Software and Tools For New Artists on a Tight Budget

Are you and or artist and photographer who is wanting to promote your work but are on a limited budget?   Here are some tips and suggestions.
First of if you cant afford a new DSLR camera, go for a high end point and shoot camera such as Canon.  Some of the high end point and shoots are better than the lowest price DSLR cameras.  You can find a high end point and shoot for around 3 or 4 hundred dollars and perhaps even cheaper.  You will also need a photo editing program such as Adobe Photoshop or the Gimp.  The latest version of Photoshop CS5 is very expensive but there is an alternative if you prefer Photoshop over the Gimp.  You can still buy an older version of photoshop 7 from Ebay for much cheaper.  It does run on Vista if you set your compatibility mode correctly.  This version of photoshop does not require the annoying activation that the newer versions require.  There are tons and tons of free filters that run well on Photoshop 7.  Just Google it.  Photoshop 7 has all the basic photo editing needs you can want.  I have found that the only difference between this version of Photoshop and the newer version of Photoshop is that there are a few more features such as content aware and 3D tools.  However, you will pay much more for the latest version of Photoshop just to get these features which is really not necessary if you only need to do simple image editing to prepare your photos for the market.
There are many photo stock sites where you can sell your photos.  Many of these sites have a strict criteria for the photos that you submit which can be somewhat discouraging.  Photos can be rejected often and it is very time consuming.  There are sites where you have much more control over the photos you submit.  One such photo site is Clustershot.  You can upload your photos for free and set your own prices.  If you have your own website or blog, you can sell prints, cards and downloads with FotoMoto.  All one has to do is sign up for a free account with FotoMoto.  They give you a script and you paste it into your website.  It grabs your photos that you want to sell and adds them to your secure online store with FotoMoto.  The FotoMoto script then adds buy buttons automatically underneath all your photos located on your website.  One can also have many websites registered with Fotomoto to sell photos.  People can then choose to buy your photos from your website.  Once they have selected their order it takes them to the secure checkout with Fotomoto.  This is a super idea especially if your site does not have SSL which is required to accept credit cards.  Both Clustershot and Fotomoto take approximately 15 percent from your photo sales.  This is acceptable considering selling photos on one of the major stock sites may only give you a few dollars each or less for your photos.
It is never easy one way or the other to sell photos and artwork.  It is a lot of work, time and effort on the part of the individual.  Most will not make any money overnight because there are factors such as the bigger competitors, search engine optimization, setting up a website and many other things.  It definitely can be a  24/7 job.  However, if you love photography and art time will have no meaning.  

Getting Backlinks To Your Photography Site

Finding good quality or even lesser quality backlinks to your website  is no easy task.  After all links means more traffic and a higher search engine recognition with a higher page rank.  All new websites always start at the very bottom.  It can be at times a very slow crawl just to even move up a little especially on the Google ladder. 
There are many directories where one can submit their site  There are thousands of directories which means it would be very time consuming unless you are willing to pay a high price for a SEO company to get the job done for you.  Even then there is no guarantee.  For a lot of us money means a tight budget for the business.  
Most free submission directories are very slow to review and list a new site unless of course you are willing to pay for it.  Sometimes it takes months to get listed.
My theory is if a lot of unknown or new websites and blogs get together and link up to each other with similar topics and interest then this will help in getting more SEO quality page rank and backlinks for everyone.  Then one way is just to sign up with all the free directory services you possibly can.    

Just beware that submitting to web directories is very time consuming. Generally, the more established directories are not free. There is normally a backlink required or a submission fee to get your photo website listed if it is approved.      

