Monday, May 18, 2009

Monday's Link

Well I hope you've all enjoyed the last couple of weeks' posts on how to break into the travel photography business through writing. It seems we've attracted the attention of one of the authors of the books I recommended and she (there's a big hint who it is!) has kindly agreed to write a guest blog for us so stay tuned for that.

This week's link is a bit self-serving! I just wanted to remind those of you who are here in Cairns that I'll be running a travel photography workshop at the end of June. It's more than half way full and there are only a few places left but you can find all the info about it here.

For those of you who have been inspired enough by the last couple of weeks to look at starting to sell your own work I wanted to point you to what I think is a fantastic site to help sell your stock images. The first thing to let you know is that it isn't a microstock site. If you really want a long-term future in this business, while supporting the business at the same time, I would definitely recommend you stay away from this business model.

But you say, the big agencies aren't accepting work? Well the big agencies aren't necessarily all they're cracked up to be. Something I've found over the last few years is that I'm a lot more successful selling my own stock directly than I am through my agencies - particularly in areas that I specialise in.

So if you 're keen to sell your own work for fair rates and don't mind a little hard work in getting your images ready and keywording them then you maybe ready for these guys. Photoshelter is the name of the company and they are going a long way to help photographers make a living. Great articles on search engine optimisation, what stock buyers are looking for, a built-in ecommerce system as well as your own personal website with search engine embedded. This is the answer many of us selling our own stock have been looking for. Go and check it out.

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