Author Topic: Making my own website and Promoting my works on Social Media? (Read 9069 times)

natureshooter · « **on:** July 08, 2018, 05:50 »

Making my own website and Promoting my quality works on Social Media?
What do you think of this? Would it be worth and give great money? I have 22k followers on instagram and I know how to get hundreds of organic reach in Facebook from different countries. Let say 500 different organic reach on Facebook daily.

What do you think? Have anyone here sold photos and videos from their own site?

THANKS A LOT IN ADVANCE

ShadySue · « **Reply #1 on:** July 08, 2018, 06:35 »

This is how to decide: How many of your SM followers have contacted you to request to buy a file?

natureshooter · « **Reply #2 on:** July 08, 2018, 06:45 »

Wrong Sue.

ShadySue · « **Reply #3 on:** July 08, 2018, 06:56 »

Quote from: natureshooter on July 08, 2018, 06:45

Wrong Sue.

Not wrong. Whenever I've read of success stories on ig, it's always been, "I only started posting to have fun / test the water, but people kept contacting me to buy my images/make requests for other subjects"

But if you're sure I'm wrong, go ahead, knock yourself out.

natureshooter · « **Reply #4 on:** July 08, 2018, 07:00 »

OH okay..so you mean people contacted you to buy images? my followers dont know that I sell photos.

ShadySue · « **Reply #5 on:** July 08, 2018, 07:02 »

Quote from: natureshooter on July 08, 2018, 07:00

my followers dont know that I sell photos.

That's not the point. The point is that if people love and want to buy your images, they'll contact you anyway.

natureshooter · « **Reply #6 on:** July 08, 2018, 07:13 »

That is why we have digital marketing for business. in this digital age, we dont need to wait people to approach us, internet is a good means to approach people what we sell..You will not make a good business if you just wait being approach..

ShadySue · « **Reply #7 on:** July 08, 2018, 07:18 »

Quote from: natureshooter on July 08, 2018, 07:13

That is why we have digital marketing for business. in this digital age, we dont need to wait people to approach us, internet is a good means to approach people what we sell..You will not make a good business if you just wait being approach..

But the fact that people approached someone would be a strong indicator that they could take up online sales. In this digital age, people can easily contact artists to make enquiries.

No or few enquiries wouldn't be a good indicator of future sales potential.

natureshooter · « **Reply #8 on:** July 08, 2018, 07:28 »

Your principle is very wrong, it does not mean that you are not being approach by someone in social media then you will not make good future sales. That is the reason why there is a so called social media marketing, at first, I am talking promoting images by an organic reach...The whole point of my question is social media marketing...I did not ask here, who have experienced being approach for a sale..

niktol · « **Reply #9 on:** July 08, 2018, 09:22 »

I know someone who does it very successfully, but I would not call his approach "traditional". One definitely can't be a boring type.

cathyslife · « **Reply #10 on:** July 08, 2018, 09:35 »

Quote from: natureshooter on July 08, 2018, 07:13

That is why we have digital marketing for business. in this digital age, we dont need to wait people to approach us, internet is a good means to approach people what we sell..You will not make a good business if you just wait being approach..

You are forgetting one thing...along with this wonderful digital age comes people who think anything they find on the internet is free for the taking. If your 22k instagram followers love your work, they will simply steal that photo to use in their timeline, or wherever. Out of 22k followers, I would think at least 1, if at all interested in actually buying an image they like, would have contacted you. They won’t because most don’t believe in paying. There have been others posting here in the past few years or so who have asked the same question. The people who get good response from any social media are those contributors who built up a following from selling their photos. They use social media to keep images in front of their already-buyers, not to recruit buyers in the first place. But if you can convert ANY % of those 22k instagram followers into actual buyers, then good for you. If you watermark everything you post to social media, then use it to direct buyers to your site, you might be able to convert a few. Marketing your own site is a full-time job and then some. If you are willing to invest the time, then social media will just be another part of the process. Social media is just that...a social place to gather.

