Start small

[david brown]

Hi guys,

 

Not posting a question but just offering some advise to anyone who wants to

start a photo business.

I am not lucky enough to own a photography business but there was a good little

gallery here in Fremantle that had some great landscape fine art prints for

sale.( just to clarify I do own a business in another field )

 

The subject matter was rustic, and very well done with large format gear, the

proprieter was an ex geologist in the mining industry and decided to leave the

high pay to follow his love of photography. Good for him, wish I could do the

same.

On offer as well as the prints he offered seminars in how to do it all, sounds

like a good way to make money.

 

Unfortunately a year on and the gallery is closing and he now offers all his

work on-line. The flow of tourists was high but to sell fine art at 500 Plus

dollars you need to offer more to stay a float.

 

We should all follow our dreams at every opportunity but starting small is the

best way to start off, the internet allows us to do that and beats paying rent

every month on a shop front.

 

Overheads can kill!

[Jerry_]

You can elect to put a telephone answering machine in your home (zero overhead) and find a few weekend events to see what the local market will bear in regards to pricing your work. Starting off with rent and utilities on a regular basis is sometimes not a good ides.

[argv]

These are called "vanity galleries" (where you have your own shop and sell your own work). It's typical of retirees who are talented, but have no established name-brand recognition and can afford to avoid the time-consuming and frustrating process of building a name for yourself and having sales grow organically through that. and that's what local art/print sales is all about: name brand. it has absolutely nothing to do with price. And even if you do have a good name, there's the challenge of targeting the right demographic for your work in the right venues at the right locations.

 

The entire economic model of the art market is rather involved, and the biggest misunderstanding of it starts with the assumption that you start sales with low prices and build up.

[captureme]

I agree, but having your own place is better than "internet acclaim" I totally agree the internet is a great place to showcase work and to motivate yourself.

 

Dan I love how you post here I also love your entire website truly helpful.

[sagephotoworld.com]

I'm afraid I don't share people's enthusiasm for the internet as a marketting medium. It tends generally to be populated by people with too much time on their hands which also means they have too little money.

[argv]

<blockquote>I'm afraid I don't share people's enthusiasm for the internet as a marketting medium. It tends generally to be populated by people with too much time on their hands which also means they have too little money.</blockquote>

<p>

Thinking about how many people DON'T buy, or even how many people STEAL, is not how you're supposed to think about internet marketing. That hearkens to the days when there was a measurable cost ratio to the number of people you reach. but internet marketing costs are not measured that way. The only thing you measure is the number of people who <i>buy</i>.

<p>

In fact, I would argue that the higher the amount of traffic you get of "people with no money" translates directly to a site that WILL get those 2-3 sales/day.

<p>

And remember, it starts out with 10-20 visitors a day, then 100-200, and so on. It builds up as you add content, etc.

<p>

[Spearhead]

I've been very successful with the internet for marketing my photography. I don't even say that I am marketing it, I just upload galleries with lots of appropriate tags. I just scored a chapter in a book in England, I've sold prints, I've gotten contract gigs and work for hire. It's solely through proper tagging of the galleries.

[qtluong]

Photographers such as Tom Mangelsen or Peter Lik operate stores that one could call vanity galleries. From what I have been told, they gross in the low 8 figures. Interestingly, Peter Lik doesn't even try to sell on the internet anymore, although at one point he had a web store. Galleries and websites are just different distribution methods, and each can be a valid approach.

[argv]

Tom Mangelsen et al. are hardly examples of unknown photographers with vanity galleries. these are extremely successful people. Which serves exactly my point: the only way to make money in the art market is to have a name that precedes you. You build a name incrementally by first networking within the art sector (typically, the local community, etc.), attracting critics to your shows, participating in non-profit sponsored events, etc... as you evolve, your name gets more known, and your network of contacts start working in your favor.

 

The one way you _don't_ succeed in the art market is to just open up shop and expect that people will buy your work without knowing who you are. Sure, sales could happen, but not enough to sustain (let alone grow) a business with that kind of overhead.

 

Then again, that's where the web comes in. The money required to finance it is nearly nothing, so you "can" at least enter into the business. but it still requires name-recognition to garner traffic before your sales grow.