16. That's the number of sales in ordered prints and digital downloads I've made to date since the event was held a month ago. Here is an example of the photos I shot at this event.
I'm sure you can understand my confusion. With that many people looking at my galleries, why wouldn't more of them be willing to buy prints? I handed out my business card to every person I shot a photo of. I sent emails to all the club presidents letting their members know where to find prints online and how to order them. I returned every email and phone call I received from customers needing help with their orders or needing to know where they could find a certain image. I've even received emails from people saying how great all the images were, and that they would tell the group leaders to hire me again next year when they meet in Aspen. So what gives?
Other photographers running their own businesse ranted about the same problem at this public forum dgrin.com thread. I agree with poster "Dogwood" who said I need to be better at finding out who my target audience is instead of just expecting everyone from an event to buy a print.
Here is what Dogwood wrote: "The trick on shooting events and selling photos is to find your audience. For example, I shoot a LOT of local fashion shows and I originally thought models and designers would want to buy the photos. A bit of on-the-ground testing, though, showed it's actually the mom's of models who buy 95-percent of the photos from those shows. So I make a point of giving out my business cards to moms at the shows-- it's pretty obvious who they are. The other people who sometimes are worth 'targeting' (in my example) are the hair and makeup artists. The models? They NEVER buy photos. Same with the designers.
Guess what I'm saying is find out who actually buys photos, forget the others, and target the buyers! It really is possible.
And... last fashion show I shot (last week) -- for the first time I had an editor buy the files from the entire shoot for a flat fee. I've known her for three years and it really did take that long for her to make a purchase like that."
The friend who helped me get the gig also said I need to be patient when it comes to people spending their money. Considering that many people waited until the last possible minute to pay their registration for the NBS event, I could probably expect it will be months before I see the final fruit of my labor from this event.
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