Poster Sales

PixNW

For those of you that may be selling custom posters through Smugmug, how are you handling the sales? I prefer to not start a custom poster project until I've received the money. I would like the customer to be able to choose the image(s) that they want utilized in the poster, and pay through Smugmug if possible, prior to me starting the project. Is there a way to set up a category for custom work so that the customer can pay for something that is not yet created, and then proof online, approve and then have it shipped? I've thought about getting paid via Paypal, and then having the final product available online for proofing. Then I have to deal with ordering and delivering the product. I would much prefer if it could all be done online.

Any suggestions?

Tatonka

Maybe have a gallery for custom poster work, and simply put up a placeholder image and set a price. You could then set your "proof days" to 7, if you think you can get it all done in that time.

This is something I've been thinking about, but haven't done yet. Maybe someone out there is actually doing it somehow and will chime in.

RKnecht

I don't sell posters, but I sell quite a few montages in 11x14 and 8x10. I have them in their own gallery with no shopping cart. When people want them, they send me a check and I send them the print. It's been working great so far. You can also put the posters in their own gallery and set prices oer image, not per gallery.

MikeMcA²

Rich, this is another item I wish SM offered. Poster quality large prints, instead of only photo-quality 20x30 or other fine-art paper quality print. Folks wanting posters don't seem to want frameable quality prints, they just want a poster. Other sites offer this, why can't SM?

Shamguess

I sell "custom" magazine covers on my smugmug site. Mostly for BMX kids. I posted a couple samples and the requests just started coming in. Basically, I design a cover at their request and post it in a special gallery. They then order it from the site like any other image. It sounds like what you want to do is set it up like the smugmug greeting cards setup. I also sell Christmas cards from my smugmug site. In this case, the "client" looks at my site and decides what card design they like. Then I get an email requesting me to put image "X" in card style "Y". I load that custom card in a private gallery for them to view and approve. If they like it, they go back to the main card gallery and pay for the cards up front using the google checkout buttons I added. I now have the cash upfront. Then I order the cards through smugmug and have them shipped directly to their door. Works well.
I'm not sure how much luck you will have getting them to pay you before they have seen the final product. Hopefully you have the photoshop skills to create templates to cut down on your time. I am able to do the magazine covers in about 10 minutes now so I am not investing a huge amount of time up front. I sell them pretty cheap but I find that most people order other prints as well.

link to magazine cover samples:

http://surveyor.smugmug.com/gallery/6342103_oco7H#423909795_fNUwe

link to custom cards gallery (with pre-pay function):

http://surveyor.smugmug.com/gallery/6411963_RaPrb