Selling Your Photos Online

[Jill]

I'm curious if you guys are selling your photos online. Is anyone using a particular service?? If so, how successful have you been, which services have you used??

Shutterfly has been mentioned on another thread. Shutterfly users... are you happy with them??

Thanks for the feedback!!

[William Allen]

Hi Jill,

I've not tried to sell any prints online, YET :D . I soon will hopefully when I have a little more time to dedicate to it and also have the number of prints to offer that I would like.

I do have a friend that uses www.printroom.com to sell his prints. I get all of my prints from there and they are an awsome online printing service IMO. They offer a pro studio so you can sell your prints online. Browse over there and check them out.

BTW, you should probably call them and inquire about their services, as they are more prone to cut some nice deals if you're in a negotiating mood :)

Hope that helps.

[bwolford]

Jill, you know I use Shutterfly. My experience is fine, but my customer's experience is more important. All are happy and like the images they've received. The only comments I've received are based on my technique or results of my work and not the quality of the print from Shutterfly, if that makes sense.

Many say they like the convenience of paying by credit card and I didn't want to hassle with negotiating with a bank to take cards. Shutterfly does all of that. Check the fees to YOU of any service you use and research, research, research. Another service is dotphoto.com.

Brice

[bwolford]

I did a comprison of printroom.com to shutterfly.com.

Printroom.com allows you to put a logo on your page and has more options for print sizes, many of which I, personally, might not use like 8x8, 10X10, etc... It offers more goodie options for customers like mugs, mouse pads, etc that you can seel from your gallery. Shutteryfly offers some of these goodies, but not from your gallery. One thing I like about printroom.com is you can, from what I can see, set up a download service to people can download the images if you want to sell the original, full quality digitial impression. Shutterfly doesn't allow that.

One important difference is price. printroom.com $99 for 300MB and $20 per 100MB over 300 up to 500MB and then they match it what you bought. Shutterfly.com $99 for 1000MB or 1GB. Do some math:

Shutterfly 1 GB = $99
printroom 1.3 GB = $199

Then look at the cost of prints and fees. The printroom processing fee % is lower by 2%, but your cost of prints is higher as the photographer. Compare print costs to you... These are the Shutterfly vs printroom prices:

4X6 $0.24 vs $0.39
5X7 $0.79 vs $0.99
8X10 $3.19 vs $2.99
11X14 $6.39 vs $4.95
20X30 $18.39 vs $19.95
Wallets $1.43 vs $1.39

Also, your customer's shipping costs should be considered. Little harderd to compare since they yse different increments (10 for Shutterfly vs 25 for printroom) Again Shutterfly vs printroom.

1-25 prints $2.49 vs $2.95
25-50 $2.99 vs $3.69
up to 75 $3.99 vs $4.44

I can tall you that 80% of my orders are 4X6 and less than 10 pictures. If I took my orders and did the math, I would make 2% less at printroom.com AND my customers would have paid about $15 more in shipping and handling.

If my customers bought more large pictures (8X10 or >) my numbers would be reveresed for money made by moi, but the shipping fees would go way up at printroom.com (so I'd make less at shutterfly, but my customers would pay more at printroom.com).

Bottom line is you have to have an idea about what your customers might order, how many, and how often and do some analysis. Also, what features would you want/need? I didn't need a logo and image download. Most of the goodies are available at shutterfly, so that's an equal measurement...

I hadn't heard of printroom.com, but based on my numbers and sales, shutterfly is better for me and my customers.

Brice

[Mary]

Thank you Brice - that saved anybody who might be considering this venture hours and hours of time as well as providing valuable insight!

You are terrific! :)

[William Allen]

Brice,

I did the same comparison about a month ago. The biggest problem I had with Shutterfly was the lack of choices among printing sizes. I keep a professional portfolio book that holds 8x12 full frame 35mm. The industry standard is 9x12, but, I chose to keep it at 8x12. Unfortuantely Shutterfly doesn't offer much in that area if any at all.

I tend to deal in 8x10 or larger prints so printroom makes for a better choice especially if I need odd sizes for calendars, etc.

[Jill]

Great info!!

Thanks so much for the time spent putting this together!!

[Jill]

One more thing..

What about SmugMug?? Does anyone know anything about them? Are there any users on board??

[jayegirl]

I have not used them to charge, but I use them to store and share my prints. I take a lot of pictures at our football games and put them there so whoever wants them can save or order their own copies and I don't have to keep up with it. I have people actually tell me I should charge but I am not there yet. Besides, I think that would take part of the fun out of it for me. It (taking pictures, editing and creating) is a big de-stressor for me and fun. I do it to give back something to others.

I don't rule it out though! Everyone who orders from there is pleased with the prints, but again, we are not professionals.

[bwolford]

Jayegirl, I do it for the fun too, but it pays for the habit and I have no pressure about doing it whatsoever. If I get it done, great, if not the parents can wait.


Do what feels right.

