Pricing

chuckinsocal

Hi Gang,

I'm a newbee here on the 4th day of my 14 day trial membership. So far, I love the site because it's the best site I've ever seen with cool features and capabilities, etc. It Rocks. I'm having a little navigating around but I'll get that figured out with time.

Anyway, I'm currently inclined to jump in head first and get the pro membership. My first big question (I'm sure I'll have a lot more of them) is what is a typical mark up % for photos?. I'm not a professional photographer by any means (a hobbiest at best), so I probably can't ask premium prices, but I think that some of my photos may be salable at a some fair price, if only I knew what that is.

I guess there are many pricing strategies, but how do I establish a reasonable jump off point?

I don't see myself making a living from this, but if I can generate a little extra lunch money (or more) from time to time, that would be an ok thing. I'd also like to recoup my $150 investment as quickly as possible.

Are there people out there willing share some of thier wisdom when it comes to a newbee setting prices on SmugMug?

Thank you in advance.

Chuck Cannova
chuckinsocal.smugmug.com

bkatz

depends what you are shooting and who your clientele is....

chuckinsocal wrote:

Hi Gang,

I'm a newbee here on the 4th day of my 14 day trial membership. So far, I love the site because it's the best site I've ever seen with cool features and capabilities, etc. It Rocks. I'm having a little navigating around but I'll get that figured out with time.

Anyway, I'm currently inclined to jump in head first and get the pro membership. My first big question (I'm sure I'll have a lot more of them) is what is a typical mark up % for photos?. I'm not a professional photographer by any means (a hobbiest at best), so I probably can't ask premium prices, but I think that some of my photos may be salable at a some fair price, if only I knew what that is.

I guess there are many pricing strategies, but how do I establish a reasonable jump off point?

I don't see myself making a living from this, but if I can generate a little extra lunch money (or more) from time to time, that would be an ok thing. I'd also like to recoup my $150 investment as quickly as possible.

Are there people out there willing share some of thier wisdom when it comes to a newbee setting prices on SmugMug?

Thank you in advance.

Chuck Cannova
chuckinsocal.smugmug.com

Chuck -

It really depends on what you are looking to sell and to whom. I spend most of my time doing sports and recouped my investment in a month. If you are doing nature photos it depends upon who you are selling to and how you advertise (I assume nature from a quick look at your site).

I can tell you I love the ability to customize and the service on Smugmug is terrific. There are a bunch of resources if you do search on what to price your photos at here on dgrin.

Good luck!:D

chuckinsocal

Thanks Brian
I'm still trying to get my head around this whole concept.

My past practice has been to go to a location that I think will be promising and shoot what ever looks interesting, somewhat unique, and might make a good photo. I've never taken a shot with the notion of how I might market it or who I might sell it to.

So I guess my photos might appeal to a general public, people who take a liking to a photo and think that it might look good on a wall or maybe a t-shirt or something. But, this thinking may be flawed and naive and I may need a whole new paradigm (I love that word but so rarely get to use in a sentence I made up myself).

But, then comes the challenge of bringing people to the web site so they can view the photos. Google is obvious and maybe some outside promotion?

The more I type here, the more I realize the magnitude of the project. It ain't simple.

Again, I'm still trying to get my head around it all and I'm starting to feel lilke a preschooler trying to run with the high school kids. So much to figure out and so much to learn.

Hopefully, with all the resources on SmugMug, I'll get somewhere eventually. Just gotta keep pluggin.

Thanks again.

Chuck Cannova
chuckinsocal.smugmug.com

bkatz

Right idea
Chuck -

Just keep checking out the forums and look at what other people are doing. Andy has a great thing about getting yourelf noticed in search engines on here and as you look at other people and see what they are doing with their SM sites you will figure out what you want to do.

I got back into photography because I wanted to document my kids and their sporting careers. People saw my photos and asked for them and now I am a semi-professional - paying for the next piece of euqipment and getting better at my craft.

Then I use my spare time (not really sure what that is) to go out and take nature photos etc.

Just keep having fun and the rest will come.

:ivar

ivar

Have you seen this: http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/1097113 ?

chuckinsocal

Thanks Ivar
Looks like an excellent resource. More and more to learn. I'll check it out.

By the way, I love your galleries and the way your site is layed out. Nice work!

Chuck Cannova

chuckinsocal.smumug.com

chuckinsocal

Thanks again
Seems like every day, several times a day, a new epiphany (another cool word that I hardly get to use in my own sentence) hits me upside the head and the project expands some more. But I think I'm making some decent progress in getting my head wrapped around this thing. A lot more work to do but I'm loving it so far.

Thanks for your support.

Chuck Cannova
http://chuckinsocal.smugmug.com

PS: I just signed up for a standard account. I'll upgrade to pro once my gallaries are set up to warrant it.

ivar

chuckinsocal wrote:

By the way, I love your galleries and the way your site is layed out. Nice work!

Thanks! :curtsey

PeterLyons

There's no pricing standard across all fields of photography work.

My best advice based on my own experience is to base your pricing on those doing similar work in a similar location. That's what I've done, and it's working for me. When I was below the market pricing it wasn't long before I actually had a couple of clients telling me that I was way cheap, giving me permission to raise my prices to be level with my "competition". I prefer to think of them as colleagues. :-)