This (rather long but well worth reading) article contains a wealth of information about promoting photography as a business, both online and offline. Four photographers at different stages in their careers and working in different fields within the industry were kind enough to share their experience and knowledge to help people who are considering a career in photography or are just starting out. Big thanks to the interviewees, and I hope you all find this article to be a useful resource. Enjoy!




--> =neolestat <--

How long have you been working as a photographer for and what type of photography do you specialise in?
I have been a photographer for about three years now, two of those as a hobbyist and one as a full time professional trying to eke out a living.

How long have you had your own website for and how was it made?
I’ve had my own website for about a year now and I have written it myself using Dreamweaver. It’s been a lot of trial and error to get the look I want and for the site to work in the way I want it too. I would say it’s more of an Organic build around an idea rather than a template driven one. I am still playing with gallery formats and find a lot of my resources free on the internet. Lightbox is my latest toy and I’m thinking of moving all the galleries over to it at the moment.

Has your website been productive in driving business to you?
I don’t know if productive is the right word but I do believe that having a web presence is essential. It gives prospective clients a place to see my work that isn’t on a free account or public space like deviantART or MySpace. It gives credence to my claims of being professional if nothing else.

Do you have any advice for someone wanting to set up their own website?
Have a very clear idea from the outset what your aims are and the image you want to convey. Make the site as easy to navigate as you can and as clean as you can. Try to follow ‘web’ conventions like opening links to your own site within the same page and external links in a new page.

Do you use any other websites to promote yourself and your work, and how useful have they been?
Like most people I have a few other sites I use for promotion. MySpace is a given as is dA for a photographer. MySpace has been great for meeting people I might not have met in any other way especially the ‘alternative’ models and dA has been a great source of friendship, support and critique. Without dA I might have given up long ago.

Do you have any advice for someone wanting to use other websites to promote their work?
Like having your own space be aware of the image you want to portray. Be aware that unlike your own site, submitting to a public forum has it’s pros as well as it’s cons, be prepared for criticism and always be polite and helpful if you can. The other sites are usually communities and you have to give as much as you get. Aloofness and egotism will rarely win you friends.

Do you pay, or have you ever paid, for online advertising and did it work for you?
Never! I haven’t really considered it or looked into it yet. There are too many free ways to generate pageviews and increase your ‘search’ rankings. Try posting onto relevant online forums that suit your work and make sure your site’s ‘keywords’ are relevant.

Have you ever used email promotion to promote your work, and did it work for you?
For sure… I use email promotion all the time. I mainly use One Model Place to promote my commercial services and have a paid Platinum account. I aim to send around 200 mails a week as the conversion of emails to paid work is something less than 3%. Too many people want to be models and photographers and in the digital age it’s all too easy to pretend but that’s a wholly separate argument.

What offline methods of promotion do you use and which did you find to be most useful?
At the moment I use flyers at relevant conventions and expos and flyers in some of the stockists and clothing companies that I work with on a regular basis. I always carry both photographic fliers and plain business cards as you never know when you’ll need them. If I see a fashion shop I like the look of I never pass the opportunity to drop them a flier and likewise, you’ll never know if you’ll meet the model of your dreams somewhere random and need to approach her with a card rather than a number on a scribbled bit of paper. However, the random scrap of paper worked recently and I’ll hopefully have a stunning new model to shoot soon.

Which is more effective for you - online or offline advertising? If it's a combination of both, how do your methods compliment each other?
I would say that a mixture of online and offline works for me. However (again) it doesn’t matter how well you promote yourself if you don’t have the portfolio to back up your claims. The single most important thing that leads to your success is a strong portfolio of varied and unique work. Don’t be a sheep. Aim to be different.

Which is the single most effective means of promotion for you?
Email marketing in the relevant sectors leading back to my website and communication with people. Sell yourself hard!

Is there anything you'd advise people not to waste their time and/or money on?
Companies that promise to increase your search rankings. There are many many ways to do it for free.

