For most photographers, selling images isn’t instantaneous; it takes time and patience and doesn’t happen overnight.

It might sound a bit direct, but it’s also essential to be realistic, and if you’re just getting started with selling your photos and you don’t see sales shortly after creating your store, it’s really nothing to worry about.

The more you put yourself out there, promote your work, and showcase your images, the more you’ll start to see results, and we have a vast range of guides available to help you do exactly that.

However, if you’re concerned about a lack of movement and already doing a lot of promotion across your Picfair Store, you can check over a few things to see if there’s anything else you can do. Or there may be something you  have overlooked that could increase your chances of making sales...

Here are five top troubleshooting steps that you might want to review to help get sales moving:

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1 You’ve uploaded just a small selection of images

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Often, making sales from your photography is a numbers game.

The more images you have available for sale, the more you increase your chances of someone buying one, simply because there is more variety, volume, and choice for customers.

Say you only have 10 - 20 images in your store; realistically you'll need more than that to get a number of sales. Increasing that number to 100 - 200 (and more) images will improve your selling chances significantly. Don’t just add variations of the same image though, make sure you've got a wide and varied selection of your photography in your store.

If you’re just starting and don’t have many images in your portfolio, don’t worry either–just keep shooting and keep adding photos to your store. Before you know it, you’ll have built up a solid portfolio of images!

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2 You’ve not told people about your Picfair Store

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It feels like a no-brainer, but it can be easily overlooked… Have you remembered to tell as many people as possible about your photography store?

In particular, do your family, friends, colleagues and any other direct acquaintances know about your photography, and where they can see your work in your store? If not, then tell them! They will want to support you!

You could even find that some of them may be your first (and best) customers, and will help you spread the word about your photography. What we mean by this, is if they like what they see, they’ll tell others, too!

So, ensure people know you’re about your photography venture; you’ll be rewarded for it. Tell them directly, or an email can be enough too...

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3 You’ve not uploaded large enough image files to your store 

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One of the most common mistakes that many photographers make is that the image size needs to be bigger to be reproduced as prints (and other things).

This issue may be the cause for lack of sales. Particularly if you’ve had customers looking to buy a print from you but can’t, as the option is unavailable in your store.

If you’re uploading a small image in terms of pixels, it can severely restrict what it can be used for. For example, if you reduced the size of your image to share on social media, and then if you’ve uploaded that same file to your Picfair Store, it might be too small to use for many things (like canvases, prints, etc.). Or, you’ve exported your files from an image editing programme and accidentally resized them to a much smaller size than the original.

In these scenarios it may not be possible to sell your photo(s) as a print, simply because when printed, it will come out blurry and pixellated as the image is not big enough. Learn more about optimal file sizes in our dedicated FAQ. 

We always recommend you upload an image as close to the original pixel size as possible, and generally, anything with a dimension of 5000 pixels (and above) should unlock all the print sizes and products available in your Picfair Store.

You can check the file size for your images using pretty much any image viewing application. See the example below from Image Preview in iOS.

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4 You’ve omitted important information from your images

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Tags, titles, and captions are essential for making your images more visible in your store and search engines.

For example, someone looking for a picture of a specific location may struggle to find your best photos if you haven’t included that information in the title, tags or captions of your images.

We’ve reiterated this in other areas of Focus:see our guides on adding tags, titles and captions to your images.

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5 You’ve not spelt out your store name correctly when sharing, or you haven’t updated your store address if you’ve changed it

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Again, a very easy mistake for photographers to make. A mistake in the store web address (URL) can significantly impact visitors getting to your store and purchasing something.

When sharing your store web address (its URL), always ensure you’re sharing the complete URL that can be found on your Picfair Dashboard (see the screenshot below).

Your full URL should include everything displayed with it, including the https:// at the front.

The https:// is a security tag for your Picfair Store, and if you don’t include this, or if it is misspelt (such as just HTTP) at the front. It can cause issues if a user copies and pastes the address, which can raise a security flag. Not only does this stop visitors from browsing your store, but it can also make them think there may be security issues with your site. Also, as a rule of thumb, your store URL does not contain www at the beginning; this is another common mistake.

If you change the name of your Picfair Store, update the URL everywhere you’ve previously posted it. Not doing so can be another reason people may struggle to access your Store. If they click on your old store URL link, they won’t be able to access your store.

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Final thoughts

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We hope you find these tips a useful guide for some things you can do to help get sales moving, and again, these things can take time–so have patience, and don't give up!