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08-09-2020, 10:22 PM   #1
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Portfolio hosting, marketing and selling

I would like to start selling some of my fine art style photos. What do you have the most luck with when it comes to hosting your portfolio, and marketing and selling your prints? Do you opt for your own website using something like WordPress or Squarespace? Or do you find it better to go through a site like 500px, Etsy, or similar? Are stock photo sites still a viable option?

Any experiences or insights would be highly appreciated.

08-09-2020, 11:50 PM   #2
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Personally, I chose Zenfolio as their e-commerce was/is the best. Squarespace was/is more stylish. However, I sold nothing directly through them that did not come from the physical work being seen by customers.

For three years I exhibited at small shows, invited exhibitions and large multi-day outdoor events with many thousands of visitors. This was the only marketing I found that worked. I sold well, at first, but it tailed off so I stopped two years ago. I felt the economic climate here in the UK meant that visitors were there for the entertainment and not to buy. I doubt Covid-19 has helped, sadly. I've now switched to more commercial work at a part-time level so I get paid for work done, rather than the thrashing around marketing of fine art prints.

Good luck.
08-10-2020, 01:05 AM   #3
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As my website I built my own one with Drupal because I already had experience with it.

For client delivery I chose Pixieset. They have both a website and a store option where you can sell photos but I haven’t used that yet.
08-10-2020, 10:09 AM - 2 Likes   #4
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08-10-2020, 10:45 AM - 2 Likes   #5
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I have sold on Etsy, Amazon, Zenfolio and Fine Art America.

Etsy requires you to jump through hoops unless you actually make the print yourself. They consider you using a photo lab as a commercial act. Sold OK for a while but as Etsy changed my sales dwindled. Still a viable platform if you do all your own marketing and printing.

Amazon Homemade is Amazon's answer to Etsy. Dealing with Amazon is a little frustrating unless you have really good computer skills. They have a long list of specifications and if you do something like put too many characters in a listing it gets dropped from the search. Again you will need to do your own marketing. Sales have been OK there but be prepared to put a lot of work into getting listings up and maintaining them.

Zenfolio is a nice professional portfolio site. See mine here: www.zigzagmtart.com Sales have been almost non-existent but I use them for printing things I sell elsewhere so its worth it to have the site for that alone. If I sell something locally or through Amazon or Etsy I just place the order at Zenfolio and they drop ship it to the customer.

Fine Art America advertises themselves as the largest online art site. I suppose they are but that also means you will get lost in the giant bucket of 'art' being sold there. Still it costs only $30 per year and some people I know do very well there. I have not sold much but then I never put a lot of work into promoting that platform either.

There is also Red Bubble which I do sell at occasionally.

And also there is Art Storefronts which I have no experience with. I'm on their email list and they are constantly sending me updates and promos trying to get me to try them. Maybe someday I will.

I think stock photo sites are no longer worth the effort. I have over 10,000 images on stock sites and it generates no more than $300 per month these days. It was a good business while it lasted but the sheer volume of images in those catalogs means you will be unlikely to ever recover your cost of uploading. The only site I still upload to is Alamy. Sales are infrequent but the returns are better than the micro-sites.

Most of my fine art sales have been from local art markets and galleries. Which is also a lot of time and work. Before COVID we did up to 12 shows per year. I am still booked for one this year but its not certain it will actually go forward.


I have a friend who is a Facebook guru. He loves the platform and really knows his way around it. He gets very good and consistent sales from his FaceBook postings. Better than I get from all of my online markets together. But he has the skills to use the platform and make it work for him.

Bottom line any of the above platforms (and others) will work if you put in the time to learn how. If you expect to put up your portfolio and make sales without extensive marketing and promotion please just forget it and don't waste your time and money. Online selling is very hard work and very time consuming. If you treat it as a business and put the effort into it then you can make money. Otherwise you will just have a nice website and no sales,
08-10-2020, 11:54 AM   #6
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If you have a creative cloud subscription, and you just want to display your portfolio, Adobe Portfolio is super easy to set up and use. You can create a page straight from Lightroom. You can also add about and contact pages pretty easy, so if you'd be ok having people contact you to arrange purchase, I imagine it would work. But to actually conduct transactions on the website, you'd want something else. WordPress would take a lot of customization and plugins to work for selling, most of which you have to figure out on your own. SquareSpace that has portfolio and online store templates and eCommerce integration would be much easier and even more cost effective in the long run.
08-10-2020, 12:20 PM - 1 Like   #7
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QuoteOriginally posted by jatrax Quote
I have sold on Etsy, Amazon, Zenfolio and Fine Art America.

