Yeah, loadsamoney….! please do read on…
I earmarked writing this blog post in order to check-in a year on from buying a photo printer, and learning how to mount and frame photos.
After an attempt at offering products on my own website, which required far too much work with hindsight, and on the advice of another club member, I’ve since signed up to an online wall art provider Photo4Me.
I recently reduced my commission to £5 as a trial to see if I could break through with an initial sale, and after a few weeks, I have just made my first sale ever, of the shot below: Gorleston Sunrise.
I currently have just over 60 images on there, and plan to add a lot more of my best images over time.
Browsing around the Photo4Me site, I observe that regular sellers tend to have a lot of images so maybe volume equates to more sales?
There are lot of image sales on there of scenes I think are pretty average so it’s very interesting to note that anything can capture someone’s eye.
There’s plenty of regular observations from site members that composite pictures with World War II aircraft seem to sell well.
So, am I getting rich from my photography? No! Of course not.
Having said that, I don’t really advertise or promote since I’m not doing it for money, photography is primarily a hobby for which I’m tentatively seeing if there’s opportunities to bring in a few quid every year.
I wrote a previous blog called How much? Judging the value of art where I explained the challenges of making decent money from photography. It’s worth a read if you haven’t already done so.
The main point of that article was that a significant number of people sense of value of art is a lot less than it costs to produce, and that they expect and want something a lot cheaper than I can produce.
In the meantime, and given my £5 income to date, I’ll flog myself with the day job and continue to trickle new photos onto my website and online shop.
Over time, I hope to build up a collection to a point where a few sales are made every so often to drip feed a small extra income, or in future a retirement income top up.
Oh, and I’ll still buy a lottery ticket every now and then too!
Onwards and upwards…