PaulieWalnuts · « **Reply #11 on:** July 08, 2018, 11:05 »

Quote from: natureshooter on July 08, 2018, 05:50

Making my own website and Promoting my quality works on Social Media?
What do you think of this? Would it be worth and give great money? I have 22k followers on instagram and I know how to get hundreds of organic reach in Facebook from different countries. Let say 500 different organic reach on Facebook daily.

What do you think? Have anyone here sold photos and videos from their own site?

THANKS A LOT IN ADVANCE

Depends on your approach.

What will you offer to cause buyers to want to use your site vs a microstock site? Lower price (if even possible), better service, unique images that don't exist on micro, etc?

Doing your own site using your micro portfolio would be a major challenge due to existing low prices and the need for huge volume.

Prices are already insanely low. So competing with lowe price may not attract buyers. Meaning if it's a dollar on micro do buyers really care if you offer it for 25 or 50 cents? Probably not.

If you can get a large percentage of your social network to become buyers then you may be onto something.You may need to get 50-100 sales a month just to cover the website hosting costs. Is anyone here doing over $50 per month in micro sales on their own site?

Or you need to come up with something unique that people are willing to pay more money for and branch outside of micro into higher-money lower-volume such as macro RM and/or prints. This is what I've done and it has worked well.

Pauws99 · « **Reply #12 on:** July 08, 2018, 12:03 »

I never think its a good idea to ask for an opinion if you are going to tell people they are wrong

. What is actually the purpose of your question as you seem to have decided you are going to do it? I think if you have exceptional images and are good at marketing it could work. For "run of the mill" stock photography nope

PaulieWalnuts · « **Reply #13 on:** July 08, 2018, 12:13 »

Quote from: Pauws99 on July 08, 2018, 12:03

I never think its a good idea to ask for an opinion if you are going to tell people they are wrong . What is actually the purpose of your question as you seem to have decided you are going to do it? I think if you have exceptional images and are good at marketing it could work. For "run of the mill" stock photography nope

LOL, I just noticed the OPs responses.

I think the question's purpose was more looking for experiences. But when you throw in an open ended "what do you think?", you're inviting debate, then bickering, then arguing, and then of course all things lead to Trump.

Pauws99 · « **Reply #14 on:** July 08, 2018, 14:35 »

Quote from: PaulieWalnuts on July 08, 2018, 12:13

Quote from: Pauws99 on July 08, 2018, 12:03
I never think its a good idea to ask for an opinion if you are going to tell people they are wrong . What is actually the purpose of your question as you seem to have decided you are going to do it? I think if you have exceptional images and are good at marketing it could work. For "run of the mill" stock photography nope

LOL, I just noticed the OPs responses.

I think the question's purpose was more looking for experiences. But when you throw in an open ended "what do you think?", you're inviting debate, then bickering, then arguing, and then of course all things lead to Trump.

I'm probably over cynical but I'm expecting some kind of product to help with this Social Marketing idea to emerge at some point

DallasP · « **Reply #15 on:** July 08, 2018, 17:59 »

I think if I were going to I'd set up something using an API to automatically grab the images from whatever site and push them. Either that or self host..

DallasP · « **Reply #16 on:** July 08, 2018, 18:01 »

Quote from: Pauws99 on July 08, 2018, 14:35

Quote from: PaulieWalnuts on July 08, 2018, 12:13
Quote from: Pauws99 on July 08, 2018, 12:03
I never think its a good idea to ask for an opinion if you are going to tell people they are wrong . What is actually the purpose of your question as you seem to have decided you are going to do it? I think if you have exceptional images and are good at marketing it could work. For "run of the mill" stock photography nope

LOL, I just noticed the OPs responses.

I think the question's purpose was more looking for experiences. But when you throw in an open ended "what do you think?", you're inviting debate, then bickering, then arguing, and then of course all things lead to Trump.
I'm probably over cynical but I'm expecting some kind of product to help with this Social Marketing idea to emerge at some point

There're tons of things to help. IFTT and buffer can do almost all the actual posting for you.

nazlisart · « **Reply #17 on:** July 08, 2018, 19:20 »

Good Luck...

SianC · « **Reply #18 on:** July 09, 2018, 09:55 »

This is an interesting conversation. Over the last few years I've seen a lot of people selling stock photos from their own websites and they seem to be doing quite well. The ones that I've seen, mainly focus on images for creative business owners and women entrepreneurs and they rely heavily on social media marketing to make sales. The owner of TwigyPosts has said that she makes over $100,000 per year.

