bigphotomoney.com

One of the best ways to sell photographs is to think like a customer.

Apart from Display prints most customers want a picture to ilustrate or tie into their own product or service.

Give customers what they EXPECT to see and you will make more sales.

Find yourself a niche and get well known for it. Make that niche something you are really passionate about and take lots of pictures of that subject.

Set up a free Blog (www.blogger.com is owned by Google and is the easiest one to start with) and publish your new pictures (just the best ones) and your fame will rapidly spread.

It is far better to be the World expert on photographing moto-cross than to try to cover every subject going - most photographers shoot everything around them but the ones who really make money  are known for being the best in their field.

When you become well known as a photographer of that subject you will be flooded with new opportunities. People will seek YOU out rather than having to seek customers out.

How do you do that ?

Its fairly easy actually - get low res versions of your pictures just about everywhere (you cn usually do this for free !) Start off with free pictures hosting services like Flickr (but expect to be deluged with requests for free pictures from cheapskate publishers !) and set up your own webpages on Zazzle, Cafepress and similar print on demand services.

Make sure every single picture has an alt-image tag that includes your website address.

Why do that ?

Because Google and all the other search machines will copy your pictures and expose them to the world for free ! This is why it is important to also watermark your pictures with your website address.

Use a faint watermark that will identify a picture as yours (I use a strength of 20% which shows the content behind the text and you can do this easily with Photoshop or Paintshop Pro)

What you are after initially is to get hundreds of pitctures of your niche subject displayed worldwide. Makae sure all the pictures also appear on your website first.

Join Photo-Forums and read everything you can about marketing your pictures.

I would be careful about using Wordpress with a gallery though as this can be fairly easily hacked .

The most important thing though is to give people what they are looking for.

Its fun to do new creative pictures of a standard stock subject but what SELLS is the best picture of the standard view of that subject. Make sure Yours is the best one- search Google for your subject - using the image search - and you will see not only your competition but also some great ideas for new pictures.

The other day I  noticed that several of my websites had no longer been indexed by Google.

After reading Daves blog the main reason seems to be a footprint left by BANS which is easy to trace by Google when they look for spam.To get the information about what to look for you can read Daves blog on Build a niche store blog.

Things to change in the BANS Software include the powered by Build a Niche Store and several other items mentioned in Daves Blog.

Now BANS is NOT a spam program - rather it  could be considered as a tool in much the same way as WindowsDreamweaver,vBasic or any other software that you can use to make a website.

It is fairly upsetting to spend many hours writing and researching articles to have them dismissed as spam (when they are clearly good solid information of interest to other people) - then I read this article and a light bulb went Ping - Google does not know how to tell the difference between spam and genuine articles.(or at least its robot software does not know !)

Article on Google  (http://tzuvelli.com/why-would-bans-sites-on-info-domains-be-deindexed/)

This article tells about some very nasty things people have done in the past (not an instruction manual !) using .info domains and not paying for them (just keep on re-indexing them - no longer available as a practice) so that may be what it is all about - Google just are a little ignorant about site building software and have lumped it in with programs designed to cream off adsense money.

So I STRONGLY advise anyone using BANS to not use adsense (although I am aware that many people do so)

This is not of course the only reason Google does not like BANS - maybe its the thousands of thin sites (with little real content) or what ?

Suggestions are welcome !

Ebay has just brought out new conditions about sending customers from ebay sites to ebay BANS stores- basically don’t do it !

I have asked for clarification and will publish ebays answer here.

I have just put up the first half dozen pages of my Early Photography Website (one of my erm.. more esoteric interests !

(I love Daguerreotypes)

This is at http://www.daguerrephotos.com

and there is a lot more in the pipeline !

Keith

On the 20th of August hundreds (if not thousands) of eBay affiliates were ‘expired’

Many of them use BANS software.

Reading the BANS Forum, there were many anguished posts from reputable affiliates complaining ,name-calling,pleading and generally grumbling. Many seemingly with good cause.

Ebay has not really said what they expect of affiliates but that they expect customers who sign up with ebay and thus generate an ACRU (A Signup with a purchase either through a Buy It Now or an auction) to keep returning to ebay as customers.

Obviously both affiliates and ebay would like that.

I think (and this is just MY thoughts on the subject) that eBay has made a big mistake in offering ACRUs to affiliates as this has brought out some rather devious people who have got loads of improper customers to sign up and buy 99 cent items just to get the ACRU.

