You Should Never Ever Upload Anything But Wow Level Work Even If That Means You Only Have One Image Uploaded.

wow varies for me because i'm usually stuck with mid day light, and i don't really like to travel all that much. i shoot mostly indoor, and create oil paintings out of photos, without using paint. (its hard to convince people they are photos). and tend to make my own light when i can. or turn an old black and white into some thing much better.

the idea is to catch attention, and you can always tell a wow, from a very good, to a blah i just bought my first camera does it show? i think always doing your best is good, not all will be a wow, i try to achieve 90% wow.


---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

I am one of the guys who limits his portfolio on here and "sells well". Not well enough for my taste mind you...but I have come a long ways! I will toss out a point that JC didn't mention as part of my reasoning for it.

I want my images high in the searches for common keywords. To do that, each image that I want high needs to sell many times. As a full time working farmer/rancher, I have a very finite amount of time to promote my images. I have found, over time, it works for me to focus those promotions on my best, which in turn lands them high in the search for broad search terms, and then the random sales come.

I have always said its not the only way to do things, and I completely understand the counterpoints to uploading more. But, in the end, this strategy has worked well for me. JC is absolutely right on when he says that having a market for your work is essential, just as essential is getting that work in front of the eyes of those people. That takes time and money, so focusing works for me.

Just as important as ALL of this though is hard work. Pick your strategy, and put 100% behind it. Either way can work well, and over time you will find what works for you and what doesn't.

Case in point......John Deere. This image was one of my first images, and for a long time was my best selling. I promoted and promoted and promoted and promoted it because, well, it worked. There is a huge market for John Deere.



Last year I got this shot. My John Deere promotion, for the most part, now centers on this image, it is now on row 4 on the page if you search "John Deere". #1 "The Harvest" is already on the top row, it sells regularly with no intervention from me, and it will stay that way. #2, in advertising "Amber Waves" consistently outperforms it in impressions and sales and #3, I think that it is the superior image and over time it will outsell "The Harvest". Both need to exist, but I don't want to divide the efforts between 200 other images I have harvesting with John Deere equipment.



As always, the truth lies somewhere in the middle I think. I feel uploading everything detracts from your ability to have your best seen....but I very well may cost myself some random sales by not having them for sale. I may never know unless this method starts disappointing me, and with record sales the past few months VS previous years months....so far so good!

Discerning what is an unsaturated but real (albeit limited) market is not always easy. A couple of summers ago I focused some serious time in the central Idaho mountains to the west of me, rather than the usual Tetons to the east. The area is remote and largely accessible only be 4WD. But there definitely are people that hike and camp there in the summer. I picked one particular lake (Merriam Lake) because it was hard to reach (but people do most summer days) and I couldn't find a single image of the lake posted on FAA. It was not an easy hike and the conditions definitely weren't conducive for a "wow" image. The water wasn't still, so no reflections. The sky had zero clouds. And it was mid-day since I didn't want to do a steep hike with scrambling in the dark to get there for first light. It's never sold. An other images from central Idaho, including maybe a few "wows" haven't sold nearly as much as images from the Tetons, which is quite saturated. So for me, I have more confidence that I can sell something in a saturated market than hoping I get a great image in a potentially viable market. Anyhow, my Merriam Lake-

Fine Art Nature Photography

I'm not speaking good strategy or anything, but for me to limit to only wow factor images or stick to one or two styles would be boring to me.

Maybe if I were treating this 100% like a business that would change. My split is probably 98% photography, 2% marketing because photography is what I have a lot more fun with. Despite that I actually sell decently, but I'm sure it could be better.

My main strategy is covering as many locations as I can. If I happen upon a wow factor kind of day, great. If not I am still going to take the photos and post them here. The best you can do is to go when the light should be good to achieve whatever effect you want.

But for now if I personally like a photo, I upload it.

Also, another point, the customer may not always want a location with that amazing vibrant sunrise. They may want it the way they remember seeing it. I've sold enough cloudless midday images to see that might be true to some degree.

Making the best art you can possibly make is completely different than uploading images (both yours and others) that someone might buy.

Again, two extremes. Neither way is right or wrong, just absolutely different.


Dan Turner
Dan Turner's Seven Keys to Selling Art Online

I don't disagree with any of your points, however there is a caveat. Not everyone has the ability to see or understand what may be lacking in their own work. You can't bite your own teeth.

Using myself as an example, my first commercial portfolio (30 years ago) I believed would rock the advertising world, cause tears of joy, and would catapult me to the stratosphere of legendary commercial photographers. Nope.

Dull thud, I might as well been dragging around a collection of dried and pressed roadkill in my fancy pants portfolio case. It didn't go well, but I thought I was brilliant!?!

