Where to sell photos?

I'm looking into selling my photography on the internet. Does anyone have experience with this? I'd rather not have to pay a subscription to do it, too.

I have a friend who has been a serious amateur photographer for 30+ years. He has a website to promote his work. (He's a pHd microbiologist.)

Larry

A friend of mine is a photographer, and he has his own website. I also have another friend who's a graphics designer, and she also promotes her work via her own website. IIRC, it doesn't cost that much to have your own domain to setup your work (but she's in the business and makes it sound easy).

I have my own photo website, and working on another... But I have yet to actually sell anything... Heck, not even one email of interest. But a lot of that is my fault because I haven't gotten around to updating things or promoting the sites like I should, plus the ones I do have up are my early stuff, and not as professional looking as I can do now..

A few photographers I 'talk' to on some of the photo forums make decent money selling on eBay... Or so they say anyway.

Probably the best way to make money is to get with one of the online stock photo companies... But the ones I have looked into either want some significant money up front or want a huge portfolio... Like a minimum of 5,000 professional quality shots, which they 'jury' extensively, then require an exclusivity agreement. They take a big percentage, but they do sell stuff for big bucks, so it can be worth it if you can get in.

A lot of scammers out there too, so be careful if you go that route.

There is also a way that one (or more) of the digital printing websites can facilitate you setting up a little business of your own, without the expense of doing your own website... Customers can go to your directory and order prints, and you get a %... Unfortunately I can't remember which one(s) do that.

I'd try a few on eBay first, and if you can sell a couple off there, you might have marketable stuff, and then do your own website... It can be done quite inexpensively if you do it yourself with a virtual server account setup..

If you have just a few shots that you want to sell, the simplest approach is cafepress.com. They put them on posters, t-shirts, coffee mugs, etc, fill all the customer orders and send you an amount of your choice (i.e. you specify the final retail price and they subtract a fixed amount for themselves) for each sale. Of course that works best for certain types of photos, not others.

Thanks everyone for your advice. I'll probably go the eBay route since there are some other items I want to sell there. As for CafePress, I do have a few stores there, but have only sold two items in the past three years. Then again, that's probably because I do absolutely nothing to promote it. Thanks again for the help.

another suggestion is to print out pictures that you think well sell and try local craft markets. Get in contact with people who do framing and maybe you can both make some money! Those craft shows draw a lot of people!

Hey, Paulr..

Thanks for that Cafepress info. I'd seen some of the products sold by them, but didn't realize that they had the little individual shops that anyone could build.... I think I'll give them a try. Not a perfect setup, but it might make me get off my lazy posterior and actually do something instead of procrastinating on my marketing.

I'd suggest a couple of good books. Photo Portfolio Success by John Kaplan and Photographers Market by Donna Poehner. Also worth checking out is SellPhotos.com by Robin Engh.