Here are links to a few of the websites I'm talking about:
https://www.scstockshop.com/ [nofollow]
https://twigyposts.com/ [nofollow]
https://hautestock.co/ [nofollow]

trek · « **Reply #19 on:** July 09, 2018, 10:17 »

Quote from: natureshooter on July 08, 2018, 05:50

Making my own website and Promoting my quality works on Social Media?
What do you think of this? Would it be worth and give great money? I have 22k followers on instagram and I know how to get hundreds of organic reach in Facebook from different countries. Let say 500 different organic reach on Facebook daily.

What do you think? Have anyone here sold photos and videos from their own site?

THANKS A LOT IN ADVANCE

Kind wondering if there is any direct financial benefit to having 22,000 Instagram followers? Or is all a give away. Have you reversed image searched your most popular images to see where they are being used or streamed? You might find some are being re-sold by others.

I think self promotion is important if your a print on demand - Fine Art America type. For microstock licensing.. not so much.

cathyslife · « **Reply #20 on:** July 09, 2018, 11:41 »

Quote from: SianC on July 09, 2018, 09:55

This is an interesting conversation. Over the last few years I've seen a lot of people selling stock photos from their own websites and they seem to be doing quite well. The ones that I've seen, mainly focus on images for creative business owners and women entrepreneurs and they rely heavily on social media marketing to make sales. The owner of TwigyPosts has said that she makes over $100,000 per year.

Here are links to a few of the websites I'm talking about:
https://www.scstockshop.com/
https://twigyposts.com/
https://hautestock.co/

Not impossible to do. How many people work for her? How many total images does she have? Where is she located (in terms of overhead)? Social media can be a part of any marketing plan, but I would bet that she didn’t build up that business solely by posting on twitter or any other social media site. Lots of people say they make this huge amount of $$ (a bunch here do the same thing), but if her overhead from that $100,000 is $99,000, then she doesn’t really make all that much money, does she. Social media is a small part of a big marketing picture. You can’t just post pictures on instagram and expect the cash to roll in. If someone has actually done it that way, I would love to hear, and see proof. Just my opinion, tho, based on 30+ years of self-employment, and 14+ years of microstock.

SianC · « **Reply #21 on:** July 09, 2018, 11:59 »

Quote from: cathyslife on July 09, 2018, 11:41

Quote from: SianC on July 09, 2018, 09:55
This is an interesting conversation. Over the last few years I've seen a lot of people selling stock photos from their own websites and they seem to be doing quite well. The ones that I've seen, mainly focus on images for creative business owners and women entrepreneurs and they rely heavily on social media marketing to make sales. The owner of TwigyPosts has said that she makes over $100,000 per year.

Here are links to a few of the websites I'm talking about:
https://www.scstockshop.com/ [nofollow]
https://twigyposts.com/ [nofollow]
https://hautestock.co/ [nofollow]

Not impossible to do. How many people work for her? How many total images does she have? Where is she located (in terms of overhead)? Social media can be a part of any marketing plan, but I would bet that she didn’t build up that business solely by posting on twitter or any other social media site. Lots of people say they make this huge amount of $$ (a bunch here do the same thing), but if her overhead from that $100,000 is $99,000, then she doesn’t really make all that much money, does she. Social media is a small part of a big marketing picture. You can’t just post pictures on instagram and expect the cash to roll in. If someone has actually done it that way, I would love to hear, and see proof. Just my opinion, tho, based on 30+ years of self-employment, and 14+ years of microstock.

I agree with you cathyslife. Jana at TwigyPosts doesn't have anyone working for her and says the over $100,000 is what she keeps. Her sales come in large part from Instagram but I'm sure she has a marketing strategy and works hard at it. I struggle with social media marketing but it seems that's where a lot of the younger folks are finding success.

cathyslife · « **Reply #22 on:** July 09, 2018, 13:53 »

Quote from: SianC on July 09, 2018, 11:59

Quote from: cathyslife on July 09, 2018, 11:41
Quote from: SianC on July 09, 2018, 09:55
This is an interesting conversation. Over the last few years I've seen a lot of people selling stock photos from their own websites and they seem to be doing quite well. The ones that I've seen, mainly focus on images for creative business owners and women entrepreneurs and they rely heavily on social media marketing to make sales. The owner of TwigyPosts has said that she makes over $100,000 per year.

