Help, Selling Artwork

Hey all,

I wanted to chime in with something I've been thinking about for quite some time now, but it feels like the right time to start doing it. I want to start to sell my photographs.

I've been giving away them for years as gifts to friends and family, and people are always giving me compliments on them (not that that means anything in the real world). I have a good eye visually, for getting the shot. I've got a reasonable number taken, and I'm taking more whenever I can.

Can anyone give me advice for how I should go about doing this?

I'm 19. I was planning to sell to the same demographic, to friends, co-workers, etc. Definitely not art galleries, I'm nowhere near that good. I've got two good cameras, a legal sized photo printer, with access to a medium format one, a computer that I use to edit the photos on, and a some frames (but I need more of those).

Has anyone ever been in a similar situation? Any advice you could offer to a young man starting off in the world who wants to walk the path less traveled? Let me know, or feel free to PM me, I'm all ears.

Heres a link to my work: www.zahiba.deviantart.com

Cheers!
-Zahiba

 

Have you ever thought about selling your images as stock photography? They're great!

 

Here you go.

123rf.com - 123 Royalty Free pays you a 50% commission on downloaded images, and also allows you to earn money for referring subscribers and new photographers alike.

BigStockPhoto.com - BigStockPhoto pays you between $.50 and $3.00 per download for your photos, and even higher for special requests.

Dreamstime.com - Photographers can place their images here for a sale and receive between 50% and 80% commission.

Fotolia.com - Commissions range from 33% to 64% depending on your exclusivity and your ranking based on the total number of downloads you’ve sold.

FreelancePhotoJobs.com - Find all sorts of freelance photography jobs for magazines, weddings, websites and more.

ImageCatalog.com - Depending on licensing, ImageCatalog pays photographers anywhere from $.40 to $40.00 per download.

iStockphoto - Photographers can earn from 20 - 40% commissions on each photo they sell through this royalty free site. (Disclosure: Mashable has a partnership with iStockphoto)

PhotoStockPlus.com - You can earn commissions up to 85% with a 3.25% processing fee for both photos you sell as well as products you put your images on such as mugs and other products.

Shutterstock.com - Shutterstock pays a flat rate of $.25 a download and increases it to $.30 per download when you hit $500 in a pay period. You can also earn commissions for referring others to the service.

 

Wow, thanks for the replies guys, I registered for Bigstockphoto.com and just uploaded some stuff.

Any ideas on how to sell some stuff locally?

Best!
-Zahiba

 

try some local fairs/markets. ive noticed at one of our trade/market things in the city every sunday has a stand with photos framed for sale. not sure on how much they sell, but they are selling framed photos for $300 each roughly. might be worth persuing.

 

If you do stock photography I would read that contract very carefully, as far as I know they take away pretty much every right you have to that photo, most are exclusive contracts as well, which means you wouldn't be able to sell anywhere else. One thing you might think about is exposuremanager.com, its a really cool site where you upload your pictures and choose prices and sizes and they take payment, print and send for you, really useful. I have a link for a free month trial if you are interested.

 

Thanks for the reply, I think you're right, theres lots of markets starting up around this time, so I'll look into it.

My mum works at a local market selling her jewlery and she does very well for herself. I will ask her opinion.

Also, $300 for a framed photo seems pricey for my photos, but I suppose there are a lot of variables that go into that cost. I was thinking like $20 for a framed 8 1/2 x 11, and maybe $60 for a 13 x 19. Maybe more. I'd also have other things available, like cards, little 4 x 6's matted, framed, etc etc.

Yea, most definitely, thats a very good point about the contracts and all, I read the one on Bigstockphoto and they retain all rights to the image. Luckly when I tried to upload my photos, the internet conked out, and the upload failed. If it had gone through I'd have 90 days to wait. So thats really lucky. Thanks for making me aware of that.

And yea, I'd love the link! That sounds like a neat site, I'll check it out right now.



Thanks everyone for the reply's!

 

So from the sites listed above, which one is the best/recommended to use?

From my research, in the order of: istockphoto.com, dreamstime.com, and shutterstock.com have the highest traffic in comparison to others.