Turns out, I was immature. I hadn't developed the skills, nor the ability to discern what was marketable, and what wasn't.

I see it in a lot of the uploads here. Artists who believe they have achieved something, when in fact they are really just getting started. They point their camera, it goes click, and viola, they have captured something that they have never been able to do before, and it's off to FAA to sell it for fame and fortune. It's tough to call out someone that has a deluded misconception of their own skill level. Rare is the artist who has the courage or ability to admit that perhaps, they're just not ready.

Add to that the easy promise of sales on a POD site just by uploading your work, and the mix gets even more convoluted.

-YoPedro

Twitter@YoPedro

You personally should be happy with how the image represents you. Don't upload something you hate but think maybe,

perhaps,

cross my fingers,

hope to God,

just maybe,

if I'm lucky,

you never know,

it could happen,

someone will buy it.

Or at least bury it at the back of your portfolio.

Obviously the WOW! factor is up to the individual photographer - mine are mostly what Mike will describe as a snapshot - because they are all taken while traveling - even if it is just around the back roads here. The only times I've ever deliberately gone to a spot to take a 'wow' factor image - the timing, light, nothing has been right. Sometimes it just happens good - I think this photo has a bit of a wow



This one perhaps not so much - but there wasn't much I could do to reposition either myself or the Gator

Looking at what I've sold. I'd say the WOWs preform better than the HoHums about 9 times out of 10.

But you never know the relationship of the HoHums to the final purchase. Might be its a HoHum that initially brought the buyer in.

many people's wow shots, are from a vacation they really enjoyed. and when they see the image, they remember the trip, and ignore the fact its clearly a vacation shot (poorly made). the wow was all in the mind the whole time.

other's think its how hard it was to get. i had to sit on a beehive to get the shot. i dangled from a rope. jumped from a plane etc. and the shot is a snap shot, even if you lost an arm in the process.

of course you could get lucky too. like a so-so shot of a church, may be the very church they used as a kid. or that mediocre picture of the boardwalk that was swept into the ocean, may be the only shot that a customer wants.

and sometimes it can be too much wow, and it will look like wall paper, or like it was cut from a magazine. and it may be a little too much to hang on the wall.

---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

Not really sure which cam I fit into, like everyone else I think everything I upload has the "wow" factor, my sales would say otherwise, I have been selling better than last year, but no where near what I would think I should be selling.
Then I have to wonder if it is the subject matter, do I photograph what I love, or do I photograph what I think others might love, lately I have been trying to take a bit of a different approach and making what I want to make, not sure it is an under, or over served market, but I like they way they look.



I would have thought this one would have sold millions by now :-), I like it, just hope others like it also.

TL Mair
http://tlmair.com

I like to try to go with JC's Abillene theory as much as possible. It's not always the "wow"
Images that sell. I started posting freighters about a year ago because I have access to them on a regular basis and I finally sold one recently. It was one of the less exciting freighter images I have posted, but it was probably purchsed by someone who had a connection to that particular ship. My best seller (which for me is six sales...) was taken with a 120 dollar point and shoot so I can't sell it very large.

I upload A LOT, but I try to make sure the images are at least clean technically. I think volume, if it's not junk, helps you get seen eventually. That and a bit of advertising and being active on the site so you get indexed more often.

All good points, JC, but I have to say...one person's WOW might be another person's ho hum.

This was clearly illustrated to me just a few days ago on the thread where some people were posting and commenting on their least-liked images from our portfolios. The image somebody least liked was actually one that affected me greatly. Also, I have sold one of mine that somebody least liked many times (albeit on other sites). Go figure.

I have I believe "good" shots, and even a few "wow"zers. When I show them person to person, they sell. Not so much online..
I also realize I'm in THE most saturated market there is. Wildlife photography. Even so I thought this white morph Great horned owl might sell. So far nada.

Peggy, that's so true. I will see a photo in someone's portfolio they have had up for a while that really and truly "wow"s me and I'll leave a comment and I'll find I'm the only one that has commented on it and it has very few views. Everybody's taste is (obviously) different. 90 percent of what I see on the recently sold page leaves me cold, and I would never hang it in my house, so what's pretty to someone else, might look like crap to me and vise versa. Most of what I've sold here has very few views and comments. The ones with a lot of comments and views don't sell.

Yeah wildlife and landscape is tough when the competition includes Nat Geo photographers and people share these images all the time so the viewers are jaded. Takes quite a bit of WOW factor to get someone to act - i.e. reach for the wallet.

Roy

You might want to fix the typo in the title of the cow shot.

Yo Pedro, PREACH it brother! When I started trying to sell I rented a tent in DC's eastern market and I had 40 or 50 8x10s with me. I wondered if I had enough to keep from selling out. Obviously the world was just waiting for my images of butterflies and dragonflies. Life and experience is a wonderful teacher so long as you can learn the lessons it is trying to teach you.

