4 Reasons You are Not Selling Your Photos Online  

So, you’ve finally found the courage to follow your passion and sell your photographs to earn a living. However, you may find that you are not doing as well as you thought you would be in selling your photos. Well, any online business is not as easy as many online entrepreneurs advertise. In fact, according to Neil Patel on Forbes, 90% of startups end in failure. Without prior research into the industry you’re considering venturing into, you might end up becoming part of that statistics.

But exactly why are you failing in selling your photos? Here are four possible reasons:

You photos are cluttered.

By cluttered, we don’t mean that the photos you’re taking are bad. It just means that you lack consistency in the content of your photos. Finding your own niche is important in any business. Why? It brings you closer to your target market and allows you to connect with the right kind of consumer for your brand.

Let’s say for instance that you like to explore and reach out to a larger market by selling travel, fashion, and landscape photos all at the same time. When buyers go online and want to buy travel photos, yours will never be on top of the page. Other sellers who use their niche in their keyword research are most likely to have higher search volume compared to yours. After all, they only focus on keywords like “travel” while you have to cater to “fashion” and “landscape” as well.

You’re not making yourself visible.

Just like bloggers and Youtubers, photographers who aim to sell their products online need to be able to build their audience. To do so, you not only have to sell your photos. You also have to sell your character and your brand. If they don’t like you, they won’t like your brand. If they don’t like your brand, they won’t buy your photos. It’s really that simple.

Catch their interest by posting interesting photos on Instagram and Tumblr. Communicate with your followers and make them feel like they are more than just potential customers.

You don’t respect boundaries.

You’ve probably experienced receiving promo e-mails yourself. Getting them once or twice is tolerable to most. However, getting them more than three times within a week or less is pushing your target buyers to their limits. Don’t tag them in every photo and send the link to the same photo as a direct message on social. However, it’s not reasonable to stop promoting your photos altogether. You can still advertise your photos, but don’t overdo it. It’s all about finding a balance, after all.

Your buyers can’t access your photos.

Let’s say that you’re using Instagram as the main platform to promote your photos. But where do interested buyers go when they want to make the purchase? In such cases, you may feel that a personal eCommerce website will come in handy. However, if you’re just starting out, you can sell photos online on stock photo marketplaces like Alamy and Shutterstock. This will help you both gain an audience and generate revenue. But once you have enough money though, make sure that you allot a budget to building your own website.

 Final Thoughts

If you’ve committed any of those mistakes, you don’t have to worry. The good news is that it’s never too late. You can rebuild your brand and start once again. Learn from your failures, and aim to be better.