Getting the word out with sports photography.....

JimKarczewski

I need to work on getting my photos turned into sales... The newspaper only uses 3-4 pics max and have no problems with me selling anything. I have kids on Facebook that are starting to contact me from other schools to come to their games and shoot because they like their friends photos so much. Problem is, the parents probably never know about it and don't know they can purchase.

In a perfect world I'd contact the AD's and purchase a banner, etc. But so many schools around here are now charging upwards of $500 for banners to be placed. Shooting 30 different schools (which I'll typically do in a year) is not feasible. Nor is getting into the programs which have already been printed for the year.

I do have a shirt I typically wear to all my games which has www.RegionPhotography.com across the back in a huge font. With me being 6'9" it's kind of hard to miss. But beyond that I'm trying to figure out what I can do for the remainder of this year....

I also have my Pelican 1650 (the big boy) that I'm printing up PhotoTex posters for, 17x24 on one side, 17x18 on the back... Keep it near the bleachers usually, but thinking under the basket somewhere highly visible
Thoughts?

Glort

If you are going to be selling online, I have serious doubts the return is even worth the effort these days.
put them online and you'll have far more stolen complete with water marks than are ever sold.

That said, is it possible to print fliers and give one kid on the team ( maybe even a reserve who you shoot some pics of after the game) some shots for handing them to all the audience or maybe give them to the coaches/ managers to hand to the players.

I'm interested to hear what sort of return others doing this get from online sales but if it were me, i'd be trying to pre sell disks to the whole teams if you know whom your shooting in advance or getting some help and doing view stations onsite.

AceCo55

very, VERY few buying via the website (but it is just a hobby for me) ... but at end of season I get some buying season DVD's (slideshows). Now offering multi-image sports posters and they are getting more popular but I would starve if I had to rely on sales from sports!!! Live in a very small country town and it is more of a community service for me. The kids love looking at the photos but they are not interested in buying (a few parents will buy low res files). Virtually no-one buys a print.

Mark Dickinson

How about shoot + display. A photog in the area sells abut 20 race photos a night at 15 each 8x10, he's old school so prints

Figure a digital view system iPad and take orders +cc in the field like squareup.com and ship if the printout method doesn't work

I sponsor a baseball team and banner has got zero work

JimKarczewski

Mark-

Indiana Basketball. That's all I have to say. . Last week, mid-day game not even huge rivals but 3000+ in attendance. Sold out. Thank God for press credentials. It's difficult when doing it solo to worry about attacking the crowd.. especially setting up and breaking down lights before/after... Sometimes you have to do it quickly to make it out before the alarms auto-activate (yes, there are problems with that!)

MDalby

Jim,

The most success I have had is with posters and Senior Portraits. I have sold very few shots from the web site. Kinda funny... I shot a 8 year old football game and I sold about $75 worth of shots form that one game which is more than I sold for all my HS football games this year. But I sold about $800 in posters at the year end football banquet this year.

How do the PhotoTex posters work? I did a Google and that sounds pretty good. Where do you get it printed at?

MD

JimKarczewski

I have an HP 24" printer.. So, it's something I print myself. However, that being said, my roll isn't cooperating! I can't get it to load. Ugh. Anyway, it's nice stuff..you can stick it to a car, box, etc.. and just peel it off with no residue when done. Gotta try loading one more time... I thought I broke my printer on the last load. . Ugh, joys of toys.