There also seem to be some affiliates who have bought cheap traffic and may or may not be admitting it (I HAVE NOT !) and I guess that many of these have been expired too.

Its obvious that ebay could not let the fountain of money out to these devious schemes and I think ebay should just drop the ACRUs completely.

Some website have given away free out of date copies of BANS and I think maybe those are  adding to ebays problems. These are obviously out of the control of the nice folks at BANS and a new Bans is I hear in the pipelin (I hope it will only work for genuine purchasers)

Anyway ebay has caused a storm of protest over this and a few affiliates have been reinstated but many ebay affiliates are now looking around for a replacement or are wondering if it is their turn next.

This is not a great way to build up a partnership.

Many of us have spent long hours building up content packed websites that are genuinely interesting to real buyers and it is a shame to lump everyone in the same kettle of tar.

If ebay would be kind enough to tell affiliates what is acceptable and what is not acceptable it would go a long way to defusing the current situation.

If you are considering buying Bans then maybe holding back gor the new version would be a good idea.

PepperJam runs an excellent affiliate service for ebay  and would certainly seem to be the short term solution for all current geuine ebay affiliates and potential affiliates.

Watch this space for news !

Just one thing - please do NOT post a ‘but I’m innocent’ post here - logical calm reasoning is the only way to handle this situation to the benefit of all.Oh and No I haven’t been expired …and hope I will not be (or 3 months of work goes down the tubes !)

This is going to be an honest warts & all review of the BANS storebuilding program.

Bans enables you to make a store that features ebay products and you then get a commission if and when a customer buys something through that store and an addiional $20 to $25 when they actually join eBay and buy something. (except in Italy where frankly the commission is so bad it is a waste of time)

OK That was the good bit ! - For $97 (soon to go up to a rumoured $297 !) you get a downloaded script which is pretty easy to use and a really EXCELLENT tutorial manual on how to install it and sort out your domain name registration and uploading everything to your hosting company.

If you have problems with it (or think you might !) then they do offer an installation service.

 So far so good - the easy bit is registering a domain and signing up for the hosting ( I SERIOUSLY suggest that you stick to Godaddy for the domain registration and Hostgator for the hosting)

From what I have read, some people have had problems using other hosting and domain name registrars. Godaddy charges $9.95 for domain registration of a .com name and that is a good price (Yahoo has just bumped their up to $35 !) and Hostgator charges around $9.95 a month for hosting loads of domains - it is quite easy but you will make life easier for yourself if you learn to use cpanel before you begin otherwise you will feel you are swimming in treacle !

 The other good part - after 2 months I am making money from eBay despite the teething problems they had when they opened up their own affiliate section (after ceasing with Commission Junction) You can now also join Pepperjam and they are reckoned to be doing a good job.

Before you can join eBay or Pepperjam you MUST have a website that would be able to advertise ebay products (and thats before you buy BANS - if you get rejected by those two then there is no point in buying BANS !) So start up a basic website (NOT a Free website) and write a page about something.

So this is what to do and how to do it !

1: Buy BANS (yes I know you can get it for free but your REALLY will need the help of the great other BANS users on the BANS website and you can only get in if you are a genuine owner ! Forget buying a site from ebay because you will still HAVE to buy BANS to get it to work !) To Buy BANS Go to the BLUE box advert on the right and sign up there please.

2 - go to eBay Pulse and look for a NICHE to advertise (like Garden Rollers for instance) To make money you MUST have a niche - a BANS site without a niche just lies there panting with a small drift of Visitors and no sales.

3: Register an appropriate name at Godaddy.com (for instance www.gardenrollers.com) DO NOT buy a .info domain name or a certain large search engine will just ignore you. So You need a .COM !

IMPORTANT !!! DO NOT USE A TRADEMARKED NAME like ipod or Apple as they will come and get you and all that work will have to be junked. All this is explained in the manual (but who usually reads manuals ?) Well this time you MUST READ THE MANUAL !

4 :Sign up with Hostgator.(see the box on the right hand side) then set up your new website by watching the excellent videos on their site. (Hint you have to go to cpanel for your  main domain nae that you register with Hostagtor and then add the new site with WHM.)

6: You will then have the domain details so go back to Godaddy and tell them all about it - just follow the instruction EXACTLY that came with BANS and you will be OK - DO NOT try to skip ahead or you will become one of the undead webmasters crying in the dark.

