Can I sell my photo's?

[Dylan]

I have been shooting pictures for about a year and I think some of my recent work might be nice enough to sell. I have posted my pictures on pbase (link in sig) and received 10k+ hits over the past year so maybe I'm doing something right. Anyone who is interested should look at the Longwood Gardens gallery as it contains the most recent work. Most of what I have shot is limited to nature/macro but I'm looking to aquire different lenses so I can branch out. So does anyone think I'm ready to sell my stuff or should I wait a while?

 

[JIP]

Sure if someone is willing to buy them why not and I did not even look at them.

 

[Dylan]

That's not really the answer I was looking for. I'd like to sell some of my work and I want to know if it's good enough to justify the expense of setting up a cart on my site and perhaps advertiseing a bit. Maybe I should just post some pictures in the critique section and see what people think.

 

[LaFoto]

Well, I think the only way to really find out about whether someone will go buy off you is go that risk of setting up the cart and paying for a bit of advertising. If you are sure you're doing something right then go ahead, see what people think: if they buy, you are successful, if they don't, well, you share the fate of many who have started their own business of ... whatever. Starting a business of one's own is ALWAYS a risk.

Take no risks at all (like myself) and you will never sell anything (is part admonishing myself for being so chicken about this aspect).

 

[Big Mike]

Art is subjective...and it's only worth what someone will pay for it...which may be nothing or $1,000,000.

I'm sure that some people do sell images on their web site...but I don't imagine that this is a great source of income for most of them...unless they have an established name.

For general type stuff...you may want to see what you can do in the stock photography market.

There are several books avaliable on the topic of how to make money with photography. Check out Amazon etc.

 

[mavrik]

If you register at www.dpchallenge.com and pay the $25 or whatever to join, you get a sellers account at www.dpcprints.com You can put things in your gallery there and sell it with no other expenses. It's a good way to go to start.

As far as whether you should - well if you're a good businessperson yes. You can easily make more than the $25 back so it's worth trying if you want to do it. However you WILL be competing for sales with people like:

http://dpcprints.com/profile.php?USER_ID=5112 Ursula
and
http://dpcprints.com/profile.php?USER_ID=5728 Gary

 

[fmw]

10,000 hits per day might get a few sold. I don't think putting up a website and promoting will get the job done for anyone, no matter how good the images are. I can say that because I've made my living in e-commerce for the past 9 years.

 

[Dylan]

Thanks everyone for their two cents on the subject. I really appreciate it. I will look into the stock photo market and for 25.00 I'll join www.dpchallenge.com and see what happens.