Want to Sell Your Art? I Have a Proposition…

UPDATE: NO MORE ENTRIES AT THIS POINT! WE'RE ALREADY UP TO 30 PORTFOLIOS FOR CONSIDERATION AND WE'RE IN THE PROCESS OF TAKING THE NEXT STEPS. STAY TUNED FOR MORE NEWS ON THE UPCOMING SITE!

I've been testing the waters of the fine-art marketplace, and I'm finding that it's probably more difficult to break into than stock photography. It's not that I'm against doing stock photography (I do have some images in the PhotoShelter Collection), but I feel that my work is more suited for artistic prints rather than magazine ads.

I've been trying to make way with Auer PhotoWorks, but I think I've gone about it in the wrong way. For one, I don't have the time or energy to spend on the design and marketing of the site. And for two, galleries don't attract the amount of traffic that's needed to make sales.

WHERE AM I HEADING WITH THIS?

Well… I'm going to shut down Auer PhotoWorks at some point in the near future. But I'll be replacing it with something else. I'm going to start a photoblog for fine art photography. Blogs naturally bring in great traffic because of their structure (and because WordPress is so awesome). The goal of the blog will be three fold: 1) To share more of my work than my once per week “how I done it” feature, 2) To motivate me to spend more time on my photography, and 3) To generate enough traffic to make sales.

I'm thinking of using fineartphotoblog.com or fineartphotographyblog.com for the domain, and the name of the site will naturally follow from the domain name. Anybody have any preferences?

The site will have a simple, neutral, and navigable design. It will run on WordPress. There will be no ads. Each photo will present the viewers the opportunity to purchase the photo. All photos can be purchased as a print. Some can also be licensed.

I'm testing out ImageKind right now as my future method for handling print sales. I have a feeling they do decent work, and I like the fact that they have so many options for papers, matting, and framing. I just ordered a couple of my own prints so I can evaluate their quality (and my color management). I only have a few images up, but I'll be adding some on a daily basis until I have a good collection going.

THIS IS WHERE YOU STEP IN

I want to take this thing a step further. A photoblog from one person is neat, but a photoblog from a collection of artists is beyond neat. I'm looking for up to 5 other photographers that would like to be part of the photoblog as a method of selling their art. The idea is that a group of photographers should be able to drive more traffic than a single photographer. It will lighten the load on everybody by reducing the need to post a new image every single day. This will allow us to focus on our best work and prevent us from rushing our image preparation. We'll also be able to feed on each other's popularity and bring in a wider selection of potential art collectors. I'm saying 5 for right now just to test things out, but we may bump that number up if there's enough interest.

Each photographer would be responsible for selling their own images — the blog is only a means of generating traffic, you won't be able to buy anything directly from it. I'm going this route because every photographer will have different needs, and they should have full control over how their images are sold. Not only that, but bigger sites like ImageKind and RedBubble are more trusted than an independent site with a cheesy shopping cart.

QUESTIONS, CONCERNS, COMMENTS?

I don't have all the details planned out quite yet, but it's slowly solidifying. I'm planning on launching the site some time in January. You guys are a knowledgeable group of people, so I'd like to hear your thoughts and questions on this thing. If you have any ideas for improving this idea, I'd be more than happy to hear them. If you think it's totally stupid, I'd like to hear that too.

WHO WANTS IN?

If you're interested in being one of those five photographers, put together a portfolio of 10-15 of your best photos that you would want to sell as fine art. You can do this with Flickr, Zooomr, ImageKind, RedBubble, your personal gallery, or whatever means you have to present me with photos. It needs to be publicly accessible, and I have a reason for this.

I'm not going to decide who gets in and who doesn't. The photographers who submit a portfolio will decide who gets in. I'll ask the photographers to vote for the top three to five portfolios, depending on how many there are. I'll tally up the results and take the top photographers. If I don't get any takers, I guess I'll be going it alone. If I get one or two half-hearted attempts, I guess I'll be going it alone (I reserve the power to veto). Honestly, don't submit a portfolio unless you're dead serious about selling your work and helping out with the blog. And do realize that if you want to sell your images through a place like ImageKind, it will cost you a monthly fee at some point.

YOU HAVE UNTIL THE END OF DECEMBER TO CONTACT ME WITH YOUR PORTFOLIO THIS PART IS OVER FOLKS — NO MORE PORTFOLIOS. KEEP WATCHING THE BLOG FOR UPDATES ON THIS PROJECT.