Are they too expensive?

BenArend

hey guys! Need some advice on my prices in my gallery. I am new to all of this and have only had my shopping cart for a couple of weeks. Could you look at my gallery prices and see if they are too high? I am wondering if that is why no one is buying. Any opinions or help would be appreciated. My link is just below. Thanks!!

http://benarendphotography.smugmug.com:rofl

Art Scott

What I see is a lot of proicing that is really all over the place and prospective customers may be confused at why a 4x6 is $4 and whya 4x5.3 is $2...so close in size should be the same price but actually not even offered...stick to primarily standard sizes to keep it simple for you and clients....by standard I mean all of the 2:3 aspect ratio sizes 94x6, 8x12 and so on) the $:% aspect ratio sizes (4x5, 8x10 and so ) with the 5x7 and 11x14 included.....now as to pricing on other sizes an 8x10 is 12, that is so so ok...almost too low....but an 11x14 is $32+, this is a huge jump and confusing to some people...if an 8x10 is 12 then an 11x14 should be around 15 - 18....do not offer every type of paper, put a note in the gallery that you are offering the paper and finishes that are best for the type of photos your selling if someone want a special paper they need to contact you...too many choices and people get tiered...me for sports photos...luster or matte only and other choice....

Also there is no need to offer all the merchandise ...keep it simple....remember the actual sports Photog that does the team shots offeres all the extras...key chains, coffee mugs, calendars...all the stuff and normally at a less expensive price than what other pros can offer as they are shooting tons of teams to get cheaper prices from the sports labs.....


These are just my opinion and should be taken with a grain of salt.......

johng

I'll also add this - from my work PC I cannot see your galleries - it just keeps showing the flash images. I'm not a fan of flash. But still - if I'm a potential client and click on "galleries" and something about the implementation means it doesn't work on the PC I'm using at work you just lost me as a client. All I know is nothing happens when I click on "galleries". THat's the challenge when you get fancy - sometimes it doesn't always work on everyone's machines.

orljustin

BenArend wrote: »

hey guys! Need some advice on my prices in my gallery. I am new to all of this and have only had my shopping cart for a couple of weeks. Could you look at my gallery prices and see if they are too high? I am wondering if that is why no one is buying. Any opinions or help would be appreciated. My link is just below. Thanks!!

http://benarendphotography.smugmug.com

You have 8 images of people skatboarding in the dark and 114 images of random kids from some event in 2010. Who do you imagine is going to want to buy prints of any of that?

eta: Ok, I see you're 15. Look, don't put the cart before the horse. Go out and learn to use your camera, enjoy the hobby, impress your friends. Don't worry about a strorefront, or selling anything yet.

Adamideas

I agree that the most important thing is learning to use your camera, getting comfortable with it, and having fun with your hobby. Use manual settings as often as you can, and shoot RAW. As you are building up a portfolio of cool shots you could let your friends know that you have an account with a professional printing company that will print your photos at a higher quality than any of the local walmarts, costcos, etc. Art Scott had some good thoughts on your pricing so I won't repeat what he said, but you might consider offering the smallest size digital downloads for people who just want them for facebook. Nothing beats a printed image though, so if you have a few favorites you may want to print them large (11x14 minimum), put them in a portfolio (nothing too fancy), and bring them to your shoots to help generate excitement. Good luck Ben.

Mike J

Art Scott wrote: »

What I see is a lot of proicing that is really all over the place and prospective customers may be confused at why a 4x6 is $4 and whya 4x5.3 is $2...so close in size should be the same price but actually not even offered...stick to primarily standard sizes to keep it simple for you and clients....by standard I mean all of the 2:3 aspect ratio sizes 94x6, 8x12 and so on) the $:% aspect ratio sizes (4x5, 8x10 and so ) with the 5x7 and 11x14 included.....now as to pricing on other sizes an 8x10 is 12, that is so so ok...almost too low....but an 11x14 is $32+, this is a huge jump and confusing to some people...if an 8x10 is 12 then an 11x14 should be around 15 - 18....do not offer every type of paper, put a note in the gallery that you are offering the paper and finishes that are best for the type of photos your selling if someone want a special paper they need to contact you...too many choices and people get tiered...me for sports photos...luster or matte only and other choice....

Also there is no need to offer all the merchandise ...keep it simple....remember the actual sports Photog that does the team shots offeres all the extras...key chains, coffee mugs, calendars...all the stuff and normally at a less expensive price than what other pros can offer as they are shooting tons of teams to get cheaper prices from the sports labs.....


These are just my opinion and should be taken with a grain of salt.......

I'll agree with Art has said here. Simplify, simplify, and simplify. For ski racing, I only offer 5x7, 8x10, 11x14, and 12x18. Throw in a digital download and that's it. Most of your volume will be at 5x7 and 8x10. I would not offer a 4x6 - not any money in there for you.

How are you marketing? How do the folks you've taken shots of know where to look? Why should they buy from you? Doing this is a lot more than taking the picture. You've got to know how to market.

johng

OK. I can see the galleries now. Let's talk about the biking and boarding photos. Think about this - who do you expect to buy the photos? Kids can't buy without parents credit card. And, even if they could, I don't know many kids that would spend the little money they have on photos. And, if they did - walk an order through your process - say someone wants a 5x7 - see how much gets tacked on for shipping. That's a BIG turn off to people. It's one of the challenges smugmug faces - people are used to free shipping. Especially on such small items. Ezprints and Bay Photo force the shipment payment - although Bay Photo is free shipping if you order directly from them. So, that's a second deterrent to buyers.

But, since the subjects aren't going to buy that leaves the parents. These photos are kids having fun - not competing. Truth of the matter isi you're simply not going to sell a lot of those types of photos. A parent may look and say - hey that's pretty neat - but, "pretty neat" doesn't mean - I gotta have that. Especially not when you have to go through the process of ordering on line, typing in all the info and forking over a credit card number.

If you want to make money shooting sports you need to shoot competitions - you want sports where the parents are living vicariously through their children and are obsessed with their children's sports. And even then I would suggest you'll make very paltry sales doing it over the internet unless your photos are up within a day. Then you need photos organized and tagged so parents can find their children's photos easily. Or they stop looking.