selling

United States
September 16, 2009 6:39pm CST
so, i had a few questions and i have no idea about certain things. my husband and i want to have our own website and i want to start selling my prints online. should i have a copy right and my signature on the back of the prints? im not professional but a lot of my pics look like they are. do i need a license to become professional?
2 responses
• Australia
17 Sep 09
I wanted to have a look at your photos, but myspace isn't really set up as any sort of showcase: is there anywhere I can have a look? david
• United States
17 Sep 09
i have a myspace just set up for my pics that i have done. i'll change my website to that site instead
• Australia
17 Sep 09
Very few people successfully sell through their own websites, and those that do are well established artists with a high profile and plenty of physical gallery exposure. You do not need a licence to call yourself a professional photographer, but there may be regulations where you live governing establishing a business, using a business name and taxation laws will certainly apply. You do not need to add a copyright notice. Watermarks on the visible print are frowned on, and detract from the picture, and a copyright mark on the back is invisible anyway. Digital copyrighting is an option worth looking into. I sell framed and unframed prints on line, but they are very slow movers (and I know virtually no-one who does better): images do sell quite well, but it is the files and the reproduction rights that make sales, not the physical prints. If you really nt to persevere with this idea, try setting up a website and linking it to sales outlets which will invest heavily in promoting sales for you. Not the Stock sites, but places like Zazzle.com where you will also get a lot of potential sales of your work on T-shirts, mugs, posters, calendars, shoes, bags, mousepads etc.