Show me the Money
As you correctly guessed from my last post, I spent the past weekend in Holland, photographing gardens. I’ll be posting more about Keukenhof and Arcen over the next few days, but today I want to write about something a little more personal. Also, I’d like to ask for your help and advice.
On our way to the Netherlands, as we often do while on long drives, Andrew and I talked about the future and what we would like to see happen over the next few years. We discussed travel plans and life plans, but mostly we discussed our careers.
Last year was a great year for me photographically speaking and many things happened that I never would have expected. I had some great assignments and I had my first experience with the art world through AAF. My main question is: where do I go from here?
Of course I am going to continue with my Forgotten Postcard series, and my travel stock photography has been fairly constant. On the other hand, when Andrew asked me what I really love to do, I have to say that garden photography is what gets me really excited. So far, however, this has been the hardest thing for me to make any money from.
My other concern is that my focus is divided between CheeseWeb and ACM Photography. I feel I haven’t been able to generate as much traffic on ACM Photography because my main focus is the community here. I would never give up CheeseWeb and over the past 6 months or so, I’ve seen a huge traffic increase and such a great community has developed. So thank you all for reading and participating on CheeseWeb. It really means a lot to me.
But at the end of the day, a gal has to make money. CheeseWeb doesn’t do that right now so I need to look at other options.
So, because I value your feedback and advice, I thought I’d toss it over to you guys. Some of you know me personally, and some of you I feel have gotten to know me over the past few months and years through this blog. Here are a few of the ideas that Andrew and I discussed and I’d love to hear your thoughts.
- Turn ACM Photography into a static portfolio site and add more photography updates to CheeseWeb instead.
- Develop a book and/or e-book about gardens in Benelux
- Develop a website focusing on flower photography and/or garden photography
- Put together a book of garden/flower photos
- Put together a book of travel photography within a specific theme – Europe, Belgium…
Many of you have successful blogs and portable careers and I’d love to hear any suggestions you may have on making this an even stronger community. What service or product can I provide that you actually need or want? Do any of my ideas seem like good one? Do you have others I haven’t considered? Leave your thoughts in the comments or feel free to drop me an email and thanks again for all of your support.
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24 comments
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Apr 20, 2010
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parisimperfect says:
Apr 20, 2010
Hi Alison. Thanks for sharing your thinking/brainstorming here. You definitely bring up a conundrum that I think many of us face. I’m afraid I haven’t yet figured out how to answer similar questions yet either, so I don’t have much insightful advice to offer, but I just wanted to let you know that we as a community would support anything you feel you need to do for your career – even if that means spending a tad less time on CheeseWeb to develop other projects.
That being said, I think you can definitely use the momentum you’ve created on CheeseWeb to launch yourself into other realms. I like the ebook/book ideas of photography on a specific theme. I could suggest that you do a little “market research” to see which of the themes you outlined already have similar titles out there – and pick the one that has less already in circulation. That way, you’d be filling in a needed niche!
Bon courage! And let me know if you figure out the answer. I’m sure a lot of us would love to know
-Sion
Alison says:
Apr 20, 2010
Thanks for the feedback Sion. You’re right; I think a lot of expats struggle with this. Non-expats do too of course, but I think it is particularly challenging for us as in many cases we can’t work ‘traditional’ jobs for various reasons.
I am certainly thinking about some sort of book project. It will probably be something fairly long-term.
I will definitely keep you all posted!
Charlie's Tribe says:
Apr 20, 2010
Alison, we love CheeseWeb so we’re really happy you won’t give that up. The book ideas sound the best to us and the travel-photography approach would be really cool. Not sure if you’re already seen it, but here is an interesting article about the market in Europe:
http://www.photographyblog.com/news/healthy_growth_in_western_european_photobook_market/
Also, have you thought about selling individual prints of your photos? I think they would look great blown up for hanging on walls – e.g. the tulip photos would look amazing in poster-size.
Hope this helps
Alison says:
Apr 20, 2010
Thanks for the advice and the interesting article! I hadn’t seen that and it is certainly interesting. I wonder how much of that represents people who are making and buying photobooks for themselves rather than for re-sale. It’s certainly something that I will research further.
I do sell prints through a site called RedBubble where you can order framed prints, posters, cards etc. Unfortunately RB doesn’t market individual artists, just the marketplace itself. So marketing falls back into the artist’s court and it’s hard to stand out from the crowd.
I guess my biggest problem is I am crap at marketing (hence the journalism and photography degrees and absolutely no business studies…) I need a marketing fairy to grant me three wishes
Remedial Wife says:
Jun 8, 2010
Hi Alison – in terms of selling your photos I think they would do really well at Derapages Gallery on Rue de Baille – have you ever been there? They are always on the search for new artists, photographers. A friend of mine was the founder and owner but recently sold the gallery. However, if you go down there, like what you see and want some “background” from my friend let me know and I’ll put you two in touch.
