Sell Your Photos Online - Conclusion
We've had a look at the different ways that you can go about getting your images on-line for the world to see including: micro-stock sites, stock image sites, your own gallery and free or paid image hosting. There is also another possibility which we haven't discussed but can be a very effective way to show off your pictures a photo-blog.
Photo-blogs are weblogs or diaries arranged in a chronological order but primarily convey a message with images rather than text. Each image may be accompanied by text but the emphasis is on the pictures rather than the written word. If you opt for this type of site it is important that you keep your content fresh with new images at least several times a week, or daily if possible. If they are of a high standard your visitors will keep coming back.
We discussed aspects of how to go about building your own image gallery and what you need to consider before you start including your domain name, gallery structure and keywords.
Once your site was up and running you learnt about Search Engine Optimization - SEO - techniques, building traffic to your site and getting good results in Search Engine Results Pages - SERP's.
There are a couple of other things that need to be discussed. You need to present your images in the best possible way - people won't come back if your images are poorly composed or presented on your site. While viewing other peoples sites there are a couple of things that I look for:
- Clean, clutter free websites.
- Large sharp, well composed images.
- Easy to navigate websites
While on the other hand images with watermarks across the middle detract from the overall viewer experience. If you must use one a small unobtrusive watermark in one corner (for branding purposes) is much more pleasurable. Images that are too small to see detail or not sharp are also a turn off. You also don't want large files that take forever to load (remember, some people still use dial-up internet access).
You need to find a good compromise between quality (JPEG quality and sharpness), image size (both file size and image dimensions) and usability without making your images to big for someone to steal and make a decent copy off. I have written a separate article about protecting your images on-line.
Hopefully, there has been something in this series of articles that will help someone to get their images on-line!