If you get stuck DO NOT PANIC - got to the BANS Forum and cry for help nicely & someone there really will help you..

Go To Wordtracker.com and find some nice juicy worms (oh that should be words ) to use as bait for search engines. You will have to enter these for each page you add to your store.

Building a store initially is quick - building a GOOD store that makes money takes a lot of time.

THIS IS NOT A GET RICH QUICK SCHEME - however some affiliate marketers try to make it sound  as if it is!

Next thing to do (and this is REALLY seriously needed )  is to either write 4 or 6 articles on the subject of your niche (go to wikipedia and get ideas from there and expand them)  or go to elance and pay someone to write them for you (warrior forum is good for freelance writers too).You will eventually want to grow the articles till they get to between 30 and 50 to make your site worthwhile.

Tiffany Dow is my favourite plr writer and sells articles at a really low price … hint hint.

Read the instructions again and set up your store - that will make you so proud !

Now change it so it doesn’t look the same as everyone else’s stores by spending $10 or so on a couple of BANS TEMPLATES from their store. Well worthwhile and will save you hours of toil.

Now rewrite your articles so they do not throw up a DUPLICATE CONTENT flag at search machines (who will then drop you like a hot potato) - just say the same things with different words !

Now we come to the nasty bit. There is currently a BUG in BANS (and I have never seen anyone mention this outside BANS Forums !) It is the APOSTROPHE  - this thing   ‘

YOU MUST NOT USE IT WITHIN BANS - especially on the Home Page or the Content pages (where you are going to cut and paste your new article to ) or BANS will go very quiet and do horrible self-abusive things to itself and make you start ALL OVER AGAIN !

Please do not ask me why this happens - I do not know - but it really does so do not use the apostrophe.

 Next thing is your setup.

I suggest you choose the original setup and in the box above the search box put  a zero.

I put content on my Home Page see the content pages) and change the title to my store title.

Put something relevant in the search box or you will just get a blank page.

BANS is actually a very sophisticated suite of scripts and can just set itself up according to a search term (like  Garden-Rollers) but you can make it easier for clients to use by choosing the SPECIFIC eBay Categories you want to show. You then choose a page for each make of garden roller and on each page you put in keywords relevant to that roller,a description of what is on the page and a couple of sentences or paragraphs on each garden roller.

 The FIRST LINE of the content page should be the page title (in this case the garden roller make) and be sure to make this an H1 heading by clicking on the paragraph bit.

The more forward planning you can do with each BANS site the better it will turn out.

I suggest on the setup page turn cloaking off  and also turn off the powered by bans as this is taken as a store footprint by search engines - and you want to make your store look more like a website of content with a few pages of goodies for sale rather than the other way round.

 Then you have to submit your site url to all the search machines you can find !

(And a Squidoo Page and a Hub  Page would not hrt either - both pointing to your new shiny store)

I hope this information helps you avoid the pitfalls I fell into ! (I have never seen most of this published elsewhere) - why ?  Because all the people who write about BANS also use it and will happily let you make the mistakes that I made so you will not be a serious rival for them ! I am constantly adding to and changing my BANS Stores according to information I glean around the web and I advise you to do the same.

 BANS is a seriously good program and I mean it when I say that the price is going up by a great deal.

If you found this useful then print it out and add it to your BANS Folder (You will need a folder - the instruction manual runs to over 100 pages !

( so make sure you have lots of paper & ink for your printer !)

I Found I needed THREE Folders - one for the instructions, one for the details of each site (I have 12)  and a third folder for hints and trips I picked up from the BANS FORUM.

Just one more tip before you start playing with BANS - go to the BANS Forum and spend a day reading it - it will be well worthwhile and will save you time later. Use the SEARCH function for anything you do not understand) REALISE THAT PEOPLE WILL NOT VISIT your website uness you do some serious search engine optimisation and get as many good backlinks as you can.

DO NOT engage in any blackhat or paid to surf schemes or buy 10000 visitors for $10 - search engines and eBay hate these and they will get you banned.

 Why is this on a Make Money from Photography Blog - thats easy - you will be using YOUR pictures to make the BANS Content  Articles prettier and more unique won’t you ?

If you found this article useful and want to go ahead and BUY BANS then please do so through my link at the right .

You may be able to eventually set up BANS sites in under 10 minutes but the first one always takes longer.

What on earth is Zazzle ?

It’s a Print on Demand company - whats that ?