Etsy requires you to jump through hoops unless you actually make the print yourself. They consider you using a photo lab as a commercial act. Sold OK for a while but as Etsy changed my sales dwindled. Still a viable platform if you do all your own marketing and printing.

Amazon Homemade is Amazon's answer to Etsy. Dealing with Amazon is a little frustrating unless you have really good computer skills. They have a long list of specifications and if you do something like put too many characters in a listing it gets dropped from the search. Again you will need to do your own marketing. Sales have been OK there but be prepared to put a lot of work into getting listings up and maintaining them.

Zenfolio is a nice professional portfolio site. See mine here: www.zigzagmtart.com Sales have been almost non-existent but I use them for printing things I sell elsewhere so its worth it to have the site for that alone. If I sell something locally or through Amazon or Etsy I just place the order at Zenfolio and they drop ship it to the customer.

Fine Art America advertises themselves as the largest online art site. I suppose they are but that also means you will get lost in the giant bucket of 'art' being sold there. Still it costs only $30 per year and some people I know do very well there. I have not sold much but then I never put a lot of work into promoting that platform either.

There is also Red Bubble which I do sell at occasionally.

And also there is Art Storefronts which I have no experience with. I'm on their email list and they are constantly sending me updates and promos trying to get me to try them. Maybe someday I will.

I think stock photo sites are no longer worth the effort. I have over 10,000 images on stock sites and it generates no more than $300 per month these days. It was a good business while it lasted but the sheer volume of images in those catalogs means you will be unlikely to ever recover your cost of uploading. The only site I still upload to is Alamy. Sales are infrequent but the returns are better than the micro-sites.

Most of my fine art sales have been from local art markets and galleries. Which is also a lot of time and work. Before COVID we did up to 12 shows per year. I am still booked for one this year but its not certain it will actually go forward.


I have a friend who is a Facebook guru. He loves the platform and really knows his way around it. He gets very good and consistent sales from his FaceBook postings. Better than I get from all of my online markets together. But he has the skills to use the platform and make it work for him.

Bottom line any of the above platforms (and others) will work if you put in the time to learn how. If you expect to put up your portfolio and make sales without extensive marketing and promotion please just forget it and don't waste your time and money. Online selling is very hard work and very time consuming. If you treat it as a business and put the effort into it then you can make money. Otherwise you will just have a nice website and no sales,
... carrying from I posted earlier and what jatrax says: I also, tried Etsy, used Facebook marketing tools and Alamy. Again, my thoughts are that so many of these outlets for photographers are now swamped with quality work the rewards are just too small.

If you consider physical sales:

About 4 years ago when I was selling well at shows/exhibitions I was enjoying the work. Then it started to change. I maintained great engagement with potential customers, but many now wanted to know how/where I produced the shots, equipment & printing advice etc. I would hear comments about them being able to do that with their 5D etc., ignoring the fact that the printing, framing and willingness to drag myself up in the middle of the night time and again, was likely to thwart their ambitions.

The best sales where from the quality, invitation exhibitions and the somewhat off the wall shows, eg agricultural shows where I was alongside tractors, equestrian and cattle products - the take-down and cleanups were often very messy. (A friend has done well at bird watchers shows selling botanical and abstract prints.) I think this is because customers saw our work with fresh eyes and there weren't any jewellery stands. Beware the small item stands!!! With a fixed amount of cash in their pockets (probably) and their walls already decorated, customers find it easier to buy another piece of jewellery to be lost in a drawer.

High end, invite only events were profitable. Fewer visitors, but they had different budgets and probably bigger walls too. I once sold 4 A1 framed prints to one customer as well as other smaller items.

Be prepared for wet days, hot days, windy days, sporting events too. I had one event (an outdoor gardening event which had 10s of thousands of visitors normally over several days). The set-up was in the high 30 centigrade under canvas - steamy. The first day in rained continuously as the heatwave ended. On the second day a gale blew so hard the event was cancelled as items were being launched into the air. The rain meant the few visitors who'd braved it, huddled together in the marquees - after shaking their wet umbrellas and coats. The windy day was just deserted. Just imagine how long it took to clear up from that event and how much stock I lost.

