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.   

Traffic Exchange Just For Photographers

Regular traffic exchanges can bring much traffic to your new photography website but most of the traffic will mainly click on by without even hardly giving a second look to your site. That is because most traffic exchange users are seeking traffic themselves as quickly as possible to their own websites. At first when I pursued this method it seemed promising when my traffic stats went up considerably however still no sales. Even when setting my traffic to specific targeting it still did little.
So I googled some more for other methods to help promote my photography site. Yes, I have submitted to the search engines and free web directories. Then I stumbled up on something that really caught my eye. It is a new traffic exchange just for photography. I thought to myself that this was a neat idea because it is an exchange focused just for photos. Pretty neat, hey! It is also free to join too which is an added bonus. So for all you aspiring photographers just check out the link at the top of this blog. There is nothing to lose except letting it pass on by.

Time And Patience

Okay, you have your business venture all planned out and your ready to set up your website. Now one of the most difficult tasks is driving traffic to your new website or online store. You can pay enormous amounts of money on advertising or pay for internet traffic. Sometimes this is not feasible for some people who are starting out on a tight budget.
One site that will help promote your site is Link Referral. There is a free and a paid upgrade version. The point of this site is that you read and review other sites for credits to help promote your own site. One can also submit their URL to all the free web directories and major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing. Writing articles in relation to your website and submitting articles to the free web directories is also another way one can help get their website recognized. Another alternative is to blog, blog, blog.
You can advertise your site by blogging and linking everything together. It is also advisable to keep the content updated and add new content frequently. This will help the search engines find you easier. It can also help to have as many different blogs as possible on many different subjects each including the links that you want to guide traffic to your website without seeming too self promoting and pushy.
All the above suggestions can be put to use but will not get you the business overnight. It takes much time and patience. Internet marketing and advertising is the most time consuming part of setting up an online business which requires much time and patience from the proprietor. Many have given up after a few months of trying. The fact is it may take a couple of years or more to get an internet business established with a steady stream of traffic.
So one would be advisable to hang on to their day job a little longer before considering making a living with an online business. The upkeep and maintenance of an online business is a 24/7 job especially in the early stages. It is just a matter of being fully dedicated.

Cheap Indoor Studio

I love to take outdoor photos. I also love taking macro shots indoors of still life. My living quarters is already quite cramped as it is. Therefore, I have no room left to set up a professional studio. Renting space in an office building is out of the question. So, it came to thought if I just wanted something small and compact to snap pics of the little things of life, why not just use a simple piece of black or white fabric as a photo backdrop tacked to a wall. It's as simple as that.
All one has to do is purchase some cheap fabric at Walmart or any other store that sells fabric. It would be good to have both black and white material for use as your backdrop. A few thumbtacks or tape and good lighting and you're set to go. It only takes a few moments to set up a little studio and take it down when not in use. This easy to do studio can also be adjusted to size as needed according to the amount of material needed to serve as the backdrop.
One will never be able to tell the difference if the pictures were taken in a professional studio or at home in your own kitchen or livingroom. It is the most economical way to get those macro shots or any type of shot that requires a simple backdrop. Cheap and easy!

Payment Options

In the previous entry I had mentioned Clustershot as being an inexpensive alternative to publishing artwork and photos. Another is a payment option that one can also have their own online photo store for selling their work. However, this route is much more expensive as I have found out. You must have a hosting service with a dedicated ip address in order to accept payment transactions. This is an additional cost in conjunction with your web hosting site. You also must possess a SSL security certificate. This piece of encrypted code protects your customers data and any financial transactions made through your website. It boils down to this. It is not that cut and dry to setup your own website in order to sell your photos and artwork.

Nothing is impossible though. It just takes time, money and patience. Be prepared to spend many long hours of unpaid work to make it happen. As of now I have established my own personal website but I still need a few more additions before I can actually run my own gallery to sell my work from it. It is a case of either make it or break it. There are many hosting sites that have reasonable rates. Host Papa is such a site as is Go Daddy. Go Daddy also has one of the better values for obtaining an SSL security certificate.

Hopefully, this article will be of some help to those who wish to pursue selling their photography work on their own site.

Start A Photo Business

Artistic minds come in all shapes and forms. Some enjoy photography. Others may enjoy web graphics or 3D design. There are many fields in the graphic arts and design world. Those that love the graphic arts may function at a level as a hobbyist or a professional. Whatever you enjoy can be turned into a photo business to make a little extra cash or perhaps develop into a booming business. Education training in the arts is beneficial but not necessary. All one needs is an active imagination and creativity within themselves.
One also does not need expensive equipment to startup a business in the graphics arts and photography. A simple point and shoot camera can take some pretty good shots if done correctly. Digital cameras are now also fairly inexpensive to achieve a decent pixel sized photo. There is also free open source image editors such as the Gimp to touch up photos. Inkscape is another open source program to create illustrations and vector art. Whatever you create can become a potential sale. Art is partly about being experimental. Some of the coolest art work is created unintentionally.

Now I will tell about myself and how my interest came to rest in the graphic arts. Many years ago I purchased a used computer that came with Microsoft Picture It! It was the very basic version of the software. I loaded some pics into it and was fascinated with the simple effects that the program produced. Since that day I wanted other little goodies and tools to become more creative in the computer arts. I bought my first camera which was a mere three megapixels. Digital cameras back then were quite expensive. I was happy though and clicked away at nearly everything i saw. As time passed on I accumulated better tools and software according to budget. Then I decided I wanted to publish some of my work. I searched the internet for sites where one could sell their photos and artwork. Most of the sites required that your work be approved before they would even allow you to publish it. On top of it all the earnings were not that profitable once the site took its cut. I thought that was the end and that I would have to pull a fortune out of my pocket for a commercial website just to sell photos.
However, my constant habit of googling caused me to accidently stumble up on a site that was free to join and also for everyone to join. The Clustershot website does not have restrictions on the types of work that are submitted except for inappropriate content. It is a great way for someone new to a business venture in selling art and photos. They also take a small percentage of a cut which is very generous compared to the high end micro stock sites. The seller is able to also set their own prices on their work which is a bonus. I do believe that this site will become very big in the near future and perhaps bump all those other major photo stock sites down the search engine. You can also sign up for a Pro account for a very reasonable price which is good for one year. The pro accounts allows you to manage your own little store within the site which is pretty cool.
Though this store is yet small there is a wide variety of photographs and artwork. There are also many unique never before seen pieces of work.
Finally, one does not even need a website to sell their photos and artwork on clustershot.com. As with any online store or website, always remember to submit your url to the search engines. A small business starting out can take some time to build traffic. Finding free advertising and market research is very time consuming. However, if you google enough times there is always an answer for your questions regarding setting up a small business.

I hope that this article can be of some inspiration. Good luck on your journey!

Note: below is another source of link referrals to drive traffic to your website. There is a free and and paid membership for this service.