Your blogs/websites/promo's

[Ash]

Hey everyone,

Thought I might ask. Of the people here who do, how do you promote yourself?

Do you have blogs/websites etc?

Any other members here who are non-commercial but have blogs and websites?



I stick all my photo's up on http://blog.myspace.com/second_belated with a list of entries at http://www.myspace.com/second_belated but mainly I shoot small-format.

So what do you lot do with all your photo's?

[Eric Biggerstaff]

I have a website, but I don't promote very much (not enough time)

[tim atherton]

My websites haven't consciously been put up as commercial ventures as it were - they started as ways to share my work for discussion with groups of other photographers (etc) who were either working on similar projects or who had valuable input or comment

Some blogs certainly seem aimed at the commercial/promotional things (such as theonlinephotogrpaher) My new blog started this year was really more of an enjoyable activity than anything. What's surprised me is the spin off - in terms of people conacting me about my work, or a number of highly respected photographers and critics contacting off-blog and continuing the dialogue - in less than a month

http://photo-muse.blogspot.com/

So I could see that if done right, it could be quite a powerful tool

[Walter Calahan]

I do direct mail of postcards and e-mails to get potential clients to visit my web portfolio. I also maintain a blob (I call it 'Musings') to get the search engines to see changes and links.

I use 4by6 in California to print my postcards. They are a little more expensive, but their satin finish is worth the extra price. Their turn around time on a job is excellent.

http://www.walterpcalahan.com

Hope that is helpful.

Remember, Tide is the same old stuff for decades, but it's advertised over and over and over again as if know one has heard of the stuff. The same thing has to be done with our photography.

[Frank Petronio]

I don't blog everyday or talk about my navel but it is a great way to promote my businesses and get clients. Regularly updated sites also seem to perform better in search engines and they provide the viewers a reason to revisit the site. I've gotten all of my photo work over the last three years from the website. I also keep a stack of postcards for leave behinds and infreqent mailings, and I pretend to have a couple of print portfolios although the web galleries seem to do just fine. I also am experimenting with Print on Demand portfolio books -- sharedink.com works pretty well.

I am probably going to do short run promos off my own inkjet printers on a onesey-twosey basis for targeted clients. I have a couple of large lists but I have narrowed them down to just a handful of people at ad agencies and design studios whom I think I'd work well with.

I am not a full-time photographer (I was 15 years ago though) and I don't want to do general purpose generic photography ever again. But I would like to do more photography on my own terms and I realize that it will be several years to build up enough momentum to do that.

I need to blog more on the marketing side of my main business, http://www.cleanpage.com but I set it up the same way as my photo website. Frankly, on that side I have to be a little more corporate and restrained -- no boobies or swear words -- and I already have decent clients, so I don't write as often.

[davidb]

everything of mine is at www.davidbram.com

[Scott Knowles]

I'm not a commercial or professional photographer, it's a lifelong, part-time personal interest and I use my Website for a variety of interests because after 28 years with the USGS I get to say and do what I want on the Web.

I would add to the choir to consider your own Website. I noticed MySpace (and yes I have one too for daily observations, rants, raves, and stupid thoughts and visit friends' MySpaces) is too slow loading with all their junk associated with their design. And another suggestion, think about fewer images on some pages, slow or long downloads only aggrevate users who usually leave before it's done.

And most of my photos are still sitting around in those little yellow boxes, a few on the light table and a few more waiting to be scanned. Good luck. And David Bram, I like the photos, thanks.

[darr]

So what do you lot do with all your photo's?

That is a large question from my side of the screen! ;)

I have a photo-blog that I put up at CameraArtist.com (http://CameraArtist.com), but I find it difficult to keep up with it as much as I would like to. I also have a web site I designed for print purchases at photoscapes.com (http://photoscapes.com). All in all, I simply run out of time to be able to put up as many images as I would like to. These projects are in the making all the time. I have sold some prints through the sites and made a few interesting photographer contacts so I guess all the work does pay-off. Every photographer should at least have a photo-blog!

[Ralph Barker]

From my perspective, I think the promotional methods one might use should depend on the market one wishes to target. For example, "collectors" might find the additional insight into the "soul" of the artist provided by a blog to be interesting, and thus conducive to additional sales. In contrast, a commercial client probably isn't interested, and may, in fact, be put off by the personal information disclosed in a blog.