Any top tips for advertising/promotion?
Always be polite, always reply to emails in a timely fashion and nothing beats hard work. The work won’t find you unless you’re the new David La Chapelle; you have to get out there and find it yourself. If you talk the talk, make sure you walk the walk. Believe in your capabilities without arrogance.






--> %fangedfem <--

How long have you been working as a photographer for and what type of photography do you specialize in?
I have been involved with photography in one way or another all my life but just within the, I guess, last 7 years or so have taken it to a business level. I really do most any kind of photography, am pretty versatile when it comes to taking pictures. Personally I lean towards the more conceptual/abstract, and horror genre, but also enjoy animal and nature photography. I have had varied clients from the music industry down to friends of friends. I also just love to shoot for myself and sell the images as well.

How long have you had your own website for and how was it made?
Hmm I think I have had a website for about 10 years now. I started out pretty basic and low level because I was learning. Now mine is CSS driven made from scratch. The main program used is Dreamweaver and I definitely a WYSIWYG person. My fiance is a computer guru and without him I would have not learned as much as I have. We make a great team when it comes to site design work and I am even about to launch a whole new site as well. I get bored easily and like to change up frequently. But it always remains rather simple because even though I care a lot what the site looks like and how it functions, in the end I want the main focus to be my art.

Has your website been productive in driving business to you?
I believe it has helped in business significantly as its my portfolio and has contact information that makes it easy for potential clients to reach me. I can have the information handy which is most helpful when networking.

Do you have any advice for someone wanting to set up their own website?
The first thing that comes to my mind is the domain name, that it is something easy, yet something catchy, and something that can be easily passed around to people whether by verbal or text communication. I have creativeemotion.com as I feel not only is it simple to use, but it reflects the feeling of my work as well. But whether it be your name, or some phrase, I would suggest making it something that you plan on keeping for a long time. Make sure you have some sort of layout plan/design before starting. Know what you want so whether you are doing it yourself or hiring someone you can be sure you get what you want. Unless of course you just want someone to take over and do everything for you, there is that option too of course.

Do you use any other websites to promote yourself and your work, and how useful have they been?
Yes, I sign up for every site I can first and foremost so I can try and get my online name that I use which of course is Fangedfem. It’s that old simple process of the more you get yourself out there the more people will see your work. Obviously I am a member of deviantART, and a full time employee too, and it has been a great place to get exposure as well as meet many other artists and learn. It is where I sell my prints as well. I find networking via websites a great help in getting out there. Also most places you can do this for free and any exposure is great but free exposure is even better. I also sell stock art/photography on sites like iStock and Dreamstime and others. While it’s not my main work it can still get exposure for me as well as making a few extra bucks in the process.

Do you have any advice for someone wanting to use other websites to promote their work?
First make sure the site is a legitimate site and that it is safe for your work as well as a site that doesn’t project the wrong image. I mean its kind of common sense with that. If you have wedding photography work you probably won’t do any good on an anime site. And with the safety issue you want to make sure the site isn’t going to be using your work for anything without your permission or knowledge. ALWAYS read the find print and agreements and when in doubt, ask.

Do you pay, or have you ever paid, for online advertising and did it work for you?
I actually have never paid for online advertisements. I have thought about it at times, and may do so sometime in the future, but at this time I have been making use of all the areas that you can use without doing specific ads. I definitely think it can be useful though but again, just make sure you are using the right ads in areas for your target audience.

Have you ever used email promotion to promote your work, and did it work for you?
For me, I do not like mass emails as I find that process very impersonal and rude in most cases. I do have a MySpace page with banners and links and such but do not do mass emails. I also email people to speak about my work and look for exposure or job possibilities but all of those emails are individual and personalized.

What offline methods of promotion do you use and which did you find to be most useful?
I will advertise in places with flyers and business cards as much as I can. Word of mouth is definitely a big help as well. I have also done interviews and shown my work in magazines such as Photoshop Creative and Advanced Photoshop as well as JPGmag and others. All of those have been a great help in spreading the word about my art as well as just simply very enjoyable to do.

