My wise old grandmother told me many decades ago not to stretch myself too thin. I had no idea what she meant then. I realized the meaning of her words around 1984 when, by necessity, I was forced to go into business for myself on a full-time basis. Previously I had always had a full-time job working for someone else, with spare time occupied by various hobbies, which sometimes were known as second jobs or moonlighting.
With over 500,000 photographs in my collection, I have been looking for a way to make some residual income from them. Becoming a local starving artist hasn’t worked out yet after six months of trying because I really do need a California reseller’s certificate and a sales tax certificate so I can collect sales taxes. Those aren’t coming my way anytime soon. Long, complicated story.
Thus I turned to print-on-demand sites:
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Artfire
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BigBlackBag
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Etsy
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Fine Art America
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OpenSky
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PhotoShelter
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RedBubble
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Shopify
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SmugMug
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SquareSpace
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Zazzle
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Zenfolio
While it’s tempting to be everywhere, there’s not enough time to do an exceptional job everywhere. There’s probably not enough time to do even a mediocre job everywhere! Remember not to stretch myself too thin….
Some of the sites were places to create photography portfolios, which is not what I was looking for. Shopify wanted $79 per month! That’s not happening in this lifetime…. unless I win the lottery…., and since I don’t play the lottery……………
After dozens of hours of research, I narrowed my choices to RedBubble, Fine Art America, OpenSky, Zazzle, and Zenfolio, finally settling on Fine Art America and choosing their Premium plan which costs $30 a year. Much more reasonable. Unfortunately, the problem with things whose costs are reasonable is that there are thousands, millions, even billions of people competing with you. Fortunately, this is where I believe my blogging experience in knowing how to use keywords, tags, and search engine optimization will come in handy.
So my new Fine Art America print-on-demand store front is now open at http://1-russel-ray.artistwebsites.com/. While I don’t like the name they automatically gave me, at least it’s not 9-russel-ray. I like being #1!
I uploaded one picture yesterday…. Photographic Art of my favorite fine, furry, four-legged, feline friend. Looks like this:
One way to differentiate myself from everyone else at Fine Art America is simply to have more products available. Thus I’ll be dedicating a lot of time to uploading Photographic Art to Fine Art America, which will probably take away from my blogging writing and reading time. I have to remember not to stretch myself too thin.
Since my goal is to make enough money from Photographic Art sales so that I don’t have to rely on public assistance when I’m no longer physically or mentally capable of working, I need to dedicate enough time to this venture to make it work. As my wise old grandmother also said, “You can make it work if you dedicate yourself to it.”
Once I start making millions of dollars with my Photographic Art, I’ll be able to dedicate most of my time to my wonderful followers and the wonderful blogs and people whom I follow. So don’t give up on me! And wish me luck. And follow me at Fine Art America. And buy something!
Need a unique gift?
Consider Photographic Art!
Visit Russel Ray Photos.
Visit Photographic Art by Russel Ray Photos at Fine Art America.
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Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend James Frimmer, Realtor, CDPE
CA BRE #01458572
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If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!
What an adorable little gato! !!
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Thanks. I didn’t need Google Translate to help me understand “gato”…………….lol
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Oh… lol… im so used to using that word… i forget that some people may not know it’s meaning! I call my cat a gato all the time 🙂
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Hope you ‘blog’ about your experiences there from time to time- seems like your new venture would create a lot of blogging material- 🙂
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Oh, yeah. I’ll let everyone know how things are going!
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Wish you good luck!!
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Grandmother was right…Don’t spread yourself too thin! And best wishes with Fine Art America!!! But hard to make thousands no less a million! Got to get your work into many shops & galleries on consignment if necessary. Phil from Excuse Us For Living
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Fine Art America has a lot of tools to help one succeed, so we’ll see. If I use them, and inundate the world with my Photographic Art, I should have some success. We’ll see.
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Best wishes for the substantial success you are looking for. Phil
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Thanks, Phil. I don’t really need substantial success, but I won’t decline it if it happens!……….lol
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Good luck with this Russel! Hugs to you and Jim! – B
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Russel come and visit my FAA @ karen-lawrence.artistwebsites.com
It’s all about promotion as you know and the best way to get promotion is to join groups and discussions and to vote and like other peoples work so they reciprocate and you become more visible Good luck!.
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I already found you yesterday and started following you there.
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Yes, i realised after i had posted it, i followed, liked and commented.
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I will probably be using FAA mostly for my built-in real estate market. If someone in Beijing buys something, though, I won’t complain………..lol
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We found it very strange that there are communities in China, i think, that have towns modeled on English villages and they love English photographs. We were making it one of our things ‘to do’ this year. See if we can sell anything over there. If they want them they can have them!
I have had some success on FAA but you need to promote yourself relentlessly.
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I’m familiar with having to promote oneself relentlessly. Even when I have a built-in target market of Realtors and home owners, that fact that everyone thinks their smart phones make them professional photographers is what has to be overcome.
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in a nutshell! I was one of them kind of. Though i have had an interest in photography from a teen it is only now that i am a 40 something that i have the time. It is really difficult to break into the genre as there are so many other photographers out there. You just need a niche market and for someone to find you and you have made it! Good luck. x
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Reblogged this on MARSocial Author Business Enhancement group's Blog.
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This is so great to be more recognized and added to a more frequented location. Your photographs are indeed excellent examples of fine art. You have really fine tuned your craft of photography! I am sorry I don’t check out your posts often enough to comment!
On the subject of art, I am going to post tomorrow about a museum of ‘bad art.’ NOT where your photos belong, just a connecting thought.
Smiles, Robin
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best of luck! i have great faith in this venture!
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