[John Kasaian]

Get a flash for shooting interiors with a speed graphic and photograph all the filthy lavatories you can at bus stations. Send the prints to Greyhound or Trailways "corporate" with a note that you're looking for work and you'll have to publish the pix for cash if you can't find a job soon...and...presto! You've landed a national bus company as your first account! Follow up with lavs of BP, Burger King, the Boston Subway, The National Parks, Caliente Race track in TJ, and the NY Port of Authority and international fame and commercial success will surely be yours. Don't forget to send 10% (off the gross) to me for this great advice ;)

[domenico Foschi]

I have a website, I am working on a Blog inspired by Tim Atherton's (good job Tim), for a while I have submitted my work to as many virtual galleries as possible to increase my visibility, I have requested link exchanges to many photographers among which members of this forum.
I also work hard to partecipate to as many gallery shows as possible which I publicize by snail mail and the more convenient email blast, and I go to as many gallery openings as possible for networking(I just came back from one).
I always have my portfolios in my car, I distribute shamelessly my business cards and sometime I have private showings in my patio (every little bit helps).
NExt step will be submitting my work to Aperture and all those other guys.
One of the most important things is networking: It is a great tool not only for meeting gallery owners, but also other artists who can help you to meet "the right people", but don't forget to return the favor, if not to the same person, to other artists who might need to know your contacts.
Keep in touch with your collectors.
Get to work, there is a lot to be done.

[domenico Foschi]

Ash, I have looked at your blog. The technical stuff, the kind of camera you use, film, development etc. info to somebody that is inetrested in purchasing your work is meaningless and a nuisance in most cases.
If I were you I would concentrate in creating an artist statement a Bio and start working hard to build a resume.
Start by having shows in coffee shops, schools venues,etc.
Also, post only your best work: a online display is nothing else but your portfolio.
Go to museums and galleries, allow yourself to get inspired by the work you see.
Strive to get to the quality of the photographers whose work you admire and....surpass it.
From your work I can notice that you see photography as an expressive medium and I would encourage you to go down that road and you will get to that magic point when you will be finally pleased with all your being looking at your latest print.
You are eighteen and I have a lot of respect for you who are taking photography the geeky way: with large format cameras:)

[Daniel Geiger]

I do maintain a website, www.vetigastropoda.com, on which photography is only one part. And that part is not even that well maintained, and is technologically speaking just bare bones html, with a couple of frames and a roll-over image! Blogs? No thank you. The occasional post on this forum is as close to a blog as I come.

I am an amateur photographer with a bit of hobby income [lately been increasing :-) ] from sales through a stock agency. I have gotten some other business, but most seem to come through a couple of websites where I have contributed images:
the seaslugforum and calphotos of UC Berkeley. Hot seller? Pictures of the California sea hare Aplysia californica. Made it into Nature and on a book-cover (symposium volume on neurobiology). The distinction in my photography is not necessarily that I have the most beautiful image of a popular subject (lion, bird, crumbling shack), but I have decent images of weird organisms. So I have a big corner on a tiny niche market.

I think I sold one image made with LF, but don't think that the fact that it was made with LF had anything to do with it. So LF is just for my personal amusement.

As an ivory tower academic, the whole business aspect is against my nature. It was only about six years ago that an old grad-school colleague who got a job with a publishing company asked me whether I had images of this and that, and they would pay me. What a concept! However, I prefer the stock-agency model, as I don't have to deal with clients, so leaves me more time for my actual scientific work.

[QT Luong]

I estimate that at least 95% of my business (which supports a family of 4 in the SF Bay area) originates from people stumbling on the terragalleria.com website after doing a web search.

[Ash]

QT.... you're lucky!

[roteague]

QT.... you're lucky!

I suspect hard work and dedication played a larger role than luck.

[Ash]

I suspect hard work and dedication played a larger role than luck.

Spoil Sport

[roteague]

Spoil Sport

No worries Ash, your time will come.

[Ash]

;) .

[paulr]

Every so often my website gets discovered (through a search or a link) by someone who'd never heard of my work. This has led to a couple of sales, a magazine article, some friendly emails, that kind of thing.

More often I use it as a portfolio. In a lot of cases, instead of sending someone slides or prints, I can just give them my URL. This can be by email, or scribbled on a cocktail napkin. Makes my life a million times easier.

[dbriannelson]

As an amateur I don't promote for purpose of sales, however I do have a pretty big web presence with two websites and a blog.

The first site, Fotog.Net, is an old HTML3.2 gallery of my older, mostly 35mm, night street photographs (NSFW - some nudity). Unexpurgated.Net was established based on the title of a book that never got published due to bankrupcy of the publisher - the advance check cleared, however. (Also NSFW - fetish/erotic.)

The blog is a hodgepodge of newer and older photographs and a whole bunch of words. Hotelroomnudes.Blogspot.Com (obviously NSFW).

Despite all, art buyers do contact me once in awhile and my stuff sometimes gets shown in magazines or anthology books. Last magazine was the Hong Kong magazine Photo (not affiliated with the French or American pubs of the same name) last year.