Which is more effective for you - online or offline advertising? If it's a combination of both, how do your methods compliment each other?
I think it is a combination of both but I enjoy offline advertising more. I will often speak with local music clubs, cafes, places that have art shown to see if I can show my art there and that has been a great way to not only get sales/jobs, but also to meet people. Always carry business cards with you and leave them wherever you can, you never know who may pick it up and see it. The offline and online work well together because once you make the contact or hand out the card, they can immediately see your work via online galleries. In today’s day and age I think it’s best to use both together.

Which is the single most effective means of promotion for you?
I would say the live club shows, magazine interviews and layouts, and getting out to meet others where you can network and hand out business cards. I know that isn’t really a single means there but those are what come to mind.

Is there anything you'd advise people not to waste their time and/or money on?
Hmmm, I can’t really think of anything that may be a waste of time because just because something doesn’t work for me doesn’t mean it might not work for someone else. It’s not my place to tell someone else what to do for their work, I can only offer information about my experiences and how they have worked or not worked for me.

Any top tips for advertising/promotion?
Just try and get as much as you can because competition is tough and again, the more you are seen the more likelihood there is of getting work. But in the end also be safe and smart! Make sure you do some research on how and who with you will advertise because you do not want to harm your image or give the wrong idea in any way. Good luck and all the best to you with everything!






--> =UniqueNudes <--

How long have you been working as a photographer for and what type of photography do you specialize in?
I've been a photographer for 10½ years and I specialize in gallery quality fine art artistic nudes.

How long have you had your own website for and how was it made?
I hired a very good coder (who used an e107 template based system) to set me up a website that I could easily update and modify myself. Since it uses templates, I just upload photos, add in information and it goes live immediately.

Has your website been productive in driving business to you?
UniqueNudes.com went live on January 19th, 2004 and my workload has increased nearly tenfold. I'm not sure it all came from there but it would be naïve not to think that it was a major factor having a web presence. I had thousands of international fans find my work through my website long before I joined dA.

Do you have any advice for someone wanting to set up their own website?
Unless you are a professional web designer or very, very good at it, hire somebody else to do your website. You can turn off many a client by having a shoddy looking free-web page that looks like it was designed in the early 90's.

Do you use any other websites to promote yourself and your work, and how useful have they been?
Just the free ones. deviantART (of course), ModelMayhem and TheWhole9 have all proven to be pretty useful. People often tell me they found my work and/or website via one of those channels.

Do you have any advice for someone wanting to use other websites to promote their work?
It really depends on the audience you are going for. Make sure the website caters to those people, otherwise you are just waving a flag that nobody cares about.

Do you pay, or have you ever paid, for online advertising and did it work for you?
I've never paid for online advertising, but since my work is primarily nude most ad places categorize it as "adult ads" which is not someplace I want to go.

Have you ever used email promotion to promote your work, and did it work for you?
I think mass messages are really tacky, and so I avoid them at all costs. I have sent out a semi-form letter on ModelMayhem for new models that I might want to work with, but I always tailor it specifically to the individual model I'm sending it to.

What offline methods of promotion do you use (word of mouth, listings in Yellow Pages, magazine adverts etc) and which did you find to be most useful?
Word of mouth has been the most successful for me. Models, artists and fans often discuss my work positively which in turn drives a lot of traffic to my site. Also, anytime I have a gallery showing I make sure my website is mentioned in the catalog and any newspaper articles about the installation.

Which is more effective for you - online or offline advertising? If it's a combination of both, how do your methods compliment each other?
Offline seems to work best for me. Networking at gallery shows, hosting parties for models and photographers, and just being a nice guy seems to generate the most word-of-mouth. Recently, however, I have found that behind-the-scenes videos and small documentary clips (which I host on Yahoo as YouTube doesn't allow any nudity at all, even artistic) has been bringing in more online traffic.

Which is the single most effective means of promotion for you?
Word of mouth, most definitely.

