Notification of print sales for standard or power uses?

NikonGirl

I know that only Professional users can set their own print prices. But is it possible for standard and power users to know if anybody buys one of their photos?

Also, if a Professional user choose to NOT changes the print prices (i.e. no profit), then does the Professional user still know how many prints he sold?

Thanks,

jfriend

Count me in too!

NikonGirl wrote:

I know that only Professional users can set their own print prices. But is it possible for standard and power users to know if anybody buys one of their photos?

Also, if a Professional user choose to NOT changes the print prices (i.e. no profit), then does the Professional user still know how many prints he sold?

Thanks,

I would really like to know what is being purchased too. I actually have a Pro account for other reasons, but before I start trying to charge for some of my pics, I'd really like to know how many prints have been ordered on some of the galleries I already have. My logic goes like this. If there aren't many prints being ordered, then it's probably not worth setting up custom pricing on other galleries. If there are a good number of prints being ordered, then I may consider marking them up some.

And, I totally buy the argument that if you were trying to figure out whether to upgrade to the Pro account, you'd love to have these statistics too.

--John

Nikolai

Sales stats

jfriend wrote:

I would really like to know what is being purchased too. I actually have a Pro account for other reasons, but before I start trying to charge for some of my pics, I'd really like to know how many prints have been ordered on some of the galleries I already have. My logic goes like this. If there aren't many prints being ordered, then it's probably not worth setting up custom pricing on other galleries. If there are a good number of prints being ordered, then I may consider marking them up some.

And, I totally buy the argument that if you were trying to figure out whether to upgrade to the Pro account, you'd love to have these statistics too.

--John

That's where Star*Explorer Pro comes VERY handy - check the S*E FAQ (## 11, 13, 14) how to get your SM sales into the beautiful reports and charts...:D

HTH

Nik

NikonGirl

Nikolai wrote:

That's where Star*Explorer Pro comes VERY handy - check the S*E FAQ (## 11, 13, 14) how to get your SM sales into the beautiful reports and charts...:D

HTH

Nik

Nik-
I'm a bit confused. Does Star*Explorer provide the sales information only to Professional Smugmug users? Or can I have a standard (or Power) Smugmug account and still get that information?

Also, since you seem to indicate that I need Star*Explorer to get sales information, does that mean that Smugmug does not provide it to Standard and Power users?

Thanks,

jfriend

Can't get sales info using S*E either

Nikolai wrote:

That's where Star*Explorer Pro comes VERY handy - check the S*E FAQ (## 11, 13, 14) how to get your SM sales into the beautiful reports and charts...
Nik

What we're asking for here is the ability to report on print sales when prices have NOT been marked up. When I try it in S*E, all I get is "No pertinent sales info available". Is it supposed to give me sales info for galleries that don't have custom pricing? Or do we both need the Smugmug folks to make that info available?

--John

Nikolai

Re: Sales in SM - Stats in S*E

NikonGirl wrote:

Nik-
I'm a bit confused. Does Star*Explorer provide the sales information only to Professional Smugmug users? Or can I have a standard (or Power) Smugmug account and still get that information?

Also, since you seem to indicate that I need Star*Explorer to get sales information, does that mean that Smugmug does not provide it to Standard and Power users?

Thanks,

Unless something has changed recently, you can only get sales info in you SM account if you're holding Professional Smugmug subscription. Respectively, if you don't had Pro SM account, you would not get this info in the first place, so S*E or not S*E, there is nothing to report of.

Now, if you do have Pro SM account and actually have some sales (your own purchases do not count, at least those made under your own login), S*E can help you to get that data to Excel, Access or your other report/charting engine. You'd also need the S*E Professional Edition to do that (which kinda makes sense:-).

HTH

Nikolai

John,

jfriend wrote:

What we're asking for here is the ability to report on print sales when prices have NOT been marked up. When I try it in S*E, all I get is "No pertinent sales info available". Is it supposed to give me sales info for galleries that don't have custom pricing? Or do we both need the Smugmug folks to make that info available?

--John

I don't have enough data to verify your theory since my markup was set to non-zero since day one. However, what I know for sure is that SM does not "record" your own sales (the ones made under your own login) for more than 6 months already (they used to do it before, but it was a self-printing feature request which they granted), so this may be a point of confusion.

