Fotomoto Experience?

eoren1

I started a photo blog about 5 months ago that is hosted on my server via Wordpress. For now, I have set it up to offer prints through a 'Contact me' page. This is clunky at best and I have yet to sell a single print.
Today, I saw a tweet from someone I follow that they began using Fotomoto. Took a look at his site and the fotomoto.com one and was really impressed. Wanted to see if anyone here had experience using them on non-Smugmug sites
Thanks,
E

eoren1

Well, seems no one has experience with Fotomoto here. Understood as Smugmug has a very nice interface for selling prints (though only available to Pros). If you want to 'test drive' Fotomoto, I have added it to my Wordpress blog - http://wednesdaysinmhd.com
It is a very slick interface and they have a great deal of flexibility in setting a price.
I would love to hear any thoughts on the interface if you do try it out.
Thanks
E

Dan7312

Just tried out your page. If I click on Buy or Download the Fotmoto logo pops up for a second then it grays out the whole browser window, but nothing else happens. Of course I'm running IE9 so maybe that is the problem. Looks like this:

eoren1 wrote: »

Well, seems no one has experience with Fotomoto here. Understood as Smugmug has a very nice interface for selling prints (though only available to Pros). If you want to 'test drive' Fotomoto, I have added it to my Wordpress blog - http://wednesdaysinmhd.com
It is a very slick interface and they have a great deal of flexibility in setting a price.
I would love to hear any thoughts on the interface if you do try it out.
Thanks
E

eoren1

Thanks for checking Dan. I have a Mac and have checked on Chrome, Firefox and Safari with good results on each. Really appreciate the input on IE9. I'll have to see if that is a known issue. The scripts run via java - do you enable it to run on IE9? All I can think of at the moment.
E

Dan7312

Yes, javascript is enabled, it's used on other sites like my smugmug site.

Poking a little closer with the debugger there is an uncaught exception when the page loads.

SCRIPT5022: Exception thrown and not caught fotomoto-min.js?1292838056, line 416 character 144456

{c=document.createElement('<iframe id="'+b+'" name="'+b+'" />');

Don't know if it related to the issue I'm seeing or not...lot's of sites have jscript errors in them...

Keep in mind though IE9 is just beta right now.

eoren1 wrote: »

Thanks for checking Dan. I have a Mac and have checked on Chrome, Firefox and Safari with good results on each. Really appreciate the input on IE9. I'll have to see if that is a known issue. The scripts run via java - do you enable it to run on IE9? All I can think of at the moment.
E

eoren1

Thanks again Dan
Checked at work with IE7 and seems to be fine here as well. Can't find any open issues on the fotomoto support forum re: IE9 so will try with the final version when it's released.
Appreciate your taking the time to look at the site
E

denisegoldberg

eoren1 wrote: »

Checked at work with IE7 and seems to be fine here as well.

I checked on my home computer with IE8 and it works there as well.

--- Denise

eoren1

Thanks Denise!
My Mass neighbors to the rescue
What did you think of the interface? I thought it was pretty darn slick when I saw it used on another Wordpress blog
E

denisegoldberg

eoren1 wrote: »

What did you think of the interface? I thought it was pretty darn slick when I saw it used on another Wordpress blog
E

It seems pretty seamless. I'll be interested in hearing if it drives sales - seems like it should since it's more "in your face" then requiring that the viewer click on a photo to jump to smug and then click buy.

It's nice that there is a canvas option - although I have to admit that most of my "for the wall" purchases lately have been Bay Photo's Metal Prints. No need to frame either a mounted canvas print or a metal print...

--- Denise

eoren1

Yah - having people jump to/from smugmug was a non-starter for me. I had put up a 'buy prints' page with options and prices but it required having the person use the contact form. That page had a pretty solid view count but I had not received a single email inquiring about a purchase. i'll report back if sales pick up with this tool. The upfront cost (free) is a no-brainer and I'm happy to give them the 15% commission for the slick interface if it leads to sales.
E

Art Scott

I played around on your blog and it seems to be a pretty slick interface.....might be worth a much closer look.....

eoren1

Thanks Art!

sara505

eoren1 wrote: »

Thanks Art!

It all looks pretty slick - very nice. I'm tempted to try this out on my blogs.

sara505

Has anyone tested the quality of the printing that is offered?

eoren1

I saw a review of a canvas print that looked very nice.
I am a bit leery of moving away from my tried-and-true WHCC though...

eoren1

I just placed on order for two prints (8x10) and will report back on the quality.
The nice thing about the site is that you can also generate coupons. I made one to sell items at cost and spent all of $5 for this test run.
Timing works out well as I just came from the dentist's office for a cleaning and sold two large prints while there!!! They'll order after I see the results.
E

fotomoto

Hello,

Thanks for checking out Fotomoto. I just thought we should tell you that for our prints and canvases we also use BayPhoto as our partner (we have a different partner for cards that lets us print one-offs). We are adding more products to Fotomoto, including Metal Prints, photo books, and a lot more.

If you have any question, please feel free to contact us via support at fotomoto dot com.

Art Scott

wow ...... it looks like Fotomoto is watching you Eoren......... wink

Art Scott

I found that I could completely customize my prices in the dashboard...clik on SITE....then clik on what you want to work with.....PRINTS ....then clik on the red set your prices....now it is very much like SM.....check or uncheck sizes as desired....click on appropriate price to change.......do for each size you want to offer....so you can match your SM site on pricing....keeps everything easier to manage...at least for me.................I started out with the moderate option and then found that I could actually customize to my desired prices......you can do this pretty much on all of the items you want to sell.

chrismar

I would LOVE if SmugMug offered a similar feature/service. The idea of having to maintain two price lists is the main thing preventing me from signing up for fotomoto.

eoren1

Prints just came in the mail. Ordered two 8x10s. Came in simple brown hard envelope - nothing on the front but a mailing label. Inside were the two photos in a nice clear plastic sleeve and sandwiched between two thin pieces cardboard. The prints were very, very nice (and I'm quite picky). At least as good, if not (dare I say it) better than my tried-and-true WHCC!
I'm more than happy to let my viewers order from my blog using Fotomoto. Off to the dentist Wednesday to show him the proofs and drop off a 20% off coupon for being my first customer.
E

denisegoldberg

chrismar wrote: »

I would LOVE if SmugMug offered a similar feature/service. The idea of having to maintain two price lists is the main thing preventing me from signing up for fotomoto.

It looks like your wish has been granted.

I just saw the announcement of a buy link in the smug release notes. Tried it with a link from my site, and it works like a charm! (Sorry, I haven't exposed this in my blog yet, will try post back with an example later.)

--- Denise

chrismar

denisegoldberg wrote: »

It looks like your wish has been granted.

I just saw the announcement of a buy link in the smug release notes. Tried it with a link from my site, and it works like a charm! (Sorry, I haven't exposed this in my blog yet, will try post back with an example later.)

--- Denise

Yea, it's on the right track. It still takes you to smugmug to open the cart (fotomoto is a little more seamless), but it's a start and definitely something I can work with.

denisegoldberg

chrismar wrote: »

Yea, it's on the right track. It still takes you to smugmug to open the cart (fotomoto is a little more seamless), but it's a start and definitely something I can work with.

It's definitely not as seamless as fotomoto, but it does allow a click directly into the cart.

I've just put an entry in my "play" blog that shows this in use - http://denisegoldbergplays.blogspot.com/2011/01/embed-buy-link-with-your-photo.html.

--- Denise

chrismar

I wrote a WordPress plugin to make the posting of "buy" links a little easier. Anyone interested in trying it out?

http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=188505