Is there anything you'd advise people not to waste their time and/or money on?
A lot of "pay for promotion" websites are scams. They take your money and then "submit" your site to search engines that already have bots to find your page.

Any top tips for advertising/promotion?
Yes. If you really want to be successful online come up with a unique brand name. In my case, UniqueNudes. It's catchy, descriptive, and easy to remember. (Much more so than "Nakayama Studios" which is the name of my actual business.) Get an easy to remember, easy to spell URL and make sure your site is easy to navigate with plenty of bandwith. Thanks to UniqueNudes.com now when you type in "Nakayama Studios" "UniqueNudes" or "Richard Rasner" into Google or a similar search engine I am the first 25 entries or more. And that's after just a few years. Since my launch 1,386 days ago (as of this interview) I have had over 32,500,000 unique page views. Yes, 32 MILLION. If you consider that my website is not even open to the public and is membership only that number becomes all the more staggering. (I average 23,500 hits a day, or 1 hit every 3 to 5 seconds.) I attribute most of that to the fact that my site is easy to remember and find. If anyone has any additional specific questions that they would like to ask me I can always be reached via my notebox here on dA.






--> ~CoffinFairy <--

How long have you been working as a photographer for and what type of photography do you specialise in?
I have been photography for about 3 to 4 years now, but I'm not working as a photographer yet. I'm still a student. I already have a master degree in graphic design, and I'm now studying webdesign. I don't have a photography education.

How long have you had your own website for and how was it made?
My personal portfolio website katrijnmichiels.be has been online for a year-and-a-half. I've done the entire website myself using html and css codes. I also started my studies as a webdesigner this schoolyear, so I'll continue to make my own websites.

Has your website been productive in driving business to you?
I've had some requests for shoots via my website, but mostly people get to know me and my work on online communities such as deviantart.

Do you have any advice for someone wanting to set up their own website?
Keep the website very simple, so that it doesn't take away the attention of your art.

Do you use any other websites to promote yourself and your work, and how useful have they been?
Yes, amongst others I use deviantart, flickr and myspace to get my work out there. A lot of people have gotten to know my work through these online communities.

Do you have any advice for someone wanting to use other websites to promote their work?
I think online communities are the best way to reach a lot of people. Having your own website is a must as well, but it will be more difficult to get people to know you just from yourname.com.

Do you pay, or have you ever paid, for online advertising and did it work for you?
As I am still a student I don't have the money for that, but who knows what the future will bring.

Have you ever used email promotion to promote your work, and did it work for you?
I always put a link to my website in the footer of my email and online messages. When my new site was online (new design, this august) I sent a few messages, rather to get feedback than to promote it, and I got a lot of possitive comments on it.

What offline methods of promotion do you use and which did you find to be most useful?
I've never printed flyers, but I hand out business cards and of course use mouth to mouth communication.

Which is more effective for you - online or offline advertising? If it's a combination of both, how do your methods compliment each other?
I think you can reach a lot of younger people online, but flyers will be very effective as well. However, since the flyers would be advertising my photography, it must contain a link to my website, so that people can see more pictures that the 1 or 2 that fit on the flyer.

Which is the single most effective means of promotion for you?
Getting people to know your name and talk about you.

Is there anything you'd advise people not to waste their time and/or money on?
I'm sure there are ways of promotion that aren't very effective, but I can't think of one right now.

Any top tips for advertising/promotion?
Don't advertise randomly, you don't have to reach everyone, only the potention clients.
Also, if you're not familiar with graphic design, hire someone to design your ad. Doesn't matter how good your photography is, if the ad looks amateuristic a lot of people will skip it.






Please take the time to browse the galleries of these artists as there's so much more to see of their work than is shown in this article. I tried to keep everything non-mature-content (apart from Mr =UniqueNudes, obviously!) so as many people as possible could see the thumbnails that accompany the interviews, but the artists' galleries are full of other interesting, beautiful imagery which is well worth a look.