At any rate - S*E (Pro) would get your sales SM data (which you can only have under SM Pro account) provided there is some. No recorded sales - obviously, "no pertinent data"..

As to the recording the non-pro and/or non-profit sales - here's where we need Onethumb or Baldy...

HTH

Bodley

Nikolai wrote:

However, what I know for sure is that SM does not "record" your own sales (the ones made under your own login) for more than 6 months already (they used to do it before, but it was a self-printing feature request which they granted), so this may be a point of confusion.
HTH

Well this confused me . I have the pro account and use S*E to retrieve my sales data. Are you saying that I can also get the data from my own purchases, made under my login, for up to six months. If so - How?

Thanks,
Greg

jfriend

How to get sales info on non-marked up sales?

Nikolai wrote:

I don't have enough data to verify your theory since my markup was set to non-zero since day one. However, what I know for sure is that SM does not "record" your own sales (the ones made under your own login) for more than 6 months already (they used to do it before, but it was a self-printing feature request which they granted), so this may be a point of confusion.

At any rate - S*E (Pro) would get your sales SM data (which you can only have under SM Pro account) provided there is some. No recorded sales - obviously, "no pertinent data"..

As to the recording the non-pro and/or non-profit sales - here's where we need Onethumb or Baldy...

HTH

Hmmm. I do have a Pro smugmug account, so that one's out of the way. I guess I can't tell if nobody has ever ordered a print from my site or if smugmug/S*E are only reporting on "marked-up" prices (which I don't have any). Because I've hosted photos for very large events (including the whole school and many sports teams), I'd be extremely surprised if nobody bought any prints, but I don't really know for sure. My guess is that somebody must have ordered some prints, so that leads me to conclude that smugmug only reports on marked-up print sales.

Can anyone from smugmug settle this for us? Does the sales info reported to S*E via "http://username.smugmug.com/homepage/prosales.mg?UserID=xxxxx" only include sales on images where prices have been "marked up" by the pro account holder?

--John

NikonGirl

I just want to clarify the purpose of my question.
I have a standard account. I am not a professional photographer, but I do take photos of friends and family, soccer games, etc. What I would like to know from Smugmug is this: Is there ANY way I can know if anybody orders one of my photos? I'm curious from a personal satisfaction point of view only. If someone orders prints from one of my photos, it would be nice to know that information.

jfriend

Got it - sorry for the diversion

NikonGirl wrote:

I just want to clarify the purpose of my question.
I have a standard account. I am not a professional photographer, but I do take photos of friends and family, soccer games, etc. What I would like to know from Smugmug is this: Is there ANY way I can know if anybody orders one of my photos? I'm curious from a personal satisfaction point of view only. If someone orders prints from one of my photos, it would be nice to know that information.

NikonGirl - I understand your question and I'm sorry for hijacking your thread in a slightly different direction. I was pursuing the same question for pro accounts under the theory that if you can't even get that info for pro accounts (which do grant access to some sales info today), then you certainly won't have it for power user accounts. It appears that the answer is "no" to both scenarios, but we haven't yet really heard an official smugmug answer to the question.

--John

NikonGirl

John
No need to apologize. I don't feel you hijacked my thread - your question was definitely related. I just want to make sure my question didn't get lost in the discussion.

I suspect your right about the fact that Smugmug does not provide this information. But I would like an official answer though.

digitalities

NikonGirl wrote:

I just want to clarify the purpose of my question.
I have a standard account. I am not a professional photographer, but I do take photos of friends and family, soccer games, etc. What I would like to know from Smugmug is this: Is there ANY way I can know if anybody orders one of my photos? I'm curious from a personal satisfaction point of view only. If someone orders prints from one of my photos, it would be nice to know that information.

I'm a new smugmug power user and I was wondering about the same issue. Is it possible to gather such statistics nowadays?

Cheers, Sergio

SteveM

As I understand it, sales data is not generated at all unless the print is priced over the default (at cost, to the Pro users) price, by at least .01

Since Standard and Power users can't up the price, no data is generated and can't be viewed, tracked, or reported.

