digital photo frame - good to use for advertising?

GerryDavid

During my black friday shopping, I picked up a photo frame from Best buy and Target, both are $30, reg $50 or $60 or something like that. I was thinking of using one of them with my portfolio on an sd card at a hair salon, but I was just wondering if this was worth the effort. I already have framed prints on the walls and tables there, and I was thinking this photo frame would draw more attention for those sitting around with nothing to do but wait for the next part of their hair treatment. These women seem to be there for hours and hours.

But I'm a bit hesitant at this because the frame is only 7" and its not the highest quality. But I dont want to leave a $100+ frame laying around either.

Should I use it along with the regular wall prints or should I just stick with the wall prints? Any opinions?

ChatKat

If you want to sell digital frames with 7" pictures then that's what you show people. If you want to sell wall portraits, that's what you show people. If you show 8x10's people buys 5x7's. if you want to sell 24x30 then you show 30x40

Snowgirl

ChatKat wrote: »

If you want to sell digital frames with 7" pictures then that's what you show people. If you want to sell wall portraits, that's what you show people. If you show 8x10's people buys 5x7's. if you want to sell 24x30 then you show 30x40

Good point! I used to use my laptop for a slide show playing during trade shows. Then i got smarter and had some of my best work blown up into large posters (30 x 40) that I hang on my backdrop. You can see those puppies a mile away! They draw people toward my booth and then I can chat them up about the type of work I do. I also change the posters annually because i do the same shows each year so I don't want my booth to be stale.

When I only had the little slide show I hardly saw anyone. Things are different now.

GerryDavid

ChatKat wrote: »

If you want to sell digital frames with 7" pictures then that's what you show people. If you want to sell wall portraits, that's what you show people. If you show 8x10's people buys 5x7's. if you want to sell 24x30 then you show 30x40

I think you misunderstand, im not trying to sell digital frames, in fact I dont really sell digital files, I offer them but at a price im comfortable with. the point is to have something in a hair salon that will draw attention. as it is I have four 11x14's hanging up and pretty soon Ill add a 16x20 and a couple 8x10's to another wall. Those will be staying up, but I was thinking of adding a digital frame to the mix to keep people entertained. but I know the 7" isnt large but if someone were to take it when no one is looking, it wouldnt be a huge loss.

Art Scott

GerryDavid wrote: »

I think you misunderstand, im not trying to sell digital frames, in fact I dont really sell digital files, I offer them but at a price im comfortable with. the point is to have something in a hair salon that will draw attention. as it is I have four 11x14's hanging up and pretty soon Ill add a 16x20 and a couple 8x10's to another wall. Those will be staying up, but I was thinking of adding a digital frame to the mix to keep people entertained. but I know the 7" isnt large but if someone were to take it when no one is looking, it wouldnt be a huge loss.

A 7" digital frame is not worth anything when it comes to show off ones professional work.......seriously it could hurt your image and business...........for digital presentation you need something no less than 24 inches and that is still small.....and as far as someone walking off with it...if mounted on a wall it can be secured by a thin cable to wall screww behind the frame...can't be carried off easily.

When I looked at my 23" monitor mounted to a short 10' wall it looked dwarfed......so i got a friends 30" monitor and it looked decent...not great but decent and then if you have ANY portrait orientation images they look tiny with all the black edges.......so all shots really need to be landscape orientation.......

Your presentations need to be jump out and grab you size.....As LARGE as possible........

Photog4Christ

GerryDavid wrote: »

I think you misunderstand, im not trying to sell digital frames, in fact I dont really sell digital files, I offer them but at a price im comfortable with. the point is to have something in a hair salon that will draw attention. as it is I have four 11x14's hanging up and pretty soon Ill add a 16x20 and a couple 8x10's to another wall. Those will be staying up, but I was thinking of adding a digital frame to the mix to keep people entertained. but I know the 7" isnt large but if someone were to take it when no one is looking, it wouldnt be a huge loss.

They aren't telling you to sell digital frames. They're saying that the digital frame will be a representation of your work. If you want to sell images in a frame, then you put up a frame. If you want to sell metallic prints, then you put up metallic prints. If you want to sell canvas wall prints, then you put up canvas wall prints......

If you really want to have something that will rotate your portfolio to those in the waiting room, then you need to put one of these puppies up on the wall and then put a high quality frame around it so it will look like an actual art piece.

