How much is sales/marketing worth to you?

flyingpylon

Say you knew next to nothing about how to market your photos on the Internet.

What would it be worth (expressed as a percentage of the final price of a print) to have someone display, market, and sell prints for you? You just create the photos and collect the checks.

If you are familiar with bricks-and-mortar galleries, what do they charge? And would you expect an online gallery to be worth more or less?

flyingpylon

No takers?

Shay Stephens

If you know nothing about marketing your work, most likely, you won't want to spend anything for marketing. Educating the photographer on the potential they could make selling the photos might help them see the benefit in paying for marketing.

Most people expect online stuff to cost less than brick and mortar stuff on average.

Maybe if you were a little more specific in the info you are after or if you could flesh out the scenario a little more thoroughly, people might be more apt to participate in the thread. As is, it is a little vague.

StevenV

My answer, though I think it's probably not quite the discussion you're looking for

flyingpylon

Me? Vague? I was trying to be at least a little vague to get a wide variety of answers, but maybe that didn't work so well.

I've started photographing some events where the other photographers I run into are not very internet-savvy. A fair number of them are still shooting film (not that there's necessarily anything wrong with that). Many of them have been shooting these events for years, some are very good, and their photos have historical value if nothing else. Ask them how they sell their photos and they *might* hand you a business card if they even have one. Most often they will give you their name and phone number and tell you to give them a call. A couple have published a book or have tried to sell some prints on eBay.

I'm wondering if, in addition to trying to improve and sell my own photography, I should be creating ways to help these other guys market and sell their work. I already run a web site on the topic, so I would like to add a gallery to display some of their photos and help sell them online. There's currently no centralized place to view and purchase these photos, but there's a small but rabid fan base that would enjoy viewing the photos and I see posts in forums all the time saying "anyone know how I can get a photo of XYZ"? Just seems like there's an opportunity there, the subject matter is a huge interest of mine, and I have the technical skills to pull it off. That's not to say I expect it to make me a millionaire.

So what I'm looking for is a general sense of what percentage would be reasonable for marketing and selling other people's photos? I doubt I could take what a New York art gallery would, but I also want to make it worth my time as well. Right now I'm thinking Smugmug takes 15% for displaying and selling, but you have to upload your own photos, arrange your galleries, and market your site, etc. So would another 10% be out of line for providing those services (total of 25% of "profit"), or would I still be selling myself short, or what?