Here are links to a few of the websites I'm talking about:
https://www.scstockshop.com/
https://twigyposts.com/
https://hautestock.co/

Not impossible to do. How many people work for her? How many total images does she have? Where is she located (in terms of overhead)? Social media can be a part of any marketing plan, but I would bet that she didn’t build up that business solely by posting on twitter or any other social media site. Lots of people say they make this huge amount of $$ (a bunch here do the same thing), but if her overhead from that $100,000 is $99,000, then she doesn’t really make all that much money, does she. Social media is a small part of a big marketing picture. You can’t just post pictures on instagram and expect the cash to roll in. If someone has actually done it that way, I would love to hear, and see proof. Just my opinion, tho, based on 30+ years of self-employment, and 14+ years of microstock.

I agree with you cathyslife. Jana at TwigyPosts doesn't have anyone working for her and says the over $100,000 is what she keeps. Her sales come in large part from Instagram but I'm sure she has a marketing strategy and works hard at it. I struggle with social media marketing but it seems that's where a lot of the younger folks are finding success.

Is all of that financial information on her website? If not, how are you privy to it? I remain suspect.

DallasP · « **Reply #23 on:** July 09, 2018, 19:28 »

Quote from: cathyslife on July 09, 2018, 13:53

Quote from: SianC on July 09, 2018, 11:59
Quote from: cathyslife on July 09, 2018, 11:41
Quote from: SianC on July 09, 2018, 09:55
This is an interesting conversation. Over the last few years I've seen a lot of people selling stock photos from their own websites and they seem to be doing quite well. The ones that I've seen, mainly focus on images for creative business owners and women entrepreneurs and they rely heavily on social media marketing to make sales. The owner of TwigyPosts has said that she makes over $100,000 per year.

Here are links to a few of the websites I'm talking about:
https://www.scstockshop.com/
https://twigyposts.com/
https://hautestock.co/

Not impossible to do. How many people work for her? How many total images does she have? Where is she located (in terms of overhead)? Social media can be a part of any marketing plan, but I would bet that she didn’t build up that business solely by posting on twitter or any other social media site. Lots of people say they make this huge amount of $$ (a bunch here do the same thing), but if her overhead from that $100,000 is $99,000, then she doesn’t really make all that much money, does she. Social media is a small part of a big marketing picture. You can’t just post pictures on instagram and expect the cash to roll in. If someone has actually done it that way, I would love to hear, and see proof. Just my opinion, tho, based on 30+ years of self-employment, and 14+ years of microstock.

I agree with you cathyslife. Jana at TwigyPosts doesn't have anyone working for her and says the over $100,000 is what she keeps. Her sales come in large part from Instagram but I'm sure she has a marketing strategy and works hard at it. I struggle with social media marketing but it seems that's where a lot of the younger folks are finding success.

Is all of that financial information on her website? If not, how are you privy to it? I remain suspect.

Well, in reality it sounds like she's probably working pretty * hard to get that $100k ... At least it's hit a point of sustainability. Interesting subscription model and stuff too. I wonder what her average sale is? at the 299 that's only like 334 subscribers.

If I could even get 1k/mo out of my crappy images I'd totally be on board again. I think my desire to even try died with Symbio.

Hildegarde · « **Reply #24 on:** July 09, 2018, 21:28 »

Photos on social media are stolen and copied.

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Author Topic: Making my own website and Promoting my works on Social Media? (Read 9069 times)

natureshooter

ShadySue

natureshooter

ShadySue

natureshooter

ShadySue

natureshooter

ShadySue

natureshooter

niktol

cathyslife

PaulieWalnuts

Pauws99

PaulieWalnuts

Pauws99

DallasP

DallasP

nazlisart

SianC

trek

cathyslife

SianC

cathyslife

DallasP

Hildegarde

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