The Secret To Selling Your Image?

[camera0bug]

Many have wondered what the secret to selling their images here on Pbase is.
I dunno.

I suppose if you make pretty pictures, people will want to hang them on the wall. Art? that's for artists. There's no telling what somebody will want to pluck down their money for until Pbase institutes it's "buy this image" phase II.
Yeah...some day.

I've had a few sales of images over the years and they seem to be because of the titles rather than just the imagery.
Google searches for particular images yield page after page for potential buyers but only if you put a corresponding title (or keyword) in there will it end up on the potential buyer's screen. Rarely will someone search your albums for something they need in a hurry, especially if they have no idea who you are and what type of images you have.

Try inserting code words at the bottom of your Edit page under keywords for your images. This may (or may not) help when someone searches for a particular photo to use (and hopefully purchase) from you.

To see what I mean, think of a subject matter and type it into Google Images. See all those random images? Yours could be among them if
the title corresponds to what someone is looking for.

I've had inquiries for aloe vera plants, tunnels, disaster scenes, streetcars, stadium imagery, guitars and more. Sometimes it leads to a sale (as these did) and many times it ends with the inquiry or when the talk comes to price (that's a whole 'nother kettle of fish...).

Of course you might not want your images on Google (or another image search engine). In that case just leave the titles and keywords off but I guess don't expect much in the way of sales, except by interested parties, friends or other Pbase visitors who just happen to see them, like your photos and are willing to pay for them.

There's of course more to it than this but it seems that's a way
that my images are being found and I'm being contacted lately.

It all comes down to marketing I suppose. Do you or don't you, to generate some business?


Any others out there got input on this subject?

[adalberto_tiburzi]

I'm having the same experience as Dan.

[michaelsv]

I concur. All sales I had from Pbase were to the images clearly identified by title primary, not even keywords. I know about keywords, but not sure it this really works better then straight title. But... too bad I'm sometimes lazy to do this.

Another thing is this new feature "Purchase this image" that for now is available only for your own images. I think it's stupid. I know they promise to make it available in the second phase, but most of other sites have it for a long time. It could lead to more sales if this feature will be implemented right and not by person itself, but by PBase itslef.

Michael.

[bobfloyd]

I have to agree with Dan. I make use of Keywords on most of my photos and have had several inquires about using images for things. While I have yet to sell an image for anything (back to that price "kettle o fish" Dan referenced) I am at least getting contacted about it. I have asked several of the contacts how they found me and all were either Google searches or Pbase searches.

[jude_53]

I rarely title mine as I dont' like the way it looks in the thumbnails.. I guess that's why i'm not rich yet

I've been contacted quite a bit lately about photos but NONE of the people want to buy. They've wanted them for magazines, to use as samples for their paintings, etc. I agreed to the magazine one if I got proper photo credit and they put my pbase url underneath. I figure if they're getting a free image the least they could do is put my url so others might see and might buy.. but no.. they weren't sure about doing that then never contacted me again.

I sell in two galleries but that is piecemeal, at best. Hopefully with tourist season beginning that will rise up and take ahold.

If anyone learns the secrets, please: DO TELL

[johnwaine]

It seems to me that there is a huge demand for Free (or at cost) images and prints!! A number of individuals and organisations have wanted to use my pics but either for free or involving too much time re-processing, framing etc.

My highest value sale arose from an agency ripping off one of my images from Pbase, cropping out the copyright tag and using it to promote a high profile range of TV DVDs! They were so embarrassed when I rumbled them - it was quite profitable!

But in general it's about marketing, networking locally and letting go of your artistic pride, I fear!

Not for me, I'm afraid - I'd rather enjoy my hobby. But I greatly admire those Pbasers who are making the commitment and taking the risk of being semi-professional

[clickaway]

I don't keyword my images and in any case these are ignored on a Google search and are only picked up within the PBase search facility. It therefore makes sense to at least title your images, preferably with a caption. Your title might be very general or a play on words which won't mean a lot in Google terms, but then if you name something specific in your caption (such as a name of a small village) that will be more helpful.

I have not made a single penny from PBase, although like others I've had commercial people wanting images for nothing to which I've said 'No' and agreed to supply the odd image to small non-profit organisations just in return for a credit.

However, I have had success from my old aircraft slides on a specialised site "airliners.net" - both Singapore Airlines and the design agency for The Royal Mint have done business with me. I've also gained free entry into an airshow. This site has over a million images each having specific data so this is a great help when searching for something specific.

If you have the time and enthusiasm, I feel that placing your work in an exhibition can produce results. I know of a young photographer, aged about 17, who sold 11 pictures this way recently and she doesn't even have a DSLR!

But for me, I'm quite happy just to enjoy creation of the images and getting the feedback.

Ray

[bobfloyd]

I rarely title mine as I dont' like the way it looks in the thumbnails.. I guess that's why i'm not rich yet

Jude,

I am guessing you may already know this but on the off hand chance you don't, there is a check box on the gallery edit page that will allow you to show the thumbnails without the titles. So if you wanted to title your shots without that showing in the thumbnail you could.

