How to use Flickr to get PAID

About a month ago Gary Vaynerchuk sent out a simple question to twitter. Is anyone out there using Flickr to get PAID? I answered that I’d been doing things online to help my personal brand as a photographer on twitter. He responded with a Direct Message asking me to email him back with more about how I was using Flickr. Specifically an example where I got paid.

A month later

I stared at that email in my email inbox for about a month. How could I answer? I’ve been in business for a little over a year at this point. Was I really getting PAID? It was so intimidating in all caps like that. Yeah, I knew I was doing some experimental things. Mostly because I didn’t follow the traditional path to becoming a commercial photographer. I needed to innovate and experiment with this whole “business” thing, just to see how it worked. But was I to the point where it was really paying off? Finally, I answered the email.

The email

First of all: Congratulation on your daughter!

Gary,

Thanks for reaching out. I apologize for the delay in my response and also if it is far too late. I know you are much like me, juggling too many projects to keep track so I hope this answer still helps.

Using Flickr:

I’ve used flickr to post my images online since the founding of my company in 2008. I tried to experiment in the space and push the boundaries of “commercial photography”. The reality is that the space is changing and there are many who don’t get it yet. Digital offers us an immediacy to the work and flickr offers a social opportunity to educate and build brands of individual photographers. There is a lot of risk and basically no one has quite figured out the space yet- including me. (one of the reasons I struggled with responding to this question.)

Industry vs Audience:

I’m certainly in the building brand equity stage of the process. However, I’m also faced with changing the perceptions of an industry that is stodgy at best, and couple that with an audience that until recently hasn’t had access to the information about what makes good photography.

Audience:

One of the first things I did was start an “edit” account on flickr. I introduced something called a “soft edit” to bridge the gap for the audience and shake up the profession. I had some very interested first clients they were early adopters of twitter and understood the main points: transparency and authenticity. They needed real portraits of themselves to promote their own personal brand. Also I used it as a marketing platform to build my brand and educate the audience through participation in conversations on flickr. The audience is very organic in its growth.

Profession:

Shaking up the profession, prior to this most professional photographers would only show their best images to the audience. This portfolio showed off their skill level and attached usually famous brands to their own. I was showing 15 images from a portrait session, good and bad to educate the audience. Most of the professional photographers did not like this at all (still don’t). I also put my images under creative commons, completely going against the previous model of selling prints and rights. I see the market changing and societies expectations about copyright are changing with it, I’d like to figure out how it all works but I’m not quite there, yet. I’ve got an idea that if I can spread my brand and my philosophy far enough that it will make up for it in the end. But I’m in the very beginning stage just barely into my second year of operation.

How to get PAID:

So to answer your question: I think the key to “getting PAID” through flickr is tied directly to a photographers personal brand. We must own our space with specificity, mine is that photography is a philosophy one that should honor its roots in authenticity. :)

Current Flickr account:

http://flickr.com/tysoncrosbie

Tyson Crosbie Edit account:

http://flickr.com/tysoncrosbieedit

Blog Posts:

http://tysoncrosbie.com/blog/projects/soft-edits-opening-the-process-to-the-community/
http://tysoncrosbie.com/blog/main/controling-your-brand-online-the-avatar/

Sincerely,
Tyson Crosbie
602.254.2880
http://google.com/search?q=tyson+crosbie

Conclusion

I realize that I generalized a lot of situations, still I think the spirit of my first year of business is still in this email. I hope that by sharing it with young photographers it will help them as they build their business. Because even though there are a ton of people doing it the traditional way, there is another way. It isn’t as easy and it requires a ton of patience but I think in the end it will result in getting PAID.