So sales on-line can work, but I doubt many will manage to establish themselves just by this route nowadays. The hard graft of targeted events where the customer profile and competition is fully understood, can, I suggest, return recent rewards, but beware the 5Ders, the jewellery makers and the weather.

Finally, the monetary value of sales is not just the only reward. Shows can be fun. Interactions with customers and other exhibitors, who were mostly very appreciative and supportive, is a great boost. It gives purpose to the snapping, buys equipment and is very fulfilling. When commissions are taken and quality exhibition organisers make approaches, this is the icing on the cake.

Perhaps don't give up the day job ...

08-10-2020, 01:16 PM   #8
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QuoteOriginally posted by BarryE Quote
their walls already decorated, customers find it easier to buy another piece of jewellery to be lost in a drawer.
Oh so well said !!!! Cannot remember how many times I've been told the walls are full.
QuoteOriginally posted by BarryE Quote
Finally, the monetary value of sales is not just the only reward. Shows can be fun. Interactions with customers and other exhibitors,
Also a very good point. We got into so many shows because a lot of the other artisans were members of our art guild. So even if sales were not great we got to hang out with a great group of people.
QuoteOriginally posted by BarryE Quote
Perhaps don't give up the day job ...
+1,000
08-10-2020, 07:20 PM   #9
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Thanks so much for all the very detailed responses! There is a huge amount of useful information here. I am going to take my time and look through all the suggestions slowly. I must admit the the idea of doing markets and galleries was particularly interesting, its something I hadn't thought about before.

Thanks again, I will let you know how it goes...
08-11-2020, 07:44 AM   #10
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QuoteOriginally posted by Alnjpn Quote
markets and galleries was particularly interesting, its something I hadn't thought about before
We have here a type of market or gallery that is essentially a cooperative of artists. I've been a member of several over the years and found them to be profitable, educational and fun. I am not sure if the same type of market is done there or not but for someone starting out it is a very good place to learn the ropes. Basically a group of artists rents a space and then divides it up so each artist has their own small display space. They share the cost of the rent. All of the artists are required to staff the gallery for some amount of time each month. The one I am in currently requires three 6 hour shifts per month. There are two artists on staff at all times.

Quite often there is a art guild or some other non-profit organization that actually rents the space for its members but it can just be a group of people. Rent is covered by a monthly fee and the gallery also takes a percentage of each sale which goes to cover insurance, advertising and maintenance costs. The nice thing with all of the ones I've belonged to has been the help I received from more experienced artists in how to set up a display, price my work, mat & frame and so on. Generally it is a mix of art types with painters, photographers, fiber art, jewelers and so on. With such a diverse group it is easy to get questions answered and learn from others experience.
08-11-2020, 02:51 PM - 2 Likes   #11
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QuoteOriginally posted by BarryE Quote
Beware the small item stands!!! With a fixed amount of cash in their pockets (probably) and their walls already decorated, customers find it easier to buy another piece of jewellery to be lost in a drawer.

...

So sales on-line can work, but I doubt many will manage to establish themselves just by this route nowadays. The hard graft of targeted events where the customer profile and competition is fully understood, can, I suggest, return recent rewards, but beware the 5Ders, the jewellery makers and the weather.

Finally, the monetary value of sales is not just the only reward. Shows can be fun. Interactions with customers and other exhibitors, who were mostly very appreciative and supportive, is a great boost. It gives purpose to the snapping, buys equipment and is very fulfilling. When commissions are taken and quality exhibition organisers make approaches, this is the icing on the cake.

Perhaps don't give up the day job ...
I recognised the wall space problem when I was looking at a way to sell some of my photography, and came up with a unique solution. I created small coffee table books that combined my own poetry with my photography and focused on my local region. Even if you're a better photographer than me, you couldn't replicate them unless you live in the same location as me, and even if I came for a visit to where you live, and take some nice photos, there's no way I could replicate what you could do if I only have a short visit, so I don't mind sharing my concept.
There are lots of pictorial books out there though, so there needs to be something more than just a book of photos with captions, hence the poetry, but I let the poems tell a story about the place rather than being too abstract.
I included a map in my books so people who do want to have a go themselves can visit all the locations featured and take photos themselves.
I also kept the weight and cost down so that the books can be posted internationally at an affordable rate, unlike some beautiful but heavy pictorial books that cost more than their own price to send overseas.
The amount I make per book isn't a lot, but I've sold hundreds, and because I self published, I make a reasonable margin.

