New York & California Photo & Publishing

One of the first questions that photographers ask is how to sell their photographs. I have always advised a three-way approach to start selling pictures with the thought that it should be a long term plan.

There are many enticing short term options, but they dont work out well in the long run. You have to have a sustainable source of income by selling your photographs & my three-way approach also builds cumulative income.

Before I go into the various ways of selling photographs, a quick look at the three-way approach I mentioned.

• First, look at all possible ways in which a picture could be sold. Many times photographers could only think of a framed picture hanging from a library wall as the only way a picture could be. This is not true.

Definitely, having your picture framed & hung from the local library or the town hall is a matter of pride & honor, but you would end up selling lot less this way.Look at ways in which pictures are used by people – in advertising, as a decorative item, as an evidence on an auction website, on T-Shirts, as calendars, large posters and all. The variety you have, the more you could sell.

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• Second, look at all the possible means in which you can sell. In today’s age, a retail shop may not be the only way, or even the best way to sell your pictures. Think of all the ways in which you can reach buyers. If your buyers are academic students, maybe a bill board ad is a way to attract them. If your buyers are T-Shirt or Greeting card printers, maybe an online store would help. If your buyers are book lovers, maybe a photo book is a good way to reach out to your customers.

Look at all the means in which you could reach people. An online store, downloadable images in high resolutions, free or paid screen saver downloads, photo books or photo items like cards, posters & calendars all make excellent selling choices.

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• And Third, be open to ideas of combining photographs with other art forms to make meaningful products. As experienced photographers you could recommend cameras, films, digital accessories, books, photo services etc.

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Look for partnerships with sellers of photographic equipments & services so that when you promote any of the products, you get a commission.This is also called affiliate selling. As a photographer you become affiliates of photo dealers, accessory manufacturers & photo service providers. You help them sell their product or service & in return you get a commission.

So to summarize the three-way approach to selling photographs, you look for all possible ways a picture can be sold, you look at all possible ways in which you can reach a customer & you look for related services that you can provide as an affiliate.

Here are my recommendations to begin selling your pictures. They are all devised with the three-way approach in mind. Note however, your photography has to be of a professional quality & you will pay due attention to any issues, questions or queries from potential buyers & existing customers.

1- a professional online photo display & custom printing service

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An online SmugMug Pro Account is a great place to begin. They provide a complete end to end service from printing to delivery of your pictures.

The best advantage is that you can Customize everything on Smugmug, from changing colors to setting your own prices. If you are not ready for a professional account, you can Start your FREE Trial account to begin with.

I thoroughly recommend a SmugMug Account for long term gains.

2- a commercial online photo retailing & selling service

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A Pro stores provides all the benefits of a professional online photo store & handles all the commercial transactions.

ProStores has everything you need to start selling online Today- shopping cart, domain hosting, merchandising, reporting, and more.

This professional online photo store front is customizable & very easy to set up in minutes.

With ProStores, an eBay Company, you can have Your Own Web Store at Your Own Web Address.

3- a professional large & extra large photo printing & delivery service

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For large prints, especially for poster size prints, engage a superior professional printing service.

Poster specialize in large format photos. Having a commercial printer print large photos have several advantages of saving cost as well has high quality & timely delivery.

Poster also gives customer discounts from time to time, especially on major holidays. So you have the option of passing on that discount to your customers in turn.

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4- Selling pictures from your websites & signing up with Stock Photo agencies

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If you already have a website, you can start accepting orders for selling your pictures. You can either allow customers to download high quality digital images, send digital images by CD or DVD or accept orders for printed (and framed) photographs.

You can open a free account with PayPal to handle all your website finacial transactions so that you could accept money from credit cards too. Be sure to price your photographs so that you allow for PayPal’s commissions as well.

This is by far the easiest thing you can do & you could start off with it. However, you need to have sufficient web traffic to get you enough sales either as downloads or as prints.

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5- Create Photo Books, “How To” books on Photography & Sell Photo books Online

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There are several print-on-demand solutions available in the market that you can use to print your own photograph books. You can desing a picture book from your best selection & use Lulu or Blurb or Amazon to print your books.

All these Print-On-Demand services let their publishers sell their books from their sites. But since these are meant for low volume books, the prices are rather high. That apart, all of them will keep around 20% – 30% commission on any sale from their websites.

This is a great option if you are printing “How To” books in black & white. Such books do not require color prints & has a lot of text, that brings the retail prices down.

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Later on I shall talk about ways in which a photographer can earn residual income with photography & associated affiliations.