I’ve been dabbling in photography for 7 years now but I’m not sure how to move forward with it. Do I submit to competitions? Magazines? Which ones? Do I start a website? I haven’t shared a lot of my work publicly but I’d like to start putting myself out there.
I’m probably not the best person to answer this since I’m not great at putting myself out there and not many people know who I am. Personally, I have my own website built on WordPress. I’m not sure how much traffic it gets, but I enjoy having it and updating it from time to time.
I used to have a Facebook fan page with over 4,000 followers, but toward the end it reached a point where, unless I paid to “boost” a post (which I never did), only a few dozen people would see anything I shared.
This year I’ve been experimenting with Substack as well. It seems like a great platform, and maybe I just need to invest more effort into it, but so far I have fewer than 50 subscribers, so hardly anyone is seeing what I post there.
I don’t usually enter competitions, and it’s been a long time since I last submitted anything to magazines, though I did have several images published back in the day.
I’m really curious to hear what others have found to be successful.
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What to do with the hundreds, if not thousands, of images we take every year? It’s nice to be able to share some of these images with others. I have little interest in the social media path such as facebook, instagram, etc. Belonging to NPN is a great way to share your work with like minded photographers. I belong to a camera club and enter images in monthly competitions. I have a couple of other outlets, which are specific to where I live-the Oregon Birding Association and Nature Photographers of the Pacific Northwest.
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I had a website for many years that I built myself using now legacy MS software. The site was geared to not only sharing my work but also selling prints. It got decent traffic early on but started to decline when everyone and their grandmother had a photography site, while hosting and domain costs kept rising. I finally pulled the plug even after making some sales in both prints and published work.
All that being said, there’s a certain joy to having your own site. These days many web hosts, such as Web.com have ‘site builders’ that you can use to build your site. You’ll also need a domain name. I suggest using your real name, for example, “matthew.melamudephotography.com” or one of the other extensions such as .net . Network Solutions is the best choice for this.
You could also hire a developer to build your site, but it would be quite expensive. See this NPN discussion. Also, this one.
If you decide to have your own site there are three things to ensure. First, make sure the site is ‘smart phone friendly’. Second, advertise your site on your Facebook page or other social media platforms if you use them. Third make the site is ‘search engine friendly’. Google SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
OK. I’ve rambled enough here. 
The main thing is to do your homework and find a solution that works for you and supports your goals.
-P
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I resorted to using Flick’r to keep a few images up mainly as an easy way to share with friends. It’s a good way to put images up for free as a start. https://www.flickr.com/photos/54453814@N04/
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I’ll have to see what organizations are in my area! If anyone happens to know of any organizations in the bay area, I’d love to check them out
I’ve built my own websites in the past and I use Instagram, but these days I rely on Squarespace for both my website hosting and my photo sharing. It’s very easy to use, produces professional-looking results, and has excellent built-in image management. It also provides useful stats like page views, and the integrated email tools make it simple to send newsletters to a subscriber list.
Before choosing a platform, I think it’s important to ask yourself what your goal is in sharing your photos publicly. Personally, I have so many images on my hard drive that I just want to put them out into the world in the hope that one might resonate with someone and spark an emotion. For me, making money—while a completely different conversation—isn’t the priority.
I’ve entered and won several international contests, had work shown in galleries, appeared in a couple of magazines, and even ended up in some private collections. In my experience, contests haven’t really translated into new leads, followers, or sales. But I will say, it always feels good when an influencer on Instagram reposts your work and suddenly you’re getting 10,000 views… even if that doesn’t happen often.
@Tom_Nevesely @Allen_Brooks @Preston_Birdwell @Teep @stephen_rauch thank you for your thoughtful advice. I think I’m going to start a photography blog because I want to share the stories and musings that go along with those photos. Maybe I’ll start an emailing list along with it and whoever is interested can follow along but it won’t be a venture for making money or even selling photos. Mainly as a way for me to explore my own thoughts and have a place to put them
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I have a photography friend in my area who posts (Smugmug), usually monthly (unless a trip or special event happens), of what he’s been shooting and he mails out an email link. His email is one of the very few I actually enjoy receiving.