Brice

[bwolford]

Photo Bus Update:

Just checked my sales and since September I've sold $4300 worth of pictures doing this part time. Of course $3500 of that was from a recent portrait shoot of 60-70 gymnasts... Now I need to subtract my time, travel, cheap Home Depot Lighting setup, $475 professional backdrop :shock: , new lenses :shock: :shock: :shock: , other costs :x ... I profited about $4.52. It's a start!!! :D Had a photo published in a Gym Mag (of course it was of MY daughter)... :roll:

At this rate, if I move into a tent and sell my children into slavery, I could make a living at this.

Brice

[Wendy]

Brice ...

I love it ... what a wonderful way of putting it :)


Wendy

[Pauline]

Brice for years I have painted and sold my paintings. Profits? Well I usually broke even every year because of course I was always buying more painting books, more paint, more wood pieces, etc., so I know exactly what you are talking about. BUT my hobby was paying for itself. In other words I wasn't using household money for any of my purchases. So while you came ahead a mere $4, you also have new lenses and backdrop that you won't have to purchase again, and you also have the joy of what you are doing, so while you probably won't feed the family with your hobby, you will at least cover the expense of your hobby.

[bwolford]

Exactly ladies! As long as it pays for itself, which while it hasn't it's coming close, I'll be happy. Perhaps in retirement, I'll look for a small income.

Thanks for the encouragement. That's one reason why I like hanging around this zoo.

Brice

[jo]

Pauline and Brice, that's a good way to look at it. Every time I think about trying to sell my photographs I think about the time and the cost vs what I might get paid for them and decide it isn't worth it. But you are right that if it pays for the hobby it IS worth doing.

[kerriann85]

Brice,
Thanks for the update, that's so interesting!
What kinda backdrop didja get? Would love to see a picture of it. Or with it.

(I helped with a shoot for the YMCA of volleyball players: individuals and teams, while my "boss" shot football players. Talk about herding cats!! But it was sort of a fun time.)

[Pauline]

Jo I think with most hobbys you really get paid what you put into it. If I were to charge hourly for my paintings I wouldn't sell too many. I do it for the love of it because it sure isn't for the money. Then again, since I was (not the word WAS) always painting so what would I do with it all if I didn't sell it or give it as gifts?? Lots of times I would paint something because I liked it but it wasn't something I needed or suited my home. I was also learning a lot by doing different things.

As for the photography, I wouldn't begin to know how to charge and if I did, again, unless you consider yourself a pro, when you do it as a hobby people really expect something for nothing. Especially friends. So right now my hobby is NOT paying for itself like my painting hobby was, but I have a very understanding husband and I figure a book is well worth the time I spend with it.

[bwolford]

I purchased a Studio Dynamics backdrop called Spellbinder (http://www.studiodynamics.com/shop/index.php?shop=1&itemid=156).

I've got one of the images on my gallery. Just click below and look for the gymnasts.

Brice

[kerriann85]

Thanks Brice. Don't know why I didn't think to look in your gallery for the backdrop to begin with! Duh!
It must be huge!

[bwolford]

16' X 20' or for our Brittish friends 6.2m X 4.1m...

Much bigger than I need right now, but still not big enough for team shots...


Brice

[Pauline]

How do you hang it Brice? Do you just attach it to the wall or does it come with some kind of stand?

[Wendy]

Brice ...

A lot of us in UK still think in feet and inches :)


Wendy

[Pauline]

A lot of us in Canada think in feet and inches!!!! Even though in school they tried to teach us metric, it just wasn't a big hit. My kids talk cm I talk inches.

[Wendy]

Pauline ...

Funny how we all do that :)


Wendy

[bwolford]

I didn't buy a backdrop stand although it would be a helpful purchase. Currently all I did was buy 4 LARGE C-Clamps and I clamp it to whatever looks sturdy. So far it's worked. The pictures of the gymnasts in my gallery were taken with the backdrop draped over a free standing arch/shelf in my living room.

I spent hours taking wrinkles out of it with PSE3 before I bought my WACOM tablet and that turned what was taking about 2 hours a picture into a 10 minute per picture exercise. I call that a work flow improvement.

Brice

P.S. I plan to no longer translate my measurements in support of our UK friends (and Canada geese). :) It's good to see folks can dumb down to my level. (Heck I just guessed at the meter measurements, assuming 39 inches, or thereabouts, per meter...

[Pauline]

Brice maybe you should invest in an iron. :wink:

[bwolford]

That's women's work! :? Oh geez, i just stepped into that big time!

Brice

[kerriann85]

How Funny! Brice, it's SUPPOSED To be wrinkled!! In fact, you should store it wadded up inside a pillow case or somthing similar so it gets really wrinkled and not just kinda wrinkled or then it looks ....um.... wrinkled. Instead of artistic.

And nice think about the mottled backdrops, they're fairly easy to stretch the sides in PS to make them fit large groups. Had the same problems with a couple large volleyball teams I had to shoot.

[Pauline]

Good one Kerriann. Brice maybe you should go and get that tablet pen removed from your head. I believe it's causing you some problems. :lol:

[Wendy]

Brice ...


:) :)


Wendy