selling photos on artslant.com

[sunwei]

<p>As a member of PHOTO.NET I would like to offer some of my best photos for sale, but I cannot afford to set up and maintain my own website, its simply too expensive. Is there another way?<br>

Well, maybe there is as I have recently joined ARTSLANT.COM and on this site I can upload my best photos and offer them for sale worldwide.</p>

[Charles_Webster]

<p>Like all such things, I think this is only as good as you make it. You're still going to have to find people to buy your pictures. They provide tools to help you do that (email and newsletters, etc.) but you'll either have to pay for the names to send them to, or provide them yourself.</p>

<p>'Build it and they will come" doesn't apply to photography.</p>

<p><Chas><br /><br /></p>

[Mark Keefer]

<p>You said you are a member of Photo.net, have you looked at the Image Pro site you can set up at no additional cost to you through your Photo.net membership. You get a Domain (sort of) Your_Name.Photography.com, the service makes it really easy to display your work, and adding photos, galleries, slide shows is as easy as clicking add and picking photos out of the galleries you already have here on Photo.net. You can have a very professional looking show case for your work, complete with contact forms. It is pretty flexible, while it may not be as versatile as someone skilled at HTML, SQL and Building Web Pages, they give you a nice page that you can lay out several ways and work on without needing special software. It's one of the benefits of being a member of Photo.net.Using the service is a "<strong><em>No Brainer</em></strong>" if you are PN member.</p>

<p> I have a couple other sites I have built on my own, but I put links on these site to my Image Pro site because it has real nice tools for displaying photos easily, and folks I have photographed really liked the look of it and ease of viewing my work.<br>

I am not trying to make an advertisement for Image Pro, but it is pretty nice and easy and a benefit you already have.<br>

Feel free to check mine out <strong><em>Mark_Keefer.Photography.com</em></strong>. Had it started in about an hour and slowly add to it. It is a lot easier to work on than my registered websites that I create the webpages and graphics and have to FTP the files to my service. The Image Pro site takes a lot of the work away.</p>

<p>Then once created, stop at Google and some other search engines and submit the site URL to their search engine. Give it some time till their web crawlers find it and add you.</p>

<p>Now all you have to do is make some business cards and you have a place people can see your work.</p>

<p>No matter what website you have, you will still have to hussle to sell your services, the website just gives them a place to see your work.</p>

<p>The service you are talking about sounds interesting and please tell us how well it works for you. If they only sell a few of your photos, it is money coming in that you didn't have and that's a good thing. Best of luck.</p>

[sunwei]

<p>Dear Charles Webster,<br>

thank you for your constructive comments. I recall someone at Lancaster Uni defining technology as consisting of ' hardware' (tools) and 'software' (knowhow), its not much use having a camera if you don't know how to use it. I also recall on the marketing, that you can buy lists to use on a relational database. In fact I once had an old apple mac and it had a list of art buyers in California still on its hard drive.</p>

[sunwei]

<p>Dear Mark Keefer,<br>

thank you for your suggestions about using imagepro, I will spend some time developing it, it is certainly a good idea to make use of the resources already at our disposal. As for Artslant.com, its still very early days. I pasted my UHL for it on my wife's busy blogsite and have had 113 visits in the first week, however this is in China and its very difficult selling photos here.<br>

[Charles_Webster]

<p>Colin, getting people to look at your pictures is just the first step. Getting them to buy is an entirely different proposition.</p>

<p>The pictures I sell are because of personal contacts and face-to-face networking. I have never sold a picture to a total stranger.</p>

<p><Chas><br /><br /></p>

[sunwei]

<p>Dear Charles Webster,<br>

thank you for your comments. I have looked at your portfolio and like your pictures very much, especially the beautiful landscapes. Also I see you did a still life of a Chinese seal, I like popping in the Jade Market at Yau Ma Tei in Hong Kong, have bought one, or two bargains there. My dream is to go to Nepal. Maybe going to Japan again soon, taking my Horseman 612SW with 45mm lens to try it out.<br>

Best wishes,<br>

Colin Hyman</p>

[sunwei]

<p><strong>Well, my latest thoughts on ARTSLANT.com.</strong><br>

They offer large prints based on only puny files, eg 30 in x 20in from just a 4.0 MB image!<br>

When I asked what their optimum file size is I received no reply<br>

They seem only interested in photographers who promote, using ARTSLANT advertising<br>

They encourage spam, ie unsolicited emails being sent to anyone on mailing list<br>

No sales<br>

<strong>So I have removed all my images from ARTSLANT</strong></p>