case you’re wondering how I helped so many photographers… 21,133 is the ABC number for Digital Photographer Magazine in the UK. Circulation figures to you and I 🙂