Marketing your Photographic ART!

These days, technology moves so fast that before we get a chance to latch onto a concept it is suddenly replaced by something newer, more effiencent, of better design or much 'trendier'. But the positive thing throughout all this, is that these networking, blog-driven, online portfolio type portals are the perfect base for marketing your photography. Most fine art photography can be turned into multiple sales or commission-based work, which is what any fine art photographer would ultimately strive for.

Although websites such as Facebook and Myspace are not the best bases for 'art sales', they will at least be a great networking base where you can meet others in the industry, put links to blogs, websites, online portfolios etc. It is a place where you can easily market your talents!


Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/)
Flickr is an online photo-sharing, networking website which is part of the Yahoo brand. Users can join, free of charge and display their imagery. It is a perfect place to get your art seen and in some cases can lead to sales. The only issue is the copyright, make sure you are sure with what you are putting on to the website and the terms and conditions before you upload your images!

Deviant Art (http://www.deviantart.com/)
Similar to Flickr, these guys also have an additional online portfolio. For the cost-free set-up you can a certain amount of images into 4 different portfolios. To increase the amount of images on display, the charges are increased to suit your needs!

Red Bubble (http://www.redbubble.com/)
Red Bubble is an online marketing website where you can display and sell your artworks. There is no charge to be a member of the website and each artwork sold does not carry a comission but just a base price which Red Bubble retain. Red Bubble are a community where you will receive feedback on your imagery, and receive constructive criticism. You as the artist, place your imagery on the portal and Red Bubble do the rest! They get the digital file, produce it, and send it off to the client whilst dealing with any customer service issues. The best part is that YOU choose your price! Aswell as all this, there are a range of things that you can get your art printed on, such as: canvas, calendars, t-shirts, greeting cards, posters and framed prints!

Etsy (http://www.etsy.com/)
A website similar to Red Bubble is Etsy. Like Red Bubble it is a free marketing tool, in which your artwork is sold through this company. This website is not only a photographic art website but a general handmade, art sale website. Anything from ornaments to ceramics, jewellery, music, pets toys and bags can be sold on this website.

If anyone has anything else to add, just pop it in!
Darlia