Photographers are good at taking pictures, but to be in the photography business, you have to also have to know how to sell photography. There are many tricks to improving your sales and bottom line. These are the TOP FIVE tips I have on how to sell photography effectively:

1. Sell Photography Online – your customer base increases exponentially by reaching the entire world instead of people in your immediate area. If you do art photography, your sales can reach way more folks than showing your work at a local street fair. If you do client work, they can forward links to your galleries to friends and family around the globe.

2. Use Online Photo Proofing – cut back on the cost of proof books, and don’t give the customers a proof that they might decide is all they need (you’d be surprised how many grandmothers will whip out the watermarked proof book at bridge club. A picture is a picture to them.) Plus, your customers can email or Facebook a link to their gallery, and someone else may order your prints as well.  Not to mention you save time on visiting customers to present proofs. Find a good online photo proofing site like ShootProof. This is how to sell photography.

3. Use Good Editing Software – choose one product, like Adobe Photoshop (we’re up to version CS5 now)
or Lightroom, take the time to learn how to use it, and stick with it. These products are pricey, but once you learn to to make the most of their capabilities, you can save yourself time with every shoot you do. What you don’t want to do is bounce around from product to product, losing your time and money investments. Do your research before you buy.

4. Market Your Website – make sure your website information is prominent on every package you deliver, put out guest cards with website details at a wedding, add it to your email signature. This is how potential customers will find you. A phone number or email address is not enough, you need a website. Don’t have a site yet? Lots of online photo proofing sites offer a basic portfolio page in conjunction with their proofing service. Use it.

5. Get Organized – Photographers are artists. Artists are notoriously flighty and unorganized. Don’t let this be you, you have to find a way to keep organized. Either this is with a studio management service like ShootQ or it is your own system – just keep track of clients, appointments, invoicing, etc. Dedicate a few hours a week to sitting down and checking your client list for to-do’s that haven’t been done. You can take all the photos in the world, but if you forget to stay on your customer to finish their order or you don’t send them an invoice, you won’t make enough money to be a professional photographer.