Disappointed with sales
I am looking for some advice for sales of sports actions photos. The most work I do is with baseball and soccer but I have also done some football and water polo. I am constantly told how people really like my photos and how they will definitely be buying them from my SmugMug website but then they do not. The players, many who know my kids, often just sit around and look at their photos on line, wishing they had the photos, but their parents do not order for one reason or another (no credit card, the poor economy, they forget, etc.).
I was wondering if offering a CD and all rights to photos for a base price ($25 for 15-20 photos) would be beneficial. It seems that most people would be willing to do that and then they can use the photos for facebook, printing on their own, etc. Has anyone done this before? Any pros and cons that you can think of?
If you did this, would you keep a small logo of your business on each photo?
Thanks for the advice.
Big Red
I was wondering if offering a CD and all rights to photos for a base price ($25 for 15-20 photos) would be beneficial. It seems that most people would be willing to do that and then they can use the photos for facebook, printing on their own, etc. Has anyone done this before? Any pros and cons that you can think of?
If you did this, would you keep a small logo of your business on each photo?
Thanks for the advice.
Big Red
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A former sports shooter
Follow me at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bjurasz/
My Etsy store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/mercphoto?ref=hdr_shop_menu
firefox lets you save pics anyway
i choose a soccer gallery at random, Little Warriors Soccer 2009
pls don't take this as offensive:
1. you need to spend more time culling your pics and only post what you yourself would buy... backs of kids heads are not going to sell, no face then delete it
2. 915 pics in 1 gallery is way too many for parents to look thru
3. posting the same pic at different sizes is imo not a good idea...i crop for composition and then crop for print size when the pics sells.
Randy
http://www.CarolinaSportsPhotography.com/
Thanks guys for your input. I am not offended and appreciate the advice. I am however troubled with the comment that people can just "save" my photos from the website. I was fairly certain that the photos were all protected from being downloaded.
Merphoto, can you let me know how you were able to "save" dispalyed photos? I have not been able to duplicate it and i would like to know what I am missing.
Thanks
To yoru original question, even if you are getting sales exclusively via your website, for me at least the aftermarket is way less than half of what is sold right there at a show. You would check the costs, but you need to find some sort of viewing system where you let people see and buy right there at the games. Makes all the difference.
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and I do believe its true.. that there are roads left in both of our shoes..
I wish I remembered which gallery I had gone to, it was the first and only one I visited. But when I hovered the mouse over the medium sized photo the pop up floating menu included the "save photo" button. The file name was 825409267__mg_7908-1.jpg if that helps any. I saw another gallery were I could view even the original sized image. If so, then I can grab the original size image as well, for free, using screen grabbers.
Randy says "the pics have watermarks so who cares if they get a copy". You should care because they won't buy if they can get a reasonably good sized image for free off the web. This is why I don't display anything over 500 pixels wide, I would never let the buyer see an original sized image on the site. Sure it has my watermark on it but how does that put dollars into Big Red's pockets?
A former sports shooter
Follow me at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bjurasz/
My Etsy store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/mercphoto?ref=hdr_shop_menu
This is probably a stupid question but how do i limit the pixle size that is shown?
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pic..(Portfolio just sounds more Professional than Samples.....that quickly puts the image of the door to door sales man in my mind and turns me off to buying very quickly).....that in it self could be hurting your sales......I visited a couple of galleries and tried hovering over the photos and the big orange circle with the plus sign is still there...that is the collet
photos or save photo that Merc was talking about....gotta go....and even if the images are watermarked with a little due diligence that watermark is gone and good enuff for printing upto 8x10....
if the theif is really good and has PSCS5 it is gone more quickly and even better than just cloning for an hour or so to make it clean...........on your watermark - redo it...make that watermark
your web address....or This Image was Stolen from your web address.com .....I personally like large bold and colorful watermarks...since I post my images from my SM
website then my watermark follows.............Need to make sure that no one but you can change the style of your galleries to Journal....doing so gave me the ability to collect
(or save if you will) the original.......
Just to be totally fair here ........... if you view it on your screen...it is already saved in your temp files.....that is why my WM's are the way they are..........
and I spend about 10 hours a week getting my images taken down off various sites and forums...even with my big Honking WM plastered across the center of the pix..........