I can definitely see where you guys would want this if for nothing other than curiosity, or to see how much you're making Smugmug/EZ Prints, and if you should upgrade to Pro to get in on the action!

I know this feature has been suggested/requested before, so maybe it's in the works.

digitalities

SteveM wrote:

As I understand it, sales data is not generated at all unless the print is priced over the default (at cost, to the Pro users) price, by at least .01

thanks for the status report and technical insight.

- Sergio

renstar

I've been barking up this tree for a while, but it never seems to go anywhere, and that perplexes me.

This is the scenerio I've been thinking of this feature for:
1) find out im not selling any prints at all
2) do 'stuff' (ads, pimp stuff on blogs, i dunno)
3) if i actually sell stuff, it may be worth my while to *upgrade* (more money for smugmug!) to pro so that I can set my own prices and make some money (AND more money for smugmug)

but.. for some reason smugmug either doesnt want more money (unlikely) or seems to think that this wont get them more money.. if the latter is the case, which I think it is, im just curious as to the logic.. if they so deem to reveal it

-r

jfriend

Two sides to this request

renstar wrote:

I've been barking up this tree for a while, but it never seems to go anywhere, and that perplexes me.

This is the scenerio I've been thinking of this feature for:
1) find out im not selling any prints at all
2) do 'stuff' (ads, pimp stuff on blogs, i dunno)
3) if i actually sell stuff, it may be worth my while to *upgrade* (more money for smugmug!) to pro so that I can set my own prices and make some money (AND more money for smugmug)

but.. for some reason smugmug either doesnt want more money (unlikely) or seems to think that this wont get them more money.. if the latter is the case, which I think it is, im just curious as to the logic.. if they so deem to reveal it

-r

As I've understood this feature request from previous discussions involving Smugmug folks, they have been thinking of access to sales information as just one of those things that comes with the pro package and if you want it, you have to pay for the pro package. That is their prerogative as they define the differentiation between the different subscription levels.

There is, however, another argument that access to sales information (perhaps even just skeletal sales information, not every last detail) when you don't have a pro package could be an interesting motivator for people to buy a pro package and think about charging for their photos. Before I had a pro package, I wanted to know how much I could make *if* I decided to mark-up the prints I was already selling for large events I was doing the photography for. In today's world, there's no way to answer that question and thus it's hard for some people to figure out if they should get a pro package or not. So, it's possible that Smugmug would sell more pro packages if they included skeletal sales information with the lower levels.

Which is a better business decision for Smugmug's business is an intuitive guess and is, of course, their decision. But, there are two sides to the thinking and it's not completely black and white either way. Hopefully, they can consider both sides of the argument.

renstar

jfriend wrote:

As I've understood this feature request from previous discussions involving Smugmug folks, they have been thinking of access to sales information as just one of those things that comes with the pro package and if you want it, you have to pay for the pro package. That is their prerogative as they define the differentiation between the different subscription levels.

Agreed, it is their prerogative and frankly, i agree that sales info, like stuff about customers, is and should be pro only.

There is, however, another argument that access to sales information (perhaps even just skeletal sales information, not every last detail) when you don't have a pro package could be an interesting motivator for people to buy a pro package and think about charging for their photos. Before I had a pro package, I wanted to know how much I could make *if* I decided to mark-up the prints I was already selling for large events I was doing the photography for. In today's world, there's no way to answer that question and thus it's hard for some people to figure out if they should get a pro package or not. So, it's possible that Smugmug would sell more pro packages if they included skeletal sales information with the lower levels.

This is exactly the scenerio I was talking about. And i guess I didnt include it in my previous post, but I did mean that just skeletal info, like x prints of y size from pic z. and perhaps a total number of orders just so you know if it was one dude or if one photo was super popular. ie, just enough info to decide that it is worth upgrading for the purposes of selling photos (as there are loads of other reasons to upgrade!).

Which is a better business decision for Smugmug's business is an intuitive guess and is, of course, their decision. But, there are two sides to the thinking and it's not completely black and white either way. Hopefully, they can consider both sides of the argument.

Again, agreed. I'd even be pleased to see this as a power user level thing. The advantage of that would be that just seeing sales numbers would be an incentive to upgrade from standard to power.
-r