Protecting Your Photos From Theft

The only secure solution to really protect your photos is not to post them on the internet at all. That however is not the best solution if you want to show your work to the world which can lead to potential sales. From recent experience, there is always going to be some idiot who thinks they are above the law when it comes to copyright infringement and image theft. Most countries protect your works automatically when they are created and when it becomes available on the internet. It is very important to always specify ownership of your images and to heavily watermark them with copyright, logos, etc.
Never upload the full resolutions of your photos on the internet. Always use a much smaller resolution of the original and stamp it heavily with a watermark. It is best to use a clear watermark where others can at least still view the image. No amount of coding for your website will prevent thieves from stealing your photos. Once it is posted it can be stolen. There are methods such as disable right click, print screen and so forth to deter image theft but it cannot be totally stopped. Low versions of your photos that are heavily watermarked is the best legal statement that the image belongs to you.
Another alternative is to sell your images on CD or DVD. This way you could have a registered owner with a unique key. However, there are still drawbacks to this because cds and dvds can be shared easily with others and ripped. This method could also be a slow down in sales because most people want their product for download immediately once they pay for it. This could be perhaps used as a backup selling source with a registered owners list so you know who has a copy of you photo disc. This would make it much easier to track illegal usage and distribution of your pictures.

Those Bad Photo Shots May Be Good For Something

Have you ever had photo shots that didn't turn out so well. Perhaps the picture had a bad angle or poor composition. Well, there is still hope for that rotten photo to come in handy providing it is not out of focus or a poor resolution. Even then the worst of the crop can do with a complete makeover. This is where photo manipulation does its job.
Powerful editing programs such as Photoshop have many filters and plugins that can do amazing transformations. Camera shots that didn't go well usually are good candidates for abstraction photo manipulation. This is because it is the easiest form of digital editing to achieve with photographs that contain unwanted bad lighting, uneven color, and so forth. All these faults in a photo can be completely controlled by added effects, color control, and much more. It is just a matter of experimentation till you come up with a unique design or look that catches your eye. The end result is a completely new picture that can be worth something and one more added to your photo collection.

The image above is an example of extreme photo manipulation.  Although the before photo is not entirely undesirable it could use simple editing such as cropping and perhaps removing the stump in the background.  Overall, this photo has many possibilities.  It can be edited just enough to leave it in its natural state or completely altered to create a new image.   

The Difficult Task Of Getting Your Photo Site Noticed

There are many ways to cuts costs in setting up your own commercial website for selling photos. However, the task of trying to get your photo site ranked in the search engines can be daunting. A higher ranking in the search engines means more traffic. Traffic exchanges can be useful for the short term so do not hesitate to use them if you so desire. From experience, once you stop using traffic exchanges the visitor rate will drop if your site is very new. Submitting to free search engines and directories are useful but be aware that it could take months before your photo site is even listed. The reality is that it could take two or three years for a site to become fully developed on the internet unless your willing to pay for sometimes very expensive advertising. This is not always feasible for someone on a tight budget.


Good backlinks are hard to get unless you pay for them. There are a few free sites for artists that will help you get a little higher on the search engines. One such site is artistsites.org. Another one that can aid the “starving artist” is Artist-Listing.com. The latter has a free membership as well as a paid memberships that allow you to showcase more of your work than the free version. There are also some free hosting sites that rank well in the search engines that can help get you to the top of the pages quicker. Trading links is fine as long as the link is related somehow to the subject of your site. There are also social networking sites.


In the long run it will take time and patience to get your photo site noticed if you do not really want to pay for the extra expenses of promoting your site.

Clustershot Saved

The photo site Clustershot will not be closing down.  Thanks to a successful auction, the new owners will keep Clustershot alive.  This is good news for its members and other artists and photographers who use this site.  Way to go! 

Unfortunately, I would hoped that Clustershot would return but it did not happen. It was sad to see it go because it was such a good starting point for those who wanted to sell photos online.

Bye Bye Clustershot

I have mentioned previously about Clustershot.  Clustershot is a website where one could sell and buy photos.  The uniqueness of this site is that there were no heavy restrictions on submitted photos such as the more well know stock photography sites.  This was an advantage for those trying to break into the business of selling their art and photos for a little extra income. 
Clustershot has acknowledged on their website that they will be closing down sometime in February 2011.  This is such a shame because it is a nicely layed out and attractive website.  Being a member myself, I will have to find alternatives for selling my artwork and photos.  I found one such site, FotoMoto.  Perhaps I will give these guys a try.  It is free to join and they only take a small percentage of your earnings.  There is really nothing to lose here.  There is also FotoTime which has a free and paid account.
Clustershot has also mentioned that they will take a reasonable offer for the site.  So maybe, there is still some hope that Clustershot will have a saviour.  We will just have to wait and see.