If you are reading this article then you probably already have a more than passing interest in promoting yourself online as a photographer. You likely already have a personal website (or at least dabbled with some online presence), social services or posted your photos/portfolio on a flickr like service. Many microstock photographers operate on a part-time basis, some with the intention of turning that into full-time work in the future.

There are two ways to look at earning more money from a microstock viewpoint:

1 – Concentrate on taking more great photos and they will sell themselves.

2 – Market your work everywhere which way you can to earn more.

A few years back it was easy to think the margins in microstock did not allow any scope to spend money/time on self-promotion other than a basic webpage or blog. As microstock becomes the ‘norm’ and more photographers work at microstock as a full-time job I’ve started to see countless photographers marketing themselves in all kinds of novel ways.

Marketing online is so easily scaled; you can spend as little or as much time as you like taking different approaches, the keys to it all are the iterative cycle of planning, implementation, measurement and refinement/analysis. You probably think your biggest hurdle at the moment is “how can I build a website” “how can I get 1000 followers” “how can I build a mailing list” – that’s the easy bit. Creating a plan that works is much harder to do, measurement and interpretation of results can be really quite challenging. Refinements to your plan often include simply accepting a failure and learning from it.

We are going to look at marketing only in the online space, for photographers or illustrators who are selling ‘images’ as their products, i.e. stock photographers. Photographers working in other fields may be able to take away some useful information.

To start with I really must highlight that with the diversity of images photographers take it’s impossible to create a one-size-fits-all marketing guide. With 10 years experience in running photography sites is say that most marketing activity online boils down to the following 4 options:

> The traditional independent stock photographer – create a contact base of buyers and sell direct to them. I don’t recommend for microstock, but it’s not something to rule out, consider it depending on the price point people are willing to buy your images at. Some of the tools used in this style of marketing (CRM) email lists etc. are still useful.

> Turn into a social network guru building networks of buyers who you have a relatively hands-off relationship. Posting your images sprinkled with your affiliate links at any opportunity – you match the images to an audience who wants them making your ‘network’. A network that buyers want to be a part because you make it useful for them; hopefully they will also be taking part suggesting useful material themselves.

> Build a website or blog and create regular written content that in time will hopefully attract visitors, some of who will be buyers. Such written content might also be on an article syndication network, press releases and guest posts. Making use of forums by helping answer questions too, just make sure you are answering buyers questions, not photographers’.

> As above but with your images make the main part of the content. Create a gallery of images, sit back and prey. To promote this perhaps give some of the images away as free samples with a creative commons license to attract image users, then try to convert visitors to your stock archive into buyers.

Which is best? Only you can work that out, and often it’s a mix of some if not ALL of them as your audience demands.

If your business has a website, then it is important to understand the value of online marketing. With effective online marketing, you will be able to increase the visibility of your website, business or brand, improve your customer relations, and improve your business’ revenue directly though ecommerce, or indirectly though lead generation. If you don’t feel that your website is getting enough traffic, online marketing firms will be able to provide quick results through the implementation of pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns. In addition, they can offer keyword analysis, search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing.

Keyword analysis is an important aspect of online marketing because it ensured that the right keywords are being used for your website in order for it to be found in online searches. Interactive marketing consultants have a variety of tools they can use to test keywords and determine their effectiveness.

Search engine optimization (SEO) involves assessing a website content and layout, and modifying its elements in order for it to be ‘search engine friendly.’ By hiring a professional in search engine optimization, your website will be able to get more views because, when its topic is searched, it will appear at or near the top of search engine results pages.

Pay per click marketing is a popular tool because it gives website owners the ability to place an advertisement in front of a targeted audience and quickly see results. Instead of paying a flat fee, costs for this type of campaign are accrued on a cost per click (CPC) basis.

The popularity of social media has greatly increased over the last five years. Social networking websites now allow users to connect in a unique and easy way, enabling them to share comments, images, and videos. Such social marketing strategies can be a major source of revenue because socially minded mediums act as gathering places for likeminded individuals, which means the potential for profitability through marketing using these venues is greatly increased. Social media marketing campaigns essentially revolve around giving users content that they can share with others, which is a great way to gain attention for your business or product.