Some awesome sites here!
You might find this funny... I had to!!!
My Dog Spirit and I have been living on the road for a bit over one year now, and that is when I started taking photography seriously... Read... and read... this Forum and its camaraderie has helped temendously and maybe the pictures got better... or Spirit riding in the Sidecar with his Doggles on made them seem better (!!!... he has a helmet coming soon also) and so I decided to sell pictures on my website... I had never printed a shot in 7 years of digital photography and realized... that all where taken too small!!! Never did my homework!!! Never thought I would ever print... hello world!!!
I am going to print postcards!!! They will sell I know... and while I have your attention, do you find the postcards expensive? $1.99... I know SmuMug is of the outmost quality... they have been of an incredible help... but how much more markup can I add to $1.99 for a postcard?
Hope I did not deviate too much from the original thread...
Some awesome sites here!
You might find this funny... I had to!!!
My Dog Spirit and I have been living on the road for a bit over one year now, and that is when I started taking photography seriously... Read... and read... this Forum and its camaraderie has helped temendously and maybe the pictures got better... or Spirit riding in the Sidecar with his Doggles on made them seem better (!!!... he has a helmet coming soon also) and so I decided to sell pictures on my website... I had never printed a shot in 7 years of digital photography and realized... that all where taken too small!!! Never did my homework!!! Never thought I would ever print... hello world!!!
I am going to print postcards!!! They will sell I know... and while I have your attention, do you find the postcards expensive? $1.99... I know SmuMug is of the outmost quality... they have been of an incredible help... but how much more markup can I add to $1.99 for a postcard?
Hope I did not deviate too much from the original thread...
Thanks and be well...
Ara & Spirit
HELLO....
I checked out your web site---beautiful photos. Loved the CA pics as I just love it there.
You are definitely living the free spirit life that I'm sure a lot of people only dream of doing.
As for the price of the postcards--a $1.99 is alittle high for a starting price to work with. I don't know why, but the only thing I can think of is the kind of photo paper they would use over a thicker cardstock. So if you include their cost for the materials, production costs, mark-up.....this is the price they come up with. Hopefully someone from smugmug will answer this for you. I'm sure many are interested in how they figure out their costs.
I disagree with the PW protection, when I first started out I felt like that would be the most secure way and that the parents would apreciate it. I stopped doing in early on because there is an easier way to secure the photos without the hassle. I put them in private galleries remove the searchability and shareability and create a direct link to the gallerie from my site. Now the only people that are going to see them are the parents who know that they are there, similiar to if you had to broadcast a PW for all potential customers to hear. I've never had one person complain about the lack of PW but had a few in the begining with issues not getting in.
Thank you for your reply. I had some different feelings about setting a pw but I actually coordinate this with the event coordinator or the head coaches. They have the parent's email addresses, so they forward the link, along with PW to them. I also have it in the hint that they should email me for the password. I have had so many thank yous from parents that they prefer the protection. I guess if I start to get complaints, we shall see what happens. But for now, it has been working quite nicely.
Just another happy SmugMugger reporting in. I joined SmugMug several months ago as just a relatively secure online storage area for some work as I ventured back into photography after a ten year absence. Trying to learn digital and digital post-processing, and find it difficult but oddly rewarding. Sure beats the smell of the darkroom lol.
I have had some success selling prints of recent events, just by adding an "FYI" post to other sites related to the events I've photographed. The money from print sales is nice, but the better part is the exposure and doors opening for the future. In a week I will fly to Vegas, at our racing sanction's invitation, be given full "media" access to the track for the last race of the year, and I've been contracted to photograph the sanction's final awards ceremony the night after the race. Some of my images have been used for advert posters for 2008's events, one will be on a major manufacturer's 2008 catalog (they've paid me in a kind of barter system since I use their product in my own drag bike), teams are using my photos to gain sponsor packages for the coming year (and we're all kind of a big family, so I'm glad to help and their glad to pay me a little), and I'm hoping that this work will help me gain access to other venues which I really would love to photograph but to which I have no "press" access currently. All this because I am enjoying a hobby and this place makes it so much easier to spread the "word-of-mouth" advertising of my work.
Even the maybe $1k sales between here and personal which this site made possible, is more that I'd realize with these images collecting cyber dust on my hard-drive.
I know that we all "lose" sales by hosting here on the web, but certain things such as watermarking can help limit that loss. I think we are seeing an evolution in photography's purpose, and many of us have not kept pace. We are still of the mindset that to be appreciated, images should be printed and hung on a wall somewhere. I would submit that the great majority of imagery nowadays is passed along on blogs and via email, and never sees paper or any wall display. The "no right click" feature here is helpful to keep honest people honest, but you can "Print Scrn", insert to Paint, and have your image without right clicking. There are probably easier ways that I don't know of. The only way I know of to keep that from being the method of choice is to watermark the images kind of harshly across the middle, but that also has its downside with the "friendliness" of the site. For that purpose, I move the watermarks after a certain time, from center to edge, feeling that sales of events will be closer to the time of the event and afterward it's kind of important to show the quality as advertising.
But what the heck do I know? I'm just starting with all this magic of the Internet.
