Have you ever thought of starting your own stock photography website? It may sound like a wild idea, but it’s actually just the next step up from selling your photos online. Sure, it takes some work. But with the right tools, you can experience the excitement of launching and building a business.
Meet our friend Adrian Naik. Adrian is a photographer and multimedia producer in Cumbria, a rural wonderland in North West England. Inspired by the region’s rich natural beauty, he set out to launch a stock photography agency providing Cumbria businesses with Cumbria-specific imagery.
Adrian paired our Sell Media e-commerce plugin with our Stock Photography theme to bring his vision to life. The result is Photofayre, a clean, easy-to-use stock photo resource that promotes Cumbria’s local businesses and photographers.
We caught up with Adrian to see how things are going, and here’s what he said:
How has Graph Paper Press helped you build your business?
Being able to build around the Stock Photography template allowed me to focus on the primary aim of Photofayre: selling stunning images by local photographers to local businesses. Since Sell Media pretty much took care of the practical and logistical aspects of starting a site that sells photos, I’ve been able to put more time toward recruiting contributors, marketing and building Photofayre’s social media presence.
How long have you been using Sell Media? What do you like about it?
I’ve been using Sell Media live for a few months, but things were ready to go much earlier. The site was ready for sales before I was!
I like how easy Sell Media is to set up and how it was designed specifically with selling photography in mind. It’s aesthetically pleasing, and the point of sale is clean and simple on the customer side.
How did you sell your photos online before Sell Media? If you weren’t selling them, what was holding you back?
I didn’t sell photos online before finding Sell Media. The thought of complicated web development, tedious uploads and coding was enough to put me off. I had a business plan, but a lack of web development skills. Sell Media bridged that gap.
Why do you love photography?
What I love about photography is the inexplicable way a great photo grabs you. Two people could take a photo of the exact same subject from the exact same angle, and yet one image could be average while the other takes your breath away. I love how a photo of something utterly mundane can be a thing of beauty.
If you were to recommend us to your best friend, what would you say?
There are many tools out there for selling your photos online; Sell Media and Stock Photography have been the best solutions for me. What makes Graph Paper Press so special, though, and the main reason I recommend them, is their post-sale support. Every time I email them about a challenge I’m encountering or a question I have, their team responds promptly. They’ve also gone above and beyond by actively supporting a startup business that’s using their plugin. That kind of support and customer care is very hard to find.
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We love everything about Photofayre, from the idea to the execution (and, of course, the images). Click here to be taken away to serene, majestic Cumbria.