Pricing?

vlherring

I'm trying to figure out pricing of images for the two vendors. I would like to get a sense of whether most or some people here think that a somewhat simple calculation might be to take the SmugMug base price and multiply it by a certain figure? Or do you set yours specially?

Also, what if I want to basically have the ultimate profit amount be a certain number, just to start with, and want to round it off [none of the .63 cents or whatever] - how is that accomplished? I don't want to just double the cost basis in some cases [or at least I don't think I do.

Thanks

Soppy

I just set mine to have a certain profit range that I am looking for, and then try to keep that relatively steady throughout the product range (excluding downloads of course). I make roughly the same profit on all my prints, within a $10 range throughout my offerings (again excluding downloads). I also marked up canvas prints slightly more, as I have found that the higher price signifies higher quality in the buyer's mind. The only way to achieve rounded pricing though (i.e. $10.00) is to go in and do it all yourself, which is a pain, but once you want to mark everything up later, just used the add>dollar amount feature and it will stay rounded.

Wiren

Pricing is something that I have been agonizing over lately and just changed on my site tonight. While I am only a part time, semi-experienced photographer whose shots are not as awesome as some I have seen here, they are good and sellable (imho). Anyways, there are so many options for prints from sizing to type (lustre, metallic, etc) that it is boggling for a customer to look at.

I have read a lot about pricing art and prints lately and have come to the conclusion of; "Keep It Simple Stupid"

I shoot landscapes (or try to), sports, and starting some portraits. I decided that each area needs different pricing based on my gut and how I feel about it. Landscapes is art to me and I want folks to buy more than a 4x6, so I chose about 6 sizes of paper prints to offer and a couple metal wraps and set them all at one price. Crazy? we'll see. I am going to note on my site that sizes wanted and not offered will require a simple call to place a special order.

Portraits you want to make money and not have your customer feel daunted when looking at all the options. Again, I chose the sizes I wanted, no more than 11x14, put one price on the sizes I chose, but offered them a package that would be easy and a $$ saver.

Sports.... do parents ever buy more than an 8x10....really? I think it is going to be rare to see anything bigger than a 5x7 even. I decided to use the EZ Prints lab for those shots (Bay Photo for the rest) and price them (up to 8x10) at only $5 each, crazy? I think I will get more sales this way. I have seen some of the other SmugMuggers sites and what they charge for sport shots, do you truly sell that many.....?

Anyway, I am going to try this pricing model of one simple price for the style of shot with a short list of what I think most folks will buy in that area and an option to call the artist for anything more specialized. We'll see how it goes and hope it brings in more business. Now I have to learn code to work my site into something more awesome!