Websites

[KenBabcock]

Just curious before I build one.  How many sales does your website generate for prints (paper or canvas)?

I'm beginning to build a clientele now for my canvas prints, however, I'd like to do more.  I also don't want to be totally swamped with prints either, because this is not my full time job.  I read somewhere that this one person had a website and was generating 30+ orders a day for canvas prints from their website.  I could never fulfill those orders unless I left my position.

So how much has your website helped you?

[DeanChriss]

Unless your web site visitors have already seen your work in person, perhaps at a gallery or art show, a web site will generate very few sales. On the other hand, if you do pursue other forms of marketing your work, a website will act as an extension of your business card. It allows people who have already seen your work to contact you and purchase. If you sell your work a web site is expected, but it doesn't sell anything on its own.

There are millions of websites selling photography of all sorts, on paper and canvas alike, at Wal-Mart prices. There are big commercial sites offering the work of numerous photographers. Here the photographer supplies only image files and the company owning the website does the printing, framing and shipping. Whatever “art” is, this isn’t, but the prices are low enough that people are willing to buy prints based on a JPEG they viewed on an uncalibrated monitor. Then there are countless individual sites where people are virtually giving their work away. The chances that someone who is looking for a very high quality piece will find your web site are small. The chances that such a person would be willing to purchase without having seen the work in person are far smaller.

[howseth]

Dean's comments do seem to describe the internet photo web world about right. I do think they are an excellent way for people you meet to see your 'catalog' of work. I call mine "A web archive: selected work 1978-2010."  I actually got my last exhibition based solely on my website archive being available - it was noticed by a gallery artist I did not know beforehand;

I do not list print prices on my website. I just do not use it as a direct purchase sales tool at this point.

Howard

[PeterAit]

Dean's comments do seem to describe the internet photo web world about right. I do think they are an excellent way for people you meet to see your 'catalog' of work. I call mine "A web archive: selected work 1978-2010."  I actually got my last exhibition based solely on my website archive being available - it was noticed by a gallery artist I did not know beforehand;

I do not list print prices on my website. I just do not use it as a direct purchase sales tool at this point.

Howard

I have not had a single print sale from my web site, and this is exactly what I expected. The site serves more as a way to let others view my work, and also as a focus for my efforts to process and "publish" my best images. Also, it's part of my plan to make photography a legitimate business for tax purposes so I can deduct my expenses, at least for a couple of years.

[KenBabcock]

I was afraid you guys were going to say that.

How is it then that some people are doing dozens of canvas prints per day?

I understand people have to see your work and all that, and I have gotten some clients now, but nowhere near what I would like.  It seems many people look and are interested in the whole canvas printing technology, but they run when they find out the price, and I know I'm definitely not charging what others are, yet they make a sale.

Maybe the secret is pricing prints real high then waiting for the rich folks to buy - lol.

[wolfnowl]

Alain Briot talks about his experience with selling prints, both on the main Luminous Landscape page and on his own site: http://www.beautiful-landscape.com/

Mike.

[dgberg]

I'll jump in here with my 2 cents. A little history at the start as 2 years ago I was asking myself all these same questions.  I closed my cabinetry business last year and had this beautiful building in my back yard. After trying unsucessfully to rent part of it out I elected to renovate the buildings into a photography studio-printmaking studio-canvas gallery and woodworking shop. The negative in all of this is the location. In the bucolic mountains of se Pennsylvania we just do not get much traffic here.
  I started putting my website together in 2008 . At that time I like you was hoping for web sales of my work. That just has not panned out. I am now in the process of changing the website to remove internet sales and just have a nice gallery of my images. We have an 800 number so if someone is interested they can call me personally to discuss. No one sells their work better then the artist that created it!
My business model is Canvas. Everything on canvas,landscape and nature canvas gallery,studio and onsite photo packages with canvas prints, canvas printing and canvas workshops. It turns out that the canvas printing is what sells at least for us. We were getting requests for larger and larger gallery wraps so we added the 9900 Epson for its 44" printing capability.  I was very fortunate to have this beautiful facility in my back yard and a few dollars to invest in turning it into a first class printmaking and photography studio.
That being said dip a toe slowly into the water to get started rather then jumping in the pond! The website is necessary but do not expect your primary sales from it. Have multiple things to offer. When one or two things are not moving you have a third or fourth service to fall back on. Work on putting together a top notch website to show your work and services you offer.
If you need a little help with canvas sign up for my workshop,would love to have you.

[PeterAit]

I was afraid you guys were going to say that.

How is it then that some people are doing dozens of canvas prints per day?

I understand people have to see your work and all that, and I have gotten some clients now, but nowhere near what I would like.  It seems many people look and are interested in the whole canvas printing technology, but they run when they find out the price, and I know I'm definitely not charging what others are, yet they make a sale.

Maybe the secret is pricing prints real high then waiting for the rich folks to buy - lol.

My sense is that selling a lot of prints is a matter of marketing. When you look at the photos by people who are successful in selling prints, there's never - or at best rarely - anything about the images and prints that make them stand out from the prints of dozens of other skilled photographers. Their prints may be very good indeed, but what sets them apart is the marketing. Nothing wrong with that, if it's how you want to spend you time.