Just want to say thanks to Andy and the others here that make it so much easier to get the work out there than it was when I worked in the early 90's.
Selling Prints on Smugmug
I sell prints on SM too. I shoot horse related events and have had a reasonable amount of sales for just starting the web site. Most of the associations I shoot for need time to figure out who you are and then time to figure out the SM process. One lady came up to me at the horse show last weekend and was happy to see I have a SM website, since another photographer last year had one, so she was comfortable ordering online and knew the drill!
I opened my SM Pro account in September 2007 and just went over $500 in sales so far. hang in there!
Handing out VERY SIMPLE business cards (no personal info except your name, SM website, phone and email address) on the event shooting site helps a lot. Keep it simple. I have even had family members come to the event with me handing out cards so people can order at their convenience once they're back home. Once people see the quality of the prints, word of mouth is still your best marketing tool!:D
Had a Church member ask me how to order off smugmug. He wants 2 4x6 prints. Told him I'd be glad to order them for him and since only 2 prints I'd do the default price. So.... instead of 19cents each; he paid me $5.00 So... even tho it's not a true smugmug sale, it still counts in my book.
Well... I've had smugmug since the spring of 2006 and I've had four orders with $80 profit for me. , not much... but I've had a lot of other people order portraits through me and my lab after viewing their galleries, which definitely covered the cost of a pro account. I've had a few hundred $$ in sales so far that are related to my site, though not through SM. That's the total, not my profit of course... my actual profit is much less. But it's a start, and at least it's fun.
Started using SmugMug in May after a friend who is an event coordinator insisted I start shootin her events. I figured what the heck, perhaps I should sign up with SmugMug and create client galleries for easy ordering after events. I have yet to fully complete all the links on my SmugMug site...but since May I must say so far so good...
264 prints sold $1,682.53 of unpaid profit...I really need to send in that W9.
I just got that much anticipated SmugMug email saying someone bought a print from me. I have the one day proof delay, but this photo was fully sharpened when I created the JPEG so it wasn't neccessary in this case.
barb
This is just so awesome!!!
Navy Moose
Hi Moose! A fellow Bostonian here and I'm ready to go 'live' with my site. A work in progress, but getting closer.
Would you mind giving a link to the pic you sold? Would like to get an idea of what sellls here.....hopefully I will sell a pic or 20 pretty soon ;-)
I've havd pretty good success over the last year with sales -
sales to date: 286 | profit to date (est.): $2851.99 USD
I've also been fortunate to have sold some not through Smugmug which totaled another $1,000 I'm guessing. Not bad for a part-time hobby - sure helps offset the cost of camera's and lenses.
I've havd pretty good success over the last year with sales -
sales to date: 286 | profit to date (est.): $2851.99 USD
I've also been fortunate to have sold some not through Smugmug which totaled another $1,000 I'm guessing. Not bad for a part-time hobby - sure helps offset the cost of camera's and lenses.
Congrats twincitiesphoto---I'm just starting my site with smugmug. If they buy.....that would be good to. I have sold some before setting up my site -- guess that encouraged me to set the site up.
yes, I use to just post photos on pbase.com until I started getting inquires to buy some of them for various purposes which is when my search for a way to sell my photos online led me to smugmug - it's always interesting to me that a photo I find completely boring and uninteresting is exactly what someone else is looking for, for a project they are working on - go figure.
I still keep photos on pbase as google seems to link to them much better than on smugmug - but I then put a link below the photo to direct them to my other site to purchase the photo if they are interested in it, which also drives some traffic to my galleries.
Pbase is inexpensive enough to do this - but they surely don't seem to support their site the way smugmug does - I don't think they've made a single improvement to their site in all the years I've had photos hosted there.
Comments
15,000 uploaded, 996 prints. SmugMug RULES!
Keith Tharp.com - Champion Photo
www.Dogdotsphotography.com
You might find this funny... I had to!!!
My Dog Spirit and I have been living on the road for a bit over one year now, and that is when I started taking photography seriously... Read... and read... this Forum and its camaraderie has helped temendously and maybe the pictures got better... or Spirit riding in the Sidecar with his Doggles on made them seem better (!!!... he has a helmet coming soon also) and so I decided to sell pictures on my website... I had never printed a shot in 7 years of digital photography and realized... that all where taken too small!!! Never did my homework!!! Never thought I would ever print... hello world!!!
I am going to print postcards!!! They will sell I know... and while I have your attention, do you find the postcards expensive? $1.99... I know SmuMug is of the outmost quality... they have been of an incredible help... but how much more markup can I add to $1.99 for a postcard?
Hope I did not deviate too much from the original thread...
Thanks and be well...
Ara & Spirit
My Gallery in progress...
On the road, homeless, with my buddy Spirit...
HELLO....
I checked out your web site---beautiful photos. Loved the CA pics as I just love it there.
You are definitely living the free spirit life that I'm sure a lot of people only dream of doing.
As for the price of the postcards--a $1.99 is alittle high for a starting price to work with. I don't know why, but the only thing I can think of is the kind of photo paper they would use over a thicker cardstock. So if you include their cost for the materials, production costs, mark-up.....this is the price they come up with. Hopefully someone from smugmug will answer this for you. I'm sure many are interested in how they figure out their costs.
