11 Reasons Every Photographer Needs a Website or Blog
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11 Reasons Every Photographer Needs a Website or Blog
Have you ever wondered why you should have your own photography website or blog? Here are 11 great reasons that every photographer should have a website!
It’s so easy for just about anybody to have an account on a photo sharing site like Flickr that you may be wondering exactly why a photographer would need their own website or blog. Whether you’re a hobbyist or a professional photographer, there are a lot of good reasons to have your own website.
For anyone who doesn’t know much about web design, the thought of creating or commissioning a website can be daunting. In this article (the first of a series) I’ll run through the main benefits of having your own photography website.
Then, in the following articles, I’ll talk about some of the solutions, covering everything from expensive custom made websites to free blogs. By the end, you’ll understand why you should have a website, and the best options for creating one. Don’t think it has to be expensive - sometimes the free solutions can work best (I’ll show you why).
Here’s a quick run down of the main benefits of having your own photo website:
(All external links open in a new window)
To promote your photos
If you sell prints on Imagekind, stock photos through Alamy or photo downloads through a service like Photoshelter Archive, having your own website or blog is a great way to promote yourself and bring your photos to the attention of the world. With over 13 million photos for buyers to choose from on Alamy, for example, you need every bit of help you can get!
Cody Redmon is a photographer who sells limited edition fine art prints of the American west. He also sells his photos through a specialist stock agency. Take a look at his website to see how it works. For instance, imagine a photo buyer looking for landscape photos of Montana. The buyer does a search on Google, Cody’s website comes up, and he’s in with a shot of making a sale (Cody’s site came up in 16th place when I googled ‘photo landscapes Montana for sale’).
To sell your photos
Maybe you would like to sell prints or stock photos. This can also be done through your own website. It may not be particularly cheap, especially if you want to sell stock photos, but it’s certainly possible to set up a part or full time business this way.
Gavin Gough’s website is a great example of this type of website. It introduces the photographer, displays his best photos, and keeps readers updated with the latest news. Gavin uses the website to establish his professional credentials, build a brand and sell his photos.
Read my interview with Gavin Gough
Mark Sunderland sells fine art prints on his website. The reader can learn more about the photographer, browse his photo gallery and buy a print using the shopping cart.
Read my interview with Mark Sunderland
To look professional
Flickr is great for sharing photos and connecting with other photographers. But having your own website or photo blog looks a whole lot more professional and impressive. Whether it’s just for fun, or a serious effort at self-promotion, even a simple website with a photo gallery and an about/contact page can be extremely effective and fairly straightforward to put together.
John Simpson uses a simple photo blog to promote his book. This kind of site is powered by Pixelpost and quite easy to put together (I’ll show you how in a later article).
To join the photo blogging community
There’s a whole community of photo bloggers out there and if you have your own photo blog you can join in. Websites like Photoblogs.org and VFXY are a good entry point into the world of photo blogging. VFXY shows the best photos from a list of over 4400 photoblogs and Photoblogs.org lists over 32,000 photoblogs!!
A photoblog is pretty easy to set up with Pixelpost and a little more involved with WordPress. I’ll be taking a look at both in future articles.
To promote your offline photography business
Let’s say you’re a wedding photographer based in Barcelona, Spain. Now imagine that a potential customer googles ‘wedding photographers Barcelona‘. I think you can see where I’m going with this - a professional website that appears on the first page of Google’s search results will definitely win you more business.
To learn how to make a website
Learning to make your own website is a great skill to have that may one day lead to a part or full time career. Be aware though, that there’s a LOT to learn - it’s not just a simple matter of buying a book or two on HTML.
Web Design From Scratch is great place to start learning, not just about HTML, CSS, JavaScript and the other building blocks of websites, but about concepts like graphic design and usability. Check out the articles to get an idea of what you’re in for if you decide to teach yourself this stuff.
To help avoid copyright infringement and protect your Intellectual Property
Did you know that recently every photo on Flickr ended up on sale - without the photographers’ knowledge? Copyright infringement and intellectual property issues are hot topics for photographers right now. Even large organisations with plenty of cash (and who should know better!) like the BBC have been accused of copyright infringement.
This means it’s imperative for photographers to be aware of where their photos are appearing online and how to prevent image theft. It’s a complex issue with no easy solution. But keeping your photos in one place - such as your own website - is an excellent start. You can decide which photos to display, watermark them, and make it as difficult as possible for someone to steal them.
To promote your photography related business
Tewfic El-Sawy is a travel photographer who runs photo expeditions to remote locations like Bhutan and Kashmir. Advertising is expensive - but on the internet you can advertise for free if you don’t mind putting the work in.
Tewfic runs an excellent travel photography blog, which he updates regularly with links to the work of photojournalists and travel photographers. The result is an informative website that’s a great resource for anyone interested in travel photography. Tewfic provides a service and promotes his business at the same time. Best of all - the blog is hosted on Blogger and is 100% free.
To raise cash
Photojournalist Zoriah Miller photographs some of the world’s most dangerous hot spots and war zones, such as Palestine and Iraq. He’s a man driven by a desire to bring these stories to the world’s attention. The only thing is, this type of photojournalism doesn’t pay so well. So he uses his websites to raise funding for his photo stories.
