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The advent of top quality digital point and shoot cameras has made the professional photography business even tougher.  People simply don’t need to hire a professional anymore because they can produce and edit high quality images themselves.  So anyone trying to make a living from photography needs to find other avenues of making extra income, especially during tough economic times.  Selling stock photos online through a dedicated WordPress blog can be an effective way to do this, making photographers up to $300 per day.

By using a free website builder to create a WordPress site, you’ll have complete control over what happens to your images, the amount you charge and how much you reap from their use.  This article has some priceless tips on how to sell your photos online, ensuring your WordPress photography website is a huge success.

Creating a WordPress Photo Website

If you plan on selling your photos online, you need to create a highly stylized photo gallery that’s easy to navigate and presents large quantities of photos.  Successful online photographers uploads thousands of images and it’s the best way to make money.  You may only generate a small amount per image (one or two dollars for stock images), but if you have thousands of photos, you’re guaranteed to make a decent income

First you need to choose a theme that has been designed with the professional photographer in mind.  Here are some of our favorites, which are all available on our resources page.  Do bear in mind that some of them cost a little to buy and use, but the investment will be well worth it to ensure you give your portfolio the maximum impact.

• Photoblog: this is a simple yet powerful presentation for photos that lets the images do the talking.  It has some really nice features such as drop-down menus, home page slide show and social media site icons integrated into the program.  The best bit is the built-in dynamic image resize, allowing you to upload very large images which are then resized with links to the various size options.  This is great for customer downloading.  The cost for this theme is $49, but it’s well worth it for the professional finish you’ll end up with.
• Photocrati ViewFinder: this theme is created specifically with professional photographers in mind.  It’s edgy and eye-catching, with a black theme and a single large image with thumbnails along the bottom of your homepage.  It costs $59 but really has the wow factor.
• FlashFrame: a very clean, simple and elegant WordPress theme for photographers.  The homepage displays one image at a time, creating a slide show that fades from one photo to the next.  You can then create a blog and gallery of photos on your secondary pages.  The price is $79.95.
• Photo Nexus WordPress Gallery 2 in 1: this costs just $27 and is a highly stylized two tone theme, great for visual impact.  It’s modern, minimalist and simple to use.
• SnapShot: a free WordPress theme which allows users to rate your photos.  This could be great for business.  It comes with three color themes – red, blue or green.

How To Get Buyers To Your Site

Now that you’ve set your site up, you need to work on getting people to see it and buy photos.  Concentrate on search engine optimization as this will bring you high up on the search engine ranking, vital for ensuring people click on your site.  Here are some tips on how to do this:

• Use Keywords: research which keywords are going to work for your images and make sure you use them in the title for each photo.  This is vital for selling success.  Use concepts to describe your photos, such as power, success, romantic, comic, alongside more descriptive keywords to describe what is going on in the photo, such as man on a bicycle, woman meditating.  The SEO Friendly Images plug in can help you do this by automatically updating all your images with proper ALT and TITLE attributes, which is vital for search engine ranking success.
• Find out what sells: any successful professional photographer will tell you that stock images need to be simple, top quality and evoke a theme.  Don’t use family snaps or endless landscapes.  Find something you’re passionate about and make that your niche.  You could focus on emotions, or become an expert in photographing food products.  Whatever you choose, you need to provide hundreds of photos on your portfolio to give buyers plenty of choice.  Natural photos of people going about their everyday business are also very popular, because buyers can use these in advertising campaigns and on their own websites.
• Don’t forget local coverage: don’t forget that your WordPress photography website will also sell your services to local clients.  Get yourself listed as a Google local business so that whenever anyone searches for a local photographer, your beautiful WordPress portfolio will appear.