-Don

[ljb0904]

I'm still just getting started with my website and portfolios and trying to sell prints. The whole web presence thing seems like a full time job! I'll probably get fired from my real job if I don't start becoming productive again :D

www.thewildlight.com

Laurent

[studmuffin]

I have a couple of web sites (http://www.foodportfolio.com/blog) and I've found that they have helped my business a great deal. The blog (really a site of photography articles) has allowed me to climb quite high in the search engines. And that has translated into a bunch of business.

[Ed Richards]

Wow! There goes my diet.:-) Beautiful food shots.

[studmuffin]

Thanks..

:+)

[PViapiano]

A blog is a good way to keep people coming back to your site and to keep your work in front of them, but that being said, you must commit to maintaining it with regular updates, and you must have something to say that's interesting and relevant.

It takes a long time to build a regular readership. There are no magic bullets except to write frequently to build up your archive of essays or posts.

[Jeff Drewitz]

I've maintained a website for nearly 10 years in various guises. It's alway been an online 'portfolio'--somewhere that new or potential clients can have a look at a decent selection of my work. That approach has been reasonably successful, getting me some useful long term clients. More exciting, however, has been the clients who contact me out of the blue, having seen my published work or found my site. I recently received an order for prints for a new hospital wing because manager of the project had been admiring images on my site--totally unknown to me.

Better yet, a few years ago an email came out of the blue from a book publisher asking me about collaborating on a project on Australia. I had never heard of them and they found me through my website. That book was published in late 05 and I have since shot New Zealand for the same publishers--to be published in late 07.

You never know who is looking at your site.

I do direct promotions--emails, calls, cds's with jpegs, whatever is appropriate, when I have the time.

[Jeffrey Sipress]

I don't blog, slog or flog. I would never use any of those point and shoot landfills whose names are cute. I simply keep a personal photo website of my serious work on a local server.

My Photo Site (http://jeffreysipress.com).

[studmuffin]

Jeffery

Sounds like you're one of those "really good photographer / really poor marketer" types.

You have some beatiful work, Are you selling very much of it?

SM

[adrian tyler]

i was able to put this together as an exchange for soem design work:

http://www.adriantyler.net/

although i don't update it much and it isn't very dynamic and i doesn't have a "print" section developed (book, magazine more commercial work).

but it certainly is useful...

hey frank how about a crit!

[Mike Putnam]

Hi All,
I've maintained a relatively simple website for a couple years now. I've found that it generates few sales in and of itself, but it has proven to be a relatively effective marketing tool. I tend to maintain several exhibits simultaneously. People see my work at those exhibits, take a card, visit my website, and contact me via web/phone about print purchases. I feel that even my simple little website gives the impression of legitimacy to prospective buyers who otherwise may not have contacted me. I'm also considering some direct marketing in the near future as I've begun to develop a decent little mailing/email list.

Cheers,
Mike
www.mikeputnamphoto.com

[studmuffin]

Mike

Really nice stuff. I totally agree with you about the web being a great marketing tool. You, like most photographers use it as a portfolio. You end up pointing interested clients toward t to see your work, and that

[Jeffrey Sipress]

Hello StudM,

Thanks for the comments. I'm guessing that you think I don't appear to be an aggressive marketer because I don't have all kinds of pricing guides and purchasing info on my site, and not because I don't blog or add my work to the common online dumping grounds. Actually, I have a successful career/business day job in the high tech manufacturing world. It relieves me of the pressures of having to make a living at photography, and provides the opportunity to indulge in my passion. I have exhibitions on a regular basis and sell prints at shows, from my site, and from posts on other forums.

[Darren H]

I started up a blog. Made it a theme of my 4x5 set up in various locations. Write a little piece about the location or photography thoughts to go with it.

http://thetravelingcamera.blogspot.com/

After doing that for a while I started a second one to just show locations around Texas. Trying to show neat locations, not just the postcard image.

http://imagesoftexas.blogspot.com/

Both are kind of fun.

-Darren

[Marko]

Like Jeffrey, I don't feel the need to market myself. I'm not trained to be a marketer nor would I want to be one. I am happy doing web design for a living and photography as a hobby. I created so many websites, some of which I still maintain, that I have very little desire to do so for myself.

I do have one, however, that serves two purposes - a portfolio when needed and an extension of the sandbox from my childhood in which I test various projects.

[jnantz]

i have had a website ( http://www.nanianphoto.com ) for about 8 or 10 years now, no blog.
i cold call and send direct mailings to potential clients ( post cards by whitehouse custom color and email ) ...
i have a few different markets i target i get most of my work through repeat customers, and people who wander to my website.
i have a few books that portfoliobox made for me for drop-offs, and 1-off books i made myself (by hand), that i can drop off as well ...

i send things out every 10-15 weeks, but i don't update my website nearly as often.