I certainly wouldn't give up my day job, and the return per image is low per book sale if you think about it that way, but unlike posting on a stock photo site, I retain full control, and there's a much better chance of selling a reasonable volume than with stock photography, where there's strong competition.

My competition would be other local photographers, but they need to spend at least a year covering all seasons, then they need to compile a curated selection together to tell a coherent story, and so far I haven't actually seen anyone else do that, although I've seen quite a few more general pictorial books about a specific region, but they don't really have any sort of cohesive narrative, they're just collections of images that happen to be from the same geographical region.
08-11-2020, 10:54 PM   #12
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QuoteOriginally posted by Kiwizinho Quote
I recognised the wall space problem when I was looking at a way to sell some of my photography, and came up with a unique solution. I created small coffee table books that combined my own poetry with my photography and focused on my local region. Even if you're a better photographer than me, you couldn't replicate them unless you live in the same location as me, and even if I came for a visit to where you live, and take some nice photos, there's no way I could replicate what you could do if I only have a short visit, so I don't mind sharing my concept.
There are lots of pictorial books out there though, so there needs to be something more than just a book of photos with captions, hence the poetry, but I let the poems tell a story about the place rather than being too abstract.
I included a map in my books so people who do want to have a go themselves can visit all the locations featured and take photos themselves.
I also kept the weight and cost down so that the books can be posted internationally at an affordable rate, unlike some beautiful but heavy pictorial books that cost more than their own price to send overseas.
The amount I make per book isn't a lot, but I've sold hundreds, and because I self published, I make a reasonable margin.

I certainly wouldn't give up my day job, and the return per image is low per book sale if you think about it that way, but unlike posting on a stock photo site, I retain full control, and there's a much better chance of selling a reasonable volume than with stock photography, where there's strong competition.

My competition would be other local photographers, but they need to spend at least a year covering all seasons, then they need to compile a curated selection together to tell a coherent story, and so far I haven't actually seen anyone else do that, although I've seen quite a few more general pictorial books about a specific region, but they don't really have any sort of cohesive narrative, they're just collections of images that happen to be from the same geographical region.
That's definitely an angle worth considering, or at least a version of. When I looked back at my sales it was clear that the local scenes sold better. Concentrating on my local area, capturing the light and seasons of areas that were known locally was a big plus for engagement with customers. They often had a chat about the what they knew of that location and feed me stories, names of land owners, etc and ideas for further shots. This feedback into my work helped a lot with sales and commissions. My photos, perhaps became more mundane but more meaningful to my clients. Other factors, as I've described earlier, then took their toll on my sales.

A local focus is a great idea to help stand out from the other photographers. Not sure everyone could write poetry to go with the images , but the book concept is one that I too discussed with local people, but it never got off the ground.

Last edited by BarryE; 08-12-2020 at 04:55 AM.
08-12-2020, 09:49 AM   #13
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QuoteOriginally posted by Kiwizinho Quote
I created small coffee table books that combined my own poetry with my photography and focused on my local region.
Cool idea, thank you for sharing. My wife and I have been toying with a similar concept for local scenes and landmarks but the poetry aspect is quite unique. I doubt either of us are capable of writing poetry though.........
08-12-2020, 02:39 PM   #14
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QuoteOriginally posted by jatrax Quote
Cool idea, thank you for sharing. My wife and I have been toying with a similar concept for local scenes and landmarks but the poetry aspect is quite unique. I doubt either of us are capable of writing poetry though.........
I realise not everyone might be up for writing poetry, which is one of the reasons I did it , but there are other ways you can add some sort of narrative to a book even if you write prose.
One of my books followed the course of a local river from its source at the foot of a mountain (I climbed the mountain, which was a decent day hike as it's 909m high - about 3000 feet). I didn't just take photos of the river obviously, but things in and around the river environment, from large like the mountain down to small like insects, and incorporated elements of local history and indigenous traditions, and even a few pop culture references.
It would be possible to do this with good descriptive captions rather than poetry, but there needs to be some kind of narrative that flows. You can actually get away with images that might not sell on their own, but make a worthwhile contribution to the overall narrative, while some really nice images that could sell on their own might not be appropriate if they don't really contribute anything to the overall story you're trying to tell.
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