You also will want to display in a high-end salon.

GerryDavid

I think I can find a cheaper flat screen tv for less than that $470, that can read sd cards and do a presentation. I'm not looking to make that sort of investment at this time.

daylightimages

Personally, if I had a digital frame that I wasn't using and I could put it someplace where people sit around bored with nothing to look at for hours on end and I had no other advertising options in that venue, I'd put the digital frame there. Some exposure is better than no exposure. I'd also make sure that every 10th image displayed my name and website.

Just my two cents.

Glort

GerryDavid wrote: »

I think I can find a cheaper flat screen tv for less than that $470, that can read sd cards and do a presentation. I'm not looking to make that sort of investment at this time.

What sort of income are you looking for at this time then?

If your doing glam or family portraits, surely you would pull $500 from the first one you booked which would cover the cost of a decent size screen.
I saw a 42" plasma TV the other day for mid $500's which is what I'm considering looking at for a display medium next year. The one I looked at the other day will play movies and pics straight off a USB drive.

I know those digital frames are getting cheaper but all the ones I have seen are crap quality. I can buy a used P4 computer and a 17" screen for the price of a decent size digi frame thing and the picture quality as well as size is chalk and cheese. With a cheap set of speakers I can have a slide show running with sound that is probably a more powerful tool at getting the viewer emotionally involved than the pics themselves!


I think you really have to first decide with this if your serious about making money and promoting your business or your just happy to play tiddly winks.
If it's the latter, then your 7" frame will be perfect and get you exactly the results your looking for.

GerryDavid

I would love to have many $500 portraits, but so far my best sale in 2010 was a $400 portrait, most are half that, not counting the wedding I did. This isnt a rich market although ive been fortunate to get some customers that are well to do, for this area.

Also I dont have the finances to toss $500 into a single monitor to leave at a place of business, even if it has high foot traffic. Got to many other bills I'm trying to pay off first.

daylightimages

If you'll re-read my post above, I qualified my endorsement of the digital frame with the caveat of "no other advertising options in that venue." Leaving a 42-inch plasma screen TV in a beauty shop isn't going to happen. But leaving a digital frame there where folks who are looking for something to look at while they are bored simply can't hurt. Some of you missed the point of the post by concentrating simply on the digital frame and not taking into account the environment it was proposed to be used.

ImJogi

I photograph a lot of events and I was thinking about someway to strap a monitor to my back and allow others to see what I am photographing as I go about these events.(Crazy I know) Of course I wouldn't dare do this at a wedding or commercial event, but maybe parades or ball games. I also am looking at large monitors or TV's for show in salons and business. Great Idea, if you have the small monitors, put them out there, Zig Ziglar says that "anything worth doing is at least worth doing it in the least of ways until you can do it better." Everyones got a camera these days and there are so many photographers starting new businesses each day that we have to do things differently if we want to survive.

www.KilbournePhoto.Com
www.SeeMySchoolPictures.Com

GerryDavid

interesting idea.

Glort

ImJogi wrote: »

I photograph a lot of events and I was thinking about someway to strap a monitor to my back and allow others to see what I am photographing as I go about these events.(Crazy I know)

I certainly think you would get noticed but do you think it would be in a positive way or otherwise?
If you were doing outdoor events in the daytime, a monitor would be useless and never seen.

Despite what some say, getting noticed is not always complimentary.

Glort

GerryDavid wrote: »

the point is to have something in a hair salon that will draw attention. as it is I have four 11x14's hanging up and pretty soon Ill add a 16x20 and a couple 8x10's to another wall.

Just looking at this again, Why are you bothering with these small print sizes if you want to get attention? Yeah, you may have a series of prints as in combinations of family groups but that's the wrong thing to use in that situation. You want one large print that can be seen from one end of the place to the other, not something someone has to walk right up to.

I wouldn't bother with anything under 20x30 myself for a wall print. I have my Display work all in white thick double matts ( forget the overall size now) in a thin aluminium frame. Simple, cheap and consistant but it makes for a really stylish and elegant display.

Because the framin is black and white, I can rip out the old pics and put in new ones and they always look great because the framing combo goes with any pic and when you have a bunch of prints together, they look professional and uniform.

Perhaps the reason your not getting $500 sales is because you just showing small prints and not conveying the full emotional impact that large prints do?