Like Cafepress, you open an account (FREE !) and you can then upload pictures or artwork and sell them either from their website or with WIDGETS to the general public or friends.

The nice thing is that YOU set your commission rate. So if you are selling T-Shirts for example then you can add 10% or more according to what YOU think they will sell for. Here are just some of the products you can produce and sell

Canvas Prints ( great base prices if you want to buy and sell your own)

Clothing
Custom T-Shirts
 
Bags
Hats
 
Aprons
 
Ties
 
Cards + Postage
Profile Cards New!
 
Business Cards New!
 
Zazzle Custom Stamps
 
Greeting Cards
 
Note Cards
 
Postcards
 
Popular Prints
Posters
 
Framed Prints
 
Photo Prints
 
Photo Enlargements
 
Home + Office
Calendars
 
Mousepads
 
Mugs
 
Travel Mugs
 
Steins
 
Fun Stuff
Photo Sculptures
 
Magnets
 
Keychains
 
Bumper Stickers
 
Round Stickers
 
Buttons

Now how much does that cost you ask ?

For a gallery absolutely nothing !

(Compare that to the 6.95 a month from Cafepress !)

So its an easy way to get into selling nice quality goods at no cost to you.

You can sell 2 ways - just put things on their website and submit the url to search engines or copy the products from the site and paste them onto your own website (better !).

(Don’t forget to do the search engine submissions for that too !)

I do not recommend a FREE website - they usually have ads and may be for things you do not approve of !

Please take a look at my Zazzle Website at http://www.zazle.com/irishdreams* where I have mostly put up pictures of Ireland and dogs.

Zazzle has some very neat free widgets where you can cut and paste them to your Facebook or Myspace pages and sell from there too (haven’t seen that from any other proint on demand company)
I don’t think you will get really rich from Zazzle but all extra income is always welcome.

The BIG SECRET of making money from Zazzle and other print on demand companies is to concentrate on thing you can sell locally yourself or things for events,holidays,Valentines Day etc.

The bits I like best are the Postage Stamps (isn’t that neat to have your OWN postage stamps?),

the business cards (design one and sell to other people with their name & address) and most of all the ability for your customers to customise your products with their messages.

Its all very well done and quite a lot faster to learn to use than Cafepress (which I also use and get slightly better sales from )

The picture uploads work a little faster too.

What products sell best : T-Shirts,Postcards and Keychains

This is also a great way to get into selling Postcards or greetings card by test marketing a design with Zazzle and showing them around stores.

The ability to put Framed prints on your own website and have zazzle deliver them direct to the client is a GREAT saving in upfront costs. Costs you nothing and you get paid the commission by Zazzle.

(I have framed prints on consignment in galleries and they cost a lot to do !)

Plus Points : Faster uploads,free gallery,ease of use,postage stamps,ability for customising

Against : Smallish customer base so lower sales than CafePress,many fantasy/SF things and takes a while to get a gallery together  (I still haven’t figured out how to put multiple galleries on the main page. If you know how please leave a comment with details.)

I will be reviewing CafePress and Artscafe and other POD’s this week too.

I suggest you sign up for a FREE Gallery but first have a look around at other people’s work.

You can sign up from here :

http://zazzle.com/irishdreams*

A famous Irish photographer on the radio yesterday  recalled an old lady saying Photography - thats no job for a real man.

She was of course right and I agree with Tom when he said that photographers should have the eye of a child to see the wonders of the world around them and not the adult view of the world.

I would extend that though to the fact that you actually have to get inside the customers head to figure out just what they are expecting to see. In my life I’ve edited millions of pictures and the same things rule out most of them - poor quality,dreadful composition,lack of colour,ad quite often a complet lack of subject ! The people who shot those just didn’t think of how the pictures would be used of what the customer was looking for.

Customers are ALWAYS looking for the some things - a picture that will :

• Help them sell their Product
• Brighten up a website
• Set a mood
• Act as a Background
• Illustrate a place
• add to their web content
• Illustrate a specific point in an article

So ask yourself - would my picture fill any of those needs ?

A customer will ONLY  buy a picture that will fill their specific need.

A picture for a Travel Brochure MUST have a blue sky and preferably flowers in the foreground.

A Picture to illustrate a city MUST be iconic (instantly recognisable)

If you went to a city and the weather was bad then that’s tough luck. You can bet that a local photographer has photographed all the local iconic scenes with a blue sky (and probably colourful flowers too) whose do you think will sell - Your pictures with a grey sky or theirs ?

