How to sell prints as a photographer
Selling Prints- HUGE MISTAKES I Wish I Didn't Make!
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YouTube was good so I decided to be a
little extra with that introduction
today if you enjoyed it hit that thumbs
up button it helps out the video a lot
but today we are talking about selling
prints so I posted some new prints to my
site which inspired me to make this
video because I know a lot of y'all are
interested in selling prints for
yourself and I think I sold my first
print in 2014 and I've made a lot of
mistakes since then I've learned a lot
so today I want to take that learning
curve out of the picture for y'all so
you don't have to make 4 to 5 years of
mistakes like I did so before we get
going today I want to thank our sponsor
Squarespace head over squarespace.com
slash heaven rants to start a free trial
today or use code and rant to get 10%
off your first purchase now last month I
did the video with Squarespace where I
broke down exactly how I built my
website admin ramp coms so if you're
watching this video thinking how do I
sell prints online that video is a link
in the description on this video so you
can go check it out and you can see
exactly how I built my site and here's
the thing you don't necessarily have to
be selling prints to get started with a
website it's one of the most valuable
things you can do as a photographer for
your business think of how many times
you've been out with your camera
photographing something and someone asks
are you a photographer the answer should
be yes and you should have a website to
direct them to in that video I just
mentioned that's linked in the
description on this video I show you how
to set up a home page on your site that
has a contact me button so people who
are interested in booking you can click
that button and basically contact you
for booking immediately it's that easy
it's quick and simple Squarespace is
known for their award-winning customer
service as well as these easily
customizable templates that basically
take all the excuses out of why you
can't have a website so head over to
squarespace.com slash and ramp to start
a free trial today and use code and ramp
to get 10% off your first purchase thank
you Squarespace for sponsoring the video
now the first mistake we got to talk
about which is damaging your prints now
there is nothing worse than getting a
print in the mail getting ready to send
it to a client to a person who bought it
and doing something to ruin it now over
the last few years there's a few things
I've learned to basically limit the
amount of damage you can do one is wear
gloves in the intro video you saw me put
some gloves on my hands this is to
basically remove any accidents your
hands have natural oils you touch things
all day all it takes is one weird thing
to be on your hands that makes its way
to the print and it's ruined it's
me before and another thing that I left
out on that intro on purpose is a little
learning example you notice how I put
the print on a piece of cardboard you do
not want to do this what you want to do
is lay out a sheet or something clean
that you can put the print on to side so
nothing gets transferred over to the
print and nothing ruins it it's pretty
simple straightforward you just want to
be clinical about it be clean and make
sure nothing can touch the print to
cause any issues now one other thing
that I like to do is I like to print my
prints on some type of mount now one
drawback to doing this yes it's mounted
yes you're not as worried about damage
but it's more expensive to print which
means you have to charge more and it can
also be a little bit more expensive to
ship so here's what I like to do to
avoid damage when I'm shipping a print
what I do is I buy these bags on Uline
or Amazon any type of shipping website I
put my print in the bag fold it up tape
it and then I take two pieces of
cardboard just like this and I sandwich
the print in between the pieces of
cardboard if I can actually get this
open put it in there like so you saw
that in an introduction and what I'll do
is I'll tape down that print usually on
one side to make sure it stays flat I
don't want to tape all four sides
because they can get damaged when
someone's actually taking it out of the
packaging but I tape it down to make
sure it's flat close this off tape the
ends and then I go ahead and slide it
into this box just like on the
introduction video and it's as simple as
that now the print is protected it's
safe inside that box the only thing that
can really damage it is if like
something punctures through the box or
it gets completely crushed but those are
the main things I do to make sure damage
is limited when I actually have the
print in my possession and also I signed
that print with a sharpie in the video
typically I like to use a metallic
sharpie on something like this that's
mounted I'll sign the back on paper
prints like that I don't always
recommend sharpie because it can bleed
through sharpie on that type of paper
might not be the move now number two is
