Pro Techniques

Gomez pays a modest annual fee, and the service takes a nominal commission against her sales. "I've done the calculations time and again," Gomez says, "and I couldn't run my own site for anywhere near the cost" of her service. Too, with a hosted service, Gomez does not have to concern herself with the actual operation of her sales site, the demands of which would have left her with "less time to actually get those shots!"

Gomez stresses, "What's best though is that the e-commerce storefront is completely transparent. My clients are on my website, looking at my photography and then they can buy the images they want."

Gomez's website has been a large part of her success, as it helps her build awareness in her community and at the events she shoots. "Name-brand recognition is key," she says, noting "that takes a lot of work." Her online sales galleries are customized with her branding, and her orders are sent out under her name, where possible; the involvement of the professional service is almost completely transparent. Gomez's brand is as front and center in her online operation as it is in the rest of her business. Those efforts have paid off, sometimes in flattering ways: high school students captured by her lens and featured on her site have been known to "act like I'm famous when they finally meet me," Gomez recounts.

For all of her current success, Gomez started out as a hobbyist with a comparatively low-end camera and the skill necessary to wring the full potential from her equipment. Online galleries with a supporting sales system allow her to easily put her best work forward, and generate revenue from that work.

These online photographic exhibition and sales services are a pivotal part of an explosive trend in the industry, that of hobbyist photographers turning semipro and letting their hobby help pay for itself, or finding new career paths opening and making the leap to becoming full-time professionals. In launching the Shutterbug Storefront, Shutterbug magazine hopes to help its readers turn their passion for photography into profit. With industry-leading pricing, and a special free offering for Shutterbug subscribers, the barrier to entry has been lowered to permit any photographic enthusiast to try their hand at selling their work.

Gomez's photography sales site can be reached online at: www.jodygomez.com. Readers interested in getting started on their own site can learn more at: www.shutterbugstorefront.com.