johng

Jim - here's the reality - lots of people, especially kids, like to look at photos on-line and then they're done and on to the next thing. It's not 5 years ago. You're not going to run a successful sports business selling online. Not for youth sports. Truth is - not many people run successful youth action sports businesses at all. As much as we as photographers like to look at action shots, they're just not great sellers. If you want to make money - the money is in T&I work, not action. Less money spent on equipment, less time and guaranteed sales. Otherwise you need to get out of the "shooting on spec" business because it's bad business. You want guaranteed money. You can either work directly with parents - in which case you need to actually talk to them. Show them your work and provide the opportunity to "book" your services. If a student is contacting you - you say you're getting all these contacts from the kids - simply respond to the kids that, like any photographer, your services need to be booked and to have the parents contact you. That's the tough part. If you're like most people, your ego is getting a nice boost by these kids contacting you. If you really want to be a business, you need to put your ego in check and run it like a business. The other option is to contact the booster clubs and work out a business approach with them to sell to parents (preferably DVDs) where the boosters get a % of the proceeds. In the end though, the market has changed. People will always tell you how good you are - right up until they have to pay for the photos - then, action shots just aren't worth it to them. And certainly not when they can get their viewing fix by seeing the photos online.

MomaZunk

Jim,
I hand out the moo mini cards to the parents at the games.
I also talk to the coaches on each team, and get their email addresses and ask that they forward my email with link to the rest of the team after I post photos.
If I go to a game when my son is not playing, I charge.
Last year was my first year charging anything. In the spring, I sold a few end of season DVD's and posters, but I know most of the photos were probably swiped off the website. I needed better watermarks.
The biggest issue is shipping. The costs for a couple of 5x7's is dwarfed by the shipping. Sometimes several parents will go in for a group order to minimize.

Glort

I think Moma and jong pretty much nailed whats wrong with this business today.

Luckily i'm in Oz and don't have the competition that exists in the states and I still get people that have never seen anyone doing onsite viewing and printing before so the novelty factor exists which is a HUGE advantage.

I agree with Jon though in that you are far better off doing T&I than on spec work. I'm trying to back off my Sports work this year and substitute it with something that has a far better target market, less competition, Far less equipment and overhead, does not require me to get out of bed at 4am and drive 2 hours, finishes earlier, gets me in front of more and better qualified buyers and i can do Mon-Fri.

There are a few "qualifications" I learned when doing sports and on spec work...

* The younger the kids the better. get them while they are cute and loveable not PIA teenagers that know everything.

* Higher cost of admission. I do a lot of horse Events. that's a minimum spend of $10K+ even if they got he horse for free. The cost of a print from me is maybe 25% of the entry fee for the event. For soccer, basketball etc, a print may cost 3 or more times the cost of playing that game.

* Level of play. If it's a weekend club game there is not the importance as if it is a state championship ETC. I always do well at the state level events and never do club level comps, always an area or zone event at the minimum.

* Saturation. How many players going through over what time and how many in the venue. Cheer for example has up to 25 kids on one mat going through every 3 min. Soccer/ basketball has maybe 30 going through every hour plus. Horses have 150 over 1-2 days.

* Captive audience. Soccer/ baseball etc Finish and leave the grounds in 10 directions and exits. Horses HAVE to stay till the end of the day even if they completed all their rides and 11 in the morning and that happens regularly. They have plenty of time to hang around and look at pics, at baseball they are in a hurry to get away to do shopping, go to the other kids game, get home to do chores etc.

* Is there a judge? Sports/ events with Judges tend to be more important to the players than those with just a ref or umpire unless there is Multiple refs or umpires where there is not normally. I have covered baseball games with 4 umpires. You know the game is significant when you see that.

* Subject to weather. I lost a bunch of events last year directly because of weather. Covered a few I shouldn't have bothered with because of weather. Unless it's a grand final, most people don't want photos in the wet. I think wet weather also has a mental influence and gray and overcast sky's seem to dampen peoples spirits and lessen their inclination to buy a memory of the event. In a lot of cases they just want to get the heck out of there and go home to a hot shower and a warm cup of tea. Indoor events of course don't have these problems.

* Competition. Am I going to be the only pro shooter there or will there be like 20 others such as at all the car race meets I have done in the past? Can parents get the same shots I can or will i be able to situate myself in a spot they can't get access to?

* Location and setup on site. Can I put my Vstations at a strategic point where everyone will be close at some point... Canteen, office, single entry/ exit, bathrooms. If I don't have a prominent location, that's a big drawback. If i can't do onsite presentation, that's a deal breaker.