To earn advertising revenue or sell eBooks
Yes, you can actually make money from a website or blog! You can sell advertising space, display Google ads or sell a product such as an eBook. The concept is simple, the more visitors that come to your website, the more advertising links they’ll click (pay per click is a common revenue model) or eBooks you’ll sell. With the internet’s worldwide reach, the earning potential is enormous.
Does this sound a little too good to be true? In some ways it is. To earn a decent amount of revenue you need a LOT of visitors, but it can be done. A recent Technorati report showed that blogs attracting 100,000 or more unique visitors a month had average advertising revenues of $US75,000 per year.
Getting 100,000 unique visitors a month to your site isn’t easy though. Be prepared to put in a lot of time and effort. Again, there’s a lot to learn (Search Engine Optimisation, social networking etc). If you’re going to succeed you will need an excellent blog or website and be prepared to work hard at building content and promotion for a year or two before seeing any substantial revenues.
Your website will need to be top quality to succeed. Remember the 32,000 plus photo blogs at photoblogs.org? That’s your competition.
Take a look at these sites to see the sort of quality you’ll need: Digital Photo School, PSDTuts and Smashing Magazine.
See how much PSDTuts are charging for adverts on their website. Pay attention to their visitor numbers!
To have fun!
The most important reason of all! Learn something new, contribute to the online world and enjoy yourself.
Can you think of another good reason that a photographer needs a website? Leave a comment and let us know.
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Why do photographers need a web site? | Gavin Gough: Travel Photographer
October 25th, 2008 8:51 pm
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[...] Following on from the introduction to Mitchell Kanashkevich’s new blog (below), Andrew Gibson has written a list of 11 reasons every photographer needs a website or blog. [...]
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nortypig » Blog Archive » Every Photographer Needs One
October 25th, 2008 11:11 pm
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[...] 11 Reasons Every Photographer Needs a Website or Blog - and for that matter I’d include artists along with photographers. We know so many artists in our circles who just don’t realise the personal and marketing potential of the web. It’s a mark of professionalism and an expectation of the market. [...]
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Why you should own a website or blog « Peter West Photo
October 26th, 2008 3:40 pm
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[...] or blog Posted on October 26, 2008 by Peter West Here’s a great article called 11 Reasons Every Photographer Needs A Website or Blog that appears on the online photography magazine Magical Places Fine [...]
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Paul Lester Photography » Blog Archive » The 12th reason
November 2nd, 2008 5:05 am
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[...] just read a post called 11 Reasons Every Photographer Needs a Website or Blog. Most of the reasons had to do with self-promotion or making money. Rather obvious, I think. I did [...]
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Weekend Perusing: Painting the Town RED | Your Photo Tips
November 15th, 2008 8:22 pm
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[...] Need some reasons to start a blog or build a website? Here’s 11 of them. [...]
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Evaldo blogas » Blog Archive » Nuorodų kampelis II
November 16th, 2008 2:44 pm
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[...] 11 priežasčių, kodėl kiekvienam fotografui būtina turėti interneto svetainę ar blog’ą [...]
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The Ambuscade
November 25th, 2008 7:02 pm
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[...] 11 Reasons Every Photographer Needs a Website or Blog | Magical Places Fine Art (tags: photography) [...]
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Promote Your Photography Site - Part 2 | Shutterbug Source Photography Tips
January 19th, 2009 12:01 am
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[...] 11 Reasons Every Photographer Needs a Website or Blog | Magical … [...]
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Promote Your Photography Site - Part 2 | theportfoliopro.org
March 29th, 2009 3:18 am
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[...] 11 Reasons Each Photographer Needs the Website or Blog| Magical … If we sell prints upon Imagekind, batch photos by Alamy or print downloads by the use similar to Photoshelter Archive, carrying your own website or blog is the great approach to foster yourself as great as move your photos to the courtesy of the … [...]
It’s amazing how easy it is to get a website started. It’s much harder to keep content fresh, keep things going, find your voice, and get engaged with the broader community. Not complicated, but it’s hard and takes a significant amount of time and effort.
The great thing is that you don’t need to know everything to start, and that you can learn over time about web design, blogs, search engine optimization, social networks, website analytics and the wide range of web services available for photographers and fans.
There is another great reason to run a Blog Full of Photography (plug)
It is to formulate what your art is about. To express what you see in words and hopefully gauge how receptive people really are to what you have to say in your artwork. Sometimes and honest negative comment would either help you re frame your vision or redefine your audience. Show passion in your writing and discussions and you might find what people crave to see in your art and in modern art in general.
ILYa
very helpful indeed. thanks Andrew. Look forward to seeing more detailed info on the same topic in the near future.
I copy your words, Andrew. I’ve the same idea as yours a few years back but only the real effort & time spent on this will deliver the result (as what you’ve done). Your article teaches me to FOCUS. At least stay focus on what I really love. On your side, I believe that you focus on travel (to your favourite places - Peru, Bolivia etc) & photography (mostly fine art). When bring them together, you’ve created this inspiring website & share it to the online community. This website is clean & full of information. Look forward to reading more informative & inspiring articles from this blog.