SmugMug Sales?

Odsel

After doing a lot of research, it seems that SmugMug rates very high :barb with people who are wanting to organize their photos and offer them for sales. For those of you who have been using it, what kind of return on your time investement have you seen by posting with SmugMug? Have you actually made sales? At what amounts? The annual fee isn't much, but the time investment is when I consider putting my slides on a site.

Are there stats that tell how many people are subscribing to the Pro Level? How much sales? is the Pareto effect in place here, 80% of the people generating 20% of sales?

I'd like to hear your experience.

Thanks.

Matthew Saville

Odsel wrote:

After doing a lot of research, it seems that SmugMug rates very high with people who are wanting to organize their photos and offer them for sales. For those of you who have been using it, what kind of return on your time investement have you seen by posting with SmugMug? Have you actually made sales? At what amounts? The annual fee isn't much, but the time investment is when I consider putting my slides on a site.

Are there stats that tell how many people are subscribing to the Pro Level? How much sales? is the Pareto effect in place here, 80% of the people generating 20% of sales?

I'd like to hear your experience.

Thanks.

Hi Odsel, welcome to Smugmug! I've been a pro user for over 3 years now, and I've sold tons of prints...

From experience, I can tell you:

1.) It's pretty hard to sell nature photos through Smugmug, unless you come up with a marketing strategy to drive people to your galleries, people who are already in the market for art to hang on their walls.

2.) It's VERY easy to sell photos of events and things. Personally I shoot children's theater, but on Smugmug you will find every possible kind of event photography business from children's sports to adult car / motorcycle / bicycle racing, EVERYTHING.

If you set up your galleries right and know a little bit about promotion / advertising, you can make hundreds of dollars a month. But again, it's all about promotion and advertising. I spent at least my entire first year or two making almost NOTHING selling prints on Smugmug, because I was not doing anything right. Lately though with all the right promotion and advertising tricks, I've broken the $500 monthly check-cutting minimum twice... And I'm sure there are people out there doing even more business than me!

Don't lose hope in nature photography however; Smugmug's stock agency should roll out soon and if they do it right, and if you have a good catalog of decent images, you could probably do very well!

Take care!
=Matt=

PeterLyons

Sure, you can definitely make money selling prints and downloads. SmugMug offers a great system for it at a very reasonable price. Personally I shoot sailing events, and in the 10 months since my first photos went online, I've netted about $7,000, and the monthly income continues to grow (on average). August was my strongest month yet, with about $1800 in profit.

HOWEVER, NONE of my sales are to people who are just browsing SmugMug galleries looking for nice pictures to buy. My clients are buying photos of their boats, or the boats they crew on; they have a personal interest. All my sales have been generated by letting people know the photos are there, and directing them to my site. I do this by distributing business cards when I'm shooting, having my website painted on my boat, and through some local advertising. I need to do more of that! Lots of people still don't know the pictures are there.

IMO you must find a way to promote yourself.

Best of luck!
Peter
www.lyonsimaging.com

Odsel

Sales

Thanks for your replies. I was in the stock photo/fine art/commercial business for many years and left the field to pursue other ventures. I've returned to shooting after ten years (with a D80 in hand) and don't want to spend my life promoting another business, as I already do that as a professional performance coach... just thought that I'd offer my photos of locales (just returned from Tibet and China). From the two replies, it is want I suspected... we get out of it what we put into it. Thanks for your help.
Odsel

Matthew Saville wrote:

Hi Odsel, welcome to Smugmug! I've been a pro user for over 3 years now, and I've sold tons of prints...

From experience, I can tell you:

1.) It's pretty hard to sell nature photos through Smugmug, unless you come up with a marketing strategy to drive people to your galleries, people who are already in the market for art to hang on their walls.

2.) It's VERY easy to sell photos of events and things. Personally I shoot children's theater, but on Smugmug you will find every possible kind of event photography business from children's sports to adult car / motorcycle / bicycle racing, EVERYTHING.

If you set up your galleries right and know a little bit about promotion / advertising, you can make hundreds of dollars a month. But again, it's all about promotion and advertising. I spent at least my entire first year or two making almost NOTHING selling prints on Smugmug, because I was not doing anything right. Lately though with all the right promotion and advertising tricks, I've broken the $500 monthly check-cutting minimum twice... And I'm sure there are people out there doing even more business than me!

Don't lose hope in nature photography however; Smugmug's stock agency should roll out soon and if they do it right, and if you have a good catalog of decent images, you could probably do very well!

Take care!
=Matt=