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.  

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.