Oh how upset my wife was when I upgraded to a $250 point and shoot from my old cheaper one. But by gosh, it was going to pay for itself in no time and I might even make a living off it. HA! That said I do actually still sell images I shot with that and it has actually paid for itself many times over. With experience I can tell what is good now. I have a pretty good idea of what will sell and what won't regardless of the wow factor. I know what I can justify expense wise and what is nothing more than the hobby part of my photography. (You can insert snakes in that one.) Experience has taught my wife what to get upset about and what not to even bat an eye at. About a year ago I dropped $200 on some old coke products. She didn't say a word until we were walking out and said, getting them to shoot aren't you? Yupp. Oh, that $200 worth of still life product has returned 400% on the initial investment in the first year. Do any of my Coke images have that wow factor? Not a one of them.... They do however have a very large and active market. While the general Coke market is extremely saturated there are portions of that market that are pure Abilenes. Which makes a great segway to keywording.

Keywording. Oh, let's see if I can get the proper tone here. I searched for Coke and went through 70 pages and didn't see my image! WHAT is wrong with the search? OK, I am lying as I got bored stiff after 7 pages and stopped looking. Now, if you look for diamond coke bottle there are three whole images with only one artist. (Actually, there are four right now and one the word bottle is spam and has now been fixed.) Anyway, the point here is there are markets within markets and the very broad general market is only part of the equation. Speaking of which, there are around 4000 great horned owls here. There are two "white morph Great horned owl" images. Jeste, yours isn't one of them and you should fix that.

Mary, you might want to look into Topaz Impressions. Change that point and shoot image into digital art and often it can suddenly print large!

My best selling image here (10 sales) definitely is not a wow factor shot. But it is how a lot of people probably remember the place.

David S - I know it's there - I've known for some time - I hate to break the link however. Sometimes my fingers just hit the keys they want to and not the ones intended - and I'm good a proof reading your stuff - but mine always escapes me. It's been up 30 days now and has a whopping 35 views - it's been on FB three times and P once.

Never stop working at making your work better and better. My wow image changes with each shoot because I am always learning and going beyond more and more each time. Always asking myself, how can I make this better next time. How can I make this mine, even though its been shot thousands of times before.

Yeah I hear ya.

The ONLY reason I even put my best seller up is someone on FB said the wanted to buy it. I thought it was only so so.

Oh, but did it teach me about markets.

Fixed, thanks JC

This is what I consider a WOW in my portfolio (hasn't sold yet) - I doubt I'll be able to recreate this in my lifetime. A right place at the right time kind of shot. Will the WOW factor turn into sales? Maybe yes, maybe no. Depends on a lot of factors. Certainly would make people delve deeper into my portfolio.

I agree and I also camp in both sites, clearly we all want the WOW shot but sometimes we don't get it...... One of my best sellers is something that I at least consider a WOW factor shot.... Right place, right time, right light ETC



I have also sold these other three images (some more then once) that if I subscribed to the "Only upload what you would hang on your wall" tagline wouldn't even be in my portfolio because I would personally not hang any of these own my wall. But clearly a customer would and their was a market for them.



I love the WOW factor shots as much as anyone else but that doesn't mean someone wont buy what we as photographers consider a "normal" shot

Wham was a group - just saying.

With Thomas's portfolio... I wouldn't tell him anything. Maybe WOW.

He would do the opposite anyway. Just the way he's made.

Technically it was WHAM! They earned the exclamation point, or so I have heard.

Reminds me of the classic Batman tv show.

Which brings us conveniently back to the topic of WOW!

One of my favorite comics, John Heffron, has a routine where some guy comes up to him and says he heard he was a comic then said "Well, I have never heard of you."

Heffron says, let's go Google each other and see who is better at our job.

On a serious note, Google a few people in this thread and see how many recognizable images show up. Google the name you WANT to use for your art and see what the Google landscape looks like. There is good info to gain from this exercise. Toby has already mentioned that he shares a name with a famous actor and regardless that they are spelled differently it might make it hard for people to find him. Apparently there is some musician named Thomas Zimmerman in Deadmau5, whatever that is, that tends to take the Google spotlight off Thomas's actual name.

IF you are sharing time with someone else in the Google world maybe it would be better to go with a catchy name. Or if your name is John Smith.

I've been fighting this long dead actor on Google.

Edward Fielding was an American stage and film actor. Wikipedia
Born: March 19, 1875, Brooklyn, New York City, NY
Died: January 10, 1945, Beverly Hills, CA

And there is this Eddie Fielding chap over in London who is a photographer.

Ok, JC, you and Edward show up right away. Zin Shades/ZinShades shows up. Robert Eldridge has like 1 that's me. Everything else is nada me

So, I am going with something I already established and can reestablished. I am, Eltoner-uh-Zin

There it is.

