Recently, I've been experimenting with "viral networking" for my photography work. Even though it sounds dangerous, it can be a lot of fun. With so many people producing excellent images, it's easy to get lost in the crowd.
Fortunately, we have some new tools that allow any of us to create a nice looking Facebook fansite and display an image or two, or even stream a gallery, at little or no cost. I use Photoshelter as the backend to my gallery here on my Facebook landing page.
I really like the Photoshelter website tools for photographers who want to self market their images. I use them to drive my Facebook fansite and my personal website YoungImaging.com. If you are web savvy, you can accomplish a lot, with much less effort than ever before.
If you can provide a link to your images from a webserver somewhere, that's all you'll need to create your own Facebook fansite and attract friends or even buyers to your best images. If you know a little HTML you'll enjoy using the "static FBML application" that's available to you on Facebook. With this tool you can create your own business Facebook site, and stream your gallery. Photoshelter has published a document (webpage) that will help you get started.
I'm having a great time learning about all these new technologies. If you want to market your lovely images, you may find it more profitable to do it yourself. Stock agency prices are falling rapidly. Marketing unique images not available anywhere else can still be quite profitable. Make your camera pay for itself!
Keep on capturing time...
Darrell Young
