As a photographer, your images are your livelihood. Every time you put an image up on a site, the first thing that crosses your mind is “how much money will I be losing by putting this image up?”
And while the online world does truly have its benefits and can help you expand your marketing potential from a few miles around your studio to literally all over the world, it does take away your potential profits. Why should someone buy your images if they can see them and share them everywhere?
Once your image is up, people can link, modify and share it just about anywhere. And every time your image “moves” to a new place, you lose the potential of connecting with the viewer.
Because your value is in your photography, it makes sense to be able to “watermark” your images so that people know it’s you and have a way to come back to your information again and again. But “old” watermarks are just that … old. And if you put them in the wrong place, they are easy to crop out and ignore.
Which is why photo tagging is growing in popularity. And a new site may have enormous potential for future photographers.
Imagine creating a fine art studio in which you photograph and sell landscape images online. With Stipple, you can place a low resolution file online and connect it to a variety of other things online that showcase who you are. Take a look at one photographer, Lars Van DeGoor, recently did with his image:
The image as it will appear on sites as it is shared
The image displaying a link to video
The image with his information
The image with a link to his image for sale
Now if that image is shared via Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest, his “ads” go with it. Meaning he always has the potential of showcasing his talent and selling his artwork.
From a photography standpoint, this is huge. It’s also leveragable for your potential clients and customers. Imagine creating images exclusively for online sales; photos that make it easy for people to shop right from the photo itself. Your customers are no longer paying you just for your images, but also for your knowledge of bringing sales into the company itself.
The CEO of Stipple, Rey Flemings, has said that people mouse over a photo with a dot 46 percent of the time. That means almost 1 in 2 people are intrigued enough by a dot on a photo to want to take some type of action. And users that actually touch the dot will click on it 12.5 percent of the time. That’s huge – and will definitely grow as people grow accustomed to finding out instantly what they want when they want it.
If you are a commercial photographer who shoots regularly for a clothing designer, you can create images specifically designed for clickable images. Not only can you sell your customer on your images, but also on your knowledge of how to make the images more sellable online. Double your knowledge, double your profits.
Is this one way to move your photography business into the future? Definitely.
Are you using it today in a profitable way? I’d love to hear from you.
