If you have decided on a career as a freelance photographer your vocation will be marketing and your avocation, or sideline, will be photography. The marketing aspect of a photography business involves identifying potential customers, creating customer interest in the services you offer and building strong customer relationships. It is not unusual for self-employed photographers to spend 80% of their time in the marketing and administrative aspects of their business and 20% actually producing pictures.

Phrases like “it’s not all doom and gloom” pop up often, but those who offer such encouraging analysis are typically in the top tier of the profession. While their experience is certainly real and laudable if not amazing, is it representative enough to be touted as a roadmap to a successful career? Common sense, economics, mathematics and every available source of statistical information says no.

Recently on LindedIn Jacintha van Beveren observed that “The old photography business model is gone,” and asked if the road to survival and future success is through “creativity and flexibility or stubborn protection?” In my opinion neither “more creativity nor stubborn protection” will work. Read this story to gain some insights as to why the old ideas no longer work and what might work in the future.

When I published “Top Pros Stop Shooting” in my other newsletter Selling-Stock received an unusual number of comments from industry leaders. Most of those who commented had some disagreement with the positions I took in the article. Since PhotoLicensingOptions readers will have missed seeing these comments, I have printed them here along with an editorial response.

Today, a lot of businesses get marketing and branding mixed up. They are confused as to what the differences are, what they both mean or they try promoting their business with one and without the other. Simply put, marketing is how you reach your target market with advertising, promotions and public relations. Marketing is showing the world with what you do. Branding is who you are or what the world thinks you are. Every time a prospect or a potential customer makes contact with you in person, print, virally or by other means, they are formulating an opinion of you as a brand. 

On Linkedin’s Photography Industry Professionals discussion group, Brooke Fagel recently asked: “What’s it like to be a freelance photographer?” These select responses provide a comprehensive picture of what a photographer faces.

There is a reason why it is called “social” media and there are rules that you should follow when it comes to employing “social media” to market and brand yourself and your art. Every day I see small businesses that are ruining their brand by abusing social media.  Artists are no different, as they are a “small business” too! Here are some quick rules of social media that you should follow.
 

When you are a freelance self-employed photographer, getting to the level of earning enough to support yourself and your family is difficult. But you know you can do it, because you are willing to work hard and you produce great, unique images that are better than anything offered by the competition. Here are a few basic principles of the photography business to remember.

In the last few years there has been dramatic growth in the use of images on the Internet, a market for images that virtually did not exist 10 years ago. Some believe that the potential for growth of the Internet is infinite, and that there will always be an ever-increasing demand for imagery.

I receive regular requests from photographers who want to know how they can license rights to the images they have created over the years on film. Here’s what I tell them. Licensing rights to images is very difficult in today’s market because there is such an oversupply available compared to the demand.

So far in this series we’ve learned there is declining demand for images that will be used in print, and growing demand for images that will be used online and in electronic formats. Photographers just starting out should be aware of the number of images already in online databases and recognize that any images they produce will be competing against those that already exist.

More and more people are producing pictures of a quality sufficient to satisfy the needs of many who want to use pictures. Thanks to the Internet -- and to a great extent microstock -- it is much easier than in the past for those who would like to earn a little money from the images they have produced to make contact with customers who might want to use them.

As little as five years ago, approximately 98% of all stock photo revenue came from print uses. There was little or no Internet and small business uses. Today about 20% of industry revenue comes from Internet and small business uses. The needs of these new customers were hardly addressed five years ago, as all traditional sellers focused on the high end of the market. Consequently, when someone wanted an image for these purposes they either took the picture themselves, or copied something off another Internet site and paid nothing for its use. In the last five years the demand for images that will be used electronically has grown dramatically.