Self-promotion is something I often struggle with as a photographer and I know I’m not alone in this boat. Most photographers simply enjoy the act of creating images and are usually a little shy when it comes to promoting their own art.
You can be taking the most amazing pictures with the world’s best camera, but if no one knows about you and your images, then all the time you have invested into photography is without much purpose.
While many photographers are shy about promoting themselves, I don’t know any photographers who don’t want to share their images with the world and possibly see their images put to good use in one way or another whether it’s for advertising purposes or as wall art.
If you are serious about your photography, at the very least you should consider taking these two basic marketing steps to promote yourself and your images:
1. Build a Portfolio Website
If you don’t already have a portfolio website this is the first step you need to take to get your work in front of the world.
In this internet age it has never been easier to get your photography in front of thousands of people – people who could be interested to you buy your images!
There are several ways you can get your own professional looking website. Try to google ‘websites for photographers and artists’ and Google returns 810,000 listings (or thereabouts)! Some of the more serious choices you could consider include options like liveBooks, clikpic or picaholic.
If you want full control of the look and feel of your website, you can design and build it yourself. It’s not as difficult as it may sound. You can use a web authoring program like Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 to design exceptional websites, faster than ever. Dreamweaver is probably the primary web authoring program on the market today. It’s a very powerful program which you can you can explore in depth as your web authoring skills grow over time.
However, you don’t have to buy, design or build your own individual website to start sharing your images and get your name in front of people.
There are several excellent photo sharing sites which will allow you to do one or more of the following: organize, categorize, display, print and sell your images. To explore your options I would recommend that you take a look at a sites like Zenfolio, SmugMug, Photocrati or PhotoShelter.
My own personal favourite solution is PhotoShelter which is also the option I use for my personal website. I have written in more details about why I chose to PhotoShelter in this post: Choosing Your Photography Portfolio Website.
You can also visit Web Hosting for Photographers which is another great place to start if you want to get online with your photography (or if you’re simply looking for a host for your website). Web Hosting for Photographers is particularly interesting because they integrate with a number of different photography solutions which makes it easy for you to get started. Take a look at their ‘solutions’ link for some examples.
You could also take a closer look at products like Lightbox Photo Gallery and PhotoStore which integrate easily with Web Hosting for Photographers.
Whichever solution you choose, the important part is that you get yourself and your work online and in front of as many eyeballs as possible.
2. Print Your Own Photography Business Cards
While online marketing is indeed the buzz word of the 21st century, nothing beats a good old fashioned business card which you can hand over to people you get in contact with through your photography.
If nothing else keep a batch of photography business cards in your camera bag and hand it out to people you encounter when you are out photographing.
I have been approached so many times by people who are curious about what I’m photographing and while this sometimes interrupt the creative flow (it usually happens just when the light is right) I often try to take the time to talk to people and give them my card and tell them that they can see my work online.
This type of interaction can lead to sales. Many people buying art loves some sort of personal connection with the artist, so if you take the time to talk to people and tell them a little bit about yourself, you give them a small ‘experience’ which makes them much more likely to want to buy your art.
One of the coolest companies I have come across when it comes to printing business cards for photographers (or other promotional items relating to photography) is Moo UK or Moo US.
Why?
They are the only company I have come across that allows you to choose up to 50 different images to display on your business cards and still print them at a very reasonable price! They also offer other products like MiniCards, Christmas Cards, Postcards, Stickers and Notecards.
So don’t be shy, start promoting yourself and your art. You’re the best – and often the only – one to do it!
Loading ...
18. September 2009 at 11:58 pm
I had forgotten about the Moo.com products. Perfect timing to print some new business cards!
23. September 2009 at 11:48 pm
Thank you. I needed this article. Been looking at taking the leap, so I need some of this advice. Especially since I tend to freeze in regards to taking the leap.
23. September 2009 at 11:55 pm
Corina, you’re more than welcome! You’ve got an nice blog, already paid a visit
5. October 2009 at 2:50 pm
I’ve struggled with this for quite some time. Only in the last few months have I decided to sell my work. Although I don’t promote myself excessively, I find that there is a niche market for my kind of work. Ultimately, I’m much more concerned with having my work appreciated than with making money.