[Jrewt]

Me and My lady have a business that is going pretty well, but hardly any LF has been used in recent months.. We specialize in food :)


www.emulsionfoodphotography.com

[Stephanie Brim]

Can I have that pizza on the front page, please? Or at least the recipe for the crust. ;)

I'm working on something. I'm not going to put it up until I get the new camera (which should be soon) and start taking the photos in my new series. I'm wanting it to be a portfolio of new work, signifying the fact that I've made a new start in photography. I'm trying to completely separate my earlier small format work and my newer large format work, since it's actually pretty different.

[Asher Kelman]

I have a website which allow me a place to post my pictures and give and get feedback. Even social issues are discussed. I have not used it to sell anything. I don't know why, but I have been very reluctant. I wonder how successful people are in selling prints from websites without any promotion?

Asher

[Asher Kelman]

i have had a website ( http://www.nanianphoto.com ) for about 8 or 10 years now, no blog.
i cold call and send direct mailings to potential clients ( post cards by whitehouse custom color and email ) ...
i have a few different markets i target i get most of my work through repeat customers, and people who wander to my website.
i have a few books that portfoliobox made for me for drop-offs, and 1-off books i made myself (by hand), that i can drop off as well ...

i send things out every 10-15 weeks, but i don't update my website nearly as often.
Jnanian,

I enjoyed visiting your website and looking at the B&W pictures of people. I'm so impressed with your web interface for the galleries. I've never seen another load faster! The block of tiny thumbnails is the best. I cannot believe how fast! However it's flash. So how do you make it so that google can penetrate your site to index it?

Asher

[jnantz]

Jnanian,

I enjoyed visiting your website and looking at the B&W pictures of people. I'm so impressed with your web interface for the galleries. I've never seen another load faster! The block of tiny thumbnails is the best. I cannot believe how fast! However it's flash. So how do you make it so that google can penetrate your site to index it?

Asher

hi asher

thanks for the visit and nice comments ... :)
smoothflash is nice, and it is easy to work with.
i had a html site for ages, and it was a real pain ...
my "web guru" explained it to me when we switched over ..

i think my non-gallery pages are indexed, but my galleries aren't.
i usually direct people there and get (g)ooglers,
i really can't compain too much.

thanks again
john

[paulr]

quite a few artist friends are using their iphones or ipod touch gadgets as pocketable portfolios. anytime someone says "i'd like to check out your work," out pops the iphone from their pocket. more immediate even than a web address, and despite the size of the screen, pictures look great.

i haven't jumped on this bandwagon yet ... not looking for any new gadgets at the moment. but people seem to love them.

[Daniel_Buck]

mine are in my signature, and I'm working on a website for just my large format work. I don't really promote anything though, since I don't activly try to sell my photographs. Just have the websites up to show friends & family who aren't in town.

[Gerry]

blogs are fun, been writing my own for aabout since late 2007...and actually got a sale from it..collector I do not know in California followed my blog and my webpage...liked what was saw and ordered a print...quite rewarding to be in a nice high end collection like his....I like to put my own weird thoughts on the blog along with all the interesting photo stuff I can find...check it out

www.gerryyaum.blogspot.com
www.gerryyaum.com

[ferocello]

WWW.FERHATCELIK.CO.UK :)

[Don Boyd]

In addition to my website, I have been up at the Main Street Gallery here in Las Cruces, NM for the last 6 months. Sales there have barely covered my expenses and, looking into the maw of a quiet art market summer, I will be out of there by month's end. Las Cruces is a poor art market and three galleries have closed in the past 3 months. (A friend whose pastel and acrylic work has been in a very fine Scottadale gallery for over a year now has recently learned that that gallery and two others on the same street will also be closing shortly.)

I am designing a new business plan which will include: doing two art fairs a year, one in Albuquerque and the other at the Bosque del Apache in San Antonio, NM; upgrading my website to include many more images, an artist statement, and perhaps later in early winter, a short video with images from a scheduled Colorado River trip this fall; donating work for non-profit group auctions where I can put out marketing cards offering a sale percentage as a donation to the sponsoring agency. I also make greeting cards of my images and hand them out to my conflict management business clients as gifts . I use my images, or slices of them, liberally on my business website and in some of our marketing materials (www.danceswithopportunity.com).

Ash, your question about how to make a living at what we love doing is a good one. I don't think that successful answers will take the form of how others have made it in the past. Having tried unsuccessfully myself to replicate the strategies of others, I too am looking for new ways of reaching people that are potential customers. While the market is definitely tighter than in the past, I still believe that there are opportunities there, if I can create new ways of looking at them. That's why I'm trying to shake up my own thinking by reading things like Guerilla Marketing and A Whack on the Side of the Head. To paraphrase, the Way that was the Way for Others, is not the Way for us. Good luck and enjoy the process, I am.