Dogdots/Mary
www.Dogdotsphotography.com
Thank you for your reply. I had some different feelings about setting a pw but I actually coordinate this with the event coordinator or the head coaches. They have the parent's email addresses, so they forward the link, along with PW to them. I also have it in the hint that they should email me for the password. I have had so many thank yous from parents that they prefer the protection. I guess if I start to get complaints, we shall see what happens. But for now, it has been working quite nicely.
Thanks again
Ed
http://ergphoto.smugmug.com
I have had some success selling prints of recent events, just by adding an "FYI" post to other sites related to the events I've photographed. The money from print sales is nice, but the better part is the exposure and doors opening for the future. In a week I will fly to Vegas, at our racing sanction's invitation, be given full "media" access to the track for the last race of the year, and I've been contracted to photograph the sanction's final awards ceremony the night after the race. Some of my images have been used for advert posters for 2008's events, one will be on a major manufacturer's 2008 catalog (they've paid me in a kind of barter system since I use their product in my own drag bike), teams are using my photos to gain sponsor packages for the coming year (and we're all kind of a big family, so I'm glad to help and their glad to pay me a little), and I'm hoping that this work will help me gain access to other venues which I really would love to photograph but to which I have no "press" access currently. All this because I am enjoying a hobby and this place makes it so much easier to spread the "word-of-mouth" advertising of my work.
Even the maybe $1k sales between here and personal which this site made possible, is more that I'd realize with these images collecting cyber dust on my hard-drive.
I know that we all "lose" sales by hosting here on the web, but certain things such as watermarking can help limit that loss. I think we are seeing an evolution in photography's purpose, and many of us have not kept pace. We are still of the mindset that to be appreciated, images should be printed and hung on a wall somewhere. I would submit that the great majority of imagery nowadays is passed along on blogs and via email, and never sees paper or any wall display. The "no right click" feature here is helpful to keep honest people honest, but you can "Print Scrn", insert to Paint, and have your image without right clicking. There are probably easier ways that I don't know of. The only way I know of to keep that from being the method of choice is to watermark the images kind of harshly across the middle, but that also has its downside with the "friendliness" of the site. For that purpose, I move the watermarks after a certain time, from center to edge, feeling that sales of events will be closer to the time of the event and afterward it's kind of important to show the quality as advertising.
But what the heck do I know? I'm just starting with all this magic of the Internet.
Just want to say thanks to Andy and the others here that make it so much easier to get the work out there than it was when I worked in the early 90's.
Member SportsShooter.com
My Galleries
I sell prints on SM too. I shoot horse related events and have had a reasonable amount of sales for just starting the web site. Most of the associations I shoot for need time to figure out who you are and then time to figure out the SM process. One lady came up to me at the horse show last weekend and was happy to see I have a SM website, since another photographer last year had one, so she was comfortable ordering online and knew the drill!
I opened my SM Pro account in September 2007 and just went over $500 in sales so far. hang in there!
Handing out VERY SIMPLE business cards (no personal info except your name, SM website, phone and email address) on the event shooting site helps a lot. Keep it simple. I have even had family members come to the event with me handing out cards so people can order at their convenience once they're back home. Once people see the quality of the prints, word of mouth is still your best marketing tool!:D
Justus Photography
www.lindasherrill.com
Photos | Blog | Youtube
Set up late September of 2007, 2051 photos uploaded, 121 prints sold in a month and a half.
I do have a full-time job, so this is strictly a hobby. To generate a little extra profit is nice.
Just a little FYI - To date, Football moms out buy Soccer moms 6 to 1.
264 prints sold $1,682.53 of unpaid profit...I really need to send in that W9.
http://www.nkpix.com
Hi Moose! A fellow Bostonian here and I'm ready to go 'live' with my site. A work in progress, but getting closer.
Would you mind giving a link to the pic you sold? Would like to get an idea of what sellls here.....hopefully I will sell a pic or 20 pretty soon ;-)
Thanks mate!
http://www.paintbypixels.com
http://www.michaelhelbigphotography.com
http://www.thewildpig.blogspot.com
sales to date: 286 | profit to date (est.): $2851.99 USD
I've also been fortunate to have sold some not through Smugmug which totaled another $1,000 I'm guessing. Not bad for a part-time hobby - sure helps offset the cost of camera's and lenses.
Congrats twincitiesphoto---I'm just starting my site with smugmug. If they buy.....that would be good to. I have sold some before setting up my site -- guess that encouraged me to set the site up.
Again.....job well done
Dogdots/Mary
www.dogdotsphotography.com
www.Dogdotsphotography.com
I still keep photos on pbase as google seems to link to them much better than on smugmug - but I then put a link below the photo to direct them to my other site to purchase the photo if they are interested in it, which also drives some traffic to my galleries.
Pbase is inexpensive enough to do this - but they surely don't seem to support their site the way smugmug does - I don't think they've made a single improvement to their site in all the years I've had photos hosted there.
can you post the print you sold so we can see it, to this thread?
Way to go by the way.