There are lots of ways to make money as a landscape, travel, adventure, wildlife or fine art photographer. Shooting for a publication, for example, or selling through galleries or other commercial spaces such as tourist stops or cafes. Or working with clients to produce product or marketing images. Or décor for commercial or hospitality spaces.

But over the course of your career you'll likely build a library of images that are yours to sell over and over again — if you could only work out how, without turning yourself into a shopkeeper!

More opportunities today

Today we're free to do our own publishing and promotion on Instagram, Facebook, blogs and the rest. The cost is minimal. All you need is a shopping cart attached to your social media stream — and someone to mind the store.

Turn your stream of Likes into a stream of cash

Setting up to sell online may seem daunting at first, but with Print Shop — part of our online platform Workspace — it's very easy. We built Print Shop to help you sell beautiful, high quality prints, frames and canvases. It's hassle free, designed to run smoothly in the background, no matter where you are or what you're doing.

"Set and forget"

All you need to do is build your store with the images and products that you want to offer, at the prices you want to charge, and we do the rest.

As you make sales we'll print and produce the products, and ship your orders direct to your customers anywhere in the world. You just sit back and bank the profits.

Here's how to get your Print Shop up and running!

Step 1. Choose the images strategically

Be selective. Pick out your very best photographs and show people those — only those! A huge image gallery, with lots of variations on the same themes, will make it harder for customers to choose. Less is more.

Show people what you think — or know — will sell. That shot of Rajasthani dung beetles may be your best work … but will people want it on their wall?

If you still have a big library of photographs to offer, create separate collections rather than loading hundreds of images into a single feed. Landscape, surf and wildlife collections, for example — so customers can easily click through to the images they want.

Consider a mix of horizontal and vertical images. Landscape (horizontal) images tend to be the more popular, but vertical prints and frames are growing in popularity, and sometimes the space available, or the subject matter, will require a vertical print. Offering both will help your customers out tremendously. And don't forget that Instagram has made square images more popular too.

Step 2. Crop your files to match the aspect ratio of the products you want to sell

If the aspect ratio of an image doesn't match that of the print or frame, the image is going to be cropped. And chances are your customers won't understand why the photo they originally saw looks different in their frame, canvas or print!

We offer print products in many different sizes and aspect ratios, but we suggest you think through what you want to offer:

• 3:2 aspect ratio, for example, is full frame for most cameras, and very popular.

• So are the "A" sizes,  but because their aspect ratio is roughly 2.4:2 we recommend cropping your images accordingly before adding them to your Print Shop.

• Instagram has made square format images popular too, but the images will normally require cropping.

You'll find more about aspect ratio and printing here.

Step 3. Build your price lists

In Print Shop you can sell frames, canvases and loose and matted prints, with either Lustre (true photographic) or Fine Art (inkjet) printing.

You can offer specific products on different price lists, and create as many price lists as necessary. For example:

• If you want to offer more than one aspect ratio they should be on different price lists — so that, for example, your customer can't order a 3:2 landscape image in a square frame.

• You may want to charge more for "limited edition" prints.

You'll find more about the products you can sell through Print Shop here.

For a more in-depth guide to building your price list, click here.

Add your Paypal and tax details in the Price List Default section of Workspace Settings. (That's to ensure you're complying with your tax obligations, and so we can pay out your profits!)

Step 4. Add your branding and social links

Your logo will appear on the main website/client portal pages and in your shopping cart, as well as in the automated emails that Print Shop sends your clients. You should also add your social media handles, as these will display in the footer of your website and in any emails sent out. 

→ Upload Logo

→ Add Social Media Links

→ Select your Social Media Icons

→ Update website footer information 

Step 5. Ensure your files are ready for print

Queensberry wants to supply you and your clients with prints that are both high quality and predictable (i.e. what you expect!). For us to do that it's important that you prepare your files for our printers. That means calibrating your monitor, working in a suitable environment, setting up your colour space and Photoshop settings appropriately, and soft proofing — so that what you see on screen is as close as possible to the printed product.

You'll find more about colour management here.

Step 6. Upload your images to a Print Shop gallery in Workspace

Now that you have your images prepared and your pricelists built, it's time to start uploading your images to Workspace. In the main Workspace navigation bar, click Image Galleries. This is where you'll manage all the images in your Print Shop.

Create a new image gallery and make sure to select it as a Print Shop gallery. Once you've opened the new gallery, click the Upload button to begin. You can upload from Dropbox or direct from your computer.

Step 7. Add a name, description and price list to each image

Once your images are uploaded to Workspace it's time to personalise them. Give each one a name and description. You should think of these as a sales pitch — your chance to market the image. You'll also need to select the appropriate price list for each one.

Important

• The product description needn't be to detailed, but it's important to add some information if you want to connect your shop to Instagram and Facebook Shopping (Step 11).

• Instagram and Facebook have strict rules about what you're allowed to sell, and you should check them out. For example if you're selling photographs of animals, don't name your prints after them (e.g. "dog") or include the animal name in the description! If you do, Facebook and Instagram shopping it will assume you're selling the animals themselves and reject the upload!

Step 8. Create "room views" to show your images on display

Display Images ("room views") are a great way to boost sales. They show the prints and frames you're selling in context (e.g. on a wall, or above a couch) to give potential customers a better idea of the finished product. They also give a sense of scale, which may encourage people to buy larger sizes.

Display Images can be created with stock photographs into which you drag and drop your own images. In Print Shop upload these alongside the images you're selling, to give visitors a better idea of how they will look in a room setting.

Click here for a list of five resources you could use to create Display Images. To add them to your products, open the product you want to edit and, in the Display Image section, click Upload.

Step 9. Add your Custom Domain

Custom domains help increase your visibility to potential customers, and improve the chance that people will find your site, remember its name and come back again. Think of it as another form of branding.

When you create a Print Shop in Workspace you'll be allocated a Workspace URL automatically, but you can change it by adding a custom domain to your site. Click here for instructions to connect your custom domain.

Step 10. Personalise your store

Here are a few optional tweaks you can use to customise your Print Shop so it looks exactly how you'd like. 

Add a banner image
In your Print Shop Gallery, go to Gallery Settings and, under 'Banner Image', click Add Banner and upload a suitable image.

Turn on Product Previews
The Product Preview feature boosts sales by giving your customers a visual of what they're buying. It shows how an image will be cropped if the aspect ratios don't match (see Step 2) and displays product options such as the moulding and mat colour in frames, live as they're selected in the shopping cart. You can turn on Product Previews under the settings in your Print Shop Gallery.

Change the fonts or design layout of your store
If you want your Print Shop to have the same look and feel as your main website, please contact us. We can help you with different fonts or beautiful landing pages, add banner images for you, and generally customise your site. A charge may apply depending on the work required.

Step 11. Connect your shop to Facebook and Instagram Shopping

It's easy to extend your reach and grow sales with Instagram and Facebook Shopping by connecting your Print Shop to those platforms. That means you can easily tag your social media posts and stories with the products you’re offering, and make sales while you're building brand and product awareness.

Here's how to connect Print Shop to Facebook and Instagram Shopping.

Step 12. Launch your shop

You're done! Ready to launch! Click here for eight ways to attract your first paying customers.

Any questions?

If you have questions, get in touch! Don't hesitate to ask our team by emailing info@queensberry.com.

Thanks for reading,
Alexandria