It seems logical that on my quest to learn more about selling photography on Imagekind that I should ask some questions of the people at the company itself. Especially as I sell my photos on the site. Benjamin Rogovy kindly answered the following questions:

What genres of photography are selling well on Imagekind at the moment?

HDR, Urban/Street photography, concert photography, Lomo and light-leak experimental photography. Basically anything that has gotten tons of photoblog coverage, rated high on the “interestingness” scale with Flickr - along with traditional subjects, such as travel, wildlife, black & white, or landscapes.

What price point can you recommend for a newcomer to Imagekind? To me a 100% markup on the base price seems a good place to start for someone who is new to selling their photography. A photographer who sells his or her work already can probably charge more. What are your thoughts on this?

This sounds about right. A lot of artists and photographers like testing this around at different markups to see what is working best. Sometimes it’s best to sell more stuff at a lower price, but still have a couple pieces with higher markups, and just expect to sell less volume.

What can a photographer do to increase his sales using just the tools available on the Imagekind site? I’m referring to the photographer’s profile, writing the photo descriptions (for search engine optimisation) and customising frames and mounts.

Giving titles to all their images and full descriptions to their profiles and galleries is key for picking up extra traffic from SEO. We also provide a series of banners and text links that artists can use on their own sites. We’ve also seen a lot success from people getting out to social networks with their gallery URLs.

It seems to me that your best selling photographers have established a reputation outside of Imagekind that they then use to drive targetted traffic to their Imagekind galleries. What is your advice on marketing one’s work outside of Imagekind? I’m thinking of online marketing like websites and blogs and offline marketing like advertising or promoting to an established client base.

It’s always best to start where you’re already known and work outward. Often times an artist may have a support network of family and pre-existing fans/friends. Those people are a good base to start word of mouth. Putting their username.imagekind.com URL on business card and in email signatures is a good way to pick up free exposure as well. Involvement in online forums and blogs works too.

In your experience does having a large amount of work for sale on Imagekind increase a photographer’s sales? Or are they better off marketing a small selection of high quality images?

It’s always better to have a good selection of work available for sale. In terms of marketing concentration, as long as an artist sends traffic to their personal URL (ex – username.imagekind.com), they’re in good shape.

Has Imagekind done any market research to see what photography buyers who visit the site are looking for? Is there anything you can share with us to help us understand what buyers want?

We’re finding that for every type of photography out there, there are interested buyers. The numbers of fans vary of course. It’s hard to say anything more definitive at this point.

What are the three best or most interesting things that you have seen photographers do to increase their sales?

Craigslist ads, myspace bulletins, and mass mailings to friends/family (they get passed along beyond the inner circle.)

And finally, anything else you’d like to add?

Artists and photographers get their own gallery URL when they sign up. (username.imagekind.com). As long as they get that out there any ways they can, they will see a lot of increased exposure to their art. Traffic on Imagekind is picking up everyday, so there’s never been a better time to start a free account, and load up some images.

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1. 7 Top Tips For Increasing Your Imagekind Sales - Magical Places Fine Art April 27th, 2008 10:31 am :

   [...] Ben Rogovy Interview Tags: ben rogovy, Eyal Nahmias, fine art photography, hannah summers, imagekind, michael longfellow, photography business, selling photos online [...]

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