And JC, that's a WOW when I refreshed the page *thumbs up*

Whatever you pick, be consistent and market it constantly over a long period of time.

I know this designer guy who just likes to design so he was constantly changing his business, his business cards, his web site. He has changed names about a dozen times. He's like a moving target.

No more changes Edward. I should have kept going with this all along. Sometimes, indecisiveness can be a huge thorn. Mostly, all the time. I'm solid now as I see my old "other sites" come up, but none of my real name. Like I said, I was foolish to stop using it and it put me backward. I already contacted Abbie and the ball is rolling on the URL's here and the changes to social media will be small as I found out. I'm glad for all of you here, you've given great advice over the past week I've been very active in the forums and I picked apart everything until ultimately coming to my own decisions. Some believe I deleted artwork because of pressure, that was not true, but those guys are good friends. I did it when I looked from a customers eye, unbiased. I think they're good works, but not what I'd like to sell here or I see hanging on a wall. I had to dig deep beyond pride and arrogance to see it. Maybe my mother-in-law's refrigerator instead lol. I'll tell here the kids outlined a tree :)

and always name drop yourself where ever you go. posting on any place that has images. right now i'm doing instagram, next maybe linkdin, then probably flickr, all for brand awareness. each image i send up is sort of like a calling card

https://www.instagram.com/mikesavad/

took me a little while to come up with something i liked. i'll make a frame for digital art as well. each one is sort of watermarked with overlapping frame elements. but the images themselves i'm hoping will spread out from there and other places.


---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

also be sure to use your new name on all the sites your on as well.

---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

Thanks Mike. So far, you've seen instagram. I will change FB tomorrow. ZinShades.com is the Pixels site. Getting late here, so my tweaks will be tomorrow. Feeling good about the decision... need to work on a cool avatar. Maybe I'll be Cousin It hahaha :)

i still would make a brighter avatar so we can actually see you... but, you should be wearing sunglasses, so people can get a visual and a name cue.




---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

"BTW - does anyone else get the impression that no one tells Thomas Zimmerman what to do? ;-)"

HA! You should tell that to my wife!

Regarding branding though, I started looking at people with BIG social media followings in the agriculture field. Rarely did they use their name. They didn't hide their name, but the ones with big followings all had something catchy. So, it wasn't a unique idea, it was copying what I perceived as success.

Now that is way opposite of what you find the general consensus to be in the art world, which is use your name. I fought with it for a long time before I finally had the co-hones to go for what I thought was right. I am trying to be just as much ag as I am art, bend the curve a little bit and be something a little unique, so the catchy name I thought would be best.

I am also a believer that multiple different ways of doing things can work. To me it is more about making a decision and working to make that decision work for you the best you can. More than one option can work good in so many situations, so pick one and roll with it. If it doesn't work, learn from it and try something else.

I go with the try everything approach. The more back links you have pointing into your funnel the better.

There's another Peggy Collins who's a fairly well-known childrens' book illustrator (also a Canadian) who was plying her trade before I started with photography, so she comes up first in the Google searches. And there's a realtor who grabbed the .com website with my name. So I've come up with various additions to my name for my sites...like my Pixels site is peggycollinsgallery.com. In the long-ago past I used a phrase for a few sites I was on and I still keep up various domains but just re-direct them. I have quite a collection of domains by now unfortunately.

It is too easy for me to go with Bridburg.

I can not hide on Google.

If you find a few other Bridburg's they are my immediate family.

Dave

My name is filled with movie stars, pro football players and other pro photographers that have been doing this for a number of years. Couldnt get my name even with middle enitial. I did have kevinoconnellfineart. I like fineart much better than galleries, but my name is so long to begin with. I decided to take kogalleries.com. Really surprised it was there for the taking.

As often as not, what sells is something that I didn't see as a WOW! level work. Were I to delete everything that doesn't look WOW! to me, it would be like cutting off a foot to enhance my running.

Same for me Doug.

It would at least cut my income by 75%

in a restaurant, the wow is that desert cart with big hunks of cake and pie. but that said, most people eat the basic ice cream or rice pudding.


---Mike Savad
http://www.MikeSavad.com

I think for the most part one should generally upload their best work. Uploading too many mediocre will make the stunning images get lost in the sea of the gallery, ultimately undermining the artist.

"It would at least cut my income by 75%."

I say nay nay (I have always wanted to say that to you). If you put the time and effort it took to amass 3700 images into the promotion of your top 5%, I wouldn't be surprised if you were money ahead.

I wouldn't be surprised if you were money behind either. But, like we have discussed before, you WANT to be out there creating new work instead of the promotion, its your drive and it is how you tick.