The Problem with Photography Content Online
As a long-time blogger, occasional YouTuber and on again off again social media enthusiast, it’s fair to say I live a good chunk of my professional my life online to an extent. For years, I’ve run this photography blog and while it’s had its ups and downs, it’s been reasonably successful. However, as times change and platforms come and go, I’ve been trying to shake things up a bit. In the process something has occurred to me that may well be obvious to some of you, but the implications have only recently become clear to me. Much of the photography content online is geared towards other photographers. Yet, if you’re using your online platform to sell photography, other photographers might not be your ideal audience. It’s a bit of a paradox.
When I was starting out, the prevailing wisdom about how to grow an audience for your photography content online, was to post lots of behind-the-scenes content, tutorials and so on. This suited me perfectly because I love post-production and that was kind of my forte anyway. In the early days I had a found a niche posting Aperture related content, and later Capture One tutorials and so on. Now I’m mostly focussing on Lightroom. Regardless of your speciality, if you’re posting this kind of material, the main audience is always going to be other photographers. The same goes for YouTube and social media.
The thing is it does work to an extent. It’s a good driver of traffic, and it’s a good way to create and grow a community. It’s not a great way to drive sales and content to regular people, though. I’m not sure how good it is to get hired either.
On the one hand, there’s nothing wrong with this. It may be totally fine for you and you may have a business model that works for primarily delivering to other photographers. On the other hand, this is always going to be a smaller market than the general public.
I’ve also seen this be at the root of a lot of animosity between photographers online, without people actually realising it. For example, recently on Threads there’s been this stupid argument going around about people switching camera brands and making videos or blog posts around said switch. It was being derided by a few “experts” in the online photography community as somehow bad to be making this kind of content. It was as if it was somehow beneath the art (the whole camera doesn’t matter thing I presume). They were also throwing shade at people who sell presets as if this was some kind of scam or aberration, and somehow linking the two.
But I totally get why people make such content and also sell presets. I do myself. It’s because your primary audience for online content is other photographers. And as much as people like to clam that “the gear” is somehow beneath them, because you’re mostly dealing with other photographers, gear talk always gets the most traffic.
As for presets - here’s the thing - it’s not a particularly big money maker. In fact, you won’t make much money at all. It’s useful to cover things like hosting fees and so on, but it’s not enough to earn a living from. The thing that annoyed me about the “holier than thous” giving out about other photographers (which is nothing new either) is that the particular people who were complaining do the exact same thing themselves. They have built a career talking about their gear, and many of them too sell presets.
At the end of the day, who cares what others do? Just live and let live. It’s a difficult time for photographers to make money, so I don’t care how anyone goes about it, except maybe for those whose brand seems to be insulting others.
For the record, I have no problem with anyone whose business is selling to or creating content for other photographers. Most of us consume that content and someone has to make it. I make it because I like doing it and I like the community. It is far from a get-rich-quick scheme, though, and anyone who tells you otherwise is kidding themselves.
I’m sure some people are very successful this way. And I’m sure some of it bleeds into other industries too. Photo editors at magazines and papers are undoubtedly interested in “for photographer” content too, and so you can certainly reach people that way. But I think the most successful photography “creators” are ones that make their content have a broader appeal. They are more about the lifestyle of photography than the nitty-gritty, technique or gear talk, and anyone can watch their content, without being a photography nerd.
Anyway, getting off track here.
The point is, selling to other photographers is fine, but consider that it is always going to be a limited to some extent. Think about this when you are posting about photography online. Do you want to target other photographers, or do you want your work to reach a bigger audience? And even if you do want to target other photographers, just remember that that's who your audience is, and set your expectations accordingly.
So how do you target non-photographers online with your content?
Well, I’m no expert but at one time I had some success with this, although I didn’t fully appreciate the distinction at the time. And it wasn’t through my photography site, either. Instead, it was through a separate photography project that I’ve since stopped. In my case, it was my now defunct Streets of Dublin project. And while it was a “photo project”, the selling point was never about photography. I actually sold several prints and image licences, including some to some big commercial sites, because of traffic from that site. It was about trying to capture my home city in a different way, and people who both live here and have visited here appreciated the imagery. It was appealing to the general public rather than just a nice segment of the photographic community. I've since shutdown that website and project, but I’m currently thinking of ideas for new ones.
Of course, I’m no online marketing expert and this is just one example. There are many other approaches too, I’m sure. I just thought it was an interesting observation and one that bears exploring. I’m sure many of you reading his have felt at times that the industry has reached saturation, so what’s the point? But I think there are still plenty of niches and plenty of ways of breaking out of the box. If every other photographer out, there is only targeting other photographers, then maybe your way to find your niche is to reach out beyond that market?
I’ll have some ideas to share in the new year, and I hope to keep a diary of sorts to see how any new project goes. In the meantime, feel free to share your own thoughts on this subject and how you feel about the current state of the market.