[jude_53]

Holy crap, Bob.. I didn't know that! Thanks.. I guess I should learn to pay attention
Very much appreciated..

[camera0bug]

And I thought everyone knew that.

[jazzmaster221]

my los angeles skyline photo as been used on the new angeles national forest service map ..i gave them permission for use on condition that i'm given a copy of the map and that my name is shown ..i've made several sales with the photo ..but i don't advertise that prints are for sale.. if you google los angeles skyline my photo is the first one of the three pics..It makes me proud to me a member of pbase

[camera0bug]

I was e-mailed recently for an image of mine that came up on Google Images, that a company in Dubai wanted to use. We agreed upon a price and worked out the transfer details.

When I looked through my files for the original, I came up with only a low res (approx. 650x400) copy file that I had saved and could not find the original on the disc I had burned several years ago.

I e-mailed the sad news to the prospective buyer and offered very similar full sized files from the same shoot, but they evidently wanted that image so bad, that they decided that the low res version was fine.

I was almost embarrassed to send a file so small to a client but they apparently were happy with it.

Goes to show you that you never know what will happen with your images, even when you think they have little marketable value in today's marketplace.

PS: Always back up those originals!!!!!

[polyvios]

I've been trying not to post here since it would ruin the illusion some people have of me being a nice guy (I am but I got a hard nose)

I have to side with Ray on this one.

It pains me to say but if you're looking into selling your photos then pbase is not the place to start. While I am sure that there are many success stories to be told the numbers behind them (and behind pbase as a whole) speak for themselves.

My experience ranges into both aspects:

As a seller, I have had similar interest with the previous posters; Commercial organizations looking for a free photo, sometimes even refusing to offer a byline and link (honestly what's the point if they won't even give you a byline?) and other non-profit organizations also looking for a free photo, sometimes offering a link (they sometimes get their photo). Also a lot of deals that never made it through to payment. The idea of selling though pbase is luring but the effort negates it. After contact and agreement for example you are still left with payment transaction and sending the unproofed full size photo (that I wouldn't keep on pbase since it's so easy to nick it) to deal with on your own. Not to mention that presenting the photo's in the way I would like requires hosting files on a "regular" host and hacking the css to bits (and even then it won't validate)

As a buyer, I only resort to pbase if everything else fails! There are amazing photographers on pbase don't get me wrong (hey I'm here ) but the process of buying from here is long and usually painful, to start off the selling system is nonexistent (unless you want to buy prints of your own shots... way to go pbase!) and you have to rely on the response time of the seller himself, more often than not his response will come way after your deadline (either cause he doesn't visit often or because he's so excited he has to post on dozens of forums first). Just as easily I can log into one of the stock agencies, alternative hosts that I use browse for a shot through a fully operational search function. Once I find the shot I want to use I use a buy function to read the photographers conditions and if they are agreeable downloading the full sized proofed photo is 3 clicks away, the photographer gets payment even if he doesn't visit the site for a good month!

Where pbase has excelled is in creating an active and friendly community where photographers from all around the world can post their photos and get some nice reviews/comment/suggestions regarding them. The sheer speed of the pages is fantastic and the visitor count is reliable (so is the stability of pbase) but maybe we are expecting something that it wasn't designed to do! Soon we can order prints online.. I can only assume that this will come with the ability to upload full sized shots that you can choose not to display and custom pricing.. of which the photographer gets the predefined amount minus pbase printing fees! That's a good start, but let's face it.. if it was what we were looking for to begin with we'd be some place else by now!

The secret to selling photos?
1. Be different! Yes cliche shots sold before and they will again but I won't look up stock photos for the same shot I saw in the newspaper today.
2. Shoot hard Subjects! Why would I buy your photos if I can just as easily pick up a camera and remake them!
3. Be accessible! If it takes me 3 weeks from contact to purchase then I can probably not use the photo anymore.
4. Be decisive! It is to be expected that if who you're buying from is not a pro they might not realize the steps to the "procedure", however asking me, the buyer, to suggest a price.. not good!

Well.. that's all the secrets I know.. I would go into proofing, pixel counts, resizing but you probably know all that!

Hope I haven't offended.. happy PaDing everyone

[janniklindquist]

Apart from actually selling images via PBase, it seems to that a PBase-account could serve well as a portfolio that might lead to photographic employment of some sort. Anyone with experience in that direction?

[clickaway]

I think PBase is a pretty good place to get exposure as it does well in the Google search rankings.

I happened to look at my PBase stats the other day and was dumbfounded to find that my pretty lame shot of the Eiffel Tower has over 22,000 hits! I delved a bit more and discovered that it was the first image listed under a Google Image search using the incorrect spelling of Eifel Tower!

Pity it wasn't a decent picture, as I might just have got a sale

Ray