Digital Downloads, Sizing and Pricing

vlherring

I don't do people-gatherings or such but do sell my pix at shows on occasion. And here. I am giving thought to permitting personal, non commercial digital download of images which will work as screensavers but not much more, at least not able to be printed large enough to matter. I have read many of the threads related to this issue but have Q:

1. a preference or suggestion seems to be to create a separate gallery and then populate it with images that you will allow to be digitally downloaded.
2. if I do that then I [think] I can set it up for downloading originals at $X and they'll be 72pt and whatever dimensions [I just checked and found Apple Desktop shots are 1024 x 768] - if people want to print they won't do much good.
3. Right now I have 4 x 6 priced at $5.90 -- I suppose like the Apple Store I could price downloads at 99cents or some such? Although the volume may not be too much

Any thoughts or suggestions as to how best to do this? It's mainly to open up another marketing method.

SteveM

vlherring wrote:

I don't do people-gatherings or such but do sell my pix at shows on occasion. And here. I am giving thought to permitting personal, non commercial digital download of images which will work as screensavers but not much more, at least not able to be printed large enough to matter. I have read many of the threads related to this issue but have Q:

1. a preference or suggestion seems to be to create a separate gallery and then populate it with images that you will allow to be digitally downloaded.
2. if I do that then I [think] I can set it up for downloading originals at $X and they'll be 72pt and whatever dimensions [I just checked and found Apple Desktop shots are 1024 x 768] - if people want to print they won't do much good.
3. Right now I have 4 x 6 priced at $5.90 -- I suppose like the Apple Store I could price downloads at 99cents or some such? Although the volume may not be too much

Any thoughts or suggestions as to how best to do this? It's mainly to open up another marketing method.

It's a bit of a catch-22. Screensavers and desktops typically run at higher resolutions than you need to get great prints, so if you're providing stunning wallpapers, they'll likely be more than enough for great prints as well. Here's our minimum print resolutions for reference: http://www.smugmug.com/help/print-quality

You can definitely custom-size images, then price them at Original size (Original is anything, .5MP, 1MP, 4MP, or 14MP) and that may be your best bet.

You can get great advice on pricing from our Mind Your Own Business forum, but remember, not only will the file itself allow them to print unlimited numbers of at least 4x6s, but the license will as well.

I hope this helps!

vlherring

I hope this helps![/QUOTE]

That does help alot = I think I'll perhaps rethink this = if I do decide to do it, I'll set up a gallery for that purpose = thanks for the explanation.