The customer wants the best picture they can get.(preferably for as little as possible).One customer said to me - If it’s a stock picture it has to be perfect - that’s what we pay for. If we own it or it comes from a free source then that will get preference.

To be successful in Stock or RF/Microstock you have to PLAN ahead and study the market. Several of the most successful photographers work with EXACTLY the same system I use - accumulate lots of cuttings from press,ads,tour brochures,postcards and books. Paste those into subject books and use them as a shooting guide then (and this is the IMPORTANT PART) - try to find a BETTER viewpoint or theme from those - use them as a RESOURCE to develop from. The same goes for model shoots - accumulate people pictures and use them as resources (Stock photo catalogues are a great resource but DO NOT copy the picures identically or you WILL end up in court !)

Most Microstock companies have a listing of their top selling/downloaded pictures - study it well as these are the pictures in demand NOW !

Almost every major photographer does this (though most won’t admit it !)

It saves time,money and gets the job done. Treat a shoot as a JOB - it is just as important as being paid by someone else to do so. Every time you lift your camera ask yourself - WHO WILL BUY THIS PICTURE ?

Imagine yourself as the picture buyer - what would you be looking for ?

Then you will start to make seriouse money.

(c) 2008 Keith Jones

Competitions are really split into two different areas.

The genuine ones where you get your pictures back and the seriously strange ones where they try to grab your copyright..

Photography competitions are currently very popular - sometimes with great prizes.

Read the small print though - there are some characters who insist that the copyright of all entries is automatically theirs. (even some big companies do this !)

What do they do with them ? Well thats a good question …

The most common thing is for the company to use them for advertising and sometimes they pay - or not !

The nastiest trick though is that they just put them on a cd and send ALL the entries to Microstock companies round the world. - after all they are now THIER copyright - you signed that when you sent in your entry. So they will send mayby 10,000 pictures and get maybe a dollar a year back from them for each picture!

 But lets look at the REAL Photo Competitions -

All the big camera companies run them regularly and usually give decent prizes but will usually get to use the winning picture for their ads & website.

Look in your newsagent and supermarket for other companies running competitions.

A friend of mine regularly won dozens of competitions and was banned for winning some too many times !

How did he do it - HE READ THE RULES !

He always sent in relevant pictures that he thought the company running the competition would like and which were RELEVANT to them. Or he went out and shot them.

If the competition said prints - That is what he sent. Same for Transparencies.

Strangely enough there are still many people shooting on film and some competitions still need that !

Just don’t hand over copyright unless its a VERY Big prize !

Humour is often a winner - as are appealing kittens & puppies.

Look at what they have used in the past. And do likewise.

There are monthly competitions at www.ephotozine.com and you might like to start with those and maybe win a camera !

Getty and Flickr are to join forces in a deal where Flickr offers Flickr customers the opportunity to also market their pictures through Getty.

Getty is ,of course a worldwide Stock Photolibrary with additional Royalty Free and Microstock companies too.. Initially my thought was one of horror (trying to keep the three apart) but it does make sense really.

Getty would handle the better stock pictures and the remaining ones would be marketed through Photodisc (the Royalty-Free arm) and the Microstock section.

I have very mixed feelings about Microstock as in my view with very few exceptions the photographer gets a VERY poor return from their pictures.

There are exceptions but generally speaking photographers get a MUCH better deal selling stock.

(OK people photographers do VERY well our of microstock but everyone else gets oomfpence per picture.)

Royalty-Free is OK but anyone considering that arm should be aware that all of Photodisc (and all other RF producers) CDs/DVDs are available outside every metro station in Moscow and St Petersburg and in almost every street market in the Orient for a couple of Dollars each - you would not get any royalty from those of course.

From Getty’s point of view, Flickr is a great instant source of millions of potential pictures (although I would not want to be the editor choosing from those as a good half of the pictures are just holiday snaps.)

Getty is a very reputable company of course and well worth considering if they like your work.

As with all Photo Agencies you should read the contract very carefully and make sure you can still sell your own work without going through them.

Some agencies (not Getty) do have clauses grabbing all rights from photographers.

My final decision - If Getty want to represent you GO FOR IT !

They are a worthwhile company and if your pictures are good you will make some serious money.

When I ran a stock agency the people who moaned most about their poor sales were the worst photographers… does that say it all ?