How to Open an Online Photography Business
- 1). Produce a portfolio of your best work. For your website, you'll need these photos in digital format so you can upload them to your website. If you use a 35-mm film camera, then you'll have to scan the photos, and upload them to your computer. Digital photos are easily uploaded following your particular cameras instructions for uploading pictures. You'll also want to select the photos that you wish to promote to your target audience. If you want to have an online photography business for weddings or baby pictures, you'll have to have pictures of that theme. Basically, you don't want to showcase landscape photos on a website specializing in wedding photos.
- 2). Obtain a website by searching online for website building software. You can also elect to have the site built for you by a web designer, which is convenient, but this can cost a lot of money. Many very affordable self-building web software can be found online and hosted for less than $10 a month. A few affordable sites for web building and hosting to look at would be Homestead.com, GoDaddy.com, Host Gator.com, Big Commerce, and Core Commerce. Note that you'll have hundreds of options to choose from, just stick with the website software and hosting that has the best deal for the money.
- 3). Add a Paypal or Clickbank account to your website if this option wasn't already provided. Paypal and Clickbank are invaluable resources for online retailers, and allow businesses to sell their goods directly online through a secure payment processing system.
- 4). Promote your online business by joining up with affiliate marketing networks. Two of these networks include Clickbank.com and Google Adsense. With affiliate marketing, you'll allow a link to another photography-related website on your website, and vice-versa. This is a great marketing tool, and can draw many visitors to your site, and you can earn money when people click on your affiliate's link and purchase goods.
- 5). Set up a search engine listing with Google and Yahoo so that when someone seeks a photographer online, your name will be included in the search page results. You'll have to pay for these services and it typically takes two months or more for your site to be listed in the search engine. Nevertheless this is an invaluable marketing tool, and many website building and hosting companies offer special deals that will give you a free month or two on Google or Yahoo search.
- 6). Place links to your website on online forums, bulletin boards, and social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and MySpace. These are great tools to network your services, and can land you a few potential customers, maybe even a few of your friends looking for photography work.
Source...