selling photos on smugmug

zackaiken

Hi, I am a side line mom who is going to start posting photos on smugmug for sale. I have registered a domain name with godaddy.com and will sign up for the pro smugmug site.
Do I have to have a business license? Is there any major info I need to know before diving into this?
I have been giving photos away for years, posting them on a kodak website for parents etc. to print and have decided to start making a small penny at the same time.
Other than the domain, downloading photos and setting a price....should I be doing anything else?
Thanks for the input

LUCKYSHOT

zackaiken wrote:

Hi, I am a side line mom who is going to start posting photos on smugmug for sale. I have registered a domain name with godaddy.com and will sign up for the pro smugmug site.
Do I have to have a business license? Is there any major info I need to know before diving into this?
I have been giving photos away for years, posting them on a kodak website for parents etc. to print and have decided to start making a small penny at the same time.
Other than the domain, downloading photos and setting a price....should I be doing anything else?
Thanks for the input

ok Where to start , incorporation, (tax ID #), insurance, License, . I would Google your local Govt for that last one, And after this then usually you are covered, I would guess most people dont do all or any of these things. but if you want your backside covered I would recomend it, It is a lot of paperwork to get to the point of shooting for cash but it is well worth it. You dont need these thing to set up a PRO account at SM, just a Credit card, Building my site here with the help of DGRINNERS has been a joy.
Best of luck in your new endevour

Chris
www.longislandimage.com

You can save $5 on your account if you use this in the refered by box
LqyvOzoYEVz5E

ivar

Hello, welcome to SmugMug and Digital Grin

I can't speak about all the other stuff, but as fas as SmugMug goes, you are ready to go. Make sure you send us your paperwork so that we can pay you




My tip of the day: use of our Proof Delay feature. Proof Delay allows you to review the order before it's sent to print, make corrections and changes to the cropping as well as auto versus true color. Best of all, you have the opportunity to totally replace any image that is ordered, with your choice of a replacement, still allowing you to adjust the crop and color setting after replacing it. For more info on this, please see the links below which would eliminate any problems in the future:

http://www.smugmug.com/help/proof-retouch-replace
http://wiki.smugmug.com/display/SmugMug/Proof+Delay




Questions? See our help pages, our Pro Sales Support forum, or contact one of us (a real person) at the helpdesk.

Hope this helps. Let us know if you have any questions!

Angelo

you won't need anything if smugmug is handling your sales which is what I would recommend.

Scott_Quier

zackaiken wrote:

I have been giving photos away for years, posting them on a kodak website for parents etc. to print and have decided to start making a small penny at the same time.

I really hope this works for you, I really do. But I suspect you may be in for a surprise. For years, other parents have been getting the prints for next to nothing. Now, you are going to be putting overhead/profit on them. They are going to wonder what happened and also why they should start having to pay U&C prices. So, be prepared to answer these types of questions. I think you may end up finding that people are actually stealing them from your site unless you start doing some serious protection work and event then you won't be able to stop it all.

Shima

If you're only making money by smugmug selling your prints, then you don't need the other formalities of becoming a business. If parents are paying you for your time to do photo shoots, then you might want to consider it.

Applying for an Employer Identification Number with the IRS (aka a Tax ID #) is ridiculously easy and fast, as well as free. The only thing is you can only apply online during certain times of the day.

I can't speak for other states or other types of companies... but I was able to apply on Indiana's Secretary of State website for my LLC (articles of organization were all I had to file since LLC is not a corporation). That took longer than the EIN... I had to wait about a day and a half (considering I filed online on a Saturday evening, and had my response Monday morning... I would say the only reason I waited was because I had to wait for them to be at work after my filing....) and cost me just shy of 90 dollars.

Hope that information is useful.

brncr6

Selling
I worked as a track photographer at our local track and was selling photos thought SM, most pepole have been getting there photos for next to nothing. Most of them did not want to pay a little more or pay for shipping.
Started to do it as fun, made some good money but did not like to deal with the pepole.
Good luck and have fun at it.

dogwood

One more bit o' advice. Check your local business regulations. For example, in Oregon, where I live, as long as you use your own name for your business (ie Pete Springer Photography ) you do not need to register as a business with the state or city or county or whatever.

Insurance, liability, etc, etc are another matter.

joshhuntnm

brncr6 wrote:

I worked as a track photographer at our local track and was selling photos thought SM, most pepole have been getting there photos for next to nothing. Most of them did not want to pay a little more or pay for shipping.
Started to do it as fun, made some good money but did not like to deal with the pepole.
Good luck and have fun at it.

Tell us how you "made good money". What did you do? how did you sell the pics. what kind of money are we talking about?