Although Flickr is designed to be a non-commercial website for sharing photographs it can at the same time be an incredible way to market your photography.
Getty Images
Flickr recently did a deal with Getty Images (Getty is the worlds leading stock photography company) which allows flickr users to make their images available to Getty’s editors. In order to ensure the Getty editors can see your images you need to ensure you update your flickr preferences.
To do this go to your flickr account preferences (http://www.flickr.com/account/prefs/gettyimages/) and ensure you select one of the top two options.
Once you’ve done this Getty editors can view your images and will be in touch if they want to license any of them.
Micro-Stock Photography
One of the easiest ways to get started making money is to upload all of the images you have on flickr to a micro stock photography site. These sites sell images to advertising agencies, graphic designers and other users and split the profits with the photographer. There are literally hundreds of stock sites you can use however the largest and one i’ve had the most success with is iStockPhoto.com.
iStockphoto have pretty high standards so be prepared to have some of your images rejected but if you stick at it and build up your online portfolio you can develop a nice steady passive income as your images get licensed over and over again.
Use Flickr as an additional Online Portfolio
Even if you have your own online website that you use as your portfolio don’t underestimate the reach of Flickr. I tend to upload my favourite shots to flickr mainly because it’s a nice chronological collection of my work, but also to help spread the word about my photography. As a result I get quite a few people click through to my website from my flickr account.
Over the last 3 years i’ve had many queries from people via flickr (through flickrmail), including requests to buy individual photos and future commissions. One example is when a local company got in touch with me after seeing the image below of a jogger running across a local park.
After some discussion they bought the image above (as well as a couple of others) and commissioned me to shoot some more local images to use in their forthcoming advertising campaign. I ended up with a load of my photographs all over town on 60foot bill boards which was great. Even better was the fact they paid me a nice four figure fee for my trouble!
Link Back to Your Website/Blog
When uploading photos to flickr always include a link to your website/blog in the pictures comments. That way any prospective clients can quickly contact you and see more details about your photography business and style of work.
Take Local Images
Leading on from my example above take some time out to take some good quality images of your local area. I know from experience that local firms often like to use local images in their advertising and promotional material so try to make sure your have some good content uploaded to your flickr account that might appeal.
Tagging Images
People won’t buy your photos or services if they can’t find you. Always take time to correctly tag and label your photographs. Try to think about different kinds of tags to use, not just the obvious ones. Include tags that describe the emotions of your photographs as well as just descriptive tags. As a general rule I aim to have at least 20 tags on each photograph i upload to flickr. The more relevant tags you have the more chances you have that people will find your images when searching.
3rd Party Products
There are a number of third party websites out there that allow you to create and sell various products that incorporate your photographs from flickr, earning you a nice commission for every sale they make that uses your images.
- Blurb allows you to create professional quality photo books from your images (linked to your flickr account). As well as buying a copy for family and friends you can allow blurb to sell them on your behalf and they’ll pay you a commission for every sale they make.
- Moo.com is the place to go to create, buy and sell funky business cards.
- Zazzle is a similar site to the others mentioned above but with a much larger product base. Create anything from t-shirts, key rings mugs and bags and earn commission on sales featuring your images.
Build Your Network
As with most businesses, building a good network of fellow professionals is often an essential part of being a photographer. You’re much more likely to pic up work via flickr if you take the time to build up your contacts and interact with other users.
I’m not talking about spamming here. You should take the time to build up a list of contacts who you genuinely like their work. Be generous with your commenting and favorites and over time you’ll most likely build up your own following. I know of several people that have built up strong and lucrative photographic collaborations that started from their flickr contacts.
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