These are some of the things I look at among other considerations when looking at what i want to cover and which events have the better likelihood of giving me a good return. Experience says the more boxes you check the better off you are with the understanding of course some things are more important than others but still, the more the better.

As far as doing onsite viewing, I have had a lot of people say they can't afford the computers or staff. I believe this is incorrect. You simply can't afford NOT to have them.
I don't need to work long hard hours to make no money, I can manage that very successfully sitting in a comfy chair at home with my feet up. It really is a waste of time these days doing onsite sales unless you are NOT intending to get any sort of return on your time and effort. In a lot of cases i would say that goes as far as you won't even get thanks or gratitude!

Look at what you want to do as a business from the start. If you can't pay yourself what anyone else would be expected to be paid, let alone the overheads and risk, then the work is simply not worth doing. you will get a lot more satisfaction working the consul at the local gas station and putting the money towards new gear you can use on your days off rather than busting your butt and being demoralized selling nothing online.

MJRPHOTO

MomaZunk wrote: »

Jim,
I hand out the moo mini cards to the parents at the games.
I also talk to the coaches on each team, and get their email addresses and ask that they forward my email with link to the rest of the team after I post photos.
If I go to a game when my son is not playing, I charge.
Last year was my first year charging anything. In the spring, I sold a few end of season DVD's and posters, but I know most of the photos were probably swiped off the website. I needed better watermarks.
The biggest issue is shipping. The costs for a couple of 5x7's is dwarfed by the shipping. Sometimes several parents will go in for a group order to minimize.

If the cost of shipping is more then the couple of 5x7 prints then your print prices are way to low.
I only sell 4x6 and 5x7 in packages of (3) min. (3) 4x6 $35 + $4 shipping (3) 5x7 $55 + $4 shipping

justus

MomaZunk wrote: »

Jim,
I hand out the moo mini cards to the parents at the games.
I also talk to the coaches on each team, and get their email addresses and ask that they forward my email with link to the rest of the team after I post photos.
If I go to a game when my son is not playing, I charge.
Last year was my first year charging anything. In the spring, I sold a few end of season DVD's and posters, but I know most of the photos were probably swiped off the website. I needed better watermarks.
The biggest issue is shipping. The costs for a couple of 5x7's is dwarfed by the shipping. Sometimes several parents will go in for a group order to minimize.

I would raise my prices on the 5 x 7s. Sounds like you're giving them away if shipping is "dwarfing" your print pricing. Photos last for generations and your work is worth more than a pittance. I sell 5 x 7 prints from sporting events for $12 each plus shipping. Not everyone is a photographer. People appreciate folks who can consistently produce a good product.

justus

sports sales

JimKarczewski wrote: »

I need to work on getting my photos turned into sales... The newspaper only uses 3-4 pics max and have no problems with me selling anything. I have kids on Facebook that are starting to contact me from other schools to come to their games and shoot because they like their friends photos so much. Problem is, the parents probably never know about it and don't know they can purchase.

In a perfect world I'd contact the AD's and purchase a banner, etc. But so many schools around here are now charging upwards of $500 for banners to be placed. Shooting 30 different schools (which I'll typically do in a year) is not feasible. Nor is getting into the programs which have already been printed for the year.

I do have a shirt I typically wear to all my games which has www.RegionPhotography.com across the back in a huge font. With me being 6'9" it's kind of hard to miss. But beyond that I'm trying to figure out what I can do for the remainder of this year....

I also have my Pelican 1650 (the big boy) that I'm printing up PhotoTex posters for, 17x24 on one side, 17x18 on the back... Keep it near the bleachers usually, but thinking under the basket somewhere highly visible
Thoughts?

I hand out business cards to everyone in attendance and you might find a student who can hand out a bunch of them to the team. I also have the event coordinator (i.e. coach) put the word out at the next practice that there are prints available here (hand out business cards)... 90% of my photo sales are from sporting events and I've never had a problem once the word gets out. Most of my clients like competing, then going home at their leisure and ordering photos.