That is 10 hours I could be having fun rather than writing nasty cease and desist remove or else emails...........
Thanks to all of you. During my lunchbreak I believe I have made most of the changes you suggested. I have disabled the external links, have made sure all galleries are protected and have changed view sizes to XL, not original. I cannot seem to download any of the photos as you showed me I could before. Other than changing my watermark as suggested, is there anything else I should do for protection.
It frustrates me that the little opening I had left may have resulted in people taking my photos. But hey, I am a cop and should know better, right?
yours are right click protected but firefox makes it very easy to get a copy
Randy
http://www.CarolinaSportsPhotography.com/
this is a real dilema because if they aren't big enough then they won't get sold
and new browsers make getting a copy very easy
my thinking is those that can live with a WMed copy would never buy anyway so better to get the free advertizement
Randy
http://www.CarolinaSportsPhotography.com/
gallery settings or when you create the jpg to be uploaded
Randy
http://www.CarolinaSportsPhotography.com/
if you are shooting youth sports parents are your customers not the kids
Randy
http://www.CarolinaSportsPhotography.com/
What everyone is saying is very true, that parents will not buy anything they can download for free, so you need to fix that first. It is interesting how so many people turn a blind eye to taking photos from photog websites or taking their 4x6 print purchase and scanning it at Walmart to make their own enlargements and think they have a right to it since the photo is of them or their kid. You need to incorporate stealing into your print prices since it will happen.
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I also shoot youth sports and am a father of four, and when I take my passion of photography out of the equation, I can totally see why great photos go unpurchased – or even looked at. There are many reasons why your prints go unsold and have nothing to do with your photos, and here is what I do about it (not to say I do it all right).
First, and this is one of my problems in general, there is more for parents to do than they have time for, so it is hard to get them to set aside some of their busy schedule to even go check out your photos. So I sell them a gallery (like a cd), they pay me upfront and I put all of their photos into a gallery and it’s there for whenever they get around to it. I got my $$$ and they have their photos and can get to them whenever they get a chance. It also helps to have a photo book of your portfolio that you keep in your camera bag so parents have an idea of what you can capture.
Second, parents do not have an opportunity to buy your photos until after they’ve paid league fees, bought new equipment and jerseys for their kids that grew out of last year’s, coaches gifts, trophies and after year parties (yes parents are talking about that early in the season to get things ordered), snacks, and possibly the T&I photos – and then you come along with great game photos. Parents feel spent to death by the time we come along, and they may already have spent $$$ on T&I photos. With teams that are recurring clients to me, I try to get in there early and before the spending bonanza starts. Many parents will divert their T&I budget, or some of it, to your action photos, but you need to get to them early. I also offer an “in season” discount so parents feel like they are getting a deal. It also gives me a reason to send a gallery reminder as discounts get close to expiring.
Third, many parents out there can care less about photos, are happy enough with the crappy shots from their cell phone, and/or are conditioned to only buy T&I photos. These parents will never buy anything and all you can do is not waste your time on them. But, it is very hard to determine who they are as maybe they just never got around to it this season but would buy next season. I do three strikes and you’re out, I do not shoot your kid anymore.
Fourth, similar to third, there are some good amateur photogs out there and they sometimes give prints away to the other parents who are their friends, so no sales there either – usually. I do shoot for them if it is pouring, and they often buy from me as sports shots in the rain are really cool – and they do not get their camera out of the bag..
Last thing I do is try to differentiate myself by doing collages and personalizing photos, do some value added stuff, I see you do collages. For me collages are quite popular and profitable, Mom’s love them. My experience has been that the Moms are really the photo purchasers, so it helps to know your target audience. Dad’s will usually say Wow to your photos, but never open their wallet – that’s their wife’s job.
Hope this helps, good luck out there!
This way you can create a small database of potential customers and send e-mails:
1. After the event to announce the gallery is live
2. Two weeks later as a reminder message.
3. Wait two more weeks and send a message telling parents the gallery will soon expire and no longer be available.
It's all about promoting.
BTW - your photography is great.
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