[Alan Goldhammer]

Photography is an avocation for me rather than a vocation.  My day job pays me several orders of magnitude more than I could ever make as a photographer.  I put my website together from scratch (only using Lightroom to generate the web galleries with some minor software tweaking) because I wanted to improve my HTML skills.  My net last year was just about $500 (90% artist cards, 10% prints), none of the sales coming from my web site. I didn't even take all the deductions that I probably could (that would put me into the negative income category), not wanting to chance an audit and have to explain things to the IRS (new computer; software, paper, ink, etc.).  I did send out about 30 13x19 prints to friends and colleagues as well as card samples.  Some of these resulted in sales or prospective sales.  I'm also working with a couple gift shops about carrying the cards which could improve things.

One to the disturbing things I've noted are the large sites that Dean Chriss mentioned in his post.  One of my colleagues purchased several prints from RedBubble last week.  They came matted.  Unfortunately the quality of the images was quite poor, bad colors, lack of sharpness, etc.  She paid about $15 per print.  Since I specialize in the artist cards, I took a look at a couple of the offerings in that category.  The selling price was so low as to be laughable (and I know what my margin is using the Museo card stock and Epson K3 inks).  I don't think that anyone will be able to sustain a business through that venue.

Here's what you can do.  Send out free samples (even letter size prints work here).  If you work in an office setting, hang a small gallery of your work.  I've done that where I work and have pictures on the halls (we have pretty decent lighting which is a plus).  My boss came up to look at them after is admin told him how nice they looked.  He the ordered $150 worth of artist cards!  I suspect in the long run that web sites are best for maintaining an ongoing body of work but that with very few exceptions little sales.  Of course we could all agree to buy a print from one another just to see if the PayPal buttons work!!

[KenBabcock]

Thanks, folks.

Dan - Thanks for the offer, however, I've already been working with canvas for several years and I've got canvas printing nailed down - they look superb.

The problem is just marketing I suppose.  Luckily this is not my full time job, but I'd like it to be one day if at all possible.  But right now with kids, work schedules, etc... I just don't have the time I would like to devote to attending shows.  So I'm looking for alternative methods of helping the sales along.

I guess the other thing is that I do so much I don't know where to start.  I'm not sure how to advertise everything all in one package.  Apart from the photograph and printing I also am a traditional oil and acrylic painting artist (over 25 years now), and I'm a Photoshop guru and love doing things like photo restorations, special effects, etc...  I have an undergrad in computer science and so everything computer related is another hobby of mine.

I've been toying with the idea of embellishing my prints, not all of them, with acrylic and turning them into one-of-a-kind pieces of art.  Sort of a half giclee and half painting.

I probably do a ton of other artistic things I didn't mention but just don't know how to get it all together under one roof.  I'm trying to branch out as much as possible like suggested earlier, but I think I confuse others more than myself when I tell them everything I can do.

Currently, I have a few clients, doctors and lawyers, and I also do some printing for a couple of local photographers and I reproduce artwork for some local artists that I know from the art store.  It just isn't enough to do what I want to be able to do.

[ognita]

It's always marketing (not that I know how to market myself) but yes, the skills may come second but the ability to sell should always be top notch.

I built my site from ground up like 3 years ago. It was only for my friends at home to see my photos (I work overseas) then it became semi-serious  Anyway, of all the prints I have sold, none of them came via the website although I believe that most of them looked at my site.

As the other post said, it's an extension. Important but not primary.

[tgipson]

I just started selling my photos and have sold about a dozen so far in the last month. ALL of them have been thru a couple of exhibits. My website traffic bumped significantly after each exhibit and there were a number of "I like your work" emails but no sales. I doubt that anyone serious about quality of their images is going to buy much from a web site without seeing the image first-hand. So my early experience has mirrored what others' post have mentioned and my expectation is that my website a way to establish my legitimacy as a worthwhile photographer and not a venue yet for sales.

[KenBabcock]

What kind of photos are you selling?  Paper or canvas?

[tgipson]

What kind of photos are you selling?  Paper or canvas?

16" x 20" Exhibition Fiber and some on Ilford Gold Silk Fiber. I thought I would exhibit this size and then have people order whatever size they wanted and print/send the image soon after the exhibit, but so far they wanted the images as framed.

[tgipson]

What are you taking photos of though?

Mostly landscape and some travel photography (Italy).

[KenBabcock]

You must be American.  Canadians don't wanna buy landscapes here.  lol

[tgipson]

You must be American.  Canadians don't wanna buy landscapes here.  lol

I live in Colorado and they are buying some landscapes. Beats me but I'm not going to argue with that.

[KenBabcock]

Excellent.  Good for you.

I live near Toronto.  Only thing I can shoot is the smog LOL.

[tgipson]

Excellent.  Good for you.

I live near Toronto.  Only thing I can shoot is the smog LOL.

That's too bad cause all our smog blows away to the east......toward Toronto.....