On another note, thank you for listing vegetarian restaurants in Brussels. This is our second posting here and the city is slowly improving, and I mean slowly, but I can’t wait to try out your suggestions!
Good luck!
Alison says:
Jun 8, 2010
Oh I’d love a bit of background on Derapages. I have checked it out before, as a couple of the other AAF artists recommended it to me although I haven’t contacted the owner yet. Talking to you friend about what they look for would be great.
I have a few vegetarian friends her in Bxl and Andrew and I always like trying out new places so if you want some more suggestions just drop me an email.
Thanks for your comment!
Lee says:
Apr 20, 2010
You do bring up an interesting question – as Sion points out, there are a lot of us in the same boat, including myself. You have some beautiful garden pictures, so those seem like they’d be a great basis for either a new website for displaying them (something where the website comes up under “garden photos” type searches, or something like that. As well as books devoted to them – your tulip pictures that you posted showed such range that I never knew existed in tulips, and there are lots of gardeners out there, right? And they would make beautiful calendars, and individual prints, posters (as Charlie’s Tribe has already suggested).
But then, since I’m currently struggling with the same questions (although different domain for my photos), I have no real concrete suggestions to offer for how to go about the marketing. If I figure something things out as I do my own research about this, I’ll try to share any suggestions I come up with! –Lee
Alison says:
Apr 20, 2010
A garden photo site is definitely something Andrew and I are seriously considering. I guess the challenge is how to set it apart from what already exists. You are right that key-wording will definitely be important and I need to do more research in to what sort of things people are searching for.
I have been doing calendars for the past few years, but as I said in my reply to Charlie’s Tribe, re the prints, it’s a difficult thing to market on a large scale and marketing is not my strong point. Maybe it’s time for me to do some on-line business/marketing classes…
Thanks so much for the thoughtful feedback. Keep me posted on your progress and I’ll be sure to do the same!
Unexpected Traveller says:
Apr 20, 2010
I like the idea of an e-book and what with devices like the iPad (and similar related tablets) hitting the market, there’s a lot of opportunity for photo-journals.
Imagine an e-book that can guide you around, say, Belgium and shows you photos available from that city/street/region in different seasons so you can see what you’re missing if you’re there in winter. Then a simple click and you can buy those photos or order them as prints. For this to work you’d need the software to back it up so perhaps it would be worth speaking to some publishers to see what their ideas are for the e-book platform(s)
Alison says:
Apr 20, 2010
That’s a really interesting idea and I’m sure it would appeal to the tech-savvy husband as well. This will definitely be added to the ideas list for further research. Thanks!
alinda says:
Apr 21, 2010
I’m one of those newbies. but i do have an idea…how about a how-to-photograph-your-garden book? video? just a thought. good luck!
Alison says:
Apr 21, 2010
Hi Alinda and welcome to CheeseWeb! That’s a great thought. I’ve been thinking about doing a series of blog posts like that but maybe I could turn it into something longer like a book or e-book. Great suggestion!
expatraveler says:
Apr 21, 2010
I don’t think you should do just one thing, but here’s a shot of some quick suggestions. I also don’t think you should wear yourself out with what you are doing (first hand experience there). Multiple ideas work best and bring in the best outcomes.
I think you should do a mix for Cheeseweb but make sure you tell people what to do with your photography, and post more of the photos and tell them about links. Works the best. Find places to show of your photography or be a guest blogger. This helps to promote your work…
***My fav of your suggestion**** Develop a book and/or e-book about gardens in Benelux…
***Possible – but don’t overdue it*** Develop a website focusing on flower photography and/or garden photography
*** Possible too, but after you’ve done the first e-book, book*** Put together a book of travel photography within a specific theme – Europe, Belgium…
Hope that helps a bit.
Alison says:
Apr 21, 2010
Hey Jen! I don’t think I could ever do just one thing anyway; I’m to ADHD for that
But yes, I do know that doing too many things at once can wear you out and then you end up doing none of them well. I guess that’s what I’m worried about at the moment. There are so many great ideas here that deciding what to focus on is the biggest challenge.
I am definitely leaning towards adding the photography back to CheeseWeb (figures, after I spent all winter working on the new ACM site)
I have been guest blogging a lot lately but you’re right, I should try to focus more on the photo side of it whereas I’ve been doing more Travel/expat related posts. Good Point!
I am leaning towards the gardens of Benelux book too. There is one that exists, which I own. It’s good but it’s outdated and missing some of my favourite places. I think I could put a new sping on it and add lots more photos. It would have to be a long term project though since I only really have spring and summer to track down the gardens.
