After many attempts at selling images on the web, it strikes me finally, and clearly, that for 99% of your audience – it is quite enough to see your image for a few seconds on the web.
The idea, which is probably old-fashioned, that people would grab the high resolution images and print their own for the price of a cup of coffee – or less – that seems not to be at all true.
And I think that I know why. Unlike music, which you want to own and listen to over and over again. The only time that you want to purchase art is either for your wall, or as a gift.
In fact, the one thing that you can't do with a web image is give it as a gift. That's why when the Christmas season comes around, the images that you couldn't give away during the rest of the year, sell like — well like Christmas trees.
Every year (and I'm at it since Christmas of '99) there is a rush to buy gifts that begins around Thanksgiving, and continues until about the middle of January. That last part, I never did understand – though my theory was that people saw actual prints that their friends / family had and went to the site to get their own copies.
However, there is a market for fine art prints and they are happy to get a good deal through the web – and that's the art buyer and to some extent the interior decorator
They make their income by finding the appropriate artwork for corporate entities, hotels, and luxury buildings. And they simply double what you charge them or treble (if that's a word) to charge their client.
However, if you are going to target the art buyer / interior decorator then it can work against you if your prices are made public. The simple reason being that the client sees that they were charged double or treble what the print sold for.
I remember seeing many sites, early on where prices weren't shown. I couldn't understand that. But it dawns on me, that you have the best chance of "making it" if you can get steady orders from the art buyers. And now that the economy is slowly turning – I notice that I'm starting to get inquiries again from the art buyers. Good. I begin to think seriously of taking a completely different tact and simply removing pricing and carts and making the site geared towards professional buyers.
The same idea goes for galleries. How can you have your work in galleries if someone can go to your site and purchase the print for $100? The same idea applies.
In other words, what I tried to do over the last few months was to sell in volume at a low price. That did not work. So next stop will have to be selling at higher prices to those who can still make a profit at that price.
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Fantastic insights. Thanks for sharing this — it helps me with my own pricing thoughts for my paintings on the web
+Dave Beckerman An old saying that stuck with me when I was operating my technology consulting business seems to also apply here and to many other self employed careers. That is: 'work for full price or free, never cheap'
Much of the target market believes the value is in the price.
The Starbucks model is a notable reference.
Lee I have my paintings on the web , and i have a solution for anyone who tries to steal your work but truly art is for sharing underpricing only cheapens the motion of worth but to live for a dream of artist recognition is cornol sanders best
thank you +Dave Beckerman
Actually i am trying to figure out if and how i could sell some pictures of mine. Your thought really help me to get concentrated on "real" prints.
I´m still not sure how….but i get an idea how not to… :-)
Great post. I think it is true that most people are content to just see your image once, but fortunately I stay in business by the tiny fraction of 1% who wants to see the image every day on the wall. Will that last forever? Only time will tell. I think you're right that people are becoming more and more accustomed to seeing photos only for a fleeting moment.
Or, sell through 2 different venues that are likely never to cross… Discriminatory pricing… The airlines do it all the time. Stick it to the business traveler who is going no matter what the cost but fill the rest of the plane with for-fun travelers who only go if the price is right…
The Apple way :)
Great insights into the reality of selling photos in the Internet age.
I'd love to hear updates on how that goes! I have had very bad luck with selling and simply give the files to friends..
Perceived value rules. If you sell 30 images for $30 then they are perceived as low quality. Sell one image for $5000 and it is a masterpiece!
The value is all about perception. It's how the financial markets work (based on real value… we so know that's not true) so it makes sense here as well. You price your work as a commodity it get's treated as such, the competition is quite high form a volume perspective and it's hard to differentiate one offering from another.
Best of luck with the shift in strategy. One question – do you do anything specific from a marketing standpoint to target the art buyers?
Yes, it's true, but do not rush down the price, for work done
in good conditions. Whoever really admire a picture, will the price for it,
+Sean Webb You are correct, however not with art and web sales. In other words, if I go back to doing gallery shows, prices can go way up and will sell. But the same isn't true for the web. Believe me, I've tried. The time may come when that may change – but only if it's done in concert with physical gallery where gatekeepers have already put their mark of greatness on it.
You're right, but that's a shame that with the internet, the online gallery or less taken seriously, yet convenient to discover his passion to others around the world. But I think for now this is a way that is complementary to the traditional gallery. only time will tell.
I think it differs for everyone though. Just throwing that out there. I don't think there are hard and fast rules for how things go in terms of selling art online. I am not sure I want to expound on that either because I feel like my experience has been very different (in a positive way). But I would say that what you describe could be true for some!
I see your point +Dave Beckerman. People willing to pay hundreds or thousands for a image are not doing so online. I can't blame them really. People want to see an image beautifully framed in a nice gallery, in a great part of town, surrounded by rich people eating caviar and drinking champagne. I come from a scientific background so I have little understanding of the art world. You're all crazy for spending so much on art, in my opinion, but if I can sell something like a photograph for $5000, then feel free to put me in a straight jacket.
Thanks Dave, completely agree with you.
There's no doubt that it can be done when the photographer has the right mix of skills: web marketing, networking, understanding web design, and photographs that fit into a niche. I had a pretty good run. Got in early ('99) and sold prints that I made myself. But I see my sales decreasing and my followers going up. I see that I'm no longer on the "cutting edge" as I once was because it just gets more difficult as you get older (I'll be eligible for Social Security in less than two years) at least the one that starts at 62.
In fact, to a very large extent, I have lived my dream. There's just a bit of a gap left over between what I'd like to do now with my art – and the lack of having the sellable work I once had – though its the same work. In other words – I'm up against a tidal wave of technology. And the irony is – I love technology. But everyone is a photographer now – and some are producing beautiful works of art with their iPhones and Android phones. And a teeny percentage of these images are printed, whereas when I was growing up, it wasn't really a "thing" until it was a print.
Signed – the ancient mariner :)
I really do believe that http://www.fineartamerica.com is the best place to sell your prints….If you check this site out you will find all kinds of photography and painters on this site with all different kinds of categories… you set your own mark ups for all the sizes you would like to have prints made. Canvas Prints, Acrylic Prints, Framed Prints, Standard Prints and even greeting cards. They take care of all printing and shipping with the print on demand feature….All of this is free….but if you want to have a preferred membership, then you will receive 10% on all frames and matting's that the client purchases. …+ you get linked up with amazon, you can sale licenses on your work…
Please check this site out…and you will probably even find out more about it than I am explaining…..If you would like to see an example of what your site would be like just visit mine to see what I am talking about. http://www.alex-izatt.artistwebsites.com
Think you have summarised it well, you have to use all the marketing channels that are out there, and not trust to one alone. Your offers have been among the most amazing I have come across and it's a pity they have not matched your expectations.
Appealing to your logical hemisphere have you examined the ripples your posts achieve against those of other big hitter photographers, is there a take-away that can help ?
There are a lot of fine art photographers showing very high prices in their on-line galleries.Are they selling on line?.Or is just an strategy to complement other activities like selling books,workshops, etc.?
It could be interesting to make a research here