5. October 2009 at 10:06 pm
Hi Chris (iheartfilm), thanks for visiting.
I had a look at your blog and you have lots of great work and as a dedicated film shooter you will only become more and more unique with time, not that it’s that rare today, but digital is surely taking over, but a market for film will hopefully continue to exist for many years to come.
I think most photographers overriding goal is to simply share their work in the hope other people will appreciate it. If other people appreciate it there is chance we can also make some money from it.
However my main point with the article is that if no one knows your work, no one will find it and apppreciate it. We have to self-promote from time to time and your blog is a great example, filled with lots of beautiful photos.
8. October 2009 at 8:32 pm
Thanks a lot for the inspiration.
I had been shooting just for myself and my family for many years, until recently I decided to use flickr, start a blog and participate in competitions.
My goal is not necessarily to make money, it’s primarily what Thomas said in the comment above:
“[...] if no one knows your work, no one will find it and apppreciate it.”
9. October 2009 at 10:00 am
Hi Timo,
Thank you for your visit and comment. Yes, so many of us shoot mainly for ourselves and friends and family. In fact it can sometimes be daunting to put your work out there in front of every to see and comment on, but the truth is that ultimately most of us like to share our images and have them appreciated by others.
Now you got me curious, so I’m off to take a look at your blog!
23. October 2009 at 2:36 am
Great advice, I’ve been meaning to print some cards for quite awhile now, this was just the motivation I needed!
25. October 2009 at 11:25 am
Lifeat50mm – what a great name for a site and an interesting project to express almost all of your images at around that focal length. I’m pleased that you found some motivation from the article.
24. February 2010 at 1:04 pm
Very informative article. I’ve found your blog via Yahoo and I’m really glad about the information you provide in your posts. Thank You for sharing this very informative article.
30. June 2010 at 10:11 pm
Once you have built your photo website you can list it in specific niche directories that are related to photography such as http://www.photography-archives.com that will help your site get noticed.
12. November 2010 at 1:31 pm
Hi Tomas
I need help to promote myself, as you can see my name is Ahmed Hamed wish is as common as John smith lol, it has takin sometime for me to get to number one on a google search of my name, have you got any advice for me to get as much hits to my site as much as possible? I have my studio site wish is http://www.digitallywiredstudio.com to help me get web presents. But yeah still I can’t seem to get more views to my site.
Thanks
12. November 2010 at 3:59 pm
Hi Ahmed Hamed!
Thanks for your comment.
It’s a good question (don’t we all want more traffic to our sites
) and obviously this post offers just two basic ways for photographers to get their work seen, but as you know there are a lot more that can be done for people to find you and buy your work or services.
It sounds like you have already looked into SEO (search engine optimization) and are ranking well for your name.
Ranking well for your name is fine, but it requires people to know your name in the first place.
If you’re selling a product or service you’ll want to also rank for those products or services, or you may wish to rank for a particular style of photography if you’re not selling anything.
In regards to SEO this is one strategy you can employ to get new business or more visitors to your site. If you haven’t already done so you may therefore wish to try to optimize your site to rank for the types or products or services that you’re offering, (so for example “newcastle nature photographer”, “newcastle stock photography” or “creative media and design collective based in the newcastle”).
Select keywords that describe your service/business/photography and try to incorporate these in the important text parts of your site.
SEO can be a bit boring and you rarely see instant results, but long term a well executed SEO strategy can really drive a lot more traffic to your site.
I’m not a SEO expert but you can take a look at Zach Prez’ e-Book: Photographers SEO Book which will provide a lot more details and ideas.
I can also see you’re on Facebook. I had totally ignored Facebook and Twitter up until recently until I opened my eyes for how they can be used to connect with like-minded people. Using Facebook and Twitter creatively to drive traffic to your site should not be ignored either. Some people even believe social media is now more important traffic drivers than SEO.
Leaving comments like you did on this blog is another way for people to find you. I was curious to see more about you and other visitors to this site might be curious as well and click to your site.
Self-promotion is not easy. I struggle with it myself, but I think there is only one way and that is to let the world know you exist. You have to through yourself out there…
Anyway I hope this gives you some ideas.
Good luck and all the best!
Cheers,
Thomas