lowering the price of your prints
because you want to increase sales it's
this weird mental game we play with
ourselves or we think okay if I price
the print at this amount I'll sell this
many and I'll feel successful when in
reality all you're doing is cutting out
your profits and essentially giving your
work away for close to nothing so let's
do an example here let's
your print costs $100 to make and you
decide to sell that print for a hundred
and twenty dollars to make a thousand
dollar profit you are going to need to
sell 50 of those prints because your
profit is only twenty dollars so for us
our price is a hundred dollars we want
to mark this up to 300 dollars
what this does is it allows room for
discrepancies let's say you want to run
a sale on your site where you do 25% off
over the weekend now that print selling
at 300 dollars at 25% off your profit is
still going to be a hundred and
twenty-five dollars which means to reach
that thousand dollars in profit you only
need to sell eight prints eight prints
as opposed to 50 prints it seems a lot
easier right I think you can find eight
people who can pay that two hundred and
twenty-five dollars on sale versus fifty
people who want to pay $400 or $120
whatever it was you see it's just like a
game you play with yourself where you
think I'm gonna price this lower so more
people can get it but what happens is
when certain costs come up things like
the price of your website membership
things like extra shipping cost things
like maybe a weird address that cost
more to ship it eats into that small
profit you already have to where you're
basically making no money which leads us
into the third thing I want to talk
about today which is estimating shipping
costs properly your boy has messed this
up before bad so years ago the first
time I ever did a large print run it was
in 2015 I sold 45 copies of a print I
priced them low because I wanted to sell
more of that this is the scenario that
actually inspired the second thing on
this list but I priced him low I sold
out of them but I didn't take into
account how I was going to ship these
prints beforehand I just thought I'll go
to UPS I'll be good to go I charge like
ten dollars for shipping didn't seem
like a big deal well I ran out of boxes
I thought I had enough last minute I had
to go to Staples or something like that
because I was scrambling to ship out the
prints that cost me way more money than
it should I recommend you line or Amazon
for shipping supplies so that cost extra
money taking care of that then on top of
that when you ship with UPS shipping
with UPS there's a variation depending
on like the truck is going to be on the
weight the size of it where exactly it's
going the distance travel so there can
be a big discrepancy in the price
printing every single print that I sold
cost more to ship than what I charged
people for shipping so all that extra
cost came out of pocket basically at the
end of selling those 45 prints I think I
made like $30 total it was a disaster it
was horrible and because of all these
extra costs and because I was unprepared
and didn't know how much it was gonna
cost the ship I essentially gave all my
artwork away for free which I mean it's
cool I'm glad these people have it but
that's not really the point of selling
something and having a business you
don't want to just give your stuff away
for free so here's what I do to
counterbalance that now every print that
I sell I know exactly what its gonna be
shipping in beforehand so let's say we
have this square print right here I know
this square print is gonna be shipped in
that bag which is gonna be shipped
between these two pieces of cardboard
which is gonna be shipped in that box so
I order 40 pieces of cardboard 20 bags
20 boxes and I know everything is gonna
weigh the exact same amount meaning I
can get a better estimate of exactly how
much it's gonna cost to ship these
things now I use a shipping software now
which makes everything a lot easier for
me but what I would recommend to anyone
starting out is 1 if you really want to
make it easy start with a print that
fits into a priority mail box by USPS
these costs I think 15 dollars to ship
typically in a medium size so maybe make
your print I don't know like an 8 by 10
I think should be able to fit in there
start with that do the same method of
between 2 pieces of cardboard get it in
there
send it out and now you know to charge
everyone the exact same amount in the US
but let's say you want to use a box
that's more like this size of what you
can do is make sure every box is the
exact same size figure out the weight
once it is packed so pack one of these
figure out the dimensions of it and then
take it to your post office and ask them
hey if I ship this in town how much will
it cost and if I ship this to Washington
or somewhere really far away what would
it cost and they'll be able to give you
some insight and help you out so you can
figure out a range of how much it's
gonna cost the ship typically prints
will ship us Priority Mail typically
they weigh too much to ship with
