StevenZ
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Want to sell your B&W Prints?
Like many of you I'm sure, I also aspire to one day start selling some of my b&w monochrome prints. Martin has been a great inspiration to me and has given me permission to add this forum to help all of us get better at marketing and selling our art.
Being artistic is one thing, but I've always been a strong believer that to earn an income at a particular hobby or craft, you need to learn the ropes and understand the marketplace.
Hopefully, we'll all gain a better knowledge on how to do this here.
Last edited by StevenZ, 23/Mar/07, 9:09 pm
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23/Mar/07, 7:06 pm
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martinimages
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Re: Want to sell your B&W Prints?
Ok Steven will start with a few tips in order of importance.
1
Like anything in life quality counts, one must ensure that your Art work is of a quality that is good enough to sell, how do you know if its good enough, well you have to be totally honest with your self look at your finished prints and say "would I be happy to buy this" ask relatives and friends about your work you will soon find out by a percentage of the feedback, post your work on different forums gauge the feedback there, getting people to part with there hard earned cash is not an easy thing to do but if the work you sell is top quality word does get around.
2
Once that is sorted you then need a web site to show the images, needs to easy to navigate and clear on how to buy, two ways either thoroughly pay-pal which is universal and easy to set up or use one of the commerce sites, {costly to set up and use]
3
Get your self "KNOWN" speaking for myself here I have spent hours and hours pushing the name www.digital-monochrome.com but it paid off in the end as Amateur Photography magazine [the biggest selling weekly photo mag in UK] got my name through the web and did a feature of the site as "web site of the week" the hits soared for a week or two but thousands became aware of it, also I was asked to be host a thread on BW imagery on "Photography on the net forum" the thread became one of the biggest they had encountered and this was all from "getting Known"
4
Communication between customer and your self has to be good and you need to be on the ball so to speak, once the order is received and payment made get the image posted straight away this gives good feedback and you can set up a referral page on your site so visitors can see your efficient
5
Try to develop a style of photography where its not just about taking a pic of a scene but being artistic with the shot in PP, people like certain styles and can be quite collective once bitten on the first purchase.
6
Once you get established don't sell your prints to cheap, if the quality is there people will buy them, cheap prices suggested cheap products so be aware of this, also its worth mentioning that if you limit each run of prints to say 50 limited editions per image prices can be doubled.
7
Try to set up local exhibitions of framed work at your local halls, restaurants, email commercial business, etc as they like images of local ares in there offices and reception areas
That's it for now but hope it gives you an idea of the directions to pursue
Martin
Last edited by martinimages, 23/Mar/07, 8:26 pm
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23/Mar/07, 8:19 pm
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mjbanak
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Re: Want to sell your B&W Prints?
With Martin's help and guidance, I recently purchased the Epson R2400, because I wanted to be able to print "High Quality" prints on my own term and schedule, and not have to worry about sending orders out to be printed.
I printed about 10 of my favorite shots and went to a good, busy framing shop in our town center, which nicely enough, has a nice gallery selling fine art works. I spoke to the owner, and simply asked her, if I had 6-8 of my prints framed there, would she be willing to display them for sale in the gallery. She looked through my work and agreed. So, next week I will have 6 of my shots displayed for sale in a High Street store. She then asked about possibly selling prints to her for trade shows she attends, etc...
I am also setting up a website through foliolink that has a great "store" feature in which you can sell your prints.
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Mike
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"Photography is more than a medium for factual communication of ideas. It is a creative art."
-Ansel Adams
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24/Mar/07, 2:28 am
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StevenZ
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Re: Want to sell your B&W Prints?
Excellent, Mike, glad to hear things are starting to happen for you. Let us know how it goes.
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24/Mar/07, 3:30 am
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crimbo
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Re: Want to sell your B&W Prints?
Nice one Mike...that's the way to do it! Ask!!!
I have done similar by putting some of mine into a local annual open exhibition which resulted in being asked to put some in the galleries photo 'bin' (unmounted leaf through it stuff). One of the things I did was do a CD of thumbnails for the person who runs the gallery to look through...
As an added thought...you could point the gallery owner to this Forum. If there is something they fancy then that person could send you the file to print (okay there is detail to sort out)and that way some of the other images could get to trade shows and be known...but that is an afterthought...in fact if something similar happened for our forum members in other countries then the forums work could spread world wide...but then I do like to think in collective rather than capitalist terms so it is probably an idea that doesn't work...ho hum
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Chris
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24/Mar/07, 7:24 am
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mjbanak
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Re: Want to sell your B&W Prints?
I know what you are saying Chris, and beleive me I have mentioned the site to her, as well as Martin's name. I believe in helping those who have helped me...
I also had the idea of a logo for this website to put out on some pamphlets or prints. Something like "Proud Member of the Digital Monochrome Website" blah, blah, blah....something in the form of a Silver colored circular seal or something. Of course Martin would have the oversight and approval...
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Mike
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"Photography is more than a medium for factual communication of ideas. It is a creative art."
-Ansel Adams
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Canon 40D, 17-85mm, 70-200 2.8L IS
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24/Mar/07, 7:45 am
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juliegraham
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Re: Want to sell your B&W Prints?
A landscape photographer Alain Briot has written extensively about this on his site and has recently published an interesting book on his work.
It is worth looking at his site.
http://beautiful-landscape.com
He has also written a number of articles about the art of selling fine art prints on Luminous Landscapes.
http://www.luminous-landscape.com
graham
Last edited by juliegraham, 24/Mar/07, 8:36 am
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24/Mar/07, 8:36 am
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StevenZ
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Re: Want to sell your B&W Prints?
Thanks for the links, Graham
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24/Mar/07, 1:40 pm
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I Simonius
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Re: Want to sell your B&W Prints?
quote:
mjbanak wrote:
I also had the idea of a logo for this website to put out on some pamphlets or prints. Something like "Proud Member of the Digital Monochrome Website" blah, blah, blah....something in the form of a Silver colored circular seal or something. Of course Martin would have the oversight and approval...
sounds like a good idea - it would be good if it were a 'button' that can be clicked
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19/Aug/08, 12:35 pm
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