When first starting out, the decision of where to sell your images can seem a little daunting. While the internet provides a global marketplace at your fingertips, it’s important to know how to reach this audience in the most effective way, that will also give you the most bang for your buck.
Photography requires a great deal of passion; you put a lot of effort into shooting, editing, and distributing your work. As such, you should be rewarded accordingly. Below I will take you through the easiest way to sell images online, as well as other do’s and don’ts to follow when first marketing your content.
Getting Started
The first step to selling your images online is figuring out where to host them. The most popular options include: a stock-image store, your own website, or an established platform.
Selling your work as stock images may seem like easy cash; however, you run a lot of risks in the process. When sharing your work in this way, images can easily lose value. This is often as a result of being downloaded and shared without payment or permission. Even when you do get paid, most companies take a hefty portion of the sale – some up to 70%!
Another option is to build your own website. While this option gives you more freedom, keep in mind that a website can be quite time-consuming to establish and maintain. Once you begin selling physical copies of your prints, you must also consider shipping and distribution costs, as well as additional costs associated with the website itself.
Choosing A Platform
A better way to sell your images online is to upload them to an existing website that takes care of all sale and shipping requirements. Pikcha does a great job of this, as they allow you to build your own photography store for free. Here, you can sell up to 100 physical editions of each image you upload to customers in more than 190 countries. Not only is their distribution widespread, but they take care of all sale and shipping requirements. More importantly, they allow you to set your own artist fee i.e. how much you take away from the sale.
Setting Up Your Shop
Setting up your Pikcha shop could benefit from drawing focus to a particular type of photography. Perhaps you specialise in landscapes, or hone that focus further to images of the ocean. Creating a niche for yourself within the market is a great way to establish authority on your subject matter.
Customers are also more likely to buy a suite of images to hang on gallery walls, or in commercial spaces. As such, uploading a photo series may prove beneficial and lead to generating more sales. Quick tip: keep these images in an album, for easier access.
While there are many ways to sell your work online, with all things considered, I highly recommend using Pikcha. With no listing, joining, or monthly fees, where’s the harm in giving it a go?