first-class mail so priority is what I
end up using but honestly if I have the
option to ship something in a priority
mail flat rate box I'll go for it every
time because it makes your life so much
easier so the point of number 3 is make
sure you get an idea of what it's gonna
cost
how much the shipping supplies are gonna
cost and just don't be underprepared
with shipping cuz it can really cut into
your profits if you're not careful so
I'm working on this edit right now and
there's something I want to make clear
on this the next part I'm talking about
more art related prints if you're
someone who makes prints of events or
portraits or something like that you
don't have to worry about this I
actually recommend a drop shipping I'm
talking more about art related prints
like if you're a street photographer a
landscape photographer basically
creating any type of art and people are
buying it you're gonna want to apply
this mistake but if you're not in that
category feel free to drop ship and
ignore the next thing I'm talking about
number four is not signing your work now
I understand that in today's internet
e-commerce world drop shipping is the
way to go it's so easy it's so simple
someone buy something on your site
another service prints it sends it right
to them this is great for basically
everything unless you're making art in
my personal opinion one of the big
things when it comes to selling prints
is the fact that someone is purchasing a
piece of work from an artist from a
photographer from a person that they
like they like this thing they want to
feel this connection and if you don't
sign the piece of work that you're
selling them there is no connection you
never even touched it it doesn't feel
real this is the biggest question I get
from people when they ask do you do
prints I say yes they say I want to buy
one and they always say will you sign it
this is a huge thing it creates a real
connection between people and it makes
art feel like art when someone shows off
a piece of artwork that they purchase
they have it hanging in their home they
want that signature to be on there they
want it to feel authentic
so while dropshipping yes can be easy
and convenient it's just not as
connecting as signing a print is so take
that extra step have the print delivered
to you take it out of box take it on the
bag sign it put it back in the box
ship it out alright one more thing the
next part of this video I'm talking a
lot about social media promotion that's
not the only way you can promote
yourself you can promote yourself in
person face to face with your friends
with your family with people in your
community at your church at your school
or if you have like a church newsletter
or you have a school newsletter or any
type of promotion in general I'm talking
a lot about social media because that's
where I have my experience but you can
apply this to any type of promotion
across the board so number five on this
list the last thing we're talking about
today is under promotion I don't know
what it is about me it's this weird
thing I do in my head where I put
something out on social media let's say
the prints that I just did they're on my
site now I put those out on social media
and I say new prints available and in
the past that would be it I do the one
post I might do an Instagram story I
might do a Twitter post and then I just
leave it alone because in my head I've
already talked about I don't want to
over promote it I don't want to be
annoying and yes there is a fine line
between over promotion and being
annoying but you also need to make sure
people know the thing you're trying to
sell is out there and available today's
social media world is so controlled by
algorithms people don't see everything
you post it's also this weird
self-sabotage defense mechanism game we
play with ourselves where I think most
of us are scared to put our work out
there online and sell it because we face
the risk of someone not buying it if no
one buys the print that we made it's
embarrassing it feels not good it makes
you question are you good as an artist
so by under promoting the thing that
you're selling you kind of give yourself
a way out mentally off I mean I only
post it a little bit it's not a big deal
that they didn't sell you see I mean
it's like this defense mechanism we do
with ourselves so try to avoid that get
out there promote what you're doing
don't be annoying don't be over-the-top
but also don't under prime oh don't
think that just because you talk about
something once means everyone who wants
to know about it knows about it so there
we go that is five huge mistakes that
I've made with printing my work over the
last few years I made all these mistakes
so you don't have to hopefully learn
something in today's video thank you
guys so much for watching today and
remember if you want a video on how I
built my website to sell prints I have a
video showing literally step-by-step
exactly how I did that it's linked in
the description on today's video er the
truth I'll see you next
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