Great ideas! Thanks!
Amy says:
Apr 21, 2010
I think I read at one point that you sell your stock photography through an agency, but have you thought about trying to cut them out so you can sell your photos directly? I don’t know that much about it but Photoshelter is a site that allows you to set up ecommerce capabilities. Maybe there is a way to add something like that to Cheeseweb. From what I understand, it’s possible to link a Photoshelter site with an independent portfolio site pretty seamlessly. If nothing else, the Photoshelter blog has great resources about marketing for photographers. Good luck!
Alison says:
Apr 21, 2010
Hi Amy! I have certainly thought about that and Andrew has looked into what it would take to build that sort of function into my website. I do use Photoshelter’s free resources. Their ebooks especially are great. In all honestly though, I think their hosting services are a bit expensive and then I am still responsible for all of my own marketing. On the other hand, you’re right. The profits would go into my pocket rather than someone else’s. It’s something to consider. Thanks so much for your suggestion!
Dave and Deb says:
Apr 21, 2010
I love cheeseweb so you must keep that going. Many of the tops bloggers have a couple of sites. I think that you should start a flower photography website. It is a great niche and good money can be made from running a site. You have learned so much here at Cheeseweb and grown it nicely. You can take your expertise and grow a flower photography blog easily. From there you can sell your photos directly and put together a book. It would be a win win situation. The travel blog community is so supportive that if you let everyone know that you are starting a new blog, they will help you promote it.
Good luck with the decision. We are sort of having the same dilemma. Dave wants to launch his photography site and go full force on it when take a break for a couple of months this summer. We are hoping to run two sites during our next travels in September. Double the money, double the fun:-)
Alison says:
Apr 21, 2010
Great advice guys and thanks so much for your support! I actually just discovered Dave’s photo site today and absolutely you should launch it full force! (Although don’t forget the other Double in double the money, double the fun and double the WORK!) But yes, I think one of the issues with my photo blog is that it’s not a niche… or rather it’s two niches – travel and garden photography. Many the two need to be targeted more. Oh no… now I smell three blogs in the making. AH!
Anastasia says:
Apr 22, 2010
Lots of good ideas here Alison….personally I’d avoid any printed books (4 color-photos/coffee table quality are especially expensive to produce and hard to sell).
Have you heard of ThirdTribeMarketing.com? It’s a relatively new subscription-based community of internet marketers and great learning environment. Perhaps a month’s subscription is all you’d need to go through the forums, ask for advice, and listen to the weekly seminars with top people in Internet businesses…
Good luck!
Alison says:
Apr 22, 2010
Hi Anastasia,
Yes, I agree on the coffee table books. Definitely expensive!
I’ll give that site a look. In terms of marketing I can use all the help I can get
Thanks for the advice!
Roz Parkinson says:
May 4, 2010
Hi Alison,
This is an idea that I believe is worth the effort. You are about 100 kilometers from Delft, Netherlands. The headquarters of IKEA is located in Delft.
Founded Älmhult, Småland, Sweden (1943)
Founder(s) Ingvar Kamprad
Headquarters Delft, Netherlands
Area served Worldwide
Key people Mikael Ohlsson (President)
Hans Gydell (President Inter IKEA Group)
Products Self-assembly furniture
Revenue ▲€22.71 billion (2009)[1]
Employees 127,800 (2008)[2]
Website IKEA.com
You have such an incredible collection of flower photographs!! I think you should create a presentation of these photos for the marketing department of IKEA.
IKEA makes posters of all sizes of all kinds of images. Offer them your entire flower portfolio EXCLUSIVELY for their print department. You have to do some brainstorming with Andrew and come up with a price that is worthy of your beautiful images….think really BIG!! If IKEA accepts your images, they will make millions around the world. You could sell the images for a set price(a 6 figure price) or you could ask for a percentage of the sales.
If I was over there, I would do the sale pitch for you. Make a call and see if you can make an appointment with the marketing department. There must be lots of flowers to photograph on this drive to Delft. The worst that can happen is that IKEA says no thank you.
When they say YES, please remember Roz in Montreal
You Go Girl!!!!
Good luck
Roz
Alison says:
May 5, 2010
Wow, Roz. Can I hire you to be my manager?
Brainstorming time!
Roz Parkinson says:
May 6, 2010
I am available!!! Don’t be afraid to try….the key is to get to the right person in the company. Take a trip to the nearest Ikea and imagine your photos on the shelves and also realize how much more beautiful your images are than what is on the shelves…..most probably this is far from the thoughts you have of yourself as an artist, but if you can get big dollars out of it, then you will have the money to make some of your dreams come true.
You will be in the land of Vermeer, an artist who survived with patrons backing him……….think of Ikea as a wonderful patron